My Virtual Boyfriend

My Friends call me "The Bieb".

Well, the title is playfully deceiving,  I am in fact a straight man, married to a very lovely lady.  This is just an article about the game I'm working on called "My Virtual Boyfriend".
In May 2010, we launched My Virtual Girlfriend for Iphone.  Just a little over a year and 4 updates later- we are wrapping up our second game for iPhone/iPad called "My Virtual Boyfriend", to be released in Mid June. 
Why did we decide to do a boyfriend version?  Well, as it turns out a substantial portion of our demographic that was playing My Virtual Girlfriend happens to be female.  This came as a bit of a surprise to me but welcome none the less.  I assume that most women were just curious and wanted to see what the game was about.  While i don't have specific stats for gender data that tells me the male to female ratio of players, I estimate that somewhere between 20 and 40% are female players.  I get this estimate judging by the emails I've received from women requesting it, customer reviews in iTunes, and Facebook fan page likes and more.
This was actually in the plan from the beginning, to build out the franchise "My Virtual Girlfriend", "My Virtual Boyfriend", "My Virtual..." well, you get the idea, but development of My Virtual Boyfriend (MVB) went on the fast track in February 2011, after we finished our 4th update for My Virtual Girlfriend (MVG) and were able secure it into the top 100 apps in the iTunes app store for the Entertainment section.

The Geeky boyfriend.

We've learned a lot from the development of MVG.  We listened to player feedback, fans and the game evolved over time into a slightly different direction that what it originally started out.  Thinking ahead, we factored in the fact that it would evolve, so room was left open in the design for new features and ideas.  By the time it came for us to develop MVB, we had already had a solid foundation to which to build from. Not only that, but we improved it a step forward from our current version of MVG.  We are adding a character editor (our #1 request).  More bones in the characters, (allowed for finger articulation, rather than the current "paddle hands" they have.  More variety in outfits, The addition of RED hair color (Surprisingly, I've had numerous requests for this).  We are removing the "Thick and Thin" types and just giving 1 "average" body type.  As it turns out- no one picked either of these during the match making process so it was just using up extra memory.  Instead, we are pushing slight variants of the average body type depending on the type of guy.  If he is a geek, he will be a little skinnier, and if he is an alpha, a little more athletic, etc.  So the physical features of the guy tie directly into the personalities.  This is something we didn't have on MVG (but we will be adding soon).  The hair has been improved a bunch.  I really wanted to nail down the hair on this one and add alpha transparency and not just solid polygonal geometry.  So now the guys have hair that looks a little more natural.
We replaced the less desirable stereotypes from MVG with more interesting ones for MVB, New to MVB:  The "Lover".  who often spouts out nice things about romance and has a very easy going personality.  The "Geek" (which replaces the "prude" in MVG) is cute, and funny, but typically infatuated with Star Wars and Legos.  The "Metrosexual", completely obsessed with himself, and the way he looks.  His dialog is a little feminine than the rest of the group. In fact, It's difficult to establish his sexuality, Both Gay males and Straight females will enjoy this character.  Then theres the 2 stronger characters that have direct counterparts from MVG:  The "Alpha male", dominant, possessive, sarcastic and athletic, as well as the "Urban" character who is into Hip hip, and all things, urban culture.  (NOTE: "Urban" does not mean "Black", Any skin color can be on Any character stereotype as is in the real world.)  We have a few more suprises here and there, and were pretty proud of how it's coming along.  We recently set up a twitter account and facebook Fan page for My Virtual Boyfriend.  Please come by, I would appreciate your show of support! :)