The Agony and Ecstasy of Playing Out Your School Years in Games

George Pigula can't go to a prom. The Sims 4: High School Years lead producer is reliving one of the most painful experiences a teenager can have: rejection.

Pigula is an architect and a player, but he is not the only one who wants to be a kid again. Pigula spoke during a press demo about the importance of teenage years. They're formative, that's for sure. It's a good time to find friends. You have the chance to navigate through these challenges, whether it's a blissful crush stage, the proposal, or the difficulties of a break up.

Whether they tell stories about the teenage experience, opt for murder and mayhem, or balance vigilantism with doing your homework, school settings are a staple of video games. adolescence is a crucial time when people learn who they are, but it is also rife with sadness, embarrassment, loneliness, and many other victories and traumas. The genre that sprang up around it is doing well. High School Years is one of the titles that will be released on July 28.

The approach of Necrosoft is much more mature than that of The Sims. Influences from Italian horror cinema and Atlus Shin Megami Tensei can be found in Demon school. There is a university and a prison on the island. The students will either graduate or end up in jail if they don't go to this school. The game's hero is the last in a line of demon hunters. No one has seen demonic beings for hundreds of years. Until suddenly they are not.

"For a lot of people it represents a time of freedom, where you are not constrained by certain social ideas, you're not stuck on a job path yet" There are a lot of possibilities in front of you.

The characters are put into different scenarios in the more mature setting of Demon school. The university has characters that can become friends or romantic partners. There are games that allow you to get involved with adults even though you're under the age of 18. He says that he feels weird about high school romances where you can romance each other. Everyone was required to be of consenting age.

These re-creations of youth are not all about relationships. Growing up is compared against actual horror scenarios in Demonschool. While her classmates are writing essays and doing math homework, she and a few friends look into demon appearances. The game is played on a calendar where events are paced by a weekly structure. It is a more limited version of games, which is one of the reasons it is influences. He liked the way Shin Megami Tensei used negotiation to convince demons to join the party. He says there is some push and pull, rather than a faceless mass of evil.