My favorite indie game of 2023 started as a Slay the Spire-style roguelike card game about arranged marriage before switching to an RPG about fighting exes

gamesradar.com:

Thirsty Suitors started out as a concept surrounding a playable card game, its director has revealed.

The brilliant action-RPG just launched earlier this month in December, but the concept surrounding the core themes of Thirsty Suitors was first discussed all the way back in 2018. That's according to a tweet thread from game director Chandana Ekanayake, reflecting back on the game's development.

It turns out that when Thirsty Suitors was first discussed, it was envisioned as a card-based game. It would play out like something akin to Slay the Spire, the hit roguelike card game, with a story focusing on arranged marriage. You can even see Ekanayake's message to writer Meghna Jayanth pitching her on the concept.

First concept for Thirsty Suitors back in 2018 I pitched @betterthemask. It was initially going to be a card based game about arranged marriage that would play something like Slay the Spire. I registered the domain right there cause the name sounded good. pic.twitter.com/WepWVauSLvDecember 11, 2023

A follow-up tweet reveals that Ekayanake actually pitched the concept, pretty stealthily, at the Game Developer's Conference in San Francisco that month. The feedback to the game, which was slotted in during a talk from Ekayanake, was received well, which helped spur on the game itself.

Obviously, Thirsty Suitors eventually evolved from a card-based game into a turn-based strategy RPG. I can sort of see the through-line, though - card-based games are played out in turns, and so too are RPG battles. I'd be interested to know if there was an exploration feature in this iteration of Thirsty Suitors.

Additionally, Ekanayake reveals the development team scrapped the core theme surrounding arranged marriage. It turns out none