Creator Letter

It is Okay to Feel Conflicted About a Story

When trying to gather my thoughts on Florence, I admittedly had a hard time. My ideas were outlined and formulated, but there was one problem - many of my ideas conflicted with each other. It took me a few days to compromise with myself and realize that having conflicted feelings about a story is not bad.

In today’s age of consumption for content creation, it is very easy to listen to a creator say one thing and then point this out to them when they later say something contradictory. I get it. The urge to run to the comments section on YouTube and point out these idiosyncrasies is something I’ve learned to calm within myself. But it has also placed a fear of the same thing happening to me.

It is lovely, in a way, that I went through this during the Florence issue, as it is a game that focuses on a woman who has been held back most of her life from creating and doing what she loves. My fears were keeping me from actually writing about the game.

This game is primarily focused on a love story. It isn’t some grand narrative or trying to be the next best phone game around. Sometimes stories can just be simple. It doesn’t escape criticism though, and while I definitely find things to critique, I mostly find Florence to be lovely and heartwarming.

This issue is the first of Level Story’s Mini Magazines - “Mini-Mag” for short. Sometimes there are games that I want to talk about but either don’t have strong feelings toward, don’t have much to talk about, or are simply short games that don’t require a full issue. These mini-mags will be released in between regular issues of the magazine and won’t have any extra content that exists in a typical issue of Level Story.

Florence is a short and sweet game and I am glad to be able to talk about it in this first mini-mag. If you are someone who hasn’t played the game yet, please do so. It doesn’t cost much and is roughly around thirty minutes long. This game is worth your time.

Danielle Karthauser Creator & Publisher