About

Heartbeat is an indie video game developed and published by Chumbosoft LLC. The game is a top-down RPG with a heavy focus on irreverent characters, similar to games like Chrono Trigger and early Pokémon titles. The game became the center of a controversy when it was discovered the lead developer and her girlfriend came out publicly with anti-trans sentiments, which angered and disappointed fans who accused the team behind the game of being TERFs.

History

Lead graphic designer and developer Shepple of CHUMBOSOFT began working on Heartbeat in January of 2016.^[1] By December of 2017, a playable demo was available for download. The demo won "Game of the Month" on the blog RPGM Games in December of 2017.^[1] A trailer for the game released on August 21st, 2018 (shown below). The game released on itch.io on September 14th, 2018, and on Steam on December 12th the same year.^[2]

Reception

The game received positive reviews from fans. The game currently has "Very Positive" reviews on Steam,^[3] though the page notes the game's score has been adjusted due to a "period of off-topic review activity," likely indicating a period of "review-bombing" where users gave the game bad scores due to reasons unrelated to the game itself. Positive reviews noted it was similar in gameplay and progression to Pokémon with some reviewers noting it was "going for the Undertale crowd."

Online Presence

Transphobia Controversy

On September 20th, 2019, Twitter user @Nikoteenie,^[4] the girlfriend of Heartbeat developer made several transphobic tweets, writing:

"I have never been so ashamed to be born in this country until now. America,, a place where men believe they can mutilate their penis and dress in an "effeminate" manner to become "female"… You are not a lesbian. You are not female. Lesbians don't like penis no matter how you chop it up. You can surgically mold your penis into the Eiffel Tower if you want. You're not going to become France. You're not impressing anyone.

After the tweets, a thread by Twitter user @BeetleButch from a month prior in which they accused Shepple of being transphobic and having a Discord channel where people would make transphobic jokes began spreading (shown below, left).^[5] They later posted screenshots from the Discord where Shepple was seen agreeing with TERF thinking, though it seemed she was working out her personal feelings on the matter (shown below, right). Twitter user octog4y^[6] later tweeted screenshots of a conversation they'd had with Shepple in which she stated "I have every right to question the movement that’s done nothing but regress us backwards, to tell masculine women they are actually men (personal experience), and that feminine men are women all because of perceived stereotypes."

The controversy was compounded when amidst the controversy the game went on sale on Steam for 35% and a soundtrack bundle went on sale for 41%. These appear to be references to how 41% of transgender people commit suicide, according to the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, and 35% of transgender high school students have attempted suicide, according to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.^[7] The controversy and sale helped boost the game's sales overall, making it the 16th-highest selling game on the platform.^[8] While there has been no official statement as to the discount percentages, many assumed that it was a mocking reference to trans suicide.^[9][10] Reviews of the game after the sale include mockery of trans suicide as well (example shown below).

Search Interest

External References