Abstract
Problem: The rise of "romantasy" — romance fused inseparably with fantasy/sci-fi — is becoming unavoidable in both books and video games. What does this trend mean for audience retention and game design?
Approach: Tim Cain draws on a conversation with a romance novelist colleague, a British bookseller's analysis of declining sci-fi sales, and his own decades of RPG design experience to examine the pattern.
Findings: When niche themes (romance, politics, social commentary) are made integral and unavoidable rather than optional, they drive away segments of the audience — not just from individual titles, but from the genre altogether. This is already measurable in book sales and is beginning to affect games.
Key insight: Fill your game with whatever themes you want, but make them avoidable. The moment a theme becomes mandatory to progress, you lose the players who aren't there for it.
What Is Romantasy?
Tim Cain introduces "romantasy" — a portmanteau of romance and fantasy — as a trend he discovered through a colleague who writes romance novels on the side. Romance is one of the best-selling book genres, outselling sci-fi, fantasy, and detective fiction, with consistent year-round sales rather than seasonal peaks.
The term describes works where romance is a central, unavoidable pillar of the narrative rather than an optional subplot. Simultaneously, much of what's labeled "science fiction" has drifted toward fantasy — the science isn't a reasonable extrapolation of real science, and authors don't bother explaining it. It's effectively magic wearing a sci-fi costume.
The Buffet Analogy
Cain offers a vivid metaphor: imagine a buffet where every dish — including desserts — contains an ingredient you're allergic to or simply can't stand. You can't pick around it. That's what romantasy feels like to readers and players who don't want romance baked into everything. When a theme is optional, everyone can enjoy the buffet. When it's in every dish, some people leave the restaurant entirely.
The Bookseller's Warning
A British bookseller explained the economic damage: bestsellers in a genre act as anchors that draw readers who then buy smaller titles too. When bestsellers become romantasy, readers who dislike romance don't just skip that book — they abandon the genre. The result is that sci-fi/fantasy sales decline overall, and smaller titles suffer disproportionately because the anchor readers have left.
How This Applies to Games
Cain sees the same pattern emerging in video games. Themes that were once optional side content — romanceable companions, political commentary, social issues — are increasingly woven into main story arcs in ways that can't be skipped.
He's quick to clarify: the problem isn't the presence of these themes. His own games are full of them:
- Fallout 1 & 2 are loaded with social commentary, but you can blast through the games without engaging with it. Skip the dialogue, ignore the computer terminals, and those themes simply don't exist in your playthrough.
- Temple of Elemental Evil included a same-sex romance option, but it required deliberately seeking out a specific optional side quest and making multiple intentional choices.
- The Outer Worlds made humor integral and unavoidable — a deliberate design choice, but one that did alienate players who didn't enjoy the tone.
The Walking Dead Moment
Cain recounts the moment he stopped watching The Walking Dead: he realized he'd watched an entire episode with no zombies. It was just people talking about their relationships. The show had become a soap opera with zombies as background decoration — a perfect example of romantasy in television.
The Design Principle
Cain's prescription for narrative designers is simple and actionable:
- Put whatever themes you want in your game — romance, politics, social commentary, all of it
- Make them avoidable — keep them in side content, optional dialogue, discoverable lore
- Never gate main story progression behind them — if a companion can only grow stronger through romance, or if the critical path requires engaging with a theme, you've made it integral
- One "no thanks" should be enough — if a companion hits on the player and the player declines, they should stop
The games industry risks following the book market into fragmented, underserved audiences if narrative designers insist on making their themes mandatory rather than discoverable.
References
- Tim Cain. YouTube video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lauoxw_m6cg