Interview: Max Field, founder of SBN3, tells us why the next instalment of Class of '09 is NOT coming to mobile
The series has previously released on phones
- The next instalment of Class of '09 isn't planned for a launch on mobile even though the last entry did
- We spoke to Max Field, SBN3 founder, about the decision
- Alongside that, we also learned more about what to expect from the upcoming game
Now, I appreciate it might seem strange for a mobile gaming site to run an interview about something that won't be playable on phones. But it's an intriguing and important topic to discuss. On multiple occasions, I've thought something would perfectly fit mobile. For instance, visual novels, turn-based RPGs and puzzlers can work beautifully with touchscreen controls, so why not do it? Just push that magical 'port to mobile' button and be done with it, right?
As with anything in life, things are never that simple, and there are many more factors for developers to consider than whether or not their game would provide the same experience with touchscreen controls or suit a smaller screen. Class of '09 developer SBN3 recently decided not to release the series' next instalment on phones, having previously done so. So, I thought it'd be interesting to find out how they reached this decision, alongside asking a few other questions.
Can you introduce yourself and your role on Class of ‘09?I’m Max and I’m the founder and lead of the SBN3 multimedia studio, originally just a variety channel on YouTube. I am the writer, producer, voice director, sound designer, sometimes actor, and overall lead designer for all 3 of the Class of ‘09 games which have been announced thus far. I also take on the same roles for the Class of ‘09 anime, which has recently been Kickstarted for an 11-minute pilot episode, as well as a 3-minute episode which is already on YouTube.
All operations with the franchise, including merchandising and promotions all go through me essentially.
For those unfamiliar, what’s the elevator pitch for Class of ‘09 and what makes it stand out from other visual novels our readers might have played?For the purposes of marketing to get the game off the ground back in 2020-2021 the common pitch was “It’s not a dating sim, it’s a REJECTION sim” despite the fact it had barely any of the functionality of a dating sim and was a standard visual novel with branching pathways. The demo players on Itch.io didn’t seem to care as that tagline got us to one of the 50 most popular games on there for a few weeks or so back in 2020.
Nowadays, I prefer to call it an interactive sitcom, as there is really no visual novel influence at all from a writing perspective. The idea was taking the years I had spent crafting a comedic tone through making various other projects and plugging it into a marketable product that I could sell, all while inserting a sense of genuine American culture (mental illness, fast food, cutting class). All of this was fueled by true events, encounters, and personalities that I had experienced both online and growing up in the DC Beltway.
Where did the idea of creating an ‘anti-visual novel’ come from? Was it born partly from a love of the genre?The idea of subverting the visual novel genre had been done well before, with Doki Doki Literature Club as the most referenced example, but every time someone tried subverting it specifically in a comedic way, it would end up pretty obnoxious with no point beyond making fun of the genre. Where Class of ‘09 stands out is it was a comedy game written by someone with comedy and screenwriting experience.
In a way, it is a subversion of all the other subversive visual novels. I really don’t care if Class of ‘09 changes the visual novel genre, I don’t care what other visual novels do, but saying you are not like the other visual novels in marketing is crucial because the majority of gamers refuse to play them regardless of what someone’s psychological bubble says.
The core visual novel fanbase despises subversive visual novels, and to be frank, those games annoy me too. But not on the grounds that VNs are being exploited, but that it’s unfunny writers who can’t run jokes beyond their elevator pitch. Class of ‘09, on the other hand, ended up being one of the most quotable video games I’ve ever seen, if TikTok is any indication.
Truthfully I have never end-to-end played a visual novel, barely even my own. I needed a medium to tell the stories I had acquired in my first 25 years of life that wouldn’t end in a financial loss. My first medium was filmmaking, and while I’d like to think I learned a lot in that craft, streaming services have entirely destroyed the indie film market since everyone expects everything to be on their favourite streaming platform or just free on YouTube.
PC and console games still offer a great path for independent creators to attain real revenue for their labour because the consumer is still conditioned to pay per release as opposed to subscribing to platforms which are gatekept by executives.
You need good actors to facilitate good direction. You need good direction for actors to sound good together. In 2015 I started a YouTube series called How To Be An Online Voice Actor, which got me in good favor with a variety of VAs who started by watching those videos and going on to get cast in AAA games and official anime dubs years later. This came in handy when I was casting for the first Class of ‘09 as many people I had strong working relationships with were able to refer me to anyone in the community I wanted to audition for the game.
While I would like to answer the question simply and say “good actor = good noise, yay” it’s more complicated than that. I didn’t realize what a craft voice direction was until I started trying to direct voice actors for comedy skits back in 2013. I learned how crucial delivery was for a joke down to the very phonetic nature of each syllable.
That began a massive process of learning how to hear a line and precisely articulating what was wrong with its delivery, either through adjectives, scenario diction, or outright feeding reads. Feeding reads to actors is considered a big no-no by industry professionals who never had to direct actors polar opposite to the culture of the game they’re working on. Voice actors born after 1985 are obsessed with anime, gaming, and cartoons… None of which are of any interest to the girls in Class of ‘09.
I would bet money that if some random anime studio had to direct and cast for this script, Class of ‘09 would have been one of the worst games ever made. Auteurship at every stage is what makes super-particular projects like this do well.
Having previously released the previous chapters on mobile, you aren’t doing that this time. How did the team reach that decision?While I won’t say that Class of ‘09 is done with the mobile platform forever, there is very little incentive to bring it on mobile. The mobile game market for one isn’t really a place people anticipate to spend money outright for a single product. Also as the game grows in popularity it will simply lead to more content reports and potential removal of the app for the hot button issues it handles.
Look at Apple’s App Store for instance, they refused to put Class of ‘09 on their platform because of its controversial themes. Now you might see GTA San Andreas on the App Store… but I’m not a multi-billion dollar conglomerate so rules actually apply to me. I find it interesting that a game where you can take a shotgun and blow a woman’s head off is less offensive than a game where teenage girls discuss the very real issues they face in daily life.
As mobile players, we often look at certain games and think, why not release this on mobile? For example, on paper, a visual novel should translate perfectly well to phones. So, could you tell us some of the considerations we might not know about? Whether that’s surprising costs, time, or porting not being as simple as we think.I’ll say that from what I’ve gathered, the mobile gaming market leans more towards freemium over the traditional single-purchase model. SBN3 as a studio does not believe in freemium games, we believe in a good product which stands on its own regardless of what power-ups you buy.
However, if some Chinese company wants to offer me millions of dollars to licence Class of ‘09 for a gacha game I’d probably take it since I wouldn’t be the one worrying about the development or subsequent review bombing citing this interview.
Other than the reasons I mentioned earlier, it’s probably more convenient to stream the game to Twitch or friends on Discord if you have it on Desktop. Also Steam as a platform is quite good at getting indie games sold regardless of how irrelevant they are. Was happy with the numbers we were doing even back at the 2021 Winter Sale. For context, no one cared about the existence of a Class of ‘09 Steam game until June 2023.
What’s next for SBN3?Currently, we are in production for our third and final VN game, The Flip Side. Also, we are in production of the Class of ‘09 Anime 11-minute pilot which got funded on Kickstarter back in January 2024. There are other game ideas brewing but those will be revealed at a later time.
