If you've been waiting for an opportunity to get "Love the Guard, Be the King" at a discount, the Summer Sale is here! Yay!
You can now save on "Love the Guard, Be the King" both on Steam and Itch.io
AND, all of my books and short story anthologies are also 20% off on itch.io, including "The Lady of the Sand Manor" ❤️❤️❤️ If you're itching for more lore, background stories, and POVs, this is your chance!
Interact-IF Pride Month Author Spotlight #5: Love The Guard, Be The King
We are so excited to feature @ligiawrites, creator of Love The Guard, Be The King (demo) as our fifth author interview for Interact-IF's 2026 pride month, spotlighting LGBTQ+ games and authors! :)
Ligia's real life as a queer person - raised in a place where existing as herself was a struggle - inspired her representation of queer people in her stories. They live without fear, and are accepted as they are - something Ligia hopes becomes true for our own world as well.
Check out the first, second, third and fourth interviews in our Pride Month Spotlight 2026 Event!
1. Tell me more about yourself! What are some things new readers or long-time readers might not know about you?
a) I play the clarinet! Started last year, and I'm enjoying it a lot. My plan is to record some of my favorite obscure Brazilian classical pieces and use them as soundtrack for my games. ;) I'm also a barbecue-guitar-player (meaning I don't know shit about the guitar, but I can play a few easy, popular songs that have people singings with me).
b) I've been very much out and proud online for the past ~10 years, but I only came out to my parents and siblings around 2 years ago. I'm very lucky that they've shown support (and a lot of confusion, XD which led me to explain A LOT of terms to them), but I know that many people aren't as lucky. Which is why I don't like it when people carelessly try to convince others to out themselves to their families—remember that this is a part of YOUR identity and that YOU should decide who to share it with. There are many places in the world in which it's very dangerous to be queer, so don't put yourself in a dangerous situation without thinking it through. And if you can only express your pride quietly, remember that there's an online community here that sees you! ♥
c) Aaaand "Love the Guard Be the King" is actually my third attempt at making a game solo. The first one was a Metroidvania about a zombie that had to collect pieces of her enemies, consume them, and get strong enough to defeat the bad guy (and save her necromancer mistress). The second was a visual novel about a giant who fell in love with the sun-queen and set out to hunt a corrupt knight commander. ;) Those will never see the light of day.
2. Can you tell me a bit about your journey into interactive fiction and what you’re working on right now?
When I was little, my older brother gave me his entire collection of CYOA books when he entered college (the physical ones with the green covers, in which your choices lead to different pages/paragraphs), and I devoured them. RPG games like Septerra Core and Dragon Age were the next step—and then visual novels. When I realized I could make my own, that was it, hehe. :P
Still, I wasn't really serious about it until maybe 3 or 4 years ago, I think, when I played Eros's "Repurpose," PDRook's "Perfumare," and Cherry's "ATOC." I don't think many games made me feel the way I did when I played their stories. It was everything I loved about books—amazing story, incredible world-building, polished writing, great structure, captivating characters—with the twist of allowing me to interact directly with the plot and choose what was gonna happen. I had played a lot of VNs/IFs until then, but none of them ever made me realize how much potential this medium has. From them on, my passion from interactive fiction only grew, and I decided to devote myself to it. :) Since then, I found a Dragon's Horde of incredible VN/IFs, but those are the ones that really invited me to look at it seriously.
Now I'm working on the second game in a series. "Ward the Dragon, Love the King" starts three weeks after "Love the Guard, Be the King," and it's an expansion of the first game in every sense of the wor(l)d, hehe! ;) I really can't wait to get to some of the more revelation/lore-heavy bits there.
3. What inspired the game/story you’re currently writing?
I wanted to write a medieval fantasy game with courtly intrigue and a Lord/Knight romance, but through the eyes of the "least powerful person" in the room (a servant/warrior with a useless title). As the story grew, this feeling of powerlessness/uselessness became the crux of my story, and finding their inner power through the support of their loved ones became part of the DC's ("Dragon Commander," you!) character arc. :) During the first game, I was also trying to find comfort and my own self-value in the middle of bouts of crippling anxiety, so Mathias, Mand, Mel, and the amazing readers I met through my game helped me more than I could ever imagine.
4. How does your game/story draw from, or feature, aspects of your queer identity / experience?
I think all my writing comes from my understanding of what the world should be, so it's entirely my identity—and by that I mean magical and filled with hot shape-shifting dragons, yes. x) haha joking! More seriously, a place where people can be accepted and loved for who they are.
I was raised in a very religious, very homophobic, very racist country in which hate crimes against women, POC, and people in the queer community are extremely common. The fear and helplessness that I felt growing up, the disgust and despair I had for myself when I realized I was different, and the identities I buried deep and prayed would disappear—all that is what I wish I could protect my readers from. If my stories can offer them even a little hope and comfort, I'll have done my job right.
5. What are some of the most rewarding or challenging aspects of writing Interactive Fiction for you?
Writing is already a challenge. Add to that the fact that you have to use SEVERAL tetris-shaped choices to make a scene feel right, no matter what the players' previous path has been, makes it what is, IMO, the most challenging type of writing there is, hahaha! And, well, I love a challenge. ;)
To me, receiving messages from people saying my stories touched them in some way (or that they feel they have agency in it!!!!) is the absolute best thing ever. I'm also very emotional every time someone says they like my female and POC characters.
6. What’s your approach to portraying queer characters, queer experiences/perspectives, or queer storylines in your IF?
I think queer identities are just a natural part of a character's identity and should be treated that way. And since there is no homophobia/transphobia/ace erasure/misogyny/etc in my worlds, I also keep an eye out for microaggressions and hurtful behaviors that come from those, so I can make my worlds truly welcoming.
As with every part of someone's identity, mainly when it's not my own, I also think it's vital to check my work for harmful stereotypes and any bias I might have—and for that, listening to people and doing research is fundamental, IMO.
7. What is one thing you hope to see in games or interactive fiction in the future—whether it be for greater LGBTQ+ inclusion, or just a personal itch you’d love to have scratched?
Give me more butches and fake relationships, please!!! Maybe fake relationships with butches!!! 🥺 Make them very big and muscular or small and lean butches!!! I'd also love to see more demis like me ❤️✨
8. Are there any LGBTQ+ media, characters, stories etc. that live rent-free in your brain (or that you would like to recommend?
Nowadays we have so many more queer stories that my heart sings. When I was growing up, though, there was nothing but veiled hemoerotic subtext, Interview with the Vampire, and yaoi/yuri fanfics of my favorite animes, which I still keep in a special place in my heart. For newer things I absolutely love: Rien Gray's books (long live lesbian knights erotica!! which you would DEFINITELY find in Mathias's bookshelf, along with all of Chuck Tingle's books—another rec, whether you like monster/surreal erotica or horror), She-ra (the animated show), Hazbin Hotel, Repurpose (the VN), and for IFs: Chasing Stars by @chasingstarsif and Voulez-vous by @hellojoygames (yay for the lesbians!!). Karlach from BG3 is a constant in my heart.
9. Silly closing question: If you were to make a game in one weekend, which of these LGBTQ+ (or general) tropes/cliches would you build the game around? Feel free to elaborate on the silly idea for funsies.
Haha, this is fun. I loved it! I'd choose U-Haul, definitely: They met in a heist-gone-wrong—two very intense days ago—and now a butch-space-cowboy and her new scientist genious gf must fight an imperialist army to protect a data drive with the key to the Machina Mater and haul said girlfriend's stuff back to planet Ursa Sapha!!! You play as the scientist—but will you stick to your loving himbo-space-cowboy-girlfriend, or will the mysterious NB tech-necromata, the one competing with your gf for the title of "second in command," also steal you from her? ;)))
what makes me so sick about this gif is that shauna moves her head down and JACKIE DOES IT SIMULTANEOUSLY which means not only did she want to keep STARING👁️👁️ she just sort of knows shauna’s body language instinctively
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