Page 7 - For the Ones Who Wanna Date the Villain an interview w/ Julia Palatovska and Jessica Delfanti

Episode Date: March 6, 2026

In this BONUS episode, Jackie sits down with Dorian CEO Julia Palatovska and VP of Creator Growth Jessica Delfanti to discuss Slash Fic, Romance games, the Dorian platform, as well as Jackie's upcomin' Cryptid Dating sim! Want even more Page 7? Support us on Patreon! Patreon.com/Page7Podcast Subscribe to SiriusXM Podcasts+ to listen to new episodes of Page 7 ad-free.Start a free trial now on Apple Podcasts or by visiting siriusxm.com/podcastsplus. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Today's episode is for the girls who want to date the villain, but also own the copyright. We're living in an era where women are no longer just consuming fantasy. We're engineering it. We're coding it. Or not? We're monetizing it. We're giving the cryptids a chance to seduce us. And honestly, that feels powerful.

Because for decades, romance was something women were told to wait for, be chosen for, be desired, be saved by. And now, we're out here building entire interactive universes, where the brucees, where the brooding farmer with an unnatural need to turn me into his kiss piggy only exists because we wrote him that way. Now let's find out all of us together. We're getting into IP ownership. We're getting into Slash Fick. We're getting into morally gray men with suspicious ethics and incredible jaw lines.

Please welcome everybody, Julia Palatovska, the founder of Dorian and Jess Delphonte, the VP of Creator Growth at Dorian as well as the creative director of Slash Fick. here with me, Jackie Zabrowski, right here on the last podcast network. Ladies, how are you doing today? Fantastic. So thrilled to be here. Thank you so much. Thank you.

Mostly excited to talk about the jaw lines. Yes, we are definitely here for the jaw lines. I think now everybody that listens to me has been hearing me scream about slash vick here for at least a month. And I want to thank you both for the opportunity that I even have to be able to this. Now, I wanted to get into, I wanted to invite Julia and Jess today because some people have been hit me up asking, what is Dorian, what is Slashvick, I don't understand, I want to play dating Sims, I want to support you, what's going on with this? So I thought that we could all sit down and just not only have like a kiki about what's going on with Dorian and Slashvick, but also what's going

on with the future of gaming, what's going on with the three of us here? And that does sound like something untoward, but no, we're talking about business practices here. So, Julia, now you founded Dorian, which is an app. It is an app where people can go to play Romantici games. Now, why did you start Dorian in the first place? I started Dorian because I saw this huge opportunity for all of these fantastic fanfic creators, artists, storytellers, podcasters, voice actors to turn their vision and their stories into something that has potential to become a big game IP, but also helps them earn a living. My background is that I come, I was born in in Ukraine and I come from economically underprivileged background and I was I feel like I was

super like to join the games industry professionally and the games industry has been growing so much and games are generally like this phenomenal combination of art, storytelling, technology, very sophisticated engineering and because of this and because of the fact that games give people agency, give players agency, games objectively are the best monetizing medium in entertainment. Right. Now, did you start in Romantasy specifically? Now, I know that on Dorian, it is a Romanticy app, which for some people that don't know, it's romance and fantasy mix together. And it is essentially a choose-your-own-adventure graphic novel video game that you get to choose who you want to be with, when you want to be with them, how you want to be with them.

And it gives you, like you said, a lot of agency. So why dating Sims? I played a lot of games in dating sims, visual novel genres myself, and all of them were produced by studios, established professional studios. And then I basically saw an opportunity to democratize access to this. So Dorian is more than a nap. We have built a very sophisticated technology and engine that enables that makes making games very accessible so that people without any technical background, any engineering experience, and any funding can actually make the entire game themselves. Most of our creators are artists, writers, cosplayers.

Podcasters, yes. And I will say the first, I don't know anything about coding. And the deer and headlights look I had when I first started talking to Julia and Jess, and they just, they talked to me down. They were like, that's not what Dorian is. You actually can take your creative ideas and actually see them through using this app. Yeah. I mean, the first slash-fit game was made by three women with zero budget. And it was created an engine in, I think, about three days.

So it's amazing. And so could you explain Slash Fick? Slash Fick is a game that is on Dorian, the biggest game on Dorian, correct? Why? No, it was the biggest game. One of the biggest games. Yeah.

Yeah. So, Slash Fick is a dating sim about sleeping with slasher villains, kissing slasher villains, spending time with Slashor villains and intimate settings, cannootling. Sometimes running away from them, sometimes running towards them. It's basically for the girlies who read like, choose your own adventure, goosebumps,

and wanted to kiss. the bad guys instead of running down the other hallway. Was that you? Oh, you better believe I slept with that book in my bed and it was like half because I was scared to let it out of my sight and half because I was like, it must be close to me. No, do you identify then as, I mean, you guys both know I do identify as a monster of sorts. So do you identify?

You don't have to, I know this is a big platform to say this on. It's like, yeah. Hello, my name is Jess Alfonte and I identify as a monster. We welcome you to the foals, Jess. But I will say that I always liked more of like the dark romance boys. So like more of a sexy elf who could tear me to shreds with his shadows, but like less of a like a swamp thing. Okay. All right.

Not into the gloopy as much. Ruby boyfriend's not your thing. Gloopy boyfriend. I'm never say never. I'm waiting for your game, Jackie. I mean, what? What would the blob do if you gave yourself to him? I don't know.

He would tender aftercare 100%. I think of how supple you'd be forever. He's like a lotion in a boyfriend. I love it. That's what we're all looking for. But I overall like talking about dating sims, like one of the big things that's really cool about them and about Slashvick is that it's become like this very inclusive space. Like one of the things that we've learned is that with dating sims because you're self-insert.

You have no assumed gender, race, sexuality, identity at all. And as a result, it's basically the most inclusive medium that you can create art in because you can create a story that tailors itself to whoever's playing it. So basically, I'm writing about murders for feminism. Hell yeah, you are. Well, speaking of feminism now, especially Julia, as a female founder of Dorian, how difficult was it working your way through the game? And I'm sorry, and Jess as well, because you're also a video game developer.

Right, but she's the crazy person who actually started a company. Yeah, it's been quite a journey and it continues. And it's really crazy how, you know, the industry still in 2026 where half of the mobile gamers in particular are women who are spending about half of the revenue that is earned by the entire industry, it's still considered to be like a niche, even though it's like half of it. That's crazy to me. It is. And still the industry is so dominated by the man.

And no, you know, like, they're fantastic. No shit. It's not to say that we should not have men. We just have to have more women. And actually, I'm super proud to say that creatives like you have started studios on Dorian within the last year, several creative people who started studios solo as a couple of people. And actually, this is now their main job and source of living and they can hire others. So my goal here is that in a few years, whenever you enter any room at a games conference, you will see a lot of Dorian. creators dominating this room and with many women present.

Yes. That is that because I mean you saw such success with slash fic fairly quickly. And a few other games we have a few other creators independent creators on the platform who have six to seven figure titles built like solo or a team of two people within like a year and this is unheard of. What we have built on the platform really speeds you up and you can focus on what you do best, this storytelling in your case. Right. And you can just go and focus on your creativity with our platform and technology, enabling you to basically turn it into a game and make it a great game, polished game. This is what we invested in. And especially because usually making a game and a video game take.

It takes years. It takes years. What you can make on Dorian within days would take you at the very least a year anywhere else, literally. Just can tell one of your stories. Yeah, I mean, my history is as a in-game studio narrative designer. I would work on floors of hundreds of people. We had, I worked on a game of Thrones game.

I worked on several other major IP games. And one of the things that I always am enchanted with on Dorian is like, when I was an in-studio designer, I'd be like, ooh, can I make this really cool system in the game? And they would tell me, oh, no, it's going to take us, you know, I don't even know how much budget and a year to do that. And it's literally like those exact systems I put into Slashvick or other games and other creators are putting into their games in a day. And so the fact that we are giving this like super power. So you mentioned like Slashvick was came to, it rose in popularity very quickly. Like we attended MCM Comic-Con

just within about a month and a half or less than that since the release. And we had fans coming to our booth to talk to us about slash fic. And the crazy thing about this is like if you had to try to if I had gone to any game studio and been like, hey, I want to make this

game. Right. They would have like when we were shipping. Because also we haven't even gotten into the fact that like you base the serial killers off of like leather phase, ghost phase, Jason, Voorhees, Mike Myers, like, but they're these big, hot, chiseled ab dudes with these crazy animal masks on to represent each one. Because, of course, they are IPs so you can't use the actual ones.

They all have their unique spin on them. We used all of their original inspiration for mostly their trauma because we love a man with trauma. Yes, we can fix him. But it was funny because I know in side stories you guys were talking about it. And Ed was like, let's have a chunky Jason. And I was like, you don't understand what our audience wants. I'm sorry. Although I'm down for some chunky boys.

You want some chunky slashes? Yeah, I'll watch them. Hey, baby. Which chunky man are you putting into the cryptid lineup? Who's going to be the chunk? I mean, obviously, Squatch. You know Squatch is going to be because I will be working with Dorian. And I was talking about this on side stories.

We are going to be working together to make. a cryptid bang game. And I am so excited because honestly, as someone that has played a lot of dating sims, and I would love to get into any dating sims that you guys had played that had inspired you because I have played my fair share of dating sims before, but I honestly had never gotten into the world of the phone app games. And it was just something that honestly, I didn't even realize the world existed. I didn't know anything about it. And then the more I talk about it with people,

everybody I know plays these games. And they're all like, oh yeah, we're all playing them. We're just not talking about it. And I was like, why aren't we talking about it? You know, there's nothing to be ashamed of, right? Because I do feel, though, playing these games, it is akin. Go with me on this. I feel sometimes it's akin to the parisocial relationships you get when listening to podcasts and things like that.

because someone's in your ear. Someone, it feels like someone is talking to you. But I feel like you get extra connected in these phone app games specifically because you're looking at your phone and it's like you are directly interacting with the different characters. Like I was saying on side stories, I didn't think that I was going to fall in love with leather on slash fic because I didn't think I would ever thought anyone would, I never thought anyone would, I would want anyone to call me a piggy.

Ever. I thought that was my biggest turnoff ever as someone that has lived in a plus-sized body for most of my life. And yet still leather, oh my God, but I can fix him. And he's just, he's just misunderstood. So he just, he needs my help is all. But I guess in, do you find yourself in playing these games going after people that you wouldn't in everyday life? I would say that I would never want to relive my fantasies in real life. I would probably be dead.

I would never want this to happen, but that's the beauty of it. I think that overall our fictional experiences, our fictional fantasies, throughout the history of humanity, have always been fictional, right? and all of these fantasies that made us humans, we do not necessarily want to relieve them, but we share this culture, this view, this, this mythology, all of these creatures that have always been part of human storytelling. But now you can actually interact with them in the game format.

You do not have to be locked in. in any one storyline, you have an agency as a consumer of this content and you can do what you want usually in the storylines. You can go for different love interests, whatever your identity and sexuality is, and you can replay and this is what makes it so fun and also so engaging for fans and for creators to make this. It's also really crazy. Something that I never thought

that would keep me so engaged is that when you're playing the games, when you go to your choices and it gives you multiple choices, there's also like a community chat box where other people... That's one of our most popular features. It's insane because then you see other people

making jokes and also being like, oh man, if you choose this, this will happen. And it all so it's like you can read it or you don't have to read it. But it made me feel like I was a part of something. And it made me feel like I was like, oh, I'm not that. I'm slut-shaming myself. But I'm like, I'm not just this little piggy laying in my bed oinking at my phone by myself. No, no, no.

We're all in this together. Yeah, people obsess collectively. Yes, we're doing this together. because I love because there is, as opposed to, you know, I'm not going to bring up how many of the games have destroyed me. And everyone knows I love the game date everything. And everyone also knows that I'm not going to spoil what happens, but everyone knows that X, X, X, X, X, X, X, X, X, X, X, X, X, X, X, X, broke my heart. And there was no way I could go back to just make it. it not happen. I just needed to make it not happen. Oh my God. As a fan, we need to make a bongar dating theme for you. I think you are gonna rock this space. However, I did prepare a little something here to see how Jackie is breaking people's hearts as Penny in the app. She's talking about these comments right now. And I did pull together some of the most hilarious comments.

Oh my gosh. So that she could maybe do a little live reading about Penny's comments right here. Well, I do want to get it. I'll give an intro for everyone that, so, so for slash fic, now, you know, Jess has put out, and Dorian put out the game slash fic, it was last year, I believe, right, or the year before. It was a bit over a year ago. Yeah, bit over a year ago. And then you put out slash fic cuffing season. Now, is that, technically, are you referring to it as a sequel? Are you referring to it?

It's a new installment, I would say. In the same union. We wanted to make sure that. people could like enjoy it without playing the original. The original is like 60 episodes. Hell yeah. You want to play the original and get real deep with that. But the new one is it has like a very fun new production value on it.

We have voice acting. We have animations. We have a new game system. So it's kind of like a new version of Slashvick. And this is you guys working with voice acting for the first time on the app. It's the first fully voice acted game. We did have voice actors. some of our independent creators have been hiring voice actors.

Awesome. And yes, and I think that this growth of community, it's so cool to see creators basically hiring each other and collaborating on their games. And as we grow, this whole creative space is growing and all boats rise. Yes. It's so cool to see all of the Slashvick voice actors now considering making their own games. I love it so much.

It's honestly what I loved about Doreen, why I immediately wanted to start working with you guys is it reminds me of last podcast network where it's the kind of thing of, oh, once we all start working together, oh, now we're all friends and now we're just going to keep working together. Now we're all just a bunch of creatives that are going to start making some really cool, weird stuff together. And it's really exciting. I think also like I always thought about the network when we were working on Dorean originally because it is. like you guys figured out that if you make your weird stuff that everyone that you love, other people are going to love it too. And so it's kind of like, bet on yourself is really the phrase I use so much at Dorian because I'm like, you have to believe in your own ability and your own taste before you ask other people to believe in it. Exactly. But also, man, I was

recently watching, I don't know if you're familiar with Nardwar, who is a, he's an amazing, unbelievable interviewist. And he has a whole TED talk that the whole thing is, is, the way he has been able to interview as many insane celebrities and the and the things that he knows about them is asking. He literally just asked and showing how many people that he had talked to that he just believed in himself and he asked and it can get you so far. Which is how I got Jackie to be on my game. I just emailed.

I literally called emailed me. This is so weird that I'm asking you to, can you play an unhinged clown in my game? Exactly. And that is a great intro for. Penny. Penny is the clown that I got to do the voice of for Slashwick Cuffing Season. And she's a little bit Pennywise. And she's a little bit, she was asked to be a little bit Southern, which is great if you listen to my Sookie Stackhouse audiobooks because you know I speak in a Southern accent for many, many hours a week. But now this is, so these are comments about Penny. These are comments the users left on the game about Penny and Jackie's performance. I hope Penny should.

me a trick that's worth it. Nah, this ain't cuffing season, it's mating season. Because my female hormones are raging right now. Don, you estrogen. Mommy. Mommy. Uh-oh. I'm literally scared of a clown.

I know what Penny is based on. I do know a little bit of a clown. about that clown fuck let me out let me out I want to be Betty's bestie oh my God Penny I'm coming

us clowns got to stick together anyway which sounds very scary sounds like you're a clown out there but also you know what clowns support clowns out here and thank you for the that's just a small

snippet I think it's a great tagline for the company. You can't wear a dot. Clown, support, class. I mean, honestly, all of us. Copyright. Yeah. All of us working together.

That's for damn sure. Now, why do you think, you know, I've been talking and working with the Ripped Bodice, which is a woman-owned smut book store that's in L.A. as well as Brooklyn. And we were discussing about how in the publishing world, it is kind of crazy that romance has kept publishing. afloat since the beginning of time, and everyone that works in publishing knows that.

And it's been this, like, secret backbone of the publishing system for a long time, because women have forever, and Fem Presenting People, have been buying these books. And there's a whole Friends episode that was all about Rachel reading quote-unquote porn, and Joey found her porn. and the whole episode was about how embarrassed she was that somebody found her romance book. Now cut to 2026, right? And now people are like,

this is crazy that this romantici stuff, that these dating sims, that all of this is coming out of nowhere. How wrong is that statement? I have an opinion. I think it helped me tremendously that I maybe did not grow up here because in my country or culture of origin, I guess, there is no looking down at romance.

And we discussed it with jazz a lot that I did not know that anyone was looking down on romance until I started Dorian and started working with US-based creatives. And I was like, I feel like I started internalizing it a little bit, even so I do not like it. But actually, so I was growing up with my mom who is a linguistics professor. Oh, wow. And we had a lot of fiction. I was growing up on fiction like crazy.

I was consuming all sort of fiction. But ultimately in a lot of European fiction, classics, especially like some of the older Russian classics, romance is always weaved into storytelling. And it was never margin. in any way, so I did not know I was supposed to be embarrassed. Wow. Like if you think about war and peace, about Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, there is a lot of romance.

And it's like, I was growing up thinking, yeah, I want this, I want to be this badass woman who has everyone wrapped around her fingers. Yes, yes. And it was like all of these murders and wars and everything was like happening around romance. So it was never marginalized and I didn't know I was supposed to be embarrassed, which I guess helped me a lot. That's awesome. That's an amazing perspective. I didn't even think about that because you're so right. It is America is so prudish.

It really is. And that now that especially I get to go to these Romantici conventions and I get to see these gatherings of women. And then you hear the outside perspective of people looking in on it that are so judgmental. of this world that we work in when it's like, man, just ignores him. Yeah, you have to. You really do. Because I don't know about you guys,

but I felt like I spent a lot of my life pretending like I wasn't like this. And how I never want anyone to ever tell me I'm not allowed to be horny ever again. Yeah. I mean, I worked in very male-dominated game spaces for a long time. And it was kind of incredible how much they were anti-romance, even though, like, romantic threads also exist in male-focused content, but it's almost like they're afraid. Yeah.

There's so many, like, in fantasy, in so, like you were saying, history, and romance is a part of being alive. I think that especially as like representing Europe here, I guess, in European literature, in classics, in Eastern European, like, romance has always been huge part of it. It was never like separate and this is what we studied. It was obligatory reading. It was always romance. And I feel like often told from the male protagonist, but they were like so engrossed into their female love interests and they were doing all of this crazy shit because of that.

Right. Yeah. So like I remember I shared with Jess that when we were studying words, peace by Tolstoy, we, our teacher said something funny. She said, so I assume that boys enjoyed war and girls enjoyed peace and romance and boys were like, no, we also wanted to, like, we enjoyed these relationships and politics and storylines, not war so much. Right. Yeah, I think also like we, we kind of allow ourselves to be marginalized with these terms. like Romantasy. Like, why do we have to put, like, there are so many amazing books that fall under

Romanty that are just fantastic stories that happen to have romance in them. And the same thing with the term dating sim, like I want to get to a place where people are looking at these games on Dorian, games like Slashvick and so many of the other games on there and are not qualifying them as like a specific genre that's set aside, but rather that these are just games to be celebrated. And I think there's a lot of work for all of us to do, I mean, to create that new future because the more women that we see, like Julia said, we want to see at a game conference that there are women in those rooms and they're there as game creators. And I think that's like one of the things that really gets me up in the morning is the idea of like, I want to change that texture of what those rooms look like

and really have us being the heads of studios and the people who are making decisions in the industry. Right. Starts say, so mobile games are carrying the games industry. They generate more than half of total revenue. And then more than half of mobile games players are women who are spending. So there is no reason to marginalize female gamers. And there is no reason to marginalize what women want to play. We are more than half of the population.

So let's, let's. I surges, powers, and we have. Yes, exactly. That's why we all have to work together. Yeah. But now, have you come across anything yet in the, you know, in working together with Dorian? Have you come across any ideas that you're like, I think that might be a little too far? Have you gotten any of those yet?

Oh. I mean, I had a friend who pitched me one that was very like, it was like a romancing of like dictators. but like dictator. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I was like, I don't know exactly if we can get an audience for that one. Yeah. I feel like, I mean, people ask me a lot about slash fic and they're like, are they real serial killers? And I'm like, no, no, they're the fake murder boyfriend.

Yes, they're fake murder boy. It's good, which is good. We're not glorifying the real ones or we're glorifying the fake ones that we want to kiss and that we never really said that. allowed before, but we can say it to each other. We're exploring taboo in a safe environment. Exactly. It's also interesting how like horror is okay

but horror and romance is suddenly not like... Right. Right, which also have forever been inextricably linked. I mean, horror and sex at least. So it's that they've gone together since the beginning of time. Now in working with specifically

slash fic, are you a horror person, Jess. Oh, yeah. I'm mainlining horror all the time. Hell yeah. So that is, so what did originally, was it leather face that originally brought you into thinking that you were going to write this? Yeah. I mean, it's funny because it's not actually that I like watch leather face and I'm like, ooh baby. But I just like, not that we would judge right, Julia? We did judge. Very open minded. I just want a man who will wear my boyfriend's face on his face. And honestly, that's an artist that can get that skin off

all in one piece. I know. A tender touch. It's nice. It's kind of nice. He's very tall. He's supposed to be six seven, I believe, in the canon, but he's very gentle. Whoa. It needs to be. But no, I mean, I love horror. I honestly, like, I always have felt that there

was like, like you just said, like sex and horror and like intimacy in horror. They're very twin flames. The excitement that you feel in a horror movie is allowing you to engage with a thrill that, like, you cannot engage with safely in real life. And that's the same thing with a lot of dark romance. Like, if any of the men in my game talk to me like that, if a man walked up to me in a bar

and said any of that stuff, like the way my drink would be in his face immediately. But in the game, I love it. Especially with the V-O now on the rumble that comes out. I'm just like, he is talking directly to me. And it really is playing these games, I have to, like, when my husband, joins me laying in bed. I have to be like, this just happened. And then this just happened because part of me, I'm like, I'm not cheating. It's okay. He knows I'm playing these games. He knows technically I'm playing them for work. So he's not only he's accepting, he's encouraging me

to play the games. But also it's kind of great because I feel like a lot of partners are encouraging their partners to play the games. You could do it together too. You could do it. Exactly. And it's funny because even now it's like I'm, you know, I'm, romancing, I'm currently romancing ghost and Jeff is romancing Mike and then we talk about going back and forth about how and I was like really Mike is who you went after he's like I don't know it's just all the mine stuff really got me and I was like okay for the audience Mike is a character who only says the word mine I'm very interested to ask Jeff more about this in the future but I do think also there's an aspect of like introducing choice to horror and dark romance that is

really special and like as a creative, like, I've written, I've done scripts, I've done, I've written some bad novels over COVID. I've written games in many, many formats. And the thing about that I keep going back to with gaming is that it actually, a lot of people think it would be a lot harder than creating, like, writing a book or something. But I find it actually much easier because you get to kind of tease out these what if. So instead of me having to come up with the perfect ending for every single person who plays this game, I can be like, well, if you were playing, you were playing. in a more shy and like conservative way, you might end up in this ending. But if you were playing

in a more bold way, you can end up in this ending. And I can include both of them. So I can essentially make sure that the narrative constantly reflects who you are as a person. But it also means I don't have to choose, you know, the one guy wins in the love triangle. I don't have to choose. And I see that also as a fan, like when I'm consuming linear content, like I watch Shadow and Bone. And I was obsessed with Ben Barnes, the darkling. I was like, oh, yeah. Hell yeah. Dark romance again. Hell yeah, dude.

I love a shadow daddy. Yeah, don't want to spoil, but the ending was not what I wanted. And I wish that I could have, like, had the version of that show where she ends up with a different character. You want the do-over. Yeah, yeah. And so we can do that. Do you ever have this situation, you watch a show, and you're like, I would pay you to kill this guy instead of making me go, like, making the main character go on dates with him? Or can I like pay you not to see their face ever again?

You can do this on Dorian as a creator. It's awesome. And also, as someone that is, I'm a horny doggie dog, dog, you can choose how horny doggie dog you are playing the game because I also know I'm way more of a horny doggie dog than a lot of other people. But I love that it gives you the option to like give more hearts if you want the horny scene. You can go get that horny scene if you want that horny scene. Or if you don't and you're not there for the actual,

and I'm not saying they're not explicit scenes. It's just for the romance scenes, for the more intensive scenes, you don't have to. And I love that choice also because we're seeing so much in the vacillation of like younger people. And we talk about this a lot on page seven where it's as someone that I feel millennials are so, we're all so horny.

And we are going in complete, like, directly against the kind of horniness that Gen X was, the kind of horniness that the Zoomers are. But now the Zoomers who were raised on television, at least what we hear, is that they were so inundated with all the rough things on the Internet because they were raised with it, that they're not really looking for a lot of fuck in what they're watching. And so Dorian also gives someone the option if you're not looking for that, that you don't have to have that either. It's a very inclusive medium.

You can date whoever you want. You can explore storylines. You can replay. You can have different endings. You can decide how far you go with any love interest. Like, for example, the most popular dating themes allow you to level up your favorite love interests and you can decide who you go for. So you have this beautifully fragmented saying that doesn't

have like one outcome or one looked narrative and you can basically serve different tastes. You do not have to be a taste maker. You do not have to be like super mainstream. And I think that this is this old way is not really working anymore. Like if you think about it, for example, if you open your TikTok and I open my TikTok, these are going to be very different TikTok. Oh, yeah. My algorithm's a little weird.

I'm not opening my dick, doc, not professionally. That's what I'm sure. So similarly, a game non-linear format can serve different people without anyone being one taste maker and saying, this is good and this is not good and this like this goes to trash. Because as they say, one person's trash is other person. person's treasure, and this is where we see a lot on Dorian. Yes. I love my trash men so much.

Oh, yeah, baby. I mean, give me a union worker anytime. I know you're not talking about that. That was trash men. But I was just, so with Dorian, I did want to talk a little bit more about, like, before, you know, we're getting towards the end of our show here. I did want to talk a little bit more about giving opportunities for people to, you know, reach out and talk to us about things that you guys are making and different places that people

can go to find out what Dorian is going to be working on because now that I'm going to be working with you guys making a cryptid bang game and you know that sounds crude it's because I don't have a name for it yet all right we're figuring out the name right now but what my favorite part is that in the world of Dorian it's not just also for monster romancers there is stuff of all different kinds. In fact, I was playing Jess,

your other game, Royal Red. Royal Red, which is, it has nothing to do with monsters in there and that's just big old,

thick-bodied humans. But it's an amazing story and it's these stories that you can get really lost in and it's just stunning art as well. Yes,

and all of the work that has gone into these different games, at least if anything, download Dorian, it's free. Check out all of the work people are putting into making the stories that they want to see.

And these are from people that play a bunch of these games that even, you know, for instance, I bring up a date everything. I bring up all these other beautiful, huge, awesome games that are amazing. Those are completely different ball games than what the universes we're making over on Dorian, but just as immersive. And there's so many different things that you can find. And that's why even with cryptids, it was so funny that when I started pitching this to you guys and Jess came at me with like a rudimentary drawing of Mothman,

because definitely I'm not even going to get into this misunderstood boy that we are going to have to fix. And I loved it because you showed me amazing artwork. And in my head I was like, that's so much more humanoid than I expect. but I loved that perspective and I was like that's why I want to hear from other people and I'd love to hear and get feedback and as we get more stuff in

I'm going to be including more images more more questions at our community over on my Instagram at Jack That Worm and which will also definitely be up on the door if you follow definitely follow Dorian definitely follow slash fic

you know follow and just it'll open you up to a whole world of voice actors that you've never seen before, never heard from before, and just, it's a level of escape that I feel keeps me grounded, even though I know that I said escape, but like, we can't check out completely right now from everything that's going on, but we need to find places where we can go, where we have a little semblance of control and agency. And that's what Dorian is for me.

It's for you both. And it's for a lot, many, many, many people that have found it. Yeah. Well, I also want to say, like, if you've ever consumed any form of fictional media where you were, like, in love with these characters, that came out of a person's brain. But most of the time, if you're a creative, you work for a big company. So, like, I worked on games that were making crazy amounts of money. And no one even knew that I worked on those games.

never benefited from those games. I didn't get royalties or anything like that. Meanwhile, backbreaking, you're like working all the time. Exactly. And it's like the thing that is really special, I think about what we're doing at Dorian is that we are creating a path for people who are the creatives who are really the ones who are generating those ideas that you're falling in love with as a fan. And we're making it so that you can then, as a creator, make a living off of this through direct support of your fans. You keep your IP. So it's all about the idea of if my fans can support what I'm doing and continue to support me. I can continue making the art that they love as opposed to something like, you know, a Netflix that's going to put out a show and then cancel it after

one season because it doesn't hit certain metrics because the budget is so huge and the timeline is so huge that they can't take any risks. And they're completely pinned down by their business model. But when it's, you know, me just Jess or Jackie, you know, making her cryptid game, you guys, like the fans, are going to be the ones who decide whether she continues making that game. And that's like a massive amount of power and collaboration. And the idea that you can actually be a part of this creative process. You can actually like get the content that you want. And like I said, this kind of stuff that we're making, Jackie's game,

if she had pitched shit at any of my game studios either, probably would never get made. Never. Are you kidding? I want to say that this works super well. Again, because we remove any tastemakers and gatekeepers. and it's like a creator has a vision, they own their IP on Dorian, they have everything they need to produce a great game.

By the way, you can produce something very close to date everything using our platform because there is a lot of functionality. So you can produce something amazing, but solo with a very small team. And then by removing all of these layers of people, you can just go to your fans and give them something that they want. And the beauty here is,

is that you can basically make a living off of, say, you do not even need to have hundreds of thousands or millions of fans. Like on Instagram or TikTok, you would have all of these fans, all of this engagement, likes and follows and make nothing. On Dorian, you probably need just a thousand dedicated fans who spend $10 to $20 on your games per month And you can make a living out of this. And a lot of our creators make far more than that because they reach bigger audiences,

because it's not as niche as mainstream makes us think it is. Right. There is a huge fandom for each crazy idea. Yeah. And it just, the reason why it did not find its audience before, because there was no platform, there was no finding, no permission. And now this is what we're solving. So ultimately we are like YouTube for games,

except that the monetization comes from fans. So there is a way for fans to support creators directly. And what you spend on Dorian is how creators make money. Truly unbelievable work. It really is crazy that because you're both so right, I know that if I had taken the idea of a cryptic bang game to most people, they would look at me like I was really insane. But every person I've brought this idea up to in real life,

I see a spark light in their eyes. And it's like, you know that the want is there. And you are just getting started. You will be surprised. Since I started this company, I'm surprised every day. But in a good way. I bet. In a good way.

Of seeing what people can come up with. And fans, This. Yeah. That spark is them being like, please make that game so I can play it. And I say that as like literally one of the people who wants to play this game. Yes.

Oh my gosh. And hopefully we will all be playing it soon. Honestly, thanks to Julia. Thanks to Jess. Over at Dorian, thank you both so much for coming out and talking with us today. And just explaining a little bit more about what you do and the app and what's going on with it. And I just really appreciate being given the opportunity to work with you both. And because for me, this is a big opportunity for me as well.

And as a creative, it's very exciting to look at an endeavor like this and just think, who knows what it could be. And if you've got ideas like that too, check out Dorian. And there are ways in which you can also support Dorian. Check out republic.com slash Dorian for more information. and I'll also be having more information up on my socials coming up soon, some teaser trailers for what we're working on together over at Dorian. And before we get out of here,

is there any last final things you ladies would like to close on that we didn't get to during the show? I guess I do want to mention about Republic that we are opening a community round where the public is going to be able to legally invest in Dorian. And it's going to be open live in a few weeks, but you already can make a reservation. The link will be under this post. Yes, republic.com slash Dorian. And you will be able to read everything about it.

So basically, it's an opportunity to support our company and support your favorite creators. Everything is on that page. Thank you so much. Thank you so much, Julia. Thank you so much, Jess. And we can't wait to find out and check out more from Dorian. Bye, everybody. Bye.

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