I am still but a tourist enjoying the horny fruits of the Love and Deepspace community’s labor, so I guess it shouldn’t surprise me that there are months-long controversies and discourse within the gacha game I had never heard of. However, when I saw IGN reporting on dark-skinned custom characters being essentially “invisible” in some of its cutscenes, I was flabbergasted at how true it was, and that it’s apparently been an issue since the game launched last year.
Something you’ll learn in film or art school is that you will sometimes have to frame shots, adjust lighting, and consider the environment of a scene depending on the subject’s skin tone. It’s why film and TV will often have stand-ins to help the crew adjust settings before an actor comes in to shoot their scenes. Unfortunately, a lot of filmmaking technology was made with only lighter skin tones in mind, and so a lot of effort has gone into making sure that cameras can adjust for different shades. In games, too, some developers come up with ways of testing that lighting in scenes can work for a variety of skin tones, as Elizabeth Zelle who worked on the Saints Row games points out.
But you have to actually use those tools and accommodate for it, or you end up with scenes like those in Love and Deepspace in which, if you’re playing with a darker-skinned custom protagonist, you quite literally cannot see your character without upping the brightness of the image itself.
Thank you @Love_Deepspace for giving us darker skin players NO LIGHTING in this new card😒 pic.twitter.com/innx60E7et
— MadameSynclair (@MoonkissedMuse) October 11, 2025
Despite the game offering players a sizable amount of customization options, Love and Deepspace’s lighting just isn’t optimized for darker skin tones, and publisher Infold Games has finally responded to the criticism.
“At Infold Games, we’ve always believed that our games are shaped together with the players who love them,” the company said in a statement to IGN. “The community’s feedback, discussions, and creative passion are what keep Love and Deepspace evolving and alive. We’ve seen the conversations and truly value everyone who has taken the time to share their experiences and thoughts. Every comment, whether it’s about visuals, storytelling, or representation, helps us better understand how our work resonates across different perspectives and cultures. Love and Deepspace is, at its heart, a shared world of emotion and imagination. We hope to keep building it hand in hand with our players, learning and improving together along the way.”
The statement stops short of saying that an update is coming, but Infold does at least seem aware of the criticism. Hopefully, the issue gets addressed soon. Love and Deepspace has millions of players worldwide, and I’m astounded it took almost two years for the company to acknowledge this.
