Let's Play (comic)

''Let's Play'' is a romantic comedy. It follows Sam Young, a 22-year-old female software developer looking to get into video games, a passion she developed while sick in hospital. Sam's passion project, Ruminate, gets heavily criticized by a game reviewer going by "Marshall Law", and his many fans review-bomb it. After this, Marshall Law becomes Sam's new next-door neighbor. Sam's father is the CEO of software company Young Technologies; he is overprotective of Sam and wants her to take over the company some day, but Sam would rather make video games. At the same time, Sam, who has never had a romantic relationship, starts to feel attraction. She considers dating an old friend, Link, though the two remain friends instead. She has romantic tension with Marshall Law, and becomes flirty with her manager at Young Technologies, Charles, who is teaching her to be more confident and business savvy. Charles also falls for Sam, despite her being his boss's daughter. Season two of the comic ended with Sam drunkenly trying to seduce Charles at his apartment. ''Let's Play'' explores and satirizes gaming culture and the male-dominated gaming industry. Storylines cover depression, anxiety, and family. == Characters ==

;Sam Young : :The female main protagonist, who is an aspiring video game designer and creator of Ruminate, an indie puzzle adventure game. She works as a software developer at her father's family company. In the MMORPGWorld of Warquest, Sam is the powerful wizard Ariadne, and raids with #3 guild The Rare Spawns. ;Bowser : :Sam's Boston terrier, and the inspiration for a dragon that serves as the final boss of Ruminate. ;Marshall Law : :A popular ViewTube video game influencer who becomes Sam's next-door neighbor. In World of Warquest, he is Black Mage Dion. ;Charles Jones : :The manager of Young Technologies and Sam's boss. ;Link Hudson : :A long-time friend and, briefly, love interest of Sam. Sam and Jasmine may have based the design of a prince in Ruminate on him. ;Angela O'Neill : :One of Sam's friends. Angela is a very protective towards Sam despite having an aggressive personality with a hot temper. In World of Warquest, Angela's avatar character is Signy the Valkyrie. In Ruminate, Sam based a knight character on Angela. ;Vikki Song : :One of Sam's friends. Vikki is Angela's roommate and works as a yoga instructor. In World of Warquest, Vikki's avatar character is Vixie. ;Monica McKenzie : :Marshall's girlfriend, a successful ViewTube beauty streamer and fashion influencer. ;Dallas Hudson : :One of Sam's friends. Dallas is Link's younger brother. In World of Warquest, Dallas' avatar character is xXNightKillerXx the Rogue. ;Abe Calhoun : :One of Sam's friends. Abe is the guildmaster of The Rare Spawns in the World of Warquest. His avatar character is Yemoja the Druid. In Ruminate, Sam cast him as a ranger. ;Olivia Sweet : :One of Sam's friends. Olivia is a young mute and deaf girl who reads lips uses a text-to-speech app on her phone to communicate with others. In the World of Warquest, Olivia's avatar character is Lily-chan, the party's healer. ;Edgar : :Olivia's butler and a fellow gaming member of The Rare Spawns. ;Lucy Wright : :Sam's friend at work. ;Umed Patel : :An employee of Young Technologies. Umed is Sam's co-worker with full knowledge of the video game industry. ;Dee Parker : :The owner of a coffee shop, The Daily Grind. Dee used to be roommates with Sam in college. ;Samuel A. Young : :The CEO of Young Technologies and Sam's overprotective father. ;Jasmine Flores : :A college friend of Sam's, she did the art design for Ruminate then worked in the industry for a while before she got discouraged and joined her mother working in real estate. == Publication ==

Let’s Play is created by Leeanne M. Krecic, who writes and illustrates the comic under the pen name Mongie. Krecic has said that she created the comic "because I was looking for characters like me – die-hard gamers, heartfelt romantics, and young women with dreams of success on their own terms – but couldn't find them represented anywhere in the pop culture of the moment." It finished season two in August 2020 ''Let's Play'' volume one was kickstarted for publication in 2019 by Rocketship Entertainment and volume two was kickstarted in 2020. In November 2022, Krecic announced that season four of ''Let's Play'' would not be published through Webtoon. Krecic cited age gates, a lack of marketing, and racial pay disparities among the reasons. Krecic said that they would, "when the time is right" announce when and how season four would be published. == Reception ==

Readership figures Forbes described ''Let's Play'' as "megapopular"; according to Webtoon it had 3.6 million subscribers as of May 2021, The comic has had two Kickstarter campaigns through publisher Rocketship Entertainment that in total raised nearly $1 million USD. == Adaptations ==

Live-action series In May 2021, studio Allnighter announced a development deal to adapt ''Let's Play'' into a live-action television series, with Krecic, Amanda Kruse, Dinesh Shamdasani, Hunter Gorinson, and Tom Akel serving as executive producers. It is directed by Daiki Tomiyasu, with series composition handled by Aya Matsui, Ebimo as the original character designer, Saki Ebisawa as the animation character designer, and music composed by Conisch. The series aired from October 2 to December 18, 2025, on Fuji TV's +Ultra programming block. The opening theme song is "1,2, Play", while the ending theme song is "Left & Right", both performed by Toshinobu Kubota. Crunchyroll streamed the series. Episodes == Webcomic's Inspiration ==

Ayres Andrea, from The Comics Beat, interviewed Leeanne M. Krecic, discussing her inspirations for making the story. Krecic has stated that the concept for Let’s Play was inspired by her frequent viewing of YouTube content, particularly a video in which a let’s player struggled with an amateur fan-made game. Observing the player’s frustration led her to consider what might happen if the let’s player and the game’s creator were to meet, which became the central premise of the comic. Krecic also chose to make the protagonist a female gamer to promote representation, drawing from her own experiences. She began developing the webcomic in Webtoon’s Discover section, where she initially published the series, while utilizing Twitter and Tumblr to advertise. Later on, the comic would become an official WebToon release. ==Publications==