The Writing of Third Crisis - Deep Dive

Heya all! Vils here!

It's been a while since we put out a nice little talk. If you were around a couple of years ago, you'd remember that one post we made that went into detail on how the dialogue system worked and what were the thoughts behind the development of it (you can click the 'Deep Dive' tag at the bottom of this post to find it). 

It was meant to be an ongoing series of posts, but it can be pretty difficult to find something to talk about in-depth when you could just be working on it instead.

Without further ado, I give you our second deep dive post! Prepare for much rambling as I talk about my experience, self-reflection, and philosophy while writing the story of Third Crisis. Let's get into it. 

Fair warning on SPOILERS for everything that's in the game up to 0.25.0 (July 2020's patreon version) and anything that could possibly be in the game in the future since I'll be explaining my mindset.

Inexperience

I have a love, hate relationship with writing the story for Third Crisis. On the one hand, I have all these ideas and moments that I want to share with you, and I love it when I can make you feel the emotion that I want you to feel. On the other hand, the strain of being a programmer that just isn't experienced at crafting good stories, and trying to really push myself to write something more than just a basic porn story can be really stressful, which results in my slow output. Sometimes I feel like I'm trying to hammer a nail with a twig.

Writer's block and second-guessing is a common occurrence, mainly due to my trying to fit everything together and thinking "Is this the best way to do it? What would this character really do in this situation? How do I get these characters where I want them to be?" 

Moments

It might not be obvious at first glance, but ever since starting work on Third Crisis, I've put a lot of effort into trying to learn how other pieces of media tell their stories and create their characters. Drawing inspiration from outside sources is a regular thing for me, and I've put all kinds of little homages into the game as a result. 

I'm very focused on 'moments' when it comes to stories. Big moments are what I remember most from stories. The Warthog Run at the end of Halo 3, when Ryuko finally realizes how to truly sync with Senketsu in Kill la Kill, when Darth Vader says "I am your father", the big awesome ship chase in Pirates of the Caribbean, when Snape kills Dumbledore, the final battle of Undertale, and so on. I call them moments, but really they're just something memorable that stuck with me.

I've tried to include these sorts of moments into Third Crisis. Obviously the big defining moment I feel is the twist when we find out that Wildfire is actually Karen and that she blames Jenna for what happened in an honestly justifiable way. I tried to make this punch as hard as I possibly could by building up the backstory leading up to Karen's disappearance, putting a lot of emphasis on the big reveal by zooming around on the image, using mechanics as a metaphor with the 'Heartbroken' mechanic that makes Jenna unwilling to fight, and twisting the knife by having the happy couple at the end of Sublevel 2. When we first came up with Wildfire, we had this twist in mind. I even wanted her armor to be gender-neutral so that it would make the twist even more difficult to predict if people just assumed she was a guy, but alas, sexy characters in hentai come first!

July's patreon release even had a big moment that I built up to with the Pyra intro scene that plays before doing the dancing. The moment where Pyra kicks the door of the bar in and comes SO close to finding Jenna. I wanted this scene to be really tense, but also low-key hot with the facesitting. I wasn't sure if the sexiness would conflict with the suspense, but I think the mixture makes for an interesting scene. I was inspired by Breaking Bad for this one, where that show loves to let things get so unbelievably close to all crumbling apart for the characters. That's the point I tried to hammer home in this scene, if Pyra finds out that the girl laying right in front of her is Jenna, everything is all over. I'm still kinda kicking myself for falling back on the 'deus ex machina' crutch by having her get randomly called away by Leath so that the tension can be resolved.

There are also cool gameplay moments like when your 2D game suddenly grows a 3D background (try doing that in RPGMaker >:D) during the Horizon battles, or when you're suddenly thrust into a horror section in the forest after an explosive boss fight.

These moments are usually what I come up with first and then try to work backward to figure out how to get the characters there so they can have that moment. This method of writing helps me make more sense of a story because it becomes more like a puzzle that my problem-solving programmer brain can focus on rather than something creative I have no clue where to start on. The problem with this method is when the story has to fit multiple requirements and it fits this thing, but it doesn't make sense because this character did this. For example, right now I have the ending of the game all thought out, but I have only sort of a clue on how I'm going to get the characters there. That's something I still need to think about a lot, and usually, my plans with story tend to change anyways once I start making it and think of something cooler to do or a way to make it all fit better.

Pillars

The story of Third Crisis revolves around a few key pillars:

• Sex
• Characters
• Dramedy 

Sex is pretty obvious, we're a hentai game and sex is the main draw that everyone first clicks on us for. If we don't have sex, we're not doing it right. But it goes deeper than that. I think of the story as an exploration of sex where we show the good and bad that can come from it.

We showcase sex as something that can be warm and intimate between friends and lovers, but can also be dark and evil when it's used as a weapon to oppress. It can be used as a tool to heal, or used as a distraction. It can build relationships but also tear them apart. Some people need it, others want it, some are addicted to it.

The characters in the story all have different varied views and opinions on sex. Some see it as a detriment or a waste of time, and others see it as something freeing that can brighten up the dark world for even a little bit.

Characters are utterly important when making something designed to arouse. We started out as an Overwatch fangame back when Overwatch hentai was at an all-time high, and I believe one of the reasons that Overwatch hentai became so popular was because of these really interesting and unique characters that Blizzard had put together for their game. This is something we absolutely do our best to emulate. 

Watching someone you know have sex can be much more interesting than just some unknown person you have no clue about. This is why celebrity porn and rule 34 hentai are popular. People like seeing familiar and interesting characters get fucked. 

We try to make our characters look interesting and try to make them feel more substantial than just a cardboard cutout designed purely to have sex for our entertainment (even though that's mainly what they're made for).

Dramedy is more how I would describe the tone of the story. Something light-hearted, but not overly silly. Something like Marvel's MCU and how they balance serious moments with jokes and funny circumstances. I wouldn't label TC as a drama or a comedy, but something in between.

The setting of the game is fairly dark if you think about it too much, but the levity of fun jokes and silly names helps to balance that darkness with light. Not everyone wants to fap to sad stuff.

However, there is also definitely that bit of drama that I try to inject into the main story. Going to dark places makes it so that when you come out the other end, you appreciate the bright moments more by contrast.

Characters

Yeah, characters are so important to me that I've got them listed as a talking point twice. I just wanted to talk about a few of them.

I think my favorite character when it comes to writing so far has to be Throb. He has the most well-defined and clean character arc so far. He goes from a big imposing guard to it turns out he's actually a big softy that was faking it the whole time in order to protect himself and fit in. He was being someone he wasn't in an attempt to fit in. That's a pretty relatable thing I feel. I feel somewhat bad about his sexual orientation because I would have liked it if he stayed gay, but since we're a hentai game with a female protagonist, we've gotta bend his sexual orientation a little bit to be more bisexual so we can enjoy scenes with him.  Looks like I'm forcing him to be something he's not now. My internal excuse is that he's more demisexual, meaning he's attracted to people that he has an emotional connection to already. This would make it fit that he'd do the sex with the girls, but still be more male-leaning. 

I also really like Jewel. She's really useful as a writing crutch for the pure route when I have to figure out a way for Jenna to avoid having sex. There's also more to her than what's on the surface. I love these characters and I see them as more than just sex objects. That's what her arc is about during the dancing sequence. I used the captain to voice the point of view of what people would see when they first saw Jewel. "Okay yeah, she's just the horny one in the hentai game and she's just there to get fucked". I was inspired by Doki Doki Literature Club where those characters are just there to be blind date-game fodder, but end up becoming self-aware, and honestly, it made me feel guilty that I was creating these characters in TC just so they could get fucked over and over and treated like sex objects for people's entertainment. That's why I wanted to rebel against it and point that thought out to challenge it with the dialogue, by showing that she totally loves to fuck, yeah. But also trying to show that sex is not all that defines her, even if she has her own doubts about that. She's someone that's been through trauma and regret, she has talent and passion for dancing, and she's willing to risk herself to protect her friends as she does for Jenna by placing herself firmly between Pyra and our leading lady.

I'm really happy with Wildfire as well. She's very characterized as this person that lives up to her name by being this wild inferno of bottled-up rage and hatred that she's held inside her from all the horrible things that have been done to her by Peitho because of Jenna's actions. I feel that antagonists that have a point are the strongest, and so I tried to make Wildfire be totally justified in her hatred toward Jenna. Leath is more of a functional antagonist that just helps to set the plot in motion, but Wildfire is the true antagonist to the core of the story. She and Jenna are locked in this emotional conflict, and we'll see what happens. I think the situation is also relatable to a degree because sometimes you do things that end up accidentally hurting someone. Sometimes forgiveness never comes. Sometimes you think to yourself that maybe you don't deserve forgiveness. Sometimes you don't even forgive yourself. But the best thing you can do is try to pick up the pieces and continue on, do your best to make amends, and just hope that even if things can't go back to how they were, maybe they can get better than how they are now. Forgiveness is what's really standing between Jenna and Karen, not fire or sex rays.

Floria is another that I love. Originally I was gonna name her Fiola, but facepalmed when I realized how much better and on-theme Floria sounded instead. When we were putting together her visual design, I put forth Sylvari from Guild Wars 2 as the main inspirational design. Her CG was actually the first one that rated drew for us, and she was the first character that was visually concepted by her. I think it's an interesting little twist that she turns out to be Jenna's old friend, because it only cements what Jenna's actions enabled Peitho to do to all her friends. Floria was experimented on until she got amnesia, and was used as a breeding specimen by Peitho to produce the Florians. All the people in the story that Jenna knew previously have been affected in some way. HQ getting dumbed down by the crush waves, Floria getting locked away from the sun and losing her memories, Karen getting mindbroken and turned into an agent for Peitho. Floria is still waiting for her arc, so there's not much to be said for her quite yet, but her main purpose, for now, is to help show what Jenna's actions have caused and be the opposite of Karen when it comes to showing forgiveness.

APRIL is a character that was originally supposed to get more screen time but didn't because of time constraints. We'll eventually get back to her sometime though. She was also inspired by Doki Doki Literature Club in being an overly attached self-aware AI. Her arc is also the most unintentionally tragic. She keeps all the citizens in Horizon and traps them there with sex so they can be satisfied and never leave her alone. Her worst fear is being left alone, so her response is to give them the entertainment they want and never let them free of it. She centers herself around this because she has no self-esteem of her own. She was built to help make people cum, which is a little meta since that's what I made her for too. The thing is when Jenna convinces her to let everyone go, she's left all alone in Horizon and never visited again (because of the time constraint we had). She was (unintentionally) right in the end. The moment she stopped giving people sex, she ended up being cast aside and left all alone both in the story and in the game itself. Man, writing about this makes me feel really bad for her. We really gotta revisit her soon.

Rida is someone that Jenna can empathize with because she too is actively hated by someone she loves. Mina's betrayal was a moment that I hoped would blindside a lot of people who were just fapping and not expecting a big story moment to happen. I tried to make it so that you could tell that Rida was really affected by losing her tribe and all that she had built her self-identity around, but that she still tried to keep her tough persona and so tried to hide just how much the trauma was affecting her. Also, she has a dick, and dicks on girls are hot! So are muscles. Rida is also waiting for the rest of her arc, so there will be more to talk about with her in the future.

Last but not least... Jenna. I think we've made it pretty clear who Jenna's inspiration is. She's basically a knock-off Tracer because of how close we had to keep her powers and personality so that we didn't have to completely redo the 0.1.0 version of the game that we had all complete with Overwatch assets. Honestly, I feel like she's the least interesting one of the cast, which probably isn't good for me to feel about the leading lady. Perhaps that's just because she's based so closely on a much more interesting character, and that I've honestly forgotten about her powers in many scenes. She also has to be less defined than the others so that there is room for choices where the player can affect her personality. I find the duality between the Peitho route and the main story route interesting. It's completely by accident, but when Karen is chewing Jenna out, she talks about how Jenna is only interested in the spotlight, and she's doing everything for herself. In the Peitho route, the corruption storyline focuses on her intense need to be in the spotlight and be the center of attention. Like I said, completely by accident, since bear is the one who writes for the Peitho route, but I still find it to be really interesting that the two routes can complement each other like that. The context of one emphasizes otherwise trivial points in the other. The same can be said for the Wildfire bad-end if you lose to Wildfire during her first boss fight. Knowing that she's Karen and knowing how she feels about Jenna completely changes how you process that scene. Jenna's personality is very inspired by characters like (obviously) Tracer and Spider-Man. How they both goof off and toy with their enemies while fighting, but can still be serious and have dramatic moments. I appreciate Jenna's love for puns, as it's fun coming up with stupid puns for her to spout out.

Conclusion

That's all I can think of for now. Writer's block is at it again. I've put my heart, soul and even some thought into these characters and this story. It might not be the best when measured up against the stories of other games, but I'm really proud of it all the same so far. 

If you all have any questions or feedback about the writing, feel free to comment below! 

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