August Q&A Answers

Sorry for the delay for this month's answers. I have no excuse - I just basically forgot to post even after I had all the answers written up. (づ￣ 3￣)づ

How do you name your games? What and how do you think when you’re coming up with one.

I don't know that I have a clear process, really. I guess my first angle of attack is thinking of any catchy story components - locations, groups, etc.

Changeling was originally called "The Unseelie" but as focus shifted away from the court, I renamed it appropriately. Gilded Shadows was originally called "Endgame" before it was a visual novel, but I had to change the name when the story focus grew to focus on other groups.

A future project is called Thornewood after a location in the story. 

If there's not a catchy or stand out name like that, I start moving into relevant themes. 

Gilded Shadows is a story about a world where the society might look nice at a glance but where there are a lot of shady things going on in the shadows. So the name is a reflection of that.

When Stars Collide is really just a reference to the idea people and paths meeting up and having a ripple effect in the way events can change from those meetings. But also kind of a reference to...like...actual stars colliding and creating ripples in space time. LoL

It's a very...space-y sounding name.

I have another project whose working title was originally "With the Wind" - a reference to some story events and the MC being a sylph (a wind Fae). But I started jokingly calling it "A Song of Wind and Magic" as a spoof on the very common YA novel trend of "A thing of thing and thing"...

It's one of those projects that is going to be tricky to name I think because there are no story elements or themes that stand out as name-ably catchy.

How is your hand?

Ha ha. It's okay at the moment. A little stiff and hurty off and on as per usual. There's kind of a baseline of constant pain but beyond that, it's fine. I'm trying to not overdo it with art so I don't land myself in another bad place with it like I did last year.

So far I'm...mostly managing. LoL

(I may have overdone it a little but it's not as bad as it was this time last year)

Who is your favourite love interest from all the games so far?

I honestly can't say. Sometimes I like specific characters a lot due to their development or dialogue. But then I may prefer another route because the route was more fun to write.

I think all the LIs have value has characters which is why they exist.

I tend to have fondest memories with LIs that are a bit snarky since the banter usually sticks in my mind as being really fun to write. But that doesn't mean they're my favourites.

What are you going to work on next?

LoL!

I have ideas. Oh yes, I do. >=D The afore mentioned Thornewood? Something else? You'll have to wait to find out!

When will the Gilded Shadows lore book be ready?

I don't know. Maybe sometime this year. There is a lot of lore to compile. I've already started but there's a lot left to write up and then I have to compile it.

The lore book will contain all the info from the glossary - but re-organised and expanded here and there. As well as some short stories and snippets, maybe some deleted content, and maybe a glossary of character profiles.

It's basically a lot.

I don't know that it'll be as long as the Changeling lorebook (which was 70k) but it'll still be pretty long because this setting has a lot of lore.

So it's not something that it'll only take a few days to put together.

I'll turn my focus there after the final route releases but I can't say how long it'll take to organise everything. 💪

And that is all for this month. See you next time!

~Esh