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[Mirage_GSM]

I think my subconscious rebellion was to make the main H-scene a bad end as opposed to a good one.
I think most of us can agree that having sex (as opposed to the more family friendly "making love") doesn't always mean good things, so a bad sex scene in a bad end path seemed to fit better to me...

So did A22 get that idea from you?

[Aura]

were the scenes just put in where they seemed to fit the story best?

Yes

- (It would be great to hear multiple opinions on this one!) Do you think the story (/stories) would have been noticeably different without the ero content? What if those bits had just been summarized with no illustration? Did you feel pressure to include ero scenes just to satisfy genre conventions? Or would it have felt unnatural/unrealistic to you not to have the characters have sex at crucial moments?

Sure, I think the stories would've been a different experience. Summarizing the sex scenes with no illustrations would've gone completely against our presentation style, would've made no sense (but it would also have been a different experience). Genre conventions certainly played a big part in the inclusion of the sex scenes but at don't know how we could've felt pressured to do it. It was decided from the beginning that we'd have them, so that was that.

- It seems like some care was put into keeping decision points well separated from the ero content most of the time (and when you get a decision fairly shortly after the first scene with Rin, it's rather jarring, and really picks up the emotion of the moment). How deliberate was this? Was there a fear of emphasizing the eroge aspect too much vs. the story aspect by putting decisions closer, or even during the scenes? I know in certain scenes I would have appreciated the option to refuse at the start, or else (not both for the same scene; that would get irritating) stop partway through and just share a tender moment. (Yeah, yeah, I know.)

It was not deliberate to not have decision inside h scenes. However, we don't like at all choices the kind of you describe and would've never included any like them. If a more normal decision point would've appeared in a H scene, then there would've been a choice.

Oh, forgot a general writing question, though: Were scene/act titles generally worked out first and used to guide the writing, or were they decided after the fact as clever summaries? I was disappointed when Hanako act 4 didn't have a "game" themed title like the first two, but I can't really imagine how it could have. Maybe "Sacrifice"? But that would only describe the good end, really...

Titles were decided afterwards. The reverse would make no sense.

[Aura]

Aura/Hivemind- Lots of lines are shared in "Target Audience" in both Emi and Rin routes. Who wrote what?

Hivemind

[Aura]

I've played through both Emi's and Lilly's route, and in both of them I really enjoyed every scene involving Mutou (especially in Emi's route), as he really reminded me of past teachers I had which convinced me that I wanted to go into the sciences.

1. How did you guys come up with him?
2. Did he have any particular writer assigned to him, or was he more or less an extra character every writer was told to work with?

1. Difficult question to answer, like all questions of this sort are. We drew on some archetypes and the roles we expected to need him for and mixed it up a little. He was originally even more goofy and awkward than he is now, and needed toning down.
2. He didn't have a writer. Hivemind, however, probably did the most work in fleshing his character out.

[Aura]

Is there any way I can offer assistance, however small, to the German translation team should they require it? I worked as a video game localization tester for five years, so I was just curious. Thanks! :)

Yeah PM Fink on forums, or talk to him on IRC.

[machopacho]

how did you come up with Rin as a character?

[Suriko]

3) What really happened to Miki's left hand? Did you have any popular ideas for this? I don't remember the game explaining this.

In one cut scene involving her, it was mentioned she lost her hand in an accident with powertools. There's your explanation.

[AdventChaos]

Is there any way to erase progress and start fresh?

[no way]

3) What really happened to Miki's left hand? Did you have any popular ideas for this? I don't remember the game explaining this.

In one cut scene involving her, it was mentioned she lost her hand in an accident with powertools. There's your explanation.

Whaaaaat...
Surely you jest...

Can somebody tell me in what scene this happens?

[ChairmanMeow]

Did you guys ever intend for Iwanako to be more or less relevant to the plot? Just curious.

We never intended for her to come back into the game in any way after the opening scenes. The letter from Iwanako was suggested by Aura a couple of years ago, and all the writers liked the idea, so we all implemented it and used it in various ways across the different paths.

What was your primary motivation for including Iwanako's letter? Directed at Aura, I guess.

[Hivemind]

I've played through both Emi's and Lilly's route, and in both of them I really enjoyed every scene involving Mutou (especially in Emi's route), as he really reminded me of past teachers I had which convinced me that I wanted to go into the sciences.

1. How did you guys come up with him?
2. Did he have any particular writer assigned to him, or was he more or less an extra character every writer was told to work with?

1. Difficult question to answer, like all questions of this sort are. We drew on some archetypes and the roles we expected to need him for and mixed it up a little. He was originally even more goofy and awkward than he is now, and needed toning down.
2. He didn't have a writer. Hivemind, however, probably did the most work in fleshing his character out.

Appearance-wise, I always wanted him to look vaguely like the Doctor (why? Because I was/am really into Doctor Who). His personality drew a little on that, but to be honest those elements were toned down (and in many cases scrapped) because it just didn't work with the character (indeed I think it was mostly scrapped in favor of the slightly more world-weary dude we know and love).

Not that this answers the question, really--the real answer is that we had a thread and tossed about ideas for him (and IRC discussions), and eventually said 'okay this is the sort of person he is.' Part of the editing phase involved making sure he didn't have any major personality shifts between paths.

[Guest]

To all the writers : What do you guys think was your best work in your respective route?

[Guest]

Why does it seem like only a few of the devs are active on these forums?

Don't the others like us?

[Guest]

Was there a dish in mind when having Hanako buy thyme? Just curious.

[Shockproof Jamo]

Is Rin autistic? I've completed her path completely just tonight, and I could almost wager that there's something neurological going on with her. Some of her scenes were just painful to watch, as she tried to struggle with certain situations that she clearly wasn't equipped to handle, and people just didn't cut her any slack.