Behind the scenes writing: Episode 1 (3/4) (Patreon)

(Warning! This post may contain major spoilers for the story! Read further at your own risk.)

So in case it isn't clear with what we're doing here for update 0.15, we're going back and adjusting older content. Mainly fixing up and updating the writing so that it's more in lines with how the writing quality is seen from our route's writing so far.

We're doing something with this where the current system of dates/days are going away and in it's place it'll be episodes instead. We touched a bit on this during our news post #2 for this month. But pretty much it sounds bigger than what it really is, as it's just moving away from the in your face date/time system in favor of giving off the impression on your playthrough that the game is more like anime episodes.

With that all said, let's jump into it! (reminder this is just part (3/4) of the episode, the rest will be covered in other behind the scene writing posts in the coming week! ^^)

Episode 1: We're required to wear what?!

Continuing where we left  off in the previous post, we just saw Brandon leaving the nurse's office before it stops.

Soon after, they decide to go get a bite to eat and then head back to Erika's dorm to hang out further. They chat briefly on the way there and once inside her room, he takes notice that her room is cluttered with stacks of books of drama, romance, classical literature.

It's a bit shocking, but she begins to tidy up a bit and Brandon begins to bring up their past together. Trying to get a reaction out of her and possibly see if she's really changed in the past 5 years or not.

Much of what they discuss is very much the same as what's currently in the game as day 1: section 2. But there's some new mentions and moments that fit into it.

We get the hint that perhaps Erika hasn't completely changed and it leads to a bit of a emotional moment between the two, as a heart touching moment is shared with how everything has turned out, leading them together at the academy.

This area of the episode will end roughly about how it currently plays out, where Miki is hinted to be coming over to study soon and some light insight on her is brought up to Brandon.

They get the table tidied up and prepare for Miki to show up, closing this (3/4) part of the episode for now. :P

Sorry, not a lot outside of Erika's dorm room stuff here. (Clearly a bit of a length thing to figure out for how to split up these behind the scenes for these episodes still.)

~Writer notes~

-This (3/4) part of episode 1 came out to roughly 2500 word count. There was two light dialogue choices currently where these events take place in the game. But it's currently removed for right now, the previous choices were a simple affection boost for how you react to Erika's comments.

What we might get for this area instead that might be more fitting and feel better for interaction is some choices when Miki is brought up, being able to ask Erika a bit more about her like "Do you know her well?" leading to explaining how she met her, some history. "Does she have a boyfriend?" etc, just some nice little additional explaining of things.

-While this area will feel pretty close to how day 1 section 2 plays out currently, it's still been improved on it's dialogue and pacing of how things are handled. So it should feel pretty good compared to how it did previously without removing anything either. It really begins to give a good insight into how Brandon and Erika's relationship as siblings comes more to light.

-I really looked forward to this area with the adjustments, because not only was this stuff about roughly a year old in writing. But reading through it's pacing of dialogue and how things feel, just really shows that compared to more recent route writing quality. That it needed to be fixed up and I think it's safe to say it'll be seen as a nice improvement on it.

-Overall I think Erika for episode 1 has had quite a good amount of light given to her character early on now. There's new stuff that really adds to helping get a good impression of her earlier on without getting too deep into stuff for her either.

-One little fact to note, with Erika in general. It's always an odd thing to keep in mind that since they're siblings. It makes sense that Brandon comes off feeling grossed out or looks at it in a silly way of things with his sister when there's fanservice moments. I think that has always kind of been handled pretty well, so that players don't feel like we're trying to put thoughts into their head for how to think of something.