Behind the scenes writing: Episode 5 (1/6) (Patreon)

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

This is a behind the scenes look at the upcoming episode writing, which will cover what are called "events" during the episode. Episode 5 is looking to be around 35-40k word count, which is our biggest episode yet and added with the other content planned for v0.20 it'll be our biggest update yet in general.

But moving on to the writing... This is only 1 of 6 posts highlighting events for episode 5. Some of these events mentioned might be missing some context, little things could possibly change along the way as well depending on how far along the writing process is and if it's early draft versions or what not.

Let's begin! :P

Episode 5: Is there a Mystery Club?

The episode begins with Brandon, Joey and Nathan who are in the middle of some discussion together. The guys are aware of being able to join clubs and they're trying to plan out their off day from not having classes in order to check out which clubs they're interested in.

It soon comes to the conclusion that thanks to Zoey the other day, she mentioned a little bit more detail about that mystery girl on the rooftop being the club leader for the cosplay club. Which of course perks Joey up as he instantly jumps to the idea that the club could have a bunch of sexy girls dressed up in lewd cosplay outfits. The guys continue chatting about stuff and Brandon wants to check the gaming club out, but it seems like the guys are a bit more focused on the cosplay club right now even more so than gaming.

So the three head off to hunt down where the cosplay club is and make their first stop of the day there, at first finding a empty room that's pretty cluttered with clothing racks and sewing materials, etc.

They hear someone struggling with something behind some of the racks and soon enough the mystery girl from the rooftop pops out with some materials in her hands, a bit surprised to see the three of you guys there.

She introduces herself as Lola and naturally some questioning takes place, asking about where everyone else is, what goes on in the club, etc.

There's quite a bit of stuff going on between them all, but sadly it would seem the fantasy of hanging out in a cosplay club with a bunch of sexy girls dressed up all the time isn't quite how it really is by the looks of things. So the guys are looking for their way out soon to check out other clubs instead.

While trying to figure out their timing on how to make their exit without looking rude, they get caught up in conversation about anime shows and cosplay she wishes to do. Along the way, she mentions how she'd love to make a custom outfit for Brandon, showing a little too much interest in him exclusively, which kind of makes him feel awkward.

This all leads towards Lola wanting to measure Brandon and in order to get the measuring just right, she needs him to strip down to his diaper. Which naturally has him embarrassed and not looking to accept it in front of his buddies no less, who are getting a good kick out of the situation taking place.

Lola struggles in trying to help Brandon take his blazer off, causing him to fumbles backwards and Lola tumbles onto him awkwardly. Er well... Perhaps Brandon is feeling more awkward than Lola seems to be feeling during this.

It isn't much longer before the guys decide to give them some privacy and head out of the club room, making things even more weird for Brandon as he's alone with her now. At some point Brandon finds his moment to make a run for it and meets up with the guys out in the hall...

~Writer notes~

-Episode 5 is looking to be our biggest episode and largest content update to date. The episode has about 9 events, which for comparison to episode 4 which has about 4-5 events max. You can get a good idea possibly as to why things will be pretty big this episode, which also includes a bunch of cg art, sprites being added and much more with the quality of life changes.

-Episode 5 should end up feeling like there's tones set by the writing along the way that make it feel naturally clear that whatever club Brandon does decide to join. He will most likely be spending a lot more of his academy days around people in that club and not having as much time to do stuff with others as much. (Giving the sense that the common route is coming to an end.)

-The episode of course has a theme set around clubs going on, but each event with clubs seen should feel pretty unique and it isn't quite the focus of selling you on the idea of which club sounds the best, but rather which club has the girl you really want to go with and spend more time around. (Not to downplay clubs being less important, each of them will naturally have their own future events in routes and it'll feel as if you're really part of their club along the way.)

-There's a lot going on in this episode in terms of comedy, fanservice and some mystery around the academy coming into play. I'd like to think episode 4 was pretty well done on how it handled comedy moments, but of course comedy is subjective too. I think we'll end up seeing a similar bit of comedy moments throughout this episode, but one thing that's starting to shift a bit more with this episode is the lewd/fanservice moments are getting a bit more involved I'll say. It should feel fitting with the context of events going on, but also give the impression that we're getting closer to some under tones that things in the near future might get a little more touchy, feely.

-This first event of episode 5 brings us the introduction of Lola, our last girl in the cast. The cosplay club leader who doesn't really hold herself back from being pretty straight forward and open feeling about how she teases. I think the main goal with Lola is that I want to make sure players have a good idea of who she is in such a quick amount of time before routes begin, but also leave a little bit of mystery around her that keeps interest in chasing after her.

-I really liked Lola's original event from way back in the 0.14.5 version of the game. So I wanted to setup her intro here to be similar to what some older fans will remember, but still have a little bit of surprises to throw people off a bit. I really wanted to focus on having her intro first thing in the episode for two reasons. One being to toss fans for a loop possibly since maybe at the end of ep 4, it would feel like the gaming club or Miki's or Erika's would pop up first thing in ep 5. Two being that after already very lightly teasing Lola's intro with some light mentions from ep 3 and more so ep 4, it feel suiting to have her intro pop up to jump start ep 5. :P

-This event does feature a cg scene and it was a hard choice in choosing just what is going on during the event to go with. I wanted to shoot for having it tackle a bit of the comedy within what's taking place, but also act as a fitting fanservice moment and seeing what Lola is like.