Notes on CH3 (MINOR SPOILERS) (Nothing major if you've played the demo) (Patreon)

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH DON'T READ BELOW IF YOU HAVEN'T PLAYED THE DEMO SPOILERS SPOILERS WEE WOO WEEEEE WOOOOOO

IF YOU HAVE YOU'RE FINE DON'T WORRY AHHHH EVERYBODY ELSE DO NOT PROCEED AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Sorry about that, just wanted to make sure the initial surprise of the chapter wasn't accidentally spoiled for the ones who didn't try it out.

But yeah, it's pretty much been a week since the release, and I want to talk about it a little bit!

NO SPIRIT

I'm going to be very direct with you: I was getting kind of bored with having the Spirit as a narrator near the end of chapter 2. This is mostly because that entity is, by its nature, an impersonal one. It's got some feelings of its own on certain things, that's for sure. But not many! And that's perfect for a game where you are the literal embodiment of the environment surrounding the protagonist - Eleanor. It's a second-person point of view. A rare thing that not many writers do, and I just like it a lot.

But my god, at a certain point I just found myself yearning to be writing the Animus interactions. I like getting into the heads of characters! I like writing from a first-person point of view, it's fun.

So having the Spirit not be the narrator for the last chapter was not a last minute decision - the actual, canon ending of chapter 2 (Merging, I think it was called? I don't remember) (also not really canon, more so the lead-in to the final chapter) was a setup to get you 🫵 into the head of Eleanor.

LEIKA

And then I decided not to go for that.

I truly think that what makes the game stand apart from the rest in this very, very niche genre is that you aren't in the head of the gainer/feedee. Instead, you are the reason for her gain. Are you forcing it? Are you along for the ride? Are you helping along a path she was already on? I tend towards the latter, but the answer is that it kind of depends on which ending you go for.

This is a long-winded way of saying that I find Leika's POV as a goblin very refreshing to write! I wanted to experiment with a different, second-person protagonist. Hopefully it wasn't too jarring? Or disappointing? At least two of y'all did express something like that in direct messages - a fair thing to do, by the way! Not throwing shade, it's totally fair to have opinions and to share them.

The chapter is with her though, sorry not changing that :P

ELEANOR

She's the goddess. The ticking bug is also the pocket watch. Keep up.

THE CAVES

Yeah I've always been into fantasy and dnd-adjacent stuff. That's really it, that's the reason for having goblins and other funny goobers written in now. I will try to reel it in a little bit with some of the other remaining biomes, just to give some continuity to the artifacts in Eleanor's apartment and her research as a whole :)

Oh, and you've seen my attempt at getting some victorian stuff into the mix as well. And the time travel stuff, of course. Can't be having a chapter without those, come on now.

(Btw, you can clean off the pack by interacting with the streamlet in the fungal plains, there's a nice surprise for you there!)

DRAWINGS

I want to add drawings into the game!

I've been thinking of having the background behind the main page have a massive, desktop spanning artwork. One for each of the chapters! Would be really cool to have it be in an Art Nouveau style (Mucha), which would also make sense given the period the game takes place. Possibly also having Eleanor growing fatter as she does in the actual writing??? That'd be fun.

I've been looking into commissioning it! And by this I mean I have done no research, sent no message, and have no idea if there's even an FA artist who draws in that style in the first place and if they take commissions or not.

If you know one, do let me know. It actually doesn't really need to be in that very specific style, I'm open to recommendations in general :)

END

As always, if you haven't shared your thoughts on the chapter SHAME ON YOU (kidding. I get it, I'm also shy).

Ok then. Bye!