Hey everybody! Welcome to the August 2023 Patreon Q&A. It’s the end of summer, we’re moving into fall, Our life 1 is basically over at this point because I’m recording this when the beta has gone out, and Our Life 2 is ready to be in full development. It’s a very exciting time, and there were a lot of very good questions sent in these past few weeks. So let’s get right into that.
祝你愉快!你觉得Our Life 1里的男孩们会穿粉红色的衣服去看芭比电影吗?
不是他们三个一起，只有他们自己。如果MC想这么做，他们就会和MC一起去，或者像Terry和Miranda这样的一大群朋友。但他们不会单独行动，他们三个也不会像三重奏那样一起行动。
Baxter有没有和他儿时的朋友分享过那个他14岁时和他跳舞的神秘人?
他可能会这么做，但只是随口一说。他不会详细说明这件事，也不会让这件事显得特别重要，尽管他当时可能被MC迷住了，但他不会对那个年龄的朋友说这些。
嘿，首先我要再说一遍我有多喜欢这个游戏，我们能提问这些问题是多么棒。至于我的问题，在Tik Tok关于Our Life 2中，它说Qiu在第二步是悲伤的。我以为Qiu只是在那个阶段生气，而不是伤心，所以我很惊讶。他们在伤心什么?
当一个人普遍不开心时，大多数时候，它通常不是全天候的纯粹愤怒和烦恼。通常还有其他事情在困扰他们，让“他”以其他方式不开心，而不仅仅是烦恼。Qiu有很多，你知道，“他”正在处理的问题和斗争，这使得生活不像“他”年轻时那么容易。
Baxter对Franky和/或者Tamarack有过嫉妒吗?如果我没记错的话，他告诉Jamie，他觉得他和Qiu、Renee之间的年龄差距随着年龄的增长变得越来越明显。那他有没有觉得自己被取代了?
Baxter从来没有嫉妒过Tamarack，因为Qiu她小时候从来不会喜欢最好的闺蜜。他们有过美好的时光，也有过糟糕的时光。尤其是当Baxter开始与秋渐行渐远时，Qiu也开始与Tamarack渐行渐远。但如果MC从他们相遇的那一刻起就和Qiu很亲近，而且这种关系永远保持不变，那么相比之下，Baxter可能会觉得有点不好。
谢谢你的辛勤工作。你不知道我们有多感激。谢谢你。我的问题是:对于Our Life系列的主角——Cove、Tam和Qiu，你能透露他们什么时候喜欢上某人吗?比如，他们是自己保密还是即使他们试图隐瞒，大家也都知道?他们会因此感到尴尬吗?抱歉，如果这个问题已经回答了。
对Cove来说，这非常明显。每个人都知道这是无法隐藏的，即使他希望自己可以。对于Tamarack和Qiu来说，这取决于他们的年龄，但我不能确定，因为现在游戏的很多部分都不完整。
嗨！我对Our Life 2感到非常兴奋，并且想知道未来是否有Derek DLC的计划?
答案是否定的。这不在计划之内。这是一件很棒的事情，但我不知道它是否有可能实现，因为基础游戏已经变得更大更复杂了。所以现在，不，它不在计划中，不在预算中。但我同意如果根据我们的时间，这将是一个伟大的补充。
我不确定你现在是否能回答这个问题，但是你决定了Our Life 2的语音名称处理方式了吗?更具体地说，是否会对在Kickstarter上获得游戏配音的人数设置限制?如果你现在不能回答这个问题，我能理解。
这已经决定好了。Kickstarter对参与人数没有限制，但每个账户只能获得一个名字。我想，如果你在Kickstarter上注册了多个账户，你就可以避开这个问题，但你不可能先注册一个账户，然后再添加更多账户。我决定每个账户只收一个，这样我们就可以试着用这种方式限制一下。我不想，你知道，通过设定上限来正式限制它。所以，如果人们想要得到不止一个，那就很不方便了。
Our Life 2中会有生日活动吗?比如，我觉得如果我们都去买生日礼物，或者是MC的生日，那就太好了。别有压力。很明显，你做得太好了，我喜欢这些游戏。
谢谢你。不会有生日活动，因为生日每年都会发生，如果它发生在一个步骤中，它应该发生在所有四个步骤中。我不想为每一步都安排生日活动，所以很不幸，没有。
谢谢你的辛勤工作。你都做得太好了。谢谢你。关于Our Life 1男孩的问题：戴帽子还是不戴帽子?我想Derek不会介意戴棒球帽，而Baxter是个绅士，所以他可能会考虑戴高档的帽子。但是Cove，我无法完全想象除了在迫不得已下戴帽子，比如天气冷到需要戴无檐便帽的时候。
这是事实。baxter不会介意花哨的帽子，Derek不会介意运动型的帽子，在迫不得已的情况下，cove也不会介意戴帽子。
Cliff Sharp有名字吗，或者非官方的名字?
不，我完全没有想。
Our Life 1的男孩们是好司机吗?
是的，他们是好司机。如果让我选一个最好的，那可能是Baxter。
再次感谢你的辛勤工作。
好，也谢谢你。
嗨。希望你今天过得愉快。除了巴克斯特，还有其他角色有中间名吗?还有一个问题是:OL2的主角会像OL1那样有中间名吗?
答案是现在他们没有中间名，但是没错，其他角色有中间名。游戏中的主要角色，他们有中间名，Qiu和Tamara还没有，但他们会有的。但Cove有个中间名，叫James。Derek有个中间名，Rio。然后我们上一款游戏中的角色，XOXO Droplets，都有中间名。比如Jeremy，他在剧里只是个配角。他的中间名是Marion，Shiloh的中间名是Leon。他也是XOXO Droplets的。Nate也是，那个对Shiloh、Liz和MC大吼大叫的家伙，他的中间名是Archibald。
Think I’ll ask some questions this round. As always, thank you + team for your amazing work and dedication to your respective crafts, and for having this Q&A. Thank you for the kind words. My questions: I know you only have so much of Our Life 2 figured out at this point, but I wondered what you considered romance wise towards each step in general strokes? Naturally when the MC + Tamarack and Cho are younger, you want it to be age appropriate, but I’m wondering if each Step will be romantically significant with consideration to its age, or if we’ll have to work up to it as a whole? Will Step One be mild in that area, or will you have pinnacles like hand-holding or a kiss on the cheek, for example, perhaps even dating? Because kids at a young age play at romance, even if it’s not seriously emulating what they see. Respectively, what are you envisioning as general romantic plateaus between Steps? Do you think you’ll add more or do something different versus Our Life 1, especially with two leads to play around with? Thank you for answering what you can. I know it’s a lot! More so interested in your thought process than anything super concrete.
Well, I can say technically in a very general sense that since they are slightly older in Step One and Two than they were in Our Life 1, that there probably will be slightly more, I guess, crush based things that can happen because they’re not as little kids and not as little teenagers. But obviously I can’t give any specifics on it. And I’m honestly still trying to figure out exactly how I want it to work when there are two leads. Because, you know, how do you have basically a shared main story that doesn’t make their romances feel like they’re the same thing, just inserting a different person? So it’s less about having more options to play around with things, and more concern on how to make it still feel special and unique for each individual love interest if you do go down the love interest route with them. But I’m sure it’ll work out in the end eventually!
First time doing this, so I wanted to ask some questions that are more fun and non-serious since we don’t know a lot about OL2 yet. Would any of the OL2 cast use social media and would any of them be popular on social media during Step Two and forward? Since I figured 2014 was the peak of the Vine area, it’d be a fun question.
And I would say all of them use social media to a degree. Tamarack the least, and Serenity probably the most, but I can’t say specifically what they might be doing, which apps they prefer. That’s not really decided yet. Though none of them would be like especially notably popular on any social media. Like maybe one of them would have like a few hundred followers and that would be like a big deal in comparison to having like a dozen. But nobody’s like even mildly famous.
Qiu和Tamarack会做饭吗，还是说他们在厨房里不值得信任?我知道Tamarack很喜欢烘焙，但烘焙和烹饪是不一样的。
Tamarack更像是一个面包师，而不是厨师，但她能把某些菜做得很好，总的来说至少做得不错。Qiu是一个糟糕的面包师和一个好的厨师。
打架谁会赢?Renee还是熊?
这取决于Renee是有武器还是赤手空拳。如果是徒手格斗，熊就会赢，Renee就会逃跑。但如果Renee有什么东西可以保护自己，也许她能把熊吓跑。
嗨！我想知道Qiu和Tamarack是否可以单独成为亲密的朋友，而不考虑MC与他们中的任何一个的关系?有没有可能他们只是邻居？如果这个问题你还不能回答，我很抱歉。提前感谢。
MC和他们的关系不会影响他们自己的关系除非他们都在嫉妒。在这种情况下，MC可能会有额外的摩擦，但这不会对他们的关系造成太大的破坏。它只会增加一些额外的颠簸。但总的来说，他们的关系有自己的轨道，你无法真正改变它的发展方式。但不剧透的结局是，是的，他们会成为朋友，他们会成为亲密的朋友，所以这是永远不会错的。
非常重要——Our Life 1对兔子的看法是什么?如果一只非常可爱的兔子可能把他们的房子弄得一团糟，他们会有多烦恼?
虽然他们都认为兔子在理论上是非常可爱的，但没有人会喜欢兔子在他们的房子里捣乱。你知道，Cove可以用他自己的方式把自己的房子搞砸，他不会想让一只兔子来做这件事。Derek，他在某种程度上是个洁癖。他喜欢所有东西一弄脏就马上收拾干净。Baxter并不是一个爱打扫的人，尽管他确实想要一个干净的空间，他不会喜欢那些增加更多混乱的东西。所以他们三个人只有在积极地和MC生活在一起，并且MC帮忙照顾兔子的情况下才会拥有一只兔子。
青少年时期的Baxter会对他急躁的坏男孩形象被取笑/被质疑有多生气？这让我很难过，因为一群朋友会无情地取笑他说的大部分话。
这真的不会激怒他。他可以放弃，然后恢复过来，这不会影响他的自尊，因为他知道自己很奇怪，其他人会认为他在做奇怪的事情。但在他看来，这是一种福利。现在回想起来，他会觉得很尴尬，就像你在他成年后取笑他一样。然后他更为他的那个时代感到尴尬。
Next, we have two questions that are both about the best friend feature in Our Life 2. The first is: Hi! in Our Life 2 I know you can only be best friends with either Tamarack or Qiu. My question is, can that change, or is best friends a status for life kind of a thing? Like, for example, can you tell Tam you’re best friends in Step One, but then decide that you’re actually best friends with Qiu and Step Two? Thanks.
And the other one is: Hi! Thanks for all the hard work put into these games. They bring me great joy and comfort. I’m glad to see that. Sorry if this has been asked before. If we didn’t think that Qiu or Tamarack was our best friend in Step One, do we still have the option to be best friends in the future Steps? Or if we choose one of them as the best friend, can we change our opinion in a future Step?
And the answer is yes to all of that. You can start as best friends with one and then change to another in a future Step. Or you can start with no best friend and then choose the best friend in a future Step. It’s not the same as choosing love or family, where once you choose it, you can’t go back to not being love or considering them family. You can change who’s currently the best friend or if you even have a best friend. Though it has to be done in between Steps. There’s no breaking up of best friends in the middle of a Step.
Bit of a weird one this time. When writing a new character, do you always start at their earliest appearance and then come up with how they change and evolve as you go, or do you come up with a canon Step/age and then fill in the other steps later? For example, with Qiu, was their Step One version the first one created, or did you start with, say, their Step Two iteration and then wrote both Steps One and Three later?
And I do it entirely chronologically for these Our Life games. I definitely figure out who the characters are as they literally grow along with the story and get older later in development. So when developments early on, they are young and the later it goes on, the more I work on their older versions.
In Step One of Our Life 2, Opal already brought up how the MC can take extracurriculars after school in things like dance or learning an instrument. I was wondering if we were limited to just one class, or if we can take more than one, like one extracurricular is on one day of the week and then there’s another on a different day. So the MC can take both.
And at this point I can’t give any 100% guarantees because it hasn’t officially been written and finalized and finished in the game. But I would imagine that yes, you can have more than one extracurricular. But that will probably be because extracurriculars likely won’t come up too much. It’ll be like choosing a hobby where it’s only occasionally mentioned offhand, unless it’s something that you’re doing actively with the lead, like going to band with Tamarack, where in that case it can be more of an official scene. But if it’s just something random, there’s likely not going to be like backgrounds and scenes dedicated to whatever that extracurricular is.
To piggyback off the question about extracurriculars, is there a possibility that influencer tier patrons will be able to suggest extracurriculars they’d like to see, or vote on a poll for which ones are available?
And I doubt there will be polls, but people can suggest extracurriculars. Again, it’s likely not going to lead to significant additions to the events. It’ll probably just be like, “Oh yeah, you can choose to be a gymnast from the list.” And then occasionally the MC will be like, “Oh yeah, I’ve got to go to my gymnast class after school today,” and everyone will be like, “Okay, bye.” And then you go, but nothing actually happens. So you could choose what gets filled in there, but it’s not really going to lead to much else besides a mention.
How many DLCs can we expect? About the same or a smaller number?
And I imagine you’re talking about Our Life 2. Currently there are only three DLCs that are in the plan: one for Step One, one for Step Two, one for Step Three. And they will, like Our Life 1, add five additional Moments to those time periods. A stretch goal on the upcoming Kickstarter will be a wedding DLC, just like it was for Our Life 1. And then currently that is it. There are not any other DLC stretch goals planned since I would want to see how long everything takes and if we can actually keep to our schedule for the current DLC plan before promising to add any others. So even if we surpass the goal for the wedding DLC Kickstarter thing, I’m not going to put another DLC on the list just because it’s already going to be so much to get done, and I’d rather get more done before promising even more stuff.
As far as parenting in, Our Life 1, our moms are kind of team and share the “good cop/bad cop, fun mom/serious mom” depending on the scene. For Opal, does she embody both of those things, or is she mostly serious as a parent or mostly fun as a parent? Since she chose to be a single parent, how does she view her parenting and how will it kind of grow in the game?
I wouldn’t say Opal is exactly the fun kind of parent or the serious kind of paren. As a person, she’s sort of a very well restrained, self-composed kind of lady, and she can be charming and nice, but definitely not super silly. And the way she is with other people is mainly the way she is with her kids. She’s a little sweeter and more affectionate, but she’s still just kind of the same person she is overall with the MC, and she treats them basically like an equal and rarely uses sort of her parental authority as the reason for why things are. She usually tries to make a case for things should be this way because of this sensible reason. As for how that changes with time, I mean it’ll probably depend on how the MC is as a person. She’ll probably try to suit how she acts based on what they prefer. But, you know, it’ll also depend on what happens later in development. I haven’t gotten that far, so I don’t know for sure.
I don’t know if someone asked this already, but when are the OL gang’s plus Baxter and Derek’s birthdays?
The only people who have set birthdays are Cove, Derek, and Baxter. Cove’s is November 2nd, Derrick’s is September 29th, and Baxter is May 19th. Baxter and Derrick’s birthdays are the day their DLCs came out, and Cove’s was going to be the day the game came out, but then it got pushed back into the 16th and so his is slightly off. His birthday remained November 2nd even with that delay. Nobody else in Our Life 1 has a birthday, except for Jeremy and Shiloh because they are main characters from XOXO Droplets. Jeremy’s birthday is May 4th, and Shiloh’s birthday is October 30th.
Does that tropical place have a real name?
Also, No. Did not come up with names for those places.
Got a few questions. Not sure if some of them have been answered or can’t be answered, but here we go. Is Kyra’s hair naturally two-toned, or does she dye the ends of her hair?
It is naturally that color. It grows lighter, but then the older it is, the more the color fades and darkens and turns more blue.
Did Cliff already have the shop before the start of Step One, or did he establish his business after the move? I remember Kyra saying that she “remembers the ropes”, like she used to help him in the shop before.
Cliff founded his store when Cove was a toddler. So it was a good few years before Step One actually started.
For Step Four, mostly in Our Life 2, is there any consideration to do more “fade to black” implications for intimacy? Like the make out level we got in Our Life 1, but then anything further just cuts to the next day or some time later.
Wery likely not. Our Life’s base game, that’s publicly available, I don’t even really want to imply that there’s sex happening. It’s just not the tone for a game that’s safe for like younger teens as well. So I don’t even want to, like, mess around with people being like, “Oh, I don’t know. It might not be appropriate for younger people if it’s implying that their sex, even if it’s not shown.” So probably not.
Will Renee have a chance of being a love interest option in the DLC later on?
And it’s mentioned currently that’s not happening, but it’s not impossible.
Does Franky and Opal have a canonical location they lived before moving to Golden Grove, or will it be left in the air for players to decide where you previously lived?
It’s up to the player. There is no canon answer for where they came from.
Our Life 1和Our Life 2中所有对象的香料耐受程度是多少，从1分到10分?
我现在还不能回答Our Life 2，但Our Life 1都很不错。Baxter可能是最差的，只有6分。Cove的8分可能比他高，Derek是10分。
What first got you interested in writing stories?
Uh, very specifically, it was Harvest Moon, now known as Story of Seasons in English. But I didn’t enjoy writing most of my life until my late teens, when me and my friends on this Harvest Moon forum decided to make up our own Harvest Moon game. And I came up with a plot and all these fake character bios. And then I started writing like fake little heart events, like there are in the actual games. And then at that same time was when I was really getting into visual novels, playing them, like especially indie made visual novels. And I was like, “I bet I could make a visual novel with these Harvest Moon OS’s. And then you could actually, like play a little game and talk to them. Like, I couldn’t make a real farming game, but I could just make a visual novel that seems doable.” And then I did that, and that was the first VN I ever made. And then I just decided I really liked making visual novels. And it wasn’t about, you know, being for my OCs anymore. I just liked doing it and started coming up with my entirely own ideas in order to keep making visual novels because I had so much fun doing it. And so, yeah, I got into writing purely to make visual novels and purely because of Harvest Moon. So if anyone was wondering if that Blue Feather sticker was a reference to Harvest Moon and how you propose with a blue feather, yes, it is. That is an intentional reference.
I love reading through the questions in these threads. Some are just straight up funny. That said, what’s your favorite type of magic? Like it could really be anything, a spell or school of magic, or a concept like magic of theatre. And also what are things you find magical? Those are all my questions. I hope they’re fun to answer.
I guess if the magic of theatre counts, I do like theatre actually a lot. But I would say if those kinds of concept counts, then it would be like the magic of storytelling, because I really like stories. Most of what I do is either creating my own stories or reading/listening to other stories, you know, that’s like my favorite thing. So I would pick that if it counts. What are things that I find magical? I don’t know. I’m actually kind of a really dull person. I don’t find a lot of magic in the world around me, but it’s mostly just because I’m sort of neutral in general, but maybe like shooting stars. Those are pretty snazzy, I would say.
Hi! I just wanted to thank you and the GB team for creating OL1 and OL2. My question is, in Our Life 2 you have the option of crushing on either Qiu or Tam. I think that if you’re crushing on one of them, they also reciprocate the feelings. But is it possible for the other LI to have feelings for the player all on their own? Or if the player likes Qiu, for example, would Tam ever have a crush on the player? Like how in Our Life 1, Derek would like the player no matter what. Thank you for answering. I hope you have a lovely day and remember to drink water.
Thank you. You too. But the answer is no. Derek is a different situation because it’s a side story and because it’s always a crush no matter what. It’s not dependent on your choices or anything. We can’t have the two main leads always crushing on the MC, since a lot of people will want to just be friends with them. And we can’t make it so if you make certain choices, then they’ll like you without you liking them because then you have to be a certain person in order to get them to like you and experience that kind of story. So, it’s always a mutual situation where you like them, they like you. There is sort of a bond there. There’s an attachment and affection. And so, you know, it makes sense that there can be mutual feelings in that regard because they just have these positive experiences and feelings towards each other mutually. But there’s not a way to make it where you do things just so where you don’t have to like them, but they still like you. That won’t be possible.
In Our Life 2, are there any immediate dealbreakers for the leads? I could be misremembering that I recall reading that Qiu would not want to date someone who considers themselves a sexual orientation that doesn’t encompass potentially being attracted to someone who’s gender fluid, but would date Qiu was an exception. For example, a girl saying “I consider myself heterosexual, but I’ll make an exception for you.” Thank you again!
Um, that’s a little… I do know the conversation you’re talking about, and Qiu wouldn’t date someone who says that they’re straight and is trying to date them, but they would generally be an exception for someone where, like, “I only date women, but in this case, only for you, I will date you.” That’s something they would be fine with. But if you’re actually putting the label like, “Oh yeah, I’m a straight person, but I’m also dating this gender fluid person,” then Qiu would be like, “No, you’re treating me like I’m male, basically, and I’m very uncomfortable with that.” And so that would be a deal breaker. But those are really like the only deal breakers because as nice as it is, to make them as fleshed out as possible, at the end of the day, these are characters that exist to make as many real life people as happy as possible. And so, I’m not going to make them say like, “Oh, if you’re not into music, Tamarack will never love you.” Like, that’s just not going to happen. So it’s only really extreme like bigotry situations where it would be an actual deal breaker. Otherwise, you can be whoever you are or whoever you want to imagine your character is, and it will be totally fine because I care more about the people playing than sort of having super realistic love interests in that regard.
Hi! I was just wondering, since in the Our Life universe there is no homophobia or similar, is there still some kind of pride month or something? And also, in case there is, will we be able to express our sexuality via flags in our room or with bracelets, etc.? Thank you!
And homophobia does exist in Our Life universe. You’re just never confronted with it directly. But you know, Baxter’s parents, they are homophobic. And that’s one of the many reasons that he cuts them out of his life. Pamela’s parents are also not as homophobic as Baxter’s, but they’re definitely like, “Oh, I don’t know, two women having a family together. I don’t know about that.” And so, Pam is also not that close to many parts of her family. But it’s just not something that will actively be a part of the story. So, it is still close enough to the real world. It’s just you get to avoid the worst parts of the real world. And there is still pride events, though. As for whether you can have sexuality flags in the room or bracelets, I don’t know how we would do bracelets since the MC doesn’t really appear in anything. I guess maybe there might be cut ins, but I don’t know for sure if that will happen or if those will be elements you can add, maybe. It hasn’t happened yet, so I can’t say for sure.
在Batxer露出原发色的场景中，我不得不笑出来，因为我也是白头发。我的头发很早就变白了。我知道这两种情况是不同的，但Baxter对Jamie/MC也有自然的白发会有什么看法?
他会很高兴的，就像他一般不讨厌白发一样。他只是觉得自己的风格、外表和想要成为的人都不完美。但是，你知道，现实地说，这并没有什么错。他只是弥补了，这对他来说是不合适的。但我敢肯定，如果Jamie/MC有，他会说：“不，这对你来说太完美了。这没什么不好。但是，如果你想染发，那也没关系。”
Do you plan to do an 18+ Patreon story for Our Life 2 like for Our Life 1 ?
And currently no, I am not expecting to be able to do that. It would have to be much, much later in development for me to seriously consider whether that will happen or not. But for now, the answer is no.
Hi. I want to start by saying how much I love the games you make and how they mean the world to me. So thank you for everything. Well, I’m glad you liked them. Now for the question. I don’t know if it’s ever been asked before, but if Cove would ever have a pet, what would he choose? Except for the fish he owns. For example, if you decide to live together and own pets, would he have a preference on a certain pet? Thank you in advance.
If he couldn’t have fish, maybe like a turtle or something similarly aquatic and not furry, and that could be mainly kept in a tank. So I guess a turtle or something like that. Maybe crabs. Snails?
Have you ever considered having something like a custom scenario creator in Our Life 1 and 2? Something similar to how Monster Prom did it!
Probably not. I don’t imagine that will end up being a feature. I’m sorry.
I have a question. In my playthrough, my character is a guy also born male, but at first they identify as a girl and told Tam they were one too. But eventually I wanted them to reveal they’re a guy, though in a later Step. I was just curious if the cast would react to the player being a different gender than they thought at first? I was just curious about how much the cast would react to the MC changing like that and if there are any unique interactions with Tam and Qiu about that.
Yes, if you change your gender, that will be something that is noted by the game and by the characters. I can’t say specifically how many scenes there will be or when the scenes will happen or how long they’ll be, but it will at least be something that does come up to some degree.
Hi! First, I want to say that I think you’re doing a really good job. You should be really proud of all your hard work. Thank you very much. 我想知道Our Life游戏里有没有喜欢音乐剧的人?
显然，Baxter。他喜欢那里的舞蹈。Tamarack喜欢那里因为有音乐。Derek和Cove，他们可能有一些自己喜欢的，但他们总体上不属于这一类型。Qiu可能会认为音乐剧在现场演出时很有趣，但对音乐剧或预先录制的电影不太感兴趣。
Hi there I was wondering if the characters in Our Life 1 and Our Life 2 are closely based on people you know personally, or are they a combination of people? Are there any particular quirks or turns of phrases that you use from people you know, and what are they? Keeping anonymous where needed, of course.
None of the characters are closely based on anyone. I would say the one who is most close to someone would be Tamarack’s Omi, which is based on my Omi. But even that is still pretty distant in terms of, you know, basing it off a real person. I do like to give people certain turns of phrases or quirks that are similar to characters that I know, like the dads in the Our Life games tend to have small parts of my own dad in real life. An example would be Cliff lets the kids win at card games, and my dad would sometimes do that. And also Derek’s dad cheats in order to win against his children. And my dad would also do that. It would sort of depend on his mood at the time and our age, whether he would pretend to lose, so we felt like we won or whether he would jokingly cheat in order to win, so he didn’t lose.
I feel like someone has already asked, and if someone already has, then please ignore my repeat question. If not, I’m curious about how you go about choosing themes/concepts, and how you mold a plot line around them. I find myself hitting a roadblock when I come up with characters/environments/plot point/scenarios, yet unable to grasp a theme/concept of substance. Thank you for your time. Looking forward to the OL2 Kickstarter.
Well, thank you. And that can definitely be difficult if you have everything but a theme/concept to then go back and try and fit that in. Sometimes just continuing to work with what you have and even starting a draft can help you visualize a theme that you hadn’t known was there, but can eventually see it once you’ve done enough sort of outlining of the overall story. For me, I usually have some kind of core concept or emotion or just feeling that I’m going for from the beginning, and that’s usually the basis of the game rather than any character or setting or plot. And those things are made in order to create the sort of feeling and experience and genre that I’m hoping to create. But I do still come up with more themes that I want to convey as I get further along in development. Like there were themes that I didn’t know Baxter would have until I was actually working on the DLC. Even though I had a general concept and certain ideas of his storyline and arc and what it would express at the beginning, more definitely came along as it was made. And definitely with Project W, I’m often coming up with more and more themes. After I’ve learned more about the characters and the world, I’m able to then add in themes that weren’t there before. So, you can just continue fleshing things out until you can uncover, think of something that makes sense. I’d also say that sometimes having like a greater theme and symbolism and all that, that can come with experience. And sometimes you just have to make stories where that’s a little bit weaker or even kind of non-existent in order to go on to future stories where you can do it more intentionally and more well represented. And, you know, if that’s the case, then you don’t have to feel bad that maybe you don’t have that and you should do it anyways just so you can get that experience of creating a full story, and then moving on to a brand new one and trying again. That’s a lot of what creation is, just actually doing it and then doing it again.
Out of curiosity, what are the Chinese characters used for Hong and Yi’s names? I have a general idea of what Hong’s might be, but I admit with the thematic naming Qiu’s family has going on, you threw me off a little.
I don’t know how to explain it. The names for Qiu’s family were all chosen by my step mom because she is Chinese. That’s her first language and she could explain it significantly better than I could.
我想知道Qiu和Tamarack听音乐吗?主要是在第二步和第三步，因为他们年纪大了一点。他们会听什么类型的音乐?他们有最喜欢听的歌手吗?
他们俩都听音乐。Tamarack特别喜欢音乐，但我恐怕不能给出他们会听的歌手的具体例子，也不能肯定地说他们现在最喜欢的类型。第二步和第三步还没有100%确定下来。
Apologies if this has already been asked/answered. How do you feel about the fact that you’re almost done with Our Life 1 forever? It’s very emotional for most of the fans, so I’m very curious how you feel as the game dev. Much love.
Uh, I don’t know how to feel, honestly, because there are still things that I’m going to be doing for Our Life 1, even if it’s not creating new scenes. Like I want to get on the Google Play store, I want to get approved for Mac devices so it can be for Mac on Steam. I want to promote it more on TikTok now that we’re doing TikTok again. And so it’s not really going away from my life. And it’s hard to say how I’ll feel about not actively developing more content for it because that also doesn’t feel totally real yet. It seems like it’s still very present since there is still bug fixing to do for the beta build. So I will still be opening up Our Life game files every once in a while, so it’s definitely hard to conceptualize that it’s over. It doesn’t truly feel over to me, so I’m perfectly comfortable right now, but maybe eventually it’s going to hit me that “Wow, now it is over.”
Kind of a weird question, and I’m not sure if this has been answered before, but what animals would Our Life 1 and 2 love interests be? I feel like Cove would be a dolphin or a fish.
I think Cove would be a dolphin or a shark, and Qiu would probably be a bird. Tamarack would maybe be like a squirrel or a deer. A Baxter, I don’t know, a cat? Derek, maybe like a dog? Uh, they’re not as connected to animals or settings that have animals in them like Cove and Qiu and Tamarack do. So I don’t know for sure with those two, but that’s something, I guess.
在Our Life 2中，是否会出现一些特殊的时刻，如焦虑或兴奋?
是的，会有。我之前提到过，我现在无法给出具体的细节，但至少会有人提出这个问题。这确实会是游戏的一个元素。
Derek最终会被加入Our Life 1的群聊吗?我不是说在游戏中。我是说在第四步之后的某个时候。我明白为什么他在任何DLC活动中都没有出现在游戏中，但我认为他后来会更正式地融入好友群中。他是个很酷的家伙。
我想说他可能会。他没有参加的原因更多的是Derek自己的原因，而不是其他人不想让他参加。他不觉得自己是那个群里的一员，就像你知道的，Cove、Terry、Miranda和MC。但我想，当他看到Baxter加入后，也许他会更自信一些，比如，“好吧，我不需要一直在外面，我也可以在群里聊天。”所以我也希望他能加入。
If I remember correctly, there wasn’t really an option to stay in Sunset Bird in Our Life 1 after Step Three. Was there a reason for that? Am I misremembering? Also, in Our Life 2, will we get the option to stay in Golden Grove as an adult and move out of Opal’s House but not really move away?
And you are remembering, right. You can’t live in Sunset Bird as an adult, and the in-game explanation for that is that it’s a very small town. It’s extremely expensive. Most of the places are just like vacation rentals. It’s difficult to find an actual place to permanently live in in that area. But the real-world explanation for that is we couldn’t make a story where you were living at your own house that was entirely to the MC’s tastes and preferences because it would take, you know, hundreds and hundreds of alterations for everybody to be happy with what their own home looked like. And so the situation was that you just were staying at a hotel so we didn’t have to make the main character’s house. And that is likely going to have to be the case for Our Life 2. Maybe the story can be arranged where you’re not ever at your house somehow in Step Four, where you’re just hanging out in other places. I don’t know. But if the MC ever has to go back where they’re staying for the night, we will not be able to make it their own adult home. Well, I mean, maybe if like the Kickstarter does super absurdly, ridiculously well and we have a bunch of time and resources left over at the end of development, maybe then we can make the super ultra customizable living room. And then you could be living in Golden Grove. But for now, the plan is that it’s not going to happen.
I appreciate the customizations that Our Life 2 introduces! As a former dress up game girl, I love that we can not only configure our looks but also our pronouns, mother and bedroom, and even our clothes can change regularly too. Can you speak more about the development of these? Like how long do they take and what is the process in designing and developing? And any hints on future customizations?
I am not the programmer for all those very impressive customization systems, so I can’t speak much on the development of them. Conceptualizing, you know, the goal was just how many things can we feasibly make customizable? And then we will do all the things that seem feasible. For any hints on future customizations, well I’ve shown that Tamarack dresses up in a traditional German dress, and I would like to let the MC have culturally traditional clothes that they get to wear, and then it’ll show up on the icon. So that’s something that will get in future batches.
I remember we got a reveal of earring/piercings that will be available in later Steps. Are there plans to be able to wear multiple? Like could the doll wear earrings/ear cuffs/cartilage piercings and a nose piercing at once, or would it be limited to picking one spot?
You can have multiple earrings. You can have as many as there are different locations to be pierced. If you want all of them on, that is possible.
Hi HB！我非常喜欢你的作品，但我一直最喜欢的游戏是Our Life。我有三个问题要问。我很高兴你喜欢这些游戏。第一个问题是：Cove, Derek和Baxter如何告诉他们的家人MC怀孕了?比如，谁在做揭秘，谁只是说出来而已?
恐怕这个问题没有标准答案。视情况而定很大程度上取决于MC对什么感觉舒服。
第二个问题:Cove, Derek和Baxter会如何看待和一只非常可爱的猫生活在一起?希望他们不会过敏。
他们都不对猫过敏。这与兔子的故事类似，理论上，一只可爱的猫是可爱的，但他们肯定会有一些挣扎。我想说Derek可能会处理得最好，Baxter第二，而Cove会最挣扎，因为周围有一只寻求关注的动物。
第三个问题是:我的MC在Baxter路线有一条蛇和一只狼蛛。Baxter对宠物的这种选择会有什么反应?
Ah，他会认为它们很好，因为他不害怕它们，它们大部分时间都呆在自己的小围栏里，所以他不需要亲自对付它们，除非他选择去和它们互动。所以没有问题。
Thank you for all your great work. I can’t wait for the Patreon Wedding Night.
Thank you!
Congrats on your last free update on Our Life: Beginnings and Always. I’ve been following development for a few years now, and I’m so excited to be able to pledge. I appreciate all the work that you do. Well, thank you so much for supporting and following us. 我的问题是，塔玛拉克和邱最喜欢的糖果是什么?
这取决于步骤几。在第一步骤里，Tamarack最喜欢的是纸杯蛋糕，因为她是一个嗜甜的小女孩，所以糖霜对她来说是非常好的。但她也喜欢微型的东西，所以比起一块蛋糕，吃一个迷你纸杯蛋糕更令人兴奋，它是蛋糕的缩小版。而Qiu最喜欢的甜食是巧克力。一般来说，不同口味的巧克力棒，但任何种类的巧克力也会很受欢迎。
Hi, I’ve been really curious about GBPatch and want to know more about the behind-the-scenes operation. I hope these questions aren’t too personal. Some things I’m wondering are: how large is the team? How many people make up GBPatch? Is there a building/office for the team or are the interactions only virtual? Is GBPatch considered a company? How was “GBPatch Games” established?
The how large it is, I guess it depends. Different projects have almost entirely different teams. There’s only a handful of people who work on every game. There’s me, two editors/proofreaders, a programmer, and that’s kind of it for everyone who’s always on every project. Then we have a lot of people who come on just for one game, like artists and musicians and voice actors. They don’t really work officially, specifically, and only for GBPatch. They’re just helping with one aspect of one project and then they’re likely also working at other company games at the same time, and then they move on to other things once they’re done with their part on the one project. There is not a building. Everything is done virtually. Is it considered a company? I guess. How is it GB Patch games established? It started out just me making games for fun as a hobby, and then I started going from free games to partially commercial games, where some was free and then there was optional paid content. And eventually made enough money for it to be my full time job. And I guess that’s when it’s officially a company. Since I’m- I don’t know. Is it even a company? I’m not sure.
Hi, Kab, I hope you’re doing well! Thank you. My question is regarding Qiu and their relationship to ballet, especially in Step Two, when they’re still questioning their identity. As far as I know, classical ballet can be pretty gendered, although I’ve read that more and more studios are taking a less gendered approach to teaching nowadays, and modern choreographies don’t need these gendered roles. Is the dance studio in OL2 going to take such an approach? I’m by no means an expert on this, and I’m interested in learning if this will be addressed/mentioned in the game. And if so, how will Qiu feel about pursuing a historically somewhat gendered art form while themselves questioning their gender?
And I chose ballet specifically because it is a sort of very gendered situation in terms of roles and performance, and it is very relevant in Qiu’s, experience and events and it comes up even in Step One, sort of the gendered aspect of it and how Qiu feels about it. And in Step Two, it’s something that’s an even bigger factor. So it definitely will come up in the game. And earlier in the story, the studio does not do more open-minded approaches. It’s definitely more traditional and there are boys’ roles and there are girls’ roles, and they teach it that way in earlier Steps.
Woo！我很期待即将到来的奖金部分。我很高兴你很期待。我有个小问题，Lee是哪一方的亲戚?
Lee和Pam是亲戚。她爸爸是Pam的兄弟。
Does Cove like picking up his SO or getting picked up by them more? What about Derek and Baxter? Thanks again for all you do. I’ve already sunk hours into the beta and I’m looking forward to the official releases.
Thank you very much. Glad you’re enjoying it. And Cove likes both. He is pretty tickled when he’s with someone who can pick up someone of his size. Derek would prefer doing picking up. And Baxter, he probably would also enjoy being picked up just because that’s not a usual situation for him. But he also would enjoy picking the MC up in return.
你好!我有几个问题想问你。如果有需要，可以简短。如果这些理论问题超出了你的回答范围，我很抱歉。当Cove, Baxter和Derek和MC约会时，他们会嫉妒别人吗?
事实并非如此。嫉妒并不是我想要在一款Our Life游戏中出现的元素，所以没有任何主角被设计成会嫉妒。
Baxter结婚后会怎么想和MC分享金钱?举个例子，如果MC的工作比Baxter赚的钱多，MC不仅认为这是他们的钱，而且认为这是他们的钱，Baxter可以随心所欲地花多少钱。
Baxter会完全接受。他不会浪费这笔钱，但他也不会如履薄冰。他完全可以接受，就像，如果他们在结婚的时候，他会克服他的犹豫，他会相信他们分享生活是好事。你知道，如果他们是一个家庭，他不会花家人的钱是错误的。此外，Baxter善于理财，由于他的成长经历，他习惯了有很多钱。他可能已经和父母断绝了关系，但他仍然有那段生活的记忆和经历。
Cove有兴趣加入自闭症社交团体吗?作为一个每周参加一次小组的自闭症患者，只是聊天。
老实说，没有。他觉得自己已经有足够的朋友了，他不想出去专门去认识新朋友。即使是Warm Cove也可以因为其他原因参加社交活动，但特别是为了认识新朋友和聊天，他不想这样做。
How does Baxter choose which bowling ball to play with in Step Four? I love the amusement my MC had after he chose the heaviest one.
Baxter always chooses the heaviest one in Step Four. Back in Step Three he is only capable of using the medium ball, but he can attempt to use the heavier ball to try and keep up with the MC, and he fails and has to go use medium. But by Step Four he is able to use the heaviest ball and so he always chooses to use that to show he is capable of it. It’s a really amazing achievement, I know.
我注意到，当Qiu解释为什么他想让Tamarack和MC加入男孩俱乐部时，Baxter一直在微笑，但当Qiu提到他认为MC很漂亮时，Baxter就不再笑了。如果那是故意的，你能解释一下他为什么这么做吗?
baxter喜欢Qiu，不喜欢Qiu立刻喜欢上这个陌生人。
I’ve seen this asked before in previous Q&A, so I apologize, but I needed more context if possible. I am set as crush with Qiu and Tamarack and I are friends. I have intention of pursuing the romantic route with Qiu going forward, so I understand it’s best to say he’s our best friend and not Tamarack because we should prefer to spend more time with/be closer to our crush. But does that mean when Tamarack mentions to her granny that we are best friends, then mentions it to me in the backyard that she’s serious about being BFFs, I need to choose a choice that mentions I don’t consider her that close to me so that show is my best friend?
Well, if you want Qiu to be your best friend, you can’t say that Tamarack is your best friend, but if you want Tamarack to be your best friend and Qiu to be your romantic interest, that’s fine. You don’t have to make Qiu the best friend just because that’s the crush that you have. And like especially later, once you get to Step Three, you could have Tamarack as a best friend and set Qiu to love and then Qiu would be higher in the relationship standing than Tamarack, even though Tamarack was the best friend. So yes, if you want Qiu to be your best friend, you can’t say Tamarack is, but there’s also no obligation to make Qiu your best friend just because you’re doing the romantic route with them.
Building off of the BFF situation, if it is true that you need to choose choices to pursue Qiu as my BFF and not Tamarack, then should I be choosing moments to only hang out with Qiu alone at times?
No, you do not need to prioritize Qiu over Tamarack in terms of picking Qiu over Tamarack, excluding Tamarack intentionally so you can be alone with Qiu. You don’t have to do any of that.
It continues to say: I’m worried I’ll have a bad relationship with Tamarack if I don’t involve her. But I mainly try to pick Qiu related answers.
And you don’t have to do that. You won’t have a bad relationship with Tamarack if you do want some alone time with Qiu. But you also never have to exclusively do stuff with Qiu or agree with Qiu or, you know, or like what they like. It’s totally fine to be yourself and have other relationships that matter, and you will still be able to pursue the romantic relationship with them perfectly fine. So enjoy your time with both of them. Have whoever you want is your BFF. There’s really no need to stress at all.
Thank you tremendously for your time.
And you’re welcome.
Baxter提到他把头发染黑了。他是什么时候开始染黑头发的?他是19岁才漂白头发的吗?还是他做过更多的染发?
他14岁开始染头发，18岁开始染白色。
I was wondering how Jorge’s character would mesh with some of the OL2 cast given he’s around the same age of our leads?
I think Jorge would be very popular because he’s, you know, very chill and humble and soft spoken. And I feel like a lot of the characters in Our Life 2 are more abrasive and outgoing, and they would find him to be very charming and endearing in his more reserved, but still kind way. So it would also depend on the Step, because in Step Two, the characters are a little more angsty themselves and not as immediately open to other people. But in Steps One and Two and Three and Four, it would definitely be easy for Jorge to get along with them.
Also, I was really hoping for some fun facts about Opal. I love her so much and she has really become my favorite adult character. I’m glad you like her. Will there be moments that deepen the MC’s relationship with her? If the MC’s starts off mad at her for moving, can we change that later on and maybe apologize for being mad?
I can’t think of any fun facts off the top of my head. I guess people probably notice, but she does always wear an opal accessory and that changes per Step. And yes, you will be able to stop being mad later on and probably apologize to.
Qiu带着那个笔记本多久了?它会在所有的步骤被引用吗?我想，该保留Qiu的笔记，还是把笔记还给“他”，会导致未来会有不同的结果。有什么提示吗?
Qiu在第一步和第二步使用笔记本，在第三步和第四步不使用。我不能给出任何关于这些笔记会发生什么的提示，但显然你可以保留它们，它们可以在整个游戏中继续被引用。
Thank you again for all the hard work you do on these games. The characters are so dear to my heart. I can’t wait for more story with Qiu.
I’m really glad you liked them. Thank you.
I was just wondering how many words are there in Our Life 1, including the two bonus Patreon exclusive moments? I was simply just curious. Anyways, I love your work. Can’t wait for even more of Our Life 2!!
Thank you. And including the Patreon exclusive moments. I think it’s like 1,340,000 or 1,350,000. So a lot of words. Our Life is a very big game.
I’m not sure if this is closed already or not, but I’m going to ask just in case it’s still open. I’ve been going down the rabbit hole that is the past games you have announced working on. After playing the wedding night DLC for Our Life 1 for the third time, I have needed a break by playing one of your other beta games, Floret Bond, which I enjoyed a lot. I went looking to see if anything was going on with that game, but I find nothing past February 2019. This got me looking at the other games that you’ve worked on but stopped for reasons I’m not sure of. It could be because you started mainly working on OL1 or grew tired or bored of working on those games. Are you ever going back to Floret Bond, Eyes of the Echo, and XOXO Reunion? They all look very interesting to me and I would love to play them all. Also, are there any betas of Eyes of the Echo and XOXO Reunion that could hold me over for the time being?
Thank you for playing the demo for Floret Bond and I’m glad you think those other games look good. There is no beta for Eyes of the Echo or XOXO Reunion. Those games were all cancelled and I am not going to be able to go back and complete them at any time, unfortunately. There’s different reasons for all of them. For Floret Bond, there were problems with the team. For XOXO Reunion, other games just took so much longer than expected and there wasn’t time to work on that as well. And then too much time had passed for me to be able to pick up and continue it. And Eyes of the Echo just ended up I wasn’t happy with it. It was my first attempt at having a more customizable MC that’s more about what the player wants to do rather than having a very set character. And I just wasn’t happy with how the features were used and how everything turned out. It actually was quite far along in development. I just never showed a lot of examples or screenshots from it because I was never 100% on board with how things were. And ultimately, I decided the effort to try and fix it just wasn’t worth it, especially because at that time I had a much better game going on in terms of systems with Our Life 1. And so Eyes of the Echo was mainly just gaining experience and learning lessons and unfortunately can’t ever be a fully released game.
And that’s the whole Q&A! Another quite long one. My voice is getting really tired, but thank you to everybody who sent in questions. I hope that was a fun time to read or listen to, and I’ll be back again next month for September’s Q&A. Take care, everybody!