Hey everyone, welcome to the July Q&A session. I really appreciate people still sending in questions each month. Though this month there were a lot that were from Our Life 2, and unfortunately I am going to have to skip quite a few of them. That project is in a very awkward state where there’s either things I know for sure are going to appear in the game itself, and so I don’t really want to give it away by saying it ahead of time, or there are things that could very well change by the time the game is actually done. And so I also don’t want to come out and definitively say them one way or another. So I am sorry for all of those questions that will have to go without a real answer, but I will do my best to answer all of the questions that I can. So let’s get into that.
So the first question is, if Cove had a super power, what would it be?
And it would be to be able to breathe underwater. He probably wouldn’t want something stronger than that, like being able to control water or even to turn into a merman. As much as he jokes about it, that’d probably be a bit too much to deal with in real life. But he would want something related to water and just being able to go in the water without having to worry about coming up for air would be a really good power, in his opinion.
A more serious question: What’s your favorite part about writing the Our Life series?
Honestly, I like that it is not linear, that I can just write sort of separate events that I just feel like and it’s not one very long story all in a row. That’s why I prefer the first three Steps over the Step 4 content. But you know, that had to be done. Although I also really like that there’s multiple time periods and I get to write the characters at different stages. That’s another favorite thing. So I guess it’s a tie between those two.
I wanted to ask if customizing teeth would ever be an option? I was wondering if allowing your character of have buck teeth or a gap in the middle would be possible?
And probably not. Unfortunately, the teeth are such a simply drawn detail. They don’t have individual teeth, so I don’t know how well trying to add buck teeth or a gap would actually look because it’s just a very small little white line. And I just don’t know if we’d be able to add teeth specific details to something that simplistic. I’m sorry.
The next question is how did GB Patch get its start? How was it founded? How did it take off? Change over time? Who’s on the staff?
Well, I can’t say absolutely everything about it right here, but it started many years ago. I think it was like maybe, I guess it depends on when you consider GB Patch starting. I started using that name in 2014, but I started making visual novels either in 2011 or 2012, so it’s been almost a decade. And it got started when I just decided that I wanted to make one for fun and it was going to be about my Harvest Moon OCs. And I did make that and it did release. You can’t play it anymore. It’s not available to download anywhere. But I did make that. It was my first visual novel and I didn’t have a company name or anything. It’s just something I did for fun. And then after that I started new projects and these were going to be more original and I ended up, since I knew at that point that I did like doing this and I could make a game and I was intending to make more, I decided to have an actual label that I can put all my games under, and that’s when I came up with GB Patch. And our first two games were XOXO Droplets and A Foretold Affair, which ended up being developed in the same period of time mostly. XOXO started first and then A Foretold Affair came along, and A Foretold Affair actually came out first because it was much shorter. And then later that year, XOXO Droplets also came out. We took off, I guess, when the Our Life demo first came out and people were really impressed by it, and we just kept getting more and more attention since then. I don’t know how. I mean, I guess it’s changed and that there are more people who contribute to each project and the staff. It’s a lot of people and they usually only work on one project at a time and then they go and work with other people. It’s just like a work for hire type of thing. There’s not a lot of people who would really be considered staff of the company, but that’s a very brief history of how GB Patch came along.
The next question is how would the LI’s would react if the MC needed tampons/pads picked up for them?
And honestly, I don’t think they would have much of a reaction. They’d just say, “Oh, okay, I’ll go do that.”
The next question is, did you know anything about programming before you started making VNs? If not, how was the learning curve?
I did not know anything. I never programmed before starting visual novels, and I’ve never programmed anything besides visual novels. And back then, the learning curve was not very high. You know, I made very simple games and I could make them basically just by copying what was done in the tutorial that comes with Renpy. There’s like test scripts you can look over and basically almost anything I needed to know was just in those scripts, just, here’s how you order an image, here’s how you format a choice, there you go. And I sometimes would go to the forums to get help if I needed it, or I’d see somebody who added something neat, like little text effects or something. And then I would add those to. But it was very simple. I didn’t do the custom UI, that was always done by someone else. And I still to this day, only have a very basic understanding of more complex screen programming, just enough to sort of get by. But I definitely am not one to go to for any kind of programming advice. If you are considering doing it yourself, though, I think that it’s not that hard to figure out if you’re just keeping it really straightforward.
The next question is, since Xavier is going to be in Baxter’s DLC, would they recognize the MC assuming they got their face painted in Derek’s boardwalk moment?
And the answer is no. They’re not going to recognize the MC, but you can recognize them. And why they don’t recognize the MC is actually noted in Derek’s because they also have a little appearance there and they sort of explain what happened.
Next is would Cove let MC paint his nails? Would Qui or Tamarack?
And the answer is yes for all of them. Cove doesn’t paint his nails himself, but wouldn’t have a problem with it if he was friendly with the emcee and they wanted to do it. And Cho and Tamarack both just paint their nails because they enjoy doing that anyways, so it would be fine. Definitely.
The next one is I absolutely love the more in-depth relationship dynamic system, and I was wondering if we ever see/get to know what Qiu’s and Tamarack’s are towards each other? And are they friends with each other or just neighbors?
And it’ll never show in the game. But in step one, their dynamic is exactly the same as it is for the MC. That’s just how they are with new people that they’ve just met and since they’ve also just met each other, it’s the same kind of thing. And they do consider themselves friends, but It’s not as close as it always can be with the MC, especially in like Step 2 when they’re going through things. But they do have a relationship of their own outside of their relationship to the MC.
The next question is in our life. One, there’s a screen for choosing if your emcee prefers dresses, skirts, pants, shirts. Is there a reason that isn’t in the character panel for Our Life 2?
And honestly, it just barely came up in Our Life 1. We almost never had a reason to bring it up. And that is probably going to be true for Our Life 2. And in times where the outfit is more important, we’ll just have choices where you can specifically choose what you’re wearing then, and then we can use that to reference it. So I just don’t know if it’s worth having on the creator itself. Maybe it’ll be added back if there ends up being a use for it, but for now it was just sort of there in Our Life 1 because I assumed, what if we need to mention this, we should have a way to note it, but then we never really ended up using it. So it was just sort of this useless element that was sort of just there because this was our first time ever making a game like that and we didn’t know for sure. You know, it just sort of made sense to assume that could be useful. And then it never really was particularly useful, but I guess we’ll see if that changes as Our Life 2 comes along. But for now, it’s just doesn’t seem like there’s going to be much of a use to put it in there on that screen where we can just have it come up as a normal choice for like formal occasions when you’re designing your whole outfit.
The next question is when will there be more merch and wallpapers?
Well, I appreciate that you’d be interested in any of that, but I have no idea. I am terrible at doing anything other than just making the games themselves and posting updates about it. I cannot do other things like merch or uploading cards on Steam and things like that. I just never get around to doing it. I will try, but I cannot say when it will happen.
The next question is, thank you for hosting your monthly Q&A.
So thank you for participating!
It’s great to see so much stuff I hadn’t already known just put in front of me. Anyways, I know a lot of people on Tumblr and patriotic were gushing over the OL2 side characters. Who would you personally think would be the best candidates of the cast to be possible DLC love interests?
There’s only one and it’s Ren. She is the only one I would even consider giving a DLC to. Not because I don’t love all the other side characters, but because that game’s already going to be huge. We probably can’t even do side story DLCs, but if we can, I definitely know for sure that I want to be Ren. She’s really the perfect person for it, but sadly it may not happen. We’ll just have to see how it goes in the end. But I’m glad people are liking the side characters so far. I think it’s a really nice extended cast in this game.
The next question is, thanks for always doing these! If I’m interested in being Qiu’s right-hand pal as a kid who’s crushing on Qiu under the surface the whole time, any recommendation for the dynamic that would best fit that?
Well I’d say any of them could theoretically work because so much of what happens is through normal choices. But I guess team working, appraising, accepting would probably be consistent with the idea of being sort of, there as a reliable friend who’s, you know, someone to count on rather than sort of someone who’s maybe idolizing or doting. But really, you can make it work with just about anything you want.
And the next question is, could we know more about you? What types of games slash music, slash movies, etc. are you into? And what has been the biggest inspiration for you?
Well, thank you for wondering about me for games. I really like story and narrative based ones, obviously. I also like adventure games, simulation, some RPGs, and any of those types of games are better if they have horror or mystery elements. For movies I really only watch animated ones. For some reason I just have a discomfort watching real people, even if it’s in a movie. And so there’s always sort of this weird hesitation I have to start a movie with real people, and I just never do it. But I do enjoy animated films of all kinds of genre. And for music I also don’t really have a preference for genre, but they always have to have lyrics. I just don’t really like instrumental songs. And for my biggest inspiration, honestly, I don’t know. It really depends on which project it’s for. I would say the thing that made me want to make games specifically was the Harvest Moon series, which is now called Story of Seasons in the West, though the first thing that ever made me wish that I could create something or have a story that I told and could get out to people was actually the short animations, ones just posted online that are made by a single person. Usually I love watching animated shorts that people do totally on their own. They’re so creative and accessible, and it made me wish that I could also do something. I didn’t know what, but if only I could also do something like that to tell a story. But I don’t like to draw, and so I knew I’d never actually make something like that, and I was jealous, like, “Oh, if I wish I could do that”. And then I was able to find my own way to do it through making visual novels much later in life. So I guess those were my main inspirations for getting to where I am now.
And the next question is how do you handle writing slumps if you ever face any?
And I very rarely do. Luckily for me, I can write the same as I can program where it’s just a task that I need to do and I will do it on the schedule that I have worked out. And if I’m not able to do it, like if I just can’t bring myself to do it, it usually just means that I’m tired and I wouldn’t be able to do some other task. And in that case, I will either take a break or switch to easier work, just answering messages and doing more simple planning rather than more intensive actual scripting. So I can’t really give any good advice on handling that since I just am able to get into that mindset of “This is what you need to do, and so you’re going to do it”. And then I do it!
The next question is, was Cove/Terry being autistic/transgender always planned, or was it something that came up while writing step 4?
For Cove it was not planned, but it didn’t take until Step 4 for me to come to that conclusion. It was by Step 2 that I realized he probably was autistic and then definitely intentional by Step 3. But it only came up in Step 4 because I didn’t really want to make it a point of the story. And so I just found a way to sort of have it come up without it being a full scene. For Terri, he was always transgender and male because I had decided that in Step 3, Cove was going to have a friend and I wanted it to be a guy friend. So Terri was a guy, and I just decided that since this was a story about showing characters growing over time, I figured it was it’d be a missed opportunity to not have someone who actually got to see go through a very real life and relatable situation of having to come out and transition. And that’s why you got to meet Terri before he came out. But he always was Cove’s guy friend.
The next question is what’s your favorite types of visual novels to read/slash make?
To read is horror and mystery; it’s my favorite. To make, probably, I guess, slice of life stories. That’s mainly what I’ve made so far. I do love fantasy and horror and mystery, but making those is a lot harder. I’m not as good at it and I haven’t done it as much. That’s what I wish I could make. But I guess I can’t say it’s my favorite type to make because otherwise I would be making it more. So yeah, I guess fun modern-day real world stories is my preference, but hopefully I’ll be able to make something other than that in the future.
The next question is, does Cove use a specific kind of perfume cologne that could be found in real life?
No. I have asthma and I hate perfume and cologne and know literally nothing about it. Not a single thing. So I can’t even guess what he might be using. I’m afraid you’ll have to come up with something yourself for that. But head cannons are welcome!
The next question is what is the best way to report bugs to you guys when playing the betas?
And that would be in the discord in the Bug Report section. That’s the easiest place to keep track of everything. Thank you for asking.
The next question is what age were Cliff and Kyra when they had Cove?
Cliff was 19 and Kyra was 18.
And the next is, will there still be a voice named feature in Our Life 2?
And yes, there will be. But nicknames will not be voiced. Just the first names.
Next question is, it was mentioned before that if Cove is social and not crushing on the MC, that he could be with others, but the relationship is always temporary and casual. Does that mean Cove is having hookups?
No, it doesn’t. He does not have sex with anyone unless he’s very much in love with them. The casual dating just means they like go out and get dinner or see a movie or take a walk somewhere or go to the beach. But it’s unserious because they’re not going to move in together or get a pet together or even really introduce each other to their friends and families. It’s just sort of hanging out, but it’s called the date and it doesn’t really progress further than that.
The next question is, first of all, I just wanted to say that I love your work and appreciate all you do.
Thank you so much. You’re very nice to say that!
And then the question is, I was wondering how tall are Qiu and Tamarack going to be after they are done growing? Or even how tall they are in step 1 when they are kids?
In Step 1, Qiu is tall for a child and Tamara is short. As adults, Qiu is considered generally pretty average, doesn’t stand out in any way, and Tamarack is still very short. They don’t have specific numbers, but that’s the general idea of it.
The next question is if the development team gets bigger, would you consider adding more Cove content to Our Life 1?
And the answer is sadly no. The good part about Our Life is that it has a person who’s very directly involved in every scene, and it all comes together very cohesively because of that. But the downside is that no matter how big the team gets, it really all comes down to me and how much time I have. No one else can create events out of nothing. I have to be the one to make every single scene and decide basically every single choice and how all the dialogue goes. And there’s just nobody else that will likely ever be able to do that because of how weird the choice system is and all the ways that there are alterations and references. And I just don’t think I can have another person replicate that in a way that makes sense and is consistent with all the rest of the content. So unfortunately, I don’t have time to add more content and no one else really can. So sadly, it’s likely the end of Cove’s content here unless maybe I have time to do that other little bonus moment. But that would be it for sure.
The next question is, you’ve mentioned before how relationship standards could work in Our Life 2. Could it be possible to drift apart in a relationship like going from crushes to just neighbors?
Yes, you can. It can’t happen in the middle of a Step, but between Steps you can go from crushes to neighbors or friends to neighbors, just like you can go from neighbors to friends or friends to crush. But if you’re in love, you can’t fall out of love, and if you’re dating while crushing, you can’t break up.
And the next question is, there are multiple questions, sort of. So the first one is like Our Life 1, will Our Life 2 not delve deep into the harsh life aspects, like people being homophobic or racist?
And the answer is yes, there will not be any of that in Our Life 2. This game is supposed to be a safe outlet for just living your life. We’re not here to make people have to deal with that sort of treatment. It’s a world where people are treated the way they should be treated, even if that’s not always how it is in the actual world.
And it goes on to say, I like it that way and want to make a book with a similar concept. What made you go this route?
I did it because I don’t think I’m smart enough to actually meaningfully tackle that topic. But what I can do is write a story where you’re able to not have to face that and be able to enjoy it. So, you know, lean into your own strengths to do something. You know, if I can’t really make something thoughtful, I can at least make something comforting.
And lastly, it says, do you plan to make the love interest race more prominent like culture or cuisine?
And I would say yes, compared to our life, one where it didn’t really come up at all because Cove’s race is partially up for the player to decide. But in this game they do have set ethnicities and I am sure that is going to come up. I can’t say exactly when or how, but it will be present in this story. And then there’s some more nice words in the comments. So thank you very much for that!
The next question is, is there a possibility that the games will be translated to other languages in the future?
And the answer is it’s not that likely because of just how absurdly long they are. But I won’t say that it’s completely impossible.
And the next question is, first of all, you rock.
Thank you!
Second, I was wondering what size character sprites you use. Do they differ by game?
And the answer is they do differ by game. And I guess usually around 1500 pixels tall. But it definitely can depend. I’m not an artist, so I don’t know if I can give much advice on how to format those. I would say that usually they make the canvas a similar size for every character and just draw the characters within that size as tall as they need to be. And then there’s just extra space at the top if they’re not as tall as other characters, and that can help give a more consistent look to it. But unfortunately, I don’t have much advice.
The next question is considering Fall is typically a rainy season, will that play a part in OL2?
And yes, it will there. There will definitely be rainy days throughout the whole game.
The next question is, do you ever intend on making short bite sized games, maybe less than 50,000 words, or do you just have big projects planned from here on out?
If you had asked me this last month or if I answered this question earlier in this month, I would have said, no, I will never do another short game. We have to focus on our big games and there’s just no room to ever do another short one. But very recently I have considered maybe I could try one more time to go for a short one, because before I just didn’t have an idea that was worth putting the time into, because even if it’s short, the long games take so long already that taking any time away from them to do something else would push back those long games even further. But I might maybe have an idea that’s worth trying for. We’ll see.
And the next question is, would there be any future projects that are more fantasy focused with a lot more drama?
And that is almost certainly a yes. The ideas I have for after Our Life 2 are another really big game and then that potential much shorter project that was mentioned in the previous question. And both of those would have settings that are not the real world and have fantastical elements and would be more dramatic than the Our Life games. So regardless of which one we ended up doing, it would be more in that direction. I guess it’s possible that I could come up with yet another new idea, but I feel like I know it’s going to be one of these two ideas that I have. Both of them might end up potentially being made. But I do think that it’ll be a while before we do another game that’s completely slice of life, modern day, real world. So hopefully people will look forward to getting to experience some other types of genres with our same GB Patch style!
And that is about all of the questions I can answer. I know I definitely skipped a lot this time because they were Our Life 2 questions that I couldn’t really say anything about. And I’m sorry again for that, but thank you to everybody who took the time to send something in and everyone who stops to listen to this or read the transcript. Hopefully it was interesting to learn these new details. And there’ll be another Q&A next month. See you then!