Hello!! The game I announced last week, Doce Fim, the culmination of almost an decade of projects. It brings back classic characters, themes, and mysteries, finally giving it all closure and tying it up with a nice pretty bow.

But does that mean you need to play all the previous games to understand Doce Fim? Can you just go in blind? How confused will a new player be when they are tossed into the head of some protagonist they’ve never heard of?

I believe that it’s impossible to want to create an identical experience for new and returning players alike. You just can’t replace the experience of an entirely different game - or project, considering this is technically a multimedia universe. Yeah, there’s comics, novels, and even a fake blog to read. I kind of went off there.

See, I adore it when media by the same creator is connected. I used to go wild as a child when a power-rangers crossover happened - what do you mean the rangers from the different shows are all fighting together?! That’s amazing! I was even into Nickelodeon shows like Zoey 101 and Drake and Josh - seeing those shows make little nods and references to each other always blew my mind. Pokémon Black and White 2 is my favorite Pokémon game of all time for a reason.

I like this so much, I become a bit bummed when a series has the perfect change to bring back a character from an older game/show/other media, but they don’t. When it all obviously takes place in the same universe, and everyone knows they must be just outside that camera shot, but they don’t show up or are even alluded to.

Artwork of Lion by Turnip

And as a creative myself, I understand why. You don’t want to alienate or confuse new fans - who’s this? I don’t know, I don’t care. Where’s my usual beloved cast? And you don’t want to make older fans feel like you’re not doing the classic characters justice - there are cases when fans beg a creator NOT to bring a fan favorite back, because they’re afraid that their happy ending or their personality will be ruined.

That’s why I want to share a little about my philosophy through this last decade on how I tackle the challenge of connecting stand-alone games in a way that is satisfying to both new and returning fans.

First, let’s take a look at the sweetend placebo. series of games. Those are games are that tell mostly stand-alone stories, but are actually taking place in the same extended universe. Doce Fim brings back the main characters from those games.

Behold:

(Here’s the link to the collection containing all of those!)

This isn’t the complete list - ‘Bakanano’ is actually a trilogy of two comics and a 150k words long visual novel, Morishun with an additional 50k words novel that’s kind of like a sequel!

Boy, that sounds like a lot. How many hours is that? Let’s calculate, assuming we’re at the higher end of the scale in reading time…

Bakanano & Calf Howl’s Room = 5 hours

All of Morishun (including extra chapters and external media) = 20 hours

MyGF = 2 hours

Another Episode = 3 hours

Someone to Hold Me = 1 hour

Overcomp. = 1 hour

me mostre sonhos doces = 3 hours

One Last Story = 2 hours

Down Memory Lane = 4 hours

Secret Content = 2 hours

==== #TOTAL: 43 hours

That is a lot of reading time…

But I don’t expect anyone to play of all it to understand Doce Fim.

My goal is for the past games to add to the experience. A returning player should be rewarded for playing the older games, while a new one should be able to understand what’s going on without being penalized.

And the reward in my games is the emotional impact.

Lake’s presence in Doce Fim, for example. Syun says “Lake and I went through a lot, we ended up breaking up but I appreciate the time we spent together.” It summarizes what happened in the Black and White trilogy, giving a new player context for their dynamic.

But a returning player knows exactly what they went through. They saw the pain, the bitter sweetness, the love, and how they ended up the way they are in the present. My intent is for a returning player to be emotionally impacted in the present because of what they saw in the past, while a new player will get caught up to speed quickly.

Let’s see if I can explain with another example. Here’s a line in a hypothetical game:

“I invited my best friend over last Thursday to eat the carrot cake that I made.”

A new player would go ‘cool, that’s nice.’ The facts are there. The relationship is established, the narrator’s hobby is explained. Nice and simple.

But a returning player would know that the friend was going to move out of the country in the previous game, meaning they stayed. That the narrator had impostor syndrome regarding their baking, so sharing the cake with the friend shows immense growth. That Thursday was a busy work day for them both, so perhaps they had a change of career in between games.

And maybe a new player would become curious about what exactly happened in the past, so they play the old game. They return to the one and go ‘Oh my god, they STAYED! They SHARED THE CAKE! THAT’S HUGE!’ Just a simple line can have a completely different reading.

That’s why I recommend that the older projects are enjoyed. From the beginning, ever since I began this saga 9 years ago, my goal was to create a story where you could see a familiar cast of characters grow, change, and learn.

Not all of them have survived to the end, and some have regressed instead of progressing. It’s like watching a child grow up.

But do you NEED to play them all? Do you need to consume a 10 year old Manga Maker Comipo comic to enjoy Doce Fim? No. You can totally just meet the teenager that the child grew into, hear their story, understand how they got there and what their deal is, and become their new best friend.

But if you’re actually there to see it, watching over the the child day by day as they become an adult, you might shed an extra tear.

That’s my philosophy, at least. Because I want to make players cry and feel my stories.

As for the other issue - how do you make a player care for the returning characters, and not alienate the older ones?

Personally, I introduce the characters as who they are right now, and have the player care for their present self. Who they were before, in a previous game, is something that they will explain later, or that a returning player will know from the start.

Liking Rikka in Someone to Hold Me is one thing. You might feel extra attached to her character in Doce Fim because of what you know about her, and that’s the intent. But Doce Fim Rikka should be a likeable, interesting character on her own. Knowing past Rikka is a bonus, an extra bit of flavor that adds more emotion to her return.

And to not alienate the returning players… I don’t think everyone will love how those characters have returned. Maybe you’re really going to miss Jane’s smartass remarks from her Down Memory Lane era, which isn’t present as much anymore as she has grown considerably more thoughtful of that she says. But that’s the thing, isn’t it?

That it makes sense for the character to have changed. I believe that’s the ticket, and what makes for me (as someone who enjoys crossovers and returning characters), a satisfying, cool, exciting character return.

Most importantly, the changes need to be explored in the current story, especially if they’re particularly big. Like, if I suddenly had grumpy, depressed, anxious, shut-in Syun realize he loves clown makeup and his true passion is to be a clown in a famous traveling circus, I would need to write a LOT of conversations, flashbacks, and internal monologues regarding how such a massive, sudden change underwent.

I don’t think I’d be able to do THAT while keeping the character intact and the audience happy… could you imagine?

And finally - this is very relevant in case you’re taking this post as advice for your own games - this has all been planned for years. I always meant to connect those projects in some way, so I already had an idea of what I could and couldn’t do. It might be very different if you’re trying to connect games that were never meant to be joined together.

From the moment I started writing them, I knew who Jane was going to end up, what Lion would go through in the future, and how Rikka’s past would affect her Doce Fim self. I’m very glad that I put so much thought into this cast from the very beginning, otherwise I would run into trouble, I think.

When I introduced Doce Fim, I said it is the my reason for living. And it really is. I’ve been working on this greater story since I was 15 years old. I’m 24 now and I’m still at it, finally reaching the end.

I might write more posts on narrative design, character returns, and other aspects of the game if you guys are interested. It was fun to write this one.

Hope you enjoyed reading my musings!

• Meiri