Strangers on Paper - DevLog #36

It’s official: Strangers on Paper Chapters 1 & 2 will be out on Steam February 6th (mandatory link to add it to your wishlist)

Starting the new year with some reflections…

DLCs

When discussing what “extra content” we could add on Steam for players, we went with our usual train of thought: What would we buy from a game we love? We started with what felt more obvious, a little walkthrough guide to unlock all content (this one will come with the game). Then we thought of wallpapers with art by Grogu, and eventually we came up with a third item. I’m an absolute sucker for extra shit - I’ve read each and every entry of Max’s journal in Life Is Strange, or April’s diary in The Longest Journey, binged through every behind-the-scenes clip of Detroit: Become Human, not to mention the artbooks! Sooo, making our own little pdf with our favorite articles we’ve written, interviews we’ve done to each other and some others we created just for this occasion seemed like a no-brainer. I believe it’s the closest thing to an actual artbook we’ll make - I may just consider printing one for myself once it’s updated to its completion.

Anyway, re-reading and updating the content we included in there truly took me on a path down memory lane. We’re here again, back to the daaaays…

About the “A” in “AVN”

You’ve no idea how fun it is to tell someone I know or just met about my game, have them look it up on Steam and then answer questions about the games that show up in the “games similar to this” list. “Fun” may not be the right word. It’s… a unique experience. Mostly because the ones that do tend to show up are outrageously different to the content in SoP - and because AVNs are not mainstream at all, so a lot of explanations need to be given each time (on an actual “fun” side note, I recently went on a date in which when I was choosing my words carefully, the other person blurted out “what is it, furries?” and I think only people who have been here for quite some time will get how funny that was to me). 

As I worked on the PDF thingy, I came across this dev log I wrote with “a rant about adult content in video games” that I didn’t end up including, but it stood out to me nonetheless. Mainly because it’s been a while since I’ve written a dev log that’s just me rambling with such little mention of the game, but also because it’s something that has been a great part of recent discussions I’ve had about the game. 

I’m now gonna go the pretentious route and quote myself on some thoughts I included back then regarding the “A” content in games:

It’s such a big market, such a big part of the internet (of our lives? am I going too far?), yet one that can be indeed easily shamed, dismissed, or simply regarded as less than other forms of entertainment. There’s this general agreement of what things are socially acceptable to talk about publicly, and those that should be kept in the dark and out of reach, next to the cookie jar on top of the cupboards. Even if it’s a whole fucking candy store you find up there. (...) You want to go to the cinema and watch that movie about creatures with decaying flesh devouring human beings as they dread their impending demise? Sure, no one will bat an eye when you discuss how gratifying it was to  watch that particularly annoying character get shred to bits. Oh, you want to play that video game in which you stab people or take pleasure in stalking them? Dude, make a career out of it! However, I can’t really imagine someone sitting at a dinner table discussing how they’ve accomplished great things with their milf-centered visual novel - although they probably have - without making it at least a bit awkward for the rest of the party to maintain eye contact.

He, it’s a fun rant! I guess the thing I was mostly pissed about is how bad kink-shaming can get sometimes while other much more… condemnable? things in videogames are deemed acceptable. Not just that, but, at least in my experience as a woman, I’ve always felt frustration over sex being a taboo topic in pretty much any context, which is partly why I ended up writing a VN that’s somewhat of a bridge, as I described it in the rant. The A is present but not even the main character in it. Unless it stands for Amy. Gee, bad joke. 

I guess I’m just curious to see how this whole thing will play out once the game is finished, since I find it quite hard to compare SoP to other AVNs in terms of content. It begs the question, is it not gonna be A enough for AVN lovers/is it gonna be too A for casual mainstream enjoyers? Who knows. It’s worth mentioning The Artist was probably the closest AVN to it before it was sadly abandoned, which is why Ava has a cameo in Chapter 2 - and only ONE person has let us know they noticed it! Criminal.

About writing and creativity

I’ve read and re-read and then played and replayed these two chapters so many times that I pretty much know them by heart. Of course, I also wrote them, once upon a time. That should have been the first thing to come to mind, but it wasn’t, and that’s kinda the point. 

Once other people started reading them and interpreting them, they stopped being just mine, and with time going by, I stopped being the person who wrote them altogether. At least that’s the feeling I get at certain times, when I stop and stare at it - today, it was about the title screen in Spanish shouting “OPORTUNCRISIS” (“Crisistunity” in Spanish) at me. The nerve to choose a Simpsons joke as a Chapter title. Those little - or not so little - “I don’t give a fuck, I’m gonna write what feels right to me and have fun with it” details are what truly makes me proud to be working on this project. The silly jokes or references I include thinking they’ll be there just for me and then Grogu or someone else will bring those up as something they loved about it. Not to mention when the more serious stuff in it resonates with strangers and then the whole theme of the game comes full circle. 

I’m truly rambling by now, but the point is I think most creative people go through this “no one will care about what I have to say” phase, and it’s been nice to be proven wrong. If anything, I’d like to encourage you, reading this, to go work on that thing that actually matters to you, even if you seem to be the only one who cares. The sheer anxiety I felt (and still feel at times) to share SoP got a nice slap in the face once it was out there. Can’t wait to get slapped again once it comes out on Steam - WAIT, I didn’t mea…

In conclusion

I think your Steam wishlist is looking short, don’t you agree? Your friends’ too! Here’s a link to help. Tell them about this game you like and have them add it since it’s coming out soon! Tell your grandma as well, you never know! 

Thank you for reading, strangers.