Also, I know this game was created five years ago, but I was wondering if you had thought of the full backstory of the main character. When looking at the village houses, they say that sometimes they wonder if their parents are still secretly living in the village. Did you ever decide what actually happened to them, or did you only intend for it to be left ambiguous? Even if it's not considered "canon", do you have your own ideas as to what you think the backstory there is?
Yes. I explore it a little in the narrative but I don't think I ever directly say what happened. The main character is a child who was left at Grandma's house by their parents one weekend and they never returned.
It's possible the parents had some financial difficulty and couldn't afford to raise their child, but it's never explicitly clear why they left. It was purposefully left hazy to reflect the perspective of abandonment and uncertainty. One can only know the resulting actions and hardly ever the motivation.
It's a maternal story, and I strongly believe that while writing it the grandmother was the child's mother's mother. You can infer from the grandmother the traits of the mother.
I never explicitly mention the child's gender or physical traits so that the player can Quantum Leap into the story with the greatest of ease - but the child is curious and lonely and they rarely interact with other children (X CHILDREN at the foot of the hill).
Playing back through the game I note other aspects that were explored about the family dynamic, like the grandfather keeping the family together until he passed away.
The village sits on a horizon that can be explored mentally but not physically. It may as well be another country from the player's perspective.
Thank you for your comments! It's been a lovely moment of reflection.
I really appreciate your insights! I definitely feel like I picked up on most of those aspects of the story through my repeated playthroughs, but it was great to hear them from your perspective! It's easy to tell how much thought and love was put into this story, and I hope you know that so many people appreciate it and you for it!