I suppose this is for Mino, though it will extend to the rest of the writing staff. I was curious to know how much of this story is based on your studies, such as historical literature and mythology and how much needed a lot of research. I noticed some literary references like "The House of Asterion" and then there's the lore of the various gods. Did your studies inspire the story or did you need to study a lot after the concept?
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KangaRube here: I think reading "House Of Asterion" when we were teenagers many years ago broke something in the brains of Minoanon and I forever (and also I think Nanoff, who is Argentinian like Borges). So we have been stuck with that percolating in us for a long time.
Then there was the novel-in-verse by Canadian poet Anne Carson "Autobiography Of Red", which I pointed Minoanon to at some point. To my memory, this was either one of the things that dominoed into the starting of Minotaur Hotel, or it might have been suggested after he wrote the preliminary 4chan quest. He had been trying to write a kind of semi-mythic story for a long while before a bunch of things just sort of came together into Minotaur Hotel. So I guess to answer the actual question: It is sort of both.
But we are all avid readers, and draw a lot from our influences. The game is built on a great many quotations, paraphrases, and references, that come from an extremely wide range of poetry and novels and philosophy and music (but have a concentration on Ancient Greece and the Ancient Mediterranean as a whole).
Also, sometimes we do have a character arc or bit of a plot in mind, but want to tie it together with an appropriate poetic conceit--- those are times when the study comes posterior to the story, rather than the story springing up from the study.
I have a follow up if you are okay with that. See, I noticed you drew on many accurate traits and characteristics to the gods for example, and even differentiated gods that are more Cretian than directly Greek. Hades is not a villain like he often portrayed. It's so refreshing. How difficult was it to keep away from "modern" interpretations. Also, how difficult was it to weave all of this through the narrative?
I would not exactly say difficult, in most cases. We try to find the oldest possible primary poem source for whatever (like, say, using how Hades seems/acts in The Homeric Hymn To Demeter as a basis for characterization, and trying to only extrapolate a reasonable amount from stuff like that), and see how that fits.
Then also sometimes, if it can provide a more interesting result, we go into more archaeological detail, cross-referencing with what later writers say about things, and so on (such as books on prehistoric Crete). So there is some of the regular Greek pantheon based on poetry, some nods to the local gods of Crete based on archaeology (where almost no readable writing survives), and try to combine them in ways that seem interesting or like they reveal some striking idea. Or something like that.
It is more just a process than it is difficult. A long series of "Does that work? How does that feel? Does that mean anything?" in order to find something which fits and works and resonates, while trying to avoid as many received-through-pop-culture understandings of things as possible. The most difficult it gets is when I know I read something somewhere, but I cannot find the exact location of a quote. Haha.
I think this is my last question and it's for all the writers. How much of this is in line with a field of study for school or perhaps work and how much of this is more in line with your hobbies and interests? I would suppose there's a certain amount of crossover since one might want to study something they like but I think I'm just curious to know if anyone was more interested in the Minotaur Hotel story first and then got into ancient Mediterranean history or if it was just an amazing coincidence, lol.
BTW, thanks for answering all these questions and great job all around on the story regardless. I'm sure you can tell I was hooked by the lore and the literary work that was poured into this story as well as the characterizations of Asterion and all the ancient Greek characters.
Not giving identity away here, but our backgrounds/educations are:
-Biology.
-Law and diplomacy.
-Film and contemporary-art.
-English.
And the English one was not a classics-concentration. So none of us are really trained here. I always did enjoy classics, though, and independently read Sophocles and Shakespeare and Stesichorus for fun--- so I just sort of have that background casually. Haha. The others have brought their reading, and their backgrounds, into what they have added too.
How much of this is in line with a field of study for school or perhaps work and how much of this is more in line with your hobbies and interests?
Just adding to what Kangarube said:
At this point, for me, by the power of autistic hyperfixation my hobbies and work have merged. I certainly started on the hobby side of things, but I've gotten so serious about it that when I last went to Crete I was mistaken for an archeologist multiple times.
That said, I majored in Law, but I am not a practicing lawyer.