thank you sooo much for playing and for taking the time to write this! i really hope you enjoyed it <3
and honestly, you're not completely wrong, it's a bit of both.
in my thesis i use "otome" in its traditional sense: a game mainly aimed at women, usually with a female protagonist.
so i knew who the game expects to be playing. what i didn't expect was how well that gap would end up working. so im glad someone was able to notice it.
at first i did think about adding a gender choice at the start, but that would've meant handing luke one more piece of information about you, and in a game about how much he collects, that felt a bit off. (also it's my first time programming a game, and i was breaking the code every three lines, so pronouns and extra dialogue branches would've been my death sentence lol)
so i kept the dialogues gender-neutral on purpose: luke just talks to you.
it's only when things start breaking that you see the assumptions he's been running on the whole time: the previous players, who he was "made for", the answers that never quite fit what you actually want to say.
reading how that part landed for you really means a lot. it's kind of wild that the thing luke goes through at the end (realizing who he was made for) is something you deal with every time you look for a new dating sim. that sounds exhausting, and i'm glad the game made some space for that.
as for your name: he'd say it, but he'd never really notice it. the game never checks who you are, it just assumes. to it, and for luke, you're just player_name.
also u made me realize i should mention that the game refers to you in a gender-neutral way so i'm adding it to the description now, thank you for that too!
thank you again for playing and for writing this, i reallyyyy appreciate it!! :)