As always, thank you for your kinds words.
And thank you for giving me a place to express this side of myself. It's admittedly a bit uncomfortable, as I usually only show this side with people I trust in private. It's a lot, and I'm extremely self-conscious about the lengths of my posts, but my hope is that you get something out of them for all the massive amount of work you've put into both Minotaur itself and:
You know, what you just said here touches on the exact reason why I hesitated to write this devlog and the toughest part about it. I've been seeing such great discussions about the Hinterlands, and I was afraid that talking about it too much could stifle this discussion.
The comments and devlogs you write here. You've mentioned the original was a communal experience, and I imagine the forums are part of capturing that same essence in a way that's befitting of the tone this version of Minotaur Hotel has. I imagine it's hard to find the balance of participating yourself and being an observer with answers others are looking for. Obviously, writing is fluid and ideas tend to morph until they take on the form they need, as you've demonstrated with the main post here. That also comes with weighing saying something that might get changed and having to worry about how others could react. It's another potential chain.
This is all to say that you're hitting a good balance. I don't want you to get caught up inside your head when you're doing a great job. (Or in general, as someone who has dealt with that spiral. But you're doing a great job.) Anyone who stops guessing because of this post or any future ones like it is severely missing out. This devlog doesn't have concrete answers and you've done a great job explaining the function of that, but even if it did there's still mystery behind what is known. Everything has hidden motivation and influences if you look for it. You've just made that process part of the design.
Some readers jumped the gun and made many assumptions about us because of Luke, and also about Luke himself.
I can see why people could see that. I know a lot of people mention being frustrated by Luke (I love him lol) but as far as the writing goes, there's an appreciation of Luke that is very removed from the American experience. I think that's why so many people don't like him. He's a lot of things Americans are wary of or have caused harm, but given a chance at being a real character (like how he rushes to help Asterion if you sent him out to the valley) that most characters like him never get. It feels very respectful in the way all of your characters have been. Yes, there's humor and parody but it's loving and curious. It is about as far from American as you can get, even if I also think you've done a wonderful job of capturing what could be without the religion and politics attached.
I see a lot of my Harley-Davidson riding grandfather in Luke, who was born in 1937 but could care less about me being gay so long as I'm happy. He told me when he was a teenager he said the same thing to friends he knew and it's very easy to believe. He was, well, a bastard child, the only one in his family, so he had a rough time that he responded to with kindness toward others. He's not perfect, but he's more human than most of his generation and background. So I imagined it was either you knew someone like my grandfather or it was coming from the outside looking in. And basically everything else pointed toward the latter, although it's not impossible the former could also be true.
Chances are if my friends ever feel like streaming I'll watch, but I'm not sure I'll play it myself.
I hope you enjoy it if you do end up seeing it. I really wish the games had full voice acting as it would make streaming a lot easier. The game I would really recommend that did just that when releasing to console is Disco Elysium, one of my favorite games and stories. It's very realistic and can be off-putting as characters will use real and made up slurs depending on who they are, but the world-building built off what seems like a simple whodunnit is astounding. It basically uses one city block and a couple side areas to build an entire world. I am admittedly more of a platformer, adventure/VN hybrid, and turn-based RPG fan (The DS is my favorite system for a reason) than games that require you to learn patterns like the souls games, but I think despite this not being an action game you would still enjoy it. To be clear, because I don't want my passion to be misinterpreted, I don't expect you to play it. Just if you ever get an itch for an experimental story-heavy game keep it in mind if you haven't already played it.
Ooooookay, food time. :P