I edited the thread just now to allow spoilers, so it's good.
You know, we got very worried about how people would respond to Kota's story. We mapped it out very early in development, before the first build came out. We fully expected Minotaur Hotel to be a small game in terms of reception, so we thought we could take the chance to comment on the very recurring motif of, shall we say, gods marrying inside their pantheon, and it was a chance to highlight just how gods aredifferent from mortals. It also connected to the hotel bringing in people who are lost, and it's a reprise of the MC's and Asterion's relationship — both are transgressive — while telling a story that, in its origins, has zero relation with the Greek gods. It rolled up many things into one dense storyline. Needless to say things changed a lot since, the game's audience got bigger than we ever imagined it'd become, so we were nervous about it, but we didn't think changing the plans would work. Thankfully it all came together well in the end! I'm particularly proud of the longer haiku and the introspection of the nighttime scene, Nemo and Kangarube really did it and nanoff made it work perfectly well in-game.
And about the Hinterlands skip... When nanoff brought up the idea of making a skip I only needed a few minutes to think of what the writing could be like. Mind you, it's not a fourth wall break — he's talking to the MC there! It's all in-character.