Hi there. Thanks for the well-written critique of this project. It's clear that you've given this a good amount of time and critical thought, which I greatly appreciate.
For whatever it's worth to those reading these comments, covid is not central to my long term goals for this project. In January 2021 when I began writing this game, the salience of the whole lockdown phenomenon was very intriguing to me— social islands of people baking sourdough bread and walking through empty streets against the grim backdrop of tens of thousands of people dying each day. Independent of politics, independent of personal liberties and decision making, I was very interested in that juxtaposition. And I wanted to explore it while talking about music.
I mention it further down in these comments, but exactly how I want to approach the stories told in this game has shifted considerably since its first release. And while I don't have a crystal clear view of where this game is headed, I do intend for covid to remain just background noise in this game— it's there to bring a historical realism (whether it peeves the player or not) to the events of a time that I happen to think is pretty interesting. With the exception of Lyndsie's poor, distant Halmeoni, no one in this game is catching covid. Although one person is in fact very, very sick.
I'll be the first to admit that this game starts off clunky while I got my bearings. It isn't amazing, and it doesn't do a stellar job selling what comes after. But it is a part of this game's history, and that much is enough for me to want to leave what's written as is. Because, as much as I sound like a broken record by now, I do this as a hobby to entertain myself, and so far I've had a lot of fun. It's all gravy if someone else feels moved by what I've written, or decides that Mozart does, in fact, slap.
Thanks again for the review, Van.