Hello! As today marks the 1^st anniversary of Quaint’s full release, I wanted to post a little something to celebrate!

Quaint remains the biggest project I’ve ever completed and the one I’m the most proud of. It’s a piece of my heart in game form. It let me grow as an artist and meet so many cool people. It’s nowhere near perfect and it’ll never be. But if you played and you loved it, thank you! It means more than you know. 🥺💕

And now for the Q&A section:

(disclaimer: im sick as a dog today but i still wanted to post this so forgive me if the answers are a little messy lol)

• Which character have you put the most thought into? (MOSS COS)

I think no one will be surprised if I say Q and his two love interests —T and Milo- simply because I spent the most time with them, trying to work out their motivations and how different things affect them. There’s a lot of backstory to them that didn’t even make it to the game (or is only hinted at). But if I had to pick just one it’d probably be Milo, mainly for the fact that I wanted to make sure they were not too perfect. I had to nerf them a little so they’d feel more like a person and less like walking eye candy haha.

• Q is my favorite character. Is there anything interesting about his design process (MOSS COS)

The thing about Q is that I threw together a bunch of my own personality traits, anxieties, and outlooks on life (and depression), and the rest kinda evolved with the story. So I’m afraid there wasn’t like an interesting process that I could walk you through right now 😅

BUT if you want a fun fact, I can tell you that his looks are based on my Stardew Valley farmer that I made in like 2018 lol I just liked the design a lot and didn’t want it to go to waste. 😆 (please excuse the old art style…)

Also, I’m very happy to hear he’s your favorite! I used to have a lot of doubts about him being a likable enough character so that means a lot 🥺

• If they were in a world where magic doesn't exist, what would Milo's dream job be, and would they manage to get it or would they end up in something else? (Optionally, the same to other cast members too!) (Bazu)

I don’t know if ‘dream job’ is the right word here, but they’d probably feel right at home doing research at some kinda lab or university. Like biotechnology or some other field that’d let them experiment with stuff. I also think styling people would be a good one lol.

As for Q, I usually imagine him having his own cute bakery in AUs so I think he’d like that, haha ^^ How he’d manage with customers is another story sfjdlksjlfdkslf

T’s dream job would be like a CEO of a big company just so he could be rich lol realistically, I see him having some kinda company (so there’s no one telling him what to do), but probably nothing big 🤭

• Which part of the game dev process did you enjoy the most, and which part did you learn the most from? (Bazu)

The initial planning phase where I just daydream things, drawing sprites and programming are my favorite parts! And obviously the part when everything finally comes together, that’s always a satisfying moment ^^

I think that every aspect of my craft got upgraded thanks to working on the game. The change in art is probably the most visible, but I’d also never written anything this long before (even in my first language) so that’s a pretty big one for me. Plus, I went into this with zero knowledge of programming so the jump was huge (and frustrating at times).

• What was the hardest part of development for you? And the easiest? (Joy)

Writing is always the hardest, haha 😅 And I’m not talking about coming up with stories and planning stuff as that’s the easy part, but the physical act of WRITING THINGS DOWN is hands down the worst for me. I mostly think in visuals so forcing these images into words can be hard sometimes (not to mention that English is my second language so it’s double the fun when I can’t find the right words orz).

As for the easiest, it’s probably programming? Excluding the occasional hurdle, it’s usually pretty quick and mechanical. I’m at a point where I can make pretty much anything I need now so I mostly just breeze through it.

• If you could go back and change some things about Quaint, would you and what would it be? (Krzysiek Maja)

I mean, I can change things at any time, it’d just be a lot of work 😆 but if i could easily fix things, i’d make the beginning more digestible and fix the diplomat storyline because it feels a bit abrupt and out of place as it is right now 🤔 these two are my two biggest pain points overall 😅

• What surprised you the most about the game’s reception? (Krzysiek Maja)

Probably the fact that people considered Milo a threat? It definitely makes sense when you don’t know the whole story, it just never crossed my mind when I was writing their character. They’re my sweet cinnamon roll, they’ve never done anything wrong 🥰

• Would you consider doing a prequel about the society and/or the organisation’s creation? (Krzysiek Maja)

I don’t have any plans for it, but if I had a good enough idea, why not ^^ I think it’d be interesting to explore these settings with different characters and in different circumstances

• If Quaint could be any other game genre, what would it be? (Krzysiek Maja)

I think any kind of RPG would be neat! With level-able spells and map exploration and quests 😫 One can only dream…

• Which ending do you consider your favourite? (Krzysiek Maja)

From the main endings – Kintsugi (ending C) because it’s the most realistic IMO. From the bad endings – Fate worse than death (ending #4) because it’s the most heartbreaking.

• QT or MilQ? (Krzysiek Maja)

That’s a tough one lol I’d say it mostly depends on the day 😅 To me, the appeal of QT is that they’re childhood friends who pretty much only had each other and they share a lot of experiences that other people wouldn’t understand. Then again, I love Milo more as a character so 😆

• I would like to know, in the endings where Milo and Q end up together, what are some of their favorite things to do together? Like if there are any places they like to go (or maybe even any cute mischief they like to get up to together). (Carrot)

I’d say playing games and cooking together are probably pretty high on that list haha. But other than that, I also like the idea of them taking dance classes or going on 1-2 day trips somewhere new just to break the routine and have a little adventure.

• Please I am very curious about Wren and his sunk-deep feelings for Milo... I like how there were just sprinkles of hints throughout the game. I wondered if you could give any more details about anything that might have happened in the past between them? Or even just struggles Wren had? (btw I still don't forgive Wren for betraying us in that one ending) (Parsnip 🤔)

(Djflsfdslfs well, in his mind, what he did in that ending was probably justified and not evil at all)

I’d say they came pretty close to dating but never did. 🤭 Wren was probably crushing on Milo even before they became a master, and then the charm came in and complicated things a bit more. That made him confess during Iris’s appointment ceremony (to everyone’s surprise) but he took it back the next day ‘because of professional reasons’. And Milo was willing to give him a chance after that confession so they didn’t really like him taking it back haha. But in the end, they managed to stay friends. (Milo is very happy to tease him about it every chance they get, though.)

Also, completely random but I have this drawing of them that I never posted lol

• Really random, but I was curious what some of the strongest spells are that people can learn? I find the magic system so cool and want to know more about it! Also for instance how do people figure out or come up with new spells? (Daikon 🤔🤔🤔)

Hmmm, a spell is as strong as you make it or as strong as the magic reserves of the person casting it but I’m guessing you mean like ‘powerful’? Then I feel like pure elemental spells or spells that affect other people would be pretty powerful. 🤔 Though, honestly, the magic in Quaint is pretty OP as it is, so you could probably pull off any big thing you’d think of. 😅

As for the second part of the question, that’s a little tricky. For me, a spell is like a sure-fire way to do something so like a specific recipe made up of different concepts. BUT there is no one fixed way to do things so you may achieve the same effect with a different spell, too. So coming up with a spell would be trying to get the result you want while hitting all the requirements by filling them with specific concepts. (So, for example, if you want to lift an object off the ground, you need to apply force from below, right? In that case, you’d start with the combination of Change and Movement, observe the object’s reaction, and adjust for any additional factors.) The problem is that you can’t always tell what kinda requirement you’re missing so that’s where the experimenting part comes in.

• I would like to know what Penny's favorite snacks and activities are 💕 (Taiyaki 🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔)

Aww, what a cute question! 🤭 I don’t think snakes ‘snack’ the way other pets do, but assuming that they did, I think she’d enjoy a pouched egg or a chicken tender. Then, her favorite activity would be getting in the way of whatever Wren is doing lol. But other than that, maybe snuggling and exploring her surroundings? (but only a little, she’s actually pretty shy)

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And that would be it! Thank you so much for the questions, I had fun answering these! And if you missed the chance to send in yours, my tumblr ask is always open for more. ^^