Behind the naming mechanic

First of all, I’d like to thank everyone who played the game, left sweet comments and ratings. I went into the jam expecting to make a fun little game that wouldn’t get much attention, but the response has been amazing and I’m very grateful for that. 🥺💕

Now, I wanted to talk about the ‘naming mechanic’ and how it came to be. (since that seems to be what people liked the most)

The main idea for the game was to show 82 from a different perspective than in Quaint (if you know, you know 🤫). I wanted to show his reasons for acting the way he did and maybe give some more insight into his character (because it goes beyond what is and will be shown in the main game; I’d probably have to make a separate game just about him to get it all out).

So I thought I’d write a little scene of him talking about his doubts and fears to his friend Dio (who does not appear as a named character in Quaint but is pretty established in my mind). BUT, since it’s O2A2, it’d have been a shame not to try out some cool gimmicks I’d never used before. But I was also super tired because of a recent release so I didn’t want to go crazy, either. So I settled on implementing a name input for the player and a parallax effect for the main menu. Both very simple but a level above your basic visual novel coding. The input thing kinda collided with my idea of 82 having this conversation with Dio, but I was like “Okay, as long as it’s a friend of 82’s, that’s fine.”

But then I had a thought. I could make a little easter egg for those who’ve played Quaint, just for fun. I planned to have a tiny secret scene if you put in 82’s lover’s name in the input box. BUT THEN. Then I thought, “Okay, what if I could have a bunch of conversations and show how 82 interacts with different people? That’d be pretty cool.” So the player would put in their own name first and then I’d drop other names in the conversation so they could progress the story. This also allowed me to go back to my original idea of 82 talking to Dio who was the canon friend in my mind.

I think it turned out pretty neat overall. I kinda wished the word count wasn’t so limited so I could make more branching paths (for example the choices were supposed to drop different names), but four conversations is still a good number for such a tiny game. (and I may still expand it in the future)

(The easter egg idea was also implemented, btw. And there might be something extra in there, too. ^^)

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Anyway, thank you again for the warm reception, and maybe check out the main game if you liked the setting? Quaint isn’t as light-hearted and it’s a bit of a slow burn but I hear the story is interesting, and you'll see 82 there, too. ^^