Hello, everyone! Hope you're having a wonderful and socially isolated weekend.

As we said in the Release Date Announcement DevLog, we planned on doing a Q&A session of sorts. We intended on publishing it Monday but, hey, it seems like we won't get more questions and the ones we got are all answered already, so let's do it.

To make things more readable to everyone we organized the questions into four different topics — Asterion, Argos, Guests and General Stuff. We tried to make this good, hope you enjoy it.

If these answers raise discussion or further inquiries (and we have a thread here where you can go, besides posting in the comments here) we might also answer them.

ASTERION

I do get the feeling that Asterion's hiding something though. Why would he go to the afterlife after death and work for and talk with Hades if Athena was intent on torturing him for all eternity? Did he do something while with Hades? Is it something Argos hinted at? All Asterion has told us so far is that he's being punished for being born a monster and his "cowardice" in the face of Theseus.

He's been told he was sentenced for his meekness, but an important detail we haven't had the chance to explore yet is that he wasn't invited to join his own trial. So... he doesn't necessarily know the details of why he was sentenced.

Beyond that there is a timeline to his afterlife. After he died he spent a few years on Hades (he worked a job while there). It took the Olympians a while to send out a sentence for him, and it took a while longer before he was taken to the realm where he's in now.

So... Yeah! There's a lot of stuff to his history. Keep in mind Asterion has been around for thousands of years. He has plenty of baggage and secrets, both personal and otherwise.

I also get the feeling that there's more to Jean than he's letting on. A *lot* more. He seems to believe in the Hotel's mission, yet Asterion has never mentioned him. He guides people to the Hotel, claims he's a deliveryman, could that be in the sense that he's delivering staff to the hotel? But why would he do that? Who set him up to do it? He doesn't look old enough to have worked with the previous masters, nor does he look like an ageless mythical beast. I have a very loose theory though, that demigods don't age like humans do and that guilt plays a major part, but I feel like that's a bit of a stretch at the moment.

Jean is a wine delivery man! He braves the unforgiving wilderness, the unrelenting cold and the unyielding heat to bring only the finest French wines wherever they are required — always with a playful attitude and a love for his work! It's a tough job but someone's gotta do it. He meets all sorts of weirdos in his travels, too.

Jokes aside, Jean is a guy trying to make ends meet. While it's been decades since the hotel was last operational, perhaps some people from back then still remember it or have told others about it. Some people might want to see the hotel back and running — it wouldn't be out of the question for them to exploy people to try and nudge things forward.

Will Asterion have a toga in future like in some images I found?

Yep! Probably will be obtainable during Build 0.4.

Will the Cerberus statue have a meaning in the future?

Yes, maybe Asterion can pet it sometime. Cerberus was a very good boy!

In the future customization section will Asterion have beards?

We haven't decided yet. It's on the table!

Will we get sexual act diversity in this game? Especially things we will be able to do with Asterion. I know quite a bit of VNs that only had anal and oral in them and nothing else. And that's quite a pet peeve of mine. Like, why is frot, in my opinion an amazing sex act, so rare in VNs? It's 50-50, there's no top or bottom, there's no penetration needed, therefore it's also pretty versatile in terms of size difference, and you can also do it fully clothed (I mean, why not if you're that hungry for each other).

Will we ever get to explore some kinks with Asterion? Even if we could assume only one role.

I'll answer both of those questions at once.

Back when I wrote the original Minotaur Hotel draft, Asterion was imagined as a 100% bottom with a submissive streak. He has some kinks which, to some extent, "were there from the start" and some which might have arisen as responses to what he's been through over the centuries. He was written to be like a real person, with peculiarities and quirks of his own, and those details later became foundational to what he becomes like as a character later in the story.

With that preface in mind, when we get to the sexual content with Asterion we have a very firm guiding principle: it always has to be in-character. He has likes and dislikes.

So, you mentioned frotting, and that's something which is perfectly within what he would enjoy. Meanwhile, topping is a pretty jarring and intimidating idea for him — he can't see himself doing that to a "Master." (We might still throw in a topping scene way later in the game when there's enough trust, who knows.)

Asterion would also enjoy kinks around him being submissive, although he'll be particular about it — there are some harmless kinks which would make him feel terrible because of what he's been through, and some harder stuff which is all nice and good.

As a rule of thumb, he will appreciate things which reassure him that he's cherished, appreciated and valued. If the player gives him an earring or a nipple ring he will appreciate it (even if putting them on causes a little bit of pain) because he interprets jewelry as a gift which implies being cherished. Meanwhile roleplay which would put him in the role of someone being punished would be very disturbing for him. Aka he probably won't like being spanked.

To close this off... I didn't expect Minotaur Hotel to take off, it wasn't even a VN back then. I wrote it with a very specific audience in mind, and that's the crowd who likes big, submissive bottoms. Our breadth has increased so much since then, so while we are trying to allow for a wider diversity of options we still don't want to compromise on our fundamental vision about Asterion's sexuality.

Will we get to see or even do some shenanigans (jokes, pranks, puns)? Oh. And does Asterion like puns? I love puns. Though they're the devils work so I have nun. I know. I know. Puns are tear-ible and un-bear-able. Hee hee hee.

There is a scene on Build 0.3 which will make you very happy. That's all I'll say for now.

ARGOS

What was your interest or inspiration for Argos and allowing Sadistic content in the game in general?

The sadistic content fulfills a few purposes. It lets us show a different side to Asterion which the player would not see otherwise, but most importantly I believe that without the possibility of doing bad things then doing the right thing feels cheap. If you only have the choice to be good... That's no choice at all! It felt cowardly to write a story which relies so strongly on a character being the victim of extraordinary abuse and not addressing how that can still happen today. Beyond that, Minotaur Hotel deals a lot with the use and abuse of power, so I thought that was a place we needed to visit, at least to some extent.

About Argos... It may surprise you but in the original Minotaur Hotel draft he didn't exist! He was a very late addition to the game, the idea for him came when I noticed that the first act needed more spice. That said from the start I had a very particular vision for him. He embodies a number of the story's and the labyrinth's themes. I won't spoil them, but so far one of the things we've shown is that he is a specific type of evil — he can only cause as much harm as you allow him to, you have to "let him in".

Another thing I had in mind for him is that a leader will often have to deal with very unpleasant people. That's part of a leader's duty, there's no running away from it, but there are many ways to address the issue.

To close this question off for now... Another inspiration for him is that I wanted a "puzzle box" character. He brings puzzles to the player, but he's a puzzle in and of himself!

Will there be an option to refuse the Lantern entirely? To refuse the contract, regardless of the clauses, and just say no?

No. Sometimes a leader has to make some tough choices and hard deals with unsavory people to realize a worthwhile good. It may be a bitter feeling, but sometimes it has to be done.

There are ways around it, however. If you find something wrong with one of the articles you can point it out, and if you have either the Humanities or Leader background you can trick Argos with no strings attached.

Will there be an arc of redemption for Argos in a pious save?

He's fulfilling his mission, one which he's been taught is thoroughly virtuous. He probably doesn't see himself doing anything wrong, so it's not like he sees a need for redemption in the first place.

That said, assuming the Master isn't sending Asterion out to the valley, Argos hasn't actually done anything to hurt him — which means that even for our standards there's not much wrongdoing there to warrant redemption.

Will there be a way to keep Argos in a short leash?

"Keeping him on a short leash" implies he is somehow obligated to follow or obey the Master, which isn't the case. What you can do, however, is beat him at his own game — which should accomplish a similar effect to what you asked for in the first place.

Argos is more of the "that guy" or a "nice when you get to know him"?

He's there to fulfill a mission, which as distasteful as it might be does not say all there is to know about his character. He can be quite enjoyable, doubly so when he likes the Master.

You can see some of that in Build 0.3.

For those who took the humanities/leader dialogue option with Argos, will he be more difficult to deal with now that he knows MC can outsmart him? Or will he be more respectful towards us? Is there any way to convince him not to torture Asterion? The poor guy's been through enough...

Argos respects people with wit and smarts! It's an important quality to have when the contracts you sign control the fabric of reality. In his own way he's trying to push the Master to embody a host of ideals, not all of them related to mistreating Asterion.

Now, keep in mind Argos is the "foreman." He doesn't directly torture Asterion a lot — at least not nearly as much as the other things roaming the valley. The one torturing Asterion is the player if you so choose to send him out — and you always have the option of not doing so.

GUESTS

I'm not sure if this was answered in the past or not but can you romance others characters besides Asterion? Or a polygamous option?

Asterion is the only character you can romance. Everything else in the story — including the guests — came as a consequence from that initial premise. At this point offering another romance-able option would be infeasible, we would have to rework the entire game.

A polygamous option, similarly, is not possible for the same reason — the amount of writing we'd have to do would be insane! It would also be out of character for Asterion to go easily with that. The poor moo has enough self-esteem issues as-is, he wouldn't be able to see himself as an equal partner in a poly relationship.

Are there any characters (currently in the game and coming in the next update, this can include the player avatar) that you've had to change or tweak from their original inception/creation? Like, turning one character from snarky into a more introspective person, as a random example. Or how maybe a line or set of lines maybe sounded too morbid for the tone of another character so you removed them.

Absolutely, yes.

Asterion is largely the same as he was in the original draft, just more fleshed out and the Master's friendship with him is progressing much slower.

Luke and Kota went through extensive revisions. Their designs changed completely, originally Kota was a long, eastern, quadrupedal dragon and Luke would switch between walking bipedally and quadrupedally. That didn't translate well to a VN format so we had to change it.

The original draft of Minotaur Hotel had many other guests, some of which unfortunately could not be brought over to the VN for a host of reasons — their plotlines would be too complex to implement well, their tones did not mesh well with what we have now, did not have enough depth to carry all the story we want to pack, so on.

Luke and Kota had a planned interaction which, sadly, we thought was best to cut. It would involve the two of them throwing insults regarding their countries distasteful, unsightly atrocities. That was planned, but I couldn't write something which hit the tone I was going for. Ultimately we decided to scrap it.

As for the player character, Minotaur Hotel was originally a story I wrote while taking cues from the readers on what the protagonist should do, which lead to him being quite the morally upstanding man. In translating that story to a VN format we had to write the cruel options too.

Will  we get closure of the creatures that "forgot" their passports at the hotel?

Yes, we have some of that scheduled for Build 0.4. You get to see a glimpse of what's to come at the very end of Build 0.3.

Will Kota's red dragon friend show up? In 0.2 he had an icon in the teaser.

Not yet, but eventually.

Will one of Lucas' relatives visit the hotel in the future (near or far)?

Depending on certain choices the player can make, there is a chapter slated for way later in the story where Luke goes out of the hotel for a while to meet up with his family.

GENERAL STUFF

You mentioned that the game is going to have a ton of replayability. Do you see the game having a definite end? Or will it be more like something that could be played endlessly?

We have an end in mind, yes... Actually a number of endings, depending on player choices and so on.

That said, what we want is to set the endings so there is no golden or true one — they should be a reflection of what the player and Asterion have been through, the choices you've made, and so on. By the end of it people should be discussing which ending is best for them in particular.

Another facet of it is packing enough content that a player would necessarily require more than one playthrough to see it all — which would make multiple playthroughs more interesting and less repetitive. This is where the guests come in, eventually there should be a cast of guests which is big enough that you'll need to play more than once to see them all.

So... I won't say Minotaur Hotel will be an endless game, but it should be very replayable for a visual novel.

Will we get to see more about the contracts and their mechanics in this build?

Yes. There's quite a bit about how they function on this build — not all there is to know, but enough to stir up quite a bit of discussion and threads we will explore in future content.

Since 0.3 has so  many variables, would there be an achievement system or other kind of system so we know what we got and what we didn't get in game?

No plans for it, but that's an interesting idea. Depending on how things go we might consider it.

Will the speedrunner route continue to be this cringey?

Absolutely!

CONCLUSION

This was very fun! Thanks to everyone who sent us questions. We'll see you guys very soon, don't forget Friday is Build 0.3's release date. And if you got this far and enjoyed this DevLog, consider giving it a Like or leaving a 5-star rating! Good ratings in particular help us a lot, they make the game show up more often on Itch.io.

If you have any more questions just say it and we'll answer if we have the time. Good night!