Minotaur Hotel
Build 0.5 Q&A Session
Just one week away! To continue the tradition of holding a Q&A session before the release of the new build, here are our answers for your questions.
Sinsiny: Can we marry Asterion in the next build this is a very important question
mau70000: I second this, can we marry the moo at some point? Maybe have little moos in the future??
MINOANON: Hummmmmm... Not yet!
AlphaMatrix: First off I love your game, secondly is it possible through a series of contracts to break Asterion free from the labyrinth. An example word to be if contract B clauses are met then contract A would take into effect therefore causing contract C to release him or causing another contract to take effect. This needs to be explain in further detail but I do not have enough time, hopefully you can answer my question.
MINOANON: I don't want to give spoilers or specifics, so I'll just say that searching for a permanent solution to Asterion's situation will be an important part of the story going forward. That is, after all, what the Hotel's Master would want to do, I believe.
GayForHandsomeSquidward: Will we be learning more about Jean? I'm very curious about this man shepherding people to the hotel.
MINOANON: Yes, you'll see Jean again in Build 0.5. You'll get the opportunity to learn a lot about him!
KuribohBBQ: Is the shy bull secretly a rough, dominating top in bed?
MINOANON: Asterion will be less submissive if you don't act dominant towards him, but chances are he will never be very dominating. Let's just say that being seriously physically dominating towards the Master is something that would make him extremely anxious.
Dook_E_Howser: I want to hug the snek. Can I hugs the snek?
MINOANON: How lascivious! I can't answer this question, it would be a colossal spoiler!
onee1d1d: Hey, first of all I want to thank you all for your hard work with that project! I played it only a month ago but what I've seen so far really impressed me! The question is... Does the artist have any plans to change and improve Asterion's sprites in his pre healed state? I think there's some lack of variety in terms of emotions and different poses compared to his beefy, fully healed state and it really shows.
NANOFF: It's really not a priority right now, since once we release 0.5 the vast majority of the game is spent with the fully healed sprites, but I might consider doing it at one point. I did those sprites, along with fully healed Asterion, Argos, Luke and Kota like two years ago (Jesus Christ has it been this long already?) and most of those got a general cleanup/redraws so, we'll see. Kota is probably going to get some sprite updates next though.
dl_raist: How much NSFW content is there? I played the first few updates, but there wasn't much content on that end. I was extremely excited for the game, but slightly disappointed that there were only two scenes with NSFW content. Great game, but wanting more...
MINOANON: Sorry to inform you but Build 0.5 won't add any explicit NSFW content. We focused on advancing the story as much as possible and getting the systems and mechanics to work, so sadly the adult content had to take a backseat for now. Which is a bit sad to us as well, as we do enjoy writing adult content and we see it as a chance to show bits of their character and personality.
As a little behind the scenes fun fact, I did write a little adult scene for Luke that narrated him spending a night with a guest. It would be unlocked by hanging out with him a few times, but in the end we chose not to put it in the game right now as we are still experimenting and getting the hang of of how the hangout scenes will work. If we had put it in now we could a little bit down the road realize it was best if we removed or relocated it, because it might not fit too well with the other systems.
Beyond the systems/mechanics stuff I described, at this moment only one character is in a position where we could show him having sex and that's Luke. Sadly, it will be a while before we're putting out another sex scene.
Vibin' Voidy: This is probably a bit specific, but will there be a scene where Asterion falls asleep in the MC's lap?
NANOFF: Oh, Voidy, we have such sights to show you.
LittleLamb32: Will the source of the magic that binds to Labyrinth ever be revealed?
MINOANON: I'm glad you asked! Yes, we'll probably broach and explore that topic in Build 0.6 but if you dig around a bit you should be able to figure it out with what's on Build 0.5.
Red_Bar: Is Luke just unwilling to make healthy food, or would making a light salad physically hurt him?
Another excellent question! Luke's organism completely adapted itself to his diet of trash and junk. He is nutritionally dependent on it and physically adapted to such an extent that would put Darwin to shame.
If he were to consume a light salad, or even touch it, he would probably have a violent physical reaction.
Lan, the Nicest Orc: Regarding the new arrivals, was research into their particular myths/culture hard? What were some of the tools you used for that research?
NANOFF: As usual, our research involves tons of googling and watching videos and movies and consulting with people from the respective countries.
Themba was by far the hardest character to design for the game. Sub-Saharan African mythological creatures aren't as extensively portrayed in Western media so we had to do a lot of research to do. We had another issue: the game already has an abundance of both heavyset characters and reptiles, and a lot of African mythological monsters tend to be giant aquatic mishmashes of reptiles and large mammals (which, you know, considering the kind of stuff you find in African rivers is not surprising). The grootslang was the most fitting creature for Themba's role as the hotel's accountant, considering it's a creature that guards precious gems, and one of the better known ones, we played up the elephant elements of the design. We also did research on Johannesburg since the city influences Themba's personality and backstory.
MINOANON: Zaggy Norse helped us a lot with this. Doing our own research is good and important, but nothing beats having a chat with someone who's actually knowledgeable with the culture itself.
NANOFF: Khenbish was also tricky because A) I swear to god there are no decent public domain/non commercial license pictures of Ulaan Baatar, and B) we couldn't find anyone from Mongolia to personally consult with. The best we got was getting a friend who went to school with a Mongolian classmate to ask him some questions, and we managed to get some information from him. We complemented our research watching two movies: the Eagle Huntress, and the Story of the Weeping Camel. It was an interesting case for us because a lot of Mongolians were upset with Eagle Huntress (produced and narrated by Daisy Ridley) overstating the amount of opposition the protagonist was up against for trying to do a male dominated activity — there's a lot of close ups of old men looking angry while everyone seems chill in the crowd shots, you can tell that it's trying to force a narrative. It was a good reminder to never be satisfied with a single source when doing research on a foreign culture.
MINOANON: Because we couldn't rely on someone to consult with, we had to be more creative in our research. Beyond the sources nanoff mentioned, in the end I'd say one of the biggest inspirations for Khenbish came from us reading Mongolian poetry and studying what structures they use. We tried to incorporate some of it in the writing. I don't expect many people to take note of it but I'm proud of that aspect of his content.
We covered Khenbish and Themba, who come from Mongolia and South Africa respectively. But there's also Storm and P, who both come from Brazil — more specifically, they come from a part of it with which I am very acquainted and from a very specific economic and social situation. For them I was overwhelmingly pulling from the folklore and mythology I was personally familiar with. That's probably the main thing about it — while we tried to explore different cultures with most of our characters, in the Hinterlands I was fully diving into my own and going as far as I could.
Because of this, the Hinterlands probably had the richest mix of sources. For the record, I should add I also read some Câmara Cascudo (a Brazilian folklorist) for ideas, and that really played a role in the story.
Rob MacWolf: Is there any sort of "magical non-humans living secretly among humans" society or council or anything, or is everyone out there more or less on their own?
MINOANON: There is, yes. We might touch on it someday so I don't want to give any spoilers, but what I can say is that it's not some shady powerful committee or anything of the sort. It's a painfully underfunded little organisation, struggling to make ends meet, staffed by a few mythicals and some select humans who overwhelmingly are not paid for their work.
For the most part they are struggling to make sure charms are accessible worldwide (which is a big and complicated issue) and trying to improve the quality of the passport charms so mythicals can live better lives.
As a result, while there is a pro-mythical organisation it's not well-staffed enough to help individual mythicals. They're fighting the big picture, and everyone is pretty much on their own.
We might touch on this group someday in one of the guest's backstory, we'll see.
washball: can we get a size chart for how tall each character is compared to humans?
NANOFF: We don't want to give the Master a canon height, but here's a chart for the characters:
So,
- Asterion: 190cm (6'4)
- Argos (coiled): 160m (5'3)
- Cobalts: around 105cm (3'6) each
- Kota: 187m (6'2)
- Luke: 178cm (5'10)
- Khenbish: 170cm (5'7)
- Wolf (sitting): 135cm (4'6)
- Themba: 210cm (6'11)
- Robert: 213cm (7')
- Storm: 180cm (6')
- P: 163cm (5'4)
Before you ask, yes, this team supports the metric system. Fuck imperial units.
MINOANON: I should probably add that we don't have a specific canonical height for the player character. We mainly only specify that he's shorter than Asterion.
LqMana: I hope this isn’t too spoilery but how much of the original 4chan quest will make it to the game? Like will we see black the hydra (I love the relationship between Magenta and Luke)?
MINOANON: Excellent question! As a rule of thumb, pretty much all the themes and "spirit" carry over from the original, so you can expect us to follow more or less a similar "trajectory" for the story. A lot of specific plot points are making a return as well, but I won't be specific on that one.
What I can say in particular is that I am very happy with how we are touching on "Asterion's trials", as it is perfectly what I originally intended for the quest and could never fully realize because of the format.
Not all characters will return, however. It was not easy "retrofitting" the old ones into the game's more detailed tone, and it was even harder to fit them with the current mechanics. Jojo's storyline, for example, would be too difficult to write as it would significantly affect the hotel itself, so sadly he won't make a return.
Black, however, is 100% going to be in the game further down the road. Truth be told, writing his content is one of the things I'm most excited about, he's one of my favorite characters — and yes, his story will be closely connected to Luke's, very similar to how it happened on the quest.
Chapomon: Is there more to why Asterion has been sentenced to eternal torture than has been revealed as of yet?
MINOANON: Yes. A lot of it is already in the game. If you dig around in the valley you can find a lot of very clear information about what Asterion did, as that part of the story has already been told. But there is more to the whole thing, mainly pertaining to the context surrounding it.
You'll also see some of it in Build 0.5. A good amount of new information is part of the main story, and some of it is optional (you may or may not find all of it). There'll be more bits and pieces coming up all the way to the end.
That said, a lot of clues no one seems to have notices are already in the environmental storytelling. We are very deliberate with how we describe things. It's not enough for people to figure out what happened, but I think it can lead players in the right direction.
As a final note to your question, I've seen some people discussing their theories about this topic as a sort of "whodunit", mainly asking "what did Asterion do to deserve this?". We certainly want players to have a detective attitude towards the story, but that is not necessarily the right line of inquiry. Keep in mind that Minotaur Hotel is a lot about playing detective in a context of a story about mythology.
Bizarro B: Can all the characters be happy! In some games you can only make one or two characters happy at a time. In your game is there an ending where everyone is happy
Chapomon: Will all the characters eventually find love and happiness in their lives in one form or another?
MINOANON: That's difficult to say for sure.
It is and will be impossible to recruit all characters in a single run, so by definition you can't get a happy ending for everyone, on a single playthrough at least. That said, if you prioritize helping your staff get back on their feet over other tasks you might be able to see them all to the end of their storylines. It will depend on how you manage your time, mainly.
McKenzie: Now that the hotel has wifi, what kind of music would asterion get into? (My heaecanon is that as soon as he start exploring he just starts listening to smash mouth)
NANOFF: This is the kind of stuff I absolutely love to write. We dipped our toes a little on the concept of showing Asterion stuff on the internet in Chapter 13 and we'll probably have a couple more scenes like it, including variations for all the backgrounds. Asterion doesn't like loud noises much (he gets thoroughly very annoyed when you try to show him earrape memes on the speedrunner route), so I think he'd enjoy chill music like bossa nova the most.
Ced: At which build will Minotaur hotel finish on?
MINOANON: Hard to say for sure, mainly because the size of our builds vary so much. Build 0.5 was gigantic and, in other circumstances, might have been broken down into 12 or so smaller updates. Because of that I really can't say for sure how many more builds it will take.
That said, I can safely say that with Build 0.5 we are past the halfway point... Maybe we're around 60% done with the main story (including Build 0.5 here). We are getting there!
Lucasso972: But I feel like Kota and Luke basically adopted the three basement cobalts. So are they like an old bickering married couple now?
MINOANON: They are not an actual couple, but they are definitely like an old married couple.
Build 0.5 has a few moments showing the two of them getting along better while still giving each other shit, and depending on the player's choices they can really team up to accomplish their shared goals.
kingpoke0901: Who's your favorite among the cast of characters (besides the big moo of course )? And what other kinds of mythology would you like to include in future updates?
MINOANON: Excluding Asterion, my favorite character really depends on how I'm feeling at the moment.
If I'm feeling cheeky then Argos is my favorite character, hands down. It's hard to describe the sheer fun that comes with writing that little rascal, even if his scenes can be extremely difficult because of the sheer number of variations that come with him. I also have a particular soft spot for him because a very considerable amount of the Argos content that shows up in Build 0.5 (more than half, in fact) was written by Nemo, and I think that experience of working alongside him was phenomenally fruitful.
I also have a very soft spot for Luke, mainly when I'm feeling too overwhelmed after writing a lot of Asterion content. I can also be cheeky with him while not having to worry too much about variations and the main plot... It also helps that Luke is closely tied to an upcoming character (Black the hydra) who is by far one of my favorite characters as well.
As for what kinds of mythology I'd like to include... I have a few ideas, yes. Mainly, I'd like to have more characters which originate from a mythological tradition while being geographically removed from it. I like the idea that, much like regular humans, mythicals might have had migratory waves over the centuries. For example, Luke's family allegedly comes from Greece but, culturally, he's inherently American. Same goes for Storm, as he is a minotaur (Greek mythology) born and raised in a very poor part of Brazil. I'd like to keep exploring this.
Closely tied to what I just said, I'd really like having one or two characters associated with the sea. A selkie or shark-inspired character would be very nice, I hope we can get to them someday.
NANOFF: My favorites are Khenbish and Themba, it shouldn't come as a surprise considering the kind of stuff I draw outside of MH. Beyond the designs they're not the kind of characters that usually show up in furry VNs (I guess you guys will see why soon enough) and I find them refreshing to write for.
Building on what Minoanon wrote, I think we have a really solid and geographically diverse cast of characters already (after this update we have like, 3 more major guests we have plans for), the only glaring ommission being Oceania. If we ever add another main guest, it would be cool if he was from New Zealand, maybe. That could tie in with the sea theme. Mullerornis is making a quite charming furry VN based on aboriginal Australian mythology and we don't want to step on his turf. We have some rough ideas for a minor character from the Middle East/South Asia for 0.6 or 0.7, too.
EB150N: What was it like licensing all that lyre music? Were they down with their performances becoming the signature sound of a dramatic Minotaur romance? Some of those tracks are absolutely crushing it, and historically informed music isn't often in games like this, never mind the epitaph of Seikilos... Also, the project is amazing and I'm glad people can grow up in a world where games like this exist. If this was around when I was a little proto bromosexual, I would have felt less isolated.
MINOANON: So, funny you ask that... Well, for starters we mainly use a licensing service called iLicenseMusic, and things are pretty straightforward with them. You pay a fee and can license up to 10 songs in a month. They don't check what kind of project you are doing, there's not really any restriction on the kind of content we are publishing, so... While the musicians do get compensated for their work (and I think they get around 50% of the money), I am not sure they actually check what projects their songs are in.
That said, in truth most of the lyre-sounding tracks in the game were actually performed with an African kora, which is a similar-ish instrument. It's almost impossible finding lyre songs to license, sadly. If I could, though, I'd really like to have more tracks with an actual Luthieros, historically-accurate Greek lyre, but we'd probably have to commission them.
And thank you for your comment ("If this was around when I was a little proto bromosexual, I would have felt less isolated.") That's pretty much one of the reasons why I started writing Minotaur Hotel. I didn't get a lot of gay fiction when I was growing up and becoming an adult, so I decided to do it and give others what I didn't have.
So. that's all for now! As a small progress update, the game has been on QA for about 3 weeks, during which we've been making lots of adjustments to the game, such as fixing bugs, typos and grammar mistakes; tweaking the emotional impact of some scenes according to the very valuable feedback and implementing the last bits of content. Chapter 18 is 100% completed and we have selected all the songs we'll be licensing for the build. All the work that remains is squeezing in the last bits of optional content. Thank you all for your patience, and see you in a week!
Comments
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A quick question if you’re still answering them. Does Asterion have or will get any back tattoo? I’ve been wanting to get a back tattoo for a while and want to get it from the game, and before I’ve seen images of Asterion having tattoos in google. I would like to know now and if possible see an image of the options that you might have for him, I would love to get one of the options (if you have any) so that I can get my back tattoo as soon as possible. Thank you for taking the time to read and possibly answer my question! Also can’t WAIT for the update of the best visual novel I’ve ever played!
Hi! We really appreciate the sentiment, it means a lot that you like the game so much that you'd be willing to get a tattoo based on it. And yes, the tattoos you saw are an upcoming bit of content (not on Build 0.5 though, it'll come in later).
That said, we talked and we'd recommend you wait and think this through. While the tattoos are already in the game's code we might tinker with them a bit still so things may change, but mainly it's that the game is not ready yet and, well, in case you or others come to dislike it in the future for whatever reason (Game of Thrones, for example, was really beloved but things didn't end well) we wouldn't want you to have a permanent tattoo of something you no longer like.
Sorry if this isn't what you wanted to hear! It's just that we really appreciate your sentiment, and we wouldn't want to put you in a situation where you may regret things. But again, we are very honored to hear that you like the game so much.
Just a little question: as for update 5.0, a lot of content and spritrs will be added, would it be required to replay the game or the "pre-5.0" content remains the same and/or the general experience wasn't changed?
No, you don't have to replay the previous chapters. The changes made to them weren't too big. I'd say the most significant ones might have been the songs we added here and there.
That said, do keep in mind that only save files from 0.4.1 will work. After we release the original 0.4 we did a considerable overhaul in the code to fix some issues, but that sadly meant that save files from 0.1, 0.2, 0.3 and the original 0.4 no longer would work.
If you do need to remake your save file, I suggest you check the game's menu and enable "Skip Unseen Text" (or something like that, I don't have the game on hand to check.) Then you can click the Skip button (or press Tab) to blaze through the game in a few minutes. If you don't remember which choices to make you can check this Walkthrough we made.
That's nice, thank you for the response.
oooohhh.. just reading this is making me hyped for the new build. so many new characters... and its kinda good to know that this would be a long and interesting journey because you just dont go and bang that big hot bull (well i probably would) but you get to know them more through time and ever choices matter!! this is not just a game. its going to be like a reality. and of course the characters in the story is based on mythical creature sooooo. yeah.... im so excited. i know this game would be an amazing game when it first lunch here on itch. ahhhhhhhhhhhhh good luck guys !!! and thank you for doing your best !!
That's an insightful Q&A! I'm so hyped for 0.5!
As to my question about everyone finding happiness, while it's sad that you can't please everyone in one go, I actually like that idea that makes the story and choices more grounded rather than too "video gamey." It also (ironically following my previous statement) makes the game more replayable and more tailored to the player's choices.
As for my other question, I'm think I get what you're putting down: the tablets. I did find some on my playthrough that gives me more of an idea of what he did to earn his eternal punishment... which is still not deserved but the gods are assholes. I won't state what I've pieced together here to avoid spoilers for those who may not want them.
I also have to say that EB150N said it best, it's so great that a game like this exists for the reasons you stated you're making them. One other thing I really appreciate is how the team has gone out of the way to include representation from cultures around the world to make the characters, not only diverse, as accurate and real to the parts of the world they're from. It feels good as a person from a Latin American background to see characters who share a similar background in niche media like this and I hope others from different backgrounds can experience that feeling as well. The effort in research that goes into that aspect of the writing is very much appreciated.
Something mentioned in some of these answers and something I've learned from reading other threads and the wiki is that Minotaur Hotel was original an imageboard game of some sort? (I have no idea how that works, other than playing tag with suggestions like a choose your own adventure?) I'm intrigued to want to read the original iteration of MH, assuming that it still exists in some form. Though at the same time, I kind of don't want to spoil the story for myself. And on the other hand, I would love to read about content from the original iteration that didn't make it into the game for whatever reason (like who is this JoJo and what was their story?). I love reading about the creative processes, drafts and cutting room floor content. A request to MH fans who are familiar with both iterations in the future when MH is complete: write a wiki page about the differences in the iterations. Pretty please? :)
In closing, I love all the effort and work the whole team has put into this game and I look forward to seeing future content. <3
The biggest reason why you can't get everyone in one go is that if there was a way to do that, then everyone would look up a guide on how to do it and they'd stop making choices themselves. That's an issue I had with the Persona games, you can do all the social links in one playthrough but doing so requires sticking to a very strict guide and at that point you're on autopilot. You stop playing the game the way it was intended.
We try to keep everything balanced so that there isn't an optimal background, or a best guest to choose to manage the lounge, what side quests you choose in 0.5 and so on, and even when you get the "best solution" to how to deal with argos, for example, there's always a trade-off or consequence tied to it, so that even if you know what's coming it's still a meaningful decision.
To answer your other question, yes, MH was originally a quest on an image board where Minoanon would make a post advancing the story and the other anons would reply what the Mc did next, or throw ideas for characters. It's very rough by nature of being written post by post and making shit up as it goes, and full of spoilers of course. I think it's a neat idea to add info on the wiki about how characters changed when jumping from one medium to the other (Luke was a quadruped, good luck showing that on a visual novel format) but I wouldn't recommend reading the original quest because it kind of diminishes the experience. Argos wasn't even in it, and he's an absolutely integral character to this iteration of the story.
That's a really good way to look at how to make sure your players don't just end up sticking to one way to play the game when you've given them a wide range of choices from. I think you're on the right track when making choices come off as neutral as possible and avoiding them as "the good or bad, nice or mean, right or wrong" choice. It encourages the player to make the choices they want to, using whatever reason they want without falling to that tired binary or just plain want to explore the choices that are possible. It's an odd concept to imagine, by removing choices and outcomes, you unintuitively create more variety among your players' playthroughs and increase their freedom to make the choices they want rather than the choices they may feel compelled to make because it's "the right one."
I'm enjoying going through this game blind on my primary file and sticking to things that may seem like "mistakes." Argos is a good example. I sort of noticed the clause to challenged but figured that even the wording there didn't make sense or supersede the rules of the land so I instead challenged clause that gave him an hour to clear out his farm if the contracted is broken and his stuff would disappear. I wanted to kill him with kindness and wanted to give him more time (that's probably my animal welfare career talking) and hope that treating him nicely would confuse him. Learning later that I was correct in my initial observation and my choice made may allow Argos to enter the hotel made me intrigued to see if this would later cause trouble or maybe get the chance to kill him with kindness and have him stay as a guest for a few days while treating him so nicely that I scared him away or something.
And speaking of Argos, I can't imagine MH without him! He brings a bit of a lingering menace to break up, the best way I can put this, the sense of wonder one can get lost in discovering more about the magical hotel and positive relationship building with Asterion to snap us back to the reality of the situation and remind us that this is place was meant to be a dark place with a dark purpose. Every time I see the text describing a flute, I can't help but think "oh crap, it's Argos." And while I'm reminded of my shitpost meme of a quadruped griffin with a thong pasted on him, it would have been odd to explain how Luke can do the things he does with on all fours. He'd either have to prop himself up and use his front legs all the time or be very talented with his beak (heh).
Originally Mino Hotel was a "quest", which is a story format wherein the "Quest Master"/QM starts a story and then lets the readers pick what should happen next. You can think of it as the contemporary and online equivalent of a cozy night of storytelling by a bonfire, surrounded with a small group of engaged readers.
The story back then was many times shorter. Asterion and the MC's relation advanced very quickly (far too quickly to be realistic) and the story was very openly erotica. I was also taking character suggestions from the readers, which made the tone bounce around a bit depending on which guests I put in.
I'm very proud of the quest. I think it was a good piece of writing given its context and limitations, and given what it was trying to accomplish. But I no longer recommend people read it for a few reasons. First, it does spoil some things and I think it'll feel better if people only play the game. Second, I think most people like Mino Hotel for the kind of writing we stick to, and the quest was majorly a piece of erotica — things were very different tonally, shockingly so.
The third reason is the biggest one for me: it's because the quest wasn't only the story's text. There was a context to it — the fun conversations we had in the thread, the ideas people threw around, the little in-jokes, what people requested or were opposed to... It was very much a little social experience, and that's just impossible to be glimpsed from the text alone.
In that sense, I think the text of the Quest is only half of the story, and the experience of the Quest is just impossible to reproduce outside of its original context. Because of that, nowadays I think reading it is just not worth it, it'll probably disappoint people.
I do think about making a big devlog laying these changes side by side, by the way... It's just that we can only do that after we go through some plot points, otherwise it would be very spoiler-y.
I love that idea and I can understand what you're saying. It's a "you had to be there moment." Even if it's just a telling of the story that anyone can do afterwards, what is hard to replicate and impart is the matter that the initial storytelling occurred. The natural gathering of a group of people and whatever naturally lead to the story being told in the first place. The energy of the people around the campfire and their interactions with the storyteller who then in turn interacts with their words. It's just like Asterion remembering the good times he had talking the night away with guest. He can tell you about it and you can empathies with the way the memory clearly changes his mood and body language but the tale will not have the same magic as it did for him.
Though the more you talk about it, the more I really get intrigued from a creator working with a muse aspect and how online experiences like boards can inspire such a captivated piece of media. I think despite how much the internet is a big part of most of the world's lives, most would dismiss such experiences and interactions as pointless or a way to pass the time when it was absolutely necessary to the creation of something like Minotaur Hotel. To see you talk about it so passionately about those times and seeing you and the rest of the team put so much heart and soul into MH, it's inspiring in itself.
I'm sure as with most creators, you may look back on the writing itself and cringe a little; not because you're ashamed of what you created but because you've grown as a writer and it could be better with "rules of storytelling and writing" (though I'm sure given the limitations of the medium of an image board, it's likely the key source of the structure that could be better.) I would still be very interested in seeing a comparison of characters and plot points or maybe even reading it myself someday but yeah, I don't want spoilers. That's why my request was for future people once MH is completed. You also can't really do an accurate comparison if one half of the content being compared isn't complete.
Something else I should have originally commented in regards to the question of how much adult content would be in build 0.5, is that I appreciate not forcing any NSFW content in the build for the sake of having sex content in your adult visual novel. That's not to say I don't like seeing that content (I love me my sexual content) but I always appreciate when the sexual content is woven into a narrative naturally rather than being there for the sake of it. Like Luke's sex scene informs his character and doesn't seem force. The casual nudity with Kota is more of an adult mature thing rather than sexual. The build up to a relationship with Asterion feels like it would be more fulfilling than just banging him. I'm really enjoying more of the casual build up of potential sexual tension with Asterion such as the long looks and the lingering touches. I'm sure there'll be more of this and that's enough for me. We'll get to the banging when we get to it.
Though the quest being a raunchy version of the MH might make a good read someday (maybe we should distinguish the two by dubbing the imageboard quest as Minotaur Quest?) in a future where MH is complete. I'm sort of jokingly picturing Asterion having a conversation with the MC on a serious topic while the MC is riding Asterion. Did the quest have equally dark themes and tones in it like MH does? Or were the some of the more darker aspects just not as focused on?
I haven't read 4ch Quests (and their equivalents on other sites) in a while -- they're past their heyday, unfortunately. Some of the older ones were a real treat. Which ones would you recommend, as someone that was involved in that community? There are so many on the archive (among which, most are pretty unappealing), and I'm curious if there's anything worthwhile I've missed.
SO I WASN'T IMAGINING THINGS WHEN I FELT BRAZILIAN INFLUENCE IN STORM! Tô tão feliz por algum motivo!
The football shirt immediately gave me that Latin American impression, more so South American. I should have gone with that instinct and read Storm with an accent from that region. Granted, I don't think I can pull it off but it does make me want to try to practice reading P and Storm's sections in Spanish, which is something I've never done but I like the idea of it as a way to practice my Spanish skills more. I know P and Storm would likely speak Portuguese but I'll stick to butchering the languages I already know before the ones that I don't.
Well, we weren't exactly subtle.
P's feathers don't just look like eyes. Blue circle in the middle of a yellow diamond on a bright green field?
And yeah, we're South Americans so we're no strangers to seeing homeless people wearing worn out football shirts. Don't know how many people picked up on it but Storm's shirt is specifically a blue, copyright-safe version of the Corinthians shirt- a team that takes its name from a Greek city. Which is pretty fitting for a Brazilian minotaur.
I picked up on the shirt but my brain kept telling me I was seeing things, since I tend to do that a lot... There are a lot of characters I read as being from a nationally they're not...
Very cleaver with P's feathers and the Brazilian flag! It took me a while to see it since my pareidolia makes me just see what reminds me of the evil eye. Given the Greek nature of the premise of MH, that dual design really works out.
wow i have to wait until august 20 not bad but it's not august 22 because that's my birthday if that happens every total shock....i can't wait to play it and hear what's going to happen next
SHORK CHARACTER?!? YAAAAASSSSS!!!
It's a bit of a self-indulgence, we really, really like sharks.
Once you tame the snek, the snek can be cute.
:D
HELL YEAH! I am a simple man with simple desires.