[Progress Report]: 11th of May

Hey everyone,

The mini character arc no one saw coming!

I want to talk about Artemisia.

You know, I try to keep the curtain firmly in place when I design content. I do fail. You guys are quite good at getting spoilers out of me, but I am trying. If I don't, you all know what's going to happen in the story and that, in my opinion, really takes away from the reading experience. I know that Superheroes Suck isn't a mystery novel and that's not why any of you signed on, but... a big difference to with a video game versus a novel is that video games are allowed to try a lot more techniques to engage the player. I think the mystery adds, however small, to that experience and that makes me want to preserve it.

This also means I rarely give you insight into how much player feedback I take. Artemisia is a good example of player feedback because she was never meant to be a character.

If you recall, she was originally supposed to have "VR" like body. She's got some yellow Cortana looking image in one of the events. That image never comes up again and I would scrap the idea altogether later on in development. The original plan for Artemisia was for her to act almost like a HUD element, she was going to be a fast travel system that occasionally delivered witty remarks. I didn't actually design her to be something of a meta commentary on the nature of artificial intelligence, fatherhood, legacy, the subjectivity of justice, and compassion.

It was a slow change. I remember reading all of the memes of people who thought it would be hilarious if they could romance a car. I also thought it was funny, so I teased a bigger relationship. And then I did it again. I would test the waters with Artemisia like this for many months, eventually leading up to her "death" and the rescue attempt to prevent it. I saw how your "car," ridiculous as it was, asking for help struck a cord in so many of you.

By that point, she earned "character" status.

Artemisia is going through something right now. She is, in a way, growing up. It's faster for her than it is for us, and I wanted to spend as much time on it as I have because, without that feeling of growth, I think I would have done her future arcs a great disservice.

All right, no more rambling from me! The goal for this update is eight events. Artemisia will have two, one short and one regular sized, and my plan is to include Ojou-Trauma's interrogation last.

Thank you for all of your support,

~Solace