AMA2: Tlaero

Mortze is busy, but I'm on vacation, so I'm going to dive into the second round of Patron questions for me. We'll start with the most evocative of them.

Is there a sex scene or situation that you wrote wishing to happen to you? If so, were you able to realize it or is it just a fantasy yet?

When I was very young, my family and I went on a trip to the Caribbean.  We were at a beach, and people were doing the various things you do at a beach, including laying around in swimwear, swimming, and hanging out in the water. In particular, there was a man and a woman standing facing each other in chest-deep water and kissing. I was snorkeling near the shore, and when I got close to them, I was able to see that, below the water, they were having sex. I was too embarrassed to stay and watch (though I regret not doing so) and moved away.

Maybe as a result, maybe not, I have a "thing" for water. The scene in the first Keeley game where they have sex in the pool was unquestionably me writing that fantasy. And, pretty much, anything that takes place in a shower touches a similar nerve. Yes, I've had real life sex in the shower (though not as often as I'd like), but I've never done it in a pool or open body of water. Despite being a writer of erotic games, I don't have the nerve for sexual situations in public places. 

You seem to take the privacy of your screen name it to the next level. Is there a specific reason for this?

There are two questions you might be asking here. I'll answer both. 

First, why I hide my gender in many places online. I've been a professional software engineer for multiple decades. In many conversations online, I am the most knowledgeable expert there. But, when my gender is known, many people write my opinions off. When they think I'm male, I'm suddenly "brilliant." Yes, this really happens.

Second, why I'm terrified of having anyone learn my real identity. It's one thing to watch porn. You can pretty much expect that everyone has done that to one degree or another. But it's something entirely different to create porn. Imagine going to work and having your boss or one of the people who works for you know exactly how you made a character moan in an extremely explicit sex scene. What are they thinking about when they look at you? And, what if it offended them? Would you lose employees? Your job? Possibly. Now imagine your mom reading the same sex scene. Or your son. How about your son's friends? How would he be treated? Finally, although I'm guessing some of you are thinking, "I wish my wife/girlfriend was as interested in sex as you are," I can say that that's not true of every spouse. I love mine dearly, but he completely wouldn't understand why I do this. So, why am I so paranoid about letting anyone link my identities? Because, there's a very real chance that, if it happened, I'd lose my family and my job. Those things mean much more to me than this thing.

What is the craziest idea for a game that you had?

At one point, I actually considered doing a game where you play Xara. That's right, a graphical, first person game where you play a blind woman. As you can imagine, that one didn't get very far. I also considered doing a game where you were trying to date Theresa, the lie detecting waitress from Delfinos, but I quickly realized that the player choices in that game would be pretty limited.

Is there something you really wanted to do in one of your games but in the end it didn't work out?

My first experiences with erotic games were with various dumb "Meet and Fuck" type ones.  The first good game I played was called "Fuck Akina." In it, there was a woman fully dressed on the couch, and you had to kiss and rub parts of her body to warm her up, convince her to take off her clothes, and eventually have intercourse. At the same time, your libido was growing steadily, which would cause you to go off early (game over).  It felt realistic and was challenging. I failed many more times than I succeeded. 

I wanted to do something like that in one of my games and worked out the technology to do it. The scene at the end of Redemption for Jessika is a homage to Akina. But it didn't really work. It required a ton of pictures and a ridiculous amount of coding for things that didn't really make the scene any more erotic. 

Branching sex scenes, in general, hit the same tradeoffs. I often think, "I want to make the scene branch so that people can feel like they're more in control," but all that really does is make you need to play multiple times to see the whole scene.  And, what it really means is that the sex scene is shorter than the time we spent on it, because you don't see all of it. We set out to do a really branching sex scene in the Casino in Finding Miranda, but I don't think it really worked. The one with Serena at the office in Saving Chloe seemed to work, but still, I don't think the cost / benefit was there. Apples, to apples, the linear scene with Serena in her apartment seemed more erotic.

In your own games, what's your favorite game, scene, and characters?

It's hard to pick a favorite game. I think that Elsa had the best sexual ramp, Jessica had the best plot, Miranda has the best character, and Chloe had the best gameplay. If you really pressed me hard to pick an overall favorite, I'd have to go with Chloe, because I like the way it tied everything up. 

My runner up favorite scene is when Jess plays a song for you and it cuts to Sarah in the mixer room. My favorite scene is when Jess is standing at the podium and realizes that, unless she uses her power, she can't stop the tragedy that's about to happen. Both of those scenes still make me choke up whenever I read them. 

Hand's down, my favorite female character is Miranda. See "AMA1: Tlaero" for why.  She was also my biggest challenge. Doing her justice meant a lot to me. My favorite male character is Paul from Saving Chloe. I often made male characters that I thought were awesome, only to have male players dislike them. I felt that I succeeded in making Paul someone that both men and women could see as a hero (for completely different reasons, of course). 

Besides your own, do you have a favorite fictional universe?

Gears of War. You might scoff and say, "That's a video game," but I read 5 or 6 novels set in it. Even without the killer visuals and pioneering gameplay, there's a lot that's compelling in that universe.

Other favorites

Bands: Tough call. Top few in random order would probably be Iron Maiden, Metallica, Megadeth, and Slayer. It should also be clear that I'm a big fan of Halestorm.

Food: I have a guilty pleasure for heavily fried, low quality Chinese food like the Orange Chicken at Panda Express. Yes, I like real Chinese food a lot too. But when I'm alone and able to get something unhealthy and awesome, that's my go to.

Movie: I go into movies with low expectations, and, as a result, end up enjoying a lot of them. Into the Spider-verse is a recent one that stood higher than others for me. 

TV Show: Hands down, Orphan Black. OMG, Tatiana Maslany might just be the best actor ever. The things she did in that show were mind-blowing.

What gear do you use to record the title music for CtGwC?

My guitar is an X-series Jackson with active pickups. My amp is a Line6 Spider V. And I go into a PC via USB and record it in Audacity (though I have to go through a small mixer, because there's a bug in the Spider's USB output). 

Questions about dreams.

No, I don't have any real experience with particularly vivid dreams nor do I get inspiration from them. Occasionally I'll wake up from a dream and think, "That's a great idea for a story!" Then, about 10 seconds later I realize that it's a terrible idea for a story. I think the thought that it's a good idea was actually part of the dream.

That said, I often lay in bed after waking up and think about the story or stories that I'm working on. I get a lot of good ideas then. Something about having just woken up and still being warm in bed is good for my creativity.

Questions about sequels.

Sequels rarely work out. If I didn't tell the story of the most important thing that happened to the characters in the first story, then I told the wrong story. What's going to be more important to Jess than learning in a traumatic way that she's got a power, falling apart as a result, and getting her life back together? No matter how well I tell the follow-on story, you're going to say, "It was good, but I liked the first one better." Also, in this genre, the point of the game is often to convince the woman to have sex with you. That can't be the point of the second game, since you've already had sex with her in the first game. So actual sequels from me, ala RfJ2, will be few and far between. 

What songs would describe what Mayhem plays?

Well, the two referenced in the credits are a good start. When I hear "The Reckoning," I swear it's Jess singing to Charles.

Do you have any place on your bucket list that you'd like to visit? 

Not really "bucket list" because I won't feel that I failed if I don't get to these places, but I'd like to go to Japan and I'd like to go to Scotland.

Is a short repeating mute video pronounced "GIF" or "JIF"? 

Definitely GIF. I don't care that the creator pronounces it the other way. If he wanted it to be "JIF" then he should have spelled it that way.

Was Ross in the wrong when he slept with that woman while he and Rachel were on "a break"? 

Ross was a moron. He was definitely in the wrong.

Have you've done your part in the fight against T-series, and subscribed to Pewdiepie? 

No. (I actually had to look these up to understand the question, and I'm not actually sure I got the right T-series.)

Pineapple on pizza, yes or no?

Yes, absolutely.

I believe that's all of the questions that were asked of me.  I'll keep doing these for as long as the patrons have questions.

Tlaero