Well I gave you a laughing reaction, but this easily may become very true if devs are not very careful next update if at what was hinted in cliffhanger will be true. They will not be playing just with fire, but the heat of a Vulcano when it comes to Jaye and her being redeemable ever on later in game. They can make her as sweet after as they want, if people do not play her paths, people will never know.
One of the realities of storytelling that different people will have different opinions on what an "ideal" ending will look like. Hopefully, most will feel there was sufficient agency and choice in those paths to lead the player to the ending that most closely aligns with their preferences. That said, with the number of endings planned, it's inevitable that some players will find none of them line up 100% with their personal "perfect ending."
One concept we're implementing are "modfied" endings. This means there are planned main endings that will be slightly different depending on seemingly minor choices made at various points on the game (including the Prologue.) The overall ending is still the same, but some flavor is added to it to reflect seemingly innocuous decisions.
We also personally prefer to avoid writing "game over" endings, especially early in the game. For instance, in reality, Alex could just say "Fuck this, I'm out" and the game would be over. Rather than waste development time on a player who doesn't want to play to begin with, certain assumptions are made.
To some degree, most visual novels create the illusion of choice. That doesn't mean choices can't be meaningful, but ultimately it just flavors how the same story is told, and what the outcome of that story is for the player.
In short, we hate choices where choosing to drink beer over wine in Chapter 1 locks out ending X, but think it's cool if that choice results in your LI bringing you a beer over a glass of wine in that ending.
That said, the story is set. One nice aspect of doing this as a hobby rather than a profession is that we can take feedback onboard without being beholden to it. Rest assured, we have no intention of being careful or throwing overtime Hail Marys to retain patrons or interest. If we fail in the end, we return to our day jobs with some cool experience and some lifelong friendships.
We love doing this. Hopefully that comes through in our craft more and more as we progress.
