TBH I suspect Eva's original rationale for having a male protagonist as well for Our Red String is probably just to broaden the audience and gain more Patreon support that way.
Too many 'ew, I can't play a female protag game, it makes me gay!' people around. Would have been unfair if Eva missed out on potential patrons despite a quality project in every way just because of the female protag tag.
I can't say this isn't the case as only Eva would know the real reason, but I think it's
far more likely that Eve made this game with two protagonists because she as a writer was genuinely interested in exploring the concept of having a male and female MC in the same game, rather then doing it because it would potentially widen her audience and get her more money (although that would certainly be a bonus).
It's not a very common thing to find any game where both male and female characters can be played at the same time, which makes the idea fresh and intriguing. It also allows for the exploration of events from two different viewpoints, which is also fun to do as a writer (for example, showing how two people can experience the same moment in completely different ways depending on their personalities and life experiences).
I say this because you can see that Eva is a writer by nature and
enjoys creating her story, as evidence by how engaging this game's writing and storyline is. I think it's also clear by how closely she holds her work and insists on keeping creative control by largely working alone (despite what a huge workload that creates), keeping outside influence to an absolute minimum. The more passionate the artist is about their work, the more protective they tend to be over it when faced with the prospect that it could be bastardized in some way if others interfere (and I say that out of personal experience).
I think if Eva cared more about making money than creating her artistic vision, she'd be a
lot less pedantic in her methods, and be open to more audience input - almost certainly to the detriment of the game itself (as we've seen in other games before).
Could be. I also suspect that she's splitting her own personal experiences and desires in half to write both characters: Her career and creative aspirations as well as friendships more informing her writing of Ian and her own fetishes, fantasies, stray sexual thoughts and relationship needs more informing the writing of Lena (as well as potential hardships and struggles). Maybe why Lena seems to be more of an empty character in some ways, but with more complex problems than Ian has.
This is a pretty good observation, actually. It would explain why Ian feels more 'real' and dynamic as a character then Lena's somewhat bland, 'too perfect' nature. She's the good, empathetic girl who is absolutely gorgeous, intelligent and creative (basically, she's an unrealistic ideal)... yet she lacks a feeling of true conviction with any of it. Perhaps it's because Lena isn't given a passion or drive for the things she's supposed to be interested in (modelling or making music) like Ian has for his writing career (or Eva with her writing career, where we see the parallels
). Whether the player chooses to have Lena follow the modelling career or focus on making music, or a combo of both, there's still never really a feeling of Lena investing herself deeply in either, which contributes to that feeling of a lack of depth and conviction to her personality. As I feel it, anyway.
Of course, Ian isn't perfectly realistic either - he still draws the women like he's some crazy walking pheromone, but somehow I find his personality engaging enough (and him driven enough for what he wants) to feel it believable that quite a few girls would be into him with his well-spoken, empathetic nature. Plus I find him somehow more attractive for the fact that he's not drop-dead gorgeous, and even a bit awkward and shy at the start. Ian may not be perfectly realistic but I genuinely
enjoy following his side of the story every chapter, even outside the sex... which I can't always say for Lena, sadly.
