Nice interview. A few things I noticed:
EK: "Of course the lead characters are my favourites (that's why I chose them as the leads) but I enjoy writing each member of the supporting cast for different reasons"
Looks like there may have been a time when there weren't pre-determined leads to the game. Can you imagine if one of the other characters was the male or female lead?
EK : "My early estimate was that ORS would have no less than 20 chapters, but I can't really say. [... ...] It's clear some outlining is necessary when writing almost anything, especially a game like this, but I'm clearly a compass writer (or gardener). I enjoy developing the story as I go, flowing with it [...]"
Looks like there's no telling how long ORS will go, as long as Eva Kiss remains passionate about the project and still has more story to tell.
Also, her point that a lot of porn games play like they're written by horny 15 year old boys made me laugh, because it's true.
yeah, that's really true. some of the VNs are written simplistic like they were invented by kids. and i'm always a little shocked at myself then, that i think any story involving sex could be childish in nature. but i don't know any better word for it, that could describe how cringey and basic some storys are.
i find it interesting that in the interview you can clearly tell that she is skilled and intelligent, by just merely answering or redirecting the questions to what is most important.
for example the gender question, she doesn't really answer it, but answers what the question is meant to find out, or better yet answers what you need to know.
personally i don't understand how that question is being deemed so important to begin with.
most porn VNs are male MC and i can understand that being a male dev might make it easier to write a story in the POV of a male MC. but there are female MC games from male devs as well. and when someone claims that most of those female leads are unrealistic and dumb, i gotta tell you, male MCs are not one bit behind them. it's just a different kind of unrealistic and dumb.
generally i have a hard time finding even one game that comes close to the refined story and character bulding eva kiss seems to have in her games (it's only two for now, but eh, still out-performances everyone else so far). so i don't think it's a matter of what gender she is, it's more like she is an outstanding talent on the whole. it just happens do be in a male dominated industry, while it might be that she is a woman.
someone once said that authors reflect themselves in their characters, meaning that characters in a story are always aspects of the author's personality and then they expand on them. i clearly can see in holly her sudden rise in recognition for her art in a profession she didn't see herself in, in emma her open interest in the unorthodox as she uses her art skills for a porn game, in ward her affiliation with dark themes and corruption (best seen in GGGB with the thug path and the death of some characters), in lena her junction of nudity and sexuality being an art form in it's own right since she is creating art with writing a porn game, and she herself even said that she is like ian an aspiring writer. i'm sure if we would dig deep enough, we could find correlations in all characters. (though i've been only interpreting things here, so better take it with a grain of salt)
having such a diverse set of characters to represent aspects of oneself, i don't believe your own gender plays any role in your creation.
i guess some surprise comes from most players being male and that porn is generally consumed more by males. but there are more of us here than you think. so the most interesting part about the gender thing is, that it is "uncommon" and that you should be happy more people enjoy the same thing you do (or you do not. whatever)
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and as always, my updated list:
