Post season Q&A

Hey everyone

So a little while back I got asked on Discord to do a Q&A, and I thought it'd be a fun idea, so here we go 😊. Thank you, @Superchat, for setting this up and collecting the questions. I figured I'd post it here since it could be of interest to others as well.

Hello and welcome MorriganRae to a fun post season interview. I first wanted to wish you a Happy Anniversary of Eruption Imminent and a fantastic job on Season 1. So here I have some questions for you, some that I am sure have already been asked, and some new ones. With bonus questions from fellow patrons.

❤️ Thanks, let's do it.

Lets start with one that I know we've asked in the past, but for any new patrons, what inspired you to make this game? Games, books, movies, and so forth.

It's hard to pinpoint any specific things that directly inspired this story. All kinds of things inspire me on a smaller level. So I might see a character or scene in a TV show, where I think "That's cool. I want to do something like that". That gives me an idea, which goes through ten iterations with lots of other influences before it actually ends up in my story.

If I had to say something specific, maybe the Life is Strange series, particularly the first game. It's probably the first game I ever played that was more story and feels than actual gameplay, and it stays one of my absolute favorites to this day.

When it comes to other AVNs that inspired me, I'd have to cite the ones that I enjoyed when I first started playing these erotic games. They motivated me to look up how these visual novels are actually made: "Good Girl Gone Bad" by Eva Kiss , "Dog Days of Summer" by BlackWeb Games, "The Red Room" by Alishia, and "Healslut" by Davie Zwei.

How long, or how many versions did it take you to get to Eruption Imminent current state? Current story and main characters.

Many. When I started to learn DAZ to make renders, I immediately started working on my first AVN idea. Two weeks later I had to scrap the project because I've already made so much progress with learning DAZ, that the first renders looked too bad to keep. So I started again. And then the same thing happened again and again. I started something, and a while later I thought it wasn't good enough anymore for one reason or another. Or I lost motivation for the project because some things just didn't click. I probably made renders for 7 or 8 project ideas before I landed on Eruption Imminent about 1.5 years after my first experiments in DAZ. Those failed projects were vastly different from EI though, since I switched genres and story ideas multiple times.

So when I actually started the project that eventually became Eruption Imminent, there weren't too many switch ups anymore. I made the first episode in the span of 5 months, and I took a handful of character models and locations from earlier projects, but everything else was created fresh.

What has been the most challenging moment in Season 1?

Definitely the big party in Episode 6. It was a big challenge for multiple reasons:

• The technical challenge to make scenes with many background characters.

• Writing a coherent storyline that still allows for many optional scenes, route variations and also different levels of intoxication.

• The same characters, same outfits, same scenery... All that made making renders a bit less exciting and more tedious than in other episodes.

• Testing the episode was difficult with so many variables.

• Working on an episode for a whole year, with multiple release date pushbacks and the frustrations that came from that.

• I also had some medical issues that year, and my PC broke, which added two extra levels of stress.

How do you handle criticism and negative feedback for the game?

I learned how to differentiate between criticisms that are highly subjective, things that I can't change, and things that are actually valuable feedback.

For example: People complain that episodes are too short. People also complain that development time is too long. If I fix one, the other gets worse. So with these kinds of things I just keep going with what I feel like is the right middle ground. There's no real use in getting worked up about these comments.

There are also comments about things where players can't see the bigger picture, but I do. Sometimes I can explain my reasonings, sometimes I can't because of future story spoilers (or because it's just not worth the energy). Again, no need to focus too much on these kinds of criticisms.

What is much more valuable, is feedback in regards to pacing, story clarity, plot/character consistency, technical issues, etc. There I can actually analyze and find ways to improve things going forward.

In the end I'm still human though, so I still get frustrated and angry with negativity like everybody else 😅.

What was your biggest fear for the game?

Before I released the 1st episode, I was relatively sure that my game was at least decent, so I was only worried that nobody would actually care to give it a shot. But I also had no real expectations or lofty goals for the project, so my fears were pretty limited.

Nowadays the constant fear all devs in our genre face, is censorship from different platforms and payment processors. It sucks that there is a small chance that your seemingly stable income can be gone in an instant if the wrong person decides your game is a bit too naughty for their tastes. The rules constantly change, so it's impossible to predict the future, but I try to stay optimistic here.

What advice would you give your earlier self when first making the game?

There are a few parts in the game that I would change a bit in hindsight, and there are a bunch of early renders that aren't great, but honestly I'm still pretty happy with how EI turned out so far. I also don't think I made any big mistakes on the business side of things, except that I should probably have tried to get on Steam earlier.

If there's one thing I should have done on the technical side, then it's keeping my DAZ asset library more tidy. I have thousands of assets by now and nothing is properly tagged or sorted, so finding specific things can be annoying. Going through all of it now to clean up sounds like a nightmare, so it would have been a lot easier if I had been more disciplined from the start 😖.

How do you stay motivated during difficult times?

I love my game and working on it (for the most part). So even if I have to do things that aren't as fun, I know that there are more enjoyable parts ahead. So often times it's just pushing through with a clear goal in mind. And sometimes a break is just necessary. Taking a day off can work wonders. Also: little rewards for tasks well done 😊.

How do you define success for the game? Monetary, influence, impact, or so forth?

It's hard to define success for the whole game, since everything grew much bigger than initially expected. I'd say I judge success on a much smaller scale. E.g. did this plot point have the effect I wanted it to have? Do players care about that character I introduced? Did players encounter any bugs in the latest episode? Did that post I made get as much engagement as I expected?

Monetary success is obviously important too, especially since I'm trying to work on this project full time at some point. But I've been very lucky so far in that support for the game has been growing continuously, so for now I don't really analyze the numbers too much.

What game accomplishment are you most proud of currently?

Probably finishing Episode 6, for the reasons listed further above. Releasing that update gave me a high for days 😅.

Also, getting the game on Steam. I didn't expect it to be this much work to get a version ready for a release on Steam, but (almost) all is done and ready now, and I'm excited to see where it goes from here.

What challenge did you face that people might not have expected?

Being a solo dev means you need quite an array of skills. People often recognize the skills of a good artist and that of a good writer, but everything else is a bit more blurry. But there's a lot more things to learn. You don't necessarily have to be a master at all of them, but you probably need at least a basic understanding of them all (or outsource them if that's a possibility). So apart from writing and creating fancy renders, you also need to...

• know how to clean up and post-process images in PhotoShop or a similar tool.

• know how to create a game logo and make UI elements for your game.

• know where and how to license music and sound effects (or create them yourself).

• know how to edit sound files.

• know how to code in Python (or whatever language you're using).

• find tools for things like denoising and converting images.

• learn how to use/write scripts to automate larger tasks.

• know how to properly set up and moderate a Discord server.

• know how to make pages on Patreon/SubscribeStar/itch/Steam, understand their ToS, and how to release your game there.

• figure out how to interact with your community and how you want to structure your support tiers and benefits.

• learn how to market your game and analyze its success.

• figure out how you can make translations of your game.

• learn how to edit videos if you want to make a trailer.

• find communities and sites where you can promote your game.

• figure out what you need to do in terms of taxes and which of your government agencies you need to contact now that you make money as an indie dev.

• know how to find people who will do the things you can't

• ...

I didn't know any of this before I started and I still somehow managed, so it's not impossible. But there really are a lot of smaller things that pile up.

What has been your favorite piece of clothing or outfit on any character?

Hmmm... Maybe Lexi's jeans overalls, or Vanessa's porno pants? I also liked the party outfits of Fiona, Oriana and Giulia in particular, for different reasons.

What are your favorite scenes to write / favorite scene you've written so far? (jonnie)

There are certain scenes where I'm just "in the flow", and don't have to think much. I just write, and more often than not, their first drafts turn out pretty decent. Usually they are scenes that have been in my mind for a while, and they are usually at least somewhat emotional. E.g. the flashback scene with Ashe and Rachel, or the coming out to Fiona. On the other hand, the humorous moments in scenes basically always come to mind while writing, and are rarely planned. So if I get a funny idea while writing, that can also be a ton of fun to write. So, basically every scene with Cleo 😅.

Is EI's three sex system only for humans or do animals also have it? (Volganis)

It's mostly a human thing, but there might be a few mammals with a similar situation going on.

I know Venus Falls is fictional but how about the continents? (Volganis)

It's all fictional. Cities, countries, continents. Maybe not the planets though (This depends on if I can find a good spot to put a Uranus joke in the story or not)

Are they any countries or cultures that revere duplos instead? (Volganis)

In the past certainly. In modern times definitely not on a larger scale.

Have any audience reactions of characters being embraced more than you expected convinced you to make character adjustments as you've developed the game? Any plucky underdogs in the cast that owe their continued spot in the limelight to successfully charming the audience such that they could not simply be abandoned? Or on the flipside, are there any characters that you perhaps feel may have been misunderstood or unfairly treated and deserve more love?

Even though I don't always know exactly how/when a side character will show up again, I usually have a pretty clear plan on how big their role in the story is. So no, I haven't really expanded a character's presence in the game based on player feedback. That doesn't mean that there can't be a little bit of fan service now and then, but that's usually on a much smaller scale.

This goes the other way too. Less popular characters have their role to play, so I won't really diminish their time in the limelight.

I don't think I've missed the mark with any character in that they are treated unfairly by larger parts of the player base. Natasha, for example, is meant to be a controversial character, so it's completely expected that she gets a lot of both love and hate from fans. There are occasionally also unexpectedly strong negative reactions from someone to certain characters that make me scratch my head, but everyone is entitled to their own opinion.

Which part do you like best? Tits, ass, feet, lips, the other lips or cock? (Stella Monroe)

Ass for looking, tits for touching, the other lips for tasting.

You've mentioned Venus Falls is in a southern Europe like location, my question, will we get more extreme weather? Like winter, or even storms? Or is it always nice beautiful weather?

That's one of the things that is heavily dependent on technical feasibility. It's not that easy to put together a scene that isn't just sunny and clear skies. You probably won't see any snow in Venus Falls, but I'd like to do some rain at some point for sure.

Of all the futas/duplos we've met, who has the tastiest cum? From eating good food and taking care of their body, and in inverse, who has the worst tasting? Or does everyone taste good in this universe?

What a question 😅. Anyone remember the Tali'Zorah sweat analysis?

Anyways, let me try to answer properly... Best has got to be Lexi. I can't imagine her tasting like anything but bubble gum and rainbows. Worst... Is it cheating if I say the Banshee of Oldtown? 150 year old cursed ghost semen probably has a certain... pungency to it 😬.

Can we assume Eliza will play a more major role in Season 2?

She'll be back, that's all I'm gonna say.

Due to time/pacing, are there any characters that needed to be pushed back later into the story that you would have wanted to have earlier?

Sure. But the way I write the story, there's always going to be things that'll need to be pushed back. When I planned the story initially, the Episode 6 party looked quite different, and was meant to happen earlier as well. But that episode had a lot of dependencies on the development of many characters. So I couldn't write that party before everything else was in place. There are some things that weren't meant to happen at the party initially, but were put in there, and other things that were planned for the party that got removed or pushed back. It's always a balancing act to make sure the story progresses at the right pace and with the right pieces. But I've made sure I have this flexibility when writing, and I do enjoy writing this way much more than writing scenes with a very stiff and strict outline of a story.

Will we ever see the homeless lady and her pet rat?

I'm afraid the people aren't ready for such greatness. But she's not forgotten... 😔

With pregnancy coming in Season 2, are there other kinks that you would like to add?

Handholding! There's been a noticeable lack of that.

Other than that, nothing major really comes to mind, but I definitely want to expand on the kinks already in the game. We've barely scratched the surface of exhibitionism or sharing/swinging, for example.

Any kinks that you personally like, but won't add to the game, for whatever reason?

Not necessarily any kinks, but there are a few relationship dynamics that just don't fit into this story. Because of who the protagonist is, or the setting the story is placed in. Like... a mischievous princess seducing her dutiful bodyguard. Or two travel companions starting as enemies and ending up as lovers. Or a married couple exploring their kinks together. Stuff like that can't be fully explored in this story, but that just means that there's always more to try in any future projects.

So, clits turn into penises when an embryo becomes male. And duplos both have a clit and penis. Does that mean, we could possibly see a duplo with two penises instead?

You probably won't see any double dicks in the game. Maybe in some sort of fantasy sequence, but I wouldn't count on it.

Any words of advice or warning for anyone that would wish to also start making their own game?

I encourage everyone to be creative and try things out. Try making renders, draw, try out RenPy or whatever engine you prefer, try designing a game, try writing a story, etc. I really think everybody should have an outlet for creativity like that, and find things they like to do.

But... as soon as you start asking people for money, a lot more responsibilities are added to that little project of yours. So, don't be too hasty in turning your hobby into a job. Make sure you actually like creating your game, and make sure you have the time, energy and motivation to continue working on it for a long time. Overcome those early growing pains by yourself before you look for funding.

Also be aware that the vast majority of these games don't ever make a lot of money at all. And for the majority of the rest, it usually takes years until they get to that point. So if your main motivator is money, you'll likely end up disappointed. That isn't to say it's impossible to earn a decent income from this, just that you definitely need resilience to get to that point.

And another piece of advice for your creative projects: Learn how to objectively judge your own work. Easier said than done, obviously, but I think it's maybe the most valuable skill you can have as a creator. The most direct way to making a good game, really is making something that you would love to play yourself. Then chances are that other people will like it too. But for that you need to see the good, bad and ugly in your own project from an outsider's perspective.

That's it! Fortunately, y'all are Visual Novel fans with some endurance when it comes to long texts, eh? Thank you all for submitting your questions!

❤️ Cheers! I'll be back this Friday with the first progress report for Season 2. ❤️