Answers to Ask Me Anything

Hello there :)

I didn't have any questions here, but here is the result of the ask me anything, according to the questions I was asked on Discord.

Why is tea superior to coffee?
Because the tea is placed on a higher shelf.

How many roads must a man walk down before you call him a man?
I live on a hill, so if someone wants me to call them, they have to climb up the road, not come down.

What is the rest of the story summarised into a novelette?
They fight... blablabla... end.

When will MC and the gang meet Whisper?
One day, perhaps, or perhaps not... Who knows?...

How did you also come up with the name Glowing Stones? Did the title name have any inspiration.
For me, a title has two challenges:
- Bring the reader to be intrigued enough to read the pitch
- Be closely tied to the story so that the title itself is enough to remind the person of the story's content
So, keeping this in mind, and with the story I wanted to tell, making a reference to stones seemed quite obvious.

when did you start with the game and how long did it take for your first release?
I started thinking about all this during my second trip to Paris for my former company. This was in August 2022. The first release was made in November 2022, and it contained chapter 0 and chapter 1.

Why did you started to make a game? Was there a special reason for it?
I've always loved telling stories. Whether as a child through drawing, reading, and playing; as a teenager with tabletop and online role-playing games; or as an adult, writing stories and telling them to my son. Stories are so much more powerful for conveying ideas and emotions! They allow for sharing and externalizing so many things. Visual novels, I find, are an excellent way to tell stories. They combine the visual aspect of films, the dialogue of books, and the ability to make choices in the story, which I think increases the reader's involvement. So I wanted to try, and so far, it's working!

Were there any role models for the characters of the game?
I think these characters are primarily drawn from my personal experience. Whether from my family or friends. But it's also a mix of my readings and video games I've played. It's also inspired by the various characters who participated in the hundreds of hours spent doing online role-playing. In short, a mix of reality and fantasized characters.

How did Amy decide to go with green hair?
What other color would have been more suited to Amy's way of thinking? The idea was also that each character would have their own visual identity. And the world in which these characters evolve allows for artificial hair colors. Moreover, Amy has a slight gothic side, which is mainly expressed in her outfits.

What are you planning on after you finish GS?
My mind is always full of stories. Moreover, now I'm well-versed in Renpy (the game engine the game is built on). So for the moment, obviously I'm not planning anything further, I still have two more games to make to finish the story I wanted to tell.

If you could start new, what would you want to change?
Is there anything with the game you wish you had done in another way?
I'll answer these two questions at the same time. I think my main regret about GS is not having succeeded in conveying certain things about the story. But I think, or at least hope, that this will change with the rest of the story. The majority of players see the celestial beings as a way to break the fourth wall... I hadn't anticipated that. For me, this is part of the story, and the choice with Amy in chapter 1 is precisely there to show this.

Not game related but definitely wanted to ask: Is there any particular reason why you went with your developer name as "Moonlight"? Is there a story behind it which you feel comfortable to share
This username is old. I took it in 1999. It's connected to the moon, obviously, but also to light. I was looking for something beautiful and luminous. So I suppose it made sense. And I've kept it ever since.

Considering GS is going to become a trilogy, can you recommend some great trilogies you read yourself?
To be honest, I haven't necessarily read many trilogies, except for the most famous ones, such as The Lord of the Rings. However, when it comes to sagas, it's a different story. Personally, I'm an easy audience, not very demanding. The Forgotten Realms (more than 60 books), Tolkien, Pratchett, Eragon, choose-your-own-adventure books. But also Bernard Werber, for example. Rachel Mead for NSFW... Even a considerable number of manga. It's difficult for me to give reading recommendations because I've surely read more than 300 or 400 books. Not to mention anime, manga... For me, what matters is the story and the characters, regardless of the medium. The only two things I don't like are dark stories painting a too-realistic world, and overly sentimental love stories. Dark stories because I think the world is already tough and miserable enough. Stories are an escape for me, a way to flee this reality, so I'm not going to dive into an even uglier world. And for sappy love stories, it's simply that I find character relationships tend to go in circles for three-quarters of the story, without progressing. I don't like that.

Which super hero movies do you like the most and who's your favorite super hero?
I'll allow myself a small digression before responding. I've always been fascinated by knights. Knights from old stories. Even as a small child, I had books on heraldry, I would run around the garden, armed with a piece of wood, a towel tied around my neck as a cape, fighting armies and monsters that existed only in my imagination. Strength, the spirit of justice and sacrifice, humility and romanticism, honor and glory. It has always made me vibrate, even if these are just stories. This explains the superhero side, who are, in a sense, the knights of now. At least the superheroes I like.
And the second thing I've always loved are group stories. Whether in video games, books, or movies... I prefer the dynamics of a group of individuals, the relationships between them, the differences in viewpoints, the plurality of possibilities it offers. In cartoons (Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors, Ninja Turtles, etc.), books (The Famous Five, Forgotten Realms, The Lord of the Rings, etc.), video games (Shining Force, Secret of Mana, J-RPGs, Baldur's Gate, etc.), and movies (generally adaptations of these titles, surely due to the temporal limitation of the film format), I've always preferred group stories.
This is surely something that hurt GS. When people talk about superheroes, they generally think of ONE superhero, not MULTIPLE superheroes, so many players expect, when playing a superhero story, to have a single hero, and characters who gravitate around them solely to exist for and by the hero. And that's probably what they're also seeking, a story in which they embody the only hero, with a story revolving exclusively around them. In my story, the main character is not the MC, nor Amy, nor anyone else. It's the group. I don't know if it's cultural, generational, or something else, but many players can't understand this, or are disappointed when they do. But it's what I love. A group.
To answer the question, it's not easy, because the film format (a very limited time to introduce several characters and make them a group) is hardly compatible with what I like. But movies like Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, Avengers, Justice League, or even Power Rangers have the advantage of being able to tell a group story.
As for my favorite superhero, I have three:
- Spider-Man, for his kind and very human side, struggling in his daily life
- Flash (Barry Allen version), because in a sense, he's an incredibly powerful superhero who doesn't take himself too seriously, rather comic, and always positive
- Superman (golden age version), because he remains the embodiment of the knight spirit for me

What's the meaning of life?
If I were to attempt to answer this, I think my response would be that our reason for being here is "simply" to influence, to impact, to play a role in the stories of those close to us (or not), those we interact with, those we cross paths with. To leave a trace, like a memory, a story, a proverb, a mantra, an example, or anything else. Whether it's telling stories to your child to help them fall asleep and shape part of their thinking, telling a story in a game, mastering a role-playing session and leaving an impression on your players, bringing a proverb or mantra into a stranger's life, who will reflect on it and pass it on to someone else, etc... Stories are what transform a collection of individuals into a group. And I think we are here to enrich these groups (families, friends, acquaintances, others) in one way or another. Forge your story, find your place within these groups, leave a mark, and then I think you will have fulfilled your life.

It's all for that Ask Me Anything, and regarding the half success of it, I'm not sure to do another one. But it was fun for me to do it.

Now it's time for me to go back to Daz, so... See you later!