Second month on our hiatus but no worries, we're definitely still here. I actually wrote a few lines of dialogue for Chapter 8 but since I'm joining Phantasia Jam this year with a different team (that Pyr's still in because he can never escape my clutches), progress will most definitely fully kick into gear when Jinn is done with her boards. Do check out our jam entry when it comes out, though, if you like. It's going to be called: Kirei. That being said, we're not here to talk about projects I'm involved in. I figured in the spirit of the previous devlog, I'd continue that trend.

For the last one, I talked about friends I had that got me through production for this VN. This time, I'm going to talk about other creators I admire and VNs I adore! Though trust me, if I were to talk about only VNs of that nature, we'd be here forever so I'll try my best to keep these relevant to things that influenced my approach to Meteor Shower.

Still, the first two entries here are unrelated but they're a little more personal.

X-Note (zeiva inc)

My first exposure to visual novels in general was when I was ten years old. My best friend at the time had called me up on our landline and told me about this game she found online called X-Note.

I remember she gushed about one of the love interests, Oure, so much. I wanted to see what she was gushing about so I played the demo. I even remember playing it on a shitty ad-ridden site with my slow ass internet connection. It was a different time. 

She and I don't talk anymore. Hell, I don't even have a landline anymore. Still, the influence of this game follows me as an adult.

I thought it was worth the mention because first of all, while my friend was an Oure lover, Anon awakened something in me that I carry all the way into my twenties. My favorite type of love interest is a bit crass, a bit of a jokester, a bit of an asshole, a funny little guy then--

BAM!!

--suddenly you find out he's hiding some fucked up backstory, or has some deeply rooted issues that we all know love isn't gonna fucking solve but hey! It sure helps that somebody finally loves him now. xD

That sounds sad when I spell it out like that but now I realize that it's written out, that's a basis for a lot of Taylor's traits. And while, yes, Taylor is also based on what basically amounts to my fucking emo playlist in high school, my love for this archetype of character seeps through in mine and Jinn's characterization of him. Plus Taylor's kinda pathetic and we say that with love.

So like, yes, we didn't take influence from zeiva directly, but I thank them in my head every day for making media that inspired me so much as I was growing up. This is media that I still revisit and love to this day, and will probably love for basically forever.

Doppelganger Dawn of the Inverted Soul (azureXtwilight)

Now, if zeiva introduced me to Visual Novels, and cultivated a love of them in me. Azure made me want to make visual novels myself. This is the game that did it for me and I revisit it every few years wishing I could relive the moment that I first found it and read it all the way through.

I came across doppel when I was like thirteen? Maybe fourteen?

At the time, I've never quite read anything like it. This beast of a visual novel with several routes and so many endings. Seriously have nothing but respect. To this day, honestly, I still think it's the longest visual novel I've ever read. I remember the sense of accomplishment I felt when I finally got the true ending. I loved it so much I was pretty sure I was fucking obnoxious about it to my friends going, "Dude please, you gotta play this. You gotta join me in fangirl hell."

Even now I still think this VN gives me a unique experience especially in its treatment of its cast of characters. Now I'm not gonna spoil anything because like, this game's free to play. Give azure some love and read it yourself if the premise piques your interest.

With that out of the way, what I can say about the cast of characters is that their involvement in the entire unraveling conspiracy in the story was still one of the most satisfying executions of a plot I've ever had the pleasure of reading in my formative years. Each character was a stand out and had ample time dedicated to them and their struggles even outside the romantic plot. I also loved the fact that there were lots of other ships to root for outside just the main couple since I'm a feral shipper by heart. xD

In my overly ambitious teenage brain who doesn't understand a thing about production or even proper writing at that point, I was like fuck man. I wanna make something like this. I wanna make visual novels. I wrote fanfic at the time and I had a hobby of drawing so I really thought that this was possible.

Obviously I haven't really released anything until I was nineteen, and that's Ignis. We all know that's not getting finished any time soon but I am working on it. Years before that was me trying stuff out alone and then not finishing them because I had no idea how to even make a cohesive concept.

I didn't give up though, and now I'm just really happy where I am. I'm making VNs with friends and I've even interacted with azure a few times too on social media, it's surreal. Like if there's anyone I'm going to thank for getting me started on this path, it's definitely them so thanks so much azure!

Love Spell: Written in the Stars (Great Gretuski Studios)

Okay, now that I'm done telling you all about the visual novels that started me down this path of VN making, I'm going to start talking about stuff that did have more of an impact on Meteor Shower like this one right here.

There was a moment in time when I was in a drought of VNs that were light hearted in nature so when I found this I was really happy. I guess you can say the sheer PINKNESS of the UI in Meteor Shower can be attributed to this. Originally I had an old draft of Meteor Shower's main menu that was some emo looking shit influenced by the cover of Mayday Parade's A Lesson in Romantics but Jinn came for my ass that day to get something more appropriate.

Now to my credit, I didn't SERIOUSLY want to use that for the main menu. It was more just me getting a feel for the layout but you know what here it is. Thanks to our friend Peter too, for this unused title card asset, I personally like it. xD

But anyway going back to Love Spell, like fuck man I just liked that it was fun??? Like it knew exactly what it was and it was just so unapologetically self indulgent with its tropes and its loveable MC. Like I can feel the soul coming out of that VN. There's always too many stories, and not just VNs, that try to be really damn deep with their themes and in the middle of the lockdown I just needed something to make me happy. This was it. Florian's route is my fucking favorite I reread it like ALL THE TIME.

I think the light heartedness in this VN, apart from absorbing the vibes of the UI, really also just helped me think in terms of concepts that aren't so edgy. Because I'm gonna be the first to admit, I may not always like reading dark stories, but most of the concepts I have in my head are pretty dark save for a select few. Meteor Shower is one of them.

Love Spell is a lesson in tone to me. Sure there were others that came before it, but it was the most recent one at the time when we started writing Meteor Shower and its sequel. It's the most recent one I'll reference and definitely will stay as one of my favorites.

Raptor Boyfriend: A High School Romance (Rocket Adrift Games)

I played this game a month before Otome Jam 2022 and I think this may have sparked the creation of Meteor Shower, actually.

I talked about this before but originally we were actually working on Snowfall. Now that's a sequel to Meteor Shower but originally, our characters were made as adults. I told Jinn and Pyr what if we did a test run to help us figure the characters out too. After I played raptor Boyfriend and just reveled in the absurdity, the awkwardness, and the heart in this loveable game, I was like you guys let's join Otome Jam.

And now Meteor Shower exists!

I honestly wish I could see more visual novels with teens where they do act like teens because oh my god, this was that game. It was exaggerated and with supernatural elements, plus there was a whole lotta cringe but the ATMOSPHERE OF EVERYTHING. The emotions it was able to convey and the experience it was able to bring is just magical and it's a shame it's not more well known. I know I saw the devs said that the game has sold below their expectations though, which I think should change because it deserves every bit it earns.

But going back to the good stuff, it's actually kinda adorable that the stoner bigfoot love interest they have is also called Taylor. It's a cute coincidence and it only made me latch onto the game so much more. xD

Another really notable thing is the music too. I remember screaming at Pyr about the atmosphere that this VN just has and how much the music enhances it. It ended up being one of our biggest influences for Meteor Shower's own OST.

RockRobin (Happy Backwards)

Okay, to start off, I'm a Nana fan. RockRobin, from what I've seen, often gets compared to Nana and I can see why.

There's a kind of raw and rough quality to this VN. There's a crassness in the protagonist and the rest of the cast that I want to see more often, a sort of realness that I'm missing with other things I've read in the visual novel medium. I don't find things like RockRobin often so when I do, I really latch on to it.

Now I don't necessarily believe that things need to be heavy for them to feel real like in Nana or this VN. Hence, we circle back to Meteor Shower. It's a thing I noticed we get praised about in the comments and I'm actually very thankful that people have noticed that. The whole idea of the characters talking and acting like real teenagers is something we really wanted to achieve. While this VN isn't necessarily a direct inspiration to that because we would have done it regardless, it did raise confidence in me that this kind of realness is something that people are still looking for.

We have a lot of fun with the dialogue in Meteor Shower, especially when Taylor is involved. Jinn, Pyr, and I can be potty mouths lmao, I'm not even gonna sugarcoat it. I mean, the amount of times I say "fuck" in a casual devlog should sorta clue you in on how talking to me would be like face to face. We're not afraid to tap into our cringe high school experiences and reimagine them and lay them out for the world to see. It's actually super fun to look back on it too sometimes, especially now when we're so far removed from that time in our lives. 

Though, despite Meteor Shower being mostly lighthearted, we've yet to delve into the heavy parts of Taylor's story. Things are definitely going on in the background and we're going to make good on our promise to reveal those things in due time.

Our Life (GBPatch)

Personally, I think everybody loves Our Life. Jinn fucking adores it and I can see why. It's just cozy like that, a nice and chill experience growing up on a seaside town with a loveable cast of characters, especially the game's one love interest, Cove. That being said I was screaming the second I saw Baxter's DLC come out so I get wanting more than one Love Interest.

Yes, I'm sorry. I love Cove but platonically. Baxter is my toxic love. I enjoy a route with a little more drama. xD

But yes, when we conceptualized Meteor Shower, I actually pitched it to Jinn to be somewhat similar to Our Life but obviously not the exact same experience. We'd release it in three parts and Lori's relationship with Taylor is guaranteed to happen somewhere down the line but the choices affect how quickly it happens. This is why by the end of Chapter 7, some endings didn't show Lori and Taylor getting together, and some even prompted the player to reject him.

I personally liked the idea of making choices solely based on personality so that people can just enjoy the game, you know. Sometimes I think some otome VNs are too gamified in that you can't just play it based on choice. You always have to worry about getting the good ending instead of the bad ending. That's one thing about Our Life that I love. It's so immersive and it gives you a personalized playthrough every time without any negative consequences.

In Meteor Shower, we have an invisible tally of personality traits that affect the playthrough too. I'm not gonna say which but you can probably see it during unavailable choices. Some scenes are also different depending on Lori's dominant trait based on how you play. I personally like to play Lori as more confident and abrasive, Jinn plays her pretty balanced for the most part, and Pyr plays it based on what he thinks is the most in character for Lori to do. We've got Our Life's general structure to thank for having even conceptualized something like this to begin with.

To close out this section and this devlog as a whole, here's a short word from Jinn about what she's taken from this game she loves so much and how she's applied it to writing Meteor Shower as a whole.

"Sometimes Our Life drags out mundane scenes because it's a slice of life. A lot of the time, that ended up happening in Meteor Shower too. That builds characters, is what I think."