#unless you want to blacklist her o_o then I will consider it

[herotome]

Hello! So, I'm genuinely scared of all three (?) of your kinda villainous and genuine villain characters so far, like I mean seriously actually break-out-in-sweat on sight of the (no spoilers) clipboard-holding one, for a start. I wanted to ask, what's your secret?! Any tips on how to write such frightening villains? No pressure though if you're busy! Health and wellbeing is absolutely the priority over responding to anything ever :)

LOL aw gosh, I'm afraid I don't know! I'm personally not scared of those three (four? if you count the alcoholic man who is not in the downloadable demo yet), because they're simple people and I know all their weaknesses. If they corner me IRL, I can stand my ground and yell one of their secrets at them like "Your [dark leader/dad/parents/boyfriend/sweet old neighbor who brings you cake] would be SO unhappy with you if you hurt me." 🤣 They're all very much human with ties to other humans in society, so they still have enough of a conscience/fear of repercussions to keep them at bay.

The antagonists later in the game though... those people would be much harder to reason with - the ones who start having more to gain and less to lose. If they came after me, I'd be scared of them!

In regards to tips -- I wrote a thing but it's gotten rather long, so I'll put it under a cut.

(As always: if you don't see a cut, please click on the post itself to view it in full.)

... I'm a bit confused whenever yall hide the clammy lady (and the option to kiss her) behind spoilers by the way. Is it that exciting?? Hahahaha.

Real talk, the March 2021 demo only covers the prologue and has been out long enough, please feel free to speak of its contents! I don't think the knowledge would ruin the experience for anyone, and there are muuuch bigger spoilers on the horizon. :)

Okay back to those tips:

I would recommend doing some introspection and thinking about what makes the current three scary for you!

Is it a specific part of their design? The clipboard-holding one (lol) for example has those enormous eyes and small irises, which can be interpreted as eerie and unnaturally excitable. Like, what is she so excited about? My demise?? The wetness (lol... imagine someone reading this out of context) is also probably a factor - there's a lot of horror stories about wet women rising from the depths and dragging people off to drown.

(Admittedly, she did manage to unnerve me once when I playtested her scene in the dark - were you playing at night lol??)

Is it... their aura of mystery? Maybe they're scary because you don't know what their motivations are, and you don't want to get in the way of what they want because you don't know what they'll do to you?

Is it because their mood is unpredictable? Is it because you don't know if you're going to say or do something that suddenly sets them off? That's quite scary, I think -- you don't need always need a spooky design for a hair-trigger character, especially when you put the character in the same room as something fragile, or someone powerless. You could work in a lot of situational anxiety that way.

Is it a lack of control/player agency, due to the visual novel format? Is it just my style of writing when they're on-screen? I read that using shorter sentences increases a sense of urgency.

I like to do a lot of analysis of other characters, borrowing specific parts that resonate with me. Like, the particular head tilt + face shading of the clammy lady is based a hypnotized side character in Dramatical Murder - it was a body language that signified they were erratic and not in full control of their mind, which was a vibe I wanted to communicate. (Granted, she's perfectly in control - just too excitable about MC lol.)

I hope that helps! :D Like I said, I don't personally find them scary so it's hard to give specific tips haha.

I love talking about my process (frankly, due to my deep enjoyment of reading other peoples' process), so it's rarely any trouble. Still, thank you for being so considerate. ❤ I love to see it!