Apologies if this gets a little deep/lengthy, its just been on my mind for some time
Is there anything that compelled you to write Astra's Garden the way you did? Both in tone, being a lot more (for lack of a better term) melancholy compared to what you usually write, and thematically dealing with such a "real" problem.
Long story short, a couple weeks prior to my friends and I playing the game, we got news regarding a family member, said news and my feelings toward receiving it very much lined up with the message of the game, and as of a couple of days ago, this person is unfortunately no longer with us.
Why I ask this, is mostly because Astra's was one of the most real reminders to me in that time of not being afraid to take time and talk about loss, and that its okay to take time to grieve, even if you feel okay.
I also say this just to show my support for the game because its one of my favorite things you've ever written, and even if a more serious story isn't in the cards for the near future, I fully support you if you try something like it again.
All in all, Thank you Nami <3
oh this is a nice message... sorry for your loss :(
the short answer is that yes i plan on writing more serious stuff in the future. the long answer contains spoilers.
the idea for astra's garden started with me just wanting to make an idle game. astra was a new character at the time and i wanted to feature her in something as soon as i could. the premise of her growing plants and selling medicine made a strong basis for the idle game i wanted to make, so i went ahead with the idea. from there i wanted to have like 3 characters to do storylines with, themed around different stages of plant growth (seed, sprout, bloom). i knew one of them had to be periwinkle because part of my motivation for this game was to write the origin story for how astra and peri met. one of them was going to be a happy sunshiney one, and the last one would be death-related. i put vinegar in the dying role because i realized she fit perfectly, and i made a new character for the last one... i don't remember if i always wanted it to be astra's relative, but the plan was for him to be close to astra so that there'd be more variety between the storylines.
i had this general plan in place but i hadn't started working on the game yet. then one day i had an epiphany, that the happy sunshiney character is actually astra's dead brother and the game is about grief. like, i got up pacing around the room excitedly thinking about this because it made everything else about the story fall into place so quickly. it connected cassava's story to vinegar, giving astra a personal investment in vinegar's health, and it gave astra a deeper connection to periwinkle even if he doesn't know anything about cassava--i just think it's so sweet that he reminds her of cassava which is part of why she's attached to him at all, but it also makes her keep her distance because she's still in pain... OOF!!!!! THAT'S GOOD STUFF!!!!!!!!!!!!
so yeah, all this to say, it's a complete coincidence that the story ended up the way it is. i'm glad i got to write about dealing with chronic illness too because in the past 5 years, managing that stuff has been a huge part of my life (i'm not ill but my partner is), and i'm excited to write vinegar's game where i'll get to vent about all my frustrations with the healthcare system lol, so yeah... more stories on this type of thing impending.
um also a huge inspiration for astra's garden is a mobile game series called hungry hearts diner. it's about a granny who runs a diner in showa era japan. i don't want to give spoilers for those games for anyone who hasn't played them, but you'll see a lot of parallels in some of the plot and design elements if you do play. which you should, because they're really lovely games that make me cry. my game would not exist without hungry hearts diner.