Hello everyone! My name is BáiYù (he/they), and as the writer for Angel's route, it's my pleasure to announce that the first rough draft is now complete! Elias' route is coming along as well, so we'll be moving onto the editing stage soon. I wanted to take this chance to talk a bit about what it was like for me working on this project and especially Angel's route.

Good Lord! Aren't You Already Working on Too Mulch?!

For those who don't know me, I'm a trans masc nonbinary guy who's been developing visual novels for close to ten years now with a lot of various teams. I've done a variety of roles ranging from programmer (Ren'Py only), social media manager, producer, and (unfortunately, very rarely) writer. I really do consider myself a writer first and foremost though.

When WhatNames posted about their concept in the Game Dev Galaxy server, I was excited to see that someone else was interested in creating media centering trans masculine experiences and knew I wanted in on it somehow, seeing as to how I was actively developing Blood & Play (a gay trans masc T4T VN) for that exact same reason. I couldn't be the only writer on the project however, what with all of my other obligations, so I could only pick one love interest to write for.

Though I had a lot of shitpost-y ideas for the Evil Twink who eventually became Liam, I latched onto the concept of the "loner farmer" pretty fast; anyone who knows me knows that I have a penchant for food, and farming/gardening is a pretty essential part of that. As the other writers started pinning details down for the other two love interests, I knew I wanted to include a nonbinary guy who used neo-pronouns. I decided that xe probably didn't have the easiest time communicating as well since Liam already fills the role of the Jerk. After all, if this character was a loner, why would xe go to a big party? Finally, I also wanted is that sweet, sweet gap moe; less tsundere, more "what the hell?" when you look at this quiet, stoic guy working with plants.

It was a few days into solidifying details when I realized I had an unused character concept that never made the light of day who would be perfect here: my Stardew Valley farmer named Angel. I never quite got around to writing a proper fic of him so he was stuck as a half-formed ball of vague ideas, but I always imagined him as a dark, handsome, and benevolent cryptid of trans man who could somehow predict the needs and desires of the various townsfolk. He had also not changed his birth name since Angel was already unisex name, which was an element that I felt could work well for our lone farm boi.

After that was settled, finding a surname for him was next. One of the last names I was considering was actually Goodwin which I passed over to Shamus since Liam could become infinitely more insufferable about it. I even looked up if Devil was a valid surname because of the tattoo I wanted xem to have, but felt it was a little too on the nose to have a guy named "Angel Devil." Ultimately, Devin seemed to be the best compromise for the image I wanted to achieve.

Stem was largely given free reign over the character designs, though we worked together to figure out how to make Angel visually appealing outside of a plain plaid shirt and jeans. I wasn't sure if Elias or Liam would have had top surgery, so I wanted to make sure Angel had those tattoos on full display. We also added a speaker belt xe'd wear at the hip to spice things up and play into the fact that Angel liked to listen to music while working. I do think the feature that's the most fun was the hairstyle Stem chose for xem, along with the flower accessories. Accentuated with the heavy bags under xir eyes, the design really pops!

Organic Characters, GMO-Free

I think a lot of writers will understand the phenomenon where you declare that a story will follow an outline and characters have a certain personality or struggle, and then they revolt in your head and end up splatting onto the page looking like something else. While Angel has the same personality I envisioned xem with, xe also turned out a little more mellow than I intended with quite a lot of things getting cut simply because they didn't fit into the flow of the dialogue... though I still consider Angel to be a pretty intense guy. RIP to my intended mention of the Wisconsin Cheese Caves, food waste is truly one of the deadliest sins.

Admittedly, there's a part of me who wonders if Angel's route may be received poorly for not playing into genre expectations. I've seen the QRTs from people who are disappointed that Irene isn't a customizable, self-insert character. The way I wrote Angel may be even more frustrating to them! On the other hand,  even if we had the time and resources to have multiple endings per love interest, I don't foresee any chance of Angel's route going another way. 

Despite making visual novels for at least a decade now, the number of titles where you can see my own writing are few and far between just because my other skills are more in demand, and my current portfolio of releases under my own studios are all incredibly short due to a severe lack of funding; as a result, I'm still trying to figure out what players expect from me as a writer. This does grant me a little more freedom to write whatever I want though, even if the things I have the most personal passion for aren't popular due to general disinterest.

Well, in the end, I'm not really trying to cast a wide net with holes so large that nothing stays in it. For the people who've slipped through the cracks of society, I wrote Angel for us. I hope you look forward to spending time with xem soon.