Making the Ai-Koi Radio
You said we only had to write the story...
When we first asked for the main story, we said, “Just write a story that fits the themes we decided on.” But in the end, the writer had to rebuild Jua, draw art for the main story, and keep bringing in new ideas.
At some point, the writer muttered sadly,
“You said I only had to write a story that fit the themes. Now I have to draw things and come up with new ideas too...”
Even while complaining, they came back with another idea: an Ai and Koi radio segment would be nice. For all the grumbling, I guess they really do care about the project.
Why a Radio Show?
The direct reason we came up with the idea of adding a radio segment as an extra part was the feedback about Ai and Koi. A lot of people said it was a shame we had not shown enough of the two of them in the main story.
While reading that feedback, I thought of the voice-actor radio shows I usually listen to. Since radio is a completely different format from the main story, Ai and Koi could talk through a few subjects calmly, at a step removed from Jua's story, without interfering with it.
At first, we planned to run the radio segment in LD too. The artist handling the drawings really liked Ai and Koi in the courtroom scene. We were already showing their LD versions there in the main story, so we wanted to show them in a different way instead of repeating the same look in the new part. That led us to try an SD style this time.
That is how we ended up with a radio segment where Ai and Koi look different from the main story and talk in a different format.
The radio format also seemed like a good fit for EULA. We did not want to be preachy in Jua's story. In the previous version, the protagonist was tied to the job of delivering a message, and that was a major problem. We wrote a new story with a new protagonist to fix it; turning Jua into our mouthpiece again would defeat the point.
In fact, each chapter of the AI and Organic routes contains something we wanted to say about making things today. But we did not want to force those thoughts on the player or preach them, so we tried to work them into the events Jua experiences.
That may be why some people said they expected a more serious discussion and were disappointed.
That is a fair point. I do not have much to say to it. Haha...
So in this additional episode, we had Ai and Koi speak directly from their own perspectives.
Still, we thought watching the same kind of radio show after every chapter could get boring. We did not want Ai to talk only about AI and efficiency, or Koi to talk only about human values and art. It had to be a segment where the conversation changed because the two of them each had their own wants and weaknesses, and knew each other well.
We Got Stuck on the First Radio Show
The first radio shows for the Organic and AI routes, 8o and 8a, were especially difficult to write.
If we started from the main story's events, it felt like making the player listen to what they had just seen all over again. But if we separated it completely and only discussed AI and making art, it became boring and preachy. It felt like we were repeating the same problem we had tried to fix in the old version.
We deliberately kept the radio segments short because we did not want them to damage the main story. But length and difficulty do not seem to be proportional.
8o and 8a kept being revised right up until the patch, and took more time than expected for such short pieces.
Someone even said it would have been easier if we had been allowed to write them longer.
To avoid repeating the same pro-and-con debate, we added a broadcast mishap and a prop to each episode. The two of them would bicker over the prop, move into that day's subject, and then bring the original prop back at the end.
But when we lined the episodes up, this also became the same pattern every time. A broadcast mishap, a prop used to explain the subject, and the prop returning at the end. The device we made to avoid repeating the same debate had become another formula.
Trying to explain the themes precisely also made the dialogue longer and longer. It looked less like Ai and Koi talking and more like us using their mouths to explain everything we wanted to say. It was not fun to read.
In the end, we cut the scenes that existed only to explain things. We also abandoned the rule that every episode needed a broadcast mishap or a prop. If the question was already concrete in the main story, Ai and Koi could simply discuss it. A prop stayed only when it actually changed the way they talked or acted.
A single episode could look fine on its own, but when it came after the main story it sometimes repeated the same point or made the previous scene's emotion feel lighter. So we read the end of the preceding chapter, the entire radio segment, the next chapter's opening, and the earlier radio episodes together. If something did not work, we rewrote the whole episode.
After Making the Radio
I do not think this segment solved every problem the main story had.
But I wanted to leave the player with a few questions to think about without interrupting Jua's story.
I also had the rare experience of learning that shorter can be harder.
For those who wished Ai and Koi had more to do in the main story, and for those who wanted a deeper discussion of AI and making things, I hope the Ai-Koi Radio becomes a story you can enjoy, even a little.
And to everyone who took the trouble to point out what felt lacking and leave suggestions for improvement, thank you very much.
Thanks to you, we have been able to catch things we did not notice ourselves, one by one, and it feels like we are finishing the game together with the people playing it.
The perspectives and ideas we gained along the way will be a valuable asset for improving EULA, and for making our next game as well.
In the next episode, I want to talk about the work of differentiating the AI text. See you in the next devlog. Please~