Two and a half years.

That's how long it took to finish. A lot has happened in that time: the Fukushima nuclear disaster, a shift in the Diet, a revolution in Egypt, the London Olympics, the passing of Steve Jobs, the completion of the Tokyo Skytree, my new apartment, Madoka Magica, the smartphone boom, AIs crushing humans at shogi, my Minecraft addiction... a lot.

I never used to think of making games as anything more than making games. If I could make something cool, that was good enough for me, never mind what might be going on in the real world at the time. But while my way of thinking has changed, as ways of thinking are wont to do, my games remain, at their core, the same. I guess there's no escaping it.

Anyway, here we are. Thanks for playing this weird-ass game.

In all honesty, I never expected I'd one day make a game like this. Yet somehow, the project passed the concept stage, and while I was busy floating around the ceiling with my word processor, they came to me and said, "Get down from there. You're in charge now." And that's how I became the director.

Me? What? I didn't know the first thing about being a director. Would this game even sell? Were we all gonna die? So there I am freaking out, and the producer, Digitaro, walks up and says, "You got this!" with a smile and a thumbs-up.

'Kay. If you say so? Man, I'll tell you, I almost lost it this time. Without Digitaro's unwavering encouragement and support, this project would've ended before it ever got off the ground.

Looking back, though, there were definitely signs. I knew I was in trouble when I was asking the artist, Tsuji Santa, for all sorts of stuff when the game itself barely had anything resembling a framework. I mean, we'd worked together a long time, so it wasn't like we had trouble communicating. I just couldn't shake the feeling that I was jamming graphics in haphazardly and only making it work through luck and force of will and the power of excuses.

Speaking of excuses, time wasn't really one of them (which is not to say that I didn't use it as one when I could). We had a lot of time on this project, and the scenario was already hashed out. All it took was for me to learn the scripting system and I was able to slap together a basic, but technically complete version of Totono for Tsuji Santa to play.

The first thing he said to me after playing was: "Looks like you're trying to end bishoujo games."

Ever since Sumaga, I'd felt like I was fighting with the concept of "visual novels" itself. But I told myself that only I would ever be able to understand why I was fighting, or what my enemy truly was. Turns out I was wrong, and it took a lot of people to help me realize that.

Everyone who sat with me for hours in the dead of night discussing how the Library menu would work, or who suggested crazy ideas like livestreaming on the official site, or who told me honestly that we didn't NEED a comparison movie, or who praised everything I did even though they barely played games themselves, or who... well, you get the idea. My point is that I'm truly lucky to have had the opportunity to make such a game with the support of such wonderful people.

At the end of last year, the game developer Ishii Jiro (428: Shibuya Scramble) invited me to a year-end gathering of adventure game writers. I had finished writing Totono by then, but was honestly fairly depressed because the actual dev work wasn't going so smoothly (entirely the fault of my own scheduling mistakes). At this party, Ishii stood up and gave a speech in which he laid out his vision for the future of adventure games. He spoke with great (incredible, if you consider that he was still sober) passion and conviction about the possibilities that were still waiting for us to explore. I sincerely believe that if not for that speech, I may not have been able to bring this project to fruition. I owe him my thanks as well.

Thus, after many unforgettable meetings and equally unforgettable partings, Totono came to be. I'm certain that this game has a role to play and burdens to bear greater than even we who created it can imagine, roles and burdens that it is eager to assume. Everyone, I hope that you will continue to walk beside Totono into the future.

So here's two-and-a-half years worth of staff comment for two-and-a-half years spent working on this game. Sorry it's so long. I should probably also apologize for the game being kind of short, in spite of how long it took to get out. Still, I hope you'll look forward to my next projects. I don't plan on abandoning the eroge genre any time soon!

2013/06/28　Shimokura Vio