turning misery into meaningfulness

Developer blog for the fangame Persona 4: Your Affection. Final release is out now!

[p4youraffection]

hiii! I doubt you're still here, but I'm having trouble with downloading the game 1st and 2nd links are not working for me (unless i get the permission?? or smth like that) and 3rd link is jus not working idk if its just my comp or what but is there anything I can do about this? :((( really want 2 play it

Hi there,

Sorry for catching this ask 2 months late! As you can see, we are certainly quite inactive since so much has happened in the last... almost decade now (time sure flies). Still, all three of us are still friends with another, and I've spoken to the other two and we still have the files and can update the links. I'm not sure if you or anyone else is still around and want to play it, but we'll reupload the game and keep it in circulation! We're all still really proud of it and would love people to continue to be able to play it all these years later.

If you want to contact one of us, the fastest response time would be me at missxylia on bluesky. Otherwise we'll post here again on this blog once we finish re-homing and hosting the files. Thank you!

-Xylia

[wet-noodles]

Writing Commissions to help us Be Not Homeless

Hi! My name is Natalie, but you might remember me as a dumb idiot who wrote things sometimes. I fell off the face of the earth with some seriously demoralizing Health Shit last fall, but now I’m back with an update. (The update is that we’ve been homeless for around a month now while across the country from my family and support network.)

Okay, that’s the alarming junk out of the way. We’re not in critical physical danger right now, I’ve managed to nab a crappy dayjob and a couple freelance projects while seeking more gainful employment, and I have access to a computer: all good stuff! But we really want out of this situation ASAP and I’ll take any work that can help.

Writing Examples: Short one-shot (<500 words), Medium one-shot (1,700 words), multichapter WIP (4700 words), a ~Serious Short Story~ (2k words)

Rates

I’m going with a rough base rate of 3 cents a word; this is less than half my usual rate for content writing. This works out to $3 for a drabble, $9-15 for a shorter one-shot, etc. (But I won’t charge you if I end up going over what you pay for.)

Will Write:

- Any fandom, probably, but you should ask - NSFW (only if you’re 18+) - Original work/OCs/chronicling your D&D character’s crazy gay exploits - Speaking of D&D, a mock-Ao3 section for your D&D campaign’s hypothetical fandom like this (okay kind of niche but it might be a fun gift for your DM) - Your reflective essay on The Great Gatsby

Will Not Write:

- Noncon (unless it’s like… explicitly a consensual roleplay), incest (including FE14′s “incest”), underage, bestiality, etc. - Erotic fanfiction in Pixar’s Cars (2006) universe. I’m gay and don’t know car parts.

I Need:

- Either an idea of how long you want a piece to be or how much you’d like to spend. - Any specifications. (Tone, style, genre, etc. I mean you can just throw me a prompt and say “go crazy” but I want you to be happy with what you get!) - A 50% deposit to confirm your order. Normally I’d be more lax about this, but I seriously can’t afford to spend hours on a commission and get ghosted.

paypal.me/wncommissions

Even if you can’t commission me, signal boosting would be amazingly helpful, or even just pointing your friend who keeps saying “ugh I have a great idea for a fic, I just need to write it!” my way. Thanks so much, and have a wonderful day. <3

[p4youraffection]

Hey guys, sorry for a second commission post, but since Lily and I are in this together, this is a situation we’re both trying to get out of, haha. Promise we’ll have some news on the P5 dating sim front soon – if nothing else, I wanna get back on my feet so I can go back to working on that. 

[tattedmariposa]

EMERGENCY COMMISSIONS!

Hey everyone, I know I haven’t been posting much these days but I could really use some help.

My family lost their house about a month ago, leaving us effectively homeless. As you can probably imagine the situation is Not Great for a number of reasons (in addition to all of that, my family’s current state is… less than healthy). My fiancee and I are working hard on getting at least me and my two adorable cats to a better place, but I’m physically disabled so I’m pretty limited in what I can do to help. Right now I at least have regular access to my computer, so I’m taking drawing commissions, in hopes that I can save some money and eventually get out of this situation and move in with my fiancee.

You can find all of the basic info for requesting a commission above, but if you want a more precise quote or have any other questions, feel free to contact me! You can also find more examples of my work at my fanworks tag on my tumblr!

Even if you can’t do a commission, reblogs are super appreciated! ♥ Thanks so much for looking!

[p4youraffection]

Hey everyone! I’m sorry to take up your time on this blog... but I’m one of the creators of Your Affection and as you can see from the above, I’m in a less-than-great place right now. If you would consider commissioning some work from me or reblogging this post so more people can see it, I’d really appreciate it!

[p4youraffection]

Persona 5 Project Update

Hey everyone! Since we’re here anyway, we thought we’d give you all a quick update on the status of our upcoming work!

I know we vaguely mentioned that more info on a Persona 5-related project would be forthcoming last month, but, well... life kind of happened. A lot. You know how it is. 

We’re hoping to be able to make a more official announcement by the new year, but for now... here are some slightly more concrete details we can share!

We do have an outline for the script already! And a really massive one, at that - the combined word count for the main script and the confidant scripts exceeds 25k words in itself. (For comparison, the original outline for P4YA was only a few thousand words, and the final script was around 70k!)

We can tell you that the format of this game will be a lot different than P4YA was. While P4YA was more like a visual novel, we’re hoping to recreate the feel of the P5 overworld as much as possible (within reason, as we’re still working with Ren’py). 

Not only are we aiming to recreate the day-to-day feel of P5, but we’re absolutely planning on including confidants for the player to work on as well! If all goes according to plan, there will be five of them available in the game: four that have the option to end in romance (or not, if you so choose!), and one that is strictly platonic. As for the characters involved, well, you might just have to use your imagination for now! ;)

Even besides the day-to-day activities and the confidants, there is still so much more that we plan on doing with this game. We want it to be far beyond just a vehicle to do... certain things... that couldn’t be done in P5 itself (which I suppose is a massive clue about the contents of the confidants, but that’s all right). We want to tell a story, and we want to make it a really good one - so suffice to say there is going to be a meaty plot to the game as well!

All of that being said, we’re painfully aware that this is a much more involved and ambitious project than P4YA was... but even if it takes us a very long time, even if more delays come up (we’re just a small group of people with lives outside of this, after all!), we are absolutely determined to see this through. Both Persona fandom as a whole and all of the supporters of P4YA in particular have been really, really kind to us, and for that reason alone, we are firmly resolved to make this project a(n eventual) reality.

Thank you for reading, and we hope to have more news for you soon! ♥

[bedsafely]

The Most Informal Commission Post In The World. 

Did I do all that art? Yes. Is there rhyme or reason to why I picked which piece? no. And that’s gonna go for most of this post so buckle in.

I’m in real trouble w/r/t my medical bills. I’ve managed a payment plan for my cancer surgery, but appointments still have copays and haha insurance. haha. before anyone asks, yes i tried care credit, and they denied my ass.

So here’s the thing. i don’t think i’m going to be able to regularly draw until after the holidays.  that means i’ve got no way of supporting myself until i’m out of this crappy cancer labyrinth (art is how I pay my rent, and i’ve built up a big enough bubble to last for the meat of this treatment process but it’s running out). so i’m kinda going out on a limb here and seeing if anyone would be interested in future commissions. That is to say, commissions that are paid for now but don’t get drawn until. next year. l-lol. I realize that probably sounds like a shitty deal, but cancer’s a shitty deal so i’m trying everything. 

All commission  inquiries can be emailed to [email protected]

I get that shit sucks for everybody. And I don’t want to make anyone feel like they’re bad or i don’t appreciate them if they can’t afford to commission me. just signal boosting this post means the world to me. i might not be able to eat signal boosts, but it might put me in front of the eyes of someone who wants something and doesn’t mind waiting a few months.

there’s also my ETSY, where I have a lot of posters/prints/charms and stuff, if you are interested in any of that…!

and putting something else out on a limb, just in case, ‘cuz my dignity’s to the wind now anyway: if you don’t want/need a commission/poster but are still in a place to help me, here’s my ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/bedsafely. 

words can’t describe my appreciation for anyone who gets a commission, donates, or signal boosts. please know that playing the cancer card makes me insanely uncomfortable but lol fuck the american health care system!!!!!

so concludes the most slipshod commission post ever, i hope u enjoyed

[p4youraffection]

Just wanted to add that Emma is one of the many amazing artists who did illustrations for P4: Your Affection, and not only is her work itself top notch, but I can personally vouch for the fact that she is wonderful to work with all around: she is timely, professional, super friendly and even helped us out a ton when we were pressed for time and extra illustrations toward the end! 

So if anyone can afford to help her out now (I’d also like to add that these prices are really a steal, for artwork of this quality!) please consider commissioning some work from her! And as she said, signal boosts are appreciated as well!

[p4youraffection]

sooo… p5 fangame?

It’s Happening. 

We’re planning on making a more ~official~ announcement sometime by the end of this month but.......... yes.

[p4youraffection]

You mentioned doing something for P5? 👀👀👀

Not quiiiiiite ready to go into detail just yet, but work has been underway since spring. Be on the lookout for more info coming soon!

[p4youraffection]

So first, I'd like to start off by saying that I LOVED the game. Like, really loved it. The writing is superb, the visuals are perfect... and that's why it disappointed me, as someone who takes issues like this very seriously, that you would call out Souji's abusive parents and then defend them at the same time. I just don't get how you can use a line like "it's not like they abused me" when they very clearly did? Idk. I'd like to hear your thoughts, if you have time to answer me.

Hi anon! First, thanks for taking the time to write in, and we’re glad to hear that you loved P4YA!

The rest of this reply (the part about Yu/Souji’s parents) is under a readmore, due to length. CW for (non-graphic) discussion of child abuse/neglect.

I think it should be noted that we, as writers, wrote a lot (and I mean a lot) of stuff into the game that we disagree with personally. From things as serious as Yosuke’s casual sexism to frivolous lines like Rise calling Kanji’s bunny dolls creepy (everything Kanji makes is totally adorable, okay), we firmly believe in letting the characters be themselves - whether or not that happens to align with our personal views. As writers, not only of P4YA but in general, we believe that sometimes it’s okay to write about things you don’t necessarily agree with: a character having a certain viewpoint is not the same as the narrative itself endorsing that same idea (and definitely not the same as the writer themselves espousing it).

And so when it comes to the matter of Yu/Souji’s parents, I think it’s also crucial to ask: would Yu himself consider his parents abusive? 

It’s something I gave a lot of thought to when writing that scene, and our particular characterization of Yu plays a big part in it. (As the one who wrote most of his lines, I could talk about Yu’s characterization for an embarrassingly long time, but I’ll try to keep it brief.) For all his protagonist-specialness and positive qualities, at his core, Yu’s just a kid who is only now figuring these things out for himself. He’s still learning and growing as a person, and (an important detail) he might still be a bit in denial (it is unfortunately very common for abuse victims to deny or downplay their abuse, even to themselves). And if I can bring personal headcanon into this a bit, I believe Yu probably didn’t even realize, at least not entirely, that something was wrong with his situation... until he saw the same patterns repeated elsewhere (aka with Nanako). So while I, the writer, myself disagree, I don’t believe that he would see it that way. 

I’d like to close this out by mentioning, while we’re on the subject, that writing that scene was something close to my heart, as I myself am a survivor of child abuse (albeit very different from Yu/Souji’s). And more than that, I was once a teenager in his shoes too - coming to terms with what had happened, and trying to explain it to people I cared about for the first time. It was very important to me to do that scene justice, and I can promise that I didn’t take it lightly. I hope this explanation helps.

[p4youraffection]

theholylight replied to your post “Not to be a pain in the ass, but I've gotten to the part in the...”

I guess I didnt download that early since I didnt have that problem (or I didnt pick those options?)

Yeah! To clarify, unless you downloaded the game like... the moment the release post went up, or unless you’re otherwise having issues, totes Do Not Bother redownloading or applying any sort of patch.

[p4youraffection]

Not to be a pain in the ass, but I've gotten to the part in the Yu/Yosuke route where you meet Yu's shadow and keep getting this "an exception has occured" and some code about the "File "game/souyo/rpy", line 5843, in script" and the NameError: name 'SMC' is not defined. I've downloaded the patch, so I just want to see if this is fixable or if it's just happening to me lmao

I’m the pain in the ass, because that sounds like the old patch download that was up for like... 10 minutes before I realized my horrible mistake. This should work. (I am trying my damndest to avoid telling peeps who got the game within hours of release to redownload it, though if you choose to go that route your saves will still be there.)

[p4youraffection]

so u guys wrote the story jointly... how did u decide who wrote what? did u take turns or was it smth else? was it hard to write w two people? (asking bc i wanna write a story w a friend too. havent played the full game yet but loved the demo btw)

Hi anon! Glad to hear you enjoyed the demo, and we hope you enjoy the full game too!

As far as the writing process goes... we didn’t decide who would write what, or assign sections to any one person, at any point. We had a loose outline that we worked on together, and when we started the first draft, we pretty much just used a Google Doc that we could each add to, and dove in together.

And speaking for myself (this is Lily writing right now), I actually found it very easy to collaborate with Natalie. We work well together in general, but any time we both had an idea at the same time, or disagreed with something the other wrote, we just talked it out until we came to an agreement. I think when it comes to collaborating (and relationships in general!) communication is key... or at the very least, it worked out for us!

That being said, certain sections were written more heavily by one of us or the other, but rather than planning it that way, it just kind of happened. For instance, Natalie wrote most of the chieyuki and kannaorise routes, whereas I wrote most of the souyo route (and the intro and true ending/credits were more or less equally split). I think collaborating in this way allowed us to showcase each other’s strengths and support each other’s weaknesses.

Thanks for writing in, and I hope that answers some of your questions!

[p4youraffection]

I know you said that several people worked on the game... could you tell us a little about yourselves? Sorry if this is weird, but I loved the game and I'm curious about the people who wrote it!

Thanks for taking the time to let us know, anon! :D

Your Affection had three main developers:

Natalie (@wet-noodles, writing and programming): fun facts about me are I know zero things about programming and Lily and I are girlfriends. We chose our first anniversary as the demo release date, woo. 

Lily (@tattedmariposa, writing and visual design): I’m a visual artist and proud parent of two adorable cats. When I’m not having feelings about fictional characters, I spend the rest of my free moments sleeping at weird times or being grossly domestic. My favorite game is Persona 3, but my favorite Persona character, by a long shot, is Yu/Souji. 

Xylia (@missxylia, programming): I'm a programmer-in-training still in school who loves royalty, stuck up geniuses, and cute things! On any given day, you can probably find me poring over either academic works or the canon of my most recent obsession. I've got a soft spot for classic literature too.  My favorite game is probably Persona 3, and my favorite character's got to be between Akihiko and Mitsuru. Within Persona 4, it's probably Yukiko or Naoto!

We’d also be remiss in leaving out all the amazing artists who contributed to the game! You can find them here!

[p4youraffection]

Quick PSA re: Game Illustrations

We’ve noticed that some people have posting screenshots of the in-game illustrations… and we would like to ask, both as a favor to others playing the game and out of respect for the artists, that y’all hold off on doing that. 

Besides just keeping it as a surprise for other people, please keep in mind that our artists all worked really hard on those pieces, and it’s work that they might want to post down the line themselves. (In fact, when commissioning the pieces, we specifically asked that they all wait a month to post the full versions of their work, so that people playing the game could be surprised by it.) 

So please, treat it like any other fanart you’d come across, and think twice about the artists’ wishes before reposting!

Thanks a ton!

[p4youraffection]

Quick PSA re: Game Illustrations

We’ve noticed that some people have posting screenshots of the in-game illustrations... and we would like to ask, both as a favor to others playing the game and out of respect for the artists, that y’all hold off on doing that. 

Besides just keeping it as a surprise for other people, please keep in mind that our artists all worked really hard on those pieces, and it’s work that they might want to post down the line themselves. (In fact, when commissioning the pieces, we specifically asked that they all wait a month to post the full versions of their work, so that people playing the game could be surprised by it.) 

So please, treat it like any other fanart you’d come across, and think twice about the artists’ wishes before reposting!

Thanks a ton!

[p4youraffection]

Are there any plans to release a plain script version? I love the game, I just don't have the time to go through all of the bad/neutral ends myself. Thank you in any case!

Hi there! I don’t think any of us considered that there might be a demand for a plain script... so we hadn’t really thought of it until now. It’s a possibility, but editing it would take a good bit of time (the script clocks in at just under 70k words!) so it’s likely not something we would tackle right away.

Thank you for letting us know that you love the game too! It’s been so nice to get positive feedback from everyone. <3

[p4youraffection]

I know practically nothing about renPy, but is a Linux port possible?

Not only is it possible, but Ren’py’s cross-platform distro has all the files required to run on Linux. Link here. Ren’py can also build a Linux-only tar.bz2, so if there are any issues with the cross-platform package then I can upload that! Either way, I’ll update the release post accordingly.

[dejahna]

@p4youraffection is a treasure