hello shane! its really heartwarming to hear that you wrote snatcher and painter as dear friends. something that im curious about is that judging from snatchers dialogue on the cut 3rd floor, they, at least to some degree, enjoy seeing moonjumper fearful while recognizing it as painter. im not sayimg6the 2 dynamics cant coexist, of course, but if possible, and only if youd like fo expand on it, i would love to hear your commentary on the reasoning behind snatchers actions here! could it be him being hurt and striking back after being tricked to hide the fox fire? or them attempting to help painter regain some of their autonomy through familiar objects & strong reactions to them? or did they just want their attention? and another question, if you dont mind: what part of moonjumper was even fearful: the curse or the person it fed off of?
I originally made this joke picture of the snatcher imitating hat kid and chasing her for her hat. Didn't expect to actually see that in action. It's kind of....a running theme, funny enough. My joke pictures whether it was the snatcher, conductor, or some other, somehow became part of the game.
It needs to be mentioned that a lot of my ideas were not exactly accepted too, and early on when the stories for these places were not solid, we had ideas from Jonas and others on the team meeting together with the ones that were and it didn't really mesh well. So there are contradictions and weird quirks in the early builds.
I wanted things to add up, and everything to connect and tell a deeper story, so some of these ideas were built upon what was being put down too if it didn't have a story. Like the fox mask. It didn't have a story as far as I was aware. It was just there as this cool mechanic to see hidden things. Small things like that I tried to connect and build upon to a larger narrative.
Just like the Train chapter though, I made it too complicated and too dark when the game deserved a much more whimsical tone.
It should also be noted that I wasn't given the role for writing dialogue for any of the characters. Which again, probably for the better. But that also means whatever they've said in game wasn't what I had in mind and that's okay.
In the end I think the team just wanted the snatcher to be in the manor as being the trickster getting in hat kid's way. This was at a time way before the snatcher became anywhere near the role they ultimately got.
The Moonjumper only fears the green fire, or a heat so powerful it can counteract its manipulation of time and reality, because if it loses control that means it's lost in the darkness at the end of time for eternity, coming from the figure who dreams them.
