Title screen with an early version of the city in the background.
Anyone remember Game Of Thrones? Wild how one crappy end can erase a pop culture behemoth just like that, huh.
GoT wasn’t in our minds when we worked on the final stretch of VA-11 Hall-A, but the fact that things need to reach a satisfactory ending did.
It weighed so much in our heads, in fact, that we spent at least a full week rewriting the ending.
No, no. I don’t mean “it took us a week to rewrite the ending”, I mean that once per day we rewrote the entirety of the last day from scratch, mulled over it, and then, not satisfied, we repeated the process again the next day.
There were so many elements that had to come together. What happens with Jill and Gaby? What tone do we want the whole ending to have? What does the letter say? I remember this one draft of the whole thing where the tone of the letter made everything feel more like the ending was just barely the middle point of the story somehow.
So Kiririn chimes in as he often does and tells me to remember that we had a song planned for the credits, what does that song make me feel?
I’ll be the first one to admit that I don’t have much attachment to the VA-11 Hall-A OST. It’s not a personal thing or a matter of preference (though I do recall often requesting “something less melancholic” when new songs rolled around), but rather the fact that coding the game I grew sick of hearing one song, so I’d switch it for a while… then get sick of that one, and repeat until I ended up muting the game while testing and coding things.
Despite this I sat down with the credits’ song, and just like how it was fitting for me to be at a loss as to what to do with the ending not unlike Jill and Gaby being at a loss on what to say, I took the chance to look back onto things and ponder about… everything.
So first of all, how do people usually break the ice in social situations? Why by looking for common interests of course, and what is in Jill and Gaby’s mind all the same in that moment?
Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December;
And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.
Eagerly I wished the morrow;—vainly I had sought to borrow
From my books surcease of sorrow—sorrow for the lost Lenore—
For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels name Lenore—
Nameless here for evermore.
…who WAS Lenore anyways?
There were elements already in place, like being the sort of pushy person that wouldn’t take no for an answer for what she thinks is best for others, this tied in a way with how Lenore had to raise Gaby herself since their mother was… basically a more intense and less charitable version of Lenore herself. This quality would be the one that drove the rift between her and Jill too.
But who was she beyond that? What sort of person would make Jill break her shell and become romantically involved of all things?
Well… who else has broken Jill’s crunchy exterior to reach the soft insides so far? There’s Dorothy who appreciates how diligently Jill listens to her and even remembers everything she talks about. There’s Dana who being so proactive is tailor made for a turbo bottom like Jill, There’s Alma who feels in Jill a certain specific kind of “all the single ladies over 25” kinship, there’s even Anna whose constant teasing gets under Jill’s skin and yet Jill cannot bring herself to hate her even if she doesn’t outright state it.
So in this front Lenore should be a bit of columns A, B, C, and D, on top of everything that was already established.
But what would a person like this write on a letter sent to Jill?
Oh yeah! The letter. I’ve seen people throw the theory that Jill found the letter under her door because somehow Lenore put it there and left. And while I love this theory so much I wanna ignore the question of “how did she get Jill’s address though?”, the truth is that it was just another case of “Glitch City Informed By Venezuela”. In Venezuela there’s no such thing as an appropriate or active postal service so when stuff like new credit cards needed to be delivered they were usually slipped under the doorway of my family home.
But that letter… what would it say? I went through so many revisions, from Silent Hill 2-esque long tirades about how much Jill meant to Lenore, to letters full of regrets, to things that for some reason felt like the start of a noir mystery?
In the middle of all that frustration I thought “man, wouldn’t it be funny if Jill (and me by extension) is making such a big deal and then the letter is blank or just says something like ‘My bad’?”.
…
…would that be out of character though?
If Lenore was the kind to tease Jill, woulnd’t it be in character for it to feel like Jill opens the letter after being so haunted by it and it turns out it feels like one last Epic Prank?
And wait, wouldn’t Gaby also be frustrated? Angry at being left alone? Wouldn’t this be a moment where Jill and Gaby bond over their frustration?
No song for the broken-hearted…
No silent prayer for the dear departed!
The ice would be broken and they would get the chance to rebuild that bridge between them? Or more like getting rid of all the rotten planks and rope… but still!
After that things started to flow naturally. First they clear the air on what happened leading to Lenore’s death, then what happened that made them part ways, and before you know it they’re catching up as if no time had passed.
It was also a way to mark Jill’s development. Just a week earlier she had a really hard time even thinking about telling Alma what happened and now here she was rebuilding a relationship she thought long gone.
Because in the end that was what I wanted people to take away from the ending from the beginning. It’s about salvaging relationships you held dear and had no reason to push aside. Jill doesn’t make up with Gaby because she feels indebted to her sister, or as a replacement for Lenore. Jill and Gaby are estranged sisters from different mothers reconnecting finally after all that time.
This intent was there ever since we settled on Gaby as a character, it was part of the adjustments we made to Alma even. Alma was always part of a big family, but this approach led me to writing a whole section where Alma psyches up Jill to meet up with Gaby based on her own experience as a younger sister herself.
And the way the ending tackles everything and even includes a moment mixing a drink feels really obvious in retrospect, but what ISN’T obvious in retrospect?
I remember I entertained the idea of having one last section depicting the New Years’ party (details like Gaby meeting Stella come from a bunch of random ideas that crossed my mind for this) but you know what? It ends where it needs to and we’re so fucking close to releasing this dang thing let’s not prolong our work any more.
We might’ve covered the ending, but things aren’t over! There’s one more day to go!
I remembered being so relieved by the end and after that I even cried a little. I didn’t want it to end, but at the same time needed THAT ending, it was just way to perfect for it. It left a hole in my heart when I finished it, I needed more, I craved to follow their lives after that, and for me this feeling is what makes something a masterpiece. It was an amazing story from the begining to the end. Thank you for delivering it to us
The ending is so bittersweet, but I respected the way you all made a decision to end it on a high note. Since the whole game felt like a slice of life that somehow felt SO lived in, for something bombastic or overly climactic would have changed the way the game makes you feel. Do I wish this was only the halfway part of the game? You bet I do. Am I filled with emotions and left wanting more; yet actually satisfied with the conclusion? Also, yes. This is the only game I can think of where I IMMEDIATELY replayed it after the first ending, and I think a big part of that was how beautifully it was wrapped up.
We all cant express how much this game means to us, and how badly we’d love to have more of the story told one day. But I’d much rather have this amazing story that leaves me wanting more vs. Something else overwrought or half baked.
Thank you, Kiririn, and everyone else who helped bring this world to life!
The ending made me feel like I had to share this game with everyone, because it seals things off in the exact kind of “real” way that is complex but still hopeful, while still feeling profoundly…well, Venezuelan.
I always tell people that if they want to understand me better they should play this and pay close attention, as I am a weird alien that can pretend to fit in with the local culture most of the time until someone presents a crucial little difference and makes the “disguise” fall apart – like the doorway letter, because why would you deliver it any other way? Same as how I found out nobody makes pasticho de berenjena the “right” way because we’re weirdos that invented our own bastardization of Italian and Greek cooking.
…..anyway, I really like that it felt really natural because it came from one of those eureka moments where a dam breaks and everything makes sense at once.