Enter the Void

All I ever wanted to do initially was create one romhack that I was proud of and resonated with the community. I achieved that. Twice. So now I felt like I could really do whatever the hell I wanted. I knew the majority of people liked my level design style and were happy to play what I made next, but there were also some reactions, especially towards Memento Mori that rubbed me the wrong way.

I'm pretty sure 89% of creators try really hard to make something good and fun that other people would enjoy. They spend months and months of their free time on a passion-project and all they hope to get out of it is to see other people have fun with whatever they created. Of course invisible coin blocks and trolls are part of kaizo but I feel like these are usually an attempt at light-hearted comedy instead of being actually mean-spirited.

I started getting really confused about how some people could get so salty and would immediately default to thinking creators were actively trying to make their lives miserable. You get to play games for free that other people invested a huge amount of time into, and all they get out of it is personal satisfaction and the hope that people will enjoy it. Fix your fucking attitude. Or stop playing. That's possible too. Doesn't mean you have to like everything or that feedback isn't helpful, but most people suck at giving constructive criticism anyway.

These were my conflicting mindsets when going into the creation of Enter the Void. I was excited and happy about so many people liking my stuff, I felt like I could now do whatever I wanted, but was also annoyed with some people talking shit. So I wanted to make fun sections but also give people something they could actually complain about.

In other recollections, me and Light have talked about how we felt really free and didn't second guess ourselves much and just made what we wanted to make. Especially with Ascension and Memorabilia. But with Enter the Void, this approach was not just a feeling, it was a mandate.

I was gonna make whatever I felt like making that day, whatever it was that made me laugh or I thought was cool. No back pedaling allowed. Once something was made, I would not let myself take it back out the next day. If anything, all I ever did was take stuff a step further instead of smoothing it out. However I would be lying if I didn't mention some stuff did get redesigned and edited after playtesting. I always cared about feedback from my testers, even with hacks like this.

The opening water section of the hack did not exist until very late in the process. During one Light stream, shortly before I would send him the hack for testing, we started chatting and making jokes as usual, until somehow for some reason we had this thought: "Wouldn't it be hilarious to start the hack with a reverse controls water level?"

Of course that would be hilarious so I started making the section that day and finished it the next. Once it was in, it was in!

In a weird way, I feel like Enter the Void is a perfect hack. Not in terms of quality or creativity but it has kind of an immunity for me. If you play this and get really annoyed and salty and question why anything was done the way it was done, I think it's hilarious and I can't stop laughing. But if you have a good time and actually think it's fun, I'm obviously happy too.

There has not been a single Enter the Void stream that I didn't find enjoyable to watch.