We have come into the habit of calling Akash: Path of the Five a "labor of love" and a "love letter" to the otome genre. Flowery words, to be sure, but what do we actually mean? Akash was birthed out of a desire to contribute to a much beloved niche of gaming, one that has been around for a long time but only more recently has started seeing prominence in the west. We wanted to add our own small voice to the chorus, so to speak, of the growing number of otome-style English visual novels. To that end, we decided quite early on that Akash would be fully funded, developed, and published independently and internally. [b]We did not have the benefit of an outside publisher, and we did not crowdfund (no Kickstarter, no Patreon, etc).[/b] Akash was, from concept to execution, completely our own. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35639313/3d96eda775554eb52808b24d3ce562e9dcb57edf.png[/img] It was also created because we wanted to present an otome that speaks to our own point of view. The Japanese otome that introduced the genre to us are created with a different audience in mind, one that carries its own set of expectations for the protagonist and love interests. With Akash we hoped to offer something with the western audience's expectations in mind. Part of this mindset included giving Aurora (the player character / MC) her own voice and agency within the game, rather than positioning her as a faceless proxy; She has her own opinion about the course of events in Akash as they unfold, and her own internal and external responses to each of her potential suitor's advances. Since 100% maximizing your potential lover's affection is not necessary to achieve the highest levels of romance with each of her beaus, players are fit to disagree and let Aurora speak her mind; she has a sharp wit, and we want players to feel free to use it should they choose. We also wanted to give players other means to shape their romance as they saw fit: elements like children and marriage are presented not as "right" or "wrong" choices, because these represent incredibly personal decisions that differ from player to player. While many otome consider a "marriage" ending to be the "true" ending, for example, we wanted to present it as simply another choice for the player to use to create their own personal romantic narrative. Because Akash was created on a small budget, we elected to focus on multiple different perspectives of a single narrative surrounding a pivotal series of events in the player’s life. Because each potential romance option represents a different point of view, it is in experiencing the same plot from different viewpoints that allows the player to see how events effect each boy differently. Since no particular order is required when determining which route to take, and each play through this includes the full narrative course, a skip feature was included to let players bypass areas they’d already experienced. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35639313/09509dd4a7b504f111eaf2620dc652e375dff1f3.png[/img] We realize that many of these decisions may exclude Akash: Path of the Five from the libraries of those who prefer a more traditional or edgier experience. It may also not appeal to those who do not wish to consider the prospect of marriage and children in a part of a fantasy romantic narrative right now. For those players, we absolutely understand. Akash is meant to be lighthearted "junk food," and, as with many such things, there may be a time and place, eventually, to experience the story we wish to tell.