Welcome to Old Worlds, a podcast where we explore and review some of the coolest abandoned structures for anyone from recent-history buffs to adventure-seeking hobbyists to check out.

Alright, now that I’ve finally got all this set up, why don’t you introduce yourself again, and tell me what we’re doing here.

I’m Kyoutarou Oouchi, and I’m an urban explorer. Right now we’re standing on an abandoned subway platform somewhere in Hokkaido, and we’re getting ready to climb down onto the track and check out some of these tunnels.

And what’s in the tunnels?

Some pretty cool art. When all the development in this area died off about a decade or two ago a lot of people ended up losing their jobs, and some of those people ended up in this little abandoned section of the subway. I guess at least one of them took up painting or something.

So why are we out here in the freezing cold almost in the middle of winter?

The, uh, subway started moving through this section again after they cleaned it up a little and tossed all the homeless, and winter’s when the track’s used the least. It should be a little safer around this time.

You’ve obviously been here before, but have you ever brought someone along with you on one of these kinds of trips? It seems like a pretty dangerous thing to bring someone along for.

Yeah, I’ve brought someone with me a bunch of times to places like these. It’s actually a lot funny when you bring someone along with you, especially when you stumble across stuff like this.

So you’re kind of a tourist guide then, huh?

Nah, it’s just one person. She’s a huge fan of some of the places we go to. Or at least, I think she is. She’ll sometimes choose these places to go but when we get there she just kinda spaces out at the stuff laying around.

A girl you take with you to dark abandoned buildings at night, huh…

Yeah. Wait, no.

Before we head down onto these dangerous, operational tracks that still see some use, why don’t you talk to us about this girl and buy me some time to build up my courage?

Heh… Okay. Well her name’s Yukino, but it’s nothing like what you’re thinking. She’s more like a sister to me, you know? I mean, except for the fact that I spend a lot of time with her. At least I used to until she suddenly decided to go to college. That was about a year ago, and we stopped hanging out so much. I’ve gotta admit, the first couple of weeks I actually felt a little lonely for the first time in a while. In highschool – we both went to one of those rinky-dink, hokey ‘traditional’ highschool where you had to actually attend in person – we used to hang out a ton, check out abandoned buildings, stuff like that. But one day she told me she was going to join some college near her house, one of those ones that still had an offline campus sorta deal, the cheap places. I asked why, but she never really told me. I think it was because I wasn’t really enough anymore. Most people would probably be more than fine having just one friend they talked to online once in awhile, but Yuki’s different. Like she wants everyone to act like how people did a couple decades ago. I guess for the most part I wouldn’t mind that either.Anyways no, I don’t think I have any of those sorts of feelings about her. She’s just someone I feel like I need to… Protect, I guess.

…Kyoutarou.

Yeah.

That last part was really lame and embarrassing. Anyways I think I’m ready to do this. Let’s get going.

“Look, officers, I assure you, Setsuna is perfectly safe.  Yes, I helped her escape, but it was only with the best of intentions for her.  How could I just let someone whom I care for be used like that?  Of course I did what I thought– no, knew, was best for her.  Yes, she’s a bit naive, but I believe I have prepared her well, though she probably wouldn’t know that.  My tutoring, combined with her fortunate background and upbringing, will leave her much better prepared for life out there than most people who are raised in that world.  Who knows, maybe she’ll be able to make a difference in the world, make it more like it was.  I set her on the right path.  I can only hope she can follow it to the end.  You already know the details of how I helped her escape, and I confirm that.  But you won’t find out anything about where she is now.  Honestly, your best bet to find her is to send out patrols.  How hard can it be to find a 6’1” young woman in Japan these days?”

- Official statement from Yousuke Rikimoto, prime suspect in the disappearance of Setsuna Nasunaga

To: r.senkawa@kyouhaiacademy.ne.jp
Cc:
Subject: Interesting applicant


Dear Chairman Senkawa,

We had an interesting applicant come in today. Yes you read correctly, she actually came in for the application. I told her that it was available for her to do online however, she told me that she wanted to see what an ‘offline’ school is like in person. Have you heard this term before? ‘Offline School?’ It seems the way of teaching you and I were once taught and believed in has become quite the minority. Anyway, back on topic, this young lady was quite extraordinary. She said she has been homeschooled for her entire life and has, reason unmentioned, decided she would like to spend her final year in high school. Not knowing the extent of her home schooling, we decided to give her a test to assess her level of knowledge. I’m checking it over now and I’ll be honest, I haven’t seen results like this in a long time. The test isn’t necessarily incredibly difficult, however to have this level of depth and insight in her answers when not even having taken the specific courses to prepare for it, I suspect her level of knowledge and intelligence to be much broader than any result this test could tell us. However, I would not call her a genius. It seems to me that she is simply an immensely hard worker and puts a lot of effort into becoming so well studied. I could tell by the way she carried herself, the way she spoke and the firmness in her voice that she must have become independent at a very young age. I don’t know her family situation, but I wouldn’t be surprised if she had been taking care of herself, and possibly even siblings, alone for quite some time. However, all that being relatively interesting, this next part is what intrigued me the most and is the reason for this e-mail to you Chairman. Upon asking the usual question at the end of the application, the difference this time being in person rather than on paper, ‘What do you want to do after graduation? Do you have a goal in life?’ she responded with this: ‘I want to change this world.’ Interested, I asked further questions somewhat unrelated to the application and more for my own personal gain. I asked her ‘change the world how?’ And then she responded with this: ‘I want to get rid of this stupid deadlock humanity has found itself in. The non-existence of any kind of advancement or progression in the last two decades, the fact that we are almost exactly where we are now as we were then – it’s driving me insane. If Humanity is going to die out, which it is going to do at this rate, it shouldn’t be under layers of their own filth and despair; it should be when we’re at our highest, not our lowest. This is not the world I want to be living in. So, I will change it.’ I’ll be honest Chairman, the intensity and sheer determination in her tone at that moment gave me the chills. I didn’t think anybody like this, especially of this generation, existed anymore; I had almost given up. And to be honest again, I accepted her without even having read the application. Which brings me to the second point of my e-mail to you; turns out she can’t actually pay the tuition for one year and I had already accepted her before discovering this. Hopefully we can work this out like responsible adults.

Yours truly,
Principal Tanaka

———————————–
Psychological Brief
———————————–

IQ: 103

History of mental disorder?: No, but evaluated for unsubstantiated fears of A.D.H.D.

In/Extrovert: Extrovert

Type A / Type B Personality: Type B

Psychologist Evaluation: “Hitomi Kanahito is an effervescent young woman to be sure, but she doesn’t quite fit the criteria for A.D.H.D. like her parents are concerned. Honestly, there’s a difference from being fidgety and having a disorder… regardless, she’s a remarkably extroverted individual. First patient I’ve had in… 7 years(?) to opt for the in-person meeting. Wish I’d taken the time to clean up the office a bit more, in hindsight… She told me she has hobbies (jogging, walking, and dancing), which is important – especially in these times. Average student, which was the real giveaway she wasn’t in the A.D.H.D. field. Told me she liked sociology, so I had her talk a little bit. Now, after you’ve been in the field as long as I have, you know when someone’s lying, but this girl almost put the slip on me. I asked her what she thought about the world. Broad question, I realize, but it’s the broad questions that reveal the most about people. Anyway, she starts telling me about how she wishes people would start acting ‘like they used to’ (damn I’m getting old), which is understandable (especially for a sociable young woman such as herself). However, when I start asking her about how the way society makes her feel, she starts dodging the question. Well, not really dodging, but she’s overly terse: ‘Wistful? I feel like that’s a word?’ – I tell her it is – ‘Yup. Wistful, then.’ I give her the standard three seconds of silence before moving on. Lying through her teeth – she’s mad, or sad, or something – but wistful it is not. Couldn’t get her to open up enough in the time we had – besides, I had already tossed the A.D.H.D. out the window, so the primary concern had been addressed. Normally I would recommend counseling, but then again, all dentists want you to floss more.
– Levi Weinstein”

Dear reader,
Thank you for sticking around long enough to see this reveal come to fruition. We look forward to working for you in the coming months/years. Without any further adieu, I am proud to present to you, The Human Re-Ignition Project.

————————————————————————-

“Welcome to the Human Re-ignition Project!”

I hold the letter in my hand, re-reading the cryptic sentence on the cover trying to make heads or tails of it.

I flip it over and scan the surface area. Blank, except for the simple message. Not even a stamp – it had been hand-delivered.

What the hell is the Human Re-ignition Project? Sounds like a cult…

Most would likely open the letter immediately, their curiosity overpowering their common sense.

However, Mr. Letter, you have found yourself in the mailbox of a stronger, greater man than most.

I’m afraid you must be disposed of.

I deftly plunge the thin envelope into the large bin next to the building’s mailboxes meant for spam mail and advertisements like this.

However, the bin is empty. Nothing in there at all – let alone any mail like this.

I guess people are more gullible than I thought.

“A pity really. Being exterminated before your purpose was even fulfilled. Curse your creator for this fate, not your executioner.”

The letter looks up at me. If it had eyes, they would probably be welling up – like those overly-dramatic goodbye scenes from the movies.

“Don’t look at me like that.”

I close my eyes in a moment of silence for the letter as it drops into the bin.

Not a soul was around to hear my embarrassing monologue, as per usual.

I sigh, sticking my head out into the empty street. It looks like a high-noon shootout is about to happen – all it’s missing is the tumbleweed.

And all over the world, it looks exactly the same. This is reality now.

Over the last three decades or so the human spirit rolled over and died. Nobody really cares anymore – about anything.

There is no desire for the unknown, no advancement in technology, nothing like that.

People keep to themselves.

The vast majority of people are shut-ins now. Birth rates have dropped, most people are single, and nobody really “hangs out” anymore.

Even apartments that were once two or three room have been repurposed into one room suites.

It’s almost as if the entire world is a prison and everybody is willingly tucked in their cells.

Society is spiraling into a pit of despair and destruction.

It’s… a lonely world.

It’s…

“Fantastic!” I exclaim, twirling and bounding up the stairs towards my apartment.

My name is Ken. I am the most extroverted introvert in existence.

Being alone in an empty world has its merits. I can pretty much do and say whatever I want with little worry about anybody seeing it.

It’s not unlike having an amusement park all to yourself; if such things still existed in this day and age anyway. It’s like that episode of “The Twilight Zone”, only everyone is still around – just hiding behind locked doors.

For somebody like me, this world is a paradise.

Everything is disconnected. Take convenience stores for instance, like the one where I work the graveyard shift.

They’re not unlike giant vending machines. The whole transaction is completed with an ATM-like interface and a drop-box.

Even though I work in customer service, there isn’t any actual interaction with any customers.

Not a word is spoken, not a glance traded.

In other words – the perfect job.

An automated system could easily do what I do. Luckily the general human laziness found in today’s society outweighs the desire to develop things that would allow them to be even lazier.

Otherwise I’d be out of a job.

I stop my schoolgirl skipping when I reach my floor. The dimly lit, gunmetal hallway extends far before me.

Dozens of identical doors periodically mark the homes of hermits along both walls.

As I make my way down the hall passing the cell like-apartments toward my own, I can’t help but think of the zoo.

Like the zoo, I’m surrounded by life that I can’t see. Everything’s burrowed in its den, hiding from prying eyes.

My grandfather used to take me to the zoo. We went every few months, but never had much luck seeing things.

From display to display we’d wander, never seeing so much as a scale or a feather. The same disappointing outcome at each stop. But we kept visiting – we kept trying.

It was like he was trying to convince me that they existed. That even though they hid themselves, they were there – waiting. I just needed to look hard enough.

————————————————————————————————

“Hiyori Sasayaki” by Artist_Apprentice

Much to everyone’s disbelief, on 1/5/2013, just a day after Katawa Shoujo’s anniversary, AlienWorks Productions settled on a final concept for its Visual Novel.

And so began a tale of trials, tribulations, and (maybe?) triumphs. We look forward to working our asses off for you guys, so keep being that sweet lil’ thang that you are.

Maybe this’ll actually turn into more of a blog like it was for other devteams. I wouldn’t mind that. I’ll see if we can get you guys some shininess next week. Just wanted to let you know: the gears have started turning in the AlienWorks machine.

Yay!

Hello everybody,

Just wanted to wish you all a happy belated whatever-it-is-you-celebrate!

Unless you’re doing Kwanzaa. In which case, happy Kwanzaa!

We’ve all been pretty busy with our personal lives recently (cough, cough, family…), so I apologize for the lack of, ehrm, stuff.

That being said, we have all of our proposals in (yay!), so now it’s just a question of ironing out bumps over the next few weeks, then picking one we like! Huzzah!

Anyways, more to come later. And again, happy holidays!

Have some Star Trek loving from the art department.

Love (no-homo),

- Tony

PHHHHHHHH.

That’s the sound I make when I’m frustrated.

Phhhhhhhhhhh.

Anyways, one of the major concepts for our VN, a proposal for which I’ve spent the better part of a week writing… has been covered. Oh sure, it’s not word for word, but it’s more than enough to raise eyebrows.

Damn it. This is the second time that this has happened over the course of the DevTeam meetings. I need a time machine, just to go back and have these ideas before everyone else.

I probably won’t look much further into said concept, as it’s pretty much been done. That’s my big news for the weekend. Hopefully the others have had some better luck with their concepts – and when I say that, I mean that they have come up with something that nobody else has.

Maybe I’ll try my hand at some other concepts. Thanks for dealing with this blog post – it’s the closest to being a teenage girl bitching about her personal life that I’ve ever been. So, that’s… something.

- Tony

So right now, we’re in a bit of a transitional period. All of the writers are currently doing write ups for the various concepts we’ve discussed, so for a while at least, it’ll be pretty quiet. Until we choose a concept, that is.

Then we unleash hell.

So to tide you over for now, I figured I’d introduce the team members to y’all, seeing as I never finished those “DevTeam Spotlights”. So here you go, to slake your thirst for all things AlienWorks. The only things more creative than we are, are our nicknames.

WRITING DEPARTMENT

Hey everyone.

My recent duties have fallen under the more boring side of administrative responsibility. Monitoring the IRC for unrelated chatter, planning upcoming meetings, coordinating writing plans… and everyone has been a huge help around the DevTeam.

Anyways, we’ve recently taken a more structured approach to the whole thing. It’s more professional now: itineraries set up in advance for meetings, nightly gatherings, and procedures set up weeks in advance.

It’s not the most exciting bunch of work, but it certainly seems like the direction to head in.

I recently made a post at /r/visualnovels asking people what aspect of Visual Novels they valued the most. Answers were both lengthy and varied, so thank you to the fine people of /r/visualnovels.

Here’s the breakdown*:

Characters: 7

Quality writing: 2

Music: 2

Plot / “feels” efficacy: 8

Art: 2

User interface: 1

*Users clearly expressing that two or more ideas were on equal footing had their opinions recorded in multiple categories.

If there’s anything I learned: your best bet isn’t to place all your eggs in one basket. Don’t half-ass anything. This seems obvious, but at the same time, a lot of games focus too heavily on one aspect, at the cost of another.

This is what research looks like, people. This is raw science. Breathe in its science-ey goodness. Oh, wait, sorry. Waft its science-ey goodness.