AMA1: Tlaero

We're going to start doing "Ask Me Anything" style Q&A sessions. Patrons get to ask anything they'd like, and we'll answer the questions we're comfortable answering. We'll separate the answers into Tlaero and Mortze posts so that we don't need to coordinate. And we'll keep doing this as long as the questions keep coming. We already have enough questions for multiple responses.  I'll start with the "bigger" questions today and get to some of the shorter ones in future AMAs.  

How did you pick your name?

As Won said, the internet can be a nasty place for women. In most places online I pose as a male. When I joined Sharks Lagoon, I noticed that there were a few women present and that they were treated respectfully, which gave me hope. But I remained cautious. So, rather than checking "male" on the profile and calling myself "Mike" or "Tim" as I usually do, I only obfuscated my gender. I left the gender on the profile unchecked and came up with a name that ended in "o" since most people would assume it was male. The name is actually the combination of "TLA" and "Aero." TLA because ... reasons, and Aero because it's cool (and ends in "o").  Years later I slipped up and revealed my gender, so I'm open about it now.

How did you and Mortze meet?

I had some success with the Keeley-verse games, but then, after the release of Coffee for Keisha, Phreaky disappeared.  I kind of floated for a while and did various things.  Then, one day, a guy approached me in a PM on the Lagoon. He said that he liked my games and offered to be my artist.  I had seen a lot of ... variety ... in the quality of artists online, so I was extremely cautious. I asked him to render a clothed image of a woman he found attractive and send it to me. I was expecting a stock face and beachball breasts and was already planning out how I would let him down gently.

He sent me an image of Elsa.

After I picked my jaw up off the floor, I played it really cool. I calmly asked him to send me three facial expressions. When they arrived, I ran around my house cheering. I probably don't say often enough how much I appreciate Mortze. 

How do the two of you work on your stories?

Aside from Pandora, I generally write the characterizations of the characters and the plot, as well as all of the dialog. Sometimes Mortze creates the character models first, and they help inspire the story (that happened with Darkness Falls). Sometimes I give very broad characteristics ("Athletic build, with brown hair") and just see what he comes up with. In general, if it's graphical, I pretty much entirely leave it up to Morze, and if it's words, he pretty much leaves it up to me. I also do all of the programming, the mechanics, and score, etc. There are exceptions, of course. There are times when he suggests a plot change and there are times when I have an image in my head and get very explicit about how I want a scene to look. 

When starting a new game, we'll go back and forth in email (Mortze is one of 3 people who know my email address), discuss the major plot ideas, and work out who the characters are, etc. After that I write a script for a scene and send it to him. On some pages I'll describe the image ("Image: 3rd person. Blake and Won standing in the elevator. She looks pissed.") and then I'll put all of the text for the page. One of the AWESOME things about Mortze is that I can often leave the image description out, and he makes the image from the page text/dialog. He then sends me the images, and I create pages with his images and my text. However, I retype the text, rather than cut and paste. I do this because I'm often inspired to do better when I see his images, so I tweak as I go.

A big exception to this pattern is sex scenes.  I often get to the sex scene in the script, type "Sex Scene" and leave it up to him. He then creates the images the way he wants the sex scene to go and sends them to me. I take the images and write the text around the scene. There ARE times where I explicitly describe out how I want a sex scene to go, and there are times when he suggests changes in a dialog scene. But, in general, we stick to our roles. Words and programming: me. Images and sex scenes: him.

Pandora is different. It's his plot and storyline. We're working things out with that as we go.

As for the frequency of communication, after we're moving along with a game, I tend to send the script for a scene, and a few days later Mortze tells me the images are up on Dropbox. Then I create the pages and put them on Dropbox for him to see. Sometimes he asks for clarification, and sometimes I ask for another image or two. We're big fans of each other's work, so there also tend to be a number of complimentary mails going back and forth. But, since we tend to work on the unit of a "scene" rather than a "page" the time zone difference doesn't seem to be that much of an obstacle. 

We only communicate via email and uploading files. Never voice or video. There is ONE person in the world who knows both of my identities, and that's me.

What's your biggest challenge being a female who makes these games?

I'd say that the biggest challenge is all the people who complain about my "Feminist Agenda" because I have competent females in my games. I actually had someone say that Darkness Falls had a lot of potential, but that I ruined it all with Won's "Feminist" comment about the internet being a nasty place for women. That's frustrating, not only because it's my actual experience online, but also because one line shouldn't ruin an entire game. No one seems to mind the 10+ movies that come out every year with competent males (I enjoy them too!), but make a game where the woman doesn't shed her clothing as soon as a guy looks at her, and you're a Feminist. Sigh.

Various questions around the inspirations for my characters

As I said above, Mortze generally handles the visual representation of the characters. And, sometimes a visual representation inspires me to take a character in a certain direction, etc. But, for the most part, I just make up the characters to fit the needs of the game. As with any writer, there are aspects of me in many of them.  Some have some of my insecurities, and others exhibit qualities I aspire to. But I don't associate myself with any of them, and none of them are "me." (I would be VERY uncomfortable making a "Date Tlaero" game.) 

Also, none of my characters represent real people. However, two of them have been influenced by people I know. 

There is someone close to me who has been in near-constant pain for over a decade. And, as a result, this person gets very little sleep. Miranda (the character in my games) isn't a superhero because of the things she can do. She's a superhero because she manages to even function. I'm in awe.

And, my most cherished fan is an amazing person. The more I've gotten to know her, the bigger an impact it's had on my characterization of Won. 

This is getting pretty long, so I'll toss in a few quick questions and save the rest for the next one.

Your games have lots of supernatural elements in them. What led to this particular choice?

The secret to being a "successful" writer is to write the kind of stuff you enjoy. That way, even if no one else likes it, the most important person (yourself) does. For that reason, I write Science Fiction. 

Do you prefer nice boobs or a nice butt?

If you've played my games, you know the answer to this one. Even though I'm hetero, I think Yoga pants are the Greatest. Invention. Evar.

If your question wasn't answered, don't fret. I wasn't offended by any of them and am looking forward to answering the ones I haven't gotten to yet.  I hope you folks enjoyed this.

Tlaero