The idea for my project began way back when I was slowly getting into reading murder mysteries. I was mostly a reader of classic literature back then, but after finishing Ryukishi07’s Umineko When They Cry, I started getting hooked on S.S. Van Dine, Agatha Christie, Edgar Allan Poe, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and G.K. Chesterton. My interests also spread to Japanese murder mysteries as well, and so far I have also read Edogawa Rampo, Soji Shimada, Yukito Ayatsuji, Seishi Yokomizo, and Tetsuya Ayukawa. But it was only my frustration with G.K. Chesterton’s mysteries that I started picking up the pen and rewriting them into more satisfactory scenarios. And from here, my writing journal shifted from mostly prose and poetry to mystery scenarios and murder blueprints. It was only a matter of time before I was itching to tie several of my best scenarios into an overarching story. And now, here we are.

The idea of having the setting be a sanatorium in the Alps stemmed from my love of Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain. I was reading the book whilst visiting my father in Hokkaido during the wintertime. The protagonist’s—that is, Hans Castcorp’s—cure and my father’s cancer treatment were quite similar in their diagnoses: two-hour long walks every day; bedrest when needed, or—in my father’s case—bathe in the Jozankei Onsen. And like how Hans Castcorp hiked on the mountain next to his sanatorium, my father also took walks on a mountain a quarter of a mile away from his apartment. In fact, I stumbled upon that Mountain by accident. I was walking in which I believed was a small park. Growing up in the states, I often believe that small parks tended to be—at the very worst—hilly. But this was an exception. I started wandering about in my mind and my steps until I realized too late that I was hiking up a steep mountain, one that was recently covered in snow. And with a confused face and a “whatever” attitude, I had decided to suffer through the journey to its peak. Reading The Magic Mountain was like that, too: pages and pages of nothing but slice-of-life moments; and yet slowly but surely, those moments start curving into mountain trails. And soon, those trails point you towards spiritual and philosophical peaks that wouldn’t have been as satisfying if it was told without banal moments. Otherwise, it would just be a walk in sunny central park. Who would want that?

You could say I am an advocate for slice-of-life moments that trail into insightful climaxes. Maybe that is why I like reading visual novels like Subarashiki Hibi and Umineko, as well as Japanese literature in general. This might sound weird, but to me, reading Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain was almost like reading modern East Asian literature. Of course, Hermann Hesse was the major western author who dove headfirst into orientalism—not Thomas Mann, who was a strong, German traditionalist whilst writing The Magic Mountain. But we can’t pretend that Mann didn’t have a major influence over eastern and—especially—Japanese Artists and Authors: Yukio Mishima, Haruki Murakami, Takehiko Fukunaga, Tatsuo Hori, Hayao Miyazaki—the list goes on. After all, what is cozier than reading a bildungsroman of a sick, melancholy young man while you too are stuck in bed during a snowstorm? A lot, actually. One of them is reading murder mysteries. Combining both is… well, you get the point.

A murder mystery/horror set in a sanatorium isn’t original. Many have done it before, but most like to focus on the horror aspect of hospital equipment and treatments. Meanwhile, I would like to focus on the daily life and melancholy exemplified in Thomas Mann’s book, but with a horror/mystery spin. That too isn’t original. But I would like to see more of it. The visual novels Higurashi and Umineko did something similar by having slice of life leading slowly towards horror and mystery. As for my game, I wanted to have an early 20th century philosophical novel that leads slowly towards horror and mystery. 

-Improb