My Catgirl Maid - A Look Back - Part 3

Part 3: The Quest for Chemistry

This is Part 3 in the series. If you’re reading this first, you will want to go back and find Part 1. I’m releasing them all at the same time so they should all be close together.

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After the production of “My Catgirl Maid” and finally getting Chapter 12 out, I was feeling considerably burnt out and I was in need of a break. I thought about delaying the DLC a bit to take a break but knew if I did that, then I probably wouldn’t have come back to it. So, I took a week where I focused more on brainstorming than actual planning and it helped a little.

There was a huge hurdle with the DLC that took some time to figure out but I’m glad it worked out in the end.

Can you guess what it was?

If you guessed that I had designed all the side characters to have 0 romantic chemistry with the MC but now needed to write a romance story with them. Then you guessed correctly! Haha

Kind of hard to build a romance story around 0 chemistry but some people find success with it so it’s not impossible. Not really what I wanted to do though so it was a lot of back and forthing with myself about how I wanted to handle each character.

Luckily, Maddie was a good starting point as, of the 3, she had the most time with the MC and I had just finished their “buddy cop” adventure through Katulinia in the last couple of chapters.

Still, what to build off of? Their relationship in the main story is built off a mutual love for Cynthia, mutual dislike for their workplace and a playful sense of hostility between them. I really had to dig into Maddie and think about how she would act if the MC wasn’t “the enemy” at the beginning because Cynthia was living with him.

In the end, I went back to thinking about people like cats and building a relationship from there. It worked in the main story after all haha

Maddie is the stray alley cat in the neighbourhood you happen to befriend one day. Puts up the hard front to survive in the world but just a big old softy when she falls for you.

From there it was writing their usual banter just with more of a physical presence to things as she’s not afraid to invade people’s personal space. Cynthia can attest to that haha It didn’t take long to find the chemistry for them that worked and it was a fun chapter to write.

Miyu, on the other hand, was the complete opposite. I seriously had no idea what to do with this chick and it took until about 2/3 of the way through her chapter before it stopped feeling awkward to have the two of them talk to each other.

The problem with Miyu is that she had less interaction with the MC than Angelica had, if you can believe it. Aside from the beach scene where they pretend to be announcers for the sand castle game, they don’t really say much to each other. All of the scenes that make Miyu a character and have all the chemistry are with Cynthia.

I had actually thought of doing her chapter as if she was the one to find Cynthia instead of the MC. To me, it made the most sense as they already had the established chemistry from the main story and they walk a very similar road in life. They could easily help each other with their problems and resolve things together, growing their bond very naturally. Their chapter would just be the main story but Miyu as the MC.

I had to scrap that idea quickly because I was liking it way too much and it wasn’t the reason people would get the DLC. People like Miyu and would want to be with her so the MC was needed as the Player Avatar. Just had to figure out a way to get them to work.

Like I said, it was a struggle. Shrank the MC’s purpose and personality in the chapter as small as possible and just focused on Miyu, telling more of her backstory that wouldn’t have come out in the main story. I was nervous about it but Margo gave it the seal of approval in the editing phase so it did something right haha

After that, I had saved Angelica for last simply because she was the one I was looking forward to writing the most.

I had already been working on some elements to her story before finishing Chapter 12. I already knew the angle I would take because while working on the final 2 chapters, I knew there was going to be some stuff I couldn’t show for her so I just took notes and used the DLC to build off of it.

Plus, I’ve been wanting to do a romance story based on codependency for a little while now, it just didn’t come up in the previous projects I was working on.

Most people would want to go full Yandere with the idea but I wanted to do something a little more subtle and grounded. Good thing I had a character who no one cared about just sitting off to the side, right? Perfect chance to experiment.

It worked out beautifully and the entire DLC did end up helping the project feel fully complete to me. I had said and done everything I wanted to with the characters and the story.

I know people wanted it longer but slice of life stories are tough to gauge their length. At any point and time, without warning, they can feel like they are too bloated and lacking direction.

The story ended right where it needed to.

And with that, my look back at “My Catgirl Maid Thinks She Runs the Place” comes to a close.

As always, thank you very much for supporting me. If you have questions, please ask, I’m always around somewhere.

See you in the next project.