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[Kaeloree]

Could you introduce yourselves?

Feuille: Well, I'm Feuille and there's Miss Sakaki too. We joined the modding community back in 2003 or 2004, I think.

Miss Sakaki: Our mods are Nathaniel, a vulnerable kensai and the mysterious Luxley Family ? and, now, the playful and loyal Faren!


Tell us a bit about Faren. What is he like?

Feuille: He's a bit of an unsavoury guy ? you first meet Faren in the Trademeet dungeons where he's been put for causing trouble at the local pub. But he loves travelling and seeing the world. He's not afraid to show his enthusiasm about things, be it drinking, an unfamiliar plant or the PC's affections.

Miss Sakaki: He has distinctive dialogue, he has lively banters with the Bioware NPCs, and he could never be described as taking himself too seriously. He'll romance any kind of PC ? male or female, good or evil, human or gnome or anything in between. Fussy, he is not. Hussy, maybe!


With no restrictions on Faren's romance, what if a PC isn't interested in him that way? What if they want to romance someone else?

Miss Sakaki: There are romantic conflicts with the Bioware NPC romances, and a whole lot of content with modded NPCs. There's also the option to start the friendship track instead in the early stages of the romance.

Feuille: We love our Faren friendship track. There's content there that isn't in the romance ? so whatever you decide to do with Faren, you're getting content custom-made for your choice.


Faren is your last mod before retiring. Why make a mod like Faren?

Miss Sakaki: Really, we wanted to do something different. Unlike Nathaniel, Faren is laidback and doesn't take himself seriously, and he has a more low-key background than the Luxleys. Faren's the sort of person who doesn't hold a grudge, and he's nowhere near as neurotic as our other characters.

Feuille: I wanted someone in my party who was a dual-classed fighter/thief: the power of a fighter with the skills of a thief. Marvellous! We also wanted to aim for a romance that would show the NPC's very strong and honest feelings for the PC without making him too lovey-dovey or full of angst.


If you could release another mod, and time and difficulty were no object, what would it be?

Miss Sakaki: We're both a lot more into female characters than we used to be, and in the past we had the idea for a geeky female Wild
Mage for BGII. I would kind of love a female Jacob-replacement for Mass Effect 2...

Feuille: Dragon Age Rogue gay woman who is a playful, tough old-school mercenary with a penchant for knitting. But then my female PC would have to choose between her and Alistair...woes!


Your mods contain a lot of same-sex romantic content. Why did you make that decision?

Feuille: Long story short, really, it's nice to have characters you can identify with in games that you play. By making LGBT mods that are popular, maybe we can show people that LGBT characters can be enjoyed by everyone. And maybe that can lead to more LGBT characters in the games we like. And that would be good.


So how do you write your mods? Are there any tricks or special methods you use?

Miss Sakaki: Experience has taught me to keep all the script and coding files very organised ? there's nothing that in the Faren files that isn't annotated and labelled. If I have to go back and change the code, I can easily find the bits and pieces.

Feuille: Division of labour certainly helps. I write the majority of the PC talks and player-initiated dialogue ? but by no means all! ? Miss Sakaki does all of the scripting and coding. She's a coding machine, whereas I can barely string together an IF-THEN block. With NPC banters, each do the ones we particularly like and share the ones we don't.


Who are your favourite BGII NPC to write banters for, then?

Miss Sakaki: Nalia - she's very self-assured, but has a lot to learn about how the world works. For Faren, I wanted to show that Nalia doesn't always have to be the butt of others' jokes and criticism: she's quite intrigued by Faren and his lifestyle (which could be termed "dashing" if one felt like it), and for Faren's part he likes joking around to impress her.

Feuille: It has to be Jan! I couldn't say where all my ideas for Jan banters came from -- I start writing and the bizarre tales would just tell themselves. I enjoy confusing our NPCs with his Jan-ness!


With the release of Faren, you are officially retiring. What are your feelings about modding after all this time?

Feuille: Modding was a huge crazy ball of madness and fun. Without modding I wouldn't know all the lovely people I do know. Now I know I can finish projects and put them into the wide world for anyone to see, which is more manageable now but was scary at first. I remember a few years ago, talking to a geeky friend at University: "We made this gay kensai guy," I said; the friend double-took and said to me, "So YOU wrote Nathaniel!" --The realisation that modding isn't just on the internet was shocking and hilarious!

Miss Sakaki: It's been so much fun, and it's wonderful to know that there are people who have enjoyed the work we've put into it. Not only that, it really helped both of us with character voice and planning written work. It feels very strange to be releasing Faren after such a long time, but I'm delighted to be doing so!


Any last words of advice to aspiring modders?

Miss Sakaki: Be patient ? it'll involve a lot of meticulous detail. But do ask people for help ? everyone was a beginner once.

Feuille: Start small and work your way up the difficulty scale. Don't be afraid to mess up now and then. Prepare to bugfix repeatedly. Of course, enjoy yourself!

Thank you both so much!