If Found... is on sale for the lunar new year (happy new year!) so I thought it would be nice to do another behind the scenes look on a character! It's a good time to tell a friend to check it out! xD
Shans was the second character ever written for If Found... For the longest time in the game they were called Mack! We actually explored a few different Indian names for them (e.g. Mansukh, Ansh) and Ishaan actually came from a friend, and incredible writer, Chandrika Narayanan-Mohan. As well as lots of other great insight and advice, she helped us name most of the member's of Shans' family, like Tara & Neel. We wanted names that fit worked from both an Indian and Irish perspective.
Shans's design is the oldest and one of our favourites to compare finished pieces to!
Here you can see one of the original concept images from the end of 2015/start of 2016 and a beautiful promo shot that Liadh did after our release in May. Visually they always had the big shoes and the big cosy jacket. <3
In their initial creation they were supposed to be a K-pop fan and they also went through a phase of being very into fashion! I still feel like they are but we didn't get a chance to show too much of it. Initially the game was more episodic and each episode would involve Kasio meeting someone and then erasing them. At this point Shans had a single father, but as we reduced the cast and Shans became a recurring character their family got fleshed out more and more. It made so much more sense to have them parents around and madly in love. There are interesting tensions and comparisons with Kasio which come up in their two fights. :<
We never got to tell the full story of how they got their nickname Shans in game. When they were a kid, they were really bad at gaelic football, so whatever team they were on would have no chance, or "nil aon seans aige" in Irish (forgive my spelling!). I feel like it was intended as a mean thing but Shans kinda ran with it in a proud way.
There was a version of the story where Mack and Kasio never became friends again, but we couldn't do that to them! We all liked them too much. I think it's nice to have a relationship (or NOT relationship) that becomes a friendship.
Shans's gender identity was only settled on pretty late in development, but in a lot of other ways it was always there. When we realised that their relationships in the story really clicked. Trans and GNC and LGBT people often find each other before we're out, and I'm really glad we could explore that with Shans, the awkwardness of it sometimes but then in the epilogue the beauty of friendship. It was nice to get a peek into their journey. Things like obsessions with names, fascination with other trans/lgbt people.
I struggled with giving them a new name in this future peek, because I didn't want it to seem like we were deadnaming them (using a pre-transition name for them) throughout the rest of the game. This is something most trans people don't like, but I felt like it wouldn't be right for them not to pick a name and that they would be understanding and relaxed with an old friend using 'Shans'. And so I'm happy we get to know their true name, Anu, in the epilogue of the game. Fittingly it was their one name that never changed and always felt right. And I also love we meet their v cute kids. <3
- Llaura & team