Air (series) - Development

Development

After the completion of Kanon, the Key staff started production on Air and expanded the number of people involved in this project compared to Kanon. The executive producer for Air was Takahiro Baba from Visual Art's, the publishing company that Key is under. The planning for Air was headed by Jun Maeda who was also one of two main scenario writers, the other being Takashi Ishikawa. Scenario assistance was provided by four more people: Kazuki Fujii, Kai, Tōya Okano, and Yūichi Suzumoto. Art direction was headed by Key's artist Itaru Hinoue who worked on the character design. Further computer graphics were split between three people—Miracle Mikipon, Na-Ga, and Shinory—and background art was provided by Din and Torino. The music in the game was composed primarily by Shinji Orito, Jun Maeda, and Magome Togoshi, who had started working with Key since before Kanon's release. After the completion of Air, two of the staff—Kazuki Fujii, and Takashi Ishikawa—left Key.

Jun Maeda, the main scenario writer of Air, commented that in the early stages of Air's production, it was already decided that it was to be an adult game, and he further assumes that if it was not at least first released with adult content, that it would not have been as commercially successful. Maeda also commented that he wanted to write Air to give players the chance to experience the entire story as a whole rather than just a sum of differing parts as typical bishōjo games do, including Kanon. While attempting to do this, Maeda also tried to simultaneously make it seem similar to typical visual novels in the same genre as Air to give the game appeal to the players who often play such games. As such, while the game incorporates stories from several characters, they are all of varying lengths.