Trivia / I Wani Hug that Gator!

• Ascended Fanfic: The game began as a fan-made mod for Snoot Game before Cavemanon took it over and turned it into its own game.
• Ascended Fanon: Several of the characters, such as Olivia, Liz, and Mia, began as Snoot Game fan characters before being repurposed for Wani.
• Anonymous Author: As with their previous game, every developer in the credits is listed under a pseudonym.
• Creative Differences: One reason cited for the game's delays was the team behind the original mod not seeing eye-to-eye with Cavemanon's direction of the game's story and characters.
• Creator Backlash: Several high-profile developers for the game have since publicly distanced themselves from it or have encouraged its piracy, alleging mistreatment and/or not being financially compensated for their work.
• Creator-Driven Successor: The game is all but outright stated to be a Spiritual Sequel to Snoot Game; it takes place in a nearly identical setting, and has similarities in visual style, gameplay and story (albeit much less caustic in narrative tone). However, it never references any major Snoot Game characters by name due to that game being a parody of Goodbye Volcano High, which Cavemanon has no legal rights to.
• Creator's Pest: Mia. Whether its due to the falling out with the artist who created her, or from her being written with zero redeeming qualities throughout the story (especially the Ending 4 route), Mia has been the target of scorn from Cavemanon since the game released. This has included a drawing of her getting crushed to death and the Steam Points Shop update including an emote made to mock her.
• Development Gag: One of the drawings in Olivia's sketchbook is reminiscent of the original drawing of her that inspired the game.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: Like its predecessor, the game has a large following in Latin America.
• Meaningful Release Date: It was released February 14th, 2024, Valentine's Day.
• Missing Trailer Scene: The reveal trailer in 2022 showed as an animated sequence of Olivia riding down a skate ramp, which is absent from the final game.
• Promoted Fanboy: Several dev team members began as fan artists or fanfic writers for the previous game, and were brought on to Cavemanon for Wani.
• No Port For You: The game is exclusive to PC, with no console ports announced.
• Referenced by...: Farelie from She Likes You Alotl references the game, when she sees an alligator with frogs on it and she declares that "I wanna hug that gator!".
• Schedule Slip: The game was originally slated to release in late 2022, but was moved to 2023 instead. That summer, the developers teased they would have the game out before Goodbye Volcano High, which had been delayed to August 29th. Goodbye Volcano High released on its intended day, but Wani didn't; it wouldn't be until February 7th, 2024 that they announced a final release date of February 14th.
• Troubled Production: In addition to the Schedule Slip described above, one member of the development team was let go in late November 2023 after they were discovered to have plagiarized a number of music tracks for the game, many of which appeared in the demo.
• Viral Marketing: The game's marketing pre-release built on the perceived rivalry between Snoot Game and Goodbye Volcano High, and post-release, it gained popularity through viral tweets showing off the game's animated sequences.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Olivia was originally meant to be overweight and have features closer to her original design. The final game has her just chubby instead and outright skinny in the epilogue.
  • The 2022 reveal trailer has a slightly different visual style for all of the characters.
  • As outlined by her creator, Mia was originally meant to have a Heel–Face Turn ending where she realizes why she sees Inco and Olivia's relationship as such a threat to her, and in the Golden Ending, she turns herself in to authorities to protect Kiara and Lunara, showing she truly cares about them.
  • The demo and release date trailer showed Lunara with a different design, and a leaked character sheet revealed she was designed as a transgender woman. Word of God has stated she is cisgender in the final game, and her sprite was edited a week before the game's launch to remove perceived "masculine" features^*she was given larger breasts, narrower shoulders, and longer legs.
  • Several character design sheets were leaked in April 2024, which revealed early iterations of several characters:
    • Ben was originally meant to be a minor supporting character and have a red-haired raptor girlfriend named "MJ". As Ben's role in the story evolved, MJ was scrapped in favor of Ben dating Mia. Ironically, in the Golden Ending, Ben does eventually date a raptor, Lunara.
    • Damien began as a long-haired Indominus rex and, based on early outfits, appeared to be a musician. His final iteration was created by multiple people working on him at once; by that time, the rest of the cast had already been finalized.
    • Mia originally had an X-shaped scar on her left cheek, and one iteration had her with a black leather jacket.
• Working Title: "Olivia Mod", prior to Cavemanon taking over production and turning it into a standalone title.

---