One Month Later...

I've been taking it easy for the past month, but now I'm back. I'll be sharing some of my thoughts in this devlog, for anyone that wants to hear. If you want to hear about the making of this project, here's a link to a forum post I made a few days after completing this: https://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewtopic.php?f=50&t=54108&p=506375#p506375

I've made a few somewhat private visual novels, but this one is my first real attempt at sharing a creation publicly. It also happens to be my first game jam attempt. I still feel like I'm an amateur, but for this I wanted to create something a little unique and maybe even surprising to make myself stand out a little. I would've been happy with just a dozen downloads and hearing back from a couple new people, but the downloads counter and the number of people I heard back from surprised me. It's not super big numbers, but that's not important right now. Knowing that people played it and gave it a chance is enough for me right now. I'm still figuring out what to create next, but maybe I can try sharing something I already completed in the meantime... maybe.

I was really anxious submitting this. I worried about things like "Did I make it too simple, and did I risk making it too plain and boring?" and "Did I show too much, or did I leave too much unanswered?", but it turns out, some nasty errors and bugs was what made me panic the most in the end. There's still an issue I can't solve with Windows 10 users that I wish I could find a more convenient solution for... but I tried really hard, and I can't beat myself up over it. I think I did quite a lot for this project, working alone and having one month to complete it, and being an amateur.

I believed I could make this in one month, and I was right, but I underestimated how much time and effort the more complex parts would be. So if I do enter another game jam, it will have to be something much simpler, like a kinetic novel. I have some regrets and there are parts that I still wish I could refine, but now I don't regret entering this game jam, creating this VN, and sharing it. I've been thinking about updating this more by touching up some of the art and writing that I'm not satisfied with, but I've decided to leave that part of it as is to preserve my journey of developing VNs. If I want to outdo myself, then I'll just try and make another! I can always remake this in the future.

Thank you to everyone that has given me and my little project a chance! I hope I can create something new for you to look forward to!