Thank you for 2K+ plays / downloads!

^^ pixel cat gifted by the lovely spiderpunkss on twitter!!♡

Thank you all so much for taking the time to play my first ever game, "Waiter, my spaghetti is cold!".  It went well beyond my expectations, and I cannot thank you all enough. 

A special thank you to the lovely people that took the time to leave ratings and comments. I'm really grateful for the support and feedback! (=^･ω･^=)❤

** While the postmortem will give a general bite-sized taste of the experience I've had, if you're interested in behind-the-scenes sketches, concepts and more detailed and unhinged rambling about the games design, check out my tumblr blog: https://www.tumblr.com/cripticbite . That aside, onwards dear reader! **

Postmortem:

Deciding on a Jam, and starting off!

Starting a game had been on my mind for a while, and O2A2 Jam was the perfect push to finally do it! I've noticed that giving myself too much time made me procrastinate after thinking about it for too long, so a ten-day time limit was the perfect chance to finally get something done! The game jam also encouraged beginners to experiment, so it didn't require a 500+ hour game or twenty endings. I could fumble around, try things and see what sticks without stressing about the story too much.

To further motivate myself, I decided to write updates on twitter so I can track my progress and get hyped about releasing the game. I basically took joining this jam as a learning experience that allowed me to take a glimpse into the VN dev world; to learn about what really goes on, and what it takes to publish a small game. 

To anyone still on the fence and considering starting their own game, I would highly encourage you to do so by joining a game jam with a short experimental project as the result in mind.

Bringing it all together!

I joined the jam solo in order to test my time management skills and to see what I was able to realistically accomplish within the 10-day time frame. All I had prepared were doodles by hand, and a quote written down that helped form a vague story concept in mind: "He isn't picking up the phone. Even worse, your pasta is cold! Unacceptable!" 

(Indeed, dear reader, the game was almost called "Waiter, my pasta is cold!". Then again spaghetti is a pasta so it just got more specific, really. )

For the genre I was leaning towards rom-com, and only settled on romance/drama after a purple edit of the background I modelled gave me some spark of inspiration. The only remnant of the rom-com idea is the games title, which I thought was fun but weird enough to get people curious as to what the hell was going on.

Modelling and editing the background went smoothly, but developing Sean was another story. 

The general 'feel' of his design kept changing  since I made the mistake of not having a story outline, so I wasn't sure of his personality and what expressions he'd make / how he'd react.  So, Sean himself remained a mystery to me until I finally sat down and wrote the script, which included his dialogue. The more that I wrote the back-and-forth between Sean and the MC, the more that a personality had started to show, leading to the sprites completion. 

As for the story, I had wanted to jump right into the conflict between Sean and the MC due to the 1000 word limit. I tried to keep it interesting while avoiding confusion by trying to give sufficient context or hint at certain things, but it was a bit of a challenge. I also found that a lot of the descriptions that I had hesitantly removed due to the word limit were better conveyed  through Sean's expressions and playing around with sprite transitions in Renpy, so that was a plus. 

Now that the game's assets were completed and the story was wrapped up, I learnt something very crucial I wasn't aware of before: Marketing. Even after putting so much effort into the game, there was the possibility that nobody would play it if I didn't market the game properly. 

Even though I still have more questions than answers when it comes to marketing and it's a lot of trial and error, I referenced how other games marketed and took into account what itch.io suggested developers do. There were so many ways and different methods, such as using social media to promote your game, but the main thing I learnt about was the importance of your game page / how you present your game.

If I was to describe the game page in a way, I feel like it acts as a doormat. It gives a glimpse of what your game is about. Your thumbnail, for example, will only have a moment to sell your game before the player scrolls past through the sea of other games. Some things I kept in mind when creating my own game page was:

+ adding at least 3 screenshots of moments that make the player curious for more

+ editing the page (such as the background) in a way that gives a cohesive atmosphere that resembles that of the game

+ tagging your game properly so you reach your targeted audience,

+ fill in as many details and gaps in the 'edit game' page as possible to help itch.io promote your game to the right people

These may be common sense, but at the time I had no idea how to set up my page and these simple things hadn't crossed my mind, so it's great to be wary of them.

So... what's next?

While I'd like to delve into Sean's past one day, I have so many other stories to tell! I'm still unsure of which path to take, but if I decide to focus on another character within a story, Sean will at the very least have a presence. 

I am feeling a bit burnt out at the moment (juggling an internship and keeping up with the development of a game can do that to you) however, if I do have the time to create another game, I'd LOVE to create something horror themed. 

I'm considering joining Spooktober as I found that time limits act as a motivation for me to actually sit down and develop a game again, but it really depends on if I have the time and energy for it. I guess only time will tell. 

Thanks again for taking the time to read this, and for the wonderful support! Until next time, dear reader! 

( ´ ω ` )ノﾞ