Ah! The long awaited blog post? Actually, I'm not entirely sure either what to call this but let's just say, I've always wanted to talk about how and why this game came about. Of course, moving forward, rather than talking about what held me back from doing that then let's get on to what matters most now: What inspired the making of this game? 

What was the inspiring moment that sparked this game?

If I were to remember the specific moment that inspired this idea was the time when I got lost on my own in KL Sentral. Yes, the station itself. I remembered spending nearly half an hour trying to figure out how to navigate my way around to go back home, while trying not to make it very obvious that I don't go out as often. The polis bantuan was very friendly back then. However, while one police bantuan gave me one direction but a much longer way to go back home, another gave me another that had less station transfers and that was a lot more favorable in the end. 

It was then from this moment that I vaguely remember when I was in the MRT train for the first time going back home nearly late in the night that it got me thinking: 'How much of Kuala Lumpur have I really explored or know of? Why does it feel like I am less of a KL girl when I'm Malaysian anyway?'

So I got home, opened up my very sturdy loyal circa 2012 PC desktop and then thought, coincidentally since it was close to Merdeka week at the time and thankfully I got the energy and the time back then, I finally decided to take the leap and create a game I feel has a future. 

Thus, how From KL with Love started.

It's quite nostalgic whenever I had some time to look back at it since its earliest development because as a person who is very used to doing things based on impulse, I did not think back then having me to just go: 'You know what? I know my RenPy basics. I know how to write. I've done this before. So I'm going to do it. My own visual novel project.' 

It's so funny looking back at the screenshots of my WIP of this game - So it was named 'From Kuala Lumpur with Love' but as time goes on, I kept shortening Kuala Lumpur to KL and it became a habit. I'll probably rework on that soon!

Perhaps what I probably did not expect to be my first game or first visual novel projects started with something that still feels really close to home, considering as well how much I kept questioning what is the definition of home, what felt like home, what is home.

And then one question after another, it became way too philosophical even for me to simplify my thoughts that I didn't start a proper script either. I knew that when I wanted to start this game, I wanted it to be something casual at best, but something that I can go to without the stress of perfecting it, the stress of it being visually presentable and still be able to get my feelings, my thoughts and my visual imagination and storytelling all into the game - in the form of writing as a visual novel. 

I've written for fanfics and other kinds of writings but when I started writing for games, specifically visual novels when I first started, my brain had to rewire differently. Contrary to some popular belief, writing for visual novels (in my opinion), really forces you to think of how much writing you can do within limited visual space.

Sometimes the text can be too much, sometimes the dialogue goes out of the box. Sometimes the sprite doesn't say the right lines and then after some backtracking, it's the wrong dialogue on the wrong character - among many other things. I always have fun with every step of the process so the only times I ever really cried tears of frustration over making a game is when my PC would give me BSOD and I forgot to CTRL+S.

With all that in mind, my goal still remained the same: I still wanted 'From KL with Love' to just be a casual, light-ish visual novel game where it's just a game about a girl who is trying to discover the city she grew up in, or more like... had been raised in but never truly understood most of its urban culture and Kuala Lumpur charms. 

But I will admit, that being said, I had been thinking that as the title suggests 'From Kuala Lumpur with Love', it got me thinking that maybe there would be the expectation that it HAS to be a story about the main character exploring the specific city: Kuala Lumpur. 

There is just... so much about Kuala Lumpur that I personally have yet to touch foot on. Cool, right? 

So in a way, you could say that this game is also my way of journaling about my personal adventures of visiting places in Kuala Lumpur I never truly thought I'd get to see. 

I truly hope as the development of this game progresses while I am still living and breathing with it, people may find some enjoyment in witnessing or perhaps even understanding the main character's fascination with every KL visit through this game. 

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Hello! I want to thank you so much for reading all the way here. There will be more updates as I really want to share more of what I do with this game and what it entails from here. 

That being said, any comment and feedback is much much appreciated! 

If you'd like to connect with me elsewhere or check out my other works, do visit my mini site: https://karmsdesu.carrd.co/

If you'd like to support me in any way as well, buying me a coffee would be much appreciated! Every cent counts to keep me fueling, motivating. One cup of coffee = more motivation for more creative juice running! 
If you'd like to support me by buying a kofi: https://ko-fi.com/jastosurvive

Till then, much love and thanks! <3