This was meant to be a 'shorter' dev announcement for once because job stress is manifesting into mini burnouts. Sometimes there's an entire week I'm not motivated to do anything as I just fall asleep from fatigue and irritation. The fact that I'm writing this post means I regained a little bit of energy, but not by much to come back in full swing. It's probably fuelled by a hyperactive episode right after a stagnant week that deceptively makes it look as if I'm on the roll and all is well. 

Initially I want to write this devlog to celebrate what is already released and keep it to that. It genuinely was just bullet points with relevant links and some sentences. On later days when I continued writing the devlog, it always take a weird turn whenever I talk about WIPs and their statuses, because these projects feel very much alive, while in reality I know that it's very unlikely that I'm committing to any game dev work. To be honest I don't know if there's any point to talk about them in that case, but there's no harm doing a roadmap because it covers over a long period and I don't have to write a new announcement soon.

CURRENT:

Queer Halloween Stories Bundle 2024: 

The Queer Halloween Stories Bundle directly benefits queer indie creators and teams, with all sales split evenly among participants who have opted in to receive funds for their work. For the price of one AAA title, you can help fund the future of queer art by supporting these creators and discovering titles you won't find anywhere else.

For those unfamiliar with this style of bundles, there are two versions that contain the same content and you can pick either depending how much you can afford. There is still about 12 days left.

https://itch.io/b/2666/queer-halloween-stories-bundle-2024-60-fright-edition $60 Fright Edition

https://itch.io/b/2667/queer-halloween-stories-bundle-2024-10-treat-edition $10 Treat Edition

WITH DIVINE PROTECTION! Doorway Deities Simulator:
https://gaming-variety-potato.itch.io/doorway-deities-simulator

My submission for "Game Mockup Jam #2" which ended roughly two weeks ago. I can't give an indication when I will update the game page with the promised content. The otome and related spin-offs are parts of a bigger comfort project for which I sporadically post new art/sketches if I happen to be in a drawing mood. Since this specific entry is not a visual novel, I want to use it as an excuse to do learn and practice other game dev skills. For instance I'd love to be able to 3D model my own characters, code a game in Godot, and finally put some bought games assets into use or else I'd forever be nagged by buyer's remorse. I should stress on the 'love to', it's pretty much a pipedream when I'm not in the headspace to be able to focus on anything with a longer boot-up time - as in requiring tutorials before you can jump in - in tangent with a full-time job.

FUTURE:

Dying Year - Visual Novel Jam:

https://itch.io/jam/dying-year-vn-jam

I joined this jam a while back because I saw it as an opportunity to finally finish "I saw it in the rain" (it doesn't have a public game page yet), however I'm not feeling it... again. I hadn't revisited the project files yet. I can't even remember where I left of, only that the story script was never finished because the writer's block was especially strong for this one, and I hadn't even started on anything with the visuals. It was intended for "O2A2 VN Jam" (partially also "Single Choice Jam", or at least it follows that jam's requirements as well), so it has less than 1000 words by default. I wonder if it makes it easier if I lift this restriction, even though it doesn't work as a long story to begin with. Without a word limit, it allows me to type whatever comes to mind, stop when the story is finished, and final word count would just be what rolls out after editing.

Bitsy:

So I played some Bitsy games that appeared on my itch.io feed and quite randomly it dawned to me that this plug-and-play type of engine is actually what I need. After several brainstorming revisions for "The Snowperson" (https://gaming-variety-potato.itch.io/the-snowperson), which I already know it will never be continued as a visual novel in traditional sense (definitely won't be expanded on through Ren'Py), I'm convinced that Bitsy is the format that makes most sense for it. I was already struggling with writer's block during the creation of "The Snowperson", so I want to write less and not more. It's somewhat an anomaly that I technically finished two* O2A2 VNs right after this (it's actually three, but one is hidden from my main page, though I could argue a bit if I even consider it 'finished' despite it's published). I treat some of my works as sister projects such as "Faceless Date" (https://gaming-variety-potato.itch.io/faceless-date) and "Find My Mind" (https://gaming-variety-potato.itch.io/find-my-mind) both have the mindread theme, and in that same regard "I saw it in the rain" and "The Snowperson" are born from the same DNA and have more similarities between them than the previous duo. So whenever I think of "I saw it in the rain" I can't fully separate it from "The Snowperson", which is why it suddenly came to mind.

SUMMARY

Not doing any game dev for the remaining 2024 is probably wiser, however I just want to see if I can get more done out of curiosity's sake. Taking logistics into account:

"I saw it in the rain": This is the last attempt of trying to finish it before 2025, else it will be cancelled. I'm trying to figure out with fresh eyes if it's the story idea that is not clicking with me, as I did change the plot multiple times throughout the process. Then it does make most sense to drop it.

"WITH DIVINE PROTECTION! Doorway Deities Simulator": Will be updated with more art sketches and a devlog that talks about the character designs (somewhere November/December 2024? Or swapped to go before "I saw it in the rain"). That's all for now.

"The Snowperson": Maybe revived as a Bitsy game next year. If there is a hypothetical deadline I want to target, it's December 2025 before Christmas.

"The Ladder of Death":   Not mentioned as part of the roadmap, but this another spin-off of the otome project that I was cooking during "Worst Visual Novel Ever Challenge" before the "O2A2 VN Jam". I did not have a lot of content, which I should consider it a blessing, but it should be redone from scrap with a better story script and proper plot since it moved goalpost that it's not for that jam. It's a dark comedy / weird fever dream that is set early in Lima's route in the main story's universe so he has most screentime, but the other guys also show up and can play a big role depending on who you pick to rescue the MC (Lima is called by a different name in the otome, but since I posted "Doorway Deities Simulator" earlier, at least you know which character I mean). There are rhythm mini-game sequences that serve as QTE at determining a LI's success for this task. 

Most likely cancelled, but there is another reason than simply too many projects. When I reread a previous devlog it made me recall that I actually left out a full explanation why nothing of the otome is working out. The short answer is always 'crippling anxiety' and it gets even stronger for popular genres that can attract more attention that I'm used to. If not this, then the general answer is that perfectionism is blocking me from creating things, and it hardly means that a product is better for it, it just means I'm stopping early because I have no faith in it.

SOCIAL MEDIA

Bluesky:

My Bluesky account: https://bsky.app/profile/gamingvpotato.bsky.social

For now I won't be on social media often, but I'll be checking my notifications.

Twitter:

That I'm linking to this devlog is probably my last tweet on that site. There are unfortunately some exclusive art that are only posted there. I don't have the energy to go through everything. Sketches and notes about the 'untitled' otome project will eventually be reposted in a devlog under "Doorway Deities Simulator" as that already has a public page.

Cohost:

I can't remember if I have anything exclusive on my Cohost page: https://cohost.org/GamingVarietyPotato, but you can give it a look before the site closes down by the end of this year.