o2a2 postmortem or something

Hello!! I made this little visual novel thing called "The Box". Time for a postmortem! (can you tell i've never written one of these before lmbo)

The Development

I guess first I'll talk a bit about how I made this.

I've never really made a finished game dev project before(creatives who keep starting new projects w/o finishing their prev ones, please stand) and like I said in my release update, O2A2 seemed like a good opportunity to finally make a visual novel!

I also thought that if I tried making a devlog video alongside this game, I'd actually finish it. Keep myself accountable and all that. On the one hand, I guess it worked! On the other hand, that video is never seeing the light of day. (Mostly because Davinci Resolve is so complex what I just want to zoom in on an overlayed image why can i not figure this out--) I mean, okay, maybe it'll see the light of day. If people want to see it. If they don't then I won't though cause it's already served its purpose, really 🤷

I had originally made myself a nice, neat schedule that took only 7 days of O2A2, allowed me plenty of time to rest, and still gave me time to do anything extra I would want to add to my game. Then on the first day after I finished my scheduled work I went "well, surely I can do more than that today, right?" and oops almost the entire game is done now and also my head hurts. Dunno how that happened, would not recommend despite its odd efficiency. I used the next day to rest, worked on the game page on the third day, and submit it!

.....And then I spent all of the time since worrying about whether people would like it! Oops!!!

The Stuff I Did Well

• I sure did finish a visual novel and kept myself accountable!
• I only restricted the page out of anxiety once and immediately undid it lmbo
• While I did want to use the limitations of O2A2 in a more creative way originally, I am proud of the way I managed to still work in some form of keeping the word count short(variables and labels!! i love variables and labels!!!).(Yes I realize the word count is already very short and in truth probably didn't need to be shortened like that but ☝ I did use the limitations in some way so that's what matters. to me.)
• I think I wanna try using meaningless choices more often! I have two choice menus that affect Nothing in the game, and it's not cause I felt like I needed more choice menus, it's just cause it felt like the best way to represent that "thought process" as opposed to plain narration. I mean, I even tried to make the meaningful choice menus represent a thought process rather than just be options for what the player feels! It feels kinda cool to use choices to represent thoughts rather than just be a vessel for the player to make a decision yk? If that makes since ^^
• I'm proud of how I made 2 endings WITH 2 VARIATIONS EACH!!! And a page to display which ones you've gotten!!! (≧▽≦)
• I think I got across the Feeling I wanted to achieve, so even if the writing isn't that good, at least there's a vibe there.

The Stuff I Maybe Didn't Do Well

• I. Have no idea whether or not the box being a metaphor for society's roles and peoples expectations of you got across or not. I know exactly One person who played it, and they thought the box was literal. Oops. Other than that, I have no clue.
• "Is the writing good????" 🤷 "Did it serve its purpose???" Probably?
• Look, that title was a placeholder but I had no idea what to replace it with so. The Box.

The Stuff I Did Not Do Well At All

• I am far too anxious!!!! I keep telling myself to relax cause all that matters is I actually finished this but I still care what other people think!! What on Earth is this witchcraft!!!
• Following my SCHEDULE. People make schedules to FOLLOW them, not to IGNORE THEM in their HUBRIS.
• I wanted there to be voice boops but they didn't work :( The game didn't need them but know I'm Sad
• I wrote a story without a story??? It's part of why I feel so weird about calling this a "story" or "game" or even "visual novel" in the first place. I'm not sure how much substance there actually is cause I didn't write the type of narrative I'm used to(I usually write character-driven things, but this was really just my feelings into words).
  • The tagline and description suck because of this btw. I have no idea how to describe this properly.

The Stuff I Should Probably Do Next Time

• Keeping audio logs of what I've done each day worked pretty well to keep me accountable, and honestly, it was kinda fun!
• Stop stressing about what other people think of your game, cause all that matters is what YOU think of your game!! And not only did you finish the thing, you also published it!!! You put hard work and genuine effort into it, so you should be proud of it!! That's the most important thing!!!!
  • *cough* but if you still wanna give me a nice comment on my game or perhaps a 5 star rating i wouldn't be opposed 🥺 *COUGH*
  • (Idk why I wrote this bullet point in second person POV)
• Follow my schedule.
• I should probably do more than one draft of my writing next time. I should probably also learn how writing multiple drafts works.
  • Also write something more character-driven like I'm used to!! Or at least practice other types of writing before publishing something in that style 💀
• Figure out why the voice boops didn't work???? And then add voice boops.
• Put a bit more polish into it?
• Actually consider what the title and summary will be at some point 🤦.
• I'm adding a second bullet point to further emphasize that I gotta find a way to be Less Anxious about all of this Being Perceived stuff

Sooooo ummmmm yeah! I hope you learned something from this! Or not idk maybe you just find my ramblings entertaining, which is also fine tbh.