Firstly congrats to all of us for completing another Velox Jam!!! We somehow did it again guys!!
Secondly, to get it out the way, yes, I was sick for like the 4th Velox jam in a row LMAO I think I can officially say I've been cursed now. At the very least, I was on the mend by the time Friday hit, so I didn't feel bad going into the jam! I'm going to be honest, the minute I heard the challenge this time was a late theme reveal, I knew exactly how I was going to cheese it; making a fictional competition centered around the theme. That way I could start writing the script, and go back in post theme reveal and edit the sections talking about it. Even outside of that aspect though, the theme ended up informing more of the game then I was expecting.
I also think this was the first Velox script I wrote and felt emotions during the process? I think I accidentally related a bit too hard with the characters and their struggles with creativity and relationship to art, aha. I think this is actually the first time since last August I managed to dive into a project completely, too. I technically joined Velox Turbo 2, but that was just as an artist and programmer, which was a much different experience than making something on your own. It felt nice to be like 'Wow, we're so back.'
But yeah, I think my game is just a modern day "Flash Dating Sim on Deviantart in 2005", but that's also what I was going for. I also kept the tradition of breaking the GUI lmaO but that's because I keep trying to do new things and except that to go well within the span of 36 hours. I also couldn't get the clothing pieces for the dress up mini game to appear in the browser version, which made me super sad actually?? It feels illegal to not have a browser version of my games at this point. That'll just be in the post jam update.
Anyway, not to keep yapping (I'll save it for the post mortem), but I'm honestly surprised with how much I liked the story of this game? I'm also surprised at how long the script was. 6.3k for a 36 hour jam is wild, and I think I easily could expand the story of this at some point to like, a full fledged game.
Moving on to everyone else, I've only played a handful of everyone else's entries so far but like, the thing that's stood out to me the most about the entries this time around is how absolutely cracked everyone's visual's are?? I feel like every comment I leave is just going to be like "Wow, this was visually stunning I'm in Love." I also feel like the type of engine used this round felt a little more varied? People still used Ren'py obviously, but seeing other engines like Decker, Narrat, and Videotome was fun to see! It also reminded me I want to check out those engines at some point, especially seeing how other people have been using them.
I'll end it there, but I can't wait to play through all the entries and annoy y'all with my comments again :>