The first time I heard about Velox Formido, I genuinely thought it was impossible. I could not believe people could make a full entire game in thirty six hours. Let me tell you I was surprised to find out that not only is it possible, but it's also way easier than I expected? If somehow someone who hasn't joined the jam is reading this, do it next year. It's so much fun, I promise.
I had so much fun!! I love getting to play everyone's games, seeing devs I know, and meeting ones I don't. I absolutely love the community around the Velox jams, and it's so inspiring to see so many creatives cheering for each other. Honestly, truly, forever my favorite part of these jams.
This year, I kept notes while playing everyone's games. I wanted to be able to say "I love abc because of xyz" and leave comments that are more in depth than my usual "wow great game." I was embarrassed as hell to leave my comments with their Lit Major Pretentiousness, but people seemed to enjoy them so I guess I'll be carrying that practice with me to future jams.
Okay, real talk: I HATED the late theme announcement. I was traveling for the first twelve hours of the jam, so it didn't affect me too badly, but I still hate it. I think writing is the most important part of a visual novel (it has novel in the name, duh), and I think to integrate a theme well, it has to be present at every stage of the writing process. It has to have time to soak into the roots of a project and influence the decisions that are made. By announcing the theme late, it felt like saying "Oh yeah, btw you can't work on ANY writing until nine hours in." Like okay let me go cry in a corner, the sad little writer I am. Everyone handled the late drop SUPER well and for many of the projects it's almost impossible to believe they didn't have the theme to begin with. Like okay, I KNOW there's other things that can be worked on besides writing. There's visuals and ui and music, but! but! but the writing!! I know I am biased, but damn the late theme felt like a personal attack. Robobarbie, AllieVera, please never again ;v;
The amount of ties in the final results is so fucking funny. Five games placed #2 overall. FIVE GAMES. I love it. I think it reflects how truly difficult it is to rate these. Everyone (and I truly mean everyone) shines in these specific ways, and when two people shine in the same area, it's impossible to rank one over the other. I know throughout the entire rating period, I kept going back and changing things to best reflect how everything ranked when compared to each other. I'd give everyone five stars if I could (and i did on the itch ratings, hehe), so it becomes necessary to compare games to each other. A one star in this jam is like four stars in real life, we're just grading on a curve. I know ranked jams can be scary, so I hope no one's disheartened by the results and instead sees the ranking system as a way to force us to play games more critically and attentively.
Ah, with that said, thank you so much for placing me #1 for narrative! I try to go into these jams with no expectations, but I genuinely thought people would hate my game or they wouldn't understand it, or, worst of all, they'd understand it and they'd still hate it. It's not a happy game, and it gets a little abstract with its theming and heavy-handed with its metaphors. Every comment telling me the narrative touched them will live in my heart forever. Thank you <3
I've said this in my postmortem, but so many things inspired my game, and it makes me eager to consume even more media. If a good writer reads, then a good game dev games, right? I've been (slowly) working my way through every game submitted to every velox jam ever. The creativity from everyone is astounding. I am absorbing everything, devouring postmortems, and burying my arms in the guts of the code. Thank you everyone for feeding me such delicious meals ^-^
Final thoughts! I had fun, of course. I love this community, and definitely plan to join future jams. I'm terrified at the thought of joining a team (Spread Thin: We're Toast did not help with that fear....), but I think it would be the next big step in my dev journey! We'll see if I can muster up the courage for the next one, haha
gg everyone <3 my dm's are always open if anyone has questions or wants to talk or whatever. let's all keep making killer games~
Editing to add: velox formido might be one of my favorite jam formats because the quick turn around time forces everyone to be vulnerable in such spectacular ways. The more time you have with a game, the more time you have to edit it and polish it. The more time you can bury your initial instincts behind rules about story telling and game dev (or music or art, etc etc). I know editing and rewriting are vital to the creative process, but I think there's a specific charm that comes with a rough draft or something closely resembling one. When we only have time to take one of our first ideas and run with it, we're reduced to using our base instincts. You're forced to tell the story in the way you initially want to tell it. And that's scary. You're handing someone something you didn't have time to make pretty and perfect, and you're asking them to sit with it, to look at it, to converse with it. You're creating a conversation maybe you weren't ready to have. Please trust me when I say I am so proud of EVERYONE in this jam. I loved all the different conversations that were made, and I take great pleasure in getting to sit with your art and finding ways to appreciate it, flaws and all. You all shared something so special with me, and I will never take that for granted.