I had a very similar experience in an inverted way, but I fully expected to end up exactly like this, so I feel for you!! I somehow forced myself in the opposite direction — my instinct was to get buried in writing story/dialogue the same way, but I knew I had a whole program to learn (also ren’py!) and visuals that needed to exist, so I sacrificed my main skill and spread myself out. ended up with a full game— buuuut only 430 words of dialogue that aren’t the story I know I’m capable of. so we are in the inverse of the same basket, hah. brutal indeed. be so proud of yourself for showing up and learning a new skill though, and best of luck in your future projects!