heya. thanks a lot and I appreciate the thoughts. So from a technical writing point, I think you're right: a lot of the conflict in this isn't long-term and structurally, it could have been planned better from a narrative point of view--that is, if i knew how to write at the time, lol. I've never planned anything like this before so if you want an idea of how it is to actually have a conversation with me about planning and outlining, I'll just reference Ash in Chapter 9 and that should give you an adequate comparison :P
That being said, I will admit that many of the conflicts in this game are purposely resolved quickly because i really wanted to write it as a template for people who have struggled with these issues to get some type of idea for how to resolve them. Zack's character has a lot of anxiety and a lot of inhibition about things (and to be honest, I did, too). So you see him actually resolve these conflicts in the game as I began to slowly resolve them and work them out through the characters. I started writing this for me. But the conflicts in this really serve as a potential way for people to use that example and try to resolve their own conflicts if they've suffered similarly. I'm just showing people how it worked out in my head and what lessons resonated with me. So basically, if i strung that idea out over the course of the narrative, storybook wise it would have worked but the real reason i'm writing this is to work through my own shit and maybe help other people in the process so i didn't want the resolution to be too far from the problem so people could still make the connections.
not sure if that justifies it or not but a lot of that was on purpose just because of the nature and reasoning behind the project