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Ah, man, you’re gonna end up making me cry x3 Thank YOU for all that you do too! 

I haven’t played everything you guys have made yet, but Truly Sublime was one of my absolute favourites from last year’s jam, so I was beyond excited to check out Travel Devil the second I saw it existed this year, and that wound up becoming one of my favourites this year, haha. You guys have such a great dynamic, and I thought it was really interesting that you switched writing roles this year. Both games were a hell of a lot of fun! I actually struggle to finish reading a lot of VNs these days because the stories and characters just don’t grip me enough to hold my interest until the end, but reading through both of your Spooktober games was an absolute delight :D And playing Travel Devil this year, man, I have never been so invested in seeing all endings and unlocking all CGs, and I stand by what I said in my comment that it’s totally worth it xD I won’t mention it cos you know what I’m referring to, but that moment, that CG, more than anything else I played this year put the biggest smile on my face x3

I’m gonna have to stop here though and give you a cheeky slap with a wet fish or something for a second because how dare you refer to Travel Devil as ‘our silly little game’ x3 Okay, sure, it’s silly in the sense of humour in parts, haha, but as a project, it’s extremely well polished and an all-around blast of an experience to play!! For me personally, based on how much I enjoyed Truly Sublime, Travel Devil was a priority play, and it didn’t disappoint <3 And I wish I was able to create something as polished and wonderful as Truly Sublime when I was starting out with game dev cos my first couple of games are a mess x3

I was also crushed to see Travel Devil absent from that judging list, along with many other brilliant games I played from the jam. Honestly, I think the only thing that stopped me falling into complete despair upon seeing that list was that at least Trashwing Crowchild was on it! Had that been missing too, I think I would have actually cried x3

I can’t speak for the whole of the team, but I can say for me personally, I was in the same boat that I had no delusions of winning, but yeah, it did feel pretty crushing to not make that big list. It felt like one giant leap backwards to have been mentioned in previous years and not this one. I know that it’s an achievement just to even finish and submit a project, but on a personal level, it felt like a failure rather than a success to submit something that didn’t get a mention this year. In a situation like that, regardless of your mental health, I feel like most people would begin to wonder what they did wrong and ask themselves why they couldn’t manage to meet the same standards as previous years in the eyes of the judges. Not having answers to those questions is difficult if you’re the sort of person who tries really hard to improve with each new project >.<

I wouldn’t say our game is head and shoulders above yours though x3 They’re very different games, but I don’t think that necessarily makes ours grander. It’s hypocritical of me to say it when I fail to do it for myself, but you should definitely give yourselves more credit!! x3

I felt the same though. Some of my absolute favourites from this year didn’t make that list, yours included, and as you say, I genuinely thought some of them were going to place in the top 3 and win a prize, but they didn’t even get a mention. That gave me some degree of comfort because it made me think that if they were missing from the list like our project, and yet I thought they were fantastic, maybe that means there wasn’t anything wrong with our project after all, and it’s more to do with the personal preferences of the judges or something, I dunno >.<

I really hope that you guys do end up taking part next year, but that if you do, you’re able to have a better experience than this year where you don’t have to go through the sorts of anxieties and stuff that you mentioned. Even if I don’t take part, I’ll be there waiting to play whatever you make :D And I also hope that you do end up expanding on Travel Devil because that would be an absolute delight ^-^ I’ll be behind you waving pompoms, haha. 

That really means a lot and right back at ya because I adore what you guys do! And it would be an incredible honour to have the opportunity to work with you guys too at some point in the future! Actually, I was thinking that before Spooktober even started this year, but I was too afraid to even reach out and mention it x3

I’m not sure how much help I’d be if we were to ever team up cos you guys have already got writing covered fantastically, and same with art (not that I could even begin to help on the art side of things when I can’t draw to save my life x3), I guess music could be an option, but thinking about Travel Devil, there is no way on earth I could possibly have created tracks that fit the game better than what you chose for the project! I don’t have much experience with Audionautix, but Kevin MacLeod is a music God x3 If you guys wanted to include VA, I’d be happy to attempt casting and VA direction or something. But yeah, you guys have got everything covered between you! If there was somewhere I could squeeze into though, it would be brilliant to work with you in some capacity on something :3

Thank you again for everything :3 And you definitely don’t need to apologise for the ramble, hehe. Good luck with everything you put your mind to + all the best in general ^-^