itch.io

i won't go into a lot of detailed spoilers with the ending (lots of people check comments down here before downloading so you can really spoil things if you're not careful) but the ending was very purposeful for me. It checked a lot of boxes and tied up all the loose ends while still leaving a lot of things open to reader head canon. over the years, a lot of people have related to these characters in many different ways and the community around this story has really grown. I've received thousands of letters and messages and personal stories just based on these character interactions and how important they were to people. As the story progressed, I found that I really wanted to write things in a way that was specific to the characters but also left openings for the reader's own head canon and fan theories about things. So trying to keep the majority of those as possibilities was definitely a goal for me for the ending. you sound like you interpreted things in a very different way than most and that's ok. that's the first I've heard of a "bittersweet" reaction to the bestie plans but I'm glad you like the friendship dynamic. that was a big part too. The majority of this story is just guys hanging out :p 

There's also hints throughout the game on things like the phone picture that end up popping up on the patreon page as additional content sometimes. most patreon pages have monthly CG extra they put out. I used to do that frequently but then found that it delayed the game development so now I do it a bit less. I mostly use a lot of those photo sets as practice for other development and visual skills that I want to use in game later. Over time, i thought it would be fun for those pictures to end up actually playing a roll in the game somewhere so that everything is connected. They're not required for the story but it was just an attempt to make supplemental content there actually matter. There's a photo set on there that's unconfirmed if it's the actual one he's talking about but it could be. This is also just a first attempt at all this for me so I'm learning as I go-- mistakes and all. I've thing I ever wrote before this was research papers for school :p