Hey, this is KonquerorWorm from Closing Shift.
Thanks for taking the time to write this. Sorry my response is coming so late. I admit the stream itself is still a sore spot for me. I think in large part because I can see so clearly that the critiques were right. I only wish it hadn't devolved into ridicule live on stream.
If I might provide a postmortem to this thing, a lot of the assumptions I'd seen in the comments of the stream were right. We rushed and crunched. October didn't start out opportune for a lot of us. If it wasn't our day jobs swamping us, it was medical crises taking some of us out of commission. A lot of the actual work got done pretty close to the wire.
Speaking for myself, I handled the coding and the majority of the writing, which would explain why the writing suffered. The team was impressed with how quickly I churned it out, though in hindsight that might've been an indicator that I wasn't giving it the time in the oven it would've been better off having.
It wounded my pride for some time hearing this thing called poorly-written, given writing is the thing I usually pride myself on. But maybe I need to be more forgiving to myself, since this is the first visual novel I've ever done. I know I'll be taking better care going forward. Maybe not opting for the game jam model of things at all.
I also handled the audio myself, from SFX to implementing the stock shit. Which would explain the issues people take with it, I'm willing to bet. Maybe I put on too many hats under such short notice. Didn't have all the equipment or know-how to make the sound the best it could be. While I certainly felt like a laughing stock once the stream happened, at the time I think I approached it from an unhealthy mindset of I don't want to be the one silent entry in the jam. Though now I feel like Phil would've rather I never bothered.
This game is still something of a sore spot for me. Others on the team want to refine it and polish it, which they've got the right to. But speaking for myself, I think I'm done. I want to do the next thing and do it better this time.