itch.io

Yeah, I definitely think the situation is complicated (not just in regards to Ren'py, but just the game dev/coding landscape as a whole) and I also have a lot of complicated feelings about it as well. One thing is for sure though, I definitely don't envy any creative right now lol

And good luck with your project!!

I have looked into it a lot in the past however many years! I'll post the same information I posted on my Tumblr!

Power usage is so bad blackouts are expected to increase by 100X

Data centers used 256 billion gallons of water in 2025 alone

And then, of course, you have the health impacts on the public

This is, of course, just a 101 intro on how bad AI usage and data centers are and what expected future impacts are. I could give you dozens of different sources on this topic alone. My issue with AI is not solely "it's a plagiarism machine" my issue with AI is how it's exasperating a lot of pre existing issues to new levels of bad. My issue is that poor and/or poc areas are being heavily affected (because that's what always happens with these kinds of things. It was the same with factories, now it's the same with data centers).

I'm also not saying I expect people to be able to magically be free of AI, especially with every company on earth shoving it down our throats. However, morally, I refuse to contribute to the issue as much as I can because I have the luxury to do so. I've been able to not touch google outside my work email for years. I don't use microsoft outside of windows, and even then I went into the system and removed Copilot and other AI related material. And now I am in a position where I can move to another engine that is against AI, so I'll do so. Not everyone can do that, and even I cannot completely rid it of my own life. When every website on earth uses AI, that's not feasible and I don't really expect people to. And like I said in the base post, I don't expect people to magically switch from Ren'py, that's crazy, but I personally am able to do so, and so I will. 

But with all that said, I'm also not going to give grace to people who willingly use it for convenience. If I have to completely learn a new engine or deal with tedious code, so be it.

My convenience is not worth other people's health and safety. 

Thank you for playing!! I'm glad you enjoyed it enough to do a whole let's play of it!

Oh that sounds like a browser issue! I'd suggest either reloading or trying an incognito tab and see if that fixes it!

This was such a funny assessment of the ROs thank you for this lmaO

Thank you for playing!! I'm glad you enjoyed it :D

It's only up to chapter 3 for now! I'm hoping to finish up play testing chapter 4 and get it to beta readers by the end of November though, so hopefully the new chapter is released by December! The game is also going to be free, even upon completion! I'm glad you enjoyed it!

Thank you!! The music was all CC stuff (credits are on the page!), but I tried to be a little more mindful of the music selection since I know 'Sound' is always my weakest category lol.

I'm glad you enjoyed!

Thank you!! Glad you enjoyed!!

Good luck with postbac stuff!! As someone who also got their degree in pysch I remember how stressful postgrad era was, so I hope things look up soon!!

I also hope y'all get more ratings on your entry too because it was such a fun one 😭

You can't say the scope of HMB was crazy considering you and your team made a pseudo rpg game that was almost 40k words ajsjjs (I know you said it was the ✨️power of friendship✨️ but that's still wildly impressive).

And I'm glad you enjoyed the journey!! Since I wrote this off the cuff and without a plan, I also had a lot of fun seeing where the story would go lol Thank you for playing!

LMAO ah yes, my legacy, being sick every jam sjsjsk I wasn't sick this time! But I did have food poisoning the first two days of the jam 😂😭

I'm glad so many people are a fan of the collages lol and I also!! Love The Announcer and Lucia!! The Announcer was a lot of fun to design, and I definitely enjoyed writing from Lucia's perspective!

Helloooo I also wasn't going to participate because I have a million other things to do, but the theme was banging and procrastination is my middle name lmaO

I remember checking the submission feed once the jam finished and wondering where?? Everyone was this time around?? But tbh I also forgot Spooktober takes place in September, I keep thinking it's an October jam lol 

Having less entries to play has been really nice as a participant, though. I do think I ended up a little burnt out in previous velox jams by the time I hit like entry #15. I think being able to take my time with the entries and have more time to think about each one made it a lot easier to rate everything, especially in terms of comparatively to each other. Anyway, as always, I enjoyed every entry and I love how creative everyone got with this theme!

Anyway for my game I had 0 plans for anything so I went into this whole thing very...head empty, no thoughts. I normally go into game jams with something I want to learn or try and this time I was like "let me just try collages" since it's actually one of my favorite art forms lol it was fun to do whatever I felt like (which I guess.....is what I usually do sksjsjd), but yeah. It honestly was a really chill and relaxed process and I think part of that is 10 days for a jam now feel too long somehow sksks

But anyway yeah! It was a fun time!

Woah, it's so cool y'all made like a mini rpg game. It reminds me of playing old dating sim flash games, and the fact that you guys did something like this and wrote as much as you did is super impressive! I had fun with the meta narrative going on, as well as the cast we got. I think Harper was my favorite, but I just love dreamers longing for something more lol and ALSO

(spoilers inbound)

I thought the ending/epilogue felt so emotionally taxing. I mean this positively, it really did feel like the frantic begging and lashing out someone might do when you end a toxic relationship, except this time it's about a game trying to convince you to keep coming back to it and playing. Well done!

Honestly, I love stories within a story and I think it definitely shows in my work! I'm glad you enjoyed the game, it's another one I had a lot of fun making!

Thank you sm!!

I enjoyed the gentle feeling this story had, and the voice actors really aided in bringing out that feeling as well as the music choice! I enjoyed the setting and bits of lore we got as well!

Oh yeah! That'd be great if you don't mind!

The collages were so fun to make, and it was definitely my favorite part of this game!! Also yeah, I wrote out the code last thing before I had to submit the game before I left for work, so I didn't have time to check everything 😭I think the most consistent mistake is I kept writing the 'e' symbol for 't' lol. I'll fix it when voting is over!

Late reply but!! I think the short answer to this is I've always been really fast at doing things? I used to do NaNoWriMo, starting in 2013, and I've done 10k writing days before, so I think I've just built up naturally to being able to write a lot in a short amount of time due to practice (although I definitely can't sustain that speed for longer projects). For the secret code, I used to make them up all the time as a kid! So it's kind of also second nature to make them, and years of practice made it easy to throw together.

For everything else, I just kept the art simple. Collaging the backgrounds was fairly quick, and I also have built up free stock images/websites over the years to pull from lol, and I kept the sprites and GUI pretty simple! I think the longest and hardest part for me was the coding, since it's the skill I use and practice the least.

I guess tl;dr is I have years of practice at being quick at things, specifically!

I definitely related to this. I think it's easy to fall into the habit of making art as a way to convey experiences and ask 'do you feel this way too?' and when the answer ends up being 'no' over and over again, you end up obsessively trying again, like if you can just get the words right this time, then maybe you'll finally be understood. Or you keep going, because there's at least someone who relates. 

Or that's just my interpretation lol regardless, I really liked this one!

Ok but, this is exactly what I wanted when I saw what the theme was!! The way the city is personified and represented, and all the complicated feelings towards it running underneath and allusions towards it's history was just, so good. The visuals were simple, yet effective, as well as the the sort of 'glitched' text to emphasis certain points. 

Genuinely loved this one!

I really love the contrast between the cheeky, comedic dialogue between the two characters and the cut to existentialism, and that last line?? I did laugh lmao it caught me off guard

I always love your visuals, but they feel especially potent in this one, especially with all the layering and the use of colors to convey the shifts in mood. I also really enjoyed the way the mom went through visual changes as she was working through her grief, showcasing the ways grief can effect you (at least, that's my interpretation of this story). I really enjoyed the overall atmosphere a lot!

Hmm, it works on both my laptop and PC. Maybe try opening it up in an incognito tab and see if that works? I know sometimes the cookies on itch can cause issues

It's been deleted from the comments 🫡 there's been a flood of spam comments on itch ever since the censorship ban 

Man, I feel like after my laptop broke back in 2023 and I lost some of the files all my motivation to finish this game vanished, and I really want to get back to it!!! It feels like a broken promise at this point

Project Name: Spring Boy

Genre: Otome/Amare Visual Novel

Description: Eri's first year of college has been lonely and anxiety ridden, although she'd never let that show through her cheery exterior. However, on the night of the Spring Festival at her college, she ends up running into a strange boy named Vasant. As if by fate, the two keep meeting, and through these meetings she finds herself discovering a world of magic, and maybe she'll even find the strength to discover herself. But spring doesn't last forever, and if there's one thing Eri should know, is that love blooms and dies in the spring.

Started: May 2023 

Due Date: End of jam (which would be perfect timing since it'll pretty much be March aka spring!!)

Thank you!! Fingers crossed the kids I work with don't get me sick when August comes around LOL 

I remember that!! I think you reblogged my post on tumblr and mentioned wanting to join and I replied back like "you 10000% should actually" lol I'm glad we got to join the jam together this time around :D and congrats on getting first place in narrative! It was so deserved!

Thank you! I'm really glad I can finally share the new chapter with y'all!

Thank you!! I'm glad you enjoyed!

Thank you!! Glad you enjoyed!!

Thank you!! I was really aiming for a 2000s flash game on deviant art kind of vibe, so I'm glad that came through!

Thank you!! I was honestly determined to have a dress up mini game in this lol, and I'm glad people have liked it!

Thank you!! Also it's interesting you mentioned it, but I'm mixed race myself and while I didn't intend to, I wouldn't be surprised if my feelings on it bleed through subconsciously with Juniper!

Anyway glad you enjoyed your time with it! 

Oooh, I always enjoy how weird your games are and this one was no different! I enjoyed the atmosphere, and the body horror at the end was fun, if not unsettling!

Yes the situation itself is terrifying, but I'm going to be honest, Silas was so funny for doing that??

[[Spoilers]]

The fact he just pretends to be the guy MC is meeting with because he can, and literally gets bored and leaves without doing anything in the Delusion ending is great. Like what a weird guy?? But that's also really funny to me lol

Oooh I love the vibes in this, and that plot twist was great! I also really like the implication of the friendship dynamic in this, especially with how the """"happier"""" ending plays out! 

The animation?? Is so good?? I loved the visuals of this, and I love the absolute ride this took me on! I had so much fun with this, and I'm a big fan of how awful both the characters are lol It made they're dynamic with each other super interesting as well!