Thank you so much for being interested in my game, even after almost a year without updates — it really means a lot to me!
The first reason for my absence is a lack of motivation. My biggest issue is that what I enjoy the most is creating artworks, but that only makes up about 30% of the game. The rest is mainly development in Twine, and the bigger the game gets, the harder it becomes to manage.
The second reason is writing the story. It’s the part I enjoy the least. I sometimes use AI to help expand the dialogues, which works pretty well, but it also makes me feel like I don’t really know what players actually enjoy in my game.
When I released version 0.1, I thought maybe 10 people would play it at most. But in the end, there were about 100,000 players, and around thirty of them encouraged me to keep going. That’s huge for me!
I’ve also played a lot of games in the same genre. Some are very polished, while others are simpler — often with light gameplay, some character progression, and nice artwork (even if the story isn’t that deep). I like that format a lot, and I think the Patreon system (early access for supporters, then a public release) is a great way to support creators, since making these games takes a massive amount of time.
For my own project, I’m still unsure which direction to take. If you have any feedback — positive or negative — it would really help me understand what works and what could be improved. Itch.io comments aren’t always the best place for that, so feel free to reach out to me directly on Discord. I’m much more active there.
That being said, I think there’s a strong chance I’ll stop the game in its current form. Twine is no longer a good fit, and I’m considering switching to Ren’Py, which puts more focus on artworks (something I personally prefer). I don’t know yet if I’ll go for a version with a lot of dialogues (possibly assisted by AI) or something with simpler gameplay but heavily focused on illustrations.
Anyway, that’s pretty much where I stand right now. If I restart the project, I’ll probably release it on Patreon first to see if people are interested. If it doesn’t work out, I’ll quickly make it public again. My plan would also be to release smaller but more regular updates, instead of larger, less frequent ones