the voting period continues to be my highlight. was very charmed by the takes on the theme.... because golly i really... really didn't like this one. i mean - it's a full sentence, c'mon!!!! i was really scratching my head on this one on how diverse the entries would be, but was really surprised and pleased to see how many different ways the entries took it, from theme, art, to even game engine. playing all the entries is really just a treat, i hope that others had a chance to check out everyone's work and learn a thing or two to utilize the same way i always seem to (tooltip language indicators? overlaid crowd dialogue?? fake loading screens??? mood indicative voice blips???? collage portraits????? i'm consistently floored how effective these small but powerful decisions are)
i def had a few personal faves. as i grow as a developer i'm appreciating seeing passion and throwing shame out the window. my personal picks include: inc-20XX-01-04-containment-failure, Trouble in the Oost, and Voidseekers.
ultimately i do think every entry had a much better approach to the theme, to let myself be vulnerable. i was pretty worried that ours would come off as trite or a tiresome topic, but i'm both surprised and humbled how people have responded. i'm accepting that despair and dread are my go-to moods, so it ended up working out quite well with our premise.
speaking about our entry: woah... i had no idea what leading a team would be like. i'm SO impressed a lot of entries are from solodevs, i know that life and its hard! i made a team specifically to avoid that but WOW. i think a weakness we all share is a lack of planning or the feeling we aren't making the 'full work' of our vision. to some degree, i feel the same way, but that's also a part of why we challenge ourselves, no?
i won't get into our team's work too much, since instead i wrote quite a bit actually about the logistics of how my teambuilding and progression went on my personal site, which i hope is either insightful or useful to others. regardless of my doubts, i'm truly proud of the peers on my team that gave it their all. they put their trust in me and i am humbled by their hard work! it's incredible to get to work with peers and make something fascinating :D
i ADORE the velox series, though it's probably no secret i'm a little biased. regardless, from its form to its community to the lessons i can take away from participating, i truly think devs can get so much from giving it a try. this year i was very lucky to get to know other gamedevs and this time around i really wanted to drag them in bring in a few new faces to velox, and very successfully did so with the team i gathered, alongside seeing the pool of submissions with a lot of new names! it's really invigorating to see how other entries and their participants tackle the challenge. i hope many more come along and wow us all!