The past two weeks have been a whirlwind of bugfixing, fixing regressions from the bugfixing, fixing (etc etc), finding time for polishing a couple things I had on my wishlist, lots and lots of playtesting, and making this here itch.io page.

This is my first game! And my first foray into proper music composition, artwork, animation, game design, all of it. I'm a coder but GB Studio turned out to do enough that I barely went away from its in-built events (some very light GBVM scripting aside). The way it went from prototyping, to a small demo, to organically growing out from there was a pretty wild ride.

The game's design is quite straightforward with a lot of hallmarks of game mechanics and design from "adventure"-type games pared down to their barest and simplest form. The game actually used to be more complex in many aspects, having a more open flow, being able to collect key items in a much more freeform order, ways to interact with the button prompts, the size of the levels, etc. but after coming back from two weeks in Japan and having lots of time to think, the current design suddenly came to me, and everything clicked and felt right. I merged multiple maps together and limited biomes to one screen only, narrowed the flow, moved maps around into a hub-and-spoke layout and it all just felt right. In my mind, the straightforward and easy breezy nature of the game pairs with its uncompromisingly positive tone.

I'd love to make a more fully fleshed out version of the game, probably a "The Heart of Arel DX" Game Boy Color situation but with more secrets, more levels, more character development and more slow, & quiet moments. But I don't think I'll make a game all by myself again - this was a personal challenge I set myself and rose to, but I'd love to match up with a team of other cool trans and queer folk to make something more visually and sonically beautiful; something bigger, yet equally unapologetically queer, positive, and intentionally unchallenging in its design and tone, being in itself a challenge to standard expectations of game verbiage that we take for granted.

Also - if you'll excuse a moment of indulgence.

I MADE A VIDEO GAME ALL BY MY GOD DAMN SELF, MOTHERFUCKERS. LET'S GO!!