I don't even know how to start this so...

#StoryTime

About a year and a half, two years ago, I played this videogame called Boyfriend Dungeon.  It was my first intro, other than mobile games, of what a hybrid visual novel was.  From there, liking that game so much, I dived into Piofoire Fated Memories.  A contact I had at a local GameStop saved for me Piofoire 1926 saying he knew I would love it.  I quickly found out it was the sequel and purchased and read the first one.  

I fell in love. I fell in love with falling in love with anime men, I fell in love with the story, and I fell in love with otome visual novels.  From there, I've branched out reading all sorts of visual novels and loving them.  The choose your own adventure aspect of these games allow me to fully immerse myself and feel as if I'm the character in the game dealing with whatever fake drama there is...it scratches itches for me that real life can't and I was obsessed.

But my journey didn't just end there at reading them. The more I read, the more the bard within me reminded me that I went to college for Creative Writing and I knew I could also, potentially, write one of these kinds of stories. So, I started planning a huge visual novel story world and characters and plot... and I have a huge project in the works.  

When that happens, I talk about it. Let's jump ahead a bit...

So, I started talking about developing my own video games, visual novels more specifically. My brother in june surprised me with training courses to learn godot, and I was already learning RenPy so it was actually happening! I was learning different engines to learn different ways to make video games and visual novels. 

It's now July 25th and here is my Game Dev update....

I found out what game jams were and knowing I would love the motivation they provide, so I started participating in them.  

My first jam I wrote The Witch's Grasp. 

It placed #176/1116 entries and in categories it placed 5th in story! 

My second jam I wrote Blind Love and got an artist to help me design two of the characters.... It placed 2nd Overall!

I realize that this is not typical, however. I am just so humbled. I knew I could do this physically, mentally, but I truly didn't think I would turn heads as I have seemed to begun to do so! I'm so excited with it only being my second month, I can only get better at my craft from here. Or at least I hope... I am hopeful. 😊

I wonder if you can truly find your place in life at 38 in visual novels... when you hadn't written anything since college.  Maybe you can. Maybe, I'm proof anyone can. 🥰