I'm not entirely sure if this is just me not really being used to it yet, but I do feel like I went a little too far with how long the sentences were in some places. My writing tends to be slightly more concise than that most of the time, so this might be just me adjusting to that new, "experimental" way of writing and feeling strange out of the usual "comfort zone"? From the story perspective itself, though, I think some "teases" were unnecessary and could safely be cut out. After rereading the script a couple of times, I feel like I tried to take too many topics at once, and I can't help but wonder if I didn't overload the potential reader with information in a relatively short time. I talked to some friends and I heard from one of them that they're not entirely sure that they'd understand the storyline if they didn't have context I gave them beforehand, so clearly I had to either overcomplicate, underexplain or both at the same time
Askfajld I got sick for Formido AND O2A2 and now this one. At this point it's more comedy than tragedy xD I do work in healthcare (pediatrics specifically so children), so getting sick is expected lol but I'm happy I submitted too! And yes, the post jam update will include extended scenes and endings, as well as the CGs!
Oh my goodness, I didn’t realize you faced such adversity smack dab in the middle of the jam! I hope you’re feeling better, and I’m excited to see what a post-jam version looks like!
I didn’t share this in my postmortem but I almost did: Every time I exit RenPy I forget what I learned and loathe opening it back up. It does take time to get used to any engine tbh, even if I don’t need the documentation I always keep it open bc I get spooked very easily. I’m glad you’re getting more comfortable, and that you’re noticing that change!
It took just over two weeks but I'm finally feeling better, thank you! And yeah, I definitely felt that during the first few Velox jams I did. I had a dozen tabs open for basic Ren'py tutorials just in case I forget lol It takes time, but I'm glad I've kept at it and that I'm at the stage where I'm starting to feel comfortable with it!
The day writers stop rambling is the day the universe implodes : )
Rating is scary! If I had to explain my ratings in a public forum I would opt to melt into a puddle instead. And the only thing scarier than a numbered list is a numbered list with my name on it.
I personally ranked Theme Incorporation based on, first, how easy it was to determine who the “You” and the “here” is in “you shouldn’t be here” and then estimating how important that You and Here was to the *theme* of the story (since most very obviously pit the plot just fine). It was subjective! But if you’re gonna put it in my hands imma do as I please : )
Oh, yeah, getting rated is one big thing about it. I only entered my first Velox because I completely forgot that it's a ranked jam because I absolutely dreaded the idea of being judged. But in the end, it's all between fellow devs who know exactly how the craft goes. I know that I took a lot from my Turbo and Formido scores - they reinforced what I already (more or less consciously) knew about myself and my games and allowed me to know what I do best, and what I still need to work on. Hope that this jam gives you the same opportunity to reflect once the scores come!
Rating things IS a strange thing. I try my best to not let my taste dictate my ratings too much, but I guess there'll still be something personal slipping through the cracks. It's normal that you're trying games you wouldn't normally try here - I'm the same. I guess we're all here to broaden our horizons a little? We're gathered here to work with a theme we've never heard before, after all, so, it's all about trying new things out.
When it comes to how I judged Theme Incorporation, I had a couple of different questions in mind. Who's "you" and where's "here"? Is it easily identifiable, or at least easy to infer from context? Why the "you" shouldn't be here? Additionally, and I think this is just my quirk, I kept thinking about a certain degree of "unnatural feel", "hostility" or "destructiveness" that comes with someone being where they're not meant to be. Does it really feel like someone's out of place, like they don't belong? Maybe they're here by unnatural means, maybe they've come uninvited, maybe the world around them wants them gone. I don't know. Either way, there was still a lot of criteria that I won't be mentioning because this isn't my essay. Also, I'm pretty much sure that I broke so, so many of my own standards... which pains me lol
Man I wish I'd had exactly ten more minutes to finish putting in all the music tracks we'd planned and to fix the bug with the preferences menu 
Ten days felt like both too long and not long enough. I think we overshot on scope considering this jam seemed so much longer than Velox Turbo and Formido (we did actually create something for Velox Formido, but couldn't finish by the deadline so we didn't submit - instead, we took a week to polish it off and post it outside of the jam). I probably shouldn't have tried to modify something as complicated as the chatsim framework during a short-term jam: that's all on me. But in spite of everything, I think I learned a lot more about how Ren'py works, which is useful. And I'm glad we put out something, even if it's in kind of rough shape. And I will say I had a lot of fun designing the GUI and I wish I could have gone further with it but - so much to do, so little time.
For this jam, we worked with an additional writer and artist, so managing the new team flow and learning to work together was also an interesting and new experience.
I really enjoyed and was impressed by the other submissions! I'm not quite done getting through all of them but should be able to before voting ends tonight and I'm super looking forward to seeing the rest of them.
