Wow, it’s been years since I last played Cave Story. As always I really enjoyed your writing.
This reminded me of all that time I spent as a teen making custom maps in Age of Empires and later Warcraft 3. I still have a notebook with some of my ideas for a custom WC3 campaign, dated April 2012. The implications of a single spell (Doom) made my mind go wild.
I had ambitious ideas that never got anywhere, but if I had to say where I started, it would be there. I learned my if-elses in that game... How far we have gone, eh? Congratulations on your upcoming Steam release.