Hey guys. This one's going to be a relatively short postmortem because I don't have much to say, really. Originally, I wanted to discuss a topic closely related to game jams, but I thought it would be better to make it its own blog post. Anyways, there's not really a good transition, so let's get into it!

I'll start by discussing my plans for the VN. Currently, I'm actually working on finishing the assets for Every Date Has Its Progs And Cons as I promised to update that VN someday, and I didn't for several months, so now I'm working on that. After that, I'll work on finishing the art assets for this VN as well as fixing some issues. After that, I'll return to working on By Your Hands. I might return to Ash and the story sometime in the distant future, as there were ideas I enjoyed, but for now, I'll just let the story rest.

Now for the juicy bits. The inspiration for this VN came soon after I had released Progs And Cons. Believe it or not, I was inspired by A Thousand Yards. I found the basic plot of a young adult's brother going missing so intriguing that I wanted to make my own twist on the story. What if the brother was missing because he ran away, and the story was told from his perspective? Of course, that's not what happens in A Thousand Yards, but I still found my idea interesting. So, I wanted to explore that idea in a VN. I also got inspired by Into The Wild, a non-fiction book about the life and times of Christopher McCandless. I was fascinated by Chris's character and what motivated him to move out of his home. It's clear to me that he wanted freedom and to get away from his abusive household. While I haven't watched the movie, which has turned his story into a more conventional story compared to the book, I did want to explore what it would actually be like to have the freedom you wanted. Originally, I was saving this story for later. However, after the mixed reception of Progs And Cons, I was eager to create a VN that would put me back in people's good graces. Demonstrate that I'm a skilled artist and capable of producing high-quality work. So I decided to enter MAY WOLF 2025. I searched for writers and editors and found Crescent and Mimbery. I also got help from Cadmium and Emma for music.

And so we worked on the VN. And well, I got caught up with a bunch of stuff in May, so I wasn't able to finish all the art assets at the time. A lot of hectic things were happening in my personal life. But I was also poor at time management in general. The reception to the VN was more mixed than I wanted. A lot of people were either not a fan of the navel-gazing prose of the beginning, or they thought the sections with Cassidy clashed with the rest of the story. This VN had the opposite problem of my previous jam project. In that VN, the protagonist's character arc was way too rushed for a lot of people. Here, the character arc is barely there, as it moves so slowly. Don't get me wrong, there was a lot of praise for the game, and I'm very grateful to Crescent and Mimbery for their work on the VN. However, I feel like I overestimated my abilities for this VN, and this jam showed me that I had to put in more effort if I wanted my work to truly captivate a large number of people. A lot of entries in this jam blew mine out of the water, and for good reason. So many quality entries came out this year, and I enjoyed reading almost all of the ones I've read. This was a great turnout, and I urge you guys to read the other entries if you haven't. This jam taught me I need to really hone my skills and listen to lots of feedback to become a great VN creator. I want to create great work in the future, and I can't do that if I never improve, so right now I'll try my best to better myself. That's not the only thing I learned, though. I met Crescent and Mimbery, and I greatly enjoy our writing workflow. I might return for next year's MAY WOLF and see if future me was able to accomplish what I want him to do.

The past 14 months or so have been some of the most stressful and eye-opening parts of my life. My friendships have either fallen off or weakened, the way I see the world has radically changed, and I've been feeling a lot more insecure about myself. I think that's why I've been entering all these game jams, I wanted to try something different and see if these ideas were better for me. They were not. I realized what I must do, and that's working on By Your Hands.

One last thing is that I want to mention a few entries of the jam that I really enjoyed: Close And Distant, Depiction of Pleasure, In The Spotlight, One Last Week, All There, A Wolf In Headlights, Wolf of White Waters, The Curious Case of Route 19, and my personal favorite, Geiger. I made comments on all of these projects on their jam submission pages, which I have linked, but I'm sure you'll enjoy all of them if you enjoy my work. Make sure to rate their games and follow these creators because they all deserve it!

Thank you, Crescent, Mimbery, Emma, and Cadmium, you guys all did a great job on this VN! And thank you to everyone who commented and rated the game, both positive and negative. I really appreciate all the feedback, and I'm so glad that a lot of people enjoyed our VN regardless! That's all I have to say. Have a good day and see you later!