Texting the Awkward Ace Guy You've Had a Crush on Since High School
THANK YOU!! Post-Mortem Wrap-Up + My Undying Gratitude Served Fresh and Hot in an Antique Gravy Boat
A JOLLY GOOD TOP O' THE TIMEZONE TO YOU ALL! I'm gonna try not to ramble too much with this (as I am incredibly wont to do)(I make no promises), but I wanted to at least write something as a little wrappity-wrap-up post for this whole Jam Experience™. This is only the second jam I have done, with the first being Spooktober last year, which was quite a different animal than this litol jaunt. But I quite enjoyed it all the same and had a lot of fun! I've found I really love the feeling of community that comes with a jam and getting to try out all the different games afterwards and making new friends and gushing about all the cool things everyone ended up doing. IT JUST FEELS LIKE ONE BIG HAPPY FAMILY OK. AND I FEEL A LITOL LESS ALONE. OUT IN THIS GREAT BIG WORLD. OF VN DEV. OR SOMETHING.
...a-anyway...
Despite how small this game is, it ended up meaning quite a lot to me. I made the majority of the game when I was Not in a Good Place. I say this despite my being Not in a Good Place the majority of the time LMAO but this week in particular was Extra Not Good as I'd been pretty sure my entire life had been about to be uprooted and I was under a lot of eMoTiOnAl dUrEsS for reasons I won't expand on further. My game and chars tend to be one of the main things that get me through the hard times already. But this game in particular let me be focused on a small scale when I really needed something to focus on and it did so much to keep me grounded and positive and hopeful. SOMETHING SOMETHING GENZY IS MY LIFELINE I GUESS????
So. Yeah. This game will probably forever hold a special place in my heart for this reason. As well as other reasons. None the least of which being that I probably cried at least a few times while test-playing the end scene because it Affected Me so greatly LDKAJLDSKF. Everything did end up working out in the end regarding My Problem™, but I still am grateful to these two beans and their sweet little story for getting me through it.
BUT ENOUGH ABOUT THAT. ON TO ME MELTING INTO A PILE OF GOO AND SOBS AND SNOT BECAUSE THIS LAUNCH WAS LITERALLY THE BEST ONE I'VE EVER HAD AND IT STILL HAS ME REELING A BIT????????
Sorry for this incredibly shoddily updated image I DIDN'T WANNA DRAW A WHOLE NEW ONE OK ALKDJFAKDSF
Things have slowed down a lot by this point now that the game lost its initial boost and dropped back down in the algo, but it's evened out at a little over 6,000 browser plays and 700 downloads, which, honestly, is mind-blowing to me and I don't quite know how to react?? Like??? How???? THE MAIN GAME THAT'S BEEN OUT FOR OVER A YEAR DOESN'T EVEN HAVE CLOSE TO THAT MANY PLAYS????? HELPPPPPPPP???????
On the first day when it started to pick up, I got a little emotional (ok maybe a lottle) and sat down on the couch and cried just a wee bit. I sure cry a lot, don't I. I mentioned this in my initial tweet about it, but my games have never done all that well visibility-wise. The weekend I released Arc 1 of OW, I got around 30 downloads. And when I released Arc 2, I got around 15. That was probably the lowest point of my dev endeavors and where I almost quit. But somehow I didn't. After like a week or so of pouting and lamenting and wanting to die inside, I gave myself a little slap upside the head and reminded myself that these characters and this story mean too much to me to just stop because nobody cares. BECAUSE I CARE. AND THAT'S ALL THAT REALLY MATTERS IN THE END, RIGHT???? And I guess that was at least enough to re-energize myself to start working again. And once I started working again, I started getting excited all over again. Perhaps a bit too excited as this was around the time I became eXtRa uNhInGeD and I haven't looked back since.
Slowly, things did start to pick up after that. I'm still not really sure how. Maybe because I wouldn't stop incessantly shouting about cannibal seduction and going off the rails and generally being redonkulous and obnoxious????? Idek man. But over time, more and more people were finding the game and I was starting to get more traction on stuff. This led to the Arc 3 and Arc 4 launches doing a bit better. Then Spooktober came around, which was a ton of fun and I got a lot of visibility from it and made a ton of new friends, too. The game didn't do amazingly but it still did decently. (And it also somehow won first place in the jam--something that still melts my brain thinking about to this day LDKAJFSD). Then finally with the Arc 5 Part 1 launch I had the best launch to date and was feeling pretty good about it???
.....BUT NONE OF THAT COMPARES REMOTELY TO THIS??????????????? (I really need to stop with the question marks at this point GOD.)
I-I'm just really... happy... to the point where I don't really have words. I'm really glad people could enjoy this silly little game about the two beans who are my happy place. That fans of the main game could enjoy seeing a little non-horrific slice-of-life snippet about some of the chars (so maybe they'd like more snippets like this in the future???). That people who hadn't played the main game could still enjoy it as a sweet little exchange between a not-so-suave head-over-heels rough-around-the-edges lovelorn romantic and his long-standing awkward anxious best friend slash crush who hasn't quite figured out his sexuality yet. And also that people didn't think too poorly of it being so short and small and simple (when my normal games are anything but LMAO)(this was something that actually worried me greatly before the launch)(I FELT SO ANXIOUS AND SICKY).
Also the traction on this game ended up bringing in more views and downloads over to the main game, which also made me really ecstatic??? So yeah. Overall, just. Speechless. Literally. I'm just so grateful and so moved and so a million things I can't describe in words but that I feel in my heart like a 7.5 ton steam engine careening through my veins and colliding through my insides and turning me into a sloopy slop of soup.
THANK YOU SO MUCH
OK maybe I should stop rambling on about my being an overly emotional wreck of a human being now and actually talk about the game IDK.
When I was first coming up with ideas for this game, I had a few different possible directions I thought I might go. The text messaging wasn't my first thought??? My initial idea was to have them go on an actual physical date. .......of course, by "date" I mean that Iggy would definitely not have considered it a date while Genzou definitely would have and subsequently been freaking out about everything. Though it would have been similar to T2A2G in that you'd need to make choices that would have felt mildly opposite to those you'd make in a straight-up dating sim so that Iggy wouldn't get uncomfortable or weirded out, ultimately leading to a sweet scene at the end. HOWEVER. I quickly realized such a plot would require a larger scope than the jam would allow for -- more BGs for sure. And the potential for other chars in scenes?? Since it would have felt a bit strange perhaps to have no other people around (my initial date idea was some sort of amusement park or carnival or even a cafe at one point). So I started to scrap that idea. But then as I was reading through the jam page and looking at past jam games for inspo, the idea of text messaging popped into my mind. And when I began slowly combining the two ideas in my mind, the main idea for T2A2G formed like a slowly solidifying salt crust across the surface of my brain stem.
Then, of course, was whether or not I would be able to accomplish something of a texting variety given my General Lack of Skills when it comes to elaborate coding and scripting. There are thankfully some wonderful templates out there to use as bases! The one I ultimately settled on was Nighten's Another Phone for Ren'Py template as it seemed closest to the image of what I wanted in my mind. But as I was doing some initial testing and prototyping, I kept finding myself wanting more and more little bits of realism to help it feel even closer to actual texting -- especially as I wanted to potentially be able to use some of these mechanics as part of the narrative structure?? Stuff like the Read and Not Read notifs since Iggy is not the best at reading and responding to texts. And stuff like the animated ellipsis when Iggy is typing so I could potentially make it seem like he was really thinking about a response and it wouldn't be instantaneous.
THAT'S WHEN THINGS STARTED TO GET DIFFICULT?????
Setting up a way to make all this happen while also not breaking the base template turned out to be harder than I had expected. Well. OK. I had expected it to be hard maybe. But it just took a long time of thinking and thoughting and trialing and erroring again and again and again. Also since I had the jam rules to think of, as well, so I didn't want to introduce any new elements that might potentially go outside of the rules either. So I limited myself to nothing but code. For instance, to make the animated ellipses work, I created a new screen with a small frame the same color as Iggy's message box that was just big enough to hide the text, then stuck the animated ellipsis image text over the top of it. Then set up variables for setting the ypos based on the current location of Iggy's message and a timer for how long I wanted the animation to last. After which, the screen would update by erasing the frame, thus, showing the text underneath. Which was the only way I could make it so it wouldn't re-pop-in the message window because of how the base template worked together with the NVL format. And also I needed to disable any input while that was happening so people couldn't click straight through. IT JUST FELT LIKE A LOT OF MOVING PARTS.
The screen code for the typing ellipsis -- a combination of variables, timers, colored frames, and disabled inputs. There's also a second one of these for when the message bubble is larger. And a third one for when I wanted the next message to advance automatically. And a fourth one for when the message bubble is larger AND I wanted the next message to advance automatically. HELP.
The NVL mode in general gave me a lot more trouble than I expected since I'd never worked with it before. Things like normal pauses I'm so used to eMpLoYiNg FrEeLy didn't work and I instead had to use a bunch of timers and input disabling. Which created a lot of headaches.
BUT I LEARNED A WHOLE LOT???? And felt pretty good by the end. Well, until I realized last minute maybe it would actually be a good idea to have someone play it just in case, after which I discovered that if someone didn't play the game ~ exactly like me ~ they'd run into a ton of visual glitches GAHHHHHHH. Cue me desperately tweaking and adjusting a million more parts and re-testing it a gajillion times until it finally -- FINALLY -- seemed like it was error-proof. (THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR PLAYING IT SO MANY TIMES AND TELLING ME ALL THE THINGS THAT WERE WEIRD AND MESSED UP, KEY, YOU WERE MY SAVIORRRRRRRRRRRRRR.)
UMMMMMM.
Anyway, I swear I learn so much with each new project I do, no matter how big or small that project is. This was the third time I've done a title screen for instance, and I feel like I'm finally --FINALLY???? Starting to feel comfortable with it and actually understand everything works. For instance, I finally learned how to separate animations on the main menu, main game menu, and game menu, which is how I was able to make the fly-in menu options different for all three instances. (This was something I couldn't figure out even on my Spooktober game lakfdjalkds). I also just now am finally starting to understand screens a bit better. The concept of screens had been evading me for a while... but I think... think... my brain is starting to wrap itself around their rascally ways a bit more now LOL. We'll see until I have to do something else new that totally confounds me. OH ALSO I FINALLY FIGURED OUT HOW TO MAKE MY OPTIONS SCREEN BETTER and generally how to edit stuff on all those extra screens because GOD I DON'T KNOW WHY I JUST... COULD NOT... UNDERSTAND IT BEFORE.
I'm actually thinking of making a tutorial for an animated menu??? Like walking through it from start to finish and having a variety of different animations for making things appear and separating the various menu stuff and so forth. I'm not sure if anyone would be interested??? I just thought it might be a nice way to give back and share some of the stuff I've struggled with for a long time and only finally managed to understand better. We'll see. If I do, I'll probably add it as a tutorial devpost here or something.
OMG I SAID I WOULDN'T RAMBLE ON IN THIS DEVLOG BUT LOOK HOW LONG THIS IS GETTING WTF.
I can't even remember if I wanted to cover anything else.
Since T2A2G is all about those gEnZy fEeLs that makes it OK for me to just fill this devlog with Genzy art, right? RIGHT?????????? CARROT GET A GRIP (never).
What am I doing after this? Working on Arc 5 Part 2, of course! WHAT ELSE WOULD I DO. Well, I do want to play through a few more other O2A2 games first. I think I've played like almost 40 at this point but there's still so many left to play. Obviously I won't be able to get through ~ all of them ~ (THERE ARE LIKE OVER A 100???). But I do want to dedicate at least a few more days for Continued Play. I've loved all of them so much so far?????
Arc 5 Part 2 is, of course, another monster, so it'll be some time before it's finished. In the meantime, I might join the next O2A2 again in July?? I had so much fun in this one and it really does make for a nice little break to experiment with new things and try something small in a different vein. Unsure what it would be at this point. It would probably NOT be texting again LOL. It would just seem tired at that point to do it again hahaha. However, I have some Orlam!thoughts floating around in my head that might form into something by that point. So we shall see. Either way, it's still a ways off and not 100% a definite yes, but I do think it would be cool.
What else. IT WAS MY BIRTHDAY THIS LAST WEEK? Not that that's really anything special, in fact, I usually feel quite depressed on my bday (maybe it's my age...). However, some friends of mine made it feel very very special and I cried a lot. I told you I cry too much LDKFJASLDK.
OK I'm really reaching the part where I need to wrap this up. I can't really think of anything else to write. EXCEPT OF COURSE. THANK YOU AGAIN. EVERYONE WHO HAS PLAYED T2A2G. I'M STILL WEEPY ABOUT IT.
Also.
ALSO.
I just.
Really.
Love.
Genzy.
ILOVETHEMSOSOSODOFKDOAFKDJFAOSKDJFAODSKJAODASDOFSADASODFASDFASDFAMDSSCUHHSHCCCHCCHCHHHHHHHHHHHHHITHINKABOUTTHEMDAYANDNIGHTANDIJUSTTHINKTHEYARESOSWEETANDCUTEANDITHINKABOUTTHEMCUDDLINGANDGENZOUKISSINGIGGYSSWEETNOSEANDMYHEARTBURSTSANDTEARSFLOODMYEYEBALLSFROMTHEMERETHOUGHTOFTHEMBEINGSWEETTOGETHERANDANDANDANDLIKEJUSTIMAGINETHEMSTANDINGOUTONTHEBALCONYANDGENZOUISSMOKINGANDIGGYCOMESOUTANDRESTSHISCHINONGENZOUSHEADANDTHENGENZOUTUGSDOWNONHISCOLLARANDGIVESHIMALITOLKISSTHISTHOUGHTPLAGUESMEDAILY.
OK I'm normal again :)
Um.
ON THAT NOTE.
I'll sign off for realsies.
Carrot, out.
(OK but not before a final Twitter art in case you missed it ofc lakdjfalkdsfa)
Comments
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Ahhhhh You are great! Sorry since English is not my mother tongue, and I am not good at expressing, I truly lack the ability to explain how excellent you are in a more idiomatic way. You deserve countless compliments. I want to talk about how I feel when I play Our Wonderland.
I'm actually a kind of person who has always had a hard time accepting violence and bloody scenes. So it's true that the first time I play your precious game in Arc 1, I was kind of frightened by the secen that Bucks cut off Iggy's right leg and left arm. But that time I still add the game in my collection titled "Violence but I like". I think that's cuz your story is actually very attractive. The character's fullness, the interaction between the characters, and the supplement to the character's setting in the process of exploration make people like me more and more want to continue reading your story. As I commented in Our Wonderland's comments area or somewhere else, I do think your work is a masterpiece. Well, it's in my collection titled "splendid" now. (I just want to say how great you and OW are! Of course OFW and T2A2G are the same!)
I can imagine how hard it is to be a personal author, but I'm really glad you've persevered so that we can meet Genzy and others. You always show such love and passion for OW and your stories in general and it's just nice to see you get the feedback.
Actually I was crying and playing OW again yesterday. Because I paid more attention to details this time, I felt more distressed for Genzou. When Genzou said "when are you and Gidge gettin'together, huh?" in Arc 2, I felt very upset, because it coincides with some of my experiences...
Sorry, I'm writing this with a totally empty stomach, so my mind may not be very clear now, my expression may be kind of strange. I‘ll be very sorry if it bothers you. In a nutshell, hoping you can get more success!🥺💕
"6,000 browser plays and 700 downloads" gosh im so proud of your success Carrot! Those are some big numbers and it's so cool to see you grow more and more as a VN dev :D Especially after hearing how downcast you felt about your game numbers: I think that's a bit of a struggle every VN dev can identify with (and man I really resonated with your words of how, at the end of the day, it's YOU who cares about your characters the most, therefore as long as you care, it doesn't matter what anyone else thinks because YEAH it's your story you want to tell and tell it you shall~ especially if it's the one thing making you happy then creating something like this is just,,, the best,,,)
im writing this very late at night so i might not be entirely coherent rn but fghjgfhj reading your devlogs always gives me such feels because it's really neat to hear your experiences with Devving TM and how important your games are to you (and it feels inspirational as heck ngl!!). You always show such love and passion for OW and your stories in general and it's just nice to see you taking different approaches to OW in this jam from a cute date to a spooky DND-esque adventure~ Like I feel like you have such much passion flowing into your projects and something about that is just??? so cool??? to me???
I got to say i'd be interested in that animated menu tutorial! I know you already showed me some of the code before but I think seeing it step by step in a visual manner would be really cool??? so seeing a little tutorial devlog or video or whatever you choose to do would be something i'd sign up for for sure ngl
I SOMEHOW MISSED THIS COMMENT??? LKDJALKFDSJA I swear I didn't see this in my notifs... I don't know what is wrong with me 💦
THANK YOU SO MUCH THO?? "I think that's a bit of a struggle every VN dev can identify with" --> This is so true. What with the fact that we're all tiny devs anyway, coupled with VNs already being pretty niche. It can so often feel like this monstrous uphill battle trying to get any sort of momentum. And even then, you can keep trying and trying and trying forever before it feels like you're doing more than shouting into a void. Though I do think part of that makes us even more resilient in a way maybe. We already know it's somewhat niche going in, but we do it anyway. And not only that, but we do it because we have these stories to tell that we absolutely have to let out. And often that are really personal to us??? Idk. I could be talking out of my behind, but I do think VN dev in general feels very special somehow. And I love that there's such a great community of VN devs, too 🥺💕
Ahhhhhhh... that means a lot GUHHH 😭💕I do really love this a lot. And I do love my stories and chars so much. Lately just thinking about Genzy has made my heart ache and my eyes well up IT'S REALLY BAD. I'M IN TOO DEEP. But I just love them with my whole heart GOD. I hope in the future I can not only, you know, finally finish the main game, but make more games too -- whether those are other small OW side games or new projects! I just love this medium of storytelling so much!!
ANYWAY THANK YOU AGAIN. AND I'M SORRY AGAIN FOR THE DELAY. And also I'm glad you liked the tutorial!!! 💕
Hi Hi!!! I really liked this game! What I would give to Text the Ace Guy I’ve had a Crush on Since High School lmao. It was nice that respecting boundaries and stuff led to a cute scene. I love OW characters (and this game featured my favorites) so I was super excited. The texting was life-like for sure (especially how it took a while to get back to each other lmao)! I’m sorry to hear you were struggling. Remember that your health and safety come first, ok? While the stories you create are awesome, they wouldn’t be possible without you. Thanks for an awesome game and keep up the good work!!! (Ignore my horrible grammar please, I’m begging you)
OHHHHHHH THANK YOU????? LMAO As for me, I would-........ I think I'd very much like it if someone who cared about me as much as Genzou cares about Iggy would text me and be very sweet and kind and patient aLKDJFALKDFA that is what I would like I think (I can be the awkward ace guy in that case I guess LMAO) 😌 I'm really glad you liked the game!! And also that you would enjoy a game with the OW characters in general!! I always wonder if people would actually be interested enough in the chars to see little things with them outside the main game, so that makes me really happy!! 💕
And thank you very much for the well wishes! Fortunately, right now things have gotten a bit better. I still have my... usual woes and struggles.......... but at least the extra stuff on top of them have gone away for now (and hopefully won't be resurfacing any time soon). I'm just glad I have my game and my chars and my stories to keep me company even when everything around me feels like it's going out of control 💦
Thanks so much for this lovely comment and for all your support and for loving my game and my characters!! It really means more than you'll ever know!!! And I hope that you'll take care of yourself, too!!! 😭💕
CONGRATULATIONS CARROT!! That number of downloads is mind-boggling; it's so amazing! I loved reading about your journey here. I can't imagine how demotivated you must have felt after Arc 2. Your drive to push through is so inspiring, and all of the tireless effort is paying off!! (I will say that I am still reading through Our Wonderland - although already an avid Iggy/Genzou shipper - and this game was simply perfect for new players and long-time fans!)
The post-mortem about Ren'py is so interesting!! People who say that coding VNs is easy should really read it, haha! The end result was so smooth and seamless; all of the tweaking and adjusting was incredibly worth it. I'm sure that there are so many people that would be interested in a tutorial?? It looked so awesome and was so satisfying to use??
I'm really glad that you are doing better! Game-making/story-telling is such a grounding and uplifting experience for me too (although it can be frustrating, it has lit up my life when I was in some dark places!) I haven't known you for very long, but my interactions with you have been so sweet and positive, and you are such a lovely person! I am beyond happy for your achievements!! I know that even more people will pick up Arc 5 Part 2 :)
HHHHHHH THIS IS VERY SWEET AND LOVELY THANK YOU SO MUCH????? 😭💕
This game dev journey has certainly had a lot of Ups and Downs, that is for sure. Though it's the same for everyone, I'm sure. Especially as we all have to start somewhere lakdjfals Sometimes it is quite Tough though. And takes a very long time and starts to feel quite demotivating. I'm so thankful also to the many friends and fellow devs I've met along the way that have helped me, as well, even if just through their friendship and helping me keep my spirits high in spite of everything 🥺💕
OMG I'M VERY GLAD TO HEAR THIS LAKSDJLFAKSDJF avid Iggy/Genzou shipper ohohohofahdsofkahdsokfajsodkfajd hearing this makes me want to melt into goo hheehh,,, I just...... I love them... and I hope.... others love them... (th-though it's also ok if they love the other ships too, because I love them, too)
IT IS INDEED VERY DIFFICULT AT TIMES, RIGHT??? Sure, some of the foundation-type stuff might not be too tricky to pick up and slowly get familiar with, but when you want to really start changing things up or trying new things it's very difficult??? And also makes you really wrack your brain sometimes!! LOL I'm really happy you think so though, ohhhhh! 😭💕 Now that I have a base for it, I may experiment more with texting-related stuff in the future and see if I can further revamp things and try some different stuff with it, as I feel like there are some cool things that can be done!
"although it can be frustrating, it has lit up my life when I was in some dark places!" --> GOD SO TRUE. One second you want to rip everything up and the next you're sobbing because it's the most precious thing in the whole world,,, 😭I'm also glad that you get a lot of joy from it!! And thank you for the well wishes. AND THANK YOU????? YOU ARE VERY SWEET AND POSITIVE AND LOVELY TOO AND I AM THANKFUL FOR HAVING MET YOU DLKAJFDLKFAJDFKA
Thank you thank you thank yooooooou for all these lovely words I shall weep maybe 😭😭
AAAAAAHHHHHHH, it was so endearing to read your post-mortem, Carrot!! Your little spin-off was such a delight to play, I honestly came to love your characters so SO much ever since I played Our Wonderland and it makes me so happy to know it's getting the support it deserves!!! It's such a wonderful story and you're honestly a big inspiration to me as both a gamedev and a storyteller; your stories captivate me in a way that I just can't find the words for, it's an amazing experience, I love how human your characters are with all strengths and flaws. (SERIOUSLY, I COULDN'T STOP TALKING ABOUT OUR WONDERLAND TO ONE OF MY FRIENDS WHEN I FOUND IT ON ITCH, I WAS THAT HOOKED).
I'm also really glad that you're doing better in regards to your personal issue, I hope the rest of year isn't as stressful as that time and wish you all the best!!! Please take care, you matter <3
Also, can I just say... I cannot even begin to fathom how grateful (and also shocked because I feel like senpai noticed me and I'm??? IS THIS THE REAL LIFE, IS THIS JUST FANTASYYY * insert Freddy Mercury's voice *) I am to have you as a friend??? You're honestly such a sweet and kind person, I get a little teary eyed whenever I remember how much you helped me out when I was devastated about that certain issue with one of my games. I just, I don't know, I just appreciate you a whole lot and am really happy to have met you online.
Gosh, this year really did have a lot of O2A2 VNs, didn't it? I played quite a few as well and still have some I want to try out, they were certainly really good!! I have to agree with you about the community thing, it's really a lot of fun to try out everyone's games and support one another, it makes you feel like you're not alone and that you can share struggles with this big family.
As for the tutorial for an animated menu GOD YES, if you ever end up making one, I'd love to see it!!! I'm still a freaking noob at programming, can barely get the grasp of some basic stuff and if an actual programmer took a look at my code I'm sure they'd faint because of all the unnecessary extra stuff that's probably included because I don't know how to make it simpler xD So, YES PLEASE, if you ever make an animated menu tutorial I'll be sure to save it and share it around for anyone else who might need it too!
Okay, this is getting a bit long LMAO sorry aksjbfsakjbdgk, I'm just really happy for you, Carrot, I'm looking forward to Arc 5 part 2 and whatever else you've got planned for the future! I also have to play Easter at some point too. I use my MacBook for most of my stuff but I do have a notebook PC, it's just really slow so I sometimes postpone playing PC games xD I'm definitely going to play it sometime, though.
Congratulations on 6000+ browser plays and 700+ downloads!!! <3
I AM SOBBING FROM THIS COMMENT HELPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP.
Thank you so much, Pri. I cannot quite form adequate words for this (my words dried up from this overly long devlog perhaps ALKSDJFALDSK). This is absolutely so sweet and lovely and kind and I'm squishing and squashing and galoshing inside owowoWOWOWOWOWOWOW 😭💦💕
"your stories captivate me in a way that I just can't find the words for, it's an amazing experience" --> TEARS RUNNING DOWN MY FACE
"I hope the rest of year isn't as stressful as that time and wish you all the best" --> Thank you very much, I also hope this,,, 🥺💕
"I cannot even begin to fathom how grateful I am to have you as a friend???" --> OWOWOWOWOWOW I AM GRATEFUL TO HAVE YOU AS A FRIENDDDDDDD. You are always so lovely and kind and sweet to everyone!!! 😭💕 And of course I was so happy to help out!!! I am always happy to help out with anything in any way I can!! 😊 I'm also just glad everything was able to resolved with that in the end so that it didn't affect you too much, I can only imagine the stress 💦
"it makes you feel like you're not alone and that you can share struggles with this big family." --> YEAH I REALLY LOVE IT. Since sometimes devving can seem so lonely and isolating. So it's nice to have some moments where a lot of people can come together and you feel like you're a part of something bigger!!
"if you ever make an animated menu tutorial I'll be sure to save it and share it around for anyone else who might need it too!" --> LKADJFLAKSDF OK I'LL KEEP THAT IN MIND. Tbh my code also probably has a lot of extra stuff, mostly because I never delete anything LOL tho at least with the menus by this point I think I've gotten to the point where I can keep it somewhat straightforward hahaha 🤣 I want to try and write something in a way that's very easy to follow along with and try to explain everything in hopefully a way that's easy to understand because I remember at the beginning even trying to follow tutorials was sometimes SO DIFFICULT because there were so many moving parts I didn't quite get.
Thank you sososo much again, this was beyond sweet and I'm still moist-eyed ldakfjalskfda Thank you for being such a wonderful friend 💕