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It feels weird to think that I’m dawning on a year since I’ve started on game dev.

I remember how proud I was of Post-Disclosure… Now I look back at it with a lot of remorse, knowing it could have been better.

I look at Neotrogla, by far my most popular game, and I feel a mix of extreme pride and, again, remorse. In many ways, it’s my representative work; clearly towering over my two other projects, it symbolizes a lot of what makes game dev interesting to me - a fascination with ideas, a fixation of singular focuses and influences, an overflow of purple prose, all to create some… I don’t know, atmosphere, mood, whatever you want to call it.

Namely, god, I love *writing* these things. If I could go the rest of my days without typing out any sort of code, I’d be happy, but in the service of putting these little stories out there… I couldn’t be happier. Still, it leaves me a little lost. As has been seen, I sort of leave these games untouched after I create them, baring pretty major issues; it’s maybe my weakness as a dev that once something is out there, I don’t really like to think about it, look at it… But with Post-Disclosure, Neotrogla, and Memoire, I see so much potential hindered by the game-jam cycles that bore them. Bluntly, I need to let these things cook more!

Since I’ll be focusing on Neotrogla here, I have documented a few things I would love to change, things that I’ve learned through the dev-process of Memoire 0079. Key among these:

• While I don’t think Neotrogla would benefit too much from having “art” to go along with the passages, the very stripped back aesthetic of the story leaves a bit to be desired. Even going back and fixing border text tags and such would be something to help the story carry itself better…
• Music does so much to elevate these stories; That was clear when I worked with ConeCvltist, eternal bestie, on the soundtrack for this and Memoire. As much as the three tracks here are truly wonderful, I think more in the way of ambiance would help the game shine, along with –
• –Having any real interactivity to draw the player in. Memoire made it clear to me that having some sort of player involvement, even through purely optional text, does so much to help the game shine. In an idea world, a redux of Neotrogla would branch out even slightly, keeping the miniscule scale while bolstering it with *more*, with little bits and pieces to explore, to elaborate on, to *feel*.

I’m still mixed, looking back at my work. But as I think back on them with any real thought, I can’t help but feel proud. The praise I’ve gotten from my work, in any regard, has been more than I could ever expect: To think that over a thousand people have played my games at all makes me humble in a way I can’t put into words. From the bottom of my heart, down to my soul; thank you, all of you. For reading my work, for telling people about it, for giving my writing any sort of a chance.

Currently, I’m working on a major project that will leave me a bit quiet on this end: While I’m jumping ship from my beloved Twine, I hope to make a project I can truly be unabashedly proud of. Between then and now, I would love to go back, create a sort of “redo” of Neotrogla and Memoire; no promises on that any time soon, but it’s a goal of mine regardless.

Again, thank you all. There aren’t enough words to describe how truly thankful I am. And if anyone plays it after this, thanks for giving my work a shot! I hope you look forward to my next project!