Edit: Whoa! Over 1k views, and 500+ plays?! Thank you for all the love!

I honestly was not expecting this to get as much love as it did, but I am incredibly grateful towards everyone who has given this a shot, as well as my friends who supported me! Please have this fun little illustration as a small thank you!

Once upon a time, a very ambitious moth looked at a tiny, tiny, game jam and  thought:
"Haha, what if I made a game from scratch for once?  Would that be crazy or what?"

<-- a little insane

Knowing full well that doing so was out of her usual scope of work and knowledge, she decided to take some extra time to learn and plan this little game as meticulously as possible, to prevent any possible trouble or hiccups, and ensuring that she had enough time to do everything she wanted to do, as well as what to cut out in case things happen, because of course; in gamedev, things always happen.

And things did happen. I caught The Plague literally on the first day of the jam, and then being practically bedridden for a week (aka: half of the jam) and honestly? I was pretty devastated. Considering this, it is still a miracle that I was able to make this short little thing. With the plague factor added into the mix, I think I might be a  little kinder to myself regarding this little post-mortem

But anyway, to start, let's discuss what I wanted to do for this jam in a little more detail, shall we?

So... What did I want to achieve with this little game?

•  I wanted to make something from scratch
  To be honest, I'm pretty new to programming, and recently took on a short course focusing on HTML, Java and CSS, where I made a simple blackjack game. (I might post that here on another day, but just know that outside of the art style, it doesn't have much going on with it) That was my first time ever making a game without using an engine, and honestly? Despite all the stress and all its flaws, it felt good to make something from scratch. I decided to try it again for this jam since a visual novel is (in theory) pretty simple so I wanted to try and make one from scratch,  as with the skills I've recently received, I know that I should be able to make a simple visual novel. Not to mention, the limitations mean that I could simply not think too hard about the art, which means i could focus my efforts into making a playable little visual novel.

• I wanted to make a slightly more complex piece of music.
  If you have played my other solo dev games, you'll probably immediately notice that they only use simple piano tracks. Honestly, I made them last minute, usually in a rush. Piano tracks works for almost everything, after all xD. However, this time I wanted to make something a little more complex that was tailored to fit the theme of the game. I wanted something that gives somber vibes, almost like a dirge. At the same time, I wanted it to also be somewhat reminiscent of Midsummer Dream's Wedding March. I wanted to strengthen the idea of it being both a wedding and a funeral. I wanted to imply the setting being at a wedding venue, possibly a church, with a small orchestra practicing in another room. I didn't want music to be an afterthought in this game, I wanted it to be part of the game itself.

• I wanted to make something that might help one reflect on what it means to be in a relationship. I've been talking to a lot of friends about what it means to be in a relationship, what marriage is to different people, why someone might choose to go for it, and others don't. In that vein, it also made me realize that I may be on the aro/ace spectrum, and have been reflecting a lot on how I feel about romance and marriage. I honestly didn't exactly know what I wanted to write about at this point, and so the script went through a LOT of editing (not to mention, writing while feverish with plague isn't the easiest thing) All I knew was that I wanted to write a story that discusses the different reasons and expectations people have when getting into a relationships, and why things may or may not work out. What are your priorities? Your partner's priorities? How do they align? How do you know when to part ways? After all, it's something I've been reflecting a lot on, these days.

What went Well?

• I made... something (and I made it on time) Well, I'll iterate once again that the fact that I finished this at all has to be some sort of a miracle. It more or less functions as expected (sorry mobile users I'll need to figure that out another day) and most importantly, I made it in time for the jam. That's already a win in my book ^^;

• I stuck to most of my original plans and scoped appropriately This thankfully isn't my first rodeo, but I'm still glad I planned this project in a way where I knew exactly what to prioritize and what to cut down in case Things Happened. Even with the shorter time frame, I managed to do enough things that I wanted to achieve and could easily cut down parts I knew I wouldn't have time to complete

• The art is.... better than I expected? ^^; I'm surprised I managed to animate the sprite in time for this jam. Sure, it's 7 fps and is just blinking animation, but that's still really poggers of me don't you think? I think I also did a decent job with the general art direction following the theme of it being a celebration, a performance, and a funeral.

• Music is fine... I guess. Yeah okay, I still ended up rushing the music, but hey at least it's not just a simple piano track ^^; I did what I set up to do I guess, so I'll put that in as a win in my book for now.

What didn't go so well?

• The dialogue system is... eh. I'm so sorry to anyone who decided to look at the source code of this to see how ineffective i was with setting up the dialogue system for this because i have 500+ lines of code that's just objects and nested arrays sitting there. I really should have separated it into a different document and make things a little neater and more readable but also man... I'd rather use that extra time to polish up the art a little more since that's what most people will be seeing.

• Plague brainworms is really hard to write with. I'll be honest with you and say that I think the writing here is subpar compared to my previous works. I didn't have a concrete plan going in, and I'm really not used to writing full dialogue. It was really hard trying to write while I was in pain and feverish and I just really didn't have the braincells for it. But considering the fact that this is a timed jam, sometimes you just gotta call it a day and move on. I'm sorry if anything reads weird or feels janky but that's the best I could do at that state.

• Not Mobile Friendly I really wanted this to be mobile friendly AND responsive in desktop web. I could only manage the latter, but you can't even see that unless I make it available for download later.... ^^;  Setting up breakpoints was really confusing and I ended up just scratching it the moment I realized that I just didn't have the time or braincells for it. Maybe next time?

Where do I go from here?

I still want to make things from scratch once in a while, but I don't think i'll be making a full switch from using actual game engines. It is after all a tiring process and sometimes I might not be in the mood to wrangle code myself ^^; But while engine might make my life easier, sometimes making things from scratch allows more learning and freedom which I do enjoy in moderation.  Now I'm wondering if I could recycle this into something a little more polished and nicer next time? I might consider it. I definitely still have lots and lots to learn as a programmer, but to be honest, this was kind of fun (if not sometimes maddening and tiring) It still feels really good to make things from scratch sometimes, despite all the trouble. I really do want to try and make something that works on most devices though, I think i might try and wrangle that next.

In the same vein, I want to learn more about making music as well, but I'm not sure if I'll ever pick up a proper DAW because honestly getting good at music production isn't really in my priorities right now, but learning about music and how it is used in games to mirror themes or evoke feelings has been incredibly interesting and fun (the botw music theory rabbit hole is REAL), but it's definitely not the top of my priorities from a technical standpoint.

I'm also learning that I do not enjoy writing dialogue, but I'm not sure if it's because I didn't plan too much about the characters, or if it's because I was still pretty sick while writing, or if I just didn't enjoy it. I might still give it another shot  because I can't judge if I actually hate writing in this style or if it was something else, and then we'll see how that goes.