Well, that's Spooktober VN Jam over and done with! I learned a lot in the process this time around, more than I ever expected to, haha, and had a whole lot of fun as well :3 I still need to fix a few things with the project, but aside from that, it's all wrapped up. I'm just gonna talk about a few things here to do with its creation, recommend some of the brilliant games I played and loved from the rest of the jam, and list the songs that got me through it all. If you only want a specific section, I'm gonna put em as big headers to make it easier to scroll past :3

POSTMORTEM

This was my first attempt at creating and implementing an ARG, so I hope anyone who stumbled across it enjoyed it. On top of that, I learned how to add SFX to all my buttons, make a working telephone, play around a lot more with UI, and thanks to the epic art from all the artists on the team, make scenes look more alive than ever before ^-^

It sure wasn't easy, and I wound up adopting the rather unhealthy state that I tend to when working on game jam projects, getting very little sleep, and doing little of anything besides spending time on the project. Once again, scope was a bit of an issue. I've never been very good at limiting myself, and with such an awesome team, I just wanted to try and do as much as possible. In the end, I didn't quite manage to squeeze everything I wanted to within the game because it got to the point where I realised it was no longer feasible to keep coming up with new ideas to implement, or we'd wind up with an unfinished game come the deadline.

Sadly, despite many, many hours of testing, a pesky bug related to something called 'transition material' remained, something I still have no clue how to fix T_T The game is playable, it's just if you happen to come across that bug when using the skip function in a certain section of the game, it could wind up being incredibly annoying.

This was probably my favourite jam so far, and I'm so grateful I got to work with such an amazing group of people ^-^ Working with friends is so much fun, and making new friends is just as awesome! Thank you so much again to everyone on the team + everyone who has played the game <3

RECOMMENDATIONS

Anyhow, I had vowed that once the deadline was up, I'd take a break from dev work and actually play some stuff for a change. Me being the crazy numpty that I am, I set myself the challenge of playing every single Spooktober VN Jam entry before the end of October... there were over 100 of them xD Somehow, I just about managed it in between visiting my beloved scare attractions, and I figured I'd share some of my favourites/recommendations from the jam here for anyone who is interested in checking them out :D

Overall favourite: Mitra

Favourite kinetic: Wolfskin's Curse

Favourite Halloween vibes: Candy Scabs

Biggest emotional impact: The Life We've Chosen

Favourite romance/friendship route: Skelly (Misty Hollow)

Favourite psychological story: The Remains of My Affection

Most creepy/disturbing: The Housemate

Most gory/disturbing: Pumpkin Eater

Favourite focus on mental health: Perfection Paper-thin

Favourite narrator: To All the Wolves I've Slain

Favourite unusual aesthetics: The Night Shift is Lonely

Most adorable/heartwarming: Mothdude

Most fun puzzle elements + coolest animations: The haunting of my childhood mall

Coolest character animations + art: Tales of Misteria

Favourite menus and small details: Summer Horrordays

Favourite bad endings: Marbles

Most beautiful fairytale: The Spider and the Bride

Favourite atmosphere: Blank

Most nostalgia generated: The Haunted Fair

Favourite cast of characters: The Case of the Serialized Killer

JAM PLAYLIST

When not having to listen to audio related to the project, I sometimes have a playlist that I stick on to help with tedious tasks or general concentration. These are the bands and tracks that got me through Spooktober VN Jam.

Poets of the Fall
My Dark Disquiet, Daze, Drama for Life, The Game, Once Upon a Playground Rainy

Bring Me the Horizon
Parasite Eve, Obey, Itch for the Cure, Kingslayer, 1x1, Ludens

Set it Off
Dancing with the Devil, Breath In Breath Out, Nightmare, Killer in the Mirror, The Haunting, NME, Lonely Dance

Blue Stahli 
The Devil, ULTRAnumb, Down In Flames, Anti You

Celldweller
Switchback, Good L_ck (Yo_'re F_cked), Heart On, End of an Empire, New Elysium

Chapter and Verse
Magazines, Beauty Sleep, Bad Blood, Ink

Hope you all had a Happy Halloween! And now it's back to working on Darling Duality :3