INTRODUCTION

Greetings, everyone. The game jam officially ended two nights ago. As per the community ratings, Road to the Next Life ranked 17th place overall, 6th in presentation, and 9th in engagement. Wow. I'd say that's pretty good for the first game jam I've ever participated in… though it wouldn’t have been possible without my talented teammates! Thank you to everyone who rated our game and left comments! Every single one meant the world to us.

Road to the Next Life was also a runner-up for Best Soundtrack (shout out to our talented composer, Foster Stone)! The judge's description of the game was incredibly touching:

"Road to the Next Life has an entirely original OST with evocative melodies and lush textures, pulling out feelings of melancholy, sadness and longing for a world saved from the oppression that haunts us."

One judge also named RttNL in a list of games they loved! Thank you so much! 

I now want to reflect on my experience as the programmer/writer, offer praise to my talented teammates, and discuss what's in store for the future.

SELF REFLECTION

As I mentioned before, this was my first ever game jam. Furthermore, the only thing I had previously made in RPGMaker was a game demo.

I pulled an all-nighter on the second-to-last day of the jam. I believe I only got two hours of sleep over the span of 48 hours. There were still so many things to be done on that second-to-last day... and don't get me started on all the bug testing I had to do as well.

Until the last second, I was checking for bugs to fix and things to polish. My final submission of the game was uploaded three minutes before the deadline, and you might laugh if I told you I almost submitted another one before realizing I only had one minute left. The risk of disqualification wasn't worth an improved file name. The current downloadable folder has a (2) after its name because I exported the game twice.

Another thing I vividly remember is the fear I felt: the fear of putting my writing out into the world. This is the first fully-written piece of writing I've ever published. I didn't slap DEMO or PROTOTYPE next to the title in an attempt to say "everything is bound to change, please have mercy on me if this sucks!" 

I felt as though certain scenes didn't meet my expectations. I wondered if I portrayed the game's themes effectively. Worst of all, I feared everything was a jumbled, incoherent mess. Mind you, I had been up for 24 hours at this point and found it hard to view my writing from an outside perspective. I have my best friend to thank for playing the game and reassuring me in these matters.

Overall though, this was a big step for me as a writer. If I were to die tomorrow (let's pray I don't), I'll have left behind at least one story. I want to leave behind many stories in my lifetime. This has been my dream since childhood. However, doing so is a precarious thing when you're afraid of failure and struggle to finalize stories. I tend to act as though giving a story more time to marinate will suddenly spark a new, better idea. But there's nothing to marinate when I'm too hesitant to write anything at all!

That all being said, there are elements of Road to the Next Life that can be improved upon. There are bugs I missed. There are story beats that can be improved. But you know what? That’s okay. Putting this game out into the world was necessary for its growth. I’m thankful for every critique.

[MAJOR SPOILERS BELOW]

I suppose it might also be valuable to talk about where my mind was writing this story. I’d rather not name my own experiences for the sake of privacy, and I don’t want people to assume the Guilt-bearer is canonically the same as I.

But the fear he experienced, namely during the Forest of Fond Memories flashback, was all mine. Around the time of the jam, I dreaded waking up every morning, afraid that some horrid news would come out overnight.

These days, I’m doing better. I see those in this world who fight for people like me and others who are oppressed. This isn’t to say, however, that the fights are over. We have to keep fighting. In Road to the Next Life, John says, “living in itself is an act of resistance.”

While discussing the game’s theme with other members of the team, it resonated with them in different ways. That relatability matters a lot to me. I worried that the game’s ambiguity would frustrate some people (and it very well might have), or that the message would be weaker for not explicitly addressing one form of oppression. But I stand by my decision, because I believe the story had its intended effect.

[SPOILER END]

If anyone has lingering curiosities regarding my writing decisions, I’d be more than happy to satisfy those in the comments.

TO MY TEAMMATES

I want to thank Tera Griffith, our gameplay designer, for all those planning sessions at local coffee shops. When I first learned about this game jam, Tera was the first person I contacted. We met each other through a video games class in college, in which we were assigned to make a game demo over the span of a semester. Our professor had everyone write down their specialties - mine being writing and Tera's being gameplay - so they could organize everyone into balanced groups. Tera and I were paired together semi-randomly, though if memory serves I think we were talking during the group distribution, being two of the most talkative people in the classroom. She's a dear friend of mine. Gameplay must be in tune with game writing, making the other into the best version of itself, and vice versa. It is always a pleasure to have someone to bounce my writing ideas off of.

I'd also like to share a short story from one of our coffee shop meet-ups. I ordered a small Italian soda and the cashier told me I was the thousandth (or was it the hundredth?) customer. I laughed, thinking it a joke, until he handed me my receipt for zero dollars. To this day I still wish I had ordered something more valuable! I saved what, four dollars? Regardless, Tera had ordered right before me, meaning that neither of us would have been the lucky customer without the other. The same could apply for Road to the Next Life... it is difficult to imagine what it would have been without Tera's presence. I think now of a line said in the game: "The bonds we have with one another... they're important, I think. They keep us going when the going gets tough." I'll let that speak for itself. Thank you, Tera.

I also want to thank Poppodimikus, our artist, for all the hard work she did alongside me in the final days of the jam. A lot of people have commented on how striking the game's visuals are, and I wholeheartedly agree. As a writer, do you know how cool it is to see your character descriptions be brought to life by an artist? I was blown away by how well she captured the game's cast. Furthermore, the amount of art she produced with the time we were given was, to put it lightly, insane. Hear ye, hear ye: Poppodimikus is a god amongst men! Check her out, she's gonna go places.

I lastly want to thank Foster Stone, our composer, for reaching out on my community post titled "Seeking an Artist for Game Jam Team." I briefly mentioned being open to finding a composer, but Stone took the initiative of commenting even when it wasn't the post's primary focus. I cannot thank him enough for making the world of Limbo more magical through his music. Seriously, this guy is super talented. Check out his other work if you have the time. There’s a reason we got a runner-up mention for best soundtrack!

FUTURE UPDATES

There are still things to improve upon in Road to the Next Life. I appreciate all the feedback we received, and I plan on updating the game over time. Without further ado, here is a list of known issues, bugs, and suggestions:

• Loud and unfitting sound effects will be changed. Whether or not these will be replaced with custom sounds has yet to be seen. 
• The grainy, black and white filter that appears over flashbacks did not work in someone's let's play. The reason is unknown to me. Please let me know if anyone else experienced this issue while playing.
• Battles might softlock if the player presses ESC multiple times during a fight. This, I believe, is due to a plug-in that disables the ability to use ESC in a battle. I am not sure if this is a native issue with the plug-in, or if this is happening because of an interaction with another plug-in. I will experiment with this.
• There is an instance in which the player can move around as a cutscene begins and teleport themselves to the wrong area. This will be fixed to prevent softlocking.
• I've noticed at least three typos while watching let's plays (e.g. I wrote "sardronic" instead of "sardonic"). These will be fixed, alongside any others I find.
• The stealth puzzle preceding the third boss fight will be reworked so that players no longer have to examine every block before inputting the code. Since the hint for the code is given in advance, it is not unrealistic that the Guilt-bearer could guess it.
• Better save spots will be added before boss fights so players don't have to replay entire cutscenes if they die. I’d like to do autosaves, if possible, to not interrupt story flow, but this would require some experimentation (I’ve never used autosaves before).
• The third boss fight will be reworked in a few ways [SPOILERS AHEAD].
  • The aforementioned save spot will be added.
    
  • I’d like for players to get a second chance if they make the “wrong” choice at the end of the fight. In the game’s first boss fight, players are not punished for avoiding the true outcome. While, yes, the stakes should be higher here, the current set-up is too linear and strict. 
  • If possible, I’d like to rewrite the default defeat message and turn it into something more substantial.
  • It makes little sense for the torturer to kill the protagonist after only asking precursory questions. The best solution to fixing this is not entirely clear. Raising the protagonist’s HP would ruin the trend of his max HP going down as time goes on. If I were to raise the max HP for other boss fights, that might make them too easy (though people don’t tend to die to these anyways). I could also change the logic of when/how the player takes damage. I’ll experiment with this.
  • Some writing may be changed for the sake of flow and logic.
• Adding a custom font is a high priority, but this will take some time since we not only have to find one, but I’ll also have to replay the entire game to make sure it doesn’t cause any formatting errors.
• Custom graphics could be added for assets such as (but not limited to) the "Now Loading" image and bubbles. We could also add a custom textbox, but this would require some learning on my part.
• I will add an option to skip the credits. There also seems to be an issue where the credits music will continue to play if someone watches the credits mid-game through the pause menu.
• There is one known instance of narration text not being the correct color.

There may be more I'm forgetting. I also need finish watching one more let's play, which will likely provide more valuable critique. Regardless, the quicker fixes will be added first. Complex changes (e.g. custom graphics, re-balancing, plug-in testing) will be held off for the future.

CONCLUSION

Thank you, again, to my teammates.

Thank you to my best friend, Jaden, for being our first play tester. 

Thank you to my father, for working hard to keep a roof over our heads as this game was being made.

Thank you to the judges and Waldorf who uploaded let's plays on YouTube. Please check out Waldorf's Dodge at NOW.

Thank you to Morg and Dzhak for their in-depth comments regarding the game’s story. Morg specifically was the first person to ever say a story of mine “brought me to the verge of tears.” This was a monumental moment for me as a writer! Please check out Morg’s Excession and Dzhak’s Exceed/Excess.

Thank you to everyone else who left a comment with either praise or critique (both are equally important). This includes Yexinnn and Sojioto. Please check out Sojioto's The Ufonaut.

Thank you to Dollycheesecakes, for drawing the game’s first ever fanart, which you can see in the jam's comment section! Please check out Dollycheesecakes’s game, Rosebed.

Thank you to the judges for all their hard work.

Thank you to everyone else who played the game.

Thank you to everyone who downloaded the game or put it into a collection, whether or not you had time to finish it; your interest alone brings me joy.

Thank you to everyone who fights to make the world a better place. There are many horrible things happening in the world right now. If there is one thing I want Road to the Next Life to give people, I want it to be hope.

And thank you, whoever you are, for reading all of this.