Forgotten Letters devlog (Neuro-sama Birthday Game Jam)

I just got done with my submission to the Neuro-sama Birthday Game Jam (which makes this my first Game Jam - and I even managed to "finish" my game). It's 7:00 a.m. now and I haven't slept. (I asked the internet how to write "a.m.")

Since I've never created a devlog before and I plan to release a full game in the future, writing one seemed like a good exercise. My sleep schedule is ruined anyway.

I made Forgotten Letters for casual players. The puzzles could have easily been designed to be more difficult - I practically wrote the solution for one of them right in front of the puzzle itself. But I wanted every player to enjoy this game. In the past I've always expected too much from my players (perhaps I've overcompensated a little here). But for me, games are mostly about having fun. And only a few players enjoy things that frustrate most people. You could argue that lowering the difficulty could lose some of the "magic" that makes games interesting. But the more games I play (and the older I get), the less I agree. If you struggle with the difficulty of this game, please let me know.

Creating Assets with the theme "Lost Memories" was a struggle. The "scattered pieces of a puzzle"-imagery worked pretty well. But I couldn't really think of other simple imagery to underscore the game's ambience. The only other thing I could have used was a Mind Maze - the gameplay would have been horrible. Few players enjoy mazes. Something like ink blot patterns on the ground, with each pattern representing a different memory would have been too complex for so little time. A "Library of Thoughts" would also be interesting - if this game jam was running for a few more days, I would've made that. Maybe I should have just socialized to find one or two team members.

Adjusting the First-Person Hands to look like what a 3D-Neuro-sama could look like was surprisingly easy. A yellow sphere without a texture is sufficient to indicate clothing (because you can barely see it).

I had a lot of fun integrating some Vedal Femboy Noises into the game - they're great. There is some background noise, but I think it's worth it.

The background music for the puzzle section is also surprisingly good. I was just looking through a folder on my second hard drive (about 35 GB of Humble Bundle Assets I've bought) and found it by chance. It has both the mystery-feeling of puzzles as well as a bit of a haunted vibe - the perfect fit.

The skybox is also great. If you want to create your own use: https://29a.ch/sandbox/2011/neonflames/ - it's a tool that I found 12 hours ago while I was figuring out how to change a skybox in Unreal Engine.

Making cutscenes was fun too. They have also taken up a high amount of time - considering how little happens in them.

I'm a bit worried about performance issues on poor hardware because the 3D-letters I used are surprisingly high-poly. But recreating them seems to be time-consuming without any visible benefit (for me). Unreal told me to "Please add a tightly bounding lightmass importance volume to optimize your scene's quality and lighting build times." - But that sounds like work to me.

After reflecting on the development of Forgotten Letters a bit, I realized how little time I spent programming. Everything just worked (kind of). At the same time, I didn't do much artistic work. I suppose game development is just difficult or time consuming.

Maybe I'll add some images of Neuro-sama or her "memories" all over the Puzzle-Level when I wake up. It's still 12.5 hours until the Game Jam is done after all.

Have fun playing Forgotten Letters. I had fun making it. It's time for sleep.