A Strange Package Post Jam is released! 0 0

You can play it now online: A Strange Package

It took a while but I was able to finish it, finally. Definitely a lot more work than I thought at first.

The result is a short but fun visual novel, with multiple choices and three different ending to get. I have mainly worked on the graphical aspect, polishing up the animations and graphics, but I also added more music tracks, a lot more dialogue and, most importantly, I did a lot of coding.

This last part is important because I am going to release, under the welcoming MIT License, the engine that runs the whole visual novel. It will take a few days, so you may want to follow me on twitter for updates (it is in my profile), if you are interested. Now, this may raise the question, why do something like this when I could have just used something that already existed, like for example the magnificent RenPy visual novel engine?

There are a few different reasons for this. First, I wanted an engine that run in a HTML5 browser. Ren'Py runs on desktop, and that a little limiting. In the fast moving world that we have today, being able to reach the user as fast as possible is very important, and playing directly in the browser is quicker and more relaxing. Second, I wanted an engine that allowed for fast development. I found a great compromise with a functional approach to Javascript, which makes the development quicker by keeping elements modular and flexible.

(I know that releasing such a small game more than a month later than when I started it may raise a few eyebrows as to the speed of development in this engine… Well, in fact the problem is that I had a few personal life problems that ate a lot of my time during this period. The engine was very benign under this aspect, by not having any major bugs and allowing for a fluidiy in development that warms my heart.)

I do not want to make this whole post about the engine so I just want to say: if you have a few spare minutes for a fun story, please play A Strange Package. It would mean the world to me.

I want to thank everyone that gave me feedback on the game because that helped make the final version much better. And of course I want to thank the Alakajam organizers for this beautiful event. I am very pleased to have been part of this jam, and you can count on my presence for the next jams. Until then, bye!