Hey there, friend.

Is it time to word vomit again? Yes. I think it is.

All the voting is done, and the yearly wolf quota has been exceeded. I'm kinda tardy to the party with getting this out, but can you blame me? I read at a snail's pace and had dozens of entries to get through! 

But let's start breaking this down.

Development

So, I'll be honest, I had the idea for an alien love story about a month before the Jam's theme was announced. Funnily enough, I had not seen E.T. before I wrote my first draft, and the idea was instead based off of District 9 and Starman (both great films, would highly recommend).

When the theme was announced to be ~ E X P A N D I N G ~ I brainstormed many ways to work this into the plot. By that point, I had vaguely mapped out Xander's character and the beats of the opening scene.

At first I considered the obvious: mpreg. 

The face-fucking scene is a remnant of that original direction. Wesley would impregnate Xander facehugger-style, and that would cascade into a weird adventure as Xander "consummates" his union with another entity on his wedding day.

Stupid and silly and very very hot difficult. I had no idea where to take that from there. Also I was using the Jam's provided sprites and the dragon was decidedly not pregnant in the psd.

So I played around more and settled on making Wesley the theme's focus. I chose to delve a little into the backstory of his species and the struggles he deals with as he adapts to our strange Earthly ways. 

I admit that it wasn't an elegant solution, but it was something! It sure was something.

I struggled with conflict a lot. As I said in my last devlog, I'm completely new to writing romance so trying to think of obstacles to throw at my characters led to odd outcomes.

The most glaring is probably Paul and Bobby. 

Originally, they were just normal hikers. Wait. Actually, let me back up a bit more.

Originally it was Paul and that rabbit lady drawn by Ron. They would be a couple, and we would go through the same rigamarole that we see in the game. But the conflict would be more internal as Xander sees and envies a successful and healthy relationship. 

| Paul was originally accompanied by a female bunny. She was replaced by Bobby late into the drafting phase. |

He would compare that to his broken relationship with Hikaru and his budding relationship with Wesley. And when Xander is just beginning to open up to Wesley, the alien is whisked away and that door shut forever.

I think that could have worked? Maybe? But I, newbie romance writer that I am, didn't trust myself to pull it off so I pivoted. 

I shuffled the woman away like the girl in Burning Woof and made it Paul and Bobby. I turned the conflict external, and gave Xander a kind of foil in Paul: a man that feels affection for Bobby but doesn't communicate it. 

Again, not elegant. But it was something. ~25k words of something.

And once the writing and editing were in place, everything came together simple enough.

Personally I hate blurry backgrounds in FVNs, so I've been experimenting with switching things up. Even back when I made Flotsam, I tinkered with ways to make the backgrounds different. I liked the minimal palette style that I settled on for I, Wolfe, and I largely transferred that over to Rebound before taking it one step further.

Speaking of Flotsam, it was also the inspiration for Rebound's music. There are so many old records and recordings from the early 1900s that are in the public domain, and I wanted to highlight those. Plus I'm poor AF so it works! It just works!

You hear that FVN writers? I love Satie, but there's more to life than Gymnopedies!

The sfx were notably lackluster in this game compared to my others. As much as I think devs overlook sfx when creating their game, they are the easiest thing to cut when things need to be pushed out the door. From what I've read about game development, that is universally true. By the end of May, I didn't have the energy to go through and add a greater variety of effects.

| The song that plays in this scene was originally going to be the Title Screen song "Goodbye, but Not Forever", but I couldn't find an old recording of it. |

Moving on from that, we have images! Yes! Possibly the greatest new tool in my toolbox. The hand silhouettes over the night sky scenes. The twinkling stars. The flashing TV screen. And, of course, the beans (I'm growing a little bit scared of what I created there tbh).

A lot of people loved those elements, and I did too! I didn't realize how simple it was to make small, looping animations like that. I will definitely look to use them more in the future.

Stats

| Not pictured: Given the view count, the ratio of browser plays for Rebound are in the same ballpark as my other FVNs too. |

The actual statistics are pretty in line with my other games. Around the same number of downloads and an expected number of views. I think what is most valuable from this experience is the feedback, though. The Jam allowed me to take in a lot of constructive criticism, and I'm hopeful that I can use it to grow as a writer and a developer.

And speaking of the Jam…

MAY WOLF 2024

This was the first time I had ever participated in a Game Jam before, and boy was it stressful. I guess the closest thing that compares would be my many failed attempts at Nanowrimo. For this May, I made a calendar and a strict schedule which I quickly discarded. I had moments of inspiration and moments of burnout. It was a lot.

That said, it was a fantastic learning experience. In fact, Rebound is the largest story that I have ever completed. Sure it's rough around the edges, but I'm still proud of it.

But let's talk about some of the other entries! You didn't think I was going to force myself to read +300k words and not milk that for some sweet sweet devlog content, did you?

Here are my top picks:

My Municipality by purkka - A Finnish political drama that completely broke me. Romance, comedy, and wit combine to make something truly special.

One More Light  by ErebusWulfe - Depression simulators have never felt so raw, but more than a few surprises are hiding under its tropey exterior.

Ugly Boi in the Tower by Loudo - Dark and grungy and oh so delicious. There may not be a lot of meat on this urban fantasy yet, but what's there is certainly worth a look.

Silverstone: The Morning After by BrickZed - A tightly scoped horror story that scratched my creepypasta itch real good. Bonus for the branching narrative.

Of course, there are many others to enjoy. Blazing Passion, The Wayward Tower, ParaBen, Wolf Bolo Two, Maywolf Mysteries, Badminton Ace, I'm Now the School Delinquent's Lover… AHH! There's so many good ones out there! And those are just the ones that are coming to mind while writing this!

It was awesome to participate with so many other writers and teams. Just a great experience all around. Am definitely looking ahead toward 2025 and what that may bring! 

Also the superlatives were released as I was writing this so thanks to everyone that voted for me! Much love! <3

Future

So what comes next for me? No fucking clue, mate. I said in the previous devlog that I'm exhausted, and that is still 100% true. I desperately need an FVN break after all of this. Still, I do have a couple updates to Rebound I want to push. Both  are small updates because I want to preserve Rebound as a product of the Jam. 

The first will be fixing typos, grammar, and other mechanical errors. I'm hoping to get that out sometime over the 🎇🇺🇸4th of July weekend🗽🎆. Don't hold me to that.

The second is adding more sfx and refining the ambiance. Things that I had scoped for, but didn't have the mental wherewithal to finish during the final day. That may take a month or two.

I am not planning on writing an epilogue for Rebound at this time as I am too busy sketching out My Municipality fanfiction.

I will say that being singularly focused on MAY WOLF for the past few months has given me a whole host of new ideas to explore. I'm thinking about releasing a small demo later this year that plays with some of these ideas. We'll see how that goes. If that crashes and burns, there's always I, Wolfe for me to scurry back to.

And I think that's about it! 

Fun Jam. Fun people. Fun wolves. Go check them out if you haven't already!

Thanks all, and eat your veggies! 

- Kraaj