Submitted for the TOXIC YURI VN JAM 2, I present to the public NullFunction { theCall of the void() }

Let's just say the last month and a half has been both very long and an absolute whirlwind. This is my second game jam that I've entered but I'm pretty sure my first one was over a decade ago so it's been quite a while since I was this entrenched in a game project. I've dabbled in game dev over the past decade (check out my Godot game prototype over here) but I'm mostly a musician and a writer. Regardless, I deliberately started fiddling with ren'py in the leadup to this jam to help decide whether or not to enter (my test project will probably release someday lol). I made the decision to pull the trigger and throw my hat in the ring. The idea for NullFunction first hit me only hours before the jam started and finishing it has absolutely consumed my every thought since then.

As with all projects, it had its ups and downs and moments of self-discovery. Even cutting it down significantly from my original concept, the whole project was still a bit overscoped for my abilities and timeframe. Writing took far longer than I had wanted. The project sat nameless for weeks and weeks as I struggled to figure out what to even call it. I started to realize that even though I enjoy drawing, making 13 CGs and 40+ character sprite permutations in 3-4 weeks (most of which in the last like week) pushed a bit beyond my enjoyment of it. I think I enjoy getting a bit into the weeds coding, as long as I can find the information I'm looking for presented in a manner than helps me understand what the code actually does. Also was a great reminder that even if I'm staying up into the early morning hours recording and producing, I adore music and audio production.

Despite making a pretty steady pace throughout the month, I ended up pulling an all-nighter before upload, just so that I could sleep a bit more soundly knowing I had gotten something out and I was Done™. It's a nice feeling to have this thing in a state I can call finished.

As of writing this, I've slept a little and am a few hours removed from the haze of sleeplessness and accomplishment that came alongside getting this uploaded and I'm now hitting a bit the Depression Phase of releasing something. It's a feeling that I've come to know well in my years of music, writing, and YouTube creation. I worry that my themes and intentions in the project are unclear. That maybe people won't connect with Yaz in the way I do an thus won't really understand what I was trying to say with all this. That the amateurish nature of my art and visual implementation will undercut my point. Maybe no one will play it and no one will like it. Fears that probably many people have felt after or even during a project.

Despite that, I choose to be hopeful because in the end, that is kinda what I'm going on about in NullFunction. Despite everything, hope is the way through. Don't let the world kill your hope and turn you into something you don't want to be.

ANYWAY, yay, game is done. Hope people have an interesting experience if they choose to play it.

-MaxineNinto