I already shared some thoughts in the jam reflection thread, but now I’d like to talk a bit more about the behind-the-scenes process to make CornerBooks happen. I love hearing my own voice, so this might be long….sorry

Also, I realized I had the title wrong in the initial game files, so I uploaded a new version with the title changed and some minor typos fixed.

Theme and Conception

The theme dropped at 1am my timezone, so I was quite literally in bed ready to sleep. I saw the theme, thought “man, that’s lame. I’m not joining,” and turned around to pass out. Luckily (unluckily?), falling asleep is a struggle, so, with nothing else to think about, I mulled over the theme and what I would do with it if I were to join the jam.

Three ideas caught my attention, with the discarded options being a Narcissus retelling and a Snow White tale. I made outlines for all three and gauged what would be feasible within the constraints of the jam. Truthfully, out of the three, CornerBooks was my least favorite. However, I had a clear vision on how to make it interactive which was my ultimate goal for this jam. I wanted a game where the player is forced to make choices and where those choices, if made haphazardly, can result in failure. So, while I loved the idea of a companion piece to Keep Going, Orpheus where Narcissus gouges out his own eyes, I didn’t know how to give it the interactivity that I wanted and that I didn’t have the time to figure out. Some day, Narcissus, some day.

During my brainstorming session, I pitched CornerBooks to my friends as a game where you ask questions, deduce readers’ tastes, and “if you sell the most books your cute coworker will flirt with you, maybe who knows.” Although the entire game revolves around a bet to force your friend into reading fanfiction, that was the last thing to come to me conceptually. I actually had all the customers, their tastes, and the book titles figured out before the fanfiction bet with Diante slipped its way into the outline. Thankfully, the idea of an obsessive MC made settling on a tone extremely easy, and the rest of the outline fell into place. With an outline and a vision, I set to writing.

Writing

Above all else, I consider myself a writer. I don’t have much experience with game development or with art, but I know how to write and how to write quickly. I completed the lion’s share of the writing on the first day, ending the day with eight thousand words and all five customer interactions put onto paper.

As a writer, I know I struggle most with voice. My characters tend to sound the same and figuring out how to make them sound different remains a constant problem. In CornerBooks, I used some cheap tricks to try to hide that fact. Diante emphasizes with italics, for example, while the MC uses caps. Hopefully the customers each sound and feel like their own people, but it’s entirely possible I failed in that regard. At the very least, I tried to give the MC a passion for fanfic that cannot be denied and that no other character in this game has.

Second day I wrote the endings. While originally I wanted three endings (Good, Bad, Neutral), I couldn’t stop thinking that someone who got every choice right deserved something special. Thus, the fanfiction ending was born (with my friend suggesting the big reveal in that ending <3). Yet, if something spectacular happens if you get every choice right, shouldn’t something dreadfully awful happen if you get every choice wrong? Five endings later and it was time to start coding things into Ren’Py.

Coding

Ren’Py can be amazingly simple, but it can also be amazingly overwhelming. This was my first time making endings that consider every choice you make. I did a lot of research on the different ways I could go about this and ultimately decided on a point based system. You can get bad points, good points, and neutral points. The neutral points, I would later learn, ended up being absolutely useless and do absolutely nothing when using the if, elif, else model. I did not need to add them. The more you know.

One thing I am still upset about is that I wanted the introduction and the letter from Ms. Ferrera to be in NVL mode, but I could not for the life of me remember what it was called. I spent way too long scouring Ren’Py forums in hopes of finding the name so I could figure out how to code it. Welp, I failed. Instead, I learned how to use the speech bubble feature to somewhat mimic what I was wanting for the letter, and let the introduction play in the normal textbox against a blurred background. Task failed, successfully? Still, playing other people’s games and seeing them use the NVL function fills my heart with envy…oh what could have been

Art

Hey, have I mentioned this was my first time using a graphic tablet? Did I say I have next to no experience in digital art? Did I mention my partner’s computer, and by extension Clip Studio Paint, is set to a language I barely speak? The art was a miracle, I think.

My partner, bored at her job, sketched out the customers for me. After seeing the amazing work she did, I proceeded to beg her to also sketch Diante’s two sprites even though I had initially planned to do that myself. When she sent Diante’s sketches, I stared at them in awe and in dread. My partner is an amazing artist, and I was going to have to ruin her work by digitizing and coloring it.

The sprites by far and large took me the longest time to complete. My partner has one of those Fancy Gamer Chairs, and dear reader, it destroyed my ass. Ten hour flights have been kinder to my bottom than this stupid gamer chair. Does that make me a fake gamer girl? Maybe.

In a four day game jam, it took me two fucking days to make the sprites. My ass still feels the phantom pain. Please, never again. Thankfully, a friend took pity on me and said she’d find me background art. When she couldn’t find anything suitable, she took it upon herself to make it. I owe her my life.

Amazingly, the visuals were the highest ranked category for CornerBooks! It ranked #7 out of fifteen games. I am so glad I can share my partner’s art with everyone, even if I struggled to digitize and color it. I could wax poetic for hours about the tenderness of her artstyle and the life she imbues in her character designs. It really makes me so happy that, above everything else, people saw and appreciated her art the most. I truly think the project would lose half its charm without her art. In another, better, life even the digital aspects are completed by her.

Room for Improvement

I mentioned this in the jam reflection, but the sound is lacking. There’s one song for the entire game, I forgot to make sure it loops properly, and I didn’t bother with any ambient noise even though I found and saved several files to use in the game. I hate coding in audio. I don’t know what more to say.

The main menu screen was the very last thing I did, and I just inputted the cover image I used on itch.io Considering that the main menu is the very first thing the player sees, I really should put more emphasis on making it look nice.

I also think the readability of the text in the textbox could be improved. Truly a ‘graphic design is my passion’ moment. Also, every speaker has the same color for their name. I couldn't even be bothered to give them all a unique color... how lazy.

Final Thoughts and Going Forward

I am so grateful I got to meet so many amazing game devs through this experience! I even made a bluesky account so I can be more vocal about my support for other devs. Every comment I’ve received has made me so incredibly happy, and it means a lot that people are not only willing to play my game but also share their thoughts with me. Receiving those comments reminded me that I need to comment on people's games. Shouting and squealing to my friends is not the same as letting the creator know how much their work has impacted me.

I think each and every winner for the jam was truly well deserved, and I’m so glad everyone’s hard work is being recognized. Each dev brought their own unique skill set to this jam, and I think the various games reflect that. I can’t express how grateful I am to have been a part of this experience, especially after having watched the previous Velox jams from the shadows. If you’re ever considering joining a jam, my advice is to just go for it! The community is way more welcoming and inviting than you might think.

Going forward, I’ll be continuing work on my library dating sim, In the Stacks, using what I’ve learned from this jam to make the game the best it can be. Hopefully, I’ll release the game sometime this year and, in general, be more brave about putting games into the world instead of keeping them buried in my drafts.