Hi, this game is not actually a finished one... unfortunately.

But, I can tell you what went through and what happened!

Long story short, Cute Ruby plays dress up to meet with his Super Amazing Crush, Shy Edward!

But uh... there's not all there is to it.

I opened up the files and then I cackled out laughing...

*Inhale* Okay, so it is not just a cute dating game. I'm honestly a little embarrassed to tell you what it actually is because I'm not proud of the idea myself...

Apparently Cute Ruby has a history of killing people and Edward is this undercover guy(??) who is actually trying to figure out why Ruby is still able to live so normally?

I'm not gonna go further actually... i'm still embarrassed.

But just know it's supposed to have this like enemies to fake lovers and then lovers thing.

I think I got the initial idea from those indie novel games where there's always a dark twist under a cute exterior.

And since I liked these two OCs paired so much, I did a twist on their story to fit the vibe of those kinds of games.

So I started by drafting the story, made the assets and... uh...

It didn't look very good...

So out of frustration, I re-did all the character sprites, backgrounds and other scenes.

Some had my pass, some made me want to pull out my hair because I still wasn't satisfied with how it looked.

But I think the hardest thing of this whole project was the writing. I didn't like the idea of it, but I still tried to push for it. Rewriting the dialogue and the story many times... I thought my persistence will pay off but honestly, I think it was better off unfinished...

I say this because I also treasured the two OCs... the thing about game-making and the characters I'm dealing with is: you're stuck with them, and the time and experience you go through also affects how you see them.

It took a long time for me to make it to the stage of the trailer. But I think I already moved on to new projects instead.

The reason why I struggled so much is because I was dealing with multiple concepts that was foreign to me. I wanted to include 2 minigames, a unique minigame including the textbox. Not to mention, the type of story I wrote was also very new to me...

I usually don't write modern stories and it was hard to put myself in Ruby's shoes because I don't experience strong romantic feelings towards another person. (I don't know if this makes sense?... Because I do write oneshots of them just not this... personal??)

Well... despite all I said here, it is a valuable experience.

I knew how to plan out what I needed to do... I knew how much is too much work, what to keep in, what to consider so that the project scope doesn't become too big.

Of course, I was upset, but I think I had to go through this to become better? I mean, I'm pretty happy with the knowledge and skills I have now.

So here's my advice to younger me if I could, or to anyone who doesn't know how to start with game-making:

Definitely try making short games first.

The process is honestly up to you, and it is for you to make many mistakes to learn.

But if you struggle at one point for way too long and you don't feel satisfied anymore, it's best to move on.

Anyways, please look forward to my newer projects... if you would like to support me, please kofi me thank you