"F" is a relatively short visual novel about chatting with JoJo from the perspective of her newfound friend, you. Despite having next to no gameplay, "F" utilizes a unique variable mechanic that constantly changes the story as you progress. This extends to full dialogue trees and massive animated scenes, all of which may never be seen by most players but appreciated by those who do find it.
It was uploaded to indie gaming site, itch.io, during their bi-monthly "Demo Day" event and quickly rose to the top of the list as the most popular of the 80-odd games posted.
Following the unexpected success of "F"s demo on itch.io, it was clear players wanted more and so I got to work on Act 2. This act throws the player into a convoluted looping hallway puzzle along with Frankie, a girl with a TV for a head. I felt as though the horror in Act 1 wasn't as impactful as it could've been so a large focus in this part was researching and creating a range of different horror experiences designed to unnerve the player. There should be a fairly long video to the right showcasing the "Interror" sequence that triggers randomly for unsuspecting players.
The hardest challenge was creating a narrative that supported the looping hallway concept. At the time I was playing through an RPG and constantly reading guides to better optimize my playthrough. It reminded me of players who "play" puzzle games by following a guide and I decided to satirize that behavior in this Act. The player is presented with an overwhelming amount of clues and has to decide on their own how to escape without knowing how the clues relate. In a later update I added additional dialogue to help the player into making the right decisions but despite that, players seemed to really enjoy this mystery.
"Interror" sequence. Fully modelled, animated and programmed.
Frankie's various poses. I really hated her at first but after a few dialogue rewrites I think she's alright.
Act 2/1, or "Dinner with Jojo", harkens back to the café scene of Act 1 and aims to slow down the pacing after the bombastic nature of Act 2. This act surprisingly took the longest amount of time to develop as it required almost triple the amount of images and dialogue compared to Act 1. It wasn't without great difficulty as I had to learn a lot of art skills to match the level of detail I was aiming for. I also took a substantial amount of time in pre-creating assets needed for the following Act, reiterating previous assets in higher quality, learning to create music, creating Gameboy project "M", fostering a community, and many more duties.
