Hey everybody!

I released this project six months ago, and I've had plenty of time to reflect on it and think about how much I hate it. Many of my complaints can be chalked up to "oh, you made it for a game jam so it's not so bad," but I don't want to hold myself to that kind of standard. First, let's go over what I think I did RIGHT:

• The overall quality of writing is good enough. It's not great, but I'd say it's in the higher end of the indie-VN spectrum
• The music is good (mostly). I'd improve upon it by making sure it all fits together better next time

Hoo boy. Now let's get into what I think I did WRONG:

• The structure of the story is terrible. Most VN's can be split into three major acts, which I did, but usually the structure is:
  • Act 1: Introduction to all the characters and a healthy amount of filler to get to know them
  • Act 2: Conflict and plot info dump
  • Act 3: Resolution and endings
  I failed to follow this structure, opting instead to go with the vastly inferior:
  • Act 1: Introduction to characters and beginning conflict
  • Act 2: A weird maze of choices where if you don't select the right ones you lose, but if you do you're stuck with a boring info dump
  • Act 3: Rushed, unsatisfying endings
  To be fair, the ending is supposed to be slightly unsatisfying because it's not a happy one and some of the character arcs are not completed in this title. However, I did not handle it as well as I should have. I should have created a branching point in Act 2 where you enter a route for the supporting characters Veronica, Kayla, or Tony. Then, the lore could be explained in a more natural way depending on which route you decided to take. I could even make it to where the true route (Kayla) is not available until after you've cleared Veronica and Tony to match the theme of finding the truth and not looking away from it.
• The art. Oh my god, it's so bad. Even now, I'm not at a point where I'd be okay with publishing a non-jam game with my own art in it. I'm learning slowly and steadily, but art is a skill that takes years of practice to get good at. The background art is also particularly embarrassing, it's just a bunch of stock images I found online. I could have driven up to my grandma's house and taken pictures of country roads up there that would have matched each other at least, but I didn't. Live and learn.
• Serena is the only character who has a real arc. This is a serious problem with the narrative that I just didn't really think about. In the original plans, these were supposed to be the character arcs (SPOILERS):
  • Serena learns that her irrational anger prevents her from looking at things objectively
  • Harry's life is torn apart by the revelation that he killed several people subconsciously
  • Kayla finally admits to herself that there are some problems she really just can't solve by herself
  • Veronica accepts that her magic was tainted and works on learning how to fix it
  • Tony tries to get over his lingering regrets about Jonah, but eventually accepts there's nothing he can do
  Most of these plans were scrapped, and even Serena's arc was cut pretty bad due to time constraints. If I go back and redo this title, I'll definitely find a way to include most or all of these character arcs somehow.

I don't regret publishing this project, I learned a lot about game development, writing, art and other topics because of it. However, I definitely want to go back and improve upon the things I did poorly. This is not an announcement for a remake or anything like that, but I will put on the record that if I have time, I would very much like to redo it.

Overall, I'd give Radio Noise a 3/10 for the above reasons. I rushed myself, and delivered a poor product as a result. My upcoming game, The Demon On 12th Street, builds upon the narrative of Radio Noise, but I'm going to write it in such a way that it will not require the player to have played Radio Noise.

Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think in the comments.