VM Retrospective - January 2025

Releasing the first Vine Moss Game of the year was a fulfilling challenge that taught me a considerable amount about my process and the current goals I have set for this studio. Making a game a month is not easy in the slightest, especially when I set such a high bar for myself when it comes to all aspects of a crafted, quality solo game. While I know this is just the beginning of the Vine Moss Games journey, I’m incredibly proud to have release In Time, On Distance and take the first step toward the narrative studio of my dreams. As part of this demanding but informative process, I want to capture my thoughts and reflections on how the developmental process went for me - in the hopes that not only I learn what to take to the next project, but also offer insight to anyone interested in this VM Game or Vine Moss Games as a solo narrative studio. With January 2025 behind us and In Time, On Distance released into the world, here are 3 rights and 3 wrongs I’ve learned through this year’s first game.

3 Rights

Building the VM Dialogue Manager

At the start of building In Time, On Distance, I knew that I wanted to craft a unique narrative system that worked with the two-character dialogue and multiple pathways I planned for this story. This meant that I couldn’t rely on the dialogue manager I used for Night Owls, since it was specifically geared toward traditional visual novels, and I was too unfamiliar with the system architecture to change it to fit my needs. As such, I spent a significant amount of development time creating my own Dialogue Manager that not only fit my needs for the January game, but was flexible enough to use for upcoming VM games in different narrative capacities. While work on the Dialogue Manager pushed back the development timeline for In Time, On Distance, I felt that it was a worthwhile adjustment since I was creating a system that I planned to reuse for future games to cut those games’ development timelines.

This Dialogue Manager reads lines of text via a JSON file, and while there are some parts of the dialogue manager that feel finicky, I feel confident about refining the system as I develop more games that require different needs.

Established Art Style + Character Design Quickly

One of the easier/more intuitive aspects of this game’s design was the art style - from the characters’ look throughout the years to the pink and blue color palette to direct the atmosphere and branding of the game. I think as part of such a quick yet demanding developmental cycle, it is imperative to make bold, confident decisions that rely on unique style and unfamiliarity. While the retro clock in the game looks familiar enough, the color palette and surrounding background are odd in color and texture. This aligns with the theme goal for the first set of games - taking the mundane and familiar and adding unusual magic for narrative intrigue. As for the characters, it was probably the most fun I had during development since I was able to design their outfits and hairstyles while making small adjustments that represented their age progression. I’m very happy with how the characters turned out, and I hope players enjoy how the visuals enhance the conversations these characters have with each other.

Successfully released In Time On Distance

It’s hard to take time and celebrate the fact that this game is available for people to play after working extremely hard on it at the end of last year. It’s a rare joy to have an idea and plan a path to turn it into a playable experience, and while it’s very early in the Vine Moss Games journey, I feel very proud of how this first VM game turned out in all aspects of development. The kind words I’ve received about this game already have been a validating and motivating experience to continue to work hard and craft these unique narrative experiences that aren’t being made in the industry like this. This release serves as a demonstration to my commitment toward this studio - I will make a game every month this year that is experimental like In Time, On Distance but unique in it’s own ways.

3 Wrongs

Pushing Writing Back

The biggest challenge in finishing In Time, On Distance was hands-down the writing experience. As a writer first and foremost, I wanted to create a story that resonated with players in the ways we resonant with classic human experiences regarding growing up, relationships, leaving a mark on the world, and everything in between. When it came time to sit down and write, however, I was often left feeling blocked by how big the task ahead of me was, and often opted to work on a different part of the game instead to still feel like I was making progress. This left me with a largely finished game in all aspects except for writing, which turned out to be a big mistake. It was very difficult to write all the conversations in bulk at the end of the development process because it was all I ended up doing for weeks on end. For this upcoming game, I’m committed to writing the story script at the beginning of development to avoid falling into this self-made trap again. Creating for all parts of a game can be very fulfilling, and it’s something I feel confident in doing, but I need to make sure I’m not jumping to other parts of development so frequently just to push off a big task.

Overscoping with Branching Pathways

Another mistake when it came to writing happened at the very beginning of development process: at the conception stage. As a way to do something narratively different from Night Owls, I was committed to creating a game that included several unique pathways and significant player choice. Players can age the two characters in any way they want to and have conversations specific to the characters’ current age, which meant there were 30+ unique conversations to create that offered something worthwhile for the player. I knew this was an ambitious task, especially for a month-long game, but actively writing those conversation at the end of the development cycle was an incredible challenge that made me want to rethink the structure of the game entirely. While I was successful in writing those conversations, it resulted in many late nights devoted to writing - something I am committed to not making a habit of for the rest of the year’s games.

Stretched Too Thin with January Workload

January was the first time having to do all aspects of Vine Moss Games. Development was always going to be a big time investment, but I underestimated how time consuming the business and social content would be altogether. Crafting social media posts, newsletters, devlogs, and early content builds ended up being a significant part of my workday, and while I really enjoyed working on these aspects of Vine Moss Games, I’m nowhere near the stage where I should be devoting so much time to this studio on things outside of the game’s actual development. However, I think a lot of last month included figuring out and experimenting with what the Vine Moss Games accessory content would look like, and I did feel like I was getting into a better groove once I started posting and making content consistently. With a better sense of the Vine Moss Games workload in its totality, I will adjust how often I make content in relation to my games’ development cycle.

What’s Packed For The Horizon

In Time, On Distance is the first ever game I charged money for, which is equally terrifying and fulfilling. I am incredibly proud of this game and what it means in the grand scheme of things for me and this studio, and I am constantly reminding myself of how much patience and effort is required for this long journey ahead. I’m so excited for what’s to come for Vine Moss Games, and there are already big things in the works that prove to me that I’m on the right path even if growth is slow and difficult.

As I continue to work on new VM Games, I am writing here to remind myself that the experimental, human-oriented stories I want to create for other people are appreciated and valued by players looking for something new in a games industry that is undergoing a difficult time period and identity shift. Vine Moss Games is intended to be a small and art-oriented studio that serves a specific interactive media niche, and I look forward to the growth that will happen as I continue to make games with new players and audiences in mind.

Thank you for taking the time to read this retrospective on In Time, On Distance and the beginning of Vine Moss Games ~

~ Dev