Warm Memories is (after many month of uncertainties) finally out to the public!

It feels surreal to even type that sentence, but the day has finally come. Writing this story and making it into a VN was... a wild ride.  A lot of good happened throughout it all, but at the same time I also closed off chapters in my life that were going for many years now. I like to think of this as a sort of "coming of age" project for me, especially since its very existence was the catalyst for a lot that has happened. A part of me wants to wonder if perhaps scrapping it all and rebulding the bridges that burned would've been a better choice, but I think trusting my intuition was the best thing to do in this case.

Emotions aside, I'd like to also get into a bit of history as to when and how this project started.

The original script for this was written by me in October 2022. It was a spur of the moment decision, me being bored and deciding to try my hand at writing again after I had stopped for a few months. I spent the next three to four nights sitting down for about an hour every night and ended up with mostly what is being released today. My thoughts back then weren't even to make a VN, I simply longed for a way to release the creativity that had built up within me.

The idea to turn this into a VN came months later, sometime around February of this year. I kept going back to this story and loving it so much that I wanted to try my hand at making (at this point my 3rd) visual novel. I got so passionate that by the end of the month I alraedy had a ready for release build, except it didn't have any art other than the main menu one. And then the whole thing sat on my PC for months. I had asked a few friends with help for the CGs, but everyone got busy and I knew better than to force this silly project of mine onto them.

Now, cutting to the begginning of August, my creative side decided to show itself again. This time, however, I decided to focus on drawing. I have never been a good artist, trying my hand at it all a few times in the past four years, but this time? Oh boy, this time I actually liked what I made! So then I drew again, and again, and then realized: I could draw CG for my game. So there I was, a little over a week of this month spent on drawing every day, sometimes even multiple pieces. And a little over a week after that, they were implemented into the game. And now we're here!

I consider this story "done," meaning I will not upadate the game with any more content or art. But I love Polar too much to let him fade just like that, so what's in store for the future?

For one, I did start writing a sequel to this story. It's nowhere near done and I haven't had the time to work on it for some time now, but I do plan on finishing it at somepoint in the future. Then there's more art of Polar, which my friends have already asked for. This is possible, especially since I have many more drawing of him than I have released, but  it's dependant on the flow of my creativity and free time.

And to close this all off, the changelog, or I suppose "release log" in this case. So, what's new?

• Around 6K-7K words long story, a full release and completely playable today
• 7 CGs, with at least one for every "chapter"
• A very excited Rui (haha)

And that's a wrap! I would like to thank anyone who took their time to read this or played through my silly game,  it means the world to me even if it's not your cup of tea. And I would especially like to thank those who've helped and encouraged me thoughout this whole process. This project wouldn't've been the same without you <3

P.S.: The songs in the playlist are there just to give you an idea of what Polar usually listens to. The lyrics shouldn't be analyzed. Probably.