Hello all! Glass here!

Welcome to my postmortem for The Boo-chelor! This is admittedly my first time writing a postmortem, but I thought it’d be nice to share my process, what I learned, and where I want to go next, as well as finishing off with some words of thanks from me and the others who worked on The Boo-chelor!

Note - This postmortem will contain spoilers, please do play The Boo-chelor first before reading!

How did I end up joining the jam?

So, anyone who spoke to me last year after Spooktober 2024 will potentially remember me being very adamant that I wouldn’t take part in another jam that wasn’t at least a couple of months long, and so I had absolutely no plans to do Spooktober 2025. I love Home is Where the Heart is and I’m so glad I’ve taken the time to refine the idea properly, but the burnout after last years jam was intense, and I am pretty sure I went into hibernation for the entirety of October.

After that I genuinely didn’t think I had it in me to do it again.

And that’s how I felt right up until a week before the jam started.

But see I love reality TV, and I really enjoy dating shows of all varieties - I just find them incredibly entertaining and find them easy to decompress to after a long day in the office and commuting. I also grew up watching them a lot, from Blind Date as a kid, to saying ‘no likey no lighty’ whilst watching Take Me Out as a teen, to sitting there with my partner on Friday date nights judging some blokes not being able to choose a suitable outfit on Dress to Impress.

I was watching Celebs Go Dating, wondering if I could get away with painting my entire house that same pink colour, and trying to figure out what was great about Louis that makes all the girls swoon (my ace self does not get it), and I thought, wouldn’t it be fun to play a dating show visual novel?

And after that I couldn’t get it out of my head.

Within a couple of hours I’d come up with the core premise.

I decided it would have to give me that same cheesy entertainment value that lets me de-stress, so would be better as a comedy. From that decision I thought that the comedy could come from the fact that the contestants are actual monsters, but very obviously so - even though the MC would be in denial about that... and then I thought the funniest thing in the world would be a monster dating show where the most average of average guys has stumbled on and is absolutely terrified.

And so Dave was born.

As was the rest of The Boo-chelor concept.

I still hadn’t committed to doing Spooktober though, I just thought it would join the bank of ideas I have saved for the future, but as I told the idea to Envy, in the space of ten minutes I had completely talked myself into doing it.

My justification was that for HiWtHi I managed to:

• Write 50k words by myself
• Draw two backgrounds
• Draw three sprites, each with multiple expressions and poses
• Design and draw a GUI

So as long as I kept everything for The Boo-chelor under that, it was feasible, right? What could possibly go wrong?

Well I could have completely forgotten the time I’d need to code anything, couldn’t I?

But anywho, that was future Glass’s problem.

Writing

Before the jam started my main focus was outlining the script - I decided not to try and concept sketch anything because I knew it’d stress me out, I think the visuals for this really needed to be shaped by the story itself not the other way around. Otherwise I don’t think we’d have ever gotten Calamaria in her beautiful, tentacle form, or Dave looking painfully average or Dave... when he looks a little less average.

I took a lot of inspiration from dating shows I’ve loved - from classic questions asked on Blind Date, to the family videos on Take Me Out, I decided to do my own twist on them. What I really struggled with was the final round, I wanted something unique and entertaining but nothing I had really stuck? There was a carving pumpkins idea (where Calamaria crushes it in her tentacles - because I’m here for buff women LIs, and Rex eats the pumpkin... cause they were just always hungry, and honestly it’s a vibe). There was another variation of Trick or Treat where the tricks were performances... (I still have no idea how that would have worked with them behind a screen). There were a lot of ideas thrown around until eventually I settled on what became a favourite round of mine!

The dates were the most interesting to outline though, as I decided each contestant would have a ‘twist’, and figuring out how to incorporate that in a light hearted, silly way, was a lot of fun, and really brought those characters to life for me.

When it came to the actual writing come day one of the jam I initially attempted to just get stuck in and power through the entire script, but felt myself burning out incredibly quickly. Sometimes I can just write for hours on end, but those moments are few and far between, and if I relied on that then I’d have never gotten anything done. So I started doing sprints, twenty minutes of writing and then five to ten minutes playing a round of a little strategy game on my phone as a ‘reward’ for my ADHD brain. I did the sprints in a server voice chat to keep myself accountable and to also be able to visualise how much I was actually writing!

Before I knew it I had written 52k+ words across all the different branches and routes.

It was never meant to get that high! It was also never meant to take that long (my one week aim turned into two). But I am happy with how it turned out, I think I am proud of the end result - though writing 52k words in two weeks isn’t something I plan to do often going forward haha.

One of my favourite characters to write was the Boo-chelor, our ghostie MC. I never intended to make them unhinged in any capacity... but the banter between them and Jack came really naturally, and by really leaning into that monster/The Boo-chelor super fan background their personality kind of just shaped around it. I kind of imagined they’d balance Dave in a way - if Dave had the most normal reactions to everything (by being deathly scared and wondering what is going on), then the MC had to be the opposite, by embracing it all in the name of monster romance as if everything is completely standard.

I still think for my larger games, both current and future I will continue to add more personalisation options for players, but I think The Boo-chelor has reminded me about how adding even a small level of personality to the main character can really bring the story and the interactions to life even more!

Art

Sprites

For the first time going into the jam I didn’t have a ‘concrete vision’ of what I expected the characters to look like. I had done no concept art outside of a small ghost and Jack chibi - and even he didn’t look like the final result. It was also my first time drawing primarily non-human characters.

The MC, our Boo-chelor, was the first one I drew - mainly because they were the easiest - I wanted them to be on screen, unlike other games of mine which has them completely invisible, because they were such a strong character in their own right - and without their visual reactions the scene direction didn’t have the same dynamic nature. Which does have me considering whether I add a character creator to my other games... but that feels like scope creep so currently still weighing that up!

They were inspired primarily by all those autumnal ghost group photos, where friends and couples have photoshoots as sheet covered ghosts. My Boo-chelor pin board is absolutely full of them! As for their expressions, originally I was only going to do simple eye changes, but I am so glad I included the shapes - seeing everyone’s reactions to the Ghosties emotes have been amazing and I think added that more eyecatching visual humour that simple eye shapes wouldn’t have.

Jack was next, as our glamorous host would have the most screen time throughout the game. He went through quite a few sketches - I knew I wanted him to have a suit like the original Dating Game style, but it took me a while to figure out the style. Some options were too loose, others too simple, others made him look a little too clownish - until eventually I found a really nice reference of some orange flared trousers online and I kind of based the rest of the outfit around that! The hardest part was probably the neck, in that he doesn’t have one - so trying to figure out how to have the flames coming out and have the coat and shirt make sense was a little trickier than I thought, but in the end it worked out!

One of my conscious design choices with Jack was his cane. One of the things I considered is would Jack have feet and hands? The answer eventually was yes, in a sense, but they were roots not standard human feet. Without spoiling too much about him, I decided that the roots would make it harder for him to walk, and so he needed some form of aid. I myself use a stick for walking and primarily to support my balance when standing still, and so I imagined Jack using it in a similar vein.

Calamaria was next, originally her gender wasn’t fully decided - not until I heard Samantha’s demo reel and reached out to her! Though in reality Cala probably doesn’t prescribe to human gender norms, I did decide I wanted her to have a more feminine form to align with the type of voice Samantha was going to give her! Other key features from the writing were tentacles and multiple eyes... but other than that I didn’t really have any set image. So I started by drawing a woman base... and then just started scribbling shapes until it kind of looked like the silhouette I wanted.

Then from the scribbles I started turning big blocks of shapes into more refined details, and repeating until she looked complete. (This process is also how I do backgrounds - scribble and then turn it into something that makes sense - spoilers for later sections). When it came to rendering I used a colour palette to coordinate the colours... but it made her look a bit desaturated, so after lots of messing around with correction layers, that greeny opal purple colour scheme came about. A fun fact was that her armour was originally pink - I never clarified in the game but she is actually a barbie fan (you know she has seen all the animated barbie movies), which was why she had chosen pink armour... but after editing the colours the purple suited her and that stuck! Deep down Cala will always be a barbie girl though!

Rex was one of the easiest, but also most awkward to do. It is drawing them that reminded me why I struggle with fur - it is repetitive and relatively simple... but there is always too much of it haha. With their design I tried to make them look as hunched over as possible, to really illustrate their beast like nature, but also how big they are in relation to everything else - if they were to stand up straight they’d be off the screen.

*Spoiler for Rex’s root below*

There had been a time when I considered making Rexington stand upright, and even making him human... but I just didn’t have time. Plus I think there is something humorous in that they are the same sprite but with different accessories, but also a perfect narrative link to their story - Rex and Rexington are both the same person, one is just more dapper than the other.

*End of Rex spoiler*

Then finally came Dave! My goal for Dave was to make him the most normal looking guy I could think of - except I also wanted him to be somewhat handsome because this is a dating game! So going in my inspiration was Clark Kent - looks unassuming, generally normal guy, somehow nobody clocks that he has this big secret but still conventionally attractive. Though I will not presume that Dave actually looks anything like superman, I at least went into sketching him with that vibe in mind haha!

*Spoiler for Dave’s route below*

What was potentially more difficult was Dacarabia, not only because I had to logistically work out four arms, but also trying to make his demon version have enough of a connection to the human version. There was very little in either of their designs, outside of the red horns that had much of a connection - but I did use the same body type (though Dave’s is covered by his suit) and the same general face structure (though Dacarbia’s is covered, the jaw is meant to look somewhat similar).

*End of Dave spoiler*

All in all I am really happy with how the sprites turned out, especially considering how little time I worked on them compared to what I usually do - I got all of them done in a week, and that meant I couldn’t refine over and over, but it did mean that because it got done so quickly I felt they were very cohesive with each other.

Backgrounds

I limited myself to two backgrounds for The Boo-chelor, any more and I don’t think I’d have finished the game.

Backgrounds are a strange one for me, I love sketching them, but don’t love rendering them. That is primarily because I am aware of my own skillset, and I get very perfectionist with my art, especially backgrounds, and I haven’t quite felt I’ve mastered rendering to the level I’d like. Of course I’ll get there with practice, and lots of people have said they like my sketches - but sometimes I worry my rendered backgrounds aren’t good enough.

However, in the two days I allowed myself to work on backgrounds in the jam, I did not have time to worry about it being ‘perfect’, because it had to be done first and foremost.

I started with the stage, which was surprisingly difficult for me to conceptualise. I wanted both to show the doors, but also the audience - or at least the chairs, and I struggled to figure out what the best perspective would be to allow me to do so.

In the same way I sketched Calamaria I had to do the same thing for the stage background. I kept scribbling big blocks until eventually it started to resemble something that felt right, and once it felt right then I started adding in the details. I had finished sketching out all of the tiny details... and then covered it all up with big block colours, and then I essentially repeated what I did in the sketching stage by rendering as many small details as I could. The hardest part to work out was the background behind the stage and the chairs - it felt too blank on its own, and so I added the more cartoonish haunted house. It was an interesting experience because do I think I would have added that if I had more time to think? Probably not? Am I glad it’s there because it ties it all together? Definitely.

With the date background that was a little easier to sketch out. I deliberately kept the background itself visually unbusy to allow for more flexibility between all the scenes it was needed for. (Spoilers) I couldn’t have added both the lake and gravekeepers hut from Calamaria’s date whilst somehow fitting in the forest from Rex’s route or the fortune tellers hut from Dave’s. So I focused on something that visually said was the Graveyard, whilst also not restricting the story or requiring me to do more than what I had time for.

Which is what I say, but I somehow also feel the need to render every individual stone on that path. I remember being in a call asking why am I doing this to myself? But I can only hope others think it was worth it haha!

One of the key things I tried to do between both backgrounds is have a consistent colour palette. I deliberately tried to choose more oranges and purples in both designs so that they felt very cohesive and part of the same set. I also wanted the styles to feel like they matched the sprites, so I used the same texture filters over everything to maintain that cohesion in styles.

I think what I learned from the backgrounds is primarily what I can achieve in a small amount of time, and whilst I can’t imagine my brain will accept it fully just yet... everything doesn’t have to be perfect. I’ve received such kindness about backgrounds that I worried weren’t going to be good enough, and it has made me realise that I’m maybe further along than I initially thought - though I will continue to keep practicing.

GUI

Designing UI’s is one of my favourite things to do! It’s something I’ve been trying to get more involved in from both joining others jam games to opening commissions, and I always love trying to come up with very unique UI designs.

I did not have time to do that with The Boo-chelor, at least not as big as I could have gone. (There were four days left in the jam and one of which I had a big work thing which took out a day).

I had a day to design and code the UI, so I knew whatever I did had to be something I could do relatively quickly. Whilst I could have drawn all the elements themselves quickly, the coding knowledge is where I knew I’d fall down a bit - this is something I want to work on in future and learn as much as I can about how to code the elements I create so that in the future I can do more faster.

I decided to buy and use https://ess-vn-assets.itch.io/renpy-black-white-ui-theme to reduce that coding burden, so I could focus on restyling the existing elements and just editing the code to fit my needs - such as for the textbox which needed more adjustments for the quick menu etc.

With the GUI I took some of my favourite parts of the backgrounds to then influence the style of the UI, such as The Boo-chelor logo with it’s neon style (designed to match those older show signs), then translating through to the textbox and the buttons in the preference menu, or the pumpkin set piece then carrying through to the backgrounds of the menus and the credits. I generally find that choosing one or two elements from the game/background art and then carrying that through to the rest of the UI design has always made me feel like the game is more cohesive and deliberate.

I think my biggest learning with the GUI is that using premade templates (of course with credit) can be really helpful for both learning and making sure you can focus on the right things, and I think they are absolutely perfect for jam when you’re doing a lot by yourself and maybe don’t have time to dedicate to doing the code from scratch. I think going forward I’d like to work on my skills with GUI coding so that I feel more confident in making those larger edits, but I know I can always use a template if I need to prioritise other tasks!

Music

Originally when I first started planning The Boo-chelor, back when I hadn’t fully committed to joining the jam, I thought I would use royalty free music to accompany the game. I spent ages on the train to and from work listening to songs, trying to find something that clicked, and whilst I found some that had partially the right ‘vibe’, nothing quite hit the mark - not that I was asking for anything simple though.

I really wanted a theme song, something that had that more classic 80’s TV show intro vibe, whilst also being spooky and jazzy. For the show itself I wanted something similar but more low-key so it didn’t overpower the voice acting, and for the date I needed something that was also romantic... I generally found most songs were one but not the other. I found a lot of 80’s show vibe music, but none with a spooky air. I found a lot of spooky songs, but all felt more suited for a horror rather than as the backing track of a dating show.

So I put out an ad for a composer - if all else failed then I would use some of the tracks I already found - but luckily for me Juniper reached out on BlueSky! She had great credentials and her demo reel was great and so I didn’t hesitate to invite her into the server!

For each song I provided the song name, the summary of use, notes, overall feeling/vibe and references and Juniper got to work!

She did an amazing job of combining all my requests for ‘vibes’ into actual music, and also translating my thoughts (and complete lack of music and instrument knowledge) into changes - and also had the patience of a saint with me constantly asking if we can make it spookier. In the end we swapped the date and the show songs around, and used another of the drafts for the advert music, so everything she created ended up used at some point in the game!

I am really happy with how the music turned out, and super grateful and lucky she found my ad! I really think music can make a game, and I don’t think it would have felt quite as right without the spooky jazzy songs we have today!

Voice Acting

I knew from the beginning I wanted voice acting for The Boo-chelor - I felt a TV show needed voices to bring it to life, and so started recruiting before the jam even started. I made posts on social media, in Devtalk, on CCC and even attended two of the meet and greets to advertise the game!

So many people reached out and sent auditions - with the majority auditioning for multiple characters. I was so incredibly impressed with everyone’s range and talent! It was an incredibly tough decision, and I was making it up until the last minute - but I am lucky to have gotten to work with such amazing actors, and to also have lots of voice actors I can potentially reach out to for future projects!

I think what made this jam different from HiWtHi is that when it came to the script I gave very little voice direction unless it was really needed. For HiWtHi I have the time to go through and add context and direction notes to every line, and it’s definitely needed just because there are lots of lines across lots of branches, so it would get confusing without it. However, with The Boo-chelor, due to the lack of time, and also due to the more linear nature of the game I didn’t go into quite so much detail, and instead asked the VAs to come to me if they had any questions.

Which was I think the best way I could have possibly done it.

All the VAs added their own flair to the characters based on their own interpretations of the character notes I had written up and provided in advance. Certain lines were delivered in completely different ways to how I imagined them - but I felt it worked out for the better. I think the voice actors really brought their characters to life, and really made it feel collaborative and something more than I could have done solely by myself, and I think going forward I will leave more room for that flexibility and let that magic happen!

Scripting/Programming

So... after everything above was done, I had to actually put everything into Renpy... with two days to spare until the end of the jam.

Now I can hear everyone gasping wondering ‘Glass, why would you leave it that late?!’ and I can tell you that is because I am apparently full of hubris and thought that would be more than enough time... and that I could not context switch and do little bits as I went. I’m a get everything done and then add it in kind of person, much to my own stress... but it kind of works haha?

What this meant though was that I had next to no time for play testing, and after submitting to the jam two hours before the end... I nearly crashed, just before someone in my discord server messaged about a game breaking error in Dave’s route. Luckily I had time to jump up, fix it and resubmit... two minutes before the jam closed.

Those two days of coding were a wild two days that passed by completely in a blur, and I will never underestimate scripting again!

I don’t know if I’ll ever become someone who can code as they go, but I do think I would like to recruit playtesters going forward - I need someone who isn’t me to check for spelling and pronoun errors, because when it’s my own writing, or my own playthrough I miss them (when it’s others writing and I have that degree of separation I can spot them super quickly, but my own? Nope.)

So what’s next?

Well done for surviving my rambling this long! That is the end of my Boo-chelor journey so far (not including the stress I’ve had trying to figure out marketing), but it’s not the end of The Boo-chelor!

One of the things I always wanted to include was a Jack route - because I love our stingy host just as much as others seem to! So a fully voiced Jack route is in progress! It has been completely outlined, and writing has begun!

I would also like to add endings/achievements to the game, so once the writing is done I am going to work on that too, as well as expand the adverts to promote others visual novels (if you’re interested in writing a skit with me for a Boo-chelor ad please reach out)! All of this will be released in a large update before the end of the year! (I will be looking for playtesters for that one! So do shout if you’d be interested!)

‘Home is Where the Heart is’ is still in progress, and the extended demo will aim to be released early next year! More updates to come in that space! But I feel I have learned a lot from The Boo-chelor that I can carry forward into this development as well as development of other future games to make them even stronger.

Finally... Thank you!

I cannot put into words how grateful I am to everyone who has downloaded, played, streamed, rated and commented on The Boo-chelor. I am always surprised by the kindness of you all, and how you have all received my silly dating show game! It really is just a game of my sense of humour, and things that I love and it really means so much to me that you have enjoyed it and encouraged me every step of the way!

We received a nomination for best logline, and an honourable mention from the judging panel!

And from yourselves we came second overall, sixth for voice acting and seventh for music!

Honestly we all freaked out when we saw the results!

So once again, from both me and on behalf of everyone who contributed to The Boo-chelor, thank you for your support! I will continue working hard to share with you all whatever crazy ideas I come up with!

Glass 🦋

From the team!

A 7-Heartfelt Thank You

This was my first year taking part in a game jam, and boy am I glad I took the plunge. There were many talented indie game devs and a boat load of amazing submissions, but Glass and the rest of the team really outdid themselves with this one… And it shows! You all loved The Boo-chelor so much that you made it the #2 Spooktober VN Jam game overall! Thanks aren’t enough for all of your support, and I hope that you continue to love and share the game. I know there’s an exciting update or two in the works that you won’t want to miss! As for me, Calamaria has a special place in my heart, inspiring me to conquer and crush the voice acting world!

• Samantha (Calamaria VA)

Jack O’Lantern has been my first voice acting role. It’s been challenging, learning the basics on the fly. I had my partner to help me with recording, both because he’s an audio engineer with experience and acting, and... well, I needed his computer to actually use the mic!

But I’m glad I auditioned for the role, it’s been an absolute riot. Voicing Jack always put a smile on my face, and the lines I got to read had me laughing until I was out of breath! This project’s been a window into what my life could’ve been like if I took drama instead of band, back in high school. I gotta say... what a view.

I’m a writer first and foremost, but going forward? I’m going to pursue voice acting with greater gusto than a ghost flying out of its grave! Thank you Glass, both for having me, and for the delightful lines to perform. And thank you all, for taking part in the show and deciding on this year’s Boo-chelor!

• nacreousDreams (Jack VA)

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