『Obsession』is now available!

With a massive game still in development, I only allow myself to work on a different project if it's tiny and self-contained—that's why I like the O2A2 VN jam so much!

The acronym stands for Only One of Any Asset: only one sound effect is allowed, only one background, only one thousand words etc. 

The strict asset limitations are a self-imposed challenge: I need to make something respecting the rules and be happy enough with the final product to publish it.

I really enjoyed building a story around a painting last time, so this year followed suit. I scoured the Rijksmuseum website to find something that would speak to me, and when Psyché (the original title of the illustration used for Obsession) averted her eyes to look at her lamp, I knew she was the one.

Obsession is an unsubtle metaphor, a personal piece I wrote to call myself out. I had no real goal when I opened the word processing—I let the illustration's details dictate the broad strokes of the story; Psyché became the Priestess, and her lamp, damnation or salvation.

The script was the first thing to be completed; I then moved onto the illustration. I tried my best to give the Priestess some expressions, and  played a bit with the background to make it somewhat mystical, but I am not an artist. As always, working on the UI was an ordeal and a half—but it's serviceable and almost fully customized, which was my goal.

I would like to thank SamGrace for voicing the Priestess, and  A. Villarroel/The Sloth, marchenhare, and Norbert Daniels Jr. for their feedback on the script.

I hope Obsession will stir something with you.

Thank you for playing!