Oh boy, where do I even start with this game that's consumed my life for the best part of 3 months... Let's start at the very beginning, and then explain how this ended up being yet another half-baked god awful "game".

Krampus Cabin was initially an idea for a game I had in 2023, and I attempted to make it during December of that year. However, upon realising that I was not built for this, I immediately stopped development on it, and stored the idea at the back of my head for the next year.

Jump ahead to December 8th of 2024, and I have the very bright idea to finally make Krampus Cabin - how hard could it be? I mean, I've never worked with a 3d game before, and I'm using a completely different artstyle, but it should be easy, right? There's no way I won't be able to finish it by Christmas and get back to developing my passion project! (https://gamejolt.com/games/iudicium/868762 wink wink nudge nudge)

Development in the beginning was actually going pretty smooth, mostly because I focused on the art for the game, which was definitely my strong suit, and pushed aside all the actual thoughts about gameplay for future me. I mean, surely designing puzzles in a very limited space that wasn't created with puzzles in mind can't be that hard! There's no way my lack of planning could ever come around to bite me in the ass! (subtle foreshadowing)

The programming for this game really wasn't all that difficult, and I was flying through implementing features. Until the doomsday clock struck 12 and I hit a brick wall.

"Man, how do I make puzzles in this environment that's not designed for puzzles?"

- Dumbass that didn't think before doing

I racked my brain for hours, watched tons of videos on puzzle design. Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

Well, nothing original (or fun for that matter) at least. With no other option, I begrudgingly turned to the generic 'search drawer for item' formula for my first part of the puzzle. Great, at least I have some gameplay to speak of, now all I need to do is-

Allow me to educate you on a little something called 'Murphy's law'. It states that anything that can go wrong, will go wrong. And I do not think that there is a better example that I can think of than this.

My computer decided to spontaneously implode in on itself and bluescreen. For almost a whole month.

And that's not even the best part: when my pc did eventually decide to start working again, I came to the slow, painful realisation that all the game's files were corrupted. The doomsday clock had decided to go a few minutes past 12 just as a little middle finger to any semblance of motivation I had left in me to keep developing this game.

That, dear friends, is how Krampus Cabin came to be a glorified fetch quest simulator. So, what have we (me and the newly acquired voices in my head after developing this game) learnt from this experience?

Absolutely nothing. I'm going to keep being a dumbass and making stupid mistakes that cost me both precious time and sanity. How else am I meant to survive in my padded cell 10 years from now without a whole family tree of imaginary people keeping me company?

Anyways, to the 1 and a half people reading this manifesto, thank you for your patience in reading this schizopost. I'm tired. I'm going to sleep now, maybe I'll be able to forget this game exists in the morning (wishful thinking)