One Year Later + Narrat + Splays/Rachel

Hey everyone. It’s been a while, hasn’t it? I know.

A year ago, I said I really wanted to work on and refine Forgive’s concept, and I feel like I’ve managed to do just that. I was able to create a more mature text and bring in mechanics that I’ll be able to expand on in future updates.

Discovering the Narrat engine was a game changer for me. I still don’t know how to fully tame this beast, but I’ve come to love it with all my strength. It’s a tool that does everything I need—and honestly, it fits perfectly with what I want. I’ve run into the same language-related issues I faced back when I was working on the first prototype of Forgive. Everything I learned with Ink, ChoiceScript, Ren’Py, and TyranoBuilder doesn’t necessarily apply here, but it was all still a valuable learning experience. And I feel like the more I use this tool, the better I’ll get. I’ve been making a ton of beginner mistakes—simple things—and when I finally figure them out, it’s surreal to think I couldn’t do them before. But like every good and overwhelming first love, learning has been a delight, and spending time with this tool has brought me a lot of joy.

A lot of what I could say about Forgive has already been said, so instead, I want to talk about two people who’ve joined me on this journey—and I’m really glad I met them. I’ll take the liberty of calling them my friends! :)

The first is my buddy Corleone, better known as SplaysMusic (or, if you prefer, Saymon Martinelli), a very sharp guy, extremely perceptive when it comes to composing, and unfortunately for me, a very busy one. Every track he’s managed to create for me has felt like a victory—I listen to them all the time. He’s versatile, easy to work with, and has a lot of intellectual range that makes him, honestly, both unique and ambitious—in the best possible sense. He’s someone who chases excellence to achieve greatness. He can work with a lot of creative range, and I’m genuinely happy our paths crossed. My plan is to have him handle the entire audio side of Forgive (SFX + soundtrack) once I have more substantial material to present. Right now, with only the prologue and a bit of Act 1, it’d be a waste of his time. But I keep trying to tempt him—like the snake tempted Eve in Paradise. :P

The second is someone I’ve grown very fond of. There’s a tenderness in her art, a softness that goes beyond the lines and shows up in gestures—even when they’re silent or sporadic. The funny thing is that Forgive is a bitter, heavy story. Maximilian is a cynical character, but based on the descriptions I gave, I always ended up laughing at how Rachel (or just Rays_doodles) interpreted them. For example, the battle background: there are a lot of cool details in there, but what stood out the most to me was how, even though the machinery was imposing, the human figure was slim—set apart. In nature, the flowers are vivid, even with all the grey concrete. So many little details… The way she captured my descriptions in that scene always left me disarmed.

I remember bursting into laughter over an absolutely brutal scene, meant to set the tone for something intense, but everything looked so adorable that I didn’t know what to say—or even think. And believe me: Rachel had a lot of patience with me. To keep pace with the 2025 Street Grimoire Jam, I kept some mechanics hidden from the judges so I wouldn’t overwhelm them. But still, she created 37 backgrounds. Thirty-seven! Honestly, there came a point when I felt kind of embarrassed. Not just because of the currency difference between our countries, which makes it hard to properly repay her for all that effort, but also because the care she put into her feedback and the gentleness in our conversations were so kind and patient that they really caught me off guard. More than once, I felt like I was talking to my niece, with questions that completely threw me—like that damn elevator bump and how it would impact the structure of the scene, or the sky from a specific perspective that sent my mind wandering. My honest wish is to one day see this art applied to a story about magical girls and see all these colors take on a life of their own.

 I can't say for sure whether it would work for other people the same way it worked for me, because my lack of artistic skill, honestly, makes me an amateur in these areas. That's why I do my best to build half the bridge — and I need the artist to build the other half for me, including translating into something tangible what I express conceptually. Despite my amateurishness, I honestly think things ended up working out in a pretty cool way.

And through all this collaboration, there was no falling out, no breakdown in communication. No disloyalty. She’s someone I truly root for. And honestly, I’m happy to call her a friend. I have this deep certainty that she’s one of those rare lights you run into now and then.

But I’m rambling… so that’s all, folks! :D