Surprise is not always a bad thing, and neither is change. It’s important for anyone working in a team to be prepared for the unexpected and have a willingness to adapt. Being all around great people, the Parasite in Love team was more than prepared to weather any storms that may come their way, but our jam storms were fairly tempered. Pleasant, even.

Which brings us to Part 3 of our postmortem. What surprised us?

Did anything change or surprise you during development?

NiA - Director, Writer, Artist

What certainly surprised me was how hands-off I could be during the actual development in September. Of course, I was always in the team server and updating people with the script and the character sprite art and CGs, but otherwise, I gave my list of assets we needed and that was that. Everyone added their own flavor and style, while still making sure the core concept came across. And in the end, it all fit very well together. I think this is the first time I experienced that during game development

Allie - Editor

What really took me off guard was seeing the final builds. It's always magic watching everyone's hard work coalesce into a real, working game, and with Parasite in Love we really had something special. It surprised me in the best way!

Ooyu - Programming

There weren’t any negative changes that gave me whiplash; the jam process went fairly smoothly for us! At least from my perspective, haha. As with most jams, not all ideas can make it into the game, which can be a bummer. e.g., I initially had an idea for trippy background movement, where the background would move in separate layers, which ultimately needed to be cut from the scope.

And of course, I was and continued to be surprised at how well received the game has been so far! Not from a lack of faith in the team, but seeing so many people playing a game I made is a new and crazy experience for me.

Ingthing - UI & Design

The sheer enthusiasm of the whole team was the most surprising to me! It's rare in game jams for full teams to be talkative and involved in the team server, but all our team members knew each other before the team was formed. It helped us share work and feedback more smoothly, as well as encouraged us to enhance the game however we could.

Baguetti - Backgrounds

Definitely how I saw the game in my head versus how the final script ended up. It was only about a week, and I was not expecting how crazy some of those endings would end up!

Amidst - Sound

I physically injured myself in ways I probably had no reason to during foley field recordings. In addition to almost breaking my phone for one sound, I almost set my microphone on fire from lighting a match too close to the speaker. etc. A lot of environmental changes resulted in a few moments of improvisation on my part for certain SFX. For instance, a lot of the baby noises, were of voice lines from Marlowe stretch and granularized to match the frequency range of an infant. Ergo, some of the baby cries heard in the game are of Coda laughing and screaming as Niall introduces his “children” to the player.

Another one was for the windchimes in the “Until death do us part,” ending. I forced a synthesizer to read an audio sample I took as a noise gate. As a result, it always sounds like the windchimes are forcing themselves into the player's ears, in a literal and narrative sense. This idea came from growing up in an isolated house in a desert full of windchimes. On windy days, metal rods blared out frequencies in a cacophony of ringing. As if the whole house was screaming at me. I remember this overwhelming feeling of dread before each windy day up there. I wanted to explore the fear of anticipation in the ambience of the windchimes and searched for audio samples I could layer to invoke that nostalgic fear of dread.

The biggest surprise for me during development was just how incredibly patient and encouraging everyone in the team was. Even through moments of multiple takes, it all came from a place of encouragement for a greater idea. This would later be a huge motivator for myself when switching to different disciplines. Seeing how well everything was coming together under NiAsobu’s direction was such a treat to witness! Being encouraged to share musical ideas in real-time with the team was not only a surprise, but also a wonderful gift to be with them in these moments and eagerly share this part of myself.

Coda - Voice Actor

I was surprised several times over, but all in great ways! I saw Amidst None volunteer to make all the foley from scratch, which, on top of the music he was making and the voice lines he had to treat, it was a lot. I offered early that if he was short on time with the SFX, I could get some from a sound library. He thanked me, only to do, like everything. Everything. On time. And anything he couldn't get done wasn't even on the frankly huge asset list, it was just polish he thought up himself; he was so inspired! And the foley he made was deliberate and dedicated, going as far as to say what type of meat would make the loudest sizzle, what type of refrigerator hum implies how old it is, and how he had to angle a fireplace poker when drawing it from its holder!

Baguetti has a busy schedule due to her day job. She communicated as much, so was understandably a little quieter in the server. But, there was a day where she shared various 3D model shots for composition options of all the game locations, and they were creative, but as we were drawing closer to the deadline, it almost felt out of the blue that she just dropped all the final painted backgrounds, their alternate hallucinogenic states, their layers (to help with programming gradual transitions), and different close-up shots to highlight different aspects of each room! Ugh, and the team Easter egg? It was incredible to witness so much visual excellence and all at once!

Ooyu, our programmer, and Ingthing, our UI artist, worked closely together in planning how the UI should be designed to reflect the themes of and function in the game. Ing had an idea for microscope imagery, as if looking at a culture sample through a microscopic lens. I remember being so excited to see how that might transition the screens, and Ing said a black "flash" or sliding black overlay should do the trick. When Ooyu brought it to life using animation scripts in the game engine, the little detail she added in—refocusing the blurred view after the lens switch! —just really, really stayed with me.

Allie Vera, our editor, was so thorough and understanding of NiA's authorial intent, themes, motivations, and voice. They really helped elevate the script in ways that collectively enhanced the emotional immersion into NiA's already distressing story. Editing a script is not easy: there needs to be good chemistry and flexibility of suggestion—and horror especially needs great attention to mood and nuance. Allie is acutely aware of that, and that's what made their help so valuable! When I read the script the second time, it was after Allie's suggested edits, and their skill was just plain to see.

Trickle was a surprise from start to finish. The only complete unknown on the team, he was outside of the dev community, never voiced in a game before or worked on a visual novel, and had a background more in singing and melodramatic theater. He was so open, fun, and teachable. Any time he may have felt unsure, Cody, myself, and anyone silently sitting into a recording session jumped in to remind him that he's new to this but doing great! And as a team, we are here to help each other out. Niall is a complex character. He's not a flat evil villain, he has an air of gentle sincerity about him to mask his manipulative, delusional views, and yet he still is genuinely infatuated with his idea of Marlowe. He doesn't "best" Marlowe, he doesn't "win" in any scenario, so his motivations despite his resignation to everyone's deaths are less logical. Trickle, in three sessions, had to embody that as his first ever official voice-acting role. And he did it. That's insane!

Cody, our voice director, always surprises me. As much as I enjoyed giving feedback to help bring Trickle into his own during our voice calls, I had a niggling concern that I may have been overstepping in lieu of our VD, but Cody always let me talk, and took control as he needed to get to the heart of any issue uncovered in these conversations—and he always knew how pivot in a way Trickle and I both understood to get the best result out of us. To be able to broadly think up relatable experiences to set the tone, adjust and pick a direction that sticks, and then hone in on refining how to urge the right mindset from us is a unique skill! I knew I made the right call inviting him onto the team to help us when he made it a point to get Trickle and I together to read sample scripts and get us well acquainted with our styles, strengths, and improbable areas. He even tailored the sample scripts for the flow of the session. Prep time is invaluable, and that kind of care and attention Cody went out of his way to do instead of just jumping right in is rare!

And I was surprised at myself, really. NiA actually had a bark line titled "marlowe_drowning" which made me bust out laughing. "Drowning" isn't something you'd think of for a bark line over, you know, a chuckle or a retort. But I love a challenge, so guess who had to cover her recording equipment with plastic, tilt her head back, and do several takes of screaming through a gullet full of bottled water? Please know, this had a lot of potential to become a workplace incident and it was very strenuous vocal work to sound like I'm actually choking, but having good throat and breath control from formal training (and a few sore throats in my time), I never actually harmed myself for the sake of Parasite in Love. I offered and played my drowning takes to a few close friends, and their mortified reactions tell me I did a pretty good job

Cody - Voice Direction

Both Coda and Trickle are relatively new to voice acting, but they were super quick to pick up on everything they were being handed. Singers are storytellers, and given the right communication, they know how to capture a mood even when speaking. They had a great knack for detecting each other's rhythm and energy level, and no matter what direction they were sent in, they knew how to build something natural and believable out of it. As believable as you can be with an amoeba boyfriend, anyway.

Elm - Casting Director & Marketing 

What surprised me most was how all-encompassing my role could be, just how much others were willing to pitch in, and how much I would learn from this jam.

Most people do not enjoy handling social media, and they’re probably right to feel that way. Doing the tweets for Parasite in Love was interesting because I don’t usually delve into horror, and because it’s not a project of my own, there was a lot I had to be aware of. To produce ideas and tone, I researched things I didn’t like but was open to hearing about. (I am a squeamish scaredy-cat, and the team was constantly ready to get into a horror mood beyond my delicate sensibilities.) There was also a lot of overlap between liaising with the team and utilising them (for content).

If you’re creating the content for your project, it’s very easy to put this type of thing on the sideline till the very end, but because it was my prime focus, it was all I was thinking about. And I dived into it. I learnt that social media is still quite experimental, no matter what others say, you should try different things. I used wider hashtags, despite knowing we would be entering a more saturated pool because it meant still being seen and getting more engagement than the usual niche hashtags. It’s not so much a surprise but maximising your reach and engagement can be quite addictive to someone like me. I like learning the craft of things, and this was its own.

Me and NiA communicated practically every day and discussed social media plans, on top of this she was very helpful in introducing me to parts of the horror community I didn’t know much about.

For change, as things went on my role expanded, and so did my approach! I started looking into presskits, reaching content creators, and how content is handled on other platforms. I learnt how to use things in After Effects, started listening to expert marketers and I’m really just surprised at how much I took from this and how much I would do it again. And honestly, I did not expect post-release to be as busy as it was.

The skill of the rest of the team was also a wonderful surprise. Day after day everyone just brought out their best. I learnt that Amidst is potentially a walking hazard, and if the gods give Ingthing any more brain power we may truly be in danger. NiA was also an excellent director, and I was constantly impressed with her consideration for every member on the team and their needs.

The Takeaway 

Some storms will just have you gliding. Everyone on the team was able to handle themselves, and although this shouldn’t be a surprise, given how game jams usually go, it was. We were active and talkative, and the biggest surprise of it all was how enjoyable this short experience was.

When things did change, we took it on the chin and went with it. Everyone has their own lives and commitments outside the jam, but we were all able to turn up when it mattered.

From something that was meant to be a solo endeavour, the biggest thing worth noting is just how much others can bring in their own skills and insight to a project. Both the product and process of making Parasite in Love were worth learning from.

But it wasn’t always perfect. Although we love the end product, we all had moments where we grew and learned from things. Which we’ll talk about more in part four.