MAN it's been around year since the first chapter has released and im super sorry for not stumbling across this gem sooner, but holy shit it was so fun to read through. It might not mean much so long after its release and hiatus, but im genuinely so happy this came out. I hope everything's going all right for you guys, whether or not you plan on continuing this amazing piece, but know that there are still people out here silently rooting for you. damn this wasnt even a question im very sorry
You are totally fine. I’m thrilled that people are still aware of JEA and enjoy it. I still consider it weirdly some of my best writing. It’s easily the most fun I’ve had writing.
It’s sadly not going to be continued. City parted from fandom and we are no longer in touch, so the project sadly will not continue.
Which is a shame because man the plans for episodes 2 and 3 were a BLAST. So at the end of episode 1, if you take the correct path, Jake gets ahold of Dirk’s phone number. That carries over to the next time you play. Obviously there is a hint of this if you replay JEA– suddenly, you can dial that mystery number, but then the game ends! Cliffhanger!
So in episode 2, having that number would open up a new “loop” for the player. If they didn’t call it, they would just replay the content of episode 1 with no variation. But if the player calls Dirk at the start of the episode, a whole new path opens up in which Jake makes an ass of himself cold calling a stranger. Later, in the mailroom, Jake runs into Dirk, who recognizes Jake’s voice as the weird cold caller.
They weirdly hit it off. Jake gets invited up to Dirk’s place, which he is excited about because he gets to figure out what is up with the weird guy upstairs.
DURING THE DATE, Dirk has to step out to grab the pizza. Jake has enough time to look around at one thing, and what the player picks determines what route they are on. In one, Dirk is a vampire. In another, he’s a runaway robot Crockercorp created to compete with Alexa. In another, he’s an alien. In yet another, Dirk is just a DJ.
So Episode 2 focused on like 5 or 6 small, funny routes, and the gimmick is that each one kind of ended with Jake and Dirk living together in a small domestic happy ending.
That was the roadmap for Episode 2. Then Episode 3 was…….. something rather different. 8)
- @callmearcturus, who just for reference is now writing another visual novel with a small team if you want to follow me and keep up /eyebrow waggle