Whew, the postgame is out. There was only one serious bug and I've already put out a cleanup build, so I hope everyone will forgive me for waxing sentimental.
I've finished a lot of stories before, across games and novels, but this is the first time I've finished something that's a saga in length. TLS is the equivalent of multiple large novels in text alone, and it's even longer when you consider gameplay; gameplay times vary, but it's probably the equivalent of several RPGs combined. This is obviously a huge chunk of story, which has its own limitations and affordances, just as short stories differ from novels.
So it's been gratifying to see that people have enjoyed what I've been building to, both over the previous concluding segments and now finally the postgame! Obviously I receive satisfaction from the creation process itself, but so much of that process is predicated on the idea of communicating the story other people, so it's amazing to have players care about my work and actually appreciate it the way I had hoped.
That has generally felt far from guaranteed; this is a select audience that's more positive about my work, but I often feel alienated from many of the creative industries. Without wandering into the larger topics of creative intuitions, there are some fundamental divides that have left me uncertain what kind of place there is for my work. Well, somehow I've found this: I have a career and I intend to make it a permanent one. In any case, I just want to say I feel so fortunate to have found an audience who appreciates my work. ^-^
And in return, I want to give you my best. That starts with a lot of polishing, because though many have given feedback, on my own I've noticed a lot more little things that I feel aren't up to standard. I also intend to add some more substantial additions, changes that I either didn't think to include or didn't have the energy to tackle. These I intend to catalogue in greater detail in the change logs as we move through more iterations.
After that, of course, I have many other grand ambitions. But one step at a time, since that's what's brought us this far. ^-^