*Don't read this if you haven't played it yet. There will be spoilers.

Maia was born out of my spontaneous decision to join the Yuri Game Jam before it ended. There was about 48 hours left when I started working on it. Though Maia has existed long before that...I commissioned her sprite about 5 years ago on the lemma soft forums when I first got into using Ren'Py to try and make my own VNs. At the time I was inspired to make a yandere VN, Maia was always meant to be a yandere. That VN never came to be. 

I came up with her design. I think it's simple and cute. I love short hair on girls and I think black hair is really pretty. Her name has always been Maia. I think it's a pretty name. :D

Maia's full half body sprite. I cropped it for the VN. The artist is Teanao. 

I had an idea to use this sprite before for the O2A2 jam this year. I wanted to make her a talking AI simulation that eventually lashes out at the person/user talking to her about themselves all the time. We weren't allowed to use premade assets though unless they were creative commons so I couldn't use her sprite. I ended up doing a cute BL VN instead (which I really love and had a great experience making.)

Back to the Yuri Jam...the first idea I had was making Maia a ghost that the MC sees at a park all the time. MC eventually approaches Maia and talks to her, Maia tells MC her sad backstory and then you find out in the end that Maia is a ghost. I thought that might be too cliche while writing some of it so I stopped and scrapped that idea...

Then I went back to what if Maia was a talking AI like the idea I had for O2A2 jam. I went with that idea but took it a step further by trying to trick the player into thinking she's just a normal person behind the screen. I worked with what I had and really made it up as I went. I was able to commission an artist to draw the CG of Maia in time for the jam. 

I went to bed on the last day thinking the jam would be over when I woke up and that I wouldn't be able to finish it. There was 3 hours left before the deadline when I woke up. So I got up and quickly finished writing and programming and put the music in. I was really lucky to find the perfect music to use so quickly. Usually, it takes me a long time to find music I like. 

I submitted 20 minutes before the deadline I think. I didn't have enough time to customise the GUI before submitting it. That can take a while to change all the colours and fonts of the default Ren'Py GUI and I didn't want to miss the deadline. I ended up customising the GUI a little after the jam ended. 

I would have liked to make it a bit longer but I think I am happy with how it turned out. I'm also a fan of short stories. 

I wanted to make a HTML5 version and tried to upload one a few times but it just wouldn't work. Itch.io has a file limit when uploading HTML5 builds and this VN goes over that limit. I have no idea why since it is so short. I wish I could make a web version. 

I hope this was somewhat interesting to read. Let me know what you think if you want to. I read all the comments and try to respond to all of them. :)

Thanks for reading! <3