Tell us about your PROGRESS.
Before the jam started, the project was in about the same state as it was when I posted the very tiny QOL update post-jam. It's a ghost investigation game, and started with 1 map (5 scenes), 4 ghosts, and 4 evidence types. It was fairly polished for a two week jam game, but I had *big dreams*!
Over the past couple of weeks I basically overhauled the entire game. I entirely redid the inventory system and the journal players use to mark evidence and their guesses. I added the second map I initially promised post-jam, a haunted carnival with a whopping 8 scenes, all hand-drawn just like the first map was. My back hurts. I took the time to make some accessibility changes, including adding button prompts for actions, a popup warning about hunts starting and informing when the coast is clear so players are not required to use audio cues or react in a split second, the hunt starts when the next button is pushed. In redoing the journal I also made sure the text was larger to be more legible and was dark text on light background for better visibility than before. I also added 3 new ghost types, a new piece of equipment, a way to restore some sanity, and included a printable game manual with the game files as adding a tutorial level would have taken a lot of resources on the old console and would get repetitive very quickly.
I am happy to report that I can finally call this a completed game (once I post the update on the 5th, wrapping up my bug testing currently), not just something I plan on doubling later anymore!

Tell us about the project's IMPACT.
I'M STOKED!
This game was my first ever entry to a game jam, and a bit of a way for me to dip my toes back into it after many years of not developing anything at all under the belief that I couldn't finish projects due to my ADHD. I got medicated, and then it finally happened! I made games! I proved I can do the thing!
The project overall got me back into making games, it gave me newfound confidence in myself as both a dev and an artist, something I greatly lacked. My excitement about it has not faded one bit since the first day I uploaded it.
I spent several years trying to make some form of sound and get noticed for my work on Facebook, to no avail, and it did not help my confidence issues. I was very much convinced I wasn't reaching anyone because my work sucked.
The hype started when I shared it in the Phasmophobia Discord server, as Poltersprite is inspired by it, and one of their team actually reacted and replied to it to let me know it looked really cool. Very much a "whoah, they see me????" moment, back when I was still trying to convince myself that yes I ofc I am a real game dev I'm making video games.
When I submitted this to Game Off, the feedback was so overwhelmingly positive I cried. I was so used to my 2 views per post, I didn't expect more than maybe 10-20 people to play the game. This thing has broke 350 browser plays and is still counting, even with me not understanding how to market things. My other games proceeded to fly past the 20, even 50 players mark as well, but this one continues to be my most played and best performing game, and I believe that's for good reason! I'm very proud of my work on this, I think it turned out really good, and I am thrilled to complete the cycle by developing a game for my first ever console :)

It changed my turtle's life because I subjected him to the music on repeat for hours while I painstakingly tested as many edge cases as I possibly could on my own.

I don't know about changing the WORLD, especially with a game for a 36 year old handheld console, but I do think that considering I had never touched GB Studio before this and did not consider myself a pixel artist, it could be a bit inspirational for other devs thinking about getting into the program or even just new budding devs who don't know where to start! I made the entire project source and files open to download on GitHub for anyone who wants to play around with it, be it to mod or simply to try to figure out how to replicate mechanics I used or even build on top of it with more content!

My next plan for it is to make physical cartridges, which who knows, may change a few lives by simply being a new physical Game Boy game released in 2025 of all years. Don't see that too often anymore.