Game Updates: Tale of Two Sardines and MYMEMORY!

I'm making this announcement today with two pieces of news about my future projects, including an update on Tale of Two Sardines.

Tale of Two Sardines

Unfortunately, Tale of Two Sardines is cancelled. The Steam page will be retired soon, and I have no plans to continue developing the game.

However! I've still learned a lot from the development process of Tale of Two Sardines, and I want to help teach other aspiring game developers what to do and what not to do in the process of making story-based games! To this end, I have committed myself to two things:

I will release a large majority of Tale of Two Sardines' assets under Creative Commons. This means that anyone will be able to share, distribute, and remix them!

• I will release most of the visual assets, including the pixel art, portraits, and FMV images under CC. This also includes the Krita files and concept art.

• The game's code will also be released under CC. I will probably have a playable demo-like experience on itch.io, as well as a direct download from GitHub.

• I will not be releasing the music under CC, as I have already published it on streaming platforms. Listen to Tale of Two Sardines on Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube!

I will publish and share some documents detailing the development of Tale of Two Sardines and the problems I encountered along the way. These documents will be intended as a resource and guide to aspriring game developers on best practices and things to avoid. Some things I'll go into detail include:

• The full story of Tale of Two Sardines across its multiple iterations

• Brainstorming ideas and characters

• How to stay motivated on a big project with multiple components

• Maintaining a connected universe between projects

• Art, music, and writing, and how to balance these aspects.

I know a lot of people were excited for Tale of Two Sardines, and I hate to burst people's bubbles like this. Thank you for sticking around, and I hope everyone can get something out of the assets and documents I'll release. However, I hope this next announcement can make up for it:

MYMEMORY

Since June 2025, I've been working on a different project: MYMEMORY.

I'm extremely excited to announce that MYMEMORY will be releasing on itch.io in just a few weeks! A lot of ideas and assets from Tale of Two Sardines were recycled into this new game, so you'll still get to see them!

MYMEMORY is an experience set in the SCP Foundation universe consisting of an SCP article and RPGMaker game. Follow Camille, a girl with the ability to manipulate memories, as she navigates her way through life, unknowingly drawing the attention of the Foundation. Are they covering something up? Does Camille know more than she's letting on? Does she know about... you?

MYMEMORY is the most complete experience I've ever produced. It features hundreds of dialogue portraits, over 14k words of dialogue, multiple endings, and an all-new cast of characters!

MYMEMORY's OST is out now on all of the major streaming platforms!

Other Announcements

If you didn't know, my second game, Introverts Can't Read Minds, released on itch.io last year. It's a short, dialogue-focused RPGMaker game that's free to play! If you liked Annie and the Art Gallery, it should be right up your alley. Find out more at https://jswessler.itch.io/introverts.

Make sure to join my Discord server for the most up-to-date announcements! I'll be revealing MYMEMORY's release date there first! https://discord.gg/PrZNuCUVry

I hope I can keep being active and keep making games for everyone to enjoy!

Thank you so much for reading!

• jswessler