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It felt like a lot of closure to me and the perfect time to make an appearance after years of misgivings between me and the fangame community.

Those misgivings were over nothing. Early in the life of fangames I took issue with the design choices of a few new fangames, which had no sense for humor or how and when to use traps. Eventually, a few years in, they clearly became their own thing. Like at a certain point a game isn't "Doing IWBTG wrong", it's just a heckin' needle game.

Some people held on to those early comments and I didn't exactly go out of my way to say my opinions changed. I'd catch wind that the fangame community wasn't actually big fans of IWBTG -- partially cause of a difference in taste, and partially cause the perception I just didn't like them either... and yeah, most fan games aren't my taste. I like making the genre more than playing it anyways, so I just shrugged and mostly ignored it. I was PROUD of them and their existence, but I wasn't invested, not knowing that half of this was just mistaken vibes.

... This went for like 10+ years??? Until Wolsk, a speedrun and key community, started talking to me and kinda trying to put out there that 'yo Kayin is cool?? I think ya'll just misunderstood them'... and then Team Cherry Treehouse coming in, to do the IWBTG Remaster, to modernize IWBTG for fangamers and preserve it for fans. They even got me (and Paul, the Kid!) to do voice acting for the Wannafest 2022 marathon blind race game after not doing it for years.

So it felt so appropriate that I'd be giving the Fangame of the Year award to Cherry Treehouse, all while Wolsk gets a Lifetime Achievement Award, and Tijit, maker of like, the first truly great fangame and all around cool snake kid, coming out of the weeds too to also give an award (while screaming TRANS RIGHTS with the winner).

Getting to pop in by surprise, and give a speech to settle my feelings on the matter -- I appreciate them and that this stuff belongs more to them than me at this point --, before telling the Cherry Treehouse kids how much they meant to me. All and all good vibes.

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1735774703?t=3h15m50s My speech is right here if you're interested but I enjoyed watching almost the whole show (I woke up a little late okay!!). A funny part of the speech is Natsu, who is losing it after my speech, was the only other person who knew what I was going to say since I ran it all by them. Still hit a critical. 😤

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