I made the first Gale for Nina Freeman's game jam. She liked it a lot and encouraged me to take it further. Being an avid game jammer I hear people say "you should make this a full game" a lot. But coming from Nina Freeman, someone who had made games I had actually heard about, it meant a lot to me.
When I showed her Second Draft she had suggested that I should submit it to IGF and Indiecade. I did, but was rejected from both. The day I got the second rejection letter, I posted the game in its current state to itch.
In a way I'm glad it was rejected. The hardest thing with non-game jam games is actually saying "OK, this is done, time to release it." Second Draft was playable and "finished" for weeks, if not months. But I didn't want to release it because there's always more I could do.
About a day after release I got feedback from my friend Elisée that the game really needed level select and/or save system because he enjoyed the game but wasn't able to finish it in one sitting. Oops! Guess there really was more work to do.