September 2021 Mid-Month Update (Patreon)

Hi everyone,

Pretty brief update this time, because a lot of it's more of the same. So, to get right to it:

-Work on the Please Be Happy script is continuing. I've gotten past one of the biggest hurdles in it storywise (or at least will be coming back to it later) so there's a much more consistent writing groove now. Adi's finished another background for the game, along with another beautiful wallpaper that was posted earlier today. Be sure to check that out! We've also had some progress on some engine issues that were plaguing us, and we're now pretty committed to using the Naninovel plugin for Unity, rather than Ren'py. Unfortunately the game won't be out this year like we'd originally hoped (which was probably guessable from the progress updates anyway), but we're confident that this will be a better decision long term and look forward to releasing the game next year instead, hopefully fairly early in the year.

-The Lock and Key demo is still moving along too. We're looking at a November release, rather than October for it like we'd originally planned. Just like PBH, the full game should be out sometime next year as well! 2022 is already shaping up to be a pretty busy year in terms of releases for us. Perhaps these won't be the only ones, either…

-In the short term, next week will be the one year anniversary of Highway Blossoms: Next Exit's release! We're happy that everyone has enjoyed their return to Las Vegas and the newest chapter in Amber and Marina's story. While you certainly haven't seen the last of them, it'll be a while before we work on another HB game, so it's nice to have tied up some of the storylines for the characters. We daydream and talk a lot about future stories to tell, not just with Amber and Marina but Cassi and the Trio too. But you guys know better than anyone just how much other stuff we have going on right now, so like many other daydreams, that's a long way off.

-We recently released an update to the Switch version of Heart of the Woods, fixing a couple issues and also adding in new language options to the game! You can now play it in Spanish, German, or Traditional Chinese, as well as the Simplified Chinese option that was available in the PC version. We'll be bringing this update to PC soon too. Also, in case anyone was wondering, we are working on Chinese translations of both Next Exit and the PBH demo, but our translator friends haven't given an estimate on when to expect those yet.

-Kickstarter rewards for Heart of the Woods are also continuing to be sent out. If you haven't received yours yet, fret not - it'll be coming soon! All the packing and shipping is handled by one person in the Sekai Project office, on top of his other duties, so it's a bit of a slow process. The latest batch of our webstore merch was just delivered to us recently as well, and we'll start shipping that out mid-late next week or the week after.

That's all for this update. See you in a couple weeks!