October Retrospect (Patreon)

When I set out on this journey, I had two goals in mind:

1. Show Japanese developers that there is a willing and paying market for high quality English localizations of high quality eroges

2. Show people who don't know a lick of Japanese what eroge looks like in English when the whole script, code and all, isn't thrown into a machine script to translate

And I think I've accomplished both of those objectives. I can't give out the exact number, but let's say the Steam version of Meltys Quest, to my surprise, sold over 10K copies. 

I delayed writing this post because I wasn't sure if I could properly convey all my emotions. Meltys Quest was something that consumed every hour of every day for the past three months for me. There were anxiety and fear the moment I pressed the button to release Meltys Quest. And then when Meltys Quest appeared on Steam's New and Trending list, and the sales number just kept climbing throughout the duration of the whole week; while I was busy fixing this bug or that typo; while reading everyone's reviews and thoughts; I can't really describe everything I felt. 

I want to thank everyone's support through out the week of release. There was no way Meltys Quest could've sold this much without everyone's effort in spreading the word to their friends. Despite no big youtuber or reviewer picking this game up, we sold over 10K copies and stayed on Steam's Best Sellers throughout the Halloween Sale. And a special thanks to everyone who contributed in the Bug Report and Spelling/Grammar Report thread on Steam. And of course, a very special thanks to Sachinama for giving me this opportunity to work with him. 

What's next for Meltys Quest? There is one content update scheduled, and don't worry it'll be free. No DLC or season pass or anything silly like that. But I can't give any details because there is none yet, or when the update will come. Maybe the end of November or December, but no promises. And there is no plans in the near future to sell Meltys Quest in any additional outlets.

As for what's next for me, I still haven't decided yet. I neglected my medical and personal responsibilities during October to focus on Meltys Quest.  I'm also a bit burned out, so I need some rest to recharge. I need to hit the books, and read works written by other people. There are always areas about myself I can improve on. Other than maintaining Meltys Quest, I'm going to focus on my personal life and health, and study for a bit. I don't want to rush into my next project without full confidence that I can give it a 100% of my focus and energy while my mind is sharp.

I think I can unequivocally say that Meltys Quest is a huge success. I hope that all the Japanese developers who now realize that there is a market for their games outside Japan will take the right lessons from our success, do proper research and negotiations, and not jump on board with a cheap publisher with a poor track record. The fans deserve better, and the developers deserve better than to sully their game with a bad translation.