Final Update
Hi everyone!
I hope the new year has been treating you well. Today we would like to make 2 important announcements.
First, from May onwards, we will shut down the game from Apple Store (iOS) so for iOS users, if you want to play the game but haven’t download it, please download it by May.
Meanwhile, we are trying to get the game up on Steam as promised. We have already registered a new account and paid for it and now awaiting documentation verification from Steam, for weeks. We will continue to push them for an answer. Once we past that stage, then we can upload the game. For those who would like to stay for Steam, please do so. If you want to change your platform to iOS or Android, please send me a message. If you have any questions regarding your game on Steam, you can message to inquire, I will answer all of them.
Second announcement, this update will be the final update on the game. The following are the reasons.
The game is not generating income Since the release last year, the game is not generating income as much as expected. The plan from the start is to continue the rest of the characters from the income we get from Sirius’ route for Yoshino, and from Sirius and Yoshino’s income to continue for Cassian and so forth. Kickstarter was a springboard for us. However, from the sales of the game, we cannot even afford to continue the annual subscription from Apple Store. We have exhausted our budget and we have to shut down the iOS version, which is the more money generating one among the two, to cut losses. To date, both myself and Paey-Lun have not been paid anything to produce the game, every budget has gone into the game.
Also, there were a lot of hidden cost that we weren’t aware of at the beginning of the project such as cost to register and to maintain an account on these publishing platforms. We also did not put aside a budget for writing, proofreading and editing, which takes up a majority from our gains from Kickstarter. Initially I thought I could fill up the position as the writer but from feedbacks, I wasn’t good enough so with the new budget that we had, we went looking for writers. We found and used a few writers, they were good but just couldn’t fit into the style and environment that we were looking for. Finally, we found one and thus manage to complete Sirius’ route.
Piracy is hurting sales and demoralizing We have been receiving notifications of piracy of the game. This hurts our sales. Even after filing DMCA for one, another one pops up. This is very hurtful and demoralizing, to see our sweat and blood given out for free. Not to mention filing DMCA takes up money.
Lost of interest As a producer, I have lost interest in producing the game the moment the initial team left. I wasn’t prepared for the team to ghost the project, so looking for new members to fill in the gaps that I have envisioned was near impossible but we did it anyway.
The game is also giving me a lot of stress and sleepless nights since the start. I also have a full time job now that is taxing so I do not have any more time, energy nor space to handle a project this big even though everyone has been supportive and patient. We have not found anyone to continue the project so we have decided to end it here. Perhaps, in future if the project is revived, another person will take over to update again.
What we will do from now is to give out the game to the remaining people who pledges 3 routes and above. So even if you did not list Sirius as a route you’d like to play, we will still send you the game code. That and we will push to release Sirius route on Steam.
This has been a very painful decision to make and I hope all of you can understand.
I’m very sorry that it has come to this but for whatever it’s worth, thank you very, very much for your support and patience along this journey.