Studio Élan - Physical copies of our yuri visual novels

Update #2 - 2nd Stretch Goal Unlocked + Additional Shikishi Slots Added
about 1 year ago – Sun, Mar 12, 2023 at 07:00:23 PM

Wow. We didn't really expect to be writing a second update today. But, we're so thrilled to say we've passed our second stretch goal - time to get to work on some new short stories! It's a long way to go to the next one, but we're really grateful for the enthusiasm so far. Especially when it comes to the poly route - we figured people were excited, but we didn't anticipate having so many people offering up a kidney or other forms of payment. Unfortunately, kidneys don't count towards stretch goals, but we're quite flattered all the same.

We've also added 2 additional slots to both the Color and Black & White shikishi tiers! We weren't counting on those selling out so fast! 

In a day or two, we'll post an informal survey just to get an estimate of which games everyone's planning to order, so we can have an idea of how many to order of each type.

One final time for today, thanks for all the support. We had no idea what to expect when we hit the launch button, and we've been very pleasantly surprised.

Base Goal Hit + Stretch Goals Revealed!
about 1 year ago – Sun, Mar 12, 2023 at 02:13:00 PM

Holy cow. In under three hours, we've already hit our base funding goal for the campaign. Thank you everyone for the amazing show of support! We're so, so thrilled to be able to make these physical copies happen. Honestly, we might be even more excited to have our own copies than we are about selling them - and we're pretty excited about that too. 

We've gone ahead and updated the campaign page to add information on stretch goals, which we've also included here for ease. We're pretty excited about these 👀 Please keep helping us spread the word about the campaign - every share helps us out a lot!

$13k - Our first stretch goal will allow us to upgrade the insert panel included with each game into a small booklet! This will make the release a bit heavier and more satisfying to hold and look through!

$15k - If we hit this goal, we'll write some new short stories to include in the booklets! Both the Webstore and Classic editions will receive a new story, and they'll be different for both versions.

$35k - If we can raise this much, we'll do a light novel adaptation of Highway Blossoms! It'll be split into several volumes - we estimate 4 or 5 total. The LN won't just be a retelling of the original game, but will feature a new and expanded story that lets us get a lot more creative with some ideas than we could with the game version. This stretch goal only guarantees a digital release of the LN - we will do everything we can to get physical copies printed, but can't promise it at this moment. Our estimated release for the first volume would be in 2024. Everyone who pledges $5 or more to the campaign will receive a digital copy of the first volume for free!

$50k - At 50k, we'll be able to fund a Japanese translation of our most recent game, Please Be Happy. This is a goal that's very dear to us, as being able to offer one of our games in Japan has been a dream since we started. We're placing it kind of high because of the large amount of work that would go into this localization process. Still, it's something that we'd be very happy to be able to do.

$75k - That's right. We've seen the requests ever since the game first came out, and we're excited to try to make the Please Be Happy Poly Route DLC a real thing. If we hit this goal, we'll create a new DLC for Please Be Happy that allows for a Miho x Aspen x Juliet polycule ending. This will be done by combining some storylines and elements from the existing routes, as well as writing new scenes and creating new illustrations. We expect this will also be ready to release in 2024, meaning that the poly route will NOT be available on the physical copies when they go out. When finished, it'll be available for purchase on Steam and other platforms, and we'll make sure that it can be manually patched and applied to an installation from a physical copy, too. The Poly Route DLC will be available to backers as an addon for $4. We don't know what the retail price of the DLC will be when it's released, but it will definitely be more than $4.