Project Rakuen

Hello everyone! I know it’s been a while, so I wanted to give you guys an update on how things have been going with Rakuen. I think the most important thing is that…

1.) …We’re finally nearing the end of development! Emmy and I have been holed up, working away on the final areas of the game for quite a while… We’re very excited because right now it’s actually possible to play the game from start until right before the final cutscene and credits. All the sections have been completed… I’m just going through the game and connecting everything together (for example, there are a few sections where it’s not nearly intuitive enough how to progress from one section to the one directly proceeding it, so I’m removing certain requirements and fixing that up before we move into beta). Emmy’s working on swapping out placeholder art; she’s created some incredible new characters that really add a lot of life to the game. And while about 80% of the soundtrack has been finished, I’ll be working on the last parts of the music once the game is in beta and I can take a break from coding and writing dialogue.

2.) We’re going to put the game on Steam. Last year I met with some folks from Valve and we got the thumbs up to put the game directly on Steam (bypassing Greenlight). The game’s release probably won’t be for at least another few months (since I’m guessing with all the puzzles, the beta test phase will be pretty lengthy)… but we were super happy to find out that we wouldn’t have to go through Greenlight. I’ll make sure to let everyone know once we have more information about that!

3.) We’ll be doing a closed beta.  Our goal is to begin testing in about a month. I’ll be posting a link in the coming weeks for where you can sign up if you’d like to be included! If you already signed up via the forums, then we’ll make sure to contact you there.

4.) Soundtrack stuff! Some folks have noticed that the release date of the OST keeps getting pushed back. The reason for this is because I really wanted to do a pre-release so that folks could preview as much of the music as possible… however I didn’t want to release the full soundtrack until closer to the game’s actual completion. Unfortunately, Bandcamp doesn’t give me the option to say “TBA” and the game’s development has taken so many turns that I was never sure what date to enter… so I’d just push it out a few months at a time 😛 The other reason I’m waiting to release the OST until closer to the game’s completion is because the last few tracks are actually kind of spoilers… so I’m still figuring a way to include those without spoiling some important parts of the story! I’ll make sure to keep you all updated about the OST however… I really hope you’ll enjoy it ^_^

4.) Thank-you for your support, we’ll be posting more updates in the near future! As much as I’ve wanted to, it’s been tough posting updates for this game… Since it’s primarily story and puzzle based, I’m trying my best not to spoil anything through the art or music. That being said, we’ll still have plenty of updates in the near future, so make sure to check back! As always, thank-you all so much for your support throughout all of this… It’s been a tough year, but I’m really excited with the direction of the game, and how far along it is right now.