Hello everyone! I’m super happy to announce that Rakuen is finally in beta! We started testing about a week ago, and so far it’s been a really wonderful experience getting to read everyone’s feedback. I never fully believed that I’d get the game to this point, and I think I was in such a state of fight-or-flight this past month preparing everything that it hasn’t fully sunk in yet that the game is actually playable from start to finish.
At some point it also occurred to me that I had no idea how people would feel about the game… I’ve gone through the puzzles and read the dialogue more times than I can count, so I couldn’t even imagine what it would feel like through the eyes of a new player. This made me SO NERVOUS >_<; I kept thinking, “what if it’s not good?” “what if I spent the last 3-4 years of my life working on something that ends up having no meaning?” But I had to let all of that go, and just let folks test the game… and I’m really glad I did. The comments and feedback from the first round of testers has made me feel so happy and relieved, and I just wanted to say THANK-YOU SO MUCH to the first round of testers, and to all the folks who have been so kind and so supportive over the years ^_^
Now (after taking a much needed week off to rest) I’m inspired to jump back in and get this game shipped! There are still a lot of bugs to fix, art that Emmy is in the process of swapping out, and things I’d like to iterate on as well… but now I’ll have more time to update folks on how things are going! So before I go for today, here are a few things…
1.) As I mentioned before we’re doing a closed beta. There are still a few spaces open, so if you’re interested in participating please email me at rakuenbeta at gmail!
2.) Now that I finally have some more time, I’m really excited to start talking a bit more about the world of Rakuen, and doing more interactive things like contests and videos~! I’ll be updating this website regularly, so make sure to check back ^_^ I think for the next post, I’ll probably share some new music, and talk a bit about the culture of “Morizora’s Forest,” which is the fantasy world from the main character’s storybook.
3.) If you’d like to contact me about an interview, I’ll be devoting time to these each week (and if you contacted me about an interview earlier, but haven’t heard from me because I was in crazy hermit mode, I’ll be trying my best to work on those as well)^^
And as always, if you have any questions or comments, please feel free to leave them below! I hope you are all having a wonderful week ^_^/
Project Rakuen 
Congratulations!
Thank-you Cat!
Congratulations! Just emailed and hope I can be part of the beta!
Where exactly did you send a mail?
If you read carefully you’ll know…
“rakuenbeta at gmail”
Thanks so much Kathryn!
I haven’t figured out at which address I’m supposed to mail for beta…
read well and you will fine….
“rakuenbeta at gmail”
find*
Glad to hear that this project is still alive and kicking.
Emailed you and hope to hear some news from this.
Thanks for emailing and for answering the above poster’s question, mookies 🙂
You’re welcome 🙂
Egg sell ant news! Looking forward to the release. But now I can’t shake the image of a bearded hermit wizard hat-wearing Supershigi.
It took me a second to get the “egg sell ant” part… at first I was like, “is this spam?” but then I realized the rest of the comment made sense, haha! Thanks so much for your comment! Your image of my hermit-mode isn’t too far off… except instead of a beard and wizard hat, it was like pajamas and mouse slippers at 4 in the afternoon, haha!
Reblogged this on ladeiscribe and commented:
Cool!
Thank-you for sharing this post!
Wow, this is a blast from the past; it feels like forever ago that you started working on this. Looking forward to seeing how it turns out.
It does feel like forever ago, haha! The other day I went back and looked at builds of my game from years back, and I couldn’t believe how much had changed… it really affirmed the whole “baby steps each day” thing 🙂
Congratulations on this magnificent milestone! I just wanted to let you know that I sent an email a while back, regarding wanting to help in beta testing and promoting the game. I want to do everything I can to assist you in your masterpiece and give this beautiful game the recognition it deserves. If there’s anything at all I can do, I’m here for you! 🙂
Thanks so much Jeffrey, I really appreciate your offer to help test and promote the game! Our current plan is to have a second beta (a pre-release beta on Steam to do some major stress testing, make sure the game works on different machines, make sure the font/installer function properly, etc.). I’ll definitely post when we have all that ready!
I’ve been following your project for a while now and I’m so pleased to see you reaching Beta at last. Everything looks absolutely spectacular and I cannot wait to play the final game! ❤ Much love and luck to you as you work towards polishing and releasing!
Thank-you Joanie! I really appreciate your kind words 🙂
Ooo so close! 😀 I wish I had time to properly run through the whole beta and scrutinize it for errors to help you guys out, but I should prooobably wait ’til the actual game is released and I can go at my usual snail pace. ^^” At any rate, glad to hear you’ve passed this milestone, and I can’t wait to play (as well as hear the rest of the soundtrack)!~
Thank-you 🙂 And I totally know what you mean… I always go really slowly through any kind of story-based game because I don’t want to miss anything, haha! My friends think I’m crazy because I’ll check every little corner and just take my time reading everything 🙂
I’ve been waiting such a long time for this :D. I hope this will be a huge sucess and maby you’ll get back to melolune one day 😛 But anyways I still love all of your work even if you aren’t that well known nad you don’t finish melolune
Thank-you E.v.E – it would be so nice to get back to Melolune one day, even if I would have a tough time figuring out where to pick up where I last left off!