Recently, both SHINRAI – Broken Beyond Despair and GENBA no Kizuna celebrated their release anniversaries. And since it was the very first time for GENBA, I’ve decided to dedicate today’s blog post to looking back at this first year of its release.
Aug 30
Weekly Update #577: New Art & A Couple Quick Reminders
Let’s start things off with this super adorable little Amber I was sent just in time for our release anniversary celebrations! She was drawn by Fefi whose name you might remember, as she’s done some art for us before, which you can find over in our gallery! I really love her style and I’d urge you to check out more of her work through her Instagram linked above or by visiting her Ko-fi!
Next up, here are a couple of reminders in case you’ve missed either of our last two posts:
Aug 26
Release Anniversaries & SHINRAI Saku Store Pages
August 26 marks the release date of both SHINRAI – Broken Beyond Despair (nine years ago) and GENBA no Kizuna (one year ago).
To celebrate the occasion, we’re currently running our annual anniversary sale which you can learn more about in a separate post here.
That’s not all, though! While our newest project is still in development and it will be a bit longer before we can release it as well, we wanted to at least give you a better look and some more info on it, which is why we have not only updated its sub page here on our website, but even gone ahead and launched its store pages on both itch and Steam!
Aug 26
Anniversary Sale 2025
Today, both of our murder mystery visual novels celebrate their release anniversaries! It’s been exactly nine years now since the launch of SHINRAI – Broken Beyond Despair (2016) and one whole year already since GENBA no Kizuna has come out!
As part of the celebration, we are once again running a little sale which will last until August 31, 10:00 AM PST, so exactly five days!
If you’ve been curious about either or both of our projects, this is a great time to jump in! GENBA takes place in September after all and with SHINRAI‘s events occurring on Halloween, you could also get an early start into the spooky season!
Aug 23
Weekly Update #576: Anniversary Preparations
Only a couple more days until SHINRAI – Broken Beyond Despair and GENBA no Kizuna will celebrate their release anniversaries!
There are still things left to prepare, so we’re gonna keep today’s post on the shorter side again, as I’d like to get back to work ASAP.
But in exchange, there’ll be a whole lot more to say and show on the 26th, so keep your eyes peeled for that!
Now, speaking of “show”, I do have a little sneak peek here for you in the form of another glimpse at SHINRAI Saku‘s user interface:
Aug 16
Weekly Update #575: Sprite Progress & Store Page Approval
A couple of days ago was Raiko‘s birthday (August 14)! In celebration of that, I shared some of her finished sprite variations for SHINRAI Saku over on social media, so if you’re curious about that, be sure to click that link! At least one of them, I’m also gonna leave here, though. Namely her “thinking” pose, as that’s the latest one we got done:
Aug 09
Weekly Update #574: Store Page Prep
As mentioned in some of our recent blog posts, I’d really like to launch the store pages for SHINRAI Saku – Blooming Beyond Despair for this year’s SHINRAI anniversary, so that people can already start adding it to their wishlists! There isn’t all that much time left until the 26th, however, and at least on Steam, the store page needs to pass Valve‘s review process, sooo…
This past week has been mostly dedicated to going through Steam‘s checklist and whipping up the required store and library assets, filling out the various text fields, tackling the mature content survey and so on and so forth. And some good progress was made on that!
I can’t really show any of it off yet, but if everything goes smoothly, you’ll be able to see it in just a couple of weeks, anyway.
At least patrons do get something to look at again, however, as I’ve also just published another 5$+ tier post, showcasing the evolution of the third floor corridor background!
Other than that, I’ve also continued my work on the GUI, finishing the main menu screen and various confirmation windows. But that’s really all I can say for now. A little pressed for time today as well, so I guess we’ll keep this one pretty short again. As always, please enjoy the rest of your weekend and, until next Saturday, take care :3
Aug 02
Weekly Update #573: Even More Background Progress!
After the previous week being kinda slow due to me catching a cold, these past few days have been incredibly productive and I’m very happy with the progress I’ve made on SHINRAI Saku – Blooming Beyond Despair! And as you could already guess from the title, most of said progress has been related to its background art again:
Jul 26
Weekly Update #572: Saku Background Progress
Progress has unfortunately slowed down a bit this week, as I’ve managed to catch a cold (summer in Germany is a myth), which has been severely affecting my productivity, as you can probably imagine. Consequently, I wasn’t able to get done all that I wanted to, but I’ve still made some neat progress nonetheless!
5$+ tier patrons can now check out the first WIP preview of Saku’s very first background artwork! I will be sharing more WIP-glimpses very soon, including of the second background, since both of them are actually nearing completion!
I’ve also tackled some minor assets and finished the design for the “cut-in windows” for example (you’ll remember these from GENBA: small windows highlighting a part of the area or depicting a character or piece of evidence).
Today, in exactly one month, will be the release anniversary of both of our murder mystery VNs, so I’m still hell-bent on getting the first couple scenes playable by then. But for now, I guess I gotta rest a bit again and then, hopefully make some more progress on the BGs!
As for you, please enjoy the rest of your weekend, stay healthy and, until next Saturday, take care :3
Jul 19
Weekly Update #571: Saku BG Progress & GENBA Stream
That’s right, this past week, I’ve finally started working on the backgrounds for SHINRAI Saku – Blooming Beyond Despair, with the first one already nearing completion! Sadly, I don’t have anything to publicly show off just yet, but if you’re supporting us on Patreon, you can expect to see a detailed post about it within the next few days, showcasing some WIP steps to illustrate its evolution.
That will be one of two backgrounds done, which are necessary to code the first few scenes of Saku, so I hope that I’ll be done with both of them before the end of the month.
