Welp, so here we are… the 200th weekly update. Holy crapperoni. I honestly cannot believe I’ve been doing this for so long now.
We’ve recently passed the 1 year anniversary of our website too, the first post on it made on June 3, 2017.
As for the very first update I ever made, it was posted on August 14, 2014 (Raiko’s birthday). So it’s been almost 4 years ever since.
Pretty crazy to think about it. However, the fact that I’ve actually managed to keep doing these for so long, without skipping a single week, is definitely something I’m rather proud of. If I recall correctly, there’s only been a single time when the update needed to be postponed by a day. And I’m pretty sure I’ve never skipped one entirely.
Either way, I still remember how nervous I was when I was starting out with those postings over on Tumblr. I kept worrying about whether or not I’d even be able to post an update every week. Would we be able to make enough progress or could I find enough interesting topics so that there would always be something to talk about? It seemed kind of intimidating and so I often considered switching to monthly updates instead. However, in the end, I somehow managed to prevail and now here we are, almost 4 years and 200 weekly updates later.
As I’ve mentioned a couple of times before, doing weekly updates instead of monthly ones is not just something we do to show you guys that we are actively working on our projects. It’s also a way to motivate ourselves. I know that I have to talk about something each Saturday. So that gives me that extra drive to get some VN-related work done. Just so I can proudly proclaim that I have made some progress, no matter how small it might be. That’s why I stuck to doing weekly updates and, of course, I’m planning to continue doing them until our next projects are finished as well.
Still, when I look back at 2014 when we just started out with all of this… it was kind of an exciting but also scary time.
There were a lot of things I was scared of. Not just missing an update. There was always a giant shadow of possible failure looming above us. I kept thinking: “What if we won’t be able to complete SHINRAI? We have publicly announced it now, but what if we end up having to cancel it…?”
That was a pretty scary thought. I didn’t want to disappoint anyone who was looking forward to our little VN. And I didn’t want to disappoint myself, either. But almost exactly three years later, we finally released the completed game. Something that, even to this day, sometimes baffles me. I look at Steam and see SHINRAI listed there, thinking: “How did we actually pull this off?”
I guess persistence is the key. Even if there are countless hurdles to overcome and things might seem pretty grim at times, as long as you keep moving forwards, you will eventually reach the goal. Sometimes it might feel like you’re stuck. Sometimes overcoming certain hurdles might take multiple tries and a rather long time before you’re able to continue onwards. But as long as you are persistent, you will arrive at your destination.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that, if you happen to work on your own project, whether it’s a visual novel, book, game or whatever else… if you just keep at it, you will eventually complete it. That’s literally all we did. And if we can do it, so can you.
I actually didn’t mean for this posting to drift off into this sort of direction, but after thinking back to the way I felt when I made that very first blog post… it just kinda happened. Really, I’m very proud of everything we have achieved ever since. Four years ago, I definitely didn’t think I’d be sitting here in 2018, still typing these blog posts, haha.
Also, please let me use this opportunity to say, whether you have followed us since the beginning, joined midway through or only stumbled upon us recently… thank you for reading. I really hope that these postings are of interest and, of course, if you’d like me to talk about something specific related to the development of our projects, I’m always open to suggestions!
But with that said, let’s get to some actual update news, shall we?
Even though GENBA no Kizuna is still our top priority, especially during this Jurassic June, I’m trying to sneak in a little bit of progress on our SHINRAI sequel wherever I can. So recently, I’ve been working on Taiko’s updated WWH sprite and you can now get an early look at it over on Patreon. Patrons can also vote now on who will be featured in July’s artwork. The poll will run until the end of June, so make sure to get your vote in!
And speaking of monthly artworks, we have also finished the one for this month, which thematically revolves around Jurassic June. So have a look at one of GENBA‘s four suspect characters, Shiku Jura, cosplaying as Zia Rodriguez from the newest entry in the Jurassic World franchise: Fallen Kingdom!
(As always, patrons can download a higher resolution version and a full version of Shiku without any background over here)
So, this is the first time we’re showing Shiku off publicly. It’s not the first time one of our suspects has been featured in a monthly artwork, though, since Ryuunosuke Hazama actually appeared right at the start of the year in our New Year’s post.
Anyway, Jurassic June has reached the halfway point now, so I guess it’ll be time to properly introduce our suspects soon.
So please look forward to that!
For today, however, let’s wrap things up with another, unexpected piece of art, featuring Raiko and Kamen!
The piece was commissioned by Xolf and drawn by Ame. Make sure to check out her Instagram as well as our gallery where you can find even more amazing art by a variety of artists!
Now please enjoy the rest of your weekend and, until next Saturday, take care! :3
