48 hours remain.
about 4 years ago – Wed, Apr 13, 2022 at 02:01:10 AM

Well, it's not too long now. These are the last 48 hours before the campaign ends.

There's a lot I want to say but not enough time to express it. 

I was thinking about where I was two years ago, and what I was doing at the time. Back then, I was making a few small projects and testing out ideas, and while I did have the idea for a game about being single, I really didn't think it would be a real game someday. Even just the thought of attempting a Kickstarter scared me. I genuinely didn't think I could do it.

But here we are now, 1,525 pledges later.

That's crazy, right? 1,525 people. 

I can't even imagine meeting that many people in my lifetime. 

Maybe, one day, whether it's a year from now, or two years from now, I'll have a finished game and I'll look back to this moment. And I'll think to myself "I did it."

I think that future possibility wouldn't exist if it weren't for all 1,525 of you. So I want to really take my time and tell you how much I appreciate you. You are amazing.

There will be one more update, tomorrow before the campaign is officially over. See you tomorrow.

72 hours remain.
about 4 years ago – Mon, Apr 11, 2022 at 11:00:02 PM

Hello everyone, we are now approaching the final 72 hours of the campaign.

well, technically it's 70 hours now (but I really wanted to use this image.)

It's your final chance to do pledges, because after that a giant moon will crash into the earth and we will all die. /j

After the campaign, you will still be able to adjust your pledges and even change your add-ons. However, if you're deciding to pledge at all, now is the time to do so. This also goes for any updates afterwards, while this is not the last public update, after the campaign ends, all updates will be Backer-Only. I plan to still do frequent updates, although maybe not as frequently as they are now (totally not because it would be a pain but just because I don't wanna clog your inboxes, yep that is the reason.)

Feel free to ask any questions from us, and hey, you can still join our discord if you haven't!

We are also somewhat close to getting the Beach Episode stretch goal, so can we hit it before the campaign ends? Find out next time, on I Just Want to be Single!!™

200% Funded and Doggo Unlocked!
about 4 years ago – Fri, Apr 08, 2022 at 09:40:12 PM

A bit late on my part but I'm proud to announce that we are currently at $51,792 and 207% funding! That is actually really incredible. 

In other news, I have some other things to announce.

First, let's start of by saying - WE DID IT! We unlocked the doggo for Aya!!

Here are all the fan arts that made this possible. (CLICK!)

As a quick reminder, we set up a community challenge where if certain conditions are met, we'll add a dog to the game as Aya's pet! 

Said dog will be:

• Cute
• Pet-able
• Nameable
• Able to hang out with you in your room
• Loyal to you no matter what

Unfortunately, we don't have a preview of the doggo :(

But I can tell you some cool facts! The doggo is a male Shiba Inu, and while you CAN name him with a custom name, his default canon name is Banana, because he's good at making distractions.

Second thing I'd like to mention is that, while I did talk about it a little on the main campaign page, I think I want to make it a bit more clear just in case people were not aware of this:

We do have a canonically trans character, as well as a canonically POC character! More information will come soon!

Last thing before I go, I'd like to bring your attention to another cool project I found here on Kickstarter.

Critter Crops: Mystery of Mullery Mansion

Critter Crops is an adorable game about being a cute witch, farming, exploring and restoring a halloween themed island!

If that tagline doesn't sell you, I don't know what will! Go check the out, they're really close to being funded!

3 Reasons why I made this game, about the Manga, and- New Girl Designs?
about 4 years ago – Tue, Apr 05, 2022 at 02:27:21 AM

Hey, how are you?

I'm doing pretty good myself, albeit very tired.

We've got less than 10 days left on the campaign and it's been a blast so far. We've almost doubled our base goal! That's honestly pretty incredible. That being said, it's time for another update.

In a previous update, I talked about the game in a design perspective and so today I want to talk a little bit about the game from an outside perspective. Mainly, the reason why I made this game.

There's quite a few reasons, one of the main ones being the story I told in the main campaign page about how I just thought of a funny idea for a dating sim, and discovering aromanticism. I like funny ideas and I love memes, so a game like this was bound to happen at some point. Me and Tsun (my friend and the artist of the game) have made games before (WHICH YOU SHOULD TOTALLY PLAY), and we've always made game where we've had inclusion and diversity in them, not necessarily as a focus point but as an important aspect of the games. 

We really value casual inclusion. What's casual inclusion? Well, it's inclusion that

• Focuses on acceptance through normalcy
• Doesn't feel forced or heavy handed
• Eases people into themes and cultures
• Doesn't take away focus from the main content

And, the most important point:

Promotes content that is for everyone. Period. As in, it's for anyone to enjoy whether you're part of that group or not. Too often, I see media and creators focus on inclusion but not necessarily diversity. And that's not really a bad thing per se, it's just something I've noticed and while I understand there's nothing stopping me from enjoying the content, it does somehow feel exclusionary in an ironic way, like I'm not really part of the implied in-group.

Anyway, I'm not really trying to bash anyone for making content they want to, I'm just saying we like making content that really is accessible, or at least we strive to be.

I Want to Pursue the Mean Side Character!

My Sweet Zombie!

They're both free! Check 'em out!!

The second reason is that, I really wanted to make this type of game, because it's just honestly something I want to see more of. This game's design and all the aspects I've put into it are things I really wish other creators would do more of, for example, I want to see more light hearted and fun stories! I hate when people use this term but... I like "wholesome" things. I want to chill on my couch and have a good time with something relaxing and not stress over. A lot of media these days have become very heavy handed in themes, and I see a lot of "ironic" media as well, which I'm honestly a little tired of. Many people have told me that they had an initial impression of our game just being another joke game (well, technically it's a funny game but not in that sense.) While the premise might seem that way, the story is very much genuine.

Also, c'mon world, make more protagonists that are non-binary and/or aromantic!

And make more games with protagonists that actually have a personality and isn't just a husk!

Third reason is: I just really like games. I want to keep making games in the future, and even though it might sound way too ambitious and I'm getting ahead of myself, I already have plans on what to work on next after this game. That doesn't mean I'm gonna abandon this game or lose focus or anything, don't worry.

Here's a question I got from a backer recently:

"How many pages does the manga have?"

Well, we don't really know right now, but I realize that I should probably have clarified this early on. The Manga is planned to have around 30-40 pages, and is a short sidestory exclusive to the manga and not shown in the game. It's more of a one-shot comic, and isn't a full out manga, if that was what you were expecting- my apologies, I should have made it more clear. You're definitely free to adjust your backing moving forward if you feel that you're not getting your money's worth, however, any more pages than that and we would be taking focus away from the game itself, so this is the best we can do.

Alright enough rambling, it's time for some updates.

We are VERY close to reaching our community challenge goal! You guys have really been impressing me with those fan arts! Just only a few more left, and we'll soon have 30! Keep it up!

And lastly, I promised that we'll be showing a little bit of our new girls' designs. Here's a very special teaser, just for you.

(We'll reveal the full designs later when they're finished, I promise!)

Friendship Dates Unlocked! You guys are scaring me... and is that a mf'n JOJO REFERENCE?
about 4 years ago – Wed, Mar 30, 2022 at 11:43:55 PM

You did it. You crazy goofballs did it. Now Aya has to go on Friendship Dates.

You know you guys are actually starting to scare me. I don't really know what I'm gonna do if you reach the next stretch goal, I mean I wasn't expecting us to get this far. Before we launched our campaign, I was thinking that we would have like a close call funding. Like maybe get funding in the last week or something. Not, like, almost reach all the stretch goals to the point where I can't think of any more. 

And now we're here. This is my life now.

Anyway, today I want to talk briefly about the current state and the future of the game. A lot of you are looking forward to how the full version of the game will turn out, how we'll improve things, and how well I am at keeping promises (especially when thousands of dollars are involved.)

A fairly big youtuber by the name of ManlyBadassHero (yes, that's actually his name) covered our game yesterday, and it already has around 90,000 views as of me writing this.

While mostly well received, there was a lot of reactions to the game both from Manly himself and the comments section, mostly about things that people were not aware of in the game, and potential worries about the full version of the game. Some of you might also share those concerns so I'd like to address some of those issues.

First of all, the main point which Manly brought up was that he was hoping that our game does not forget about it's main gimmick and mechanics when the full game comes out, citing other games have a habit of doing this. Very understandable, lots of things happen during development. However, our game will definitely not forget about our unique aspects, as those are part of the main appeal after all, and it's where most of the fun comes from.

I think where this worry comes from is the fact that the demo does not have any real consequences for playing differently in any way, thus, the mechanics and systems don't feel like they have impact and they don't feel like they are designed well. The truth is, I just couldn't expand on the demo any more because I literally didn't enough budget to do so. Art, writing, concepting, just time spent working on the game costs money, and I have a certain level of standard I have to uphold if I want to showcase a quality game. It's better to show off the polished parts, rather than the janky, poorly fleshed out parts (even though alot of the demo is already janky.)

The full game will have real branching,  choices that impact your path progression in the game in the long run and you will need to actually strategize on how to get the specific ending you want (which I need to emphasize: there will be MANY endings.) One of my biggest priorities is having a dynamic game that has lots of secrets and unique ways to play in order to stand out from other dating sims. I want a game where you can't just load/save your way to the ending. So I have a lot of planned tricks up my sleeve that I can't wait to show you all in the full game.

The second major concern is that, people may be worried we won't be able to meet our promised deadline or we won't be able to fulfill our promised features/rewards or something equally distastrous. I want to reassure everyone that all of this has been carefully well thought out beforehand and made sure we aren't overestimating anything just to appear legit. And I won't say there won't be any delays either, anything could happen. But we'll try our best, thats what I can say for sure.

And lastly, there is one more subject I've seen a lot of people bring up. Many of you will notice that there are a lot of things in the game that remind you of something else, whether it's a sprite, a pose, a bg, a character's personality, or whatever else. I'd like to first reassure you that this is 100% intentional. Yes, we actually referenced a lot of anime and manga pop-culture in our game, even from other games to give you that nostalgic feeling of watching something familiar. Heck, if you've read the main campaign page, you know I'm a complete sucker for 2000's anime and games. 

Even all of our characters are each based on a stereotypical trope, like the Dere types, and other common archetypes you'll usually see in anime/manga/visual novels. 

And yes, Nozomin DOES have multiple 'Jojo poses'. Yes, the "Noodle Incident of '87" is a Markiplier/FNAF reference. What can I say, I can't help myself, I'm a shitposter at heart and I can't help but make goofy references and homages to my favorite media that I love and adore. 

But those are just the easy ones, I bet you haven't even caught all of the references in the game and I'd like to see you try.

Next update, I'll be talking about our new girls and how they fit into the story! And maybe a design preview??? Stay tuned!