Happy May, everyone! Since the last update, many things have happened both in terms of development and in terms of the upcoming release schedule. As many of you know, the release date is schedule for July 31, 2021. This release date still stands but with a few alterations.
It seems unprofessional to get into the details too deeply, but the brief summary of the situation is that my mother has been sick and I sadly do not have many more months left to spend with her. As I am writing and programming Heart Fragment alone this hasn't left me with a schedule nearly as open as I had expected for development.
There is also a secondary issue: Heart Fragment has ended up being a much longer story than originally intended when the Kickstarter launched! The common route & fantasy fragment routes (aka Kay and Clive's routes) alone have anywhere from 8 to 15 hours of gameplay depending on your reading speed and whether or not you intend to get 100% completion. Originally this was meant to be the length of the full game.
Long story short, the schedule needs to be changed slightly.
Right now the plan is to decide between one of these options:
- Options 1: Heart Fragment releases in early access at the end of July with the first "book" (the Fantasy Fragments, Kay & Clive) available to play immediately. The following "books" (Belief Fragments with Lana and Shannon & the Despair Fragments with Jasper & Natalia) will be released episodically as free automatic updates.
- Option 2: Heart Fragment releases the first "book" as mentioned above and the next two books are released as DLC.
The difference is minor. Either way the release schedule is the same, but option 1 involves buying the game as early access and waiting on the updates while option 2 involves buying each "book" individually, meaning you can buy them as they release instead of paying for the full game at once.
I want to make this as simple as possible for everyone involved, so if anyone has suggestions, comments, concerns, or would simply like to voice their preference between the two options, please feel free to do so! Thank you all so much for being so patient with me throughout this development. I will continue doing my absolute best to create an amazing experience for you all.
