Hello everyone,
This is Alfred, the Game Director! No, this isn't written with AI, so please read it.
First of all, I wanted to thank you so much for supporting Path of the Midnight Sun over the last 3 years! This was the first game I ever published, and it took me over 12,000 hours in an obscure engine called Visual Novel Maker. I had no one to help me, and I couldn't even code. I had to learn everything from scratch! Technically speaking, the engine only supported visual novels, but I hacked and tweaked it until I was able to create my own RPG system on top. And that's how this game came to be. Never give up!
Special Anniversary Illustration 🌟
Our lead artist made a very cute illustration to celebrate these 3 years together. Aren't Shiori and Faratras adorable? These characters mean a lot to me. I started writing their stories when I was 15. That's more than half my life ago now, haha. I'm really happy that I was able to create a game with them, and that so many people enjoyed their dynamics and internal struggles. Since I have two degrees in psychology, I enjoy writing memorable characters with great strengths... but also relatable weaknesses. And when a lot of the reviews said how this game was driven by its characters, it made me really happy.
New Price
I'm always extremely transparent when it comes to these things: I noticed that most of the game's sales happen when it's discounted nowadays. It tends to go 50% off, and only rarely 60% off. Personally, I'm of the philosophy that it's sad to discount a game to 75% or more, because it devalues the project and gives the idea that "this is worth buying only when it's on sale".
So I decided to do something else: I lowered the base price of Path of the Midnight Sun to $19.99 instead of $24.99! This way, I hope the game will always stay accessible to new players even outside of sales periods (please try it out - I'm sure you'll like it!). I plan on releasing Food Devils in Early Access later this year at $19.99, and even more budget and time went into the creation of that game, so this new price point for PotMS feels just fair.
Also, can I say it? Am I allowed to brag about my own game? Shucks, I'll do it anyway. It's a very competitive price. For $19.99 you usually find visual novels that don't have RPG elements, or games that don't match the same audiovisual quality. Here everything is animated, the illustrations are pretty, we have 3 hours of original soundtrack, 25 hours of content, and even professional voice acting from industry veterans who worked on AAA projects.
Is this a perfect game? Nah, I don't think so.
Are we still a bit under the radar? Hell yeah! (But time will fix this! Have faith!)
Final words
If you're wondering whether there will be a new content update... I don't think that will happen. The Visual Novel Maker engine is abandoned and discontinued (by the same company that makes RPG Maker, by the way), and unfortunately for me it's extremely hard and tedious to work on it in its current state. There were plans for a Chinese fan translation, but that's it. I also want to focus on new projects, and I believe that Path of the Midnight Sun is already full of content and in a very good state for what it tries to be. It's a great game for its price point. Especially its new price point. Hah!
If you've been here since the very beginning - thank you again for these wonderful 3 years together.
If you're new, welcome aboard!
Until next time,
-Alfred