New Update: Flag Ceremony, More Hand-Drawn Letters, and Bug Fixes!
✨ New Features
Bunny Island now has its own flag! Bunnies also hold a flag-raising ceremony every 5 days.
More Bunny Houses! They now come in different colors too.
Added several more hand-drawn Bunny letters.
Fixed the group activity null bug.
🌸 A Note for New Players
It’s sale time again!
If you decide to buy the game, I really hope you’ll give it a try.
The game is now in its final stage of development, so I’m especially worried about bugs or things I’ve overlooked.
New players are incredibly helpful because everything is fresh to you—the gameplay, the UI, everything.
If you have any feedback, whether you loved something or found something confusing, it would help me a lot.
Thank you~~ Thank you~~ ♪( ´θ｀)ノ
🏳️ This Update
1. Bunny Island Flag
Bunny Island finally has its own flag!
You can place the flag from the Play menu.
The game now also shows the total number of island days, and every 5 days the Bunnies hold a little flag-raising ceremony.
I even wrote the flag shader myself, so the flag always faces the camera.
2. More Bunny Houses
They also have randomly generated colors.
And yes… I wrote this color shader too. ✨
3. More Bunny Letters
Sending Bunny letters now only costs 1 Wood.
A very tiny cost.
Because I really, really want everyone to see the pictures I drew. 🐰
4. Bug Fixes
This part took much longer than I expected.
I never imagined fighting null references could be so dramatic.
💌 Thank You for Reading My Long Posts
After writing these long updates, I always worry that I’m talking too much.
Then I read your comments and realize many of you happily read the whole thing.
That makes me very happy.
Now I can keep writing long posts without worrying so much.
I usually publish updates before going to bed.
When I wake up, your comments are already there.
It’s much healthier than refreshing Steam every few minutes, nervously wondering what everyone thinks.
Sometimes I see big games announce updates and instantly receive dozens of comments.
I can’t help feeling a little jealous.
Still, it’s much easier than hundreds of years ago, when writers had to finish an entire book before anyone could read it and give feedback.
🐞 About Bugs
I’ve been fixing bugs like crazy recently.
I wanted everything finished before the sale started yesterday…
But no matter how late I stayed up, I couldn’t finish.
The culprit was another null bug.
Deleting objects or deleting Bunnies could leave null references behind.
After fighting it for days, I realized staying up all night wasn’t helping.
A tired brain just creates more silly logic mistakes.
So I ended up both exhausted and unproductive.
Eventually I told myself:
“Slow down. Fix it properly.”
Then I tried to comfort myself:
“It’s okay… probably nobody will buy the game during the sale anyway…”
And today…
Someone actually bought it.
AAAAAAAH!!
I immediately panicked and rushed back to fixing bugs.
I was so afraid the only new player would launch the game, hit a bug immediately, and never come back.
Then I tried encouraging myself:
“It’s okay. You’re an artist. Your code doesn’t have to be perfect.”
But… the game was crashing!!
Maybe I should have become an illustrator instead!!
…although AI has made that much harder too.
So I kept screaming internally, fixing bugs, and drinking way too much tea and coffee.
Thankfully…
I finally fixed it today.
I’ve tested everything.
Really.
It works.
(At least… I hope it does. 😅)
If you find any bugs, please let me know.
I’ll keep fighting them.
🌱 Creative Regrets & Business Regrets
Recently I’ve been reading advice from other indie developers.
Things like:“Build thousands of wishlists before launching.”
“Join Steam Next Fest first.”
“The algorithm favors games with more wishlists.”
I checked mine today. After all this time… I have just over 800 wishlists. Not many.
When I launched the game, I didn’t even know Steam had Next Fest. I simply released the game and completely missed that free exposure. Experience always comes afterward.
If I could start over, I’d definitely make smarter decisions. But passion only happens once.
Honestly… If I really had another chance… I probably wouldn’t spend four years making this game.
I’d make something else. Anything.
Indie game development is incredibly difficult. Still, compared to projects with huge teams and massive budgets, at least the only thing I invested was my own time.
⚙️ Unity
I’m currently using Unity 6000.4.6f1. I tried upgrading to 6000.5.0f1, but several third-party plugins stopped working and the entire project refused to open. So I rolled everything back. Since the game is already entering its final stage, this isn’t a huge problem anymore. It just feels a little bittersweet.
Maybe someday I won’t even be able to open this project again.
So I hope I can leave it in a stable state with as few bugs as possible.
🌼 Looking Forward
I’ve thought about not making another game after this one. Maybe I’d just write stories and draw pictures. But AI has changed both writing and illustration too. It’s a little scary. Then again, everyone is facing the same technological changes together. We’ll all eventually find new ways forward.
Recently I’ve been thinking about what I want to finish before this project ends. Financially, this game will probably never be a success. That’s okay. I just don’t want creative regrets. I want Bunny’s story to be complete. I’ll take a short break, then continue thinking about where the story should go next.
That’s all for today.
Thank you so much for being part of Bunny Island.
♪( ´θ｀)ノ