Dear friend,
Some time ago I wrote a press release to announce the release date for The Merry Fairy. But the thought of writing about it here did not cross my mind. I simply made the date available in the store front. For those of you who missed the tiny news, know this:
I plan to launch The Merry Fairy on July 9, 2025. The full game will cost USD/ EUR 9.99.
Why 9?
I am turning 44 years old on July 9, 2025. For most of my life, I did not celebrate my birthday and did my best to think of this date as something unimportant. It was a subconscious (or perhaps semi conscious) attempt to make myself small, to pretend that my existence matters little and to instil in myself some crocked pride and joy in my selflessness, as if my exercise in taking as little space as possible is something noble and worthy of love.
I feel you might recognise the feeling.
But somewhere down the adventurous road of my life, I learned that all life matters. There is nothing noble in putting myself down - in fact, the very opposite is true. If I cannot celebrate my own existence, what trust can I have in my ability to celebrate any life at all?
This flipped a switch in me and about two years ago, I started to create the best birthday gift I can think of, for myself: The Merry Fairy. I knew I'd launch this game on July 9th, I knew I am starved of birthday celebrations so I made myself a promise that I will give myself this gift as fast as I can, and I knew I'd want to price it at 9.99. Coincidentally, number 9 fits well in many more pragmatic ways, though I cannot help myself dreaming that the Universe spawned me with a key to my own heart and self love all along.
So now you know: The Merry Fairy is a very personal gift to myself. It will come on my birthday and it will offer precisely what I desire: a mirror that can show me just how magical I am. A window into my own heart. A fairytale space that is quiet and safe, where I may find my joy by playing and exploring my creativity; where I may cry, allowing my shadows to dissipate into the light of these digital pages, imprinting my wisdom as they melt away; where I may just be, for it is and has always been enough.
Curiously enough, though certainly not unexpected, the more I pour my soul into The Merry Fairy, the more the magic of The Merry Fairy finds its way into my regular, every day life.
The fact that this gift I am building for myself can be shared with you is, perhaps, my most favourite feature. Welcome into my world, my friend!
Help wanted
Since I will launch The Merry Fairy on July 9th, I will take part in the June edition of Steam Next Fest. These kind of events are notorious for launching demos, but my demo has been out and about for a while, and I have been updating it on a fairly regular basis. I am preparing one last demo update which I plan to launch for Steam Next Fest. This update will contain:
- A much improved Decorations page in the journal, where you can sort the stickers you have gathered based on size and category
- The Decoration page will also contain a Clear All button, just in case you'd like to start over (I often do)
- A new page in the Guestbook, with brand new decorative and contemplative content
- A handful of visual improvements in the game scene
- A bunch of bug fixes
- A massive effort to improve the overall performance of the demo
I seek help!
If you find yourself having a few minutes to spare, I'd love some extra hands to test all these new features and fixes before I launch the latest demo version publicly. I can be reached via Steam (I prepared a topic on the forum so that you can easily express your interest) or Discord (I made a server for The Merry Fairy right here).
