Happy New Year, B.E.S.T.I.E.S! 🎉
I truly hope you're enjoying this festive season! Lots of gifts and new games to try out, right?
As for us, things are speeding up!
The first part of Episode 4 is complete and will move into testing once we've ironed out the coding issues with the new challenge we’ve prepared for you!
We’ve also made plenty of UI adjustments to the in-game phone to offer you more interactions. Since it’s a foundational update, we’ve done our best to get it right so we won’t need to revisit it later, allowing us to focus on advancing the story.
You’ve already seen our new application, OnlyStan.
We’ve also added a "biography" section for the game’s characters. You saw the initial version last time—now here’s the "final" version:
Initially, we had a white background... but several players suggested a "dark mode" or a less bright color to reduce eye strain. So, we’ve tried a few options, and this is where you come in:
WHICH COLOR DO YOU PREFER? The original white? The more formal gray? The blue that matches the game’s color scheme? Or the retro-style pink? Let us know your choice in the comments!
Here’s the "final" design for the character profile page:
The little hearts update dynamically based on your relationship progress with each character. These features lay the groundwork for the characters, so please share your thoughts! We’re excited to hear from you.
Now, we’re moving on to the second part of Episode 4, which will be far less "technical" and much more visual.
Part 2 will focus on visuals, renders, animations, and the second match. While Part 1 undergoes testing to ensure all the changes to the phone and the new challenge function smoothly and don’t corrupt your saves, we’ll be advancing Part 2. Our main goal is to deliver the full episode before the next Visual Novel Festival in March.
As for our roadmap this year, here’s the plan:
- Complete Episode 4 by early March at the latest.
- Episode 5 by July at the latest.
- Episode 6 by December at the latest (including a rework of Episode 1’s translation).
We’re really aiming to stick to these deadlines and deliver as much content as possible throughout the year to keep the adventure going.
Regarding the game, more and more of you are playing, and we thank you for that! The game’s review score is steadily climbing (77% positive) as it works its way back to its original score (83%) before Episode 3 and the quiz. 😉 Thanks to the adjustments we made and the option for players to participate or skip challenges, it seems we’ve found a good balance that satisfies more players.
If you haven’t already, please consider leaving a review on Steam to share your thoughts and, if you’re enjoying the game, to support us and help boost the score back to 80%, which would restore our "Very Positive" rating!
Well... That’s a lot of talking with not much in the way of previews...
But we promise to share more images next time!
See you soon!
Dolyla