PROJECT KOUVOLA TURNS 2 YEARS OLD... at least, since the idea was conceived in a dream I had.
(I need to emphasize this, as the game was released just a few months ago, and I don't want to appear to be a compulsive liar).
But the idea is there!
The idea behind Project Kouvola was conceived two years ago, and since then, the story has allowed me to experience one of the most incredible moments possible. I've met a lot of people, learned a lot about everything I love, experienced one of the happiest moments of my life on launch day with the trailer premiere on YouTube, and seen a huge amount of positive feedback about this game.
Today, I want to say several things.
First... thank you!
It's thanks to you that I'm here, and I could thank everyone if I wanted to: my incredible friends behind YukimiGS, my family who supported me and wished me well before, during, and after the launch, and obviously everyone who didn't know me beforehand but decided to give me a chance.
To all of you, my heart is more alive than ever.
But apart from that, I want to clarify several important things...
And, obviously, the first thing I'm going to comment on is...
SIDE [B]: HARMONY IN DISASTER
What can I expect here?
Project Kouvola was planned as a two-part novel right from the start, even before it was publicly announced in June 2024.
Project Kouvola: A short novel inspired by Milk Inside a Bag with an apocalyptic twist.
TWT (code name for now, just in case): A novel that did more justice to the setting in which Side A took place, the dystopian Finland, being more... horrible in every way.
And so it was... until July 21, 2024.
That's when I showed a beta version of the first chapter to my friends (who would later become members of YukimiGS) for the first time.
And there, they asked me a question that would change everything.
What if you create an alternate story where you now see the perspective of the government employees?...
...
August 14: The script was finished, and now Project Kouvola was a 3-part novel!
SIDE [B]: HARMONY IN DISASTER
A story that DOES NOT CONTINUE WITH THE EVENTS OF CHAPTER 1!
This is the story of Robert and Lydia, two government employees who helped with the entire contamination plan out of necessity (of all those who work there, the fact that they do it only because they must in order to support their families makes them less sadistic characters in my opinion), only to end up regretting it and being mistaken for criminals...
Basically, they did something wrong, and suddenly they had the entire government against them. Oops.
Now, they will have to survive the same hell that the survivors will experience, having to stay alive, locked up, or having to go out into the dangerous world.
So. How long will the game be?
Well, the Steam page for Project Kouvola includes a short FAQ about Harmony, and one of those questions was
How long will it be compared to Side [A]?: Long enough to double the length of the original game.
Well, that's what I said at the beginning because of the huge amount of content we added during the last few months of development...
But with Harmony, we're not going to set a release date, and the Harmony Update won't just include the story from Chapter 2; it will be accompanied by a huge amount of extras that will make the base game in its current state seem like a simple demo (because technically it is...).
So, let's not talk about doubling the game anymore...
Think of it on the scale of tripling or even quadrupling, if possible!
That's right, the update is going to be practically a complete game.
So, what's the catch?
It can't all be that perfect, right?
Well... no.
Even though I hate to do this, because I want my games to be as accessible as possible, the content that will be added in the update will be so big that the game will probably go up in price, not by much, maybe... $10/12?
I don't want to talk about this too soon; we still have a long way to go.
Even though the story is basically finished, we take the quality of our products very seriously, which is why we're going to polish everything as much as possible in order to deliver something we're proud of.
And yes, that also means we're going to continue polishing things in Chapter 1, such as the English translation, which we rushed a bit, and now my good friend Pipparoni is helping us to finish polishing so that there are no problems.
ONCE AGAIN, THESE ARE ALL VERY EARLY IDEAS, WHICH MEANS WE MAY BACKTRACK AT SOME POINT DURING DEVELOPMENT.
However, the Harmony Update may include, but is not limited to:
All of Harmony in Disaster, with a prologue, 3 acts, and some extra stories in the form of encores.
A completely new soundtrack for the most part, which will probably be on par with the PK OST (+30 tracks).
A new chapter selection screen with animations, new music, lots of pretty art, etc. (No more skipping to get to the parts you want to see!)
Ren'Py updates. The latest versions of the engine promise considerable improvements in stability and performance that we're sure we'll need!
Improvements to the scripts throughout the game (writing visual novels in a code editor is painful for grammar).
And several smaller but necessary changes to provide a good experience, such as the color of the text in some cases. (I sincerely apologize to all those who have trouble seeing the blue text in your head.)
And before you ask, is there a catch?
Unfortunately, yes.
Since we're basically rebuilding almost the entire game from scratch, it's very likely that many saved files will be corrupted.
So the safest thing to do would be to save the files in a new folder...
TLDR: The entire save process will be lost.
But does it really matter that much...?
Project Kouvola is a novel that you can easily finish in a few hours in its current state.
And if you really want to see every little detail, get all the achievements, etc., it'll take you about 5 hours max.
But anyway, just in case I need to clarify. No, you don't need to play through SIDE [A] again to unlock the Harmony in Disaster content.
BUT, if you haven't played it, I recommend you do.
Play it chronologically!
Prologue
Side A
Side B
Part 3, which we probably won't announce until we finish working on Chapter 2 for the sake of my mental health.
Trust me, you're doing yourself a huge favor.
That was a summary of the new video “2 Years of Project Kouvola.”
Check it out if you want... or don't; you decide.
(Currently only available in Spanish, but I will try to make English subtitles.)
With love,
LowMoon [Al3x]