Hello, hello! It’s Chattercap!

It’s been a few months since I released Karamu! Thank you again to everyone who downloaded, rated, and commented! I’m extremely grateful for all of the support the project has received!

I’m here again because I’d like to make a few announcements that you might be interested in!

First, I’d like to formally announce that two follow-ups to Karamu are in the works: one prequel and one sequel.

Prequel: TSUNAGU (tentative)

Summary: On the eve of his tenth birthday, Rakuo Kumode undergoes his family’s horrific “initiation ceremony.” When he refuses, he’s punished…and he has an encounter that will change his life forever.

Sequel: HANASU (tentative) 

Summary: After the events of Karamu, Raku and Nelli have settled into an uneasy truce, although Nelli struggles to trust Raku after learning about his secrets. However, their peaceful lives are disrupted by a new arrival: Raku’s family.

Although these projects are still in early stages, here are the preliminary character designs for Nelli and Raku in Hanasu!

I’m planning to develop both of these games for release next year! However, while I’m working on them now, they probably won’t hit “serious development” until later in the year because…

My next project is “The Deepwater Witch”!

In a world ravaged by pollution and climate change, a “prince” has an encounter with a “mermaid.” 

This will be a slightly dark retelling of the Little Mermaid set in a post-apocalyptic future, where you play from the perspective of the “prince.” In reality, the POV character, Ramil, isn’t a prince at all; he’s a down-on-his-luck scavenger, struggling to survive while facing crippling debt to the Somnatan Syndicate, the local criminal gang. After an incident in which he nearly drowns, he has a fated meeting with a mysterious girl on a beach. As the girl’s identity unravels, will Ramil’s story end with the happily ever after…or tragedy?

I plan to release the Deepwater Witch for the Once Upon a Time VN Jam, so expect to see it released around the end of the year! Like Karamu, it will be a dark romance with a couple of twists, featuring one LI with a defined MC (though you’ll play from the POV of the guy this time). However, the scope is quite a bit larger (currently estimated to be about 3 hours of playtime). Quite a bit of progress has been made on this project already, and I’m excited to share the details!

Lastly, I’d like to talk about my socials! In the past, I’ve mainly used Twitter (or X, as it is now called) to talk about my projects! However, X is in a bit of rough spot at the moment, and I’ve been looking for alternatives.

After a lot of deliberation, I’ve decided to…open a Patreon! I thought that Patreon would be a good place to talk about my WIPs while also giving anyone who’s interested an opportunity to support me. Any proceeds will go towards supporting my projects (commissioning artists, hiring VAs, buying sound assets, etc.) As a solo, self-funded dev, any support is greatly appreciated! 

I’ll still be making regular announcements on X and Tumblr, but if you like what I do and want to look at what’s going on under the hood, I’ll be posting a lot of content on Patreon that I won’t share anywhere else: sketches, writing snippets, high-resolution artwork, etc. I already have a lot of content about the Deepwater Witch queued up, and I’ll be posting about Tsunagu and Hanasu there, too!

Thank you for reading to the end, and I hope you have a wonderful day!

Chattercap