[News] Big Changes are Coming~!!!

IMPORTANT: This is a big one! Filled with a lot of really important stuff. Please read it carefully because everything is about to change.

These past few months we’ve been digging deep. Reflecting on everything that’s been happening and trying to come to terms with it all.

We realize now we did a lot of dumb things and made a lot of dumb promises. Doing stuff without thinking about the overall impact. 

Many events occurred in the last 8 months that told us what we’re doing isn’t working. All of which had a spiraling effect on our health, well-being, and ability to work. 

In the end, it was a kitchen sink, we were doing way too much. And as a result, it really fucked things up, and we’ve made a call to make sure it doesn’t continue.

Does that mean we’re giving up?

HELL NO!!!

We’ve been talking a lot during this break, figuring out what we’re trying to do and making sure we’re not doing more stupid things. And we’ve come up with a plan. One that’s a little smarter, a little safer but still reasonably ambitious.

Part of a plan is knowing what to focus on. And here are the key things we’ve decided that are most important, for what we’re prioritizing, until we need to re-evaluate ourselves again.

• Strengths - We want to play to our strengths focusing on what we do best, which is interesting character development through art and storytelling.
• Growth - We want to grow our skills, in art, writing, programming, and animation, as well as our Patreon, into the type of games we want to make without overpromising.
• Sustainable - We want to make our Patreon support what we do in a way that is manageable and reasonable, and turn it into something that is not just a hobby.

Now let’s get down to it. Strap yourselves in, it’s going to be a long one.

What the hell does this mean for patrons?

We want to give our patrons more premium content and exclusive downloads. Things that only patrons get to see, that expand upon the world of Paizuri. So more short stories and lewd art.

We also want to continue giving Patron’s early access to downloadable versions before a release goes public.

What the hell does this mean for non-patron fans?

More censored samplers to help keep the work we’re doing visible and more web versions to play in browser for y’all.

What the hell does this mean for everyone?

More content in general.

We also want everyone to have more choice on things we move onto, and provide ways to give us feedback. So more polls and ways to communicate with us.

How the hell do we intend to do that?

This month we’re going to be moving a lot of things around. There are going to be page changes, goal updates, tier updates and a heap of things to do with what we're doing and how we’re doing it.

Most of this is going to be work-related changes, scaling everything back to something reasonable, and replacing the time made available with more manageable tasks that focus on what we do best. So more funny stories, naughty characters, and sexy art.

This change alone will reduce pressure and prevent rough situations, like Buka Chan being hospitalized in September (View Post) to name at least one, from happening again. It should also let life happen because there’s no avoiding that.

We’re also scheduling regular breaks throughout the year, that way we don’t overdo it the same way we have been. This also gives us time to plan and prepare new ideas, without a divided focus, directing our efforts where it matters most to keep newer stuff coming, at least until more time becomes available to us as our Patreon grows.

What the hell are we going to do with Paizuri University?

To save time and get it finished, we’re stripping the adventure mode out completely. 

WHAT?! WHY?!?!

It’s a hot mess and not the soft and pleasant kind. It adds more time and problems into the mix, as well as diverts our attention away from the parts we feel are more important.

This has also been made even more difficult by the fact that we lost a significant portion of working art files in May that we were never able to recover. (View Post)

So we’re pulling it out. By doing that it means we can focus more on the important things, and finish off Paizuri University.

But hell, what about all the side stories, quests, and H-Scenes? 

We’re going to re-write some into their own standalone short stories. We’re also going to re-work some plot-related ones back into the main Visual Novel. 

We’ll be keeping the old version of Paizuri University available for people to download so they can keep getting access to those scenes.

Doing it this way means we can split this up for Web releases again, separating it into chapters and releasing them publicly to help promote us and potentially grow. 

Once all chapters are completed, we will then combine them into a single version, with the potential for additional content (if it makes sense to). This is how we intend to manage releases of stories which may expand across multiple chapters from now on.

Downloadable versions will still be provided as usual.

Hell, will you ever do the adventure mode again?

We’ve discussed what we’d like to do about that and we have some ideas, all of which are too ambitious and early to say. But this will be something we hope to grow into as well.

So, what the hell are these tier changes?

We’ve been needing to make changes to the reward tiers for a long time, never having enough time to do it, but now we’re going to. And we’re doing it in a way that we feel is not only fair for us, but all patrons across tiers. 

We’ll be posting more about those changes in an upcoming post because it’s way too big to fit it all here. So expect that next.

And goals? What the hell are you talking about, you have no real goals?!

We do now~!

We’re making animations a Patreon Goal.

We don’t like this one. But after measuring the time they take and the quality at which they come out at, it’s taking more away from us then it’s putting back in and it doesn’t play to our strengths. 

And the point of making them into a goal is to make sure it doesn’t have to stay that way. Because we like animated H-Scenes as much as everyone else.

SO…

We’ll be setting a few Patreon goals to take steps towards doing animations again in a way that we can anticipate and grow into it. 

This means we’ll know ahead of time what animation features to add, what skills we have and need to improve, and at the same time, match the amount we are generating with the time available to us. The “Money = Time” thing.

This, in turn, takes any improvements we’ve made in our art and storytelling into the animations we do in the future.

We also have several other goals planned that we’re still figuring out the details for, but we’ll be adding them once we know more. So expect posts for those ones too.

F’ing Hell...

These are some big changes and it’s a whole lot of words. 

We know some of you are probably not going to like them, and for the most part, we agree. It should never have come to this. We over promised, hesitated on changes, pushed too hard and ran straight off a cliff nowhere near any kind of finish line. It was inevitable.

But, we feel like, that if we make these changes, everything makes sense and we can actually do it without worrying about so many things and making you laugh as hard as possible at the stories we can tell.

If we don’t make those changes, the reality will be Zuripai Games and the paizuri world will never ever be fully realized. And the thought of many Patrons contributing to a project that never reached its full potential, or flat out flops, doesn’t sit well with us. And that would just really really really suck and be totally uncool.

So we want to make it right. And we want to keep y’all laughing hard for as long as we can.

If you’re currently a Patron, we’ll completely understand if you no longer want to support us. We’re going to make a lot of big changes, and we’ve done a lot of stupid things and we need to prove ourselves again.

If that is the price of doing something we love, then we’re going to make that choice, accept the responsibilities and deal with it~!

We hope y’all understand. If you have any questions feel free to get into contact with us or leave a comment.

Thank you to everyone who has supported us. Your feedback, support, and love have really helped keep us going and changed our lives for the better. And the best thing we can do in return is kick some ass and keep y’all laughing hard. <3

With much love,

~ Zuri Sama & Buka Chan ~