Hello everyone! Honey-Sweet Lies has already been out for a week! It's kind of crazy to think that my little game got any traction, never mind the amount it did. I was initially apprehensive to even upload my game at all, due to fear of judgment. Since it is a completely amateur project and my first project of this scale ever, I had considered just keeping it to myself, but I'm really glad I shared it. I got a lot of very positive feedback (and one 1 star rating, which didn't hurt as much as I thought it would) and definitely learned a lot through the process of trying to market with no connections and 20 followers on Twitter!

> Numbers and Stuff 

As of writing this, which is May 27th at 9:00 PM, which is about exactly a week after uploading the game (I posted about it the next afternoon on Friday) I have 850 downloads!!! In the grand scheme of things, I have no clue whether this is good or bad since I have nothing to compare it to, but to me, this is far beyond what I expected. I remember calculating how many Twitter followers I had + how many itch.io followers I had + YouTube comments and I came to a total of 25~ ish predicted downloads. And then I got around 40 overnight...

My peak was 190 downloads in one day! My first download goal was 20, then 100, then 500, and then 750, which have all been cleared just in release week. Now I'm hoping for 1000, crossing my fingers!

> Incoming Referrals

To be honest, I'm not entirely sure how to read this data, but I do know that outside advertising through YouTube and Twitter pulled 62 views which ... is probably not all that good. I think most of the views from YouTube came from the lovely people who did gameplay of my game (which was actually hard to wrap my head around) and I'm super duper thankful for that! Next time I'll definitely figure out how to utilize Twitter better for advertising and find other methods of promoting my game.

> Some More (short) Thoughts

All in all, I'm extremely thankful for all the support my game has gotten and I'm so glad I decided to release it. All I wanted was for one person to play it and enjoy it (and hopefully cry, depending on the ending) and for so many people to have downloaded it and to have gotten so many kind messages, it's really hard to believe.

My goals for my next game are to continue to produce entertaining and visually appealing games while continuing to polish and make them look more professional. While I tested Honey-Sweet Lies to the moon and back, there's still some missing punctuation and a speaker error. Obviously, games cannot be perfect because humans are making them, but I want the finished projects to be as high quality as possible! My next game is definitely challenging my python abilities (maybe I need to take a proper course) but I hope the results will be worth it. Working properly with reference sheets, getting a proofreader, and just more intense quality control are big priorities for my upcoming projects.

> The Future???

Currently, I have two games officially planned to start, one in development and one, for YaoiJam 2021, in brainstorming, as well as two projects sitting in the back of my mind. I'm currently working on a truer-to-the-genre horror game about an AI (played two games with AI's and became very inspired to tackle a game about my favorite topic, AI ethics!) My YaoiJam 2021 game is a slightly nerdy game and will be much more lighthearted than my other released projects (although it'll definitely have some heartstring-pulling moments, hopefully.) The demo will be out at the end of YaoiJam, and I'm still working through what that's gonna look like.

And now the headliner (in my eyes): Honey Sweet Lies 2!!! This game was always planned to be grander than I made it, but instead of casting aside those ideas, I'm moving them forward in time into a second game! I don't have a set time frame for HSL2, as my other two projects are currently occupying my schedule until the end of August 2021 (as well as the dreaded 2nd year of university... bleugh). My goal (for now) is to have the full YaoiJam title done by the end of October/November. Honey-Sweet Lies 2 would theoretically start production after that but I have 3 obstacles) funding, reception, and a 7-month long Japan trip. And funding is a big, big problem.

I'm looking into grants right now, and there's the potential of crowdfunding, but that requires an audience and people excited about a second game, and I'm not quite sure how to drive that up. I may combine HSL and HSL2 so as to not seem offputting to newcomers and just rework HSL to fit in. But even then, it's quite a daunting task. Even if I cut out my lofty dreams of voice acting and a Japanese translation and potential port to the Switch, I still will definitely need a team's help with this one. Even my YaoiJam 2021 project is feeling a little at risk due to the fact that I can't afford a background artist... 

But I am currently trekking away at my AI-horror with jumpscares and many more interactive features (you might've seen the timed menu choices on my Twitter!) and I'm excited for all that's to come. Hope you all stick around to support me in my future endeavors! (And keep your eyes out if you're interested in seeing me play my own game!)

Preston, fyshku productions