Hello everyone,

The past ten days have been difficult for me and my team. No matter how hard I tried, several people still left, even though the income from the new update is twice as much as from the previous one. In general, I lost part of the team, and now Bloody Ink is a bit smaller… but maybe this will work out for the better.

I’ve learned a lesson from the situation that occurred after the Patreon block. I realized that you always need to be prepared for the worst, even when everything seems fine.

So, what did I decide?

I came to several conclusions and have now fully decided what I will do next.

Here are some key points:

1. Despite the financial success of the current version, I understand that the online version is unplayable for many players. And that’s a problem. A very big one.
2. The offline version, if I want to protect it, must be on a different engine. It could be Unity or UE. But the transition will take time. Plus, the transition doesn’t guarantee the project’s security.
3. The income from the game will not be the same, and I shouldn’t try to get it back to what it was by any means, even if it harms the game.

When I started trying to switch to Unity, I realized that, most likely, I was just wasting time. I’m trying to limit access to the game for the players who love it. Yes, some people might pay me for it, some can’t, some will copy it to third-party sites immediately after release, and some will wait for the official release despite leaks. I realized that I’ve been spending more time “taking” the game away from my fans, closing myself off from them. And that’s wrong.

Over these ten days, I’ve thought a lot about everything and realized that I just need to keep making the game. Make it at the pace and scale that the funding allows me. This is the right, and probably the only right, way to continue working on the project. I need to stop thinking about money and start focusing on the project itself. When I first started, I only thought about the game, the content in it, and how it would be received. I didn’t think about financial success. Of course, it was easier not to think about it back then, as I was starting alone, and now I have a team to pay, but… You can always start over and return to where it all began. If the income goes back to the old level, I’ll simply expand the team again and be able to create more content. If the income drops, I’ll reduce the current team accordingly. But I definitely don’t need to try to squeeze money out of the subscribers by adding various restrictions, which will take me as much time as the game’s creation itself.

So, what’s the outcome?
The game will return to offline distribution. On December 25th, I will release the public version 0.6.5 for everyone. Maybe, a little later, before the New Year, I will release a small version 1.0.1.

Why 1.0.1?
I decided that I want to start everything from scratch. Let it be like a blank slate, from which the story of A Wife’s Phone begins or continues. No, it won’t be a new game. I will just continue the story, but in a new build. I want to do this to cut off all the stress and anxiety I had after the Patreon block. Therefore, I will make a new build, which will continue the story after 0.6.5. In other words, it will be version 0.6.7, or 0.7.0, but in a new build (without any old content, just new). At the start of the game, you will be offered choices based on which the protagonist’s archetype will be built, and then the story will continue.

Perhaps, in the new version, I will change some parts of the interface and make them better. I haven’t thought about it yet, but if I decide to change something, I’ll definitely let you know.

I will announce the exact date of the new update later.

For now… that’s all.