October 2022 Monthly Update

I blinked, and September's already over. I swear it was just a couple days ago that I was writing the last update! My wonky perception of time aside, September was another busy month here at Studio Élan.

PBH

We're starting off another month with being super close to finishing PBH. There are only a handful of scenes left to be written/edited, and adi's been making great progress with the scripting once again. We've also enlisted a few friends to help out with the scripting process, so a huge "thank you!" to all of them for coming in clutch. Aside from writing and scripting, these next couple weeks are going to be full of voice acting recording as well. We've had a few sessions with the actors for Miho, Juliet and Aspen recently, and they've all been a ton of fun. Or sadness, depending on the scene. In fact, just yesterday, we had a recording session for Juliet that resulted in both Shara, Juliet's voice actress, and the director in tears. As a writer, I'll consider that a success. We're optimistic that we'll finally be able to announce a release date for the game this month. The very end of this month, probably, but still.  We'll be previewing a couple CG's from the game in the coming weeks, so please look forward to that. Also, if you missed them a couple days ago, be sure to check out these adorable SD's that Kobuta just completed.

LAK

Last month, we brought a new editor onto Lock & Key: Ari North, who'll also be the editor for Samayuuni. Ari's a webcomic artist (amongst many other things!) and always gives some incredibly helpful and insightful advice on our scripts. She recently did a full read-through of the LAK script, and now Rachel will be going back and revising it based upon her feedback, and also writing the last couple scenes that remain.

Other Stuff

Aside from those games, we have a bit of assorted news. One of the most significant is that we'll be at anime expo chibi in Ontario, California next month! You'll be able to find us in the Exhibitor Hall, right next to the entrance to the Artist Alley. This is our first time exhibiting at a convention, so we're super excited for this. We'll have some merchandise for sale, including a couple event-exclusive items, as well as some freebies to hand out. It'll be staffed by me (Josh) and Syon, the other writer and director for Highway Blossoms, so come say hello if you're there!

We also fiiiiinally have a bit of an update on the Xbox version of Heart of the Woods: we fixed some issues, and the game is finally in the certification stage, where Microsoft looks over it and makes sure it's good to go. Once that's done, we'll finally be able to release. Assuming no issues come up, that should be out later this month.

(Preview of a PBH chapter card by Theo)

Thanks for supporting us again this month, and we'll talk to you again soon. Stay spooky everyone!