Hey heartbreakers~!

I've been making a lot of progress on the new update, "Befriend".

Recently, I finished fixing all the progress I lost in my hard drive crash, and over the last couple of weeks I've gotten the gameplay where it needs to be for this update.

Right now, I'm working on illustrating two new cutscenes for this update, after which I'll be adding a few tweaks for polish, then releasing it.

However, while I was planning to include two of the hidden Plots at once, I've kept you guys waiting long enough, so I've decided to leave one of them to the update after, as it'll require illustrating a whole new cutscene that'll have a fair bit of detail.

As I receive no financial support and have to fund the game's development entirely out-of-pocket, and my income has dropped to less than half over the last two years, this has impacted development speed greatly, but I'm doing the best I can.

Here's a list (in no particular order) of my plans to get Episode 1 finished:

1) Gameplay

• Finish the 8 Plots for eliminating your rival in Episode 1. Currently, only Sabotage & Murder are available.
• Add the Befriend Plot in the next update, along with one hidden plot.
• Add the remaining hidden Plots in three updates after.
• Add a complete weekend scenario to conclude the demo.
• Ensure every major scene has at least one Karma Route.
• Add the Kouhai Shrine so you can view any Kouhai Treasures you've obtained.
• Add the Gallery where any bonus art can be viewed.
• Add a point-and-click scenario to the morning & evening scenes.
• Add the ability to watch TV in the morning & evening to receive a hint about items.
• Fix the long-broken Inventory screen.
• Update the item shortcuts to give High Street more functionality.
• Give every shop on High Street a purpose.
• Add the Tentoji Shrine to High Street.
• Add bonus High Street scenes.
• Add full side-stories for each shopkeeper.

2) Visual

• Make new background art for every location that can be visited.
• Make sprites for every pupil who appears in the episode.
• Add bonus art to various scenes such as Jin's afternoon event.
• Make new visuals for the placeholder Save / Load screen.
• Illustrate the cutscene for Shatter.
• Illustrate the intro cutscene.
• Illustrate the aftermath cutscene.
• Finish the 3D model for High Street.
• Add storefront backgrounds to every location on High Street.

3) Audio

• Hire VAs for Jin and the current club presidents.
• Commission a few new lines for Kouhai & Sagishi.
• Commission some new updates to the soundtrack.
• Commission a new End Credits theme (which will cost a LOT of money).

There's still a lot of work left to do, and I would LIKE to have the game fully out either by Hallowe'en 2025 or Valentine's Day 2026.
After Episode 1 is finished, all the framework will be completed for subsequent episodes, the bulk of which will require illustrating approximately 10 new cutscenes per episode.

It's important to look at "Episode 1" as the first major release in the series. HOWEVER - I will be attempting to release all of the episodes as a single game in updates, as long as Visual Novel Maker permits one project to be that large.
If that turns out to not be possible, then I would try to release each episode separately and find some way of continuing one's save progress, perhaps in the form of a password.

As I have a day job as an artist and struggle to make a living already, I've been having to take on more commissions which has only eaten away further at the time I can spend on game development.
However, Heartbreaker has become a dedicated passion project at this point, and I'm working as hard as I reasonably can to get it done.

The more support I receive, the faster it'll be completed, so if you'd like to support my work, you can do so over on my SubscribeStar page.
(I also offer NSFW artwork there on higher tiers, and have started work on Heartbreaker-specific NSFW too.)

You can also follow me on Twitter if you like: @AbyzouDev

In the meantime, you can always access the free censored alpha demo on the game's Itch page~

Thank you all greatly for your patience and continued support, and I look forward to posting another update when Befriend is ready to release!