Hello everyone!

As clichéd as it sounds, we can hardly believe we made it till the end of this year. It’s been a tumultuous one for sure, but Strangers on Papers and you guys have undoubtedly been some of the best parts of it. As we’ve said time and time again, this is something that we’d been wanting to do for a long time and finding such an amazing crowd that welcomed us with open arms, supported us through thick and thin, and even continues to grow each day has been way more than we could have expected.

So here is the news you have been expecting: the visual novel is back on track. First of all, we’d like to let you know we will be reactivating our Patreon starting January 1st. Pledging is absolutely optional (although you do get a few perks in every tier) but we do gotta admit that, more than ever, every penny towards SOP really counts. The software issues continue to plague us to the point in which Grogu has been teaching me how to help him render the scenes. As you can see from the image below, it’s going great!

In all seriousness, we’re doing our best to make this work and will continue to update you on this journey as frequently as we can.

One specific Patreon detail to consider: The highest tier, Childhood Crush, will no longer offer a monthly instax and will be purely for support. This is because I, Gizmo, will be away from my country for the time being and do not have access to the printer I use for those.

All other tiers will go back to receiving their rewards as stated in their descriptions and we hope they make the waiting better for y’all.

Personal note from Grogu (Artist and Programmer):

I feel like I've become unfamiliar with writing these devlogs, yet at the same time, there are so many things I'd like to discuss, but I'll try to keep it short.

Speaking of progress, at the end of the year, there's always introspection, but beyond that, I only have gratitude. To everyone who in some way supported us and continues to do so. To everyone who mentions SOP at every opportunity they get, because after all, that's what matters most, and we're pleased to read that SOP is still regarded as a favorite release from this year to some.

I also want to thank Gizmo. When I started looking for a writer to work with, I wanted the best, and in this sphere, that's challenging. I was tired of playing VNs that, when I read them, made me cringe or when the stories didn't make sense at all. I wanted to create something I could be proud of playing and be interested in the story and characters, and thanks to Gizmo, I found it. Another thing I'm grateful for is the freedom I have to give my opinion about the story and make changes, like Becca's hair or creating characters the way I interpret when reading. It's always interesting to see how, beyond everything, we share the same vision of where we want to go.

Regarding SOP, we have a good pace of renders/coding, and I'm happy with the progress. We had approximately just over 1000 renders for CH1, and for CH2, we'll probably surpass 1500. We still have plans to release Chapter 2 along with the Steam release, but we're reviewing the situation.

Happy New Year!

Personal note from Gizmo (writer and director):

Damn you, Grogu, for always making me blush. I’m sure through his renders you guys can imagine just what a privilege it is to get to work with someone as talented as he is, not to mention how in sync we always are about everything we envision.

This year, I thought the most challenging things I’d face were moving and a cockroach infestation, turns out I’m now separating from my lifelong partner and I won’t bore you with the depressing details, but I think it’s worth mentioning if only to remind you that there’s always a lot going on behind the scenes that can affect the progress of a passion project such as this, not to mention that headache of a graphics card that failed us when we needed it most.

I’ve been creating stories since before I could hold a pen, and SOP has given me the opportunity to put some of that really out there and then to find other people who could resonate with and that means more to me than what this amateur writer can tell you. Thank you, really thank you all  as always and I’m childishly impatient to share chapter 2 with you.

Happy Holidays folks!