Past the halfway mark of the first stretch goal! Almost there at community goal too!
over 1 year ago – Mon, May 22, 2023 at 04:19:51 AM

Community Goal Progress

Gramercy to the new backers as we now reached over 300! You all are doing amazing on these community goals as we only need one more Twitter Retweet!

The last big step is 2 more Reddit posts ^_^ thank you OmegaScales for the 1st one!! If you use Reddit and would to volunteer to make a post in your appropriate visited subreddit, but you don't know what to do, feel free to message us and we can brainstorm!

Stretch Goal Breakdown

The highest priority for this stretch goal is extra CGs! We'd love to add more romantic fully illustrated CG images. Especially the ones for the other couples, as well as capturing beautiful scenes in the story. Medieval movies and tv series tend to be gritty, but there are always times when life is vibrant! We hope to show a less grim version of this period, as well as make you laugh and maybe cry! We'd also love to add more backgrounds to the story to better establish the setting. For example, I want to show you a proper image of the famous Nottingham Castle in this time period as it's a Robin Hood staple. There are only a few line sketches, reconstructed colored renditions, and a diorama model as references. What exists of the castle nowadays is mostly just some walls and a gatehouse, with a built mansion used as an art gallery and museum in its place... 

This is the most difficult to reach with the remaining current pace, but any little bit helps in making this game feel as immersive for you when you step into the medieval world. Besides adding more songs and expanding musical instrument software, this stretch goal also covers the time and effort to find, edit, mix, and create SFX. Our audio engineer and soundtrack composer Glim would like to share his thoughts with you: 

Whoo hoo we're funded! I am already grateful for all the love and support that you have all sent our way. <3

Music should be free and I share the sentiment. The tools to create and distribute music to you are not so free though and that's where your support comes into play! 

Here's to hoping to reach our music goal!   v(^oo^)~ 

-Glim

Just a few more days left! Let's get ready to celebrate!!!

- Roxie

One community goal down, 3 more to go!
over 1 year ago – Thu, May 18, 2023 at 03:29:24 AM

Thanks for spending the time to help share the campaign!

We have already reached our Tumblr goal ^_^ yay! If you'd like to help keep boosting on there, we'd still love that extra bit of help!

 Twitter is almost at 200 now! If you did a Reddit post, be sure to message us!

We have just 6 days left!

WE MADE IT!!! Thank you all for being awesome! Now we're off for our stretch goals and community goal.
over 1 year ago – Wed, May 17, 2023 at 05:06:09 AM

Wonderful job everyone!

The team of Aikasa Collective thanks you so much for your support! We're energized knowing so many of you care about this project and want to see it fully come to life! These last 3 weeks have been a wild emotional rollercoaster, but we're so excited to know we have a game in sight now ^_^

We have one week to try for these stretch goals... It's definitely a challenge, but it's not impossible. We'd love to add as many assets to this game for professional polished completeness. 

We can definitely reach some of these goals if we can continue to spread the word on the campaign, as we need fresh eyes and a wider audience. So here is our one and only community goal:

If we hit these goals, the sexy times patch, which will be available on release, will contain at least two fully colored CGs (R15). Steam version will be all ages, but with an available patch. Itchio version will now be complete, with the usual mature content as optional (SFW, stream, and ace friendly).

Additionally, an R18 10 Sketches Digital Booklet PDF Add-On will be made available in this Kickstarter and will be released some time after the game is released. This is because this booklet will have three sapphic pairings inside (no spoilers for you ^.~). The majority of pages will be our main couple, and the other two couples will have the remaining pages divided. We cannot provide a physical as it's quite challenging to find a printer for this type of work. This add-on will not be available separately on the Backerkit store after the campaign ends.

Why a community goal?

If we compare it to how our first game's campaign went, we have yet to match the same backer number (331). Which tells us we haven't quite reached out very far. With a bit more momentum, we may see more people come out and support the project, now that we already hit our funding goal. Also, this will allow those interested to see other couples with more intimacy. They will not have the typical VN love scenes within the game. But they can have a romance-related CG if we can reach our first stretch goal ^_^

Which posts and places did we need a boost?

•  Twitter Post (Retweets)
•  Tumblr Post (Reblogs)
• Reddit (Image posts work best. Provide link in the comment.) Examples you may already frequent: Sapphics/Yuri, VNs, LGBTQIA+, medievalists, (or other angles) etc.
• Other areas we haven't really done much in are Instagram, Facebook, Mastodon, Cohost, Tiktok, etc.

We have a hard push for this last week left, but we'll all do our best! Let me know if you have any questions.

- Roxie

97% We are SO CLOSE now!! Let's talk in-depth about those add-ons~
over 1 year ago – Tue, May 16, 2023 at 03:43:11 AM

Hello Everyone!

The team is so happy to see us ever so close to that funding goal! With just 9 more days until the end. Thank you to our newest backers! Our $300 tier is now finished as the last watercolor has been taken.  We still have 4 spots left in our $200 tier if you are still interested in customized characters artwork just for you ^_^

Let's talk more in-depth about our current add-ons and what you would expect if you pledge for these.

Pet Cameo

You have seen the Dire Wolf already, and now you have just seen our little black kitty named Felicia. She is a character's pet, and will be making her entrance post-demo pretty early on ;) If you'd like to have your pet or favorite animal remembered forever in a game, this is the chance to do it! Your pet will interact with a certain character(s) and be named. You'll just send us photos of your pet of choice, describe their personality, and we'll work them into the story. I'll also let Robin or a cast member be given a choice for you to "pet" your pet too (: It's not going to affect the game, but it's a fun gesture, yes? And just a fun fact, Hardy and Sturdy were very popular dog names in medieval times ^_^

Design Your Own Character

If you weren't aware, we have 5 characters that were actually custom designed by our backers. You've seen 3 of them already ;) They did pay a bit more than this current add-on so their sprite expressions are a bit more fleshed out, but your character will be of equal design quality overall. I haven't written the rest of the story yet, so I'll keep your character in mind as I nail out the story details. If the story has wiggle room, I will use them as often as I can and try to add as much of your backstory as appropriate. Our only request is that you remain flexible with their usage. So, if you'd really like to join the cast yourself or have your own original character join them, have a go! You can be a hero or a villain too (: One of the backer's characters is a villain! (And it is not Thomas lol). The character above is one of our upcoming cast members named Julian, who is nonbinary, and I just wanted to show off one of their unique outfits to you ^.~ (I never did plan to tuxedo masked the remaining characters but a little surprise is nice...)

Forever Remembered

This is the "Special Game Credit" mock-up concept that will exist in the future of the game. It will also appear in the "Extras" section with the team credit. It is also given to all backers at the top 4 level tiers and those who select the above add-ons. I have not decided if it's part of a building or a structure yet as I have to do a bit more research. But I did discover it will likely be made of limestone for quality. I don't want to go into too many details, because it's a spoiler, but for anyone who selects the Forever Remembered add-on, they will have their name appear in this scene in the story. Rebellions, like kickstarters, can only succeed when a whole community comes together. Be Forever Remembered as a person who helped with both.

Thanks for reading all of this. We will now be preparing our one and only community goal in the next update. It's going to be a challenge, but not impossible! And it's a little bit steamy...

Farewell for now,

- Roxie

We're almost there! Add-On Survey request (5 day vote)
over 1 year ago – Wed, May 10, 2023 at 10:45:10 PM

Good evening our wonderful Backers!

We are very excited to see us now at 85% with about two weeks of the campaign left ^_^ You all are awesome!!

We are considering a single physical acrylic stand add-on to the campaign but wish to gauge your interest. I really adored this couple-style acrylic stand from a yuri manga during the online Yuriten 2020 (repeat) Japan event. Perhaps you know this series Futaribeya? This particular stand was about 21cm (8 inches) tall and sold for roughly $30 USD for its complexity (lots more plastic).

We were wondering if any of you would also be interested in a couple-style acrylic stand with Robin and Red as an add-on. Please take our survey below as we do an interests (or no interest) count. We won't have an image ready in time, but this will be a Kickstarter special-only goods run if interest is high enough. Since this is not very large but also a durable item, the shipping I believe will not be "expensive", which was my main concern. The acrylic stand will also go out the moment we finalize the newly drawn image with Nalcyon and get it made with the small acrylic goods business. So you won't have to wait forever like the last campaign ^^; 

Please answer within 5 days: https://forms.gle/Pkpmr1TYEJQz1h2J9

--------------------------------------

We are happy to announce another cross-promotion comic, a queer crossover 48-page anthology called Rainbow Canvas: A Wholesome BL & GL WEBTOON Anthology! 

Featuring 12 BRAND NEW, completely original stories from the worlds of your favorite LGBTQIA+ Webtoon Canvas titles, "Rainbow Canvas" delivers all of the wholesome, positive, fluffy queer love stories you could ask for!

Healthy and functional queer BL and GL relationships across a wide range of genres: slice-of-life, mermaids, action fantasy, princes, princesses, sci-fi, supernatural and more!

They have both digital goods, physical comics, and enamel pins! 

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/comicuno/rainbow-canvas 

See you soon! - Roxie