We're a bit late on the announcement here on Steam, however this decision was made back in late November and the holidays took us by storm. Development on Crystal Road is being halted for the foreseeable future.

Failure to Gain Traction

Throughout it’s troubled development, the game hasn’t really managed to grasp a new audience the way that Project Cappuccino did. Part of that is us wanting to break the mold of adult games a little too aggressively, but it’s also possibly due to the niche combination of adult games + farming sim. The story we had planned has a tone that doesn't lend itself well to adult content very well.

To date, all public builds of the game never managed to get past the 3 star review barrier on Newgrounds, despite constant reworks and improvements.

The final nail in the coffin was the Steam page wishlists. After being up for a few weeks, it’s failed to break past 1k wishlists, despite a somewhat aggressive push on our end. Project Cappuccino ended up doing similar numbers before it’s launch, but in a much shorter time frame.

Hidden Complexity Fighting us Every Step of the Way

The game seems simple on its surface, but it’s got a complex underbelly that is hindering smooth development. We want to be able to tell a story, but when we end up wrestling with a door that the player can walk through just to talk to an NPC, the story ends up falling to the wayside. Things like a day cycle, crops, environments, collisions, home decor, object layering, NPC schedules, overworld sprite animations, etc. All of these present a layer of work that eats away at time and we end up with not much to show players that want to see characters and a charming story. It’s simply too ambitious.

Cutting Features Means a Weaker End Product

So how do we remedy this problem? We cut features and reduce the scope. But in doing so, we think we’re going to end up with a weaker product that wasn’t able to live up to its original vision. What’s the point in making something that the majority of players won’t fully enjoy and we’ll hate working on every step of the way?

Not all is lost, assets remain

We’ve got tools, music, systems and characters that are in our back pocket. If the chance comes along, we may convert these assets into something else, or pluck a well designed character for something we may need. Will we ever resume work on Crystal Road? Possibly. We may pick it back up the way it is down the line or maybe convert it into a VN or something so that we can tell the story we intended to tell with it.

So what’s next?

There's a second project that will be revealed soon and this project is being moved front and center. The decision to cancel the game is made because we’re looking ahead and the best course is to eat our failure now rather than later. We can’t stomach the thought of putting in more years of our lives just to have the game sit at mediocre reviews on launch.

-Vanis & Doku