Apopia: Sugar Coated Tale News

[p]Hi everyone,[/p][p]Today, I want to talk about something simple: Why it took 8 years to finish?[/p][p]When we started Apopia eight years ago, we had a timeline in mind. Like most beginner developers, we thought we knew how long it would take to build a world, write a story, and make it playable.[/p][p]We underestimated it…[/p][p]Not because we failed, but because we kept finding ways to make it better.[/p][p]Here’s the truth: we’re gamers, just like you. We KNOW what it feels like to play something incredible. And we KNOW what it feels like to be let down. We’ve all bought games that looked amazing in trailers but felt rushed, unfinished, or shallow when we actually played them.[/p][p]By Mid2024, we have actually “completed” a “full game”, somehow… It was about 4-5 hours long, rushed, rough, unpolished, anything you can expect from a rushed game.[/p][p]But we refused to let that happen with Apopia.[/p][p]This wasn’t about being perfect. It was about being respectful, to you, to the story, and to the time you’ll invest in playing it.[/p][p]Game development isn’t a straight line. Sometimes the best ideas come late. Sometimes you play your own game and realize: “We can do better than this.”[/p][p]And when that happened, we had 2 choices: [/p][p]1, Stick with it, and it will be a bad game forever.[/p][p]2, Make it a good game, but that will take another 1.5 years.[/p][p]We chose the latter.[/p][p]That’s why those “extra” months happened. Not because we were lost, but because we were honest and responsible to ourselves, to our players, and to the story that kept asking for a little more care.[/p][p]In the end, we weren’t building a product. We were crafting an experience. One we’d want to play ourselves. And true to my initially idea of delivering a message / an experience to make the world a slightly better / caring place.[/p][p]Next time, I’ll pull back the curtain on how we made Apopia’s world look so sweet and inviting. Even when the story goes to some deep, emotional places.[/p][p]Thank you for your patience. We can’t wait for you to finally play it.[/p][p]Yours,[/p][p]Onon[/p][p]Director, Apopia[/p]

[p]Hi everyone,[/p][p]Let’s rewind a bit, before Apopia, before the 8-year journey. Let’s go back to where it all really started.[/p][p]I’ve loved games since I was a kid. There’s no doubt that I’m a gamer to my very bone.[/p][p]The programmer of this game, aka my childhood friend, Ricky and I used to visit each other’s home a lot and play games like Tomb Raider, Star Craft, Final Fantasy, you name it. [/p][p]But at some point, something shifted. I remember one summer holiday, instead of playing RPGs or platformers, I spent weeks hunched over my computer learning Visual Basic and Warcraft III Map Editor. I wasn’t just playing games anymore, I was building them. Small, silly, broken mini games that only I and my closest classmates would ever play. And I realized: I loved making them even more than playing them.[/p][p]That feeling never left.[/p][p]Flash forward to mid-2017. I shared this dream with my friend Ricky. We grew up playing the same games, laughing at the same glitches, getting stuck on the same bosses. We didn’t just want to play great games - we wanted to make one.[/p][p]And luck was on our side. We joined a competition… and we WON! That prize gave us our first real funding and the confidence to believe this wasn’t just a hobby. It was possible.[/p][p]But passion alone doesn’t make a game.[/p][p]The development of Apopia has been a rollercoaster of trial and error. We’ve argued over design. We’ve scrapped systems we spent months on. We’ve rewritten characters, changed art styles, reworked gameplay loops. Not because we were lost, but because we refused to settle for “good enough.”[/p][p]We kept asking: “Is this fun? Is this meaningful? Would we want to play this?”[/p][p]Sometimes, that meant taking three steps back to take one better step forward. This isn’t a “get and go” project. It’s a labor of love, polished through frustration, late nights, and countless iterations until it finally felt… right.[/p][p]Through all of it—the disagreements, the doubts, the sweat and tears, one thing kept us going: [/p][p]We never lost sight of why we started.[/p][p]To make a game we believed in.[/p][p]To make a game you would remember forever.[/p][p]In the next note, I’ll share the moment that dream almost fell apart, and how we fought to keep it alive.[/p][p]Thank you for being part of this journey with us.[/p][p]Yours,[/p][p]Onon[/p][p]Director, Apopia[/p]

[p]Hey everyone, [/p][p]I’m Onon, the director and developer of Apopia: Sugar Coated Tale. For the past eight years, this game has been nearly my entire world. A dream that refused to let me go, even when there’re so many obstacles and struggles standing in my way. [/p][p]It started as a personal trauma: The rejection of my mom. I used to constantly dream about yelling at her, but the voice can’t come out. And she never response. [/p][p]I think that I’m probably not the only one with have similar feeling. I think everyone’s somehow had some different levels of trauma or toxic relationship with their parents. [/p][p]So, I think I NEED to tell this story to everyone. But I don’t want to tell it directly which is too boring. What if a story looked like a sweet, cartoonish fairy tale but felt like a punch to the heart? What if you could explore the mind of a character literally, reading thoughts not as gimmicks, but as windows into deep, painful, human secrets? [/p][p]That idea became Apopia. [/p][p][/p][p]The game follows two girls: [/p][p]• Mai, a human girl who experienced an accident with her mom, falling down from a cliff, only to wake up in a strange bunny kingdom. [/p][p]• Moly, a bunny princess fighting a civil war against a terrifying enemy BOSS [/p][p][/p][p]Their stories seem separate, a psychological drama and a fairy-tale adventure, but they are threads of the same rope. The game design carefully tied both storylines together into one ice-cream with two favors. [/p][p]For eight years, my small team and I have built this world, wrote and rewrote these characters, and balanced a tone that’s both whimsical and devastating. I’ve cried at my desk more times than I can count, writing scenes that dug into my own fears about love, acceptance, and the parts of ourselves we try to hide. [/p][p]And now… it’s finally done. The last line of code is written. The last emotional scene is voiced. It is now less than one month from our release.[/p][p]And I am terrified. [/p][p]Not just because it’s our first game, or because we know nothing about marketing. But because this story is so personal. I’m about to hand players a piece of my heart and say, “Here, see if this means something to you too.” So I’m coming to you for help. If the idea of a game that’s more than it seems, a “sugar-coated tale” with a bittersweet core speaks to you, please take a look. [/p][p][/p][carousel][/carousel][p][/p][p]I’ll be sharing more in the coming weeks: stories from development, the real crisis that almost killed the project, and why I still believe in this impossible dream. [/p][p]But for now, I just wanted to say hello, and thank you for reading. [/p][p]If you're curious, you can wishlist Apopia: Sugar Coated Tale on Steam. And if you have any questions, I’m here. [/p][p]Onward, [/p][p]Onon [/p][p]Director, Apopia[/p]