Development Update #3: Episode 1's Progress and Early Access
Hey everyone, Lina here with another update! 🎴🎆
This one’s gonna be a little different from the previous few, we thought it’d be good to take a more macro view of the project’s progress this time and cover some questions we’ve been getting!
First though, we want to talk a little bit about the Demo Update coming next month.
As mentioned before, a substantial update to the Kumitantei Demo Version is coming very soon, and we’re excited to announce it’s coming February 17th! In it you’ll find the addition of Tsubaki as a Battle Demo opponent (as seen last month), as well as graphical and performance updates and the highly requested introduction of the Scanner in exploration!
We’ll be showing previews of the new Demo content on our Bluesky and YouTube Community pages over the coming weeks, so be sure to follow those!
Right now we estimate that Episode 1’s production is about 30% complete, which is right on pace for us to release it in Q3 2025 as planned! Let’s check out the specifics of our progress:
Our focus currently is completing and polishing Episode 1’s script after finalizing the scenario for it last month. For everyone wondering, doing the Demo Update for February has been to keep us making consistent progress across departments for general things not specific to the plot while we wait for the completed script, it hasn’t been a distraction from working on Episode 1 at all.
As for Episode 1’s release plan, as stated above our planned window is still Q3 of 2025, and with Episode 1 the game will be released into Early Access on Steam. We’re using the Early Access model for our Episodic release phase to ensure clarity of the game not yet being complete, and to encourage players to share their feedback with us while we gradually update and add in the narrative’s six Episodes. During this time, we intend on having the game’s price initially discounted on Steam and increasing with each Episode addition, then exiting Early Access when the game is complete.
You may have noticed from our previous few Backer Updates that we’ve been silent regarding the promised Nintendo Switch port of Kumitantei, and as you might have guessed, we were ourselves waiting for more information about the Nintendo Switch’s successor. With the news now of Nintendo Switch 2’s full backwards compatibility with its predecessor, we’re very excited to be supporting both generations of the system. We intend on releasing the full game on Nintendo Switch (and by extension Nintendo Switch 2) once we’ve left Early Access and officially launch, still intended for Late 2027.
Now that was a whole lot of densely packed information, so we’re gonna end this month’s update with something more mellow... the very first preview OST track of Episode 1 titled “Liminal Morning” and courtesy of Hundotte. It’s a relaxing coffee shop bossa nova-inspired alternative version of Liminal Apathy, which will of course be heard during each in-game morning! Enjoy!
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
We know this Backer Update was way more of an info dump than a showcase like our previous ones were, but we thought it was important to give you guys a better look behind the curtain and clear up all the concerns regarding releases and rewards. Plus with the holidays and focusing on writing right now there’s not really a ton of flashy spoiler-free stuff to share, so it just kinda worked out to do this now.
You guys have given us so much support, and so we want to be as transparent as possible!
Discord: https://discord.gg/mangofactory
Website: https://www.mangofactory.win/kumitantei
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@MangoFactoryEN
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MangoFactoryEN
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/mangofactory.win
Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/mangofactory
This one’s gonna be a little different from the previous few, we thought it’d be good to take a more macro view of the project’s progress this time and cover some questions we’ve been getting!
First though, we want to talk a little bit about the Demo Update coming next month.
As mentioned before, a substantial update to the Kumitantei Demo Version is coming very soon, and we’re excited to announce it’s coming February 17th! In it you’ll find the addition of Tsubaki as a Battle Demo opponent (as seen last month), as well as graphical and performance updates and the highly requested introduction of the Scanner in exploration!
We’ll be showing previews of the new Demo content on our Bluesky and YouTube Community pages over the coming weeks, so be sure to follow those!
Right now we estimate that Episode 1’s production is about 30% complete, which is right on pace for us to release it in Q3 2025 as planned! Let’s check out the specifics of our progress:
Our focus currently is completing and polishing Episode 1’s script after finalizing the scenario for it last month. For everyone wondering, doing the Demo Update for February has been to keep us making consistent progress across departments for general things not specific to the plot while we wait for the completed script, it hasn’t been a distraction from working on Episode 1 at all.
As for Episode 1’s release plan, as stated above our planned window is still Q3 of 2025, and with Episode 1 the game will be released into Early Access on Steam. We’re using the Early Access model for our Episodic release phase to ensure clarity of the game not yet being complete, and to encourage players to share their feedback with us while we gradually update and add in the narrative’s six Episodes. During this time, we intend on having the game’s price initially discounted on Steam and increasing with each Episode addition, then exiting Early Access when the game is complete.
You may have noticed from our previous few Backer Updates that we’ve been silent regarding the promised Nintendo Switch port of Kumitantei, and as you might have guessed, we were ourselves waiting for more information about the Nintendo Switch’s successor. With the news now of Nintendo Switch 2’s full backwards compatibility with its predecessor, we’re very excited to be supporting both generations of the system. We intend on releasing the full game on Nintendo Switch (and by extension Nintendo Switch 2) once we’ve left Early Access and officially launch, still intended for Late 2027.
Now that was a whole lot of densely packed information, so we’re gonna end this month’s update with something more mellow... the very first preview OST track of Episode 1 titled “Liminal Morning” and courtesy of Hundotte. It’s a relaxing coffee shop bossa nova-inspired alternative version of Liminal Apathy, which will of course be heard during each in-game morning! Enjoy!
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
We know this Backer Update was way more of an info dump than a showcase like our previous ones were, but we thought it was important to give you guys a better look behind the curtain and clear up all the concerns regarding releases and rewards. Plus with the holidays and focusing on writing right now there’s not really a ton of flashy spoiler-free stuff to share, so it just kinda worked out to do this now.
You guys have given us so much support, and so we want to be as transparent as possible!
Discord: https://discord.gg/mangofactory
Website: https://www.mangofactory.win/kumitantei
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@MangoFactoryEN
Twitter: https://twitter.com/MangoFactoryEN
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/mangofactory.win
Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/mangofactory
