Shoestrings Story News

[p]The release date for "Shoestrings Story" has been set for Friday, March 7, 2026 at 22:00 JST![/p][p][/p][p]The supported languages for this title will be Japanese and English (machine translation).[/p][p]As previously mentioned in our crowdfunding updates, the Simplified Chinese translation is planned for a later update. We would appreciate your patience.[/p][p][/p][p]You will probably enjoy this game if any of the following apply to you:[/p]

• [p]You like "moon" (1997, PlayStation)[/p]
• [p]You usually care more about story than gameplay systems[/p]
• [p]You have played at least one previous KITTYPOOL title[/p]
• [p]You want to read a novel-style story about a hero and a demon king[/p]
• [p]You have been thinking, "I want something interesting to play, but I am tired of roguelikes and FPS games. Is there a game that can entertain me almost automatically just by reading?"[/p]

[p]Let's be happy on March 7![/p][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p][p][/p]

[p]Hi. This is KITTYPOOL.[/p][p][/p][p]It has been one month since the start of the crowdfunding.
Thanks to all of your support, the progress has reached 16%.
I am truly grateful from the bottom of my heart.[/p][p]Today, I have an astonishing super-wow surprise news to share with you.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Ginga Kondo, known as an artist, art historian, and author of "Feminist, Playing Games" (Shobunsha, 2024), has played the full version of our work ahead of release!
We have received her early review.[/p][p][/p][h2]You can read the full review here.[/h2][p][/p][p][/p][p]As "Shoestrings Story" is a visual novel game, it is difficult to convey its fun before release.[/p][p]Of course, I could go around saying "This is what it’s about! It’s fun!" but a self-promotion from the creator, like saying "My curry is the best," has its limits in credibility.[/p][p][/p][h3]"So then, why not let a third party play it?"[/h3][p][/p][p]Thus, this crowdfunding, which was actually launched over a year ago, has finally been made public. Thank you. Thank you. Ah, excuse me, the applause… I’m sorry, thank you very much.[/p][p][/p][p]Now, with this, all the promotion plans for this work have come to an end.[/p][p]In the remaining month, I will continue doing my best to promote so that the crowdfunding can reach its goal.[/p][p]
I would be very happy if you could also support us by spreading the word or mentioning it on social media.[/p][p]Since this afterword has become rather long, let me repeat once more...[/p][p][/p]

[p]To begin with...[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]
[/p][p]We started conceptualizing the game in 2021, finished the story and character designs, and began full-scale development in 2024. After countless sleepless nights and a development period that spanned roughly a year and a half, the visual novel “Shoestrings Story” is finally complete.

Thanks to your support, we were able to stay motivated throughout the process.

We sincerely appreciate your continued encouragement.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p] And now...[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p] Although the Japanese version is complete, the game contains over 200,000 characters including system messages, making the translation extremely costly. [/p][p]A few days have passed since the campaign launched, and already 7 people have backed the project, bringing us to 9% of our goal. I was worried it might stay at 0%, so I’m incredibly grateful. Thank you so much.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p] Now, let me explain the key feature of the crowdfunding platform we’re using KICKSTARTER.....[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]
There are two types of crowdfunding models:[/p]

• [p]All-or-Nothing: If the goal isn't reached, the funds aren't collected, and the project doesn’t need to be completed.[/p]
• [p]All-In: Funds are collected even if the goal isn't reached, and the project must be completed.[/p]

[p]KICKSTARTER only supports the All-or-Nothing model.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]

Now you understand, right?[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]
[/p][p][/p][p]The crowdfunding page is here! Your warm support would mean the world to me: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/kittypool/localize-shoestrings-story-into-english-and-chinese/[/p]

[p]The demo now supports Simplified Chinese![/p][p]However, please note that the title displayed on the Steam store is still in Japanese as "くつひも物語".
We have already requested a title change from Valve, and once approved, the Steam store page in Simplified Chinese will display the title as "鞋带物语".[/p][p]Special thanks to flankoi for translating the demo![/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][h2]Update Version 0.1.1[/h2]

1. [p]Fixed an issue where the text in the lockpicking mini-game used an incorrect font, causing tofu characters to appear[/p]

[h2]Update Version 0.1.0[/h2]

1. [p]Added support for Simplified Chinese[/p]
2. [p]Fixed an issue where keyboard input did not work on certain screens[/p]
3. [p]Addressed a possible cause of Known Bug (1)[/p]
4. [p]Minor bug fixes[/p]

Fixed: The game could fail to launch if save data from Ver 0.0.7 was still present when starting Ver 0.0.11.

Please note that this is an interim fix and the issue may still reoccur on certain systems. We apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your continued support.