Announcements: release date & new partnership with indie.io!!!

[p]I have been interested in games for natural & cultural heritage for a while. When I created MD Studio in 2024, I decided that my first game would be a gardening game with real plants set in Port-Royal des Champs in the 17th century. I knew this abbey very well, as my friend and colleague Sylvain Hilaire had done his PhD on the history of its landscape.[/p][p][/p][p]As The Abbess Garden is our first game and this is a self-funded project, I decided to gather a tiny team and stay focused on the game, without trying to apply for grants or publisher funding.[/p][p][/p][p]Two months ago, I was contacted by indie.io, a company specialising in helping indie games with marketing and distribution. It was very unexpected, so we looked at who they are and what they do (also took a very close look at the contract ;) ). indie.io is based in USA, with team members working remotely from all around the country. They have worked with several nice cozy games, which they have helped reach more gamers.[/p][p][/p][p]They offered to help us notably with marketing (doing the trailers, running ads, reaching out to press and content creators…) and QA testing. I found that very interesting, as I was doing it all myself. It’s not my speciality, so even though I do my best, I cannot replace an experienced team. As you can guess, I liked the idea of focusing on creating the game’s content! [/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]They offer a lot more services, but these are the ones which made me consider their offer seriously. [/p][p]So I talked to the team and decided to join forces with indie.io 🙂 As you can imagine, we are very excited by this opportunity![/p][p]We have already begun working together: you might have noticed a few improvements on our Steam page![/p][p][/p][p]For The Abbess Garden’s release, we discussed it with indie.io as soon as the partnership was established, and I am very proud to announce we decided to go for March 2 2026!!![/p][p][/p][p]We are getting close to the completion of the game, so that leaves us time for QA and polish, and to send preview keys to the press and influencers ahead of the release. It’s actually both far and very close ;)[/p][p]
We have prepared a new trailer to announce it with indie.io, I hope you’ll like it![/p][p][/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p][/p][p]The Women-Led Games Steam Festival just started! It features games where at least 50% team members are women/nb :) The Abbess Garden's demo is in there :) And a lot more cozy games![/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]🌿🌿🌿
[/p][p]Don’t forget we have a Discord (I share regular tiny updates there ;) ) and a newsletter (for in-depth updates), and be sure to wishlist and follow the game to stay up to date with future news! [/p][p][/p][p]I wish you an excellent day, with a lot of sun and flowers 🌸[/p]