Heart of the Woods News

[p]The first Fall in Love Visual Novel festival has started! Enjoy 200+ romance-themed visual novels from over 100 visual novel developers, hosted by us![/p][p][/p][p]Heart of the Woods and its DLC are on sale for the festival~[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Our other yuri games are also in the festival, with some being on sale! Lock & Key: A Magical Girl Mystery, our very next yuri visual novel, releases on September 30th and has a demo you can try now![/p][p][/p][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink]
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[p]Hello, everyone![/p][p]Heart of the Woods 2.1.7 and 2.1.6 have just been released, which fix a few minor issues that were either reported by the community, or were found in testing.[/p][p]We’ve also optimised and reduced the game’s install size by 102 MB (8%) with no quality loss![/p][p]As always, thank you all for continuing to support Studio Élan…![/p][p]〜 Karen/あけみ (akemin_dayo)[/p][h2]Changelog for 2.1.7:[/h2][p]On PC, it targets Ren’Py SDK versions 8.1.3.23091805 〜 7.3.5.606.[/p]

• [p]In an effort to further bring all our titles in line with each other, the keyboard key "A" can now be used to toggle Auto Mode on and off. ※ The legacy Ren'Py accessibility (AX) menu can still be accessed by pressing "Shift-A" instead.[/p]
• [p]Deleting save files from the savescreen is now possible again using the "Delete" key on your keyboard, or Square / X (Left Button) on your controller.[/p]
• [p]Made improvements to localisation system.[/p]
  • [p]When available, audio cues are now translated.[/p]
  • [p]Save files created on old versions of the game while set to non-English languages will now have their names display correctly in the savescreen, regardless of your current language setting.[/p]

[h2]Changelog for 2.1.6:[/h2][p]On PC, it targets Ren’Py SDK versions 8.1.3.23091805 〜 7.3.5.606.[/p]

• [p]Optimised and reduced game install size by 102 MB (8%) with no quality loss![/p]
• [p]Fixed an issue with consistency between the game text and voice line in Act 1, Scene 1-4.[/p]
• [p]Fixed an issue with consistency between the game text and voice line in Act 5, Scene 5-1 Part 2.[/p]
• [p]Fixed a typo in Act 3, Scene 3-5.[/p]
• [p]Fixed an issue where a visual effect in a certain scene would not always display correctly.[/p]
• [p]Removed UI font that is no longer used.[/p]
• [p]Fixed a minor UI layout issue that could occur under rare circumstances.[/p]
• [p]Merged changes and improvements made in common code shared with other Studio Élan games.[/p]
  • [p]The game will now automatically switch to the game language that best matches with the current operating system language upon first boot, if available.[/p]
  • [p]Save data location is now written to the log.[/p]
  • [p]Improved graphical sharpness and presentation on the Steam Deck when launched via SteamOS Gaming Mode (gamescope). (※ Specifically, the game will now always launch in fullscreen mode if launched from SteamOS gamescope. Running the game from the KDE desktop environment is unaffected by this change.)[/p]
  • [p]You can now scroll CGs with the keyboard in the CG viewer by holding down the arrow keys instead of having to rapidly tap them.[/p]
• [p]Made various other internal refactors and improvements.[/p]

[h3]Find unexpected love in the depths of grief...[/h3][p][/p][p]Our next yuri visual novel, A Tithe in Blood, is out now on Steam![/p][p][/p][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink][/p][p][/p][p]As a reserved and unassuming university student in snow-bitten Hokkaido, the personal tragedy which visited Honoka Asakawa leads her to experimenting in a magical art thought long-lost — blood magic. Unexpectedly able to visit the sealed world of Meiji-era Sapporo, Honoka's quickly taken under the wing of the cheerful and bright Lady Yasue, a powerful mage who's remained in this gilded cage for a century.[/p][p]As their feelings for each other develop, the true repercussions of Honoka's first steps into the secret world of magic and mages are only just starting to play out, eventually leading to catastrophic consequences.[/p][p][/p][h3]Features:[/h3]

• [p]Original story of approximately 70,000 words[/p]
• [p]Concept and writing by Suriko[/p]
• [p]Character designs and art by Kobuta[/p]
• [p]Fully original soundtrack by Claire DeLuca[/p]
• [p]Fully voice acted in Japanese[/p]
• [p]Story written in English with Japanese and Simplified Chinese translations[/p]

[p][/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p][/p][p]Get the physical copy of the VN or the artbook[/p][p][/p][p][/p][h3]Bluesky - Newsletter - Patreon - Discord[/h3]

Our next yuri visual novel, A Tithe in Blood, releases in just 2 months on June 16th!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2989270/A_Tithe_in_Blood/

A Tithe in Blood is a dark fantasy yuri visual novel about a woman discovering magic and finding herself in the middle of a sinister plot—can her love prevail?

As a reserved and unassuming university student in snow-bitten Hokkaido, the personal tragedy which visited Honoka Asakawa would lead to her experimentation in a magical art thought long-lost — blood magic. Unexpectedly able to visit the sealed world of Meiji-era Sapporo, Honoka's quickly taken under the wing of the cheerful and bright Lady Yasue, a powerful mage who's remained in this gilded cage for a century.

As their feelings for each other develop, the true repercussions of Honoka's first steps into the secret world of magic and mages are only just starting to play out, eventually leading to catastrophic consequences.


The full game will be 70k words and fully voice acted in Japanese, with the option to read it in English, Japanese, or Simplified Chinese. We normally get English voice actors to work on our visual novels, but given that A Tithe in Blood is set in Sapporo, we decided to try JP voices for this release!

We've already announced the voice actors for the cast...



And have released voice clips for each of them!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

You can hear individual clips over here on our Patreon or play the demo on Steam. We'll be posting even more soon!

If you want to follow development of the game (and continue supporting us), please wishlist A Tithe in Blood on Steam and follow us on our other platforms.

[h2]follow us on...[/h2]
Discord - Tumblr - Newsletter - Bluesky

The time is here - you can now get your very own Tara plushie via Makeship! Pre-orders have started and will be up for the whole month of June.


Tara is part of their Pride Month campaigns, which means every plushie will have a plushie-sized pride cape come with it!

These plushies won't be for sale online after this pre-order period - so if you want a Tara plushie, don't wait!

order the Tara plushie here