End of current demo and post-Next Fest plans

I'm making a Next Fest note here: huge success. Thank you to everyone who played the demo! Just to put it in context, the game went from 5 players on a good day, to 183 players at the peak of Next Fest. By most metrics, my game has blown up at least 10x if not more. Clearly Mysteries of Old Tokyo has more appeal than I ever anticipated.

Which is good, but also a lot to process! As a solo developer, I'm balancing coding, art, sound, design, UI/UX, writing, marketing and advertising all by myself, so it takes a toll. This week hadn't been both very gratifying, but also stressful. And it's no good for the game, or anyone, if I'm trying to rush under stress.

I don't want to release an under-baked game with features I'm not happy with, and at the moment, there's things I'm not happy with - the intuitiveness of the UI and the way the spirit reports work. To get the game ready, I realised I need some time and space without distractions.

So as a result:

1. The demo will be delisted at some point on 9th March (Monday), so if you want to try the demo, this weekend's your last chance for a while! (Don't worry if you miss it. I plan to release a new and improved demo before the game comes out.)

2. The game release will be a little delayed from my original plan of 9th April. I'm currently looking at May, but it might be a bit longer than that. Apologies for the delay.

Thanks for your continued support and understanding, and see you in Old Tokyo!