One-month celebration:Take Me To The Dungeon!! developer QA & upcoming Epilogue
Thank you for supporting Take Me To The Dungeon!!. We have been working with the developers, Hanabi Fuusen, to incorporate your feedback into the game, resulting in the addition of several updates over the last few weeks.
To celebrate the game's one-month release, and to thank you for your overwhelming support, we had a special interview with Hanabi Fuusen! Here's the interview:
Q: Hello, could you please introduce yourselves?
Hello, we are Hanabi Fuusen. Our team consists of only three members, and due to our small team size and limited development budget, we rely heavily on our passion. With each member taking on multiple roles, we tried hard to prevent an overly-long development time. One of our biggest challenges was deciding what to include and what to cut out from the game.
After a year and a half of hard work, we finally completed Take Me To The Dungeon.
We were fortunate to have the support of Mango Party as our publisher, which provided us with significant assistance in areas such as music, voice acting, marketing, translation, and publishing, alleviating many of our concerns.
Q: Tell us about the inspiration behind Take Me To The Dungeon!!
Our producer, who always wanted to create an independent game, happened to meet our art designer who was considering resigning from their company.
By chance, Una’s character design popped into existence and the game's outline gradually took shape after a programmer, who was responsible for the main coding, joined the team.
Q: Out of all the possible H-game genres, why did you go for a card-based deck-building game?
We wanted to offer players a customizable gameplay experience in an adult game. For that, we looked to a lot of other games for inspiration.
First, we referenced Darkest Dungeon, in which players assembled a team to challenge dungeons. However, designing multiple playable characters posed a considerable development burden, so we had to abandon the idea.
Next, we looked at classic deck-building games like Slay the Spire and Last Evil. We felt that card games fit well with the gameplay we wanted, and gradually, the concept of card battles with girls emerged. However, the core gameplay was ultimately inspired by Gloomhaven.
Q: Are you satisfied with how the game turned out? Was there any content you had to cut out of the final release?
The final product is quite close to our initial expectations. We wanted a game that featured the protagonist and Una playing cards in a dungeon and engaging in erotic activities.
We removed a mechanic in which Una’s levels and affection were influenced by dungeon events. Pamela was initially designed as a loli character, but she “grew up” due to Steam. We originally wanted players to progress from layer 1 to layer 100 instead of the separate stages we have now.
It was regrettable but another part we had to cut out, as players have discussed, is the ending for one of our characters. We won't specify which to avoid spoilers.
Q: Player feedback has been quite enthusiastic. Do you have any particularly memorable impressions?
The art designer was delighted to read some comments like, "Initially, I hesitated because of the difficulty of the game, but I still bought it because the characters are attractive."
Q: Apart from the gameplay, many players have praised the music in this game. Is it really an R18 game?!
Hanabi Fuusen: Firstly, we would like to thank Mango Party's music director, PYKAMIA, for creating 18 exquisite songs for the game.
We have always loved games that emphasize music and games where the musical experience ties in with the gameplay and story. Music is crucial for setting the atmosphere in a game. That’s true even for R-18 games. Therefore, we commissioned music production based on our characters, battles, and story.
We loved every track and we’re glad to have had the opportunity to integrate PYKAMIA’s wonderful music into the game.
PYKAMIA: Hi, everyone. I'm PYKAMIA, a beginner composer with three years of experience in digital music. I'm delighted that players can feel the immersive experience brought by the BGM in this rich and exciting plot.
This work is my third music composition for Mango Party games, and I hope players can feel the infectious power of music in different works in the future.
PS: If you find my music exciting, it means I'm turning your nipples. May your nipples be with you.
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
Q: The game has a "Good Kids Mode," how is that different from an all-ages version?
Currently, the "Good Kids Mode" in the game mainly censors the HCGs from the main story. In the all-ages version, we plan to redraw all the main victory CGs as well as edit the text to make it suitable for all ages. I’m sure that will keep our illustrator busy for a while.
Q: We heard that the original version of the game briefly ranked among the Top Sellers on Steam (Global). Is that true?
Yes, that's correct. The highest number of players came from the United States, accounting for 30%, followed by Japan at 14%, and then Taiwan, Korea, and Hong Kong, which accounted for 11%, 10%, and 8% respectively. It seems that card games are more popular in these regions and we are truly grateful for their support.
From the feedback, we gathered a lot of valuable information about some events and difficulty issues and tried to make improvements, including adding all-ages version CGs. We hope players will also enjoy the slightly different all-ages version.
Q: Any plans for the future of Hanabi Fuusen?
In addition to the all-ages version, we are currently working on an epilogue to the main story. We hope to add new gameplay elements, fill in gaps and complete the ending with new stories for many of the other characters. Please stay tuned for more updates!
We are also striving to create a playable version for the Tokyo Game Show. Come see us if you’re also going!
Q: It might be a bit early to ask, but can you reveal if there are plans for a sequel to the current game?
For now, we plan to complete the aforementioned projects first before considering new works or sequels.
Q: Please say a few words to the players.
Thank you very much to all the players who support "Take Me To The Dungeon!!" In response to your support, we will do our best and work hard for future releases!