As the year reaches its end, we wanted to take some time to reflect on everything that we’ve accomplished in 2018, as well as extend a heartfelt “thank you” to everyone who’s been a part of it.
-We released two teasers of our upcoming releases: the Heart of the Woods demo, and The Waters Above: Prelude. Not only that, but we also released an episode of Taranormal for Halloween. Between Steam and Itch.io, our demos have over 10,000 downloads. That’s ten thousand people who were interested enough in what we do to check out our games. Or… at least a few people were just really devoted to downloading the files over and over. Either way, your support is palpable, and we couldn’t be more grateful.
-We launched our Patreon, and are well on our way to hitting our first funding goal. Fifty different people have been or currently are supporting us on there, and we cherish every single one of them. If you’re reading this, thank you for helping us do what we love. We hope you’ve been enjoying the exclusive content – from sneak peeks, behind the scenes details, to creative posts.
-We attended a number of conventions. It was an immense honor to be able to welcome both Rosuuri and Namie to their first ever North American conventions, at Anime Central in Chicago and Anime Weekend Atlanta respectively. Thank you to everyone who came by to pick up their merch, attend their live drawings and other panels, or even just to say hello!
-We’ve welcomed several new members to the team. Our PR manager Adri, our merch designer Shari, our task manager Laiska, and our writer Milky all joined us this year.
-We’ve gotten to work with some really cool & talented people. We just announced the HotW ending theme, by In Love With a Ghost and Ukuletea. We have Huixcia helping out with backgrounds for Heart of the Woods, and Sanglim doing the chapter art. Plus, there’s Chuteki, who illustrates our Celeste Academy Patreon series. All of these wonderful people have helped us get to where we are today, and we’re super duper grateful to have had the opportunity to work with them.
We’ve done a lot in just this past year, so it’s pretty exciting to be able to say that as a studio, we’re just getting started. Our first game release is only weeks away. Hopefully our second one won’t be far behind it. We even already have plans for what’s coming next.
It’s not just visual novels, either. We’ve been talking about all kinds of other things that we could branch out towards, bringing our signature Élan brand of content with us – comics, photobooks, concept albums, radio dramas, podcasts.If you can name it, we’ve probably considered it. Someday, we’d like to make other kinds of video games, too.
Our dream is a simple one, when you get right down to it. We want to increase the amount of positive representation for LGBT women in media, by telling stories and making content that everyone can enjoy. Whether it’s by people enjoying the narratives we create, or by inspiring others to share our dream by creating stories of our own, we hope we’re able to make a difference. And, whether you play our games and love them, or play our games and hate them, we appreciate that you at least gave ’em a chance. Hopefully it’s the former, though.
Just below, there’s a few words from some of our members. From all of us here at Studio Élan: thanks for reading, have a great new year, and please, be happy.
Hi! It’s me, Adri, PR manager. In other words, I’m the gal that makes the tweets. Honestly, I’d never have imagined that I’d be in a position like this just a year ago, so when Josh invited me aboard in late July this year, I was floored. This is my first time working for a game studio like this, so it took a little while to get the hang of things, but I think I’ve found myself at home here with everyone else in Élan. I don’t think I’d be able to make it this far if my appreciation for Studio Élan’s work wasn’t as earnest as it is. As thankful as I am to everyone here at Élan, I’m also incredibly grateful to all you guys supporting us and reading this, too. I wouldn’t have been able to get the chance to work alongside the rest of Élan and help bring the studio’s characteristic affinity for positive WLW content to the world (and even go all the way to Atlanta for AWA!) if it weren’t for you guys. Like… logistically speaking, I’m literally only here because of Patreon money, hehe. It’s because of all you guys’ support and belief in us that I was able to make it here and help share our work with even more of you. This is a post about Élan’s highlights of 2018, but, if I’m being real… joining Élan was one of the biggest highlights of my 2018. So… thank you, really, from the bottom of my heart. It means the world to me. Let’s make 2019 even greater! Stan talent! Stan Élan!
2018 has been a year of immense growth for me, and I hope you all had a great year as well. Thank you to my husband for supporting my endeavors all year- I love you so much honey! To my little one, you are so talented, and you bring so much light into my life. I’ll do my best for you. To Élan, I love you all! Everyone has been working so hard this year and I’m, once again, so proud and grateful to be part of this team and so happy to have you all as friends. Here’s to 2019 everyone! Thank you for your support and love, we couldn’t do this without you! – minute
I wish all of you out there a wonderful and fulfilling 2019! Hopefully you’ll all have a lot of wonderful moments over the year – and maybe some of them will even be playing our games! 🙂 – Astartus
Happy New Year, everyone! As we look forward to 2019 and to the release of HOTW, I wanted to thank everyone who’s made this journey so incredible: my partner, my fellow élan friends, and every single person out there that’s shared their excitement for HOTW with all of us. I feel truly blessed to be a part of such a wonderful project, and I’m so thrilled to finally be able to share it with all of you very, very soon! Much love (as always), Rachel
