It's official: My next visual novel is going to be "Angels with Scaly Wings, part 2". Alluded to in last year's April Fool's Day post, as well as the teaser we released last month, this reveal finally makes official what some of you may have already suspected. Taking place 4 years after the events of Angels with Scaly Wings' True Ending, a murder threatens to upset the delicate balance between the 3 cities of the new world. Today marks AwSW's 5th anniversary, and as such I believe it is time to elaborate a little on the history of the sequel and where we stand today. It really started during the development of AwSW. While writing the story, I would get many ideas about events and things that could happen to characters and the world in the future. I wrote down all of those ideas, and as development progressed these ideas started forming into an overarching story. By the time we neared release for AwSW, I knew I wanted to create that sequel if I would be given the opportunity. The only question for me was whether AwSW would be successful enough to make this possible. That is how the secret ending came into play. Would I not be able to create the sequel, the true ending would still be a good place to end the story, while the secret ending could tease what was to come if I was able to contiue and make another game. Ultimately, Angels with Scaly Wings was planned as one, big story. When AwSW finally released, the first scene and events of the true ending for the sequel were already known to me, and work on the sequel commenced almost immediately. The story became bigger and bigger, and I eventually realized this game would take a very long time to make. That's where Angels with Broken Hearts (our webcomic taking place in the world of AwSW) came in. I was looking for a good way to elaborate on the world and characters of AwSW that I felt needed to be introduced to players to provide important context before playing the sequel - as carrying the story of the sequel was a big enough task on its own. Since the game would take place in the new world, Reza's chapters in particular were a necessity so players would have the opportunity to know more about the human world and Reza's story - though of course other chapters of AwBH also play their part and not just Reza's. Between this, a japanese translation and the console ports, my attention unfortunately became somewhat unfocused in order to make all of these things happen - further slowing the work on the sequel. For this game, we are aiming for improvements on all fronts, meaning a lot more people to be involved (and assets to be created). As of today, the various aspects are in very different states of completion, with music, backgrounds and character designs being mostly done - while others such as programming and CGs haven't been given much attention yet. I am very confident in the people who are working on this game to raise the bar - and you will definitely be able to spot a number of familiar names in the credits as well. We expect Angels with Scaly Wings, part 2 will release at some point in 2023 (hopefully sooner rather than later). When you eventually get the chance to play it, the amount of time to get through should be significantly higher compared to AwSW due to the sheer amount of content. I don't think I can express in words how important the world and story of AwSW are to me - especially in light of all the lovely messages and reviews I have received about how much this story has meant to players. I am very much looking forward to share this next chapter of Angels with Scaly Wings with you. Unfortunately, you will have to wait a while longer as many more days of work are ahead of us until this is possible. However, with these news finally unveiled, I will also be able to start talking about the next game in more detail and share various pieces in blog posts just like this one throughout the year.