2025 was a roller coaster of a year. We were very busy this year, with multiple releases and new projects, such as running our own Steam festival and doing a Kickstarter. So as a last farewell to 2025 as we step into 2026, let’s review what happened this year for us!
Game Releases
Lilacs in the Breeze
2025 started off very dour, given our recent change in leadership at the end of 2024 here in the US. I have lots of trans and fellow queer friends and wanted to bring a little joy in the world—so, with my friend Stella, we created the Trans Joy Jam, a jam focused on making games about trans characters getting happy endings. Participants were encouraged to write about any subject matter relating to trans narratives, so long as there was at least 1 hopeful ending.
To go with the jam, I made Lilacs in the Breeze, a short otome game about a trans woman leaving her old life behind—only for her childhood friend to show up out of nowhere. It has a lot of tropes I’ve written before and will write again. I’m also bringing it to Steam in 2026! No major updates and will still be free, but wishlists are appreciated~
Asphodelium
Asphodelium is a non-linear boys love visual novel about cults, killing, and killing cults. And being in love. After its initial (mostly linear) release in 2024, I sought to expand it even more and bring it to Steam.
The finished version of Asphodelium is now a little under 70k words with a handful of CGs and 2 main storylines with the single love interest to go down. I think it’s my best writing so far. Despite the dark tones of the story, it was fun for me to make, and I hope to make more like it in the future.
I also bundled it with my friend Nia’s game Fearbonding at launch which has done well for both of us! This was my first time bundling with another dev on Steam so I was able to learn how to make it work.
a fae’s whim
O2A2 is a popular visual novel jam you’ve probably heard of if you’re in Devtalk or know of ongoing VN jams. It’s a unique theme—you can only use 1 of every asset and only 1k words. Creating something bite-sized is a great practice activity and I was eager to join this time around.
I ended up making a fae’s whim, a micro visual novel where you’ve freed a fae king from his imprisonment—but what now?
Speech bubbles can be a little tricky with my direction style, as I’m constantly tweaking assets slightly, but I think they’re a fun departure from ADV and NVL at times.
Mari’s Magical Deliveries
Our final full release for the year was Mari’s Magical Deliveries, a short point-and-click otome game about a witch returning home and helping her father’s delivery business. This game was first designed over 2 years ago but was pushed to the backlog for quite a while as I had several other games to work on. In the later half of 2025 I set out to finish it and did it!
The final game is around 26k words with 3 love interests, lots of side stories, customizable room options, and more. Aside from a few pre-existing assets (such as the delivery game framework, music, and backgrounds), all of the game was done by myself.
Projects
Aside from working on games, we also did several game-related projects, such as…
Otome Games Celebration
In May, we held our very first Steam festival, centered around otome games from across the globe! This was several months of planning, reviewing games, sending out emails, getting streamers interested, letting people know the event was happening…and it was a great success! We had over 100 different otome games across multiple languages from over 80 developers and 56k+ views on the festival page. I’m already planning on running the event again in 2026.
You can see more info on the festival here.
Crimson Waves on the Emerald Sea: Amaranthine Moon Kickstarter
We also held our first Kickstarter this year, for our Victorian vampire otome game Crimson Waves on the Emerald Sea: Amaranthine! It was a great success—thank you everyone who supported the campaign. We’re still hard at work on the full game with backers getting access to a beta build of the first half of the game yesterday, December 31st.
We hope to have the full game released in Q1 2026 and bring Lucie’s (continued) tale to all of you!
Games in 2026
Now that we’ve looked back at 2025, let’s look at where we’re headed in 2026! We have a handful of game releases slated for this new year, such as…
Lilacs in the Breeze
As previously mentioned, Lilacs in the Breeze will be coming to Steam in 2026! The game will probably have a small update attached (Steam achievements for sure) but nothing major, and will still be free. But Steam wishlists are very helpful, so if you want to support the game please wishlist it!
Crimson Waves on the Emerald Sea: Amaranthine Moon
We’re hoping to release the full game in Q1 2026—this is the only game mentioned so far that has its own team, so it’s not just myself making the game. I’ll be focusing on scripting the game into the game engine this month in January. Likewise, you can wishlist it on Steam here!
Lost Lune ~ the cosmic god’s eternal night ~
Another project that got pushed to the backburner was Lost Lune, but now that the first draft is complete and most of the sprite artwork is done, the project will be coming out sometime this year. I’m unsure about a specific date due to all of the work being by me and it needing intensive scripting like CWES: Amaranthine Moon (which takes more time), but I’m confident it can release this year unless something urgent comes up. Again, you can wishlist it here~
Something else…?
Once CWES: Amaranthine Moon releases in early 2026, we won’t have an announced, full-length otome game in development. …But we do have one unannounced! Stay tuned to see what our next otome will be about 💜
Thank you everyone for supporting us in 2025! I hope 2026 will be a wonderful year for us all.
— Arimia
