Heya,

I'm not here to rag on you about it or ask why. After reading your clarification on Kickstarter, I think you guys made the right choice, difficult as it may have been.

I never played the beta; I didn't even know about this game until a few months ago. Despite that, it has instantly become a guilty pleasure for me and I have no idea why. I don't even like the idol industry (sushi is great, but the entire concept of idols is weeeeeeeiiiirrrddd man; I see idolizing anyone as a vice). To me, the fact that I don't like the subject matter it's based on and still love playing the game really elevates it past being "just a game" and into bona fide art. It's reminds me of the same feeling I got playing NieR:Automata, where I'm no fan of anything even close to JRPG-like nor a big fan of hack-and-slash yet still put it at the top of my list of games that I will recommend to anyone. Or how after decades of living, I listened to the very first poem in my life I actually liked mere weeks ago (because ho boy, do I find poetry total cringe).

So all that said, when I saw people asking about this on the Steam discussions page and then saw your post about what happened, my blood started to boil. Not at you guys but at the absurdity of it all that you have to choose between the exposure your work deserves (that and I'm sure more money for food on the table is nice) and self-censorship. The things that I despise in life more than seeing people have to censor themselves is very, very short. I'm an amateur artist myself. I'm intimately familiar with the history of self-censorship in art and science and it drives me either to anger or despair. Every. Damn. Time.

You've got the support of some random internet person, for whatever that's worth. I know you have to be tight-lipped about what's going-on right now (that's just good business), and I'm definitely not saying "GIMME R18+ DLC NOOOOOWWWWW". All I wish for is that you will find a way to distribute your game without compromise, so that I and everyone else can experience Idol Manger as you intended, it's integrity...uh...intact. (I bet you thought I actually knew how to English gud up to this point. Joke's on you!)

If that means I must purchase the game a second time on a platform other than Steam then I'll gladly do so. I'm sick of the utter banality of what large publishers put out; rarely do they have a soul or innovate to push this medium forward. Small studios do. You're the ones sticking your necks out and taking risks, and that's admirable.

Sincerely,
Some random person on the internet

P.S. Yes, I am absolutely aware of how crazy calling a game about managing Japanese idols like some hopeless weeb living in their mother's basement "art" probably sounds to some, possibly many people. I also don't care one bit.