The 2020-announced Onion Games sandbox RPG is finally launching next year, game director and designer Yoshiro Kimura announced.
The new RPG was confirmed for a 2023 release in the latest “The Secret Onion Cellar” newsletter sent out to subscribers.
While details on the new RPG are scant, Kimura-san teased its theme might be about “children.” Previous RPGs from Onion Games have had a central theme, like “love” in moon, or “kissing” in Chulip.
Here’s the new details and a letter from the new game director Yoshiro Kimura:
Onion Games new sandbox RPG Q&A
Q: When will the new game be released?
A: Thank you for this important question!
The answer is “next year”… but that’s all we can say right now!
At this point, we are not in a place where we can announce a firm release date.
What we can say is that our first move will be to add a Steam page with an undetermined release date…
…I think, anyway. And even then, it will probably be another 6 months before launch on any platform…
…I think, anyway. In order to announce a release date, we have to be at a point in development where we know we can absolutely keep that date…
…and we’re not there yet.
Q: What general theme is your new game going for, like how moon was about love, and Chulip was about kissing? (from Amiiban-san)
A: Thank you very much. I have been receiving many questions like this in English for quite some time, but I haven’t yet had many opportunities to answer them. I will try to answer them more often from now on.
What is the theme of the game? That is indeed the question.
I can’t give you a definitive answer, because I’ve been trying to fully understand that as I make the game…
What I can say is that this time, I have been thinking a lot about “children”.
That’s the main thing I’ve been thinking about.
Letter from Game Director Yoshiro Kimura
Hello everyone.
This is Kimura-san, your indie-videogame-making Uncle. As you know, I’m currently hard at work developing a new RPG.
Today, I want to talk about this “Rose-Tinted World”.
It seems that number of Japanese developers making indie games is going up dramatically. And now, last month saw the debut of a TV drama called “Atom’s Last Shot”, about a solo, auteur, indie game making genius.
What an amazing time we live in! I can’t believe there’s a TV show like this in Japan!
…But it’s kind of weird. It’s honestly not super interesting. Maybe because there is no “drudgery” in it?
In the real world of indie games, there are many more frustrated developers than successful ones. What you thought was going to be a bright, rose-tinted future turns out to actually be stained red with blood!
In reality, the world of indie games is more about getting tossed into a muddy, bloody battlefield.
Maybe it’s just that this show doesn’t portray that bloody exhaustion that many indie game developers have.
During the development of a game, you are constantly bleeding out your own living expenses and other labor costs, and you never know if the next transfusion will show up in time for the game to make it to release.
Even then — and even if you make an outrageously interesting game — there is no guarantee that it will see huge sales.
And even though we know that in advance, we game developers have to keep working to maximize our productivity. We have to keep pushing forward.
Indie game developers are basically bizarre creatures that are constantly running, laughing, and playing chess, all while bleeding profusely.
Anyway, we’re going to keep working hard to complete the new RPG!
I’m pretty sure that we’ll be completely drained dry by the time it’s finished, so when that time comes, please do have a look at the game (and maybe buy if you can)!
November 24, 2022
Your Indie Game Making Uncle
