Hi everyone ❤️ I'm excited to announce that this year, I'll be releasing my first full-length standalone music album! It will contain around 20 tracks. Most songs will be completely new! However I have also made the decision to include a handful of remastered classics like Cube Land, From the Ground Up, Zombies On Your Lawn and remastered music from Rakuen!

Today, you can actually listen to the debut single from this album (When You Wake Up) as well as watch a beautifully animated pixel art music video (created with Morizora Studios).

🌳 Music Video: https://youtu.be/SGnxRXG9lQ8
🎵 Song: https://ffm.to/when-you-wake-up

I truly hope that you’ll enjoy this music. And to everyone who has played Rakuen or listened to its music, thank-you for taking the time to be part of this little world.


💙For updates: Twitter & Mailing List!
🌳Follow our Publisher Page: Morizora Studios
🎹For live music performances from the developer: Check us out on Twitch!

❤️ Attention Rakuen fans! Our Sue & Puchi plushie campaign is NOW live!
https://www.makeship.com/products/sue-and-puchi-plush


These two best girls are ONLY available for 23 days, and we must sell 200 units for the campaign to be funded! So any help with sharing it would be greatly appreciated!

I hope that these adorable plushies will bring you joy, and inspire you to build tiny planets of your own!


💙For updates: Twitter & Mailing List!
🌳Follow our Publisher Page: Morizora Studios
🎹For live music performances from the developer: Check us out on Twitch!

🌻Tonight (May 27th at 7pm PDT) we'll be holding a special mini-concert on Twitch! I'll be performing live music from various games I've worked on (Rakuen, Meg's Monster, Plants vs. Zombies, Deltarune, To the Moon, and more) along with giveaways (games, plushies, etc.). Hope to see you there!

🌻If you already own Rakuen, for a limited time you can get an extra 15% off Meg's Monster with the Meg's Monster x Rakuen Bundle!

Meg's Monster is a story-based indie RPG where you play as a monster from the Underworld (Roy) trying to help a lost little girl (Meg) find her way home. It has a lovely pixel art style reminiscent of SNES games, a beautiful soundtrack and a unique combat system. I also had a wonderful time singing the game's theme song! Have fun in the Underworld, but be careful not to let Meg cry, or the whole world will end...

https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/32695/Megs_Monster_x_Rakuen/

🌻 Rakuen: Deluxe Edition (which includes Rakuen, Mr. Saitou and a 3D animated film collection) has finally been released on Switch!

🌻 Players will now be able to experience Rakuen in Japanese! An official Japanese version (localized by 8-4, with Keiko Fukuichi in charge of translation) has also been released today!
ハチノヨンが日本語ローカライズを手掛けた、『RAKUEN』公式日本語版、遂に発売！

🌻 Don't forget to check out Mr. Saitou! A bite-sized adventure in the world of Rakuen where you play as an overworked Japanese salaryman who is spirited away to the corporate world of... Llamaworms.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/628740/Mr_Saitou/
https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/31390/Rakuen__Mr_Saitou_Bundle/

Hi everyone,

First of all, I wanted to thank you for the love and support that you've shown me over the years. Every day I'm thankful and honored that I'm able to create music and games in the hopes of moving people in a positive direction. This is a dream come true for me, and I'm so moved every time someone shares that Rakuen has helped them somehow.

I wanted to address something about Mr. Saitou before the game comes out tomorrow. I've seen a lot of people joking about how (based off of their experience with Rakuen) they're preparing to be "emotionally destroyed" by Mr. Saitou (or other references to lots of crying :) - While I definitely appreciate that Rakuen resonated with people, I want to make 100% sure that folks don't have the wrong impression about what kind of game Mr. Saitou is.

While Mr. Saitou takes place in the same universe as Rakuen, it's meant to be playable in one sitting (around 2-3 hours as compared to 6-10), and it's more of a quirky and lighthearted game (it's *not* an emotional roller coaster spanning multiple character arcs). The game focuses on a friendship between an overworked Japanese salaryman and a goofy extroverted kid. The characters are silly, there's a lot of poking fun at corporate business culture, and some of the stupid parts make me laugh. For those who have played Rakuen, Mr. Saitou serves as a fun enhancement of that world, rather than a direct sequel.

That being said, there is an underlying heavy topic and some bittersweet moments (which do cause me personally to tear up when I'm playtesting), but it's approached in a more subtle manner than the topics in Rakuen. While Rakuen is a story about accepting and understanding tragic fates, Mr. Saitou is a story about growing beyond yourself to find meaning and purpose in loving others. Despite being a short game, we put a lot of love into it. You can interact with most things, there's lots of hand-drawn portrait art, colorful pixel art & animations, and a varied musical score (from Enka to Hip Hop with a callback to a certain Sunflower through whom many of you came to know me).

Mr. Saitou means a lot to me. It's kind of my love letter to the introvert world, and to my community. It's silly, with a bit of serious. And I really hope that even though it's not going to be as long or as intense as Rakuen, that it will still be a good and uplifting experience for you.

Thank-you for playing ❤️
--laura (a.k.a. supershigi)

https://store.steampowered.com/app/628740/Mr_Saitou/

Mr. Saitou is a quirky story-driven adventure game about an overworked Japanese salaryman who is spirited away to a fantasy land of Llamaworms.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/628740/Mr_Saitou/

In this short & sweet spin-off of Rakuen, you'll navigate the absurdities of corporate life, trek through an Edudungeon, meet the Sphinx of Basic Math, ride trains, and befriend a weird kid who teaches you about life. Enjoy charming art, a heartwarming & humorous story, and music by Laura Shigihara, Toby Fox, and No Holds Bard.

❤️ Don't forget to Follow & Wishlist Mr. Saitou's Steam page!

In the upcoming Rakuen PC Update, Emmy has created some really fun new portrait art for some of our favorite characters like Sunflower and Lil Budz from No Holds Bard!!! Hope you'll enjoy this sneak peek.



💙For updates: Twitter & Mailing List!
🎹For live music performances from the developer: Check us out on Twitch!

Hi everyone! I'm super excited to announce that we've spent the last year creating an entirely new custom-built engine (powered by Ebitengine) that will solve many of the issues inherent to RPG Maker XP while enabling us to bring Rakuen to other systems (like Switch and mobile devices) + some other goodies! The new build is now in open beta and available to anyone who owns the game!

• Overall improved performance
  
• Resizable window & borderless windowed fullscreen mode
  
• No more blurring of pixels when the game window is expanded--nice, crisp pixel art!
  
• Steam Deck compatibility (with improved controller/touchscreen support)
  
• Fixed the RPG Maker XP issue where clicking off the game disrupts audio-synchronized cutscenes
  
• Steam Achievements now compatible with Mac/Linux/Steam Deck
  
• On-screen lyrics subtitles for translations
  
• New art, character animations, and smoother graphics.
  
• Original build will still be accessible to those who are using older machines.

• Pixel perfect game window resizing for StreamlabsOBS (or other streaming software)
  
• Audio-synchronized cutscenes will no longer be interrupted by stream alerts
  
• Streamers can switch tabs to chat on Twitch (or other platforms) without window issues

Because we want to ensure the best player experience possible, we're inviting all those who own the game to test the new engine before it's fully released. If you find any bugs, please report them in our Official Bug Forum. If you'd like to participate in the open beta, here's how you can access it: Right-click Rakuen in your Steam library. Go to "Properties" and click the "Betas" tab. From the drop-down menu, select "you-beta-test-this" and that's it!



If you already own Rakuen, then this update will be completely free to you (and will be available automatically once it's released)! Starting this Monday (2/13), in order to cover development costs for building the new engine, Rakuen's price will become 14.99. But of course, anyone who has the game by then will receive the update & new engine for free.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/628740/Mr_Saitou/?utm_source=stm
Lastly, don't forget to check out the demo for Mr. Saitou (the next game in the Rakuen universe) before the end of Steam Next Fest (and to Wishlist & Follow for updates, contests, etc.) ❤️



💙For updates: Twitter & Mailing List!
🌳Follow our Publisher Page: Morizora Studios
🎹For live music performances from the developer: Check us out on Twitch!

✨Hi everyone! In celebration of releasing a demo for the next Rakuen game (Mr. Saitou), we're hosting a contest with MULTIPLE ways to enter! Winners will receive a special pin set or a made-to-order Rakuen-themed plushie! (You can choose characters like Lil' Budz, Minimori, Monsieur Bud, Saitou-san, and many others!)✨

🍄On Twitter, post your fan art (multiple art entries/art you've previously made are 🆗) OR a SCREENSHOT of your favorite part from the Mr. Saitou demo (which you can play for FREE now), or BOTH! (*each entry should be a separate tweet)

🍄Use the hashtags #mrsaitou & #saitoucontest so I can find you!

🍄Deadline: Feb. 6 @ 10am PT


https://store.steampowered.com/app/628740/Mr_Saitou/?utm_source=stm

💙For updates: Twitter & Mailing List!
🌳Follow our Publisher Page: Morizora Studios
🎹For live music performances from the developer: Check us out on Twitch!

🎉 The next game in the Rakuen universe now has a DEMO! It will only available until Feb. 13th (with a scene that's ONLY found in the demo), so play it while you can!

❤️Don't forget to Wishlist and Follow Mr. Saitou's page, so you don't miss out on contests, updates, etc.!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/628740/Mr_Saitou/

I'm super excited to announce that we're finally able to release the French & Russian translations for Rakuen! A big thanks to all those who are helping to bring this story to more players! We have a few more languages in the pipeline, so stay tuned!

If you'd like to translate Mr. Saitou into your language (we're especially looking for native Spanish speakers), please send an email to shigiteam@gmail.com with a link to your Steam profile and which language you'd like to help with! Please only email if you're a native speaker of the language you'd be working on (i.e. you wouldn't be using Google Translate).

We're also beta testing the German version of Rakuen, so if you'd like to be involved, please email shigiteam@gmail.com




💙For updates: Twitter & Mailing List!
🌳Follow our Publisher Page: Morizora Studios
🎹For live music performances from the developer: Check us out on Twitch!

Hi folks! I have some exciting news: We have a chance to work with some cool folks to make a Rakuen plushie (possibly two). So if there's a particular Rakuen character you'd really like to see as a plushie, leave a comment here letting me know your top two choices! Monsieur Bud? Jacky the Leeble? Tony the Bear? The neat thing about these plushies is that they can come with a fairly large accessory, so we could even do something like Sue with a mini Puchi ❤️

https://store.steampowered.com/app/628740/Mr_Saitou/
❤️ Don't forget to Wishlist & Follow the newest game in the Rakuen Universe, Mr. Saitou! It will be available March 23rd, 2023 on Steam (you can also find it bundled with Rakuen on Nintendo Switch)!

I hope you enjoy this preview of the music track "Ancient Minimori Meeting Ground" along with some of the pixel art from the game!

💙For updates: Twitter & Mailing List!
🎹For live music performances from the developer: Check us out on Twitch!