01/01/2024 - Our Plans for 2024

(Plain text version below)

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To all our fans, supporters, and patrons,

This is Andy from Dreams Circle. Thank you again for participating in our 2023 Survey. We have received an overwhelming number of submissions and have read, and reread, through them all. We have been overjoyed by the encouragement and praises you have showered us with; and we have been made keenly aware of a number of wishes that were echoed across the board. As such, we want to use this letter to outline the decisions we have made in response to your feedback.

Regarding Social Media and Outreach

Roughly 72% of you responded that itch.io (including their emails) is your primary source for our latest news and products. Roughly 60% of you also either opted to skip, or advised against exploring new methods of staying up-to-date.

Therefore, we believe that our current methods are sufficient, and will not make any changes in this regard. For the roughly 20% of you that suggested Mailing List as a way to connect, we believe that using itch.io’s “Follow” feature, and allowing itch.io to email you notifications of our product releases, might be a good compromise. Following us on X/Twitter and subscribing to our Youtube channel are also good ways to stay informed, as these three platforms are updated together when a new product is released.

In addition, we want to clarify that we DO NOT have, nor have plans on opening, our own Discord channel. We have advertised on various RPG Maker-related channels in the past, and that’s what we were referring to with the “Discord” answer choice in those questions. For those of you that went looking for our Discord channel, we apologize for the confusion this may have caused. Having said that, if you participate in a Discord channel that would welcome us to share our works, feel free to contact us via email and we can discuss more there!

Regarding Spritesheet-based Products

While the majority (>80%) of you currently utilize, or plan on utilizing, game engines that are compatible with Effekseer animations, we recognized that there is nonetheless a significant demand for non-Effekseer assets. 

As such, we have decided to commit to developing a new line of products that features assets in both Effekseer and Spritesheet versions. There are numerous technical challenges and restrictions that we will have to figure out, so we can’t say for sure when we’ll be able to bring this to market, but we are aiming to at least kick-off this brand new series before the end of 2024.

Regarding the EVFX and EVFX Forge Family of Products

Perhaps the most surprising piece of feedback from this survey to us was the near consensus (97%!), from those of you that have purchased at least one EVFX/EVFX Forge product, that you would like to see more! (We figured they were about to overstay their welcome.) Roughly 70% of you also responded that you would be interested in icon assets as add-on purchases that would supplement all the VFX/SFX asset pairs we’ve released so far.

So we’ll be doing two things here:

1. We will develop a new EVFX series that aims to feature the themes you have suggested to us, focusing on the more common ones, while trying to fit in the more exotic ones where we can. This new series will start in February 2024.

1. We will develop icon packs that will supplement the VFX/SFX assets for all the existing EVFX and EVFX Forge packs we have released. These icon pack add-ons will be rolled out monthly in 2024.

Regarding SummonFX Products

From the feedback we have received here, we feel that while the concept of this series has a lot of potential and intrigue, our execution and the final products we brought to the table require some additional tinkering and changes.  

1. We will experiment with launching lower-priced, “Lite” versions of the four SummonFX packs that have been released. These “Lite” versions will not include any of the battler/face/portrait/icon assets, and will only contain VFX/SFX pairs that do not feature the Summon monster. These will be rolled out across 2024.

1. We will be putting further SummonFX products on-hold for the time being and focus on the other areas we’ve discussed above first. We will return to these once we feel confident that we can overcome the challenges that are currently hindering these products.

Regarding Our Release Schedule

With so many things in development, how will our release schedule be affected, you wonder? With roughly 80% of you feeling content with our current pacing and 15% of you hoping things could move along a little faster, this is a tentative roll-out schedule we have in mind for the next few months (may change):

As you can see, we will stick to releasing a brand new product on the 1st of each month, and use the middle of the month to revisit the existing products with their aforementioned touch-ups. 

Regarding Video Tutorial Content

While this is something that we have an interest in exploring, considering that only a little more than half of you (55%) responded that you would be interested in paid video content, we have decided to first focus on all the other higher-priority decisions we’ve made above. 

Final Words

Overall, running this 2023 Survey has been an incredibly rewarding experience for us at Dreams Circle, and we believe that there is significant value to be derived that will benefit us all from the excellent feedback all of you have provided. 

With the ball now in our court, we are committed to continue delivering on our promises and exceeding your expectations, and we hope that you will continue to support and guide us in this process together in 2024 and beyond.

Happy New Year!

Warmest regards on behalf of all of us at

Dreams Circle