Hi everyone! It was one week ago that Lovewood released, and I am honestly blown away by the positive response that this game has received. Thank you so much for that!

Since nothing is stopping me, I would like to share some of the data from the game's Analytics page. All of this is non-private, non-identifiable information, like the number of downloads for each operating system or the websites through which people found the game. I figured that this might be interesting to creators who plan to release their own game on Itch - I certainly would have liked to know what to expect when I started!

The game was downloaded 1294 times during its first week, with the most activity being on its first two days. I now expect it to slowly ease off to a lower, consistent download rate. (You can ignore the little bump in the download chart during early June – Those were my beta testers, who got to play the game before the page went public on June 16th!)

Lovewood is pay-what-you-want, so it's technically free. Three noble people actually chose to pay for the game (Thank you!! <3).

The vast majority of incoming visits were from itch itself, which is why I recommend for creators to tag their game appropriately and create a thumbnail – It helps getting your game seen! I had shared the release on a whole bunch of social media sites, but posting it in various subreddits was the most successful in terms of promotion. Some good subreddits to share your VN in are r/VNdevs, r/renpy, r/visualnovels, r/otomegames and r/playmygame. Just make sure to read the rules for each one, since some communities are rather strict about self-promotion, and you don't want to annoy anyone! It also makes sense to add an entry for your visual novel game on VNDB.org, since quite a few other pages refer to that site.

The Windows version of the game was downloaded most frequently (around 64%), which is to be expected, but the Android version was also quite popular. I am guessing that this is the case because some folks downloaded it in addition to a PC version, while others may not own a PC for gaming, or they simply prefer playing on their phone while they're on the go.

All in all, I am really thrilled that so many people are enjoying the game – I wouldn't have expected more than 300 downloads in the first week, tops! It's an absolute delight to read your comments and reviews about the game, it makes me feel like I did something right as an artist.

When it comes to future projects, I am currently tinkering with a little artbook for Lovewood, which will include art from the concept phase, ramblings about the development process and some more info on the characters. It'll be available for a few bucks as a bonus PDF, for anyone who wants to throw some extra support my way! I will let you know if and when that is the case.

Until then, thank you so much for the support and stay safe <3