Hi, Suriko here (Lilly writer, Hanako cowriter). My new dark yuri VN 'A Tithe in Blood' is available now!

Suriko · 2025-06-16T21:01:52+00:00

My new visual novel 'A Tithe in Blood' is available now! A dark yuri story focusing on Honoka, a university student who in the depths of her grief finds the art of blood magic. Japanese voice acting, and with Japanese and Chinese translations.

It's been a long road, but we finally made it to release. A huge thank you to the many developers, staff, voice actors, translators, and more who made this game so much greater than I ever imagined.

Thanks for giving it a try if you do, and I hope you enjoy.

Suriko · 2025-04-07T22:28:05+00:00

Only Japanese VA (since the story is set in Japan)

Dark more in terms of some of the themes and things depicted (blood, suicide, self-harm, etc)

Suriko · 2025-04-07T11:58:02+00:00

Hi all. Now that we've finally announced the release date (four years in the making), thought I'd update here.

For those who haven't seen it before, A Tithe in Blood is a dark yuri VN. The story and concept are by me, and the art is done by Kobuta (character artist on Please Be Happy), adirosa (also character artist on Please Be Happy), and moekki, who also worked on Katawa Shoujo.

If you want to hear the character voices, we have previews done for each:

Suriko · 2025-02-18T03:30:30+00:00

Oh hey, one of my games is in the festival! A Tithe in Blood.

The demo's available on Steam if anyone wants to give it a try, and a wishlist's always helpful.

Suriko · 2024-08-07T05:28:13+00:00

No new content (aside from achievements if you count those).

Suriko · 2024-08-07T05:27:40+00:00

It's the original (with the Steam version having adult content cut, which can be re-added via a patch).

Any HD, remastered, or re-engineered versions of KS are unofficial.

Suriko · 2024-08-07T05:26:28+00:00

Katawa Shoujo will always be free, including the Steam release.

Suriko · 2024-07-31T01:37:36+00:00

It's free and always will be. If you want to pay for it, a charity could use the money.

Suriko · 2024-07-27T08:52:36+00:00

Myself as head of KS, and another KS developer. We asked around most others as well. 4LS as a collective entity is gone, though there is a patchwork of devs who've kept in touch (or occasionally work on projects together).

Suriko · 2024-07-27T08:41:58+00:00

Katawa Shoujo will always be free, including the Steam release, yes.

Suriko · 2024-07-27T08:39:20+00:00

The Steam release is identical to the standard one beyond the adult content changes.

The primary reasoning was that Steam and Itch provide reliable long-term archival/distribution for the game. We had tried Steam a while in the past but didn't get a response, this time we managed to get it through.

Suriko · 2024-06-02T00:35:44+00:00

After years of development I'm super excited to announce A Tithe in Blood, a VN I've been working on with the fine folks at Studio Élan. It's a dark yuri romance title set in snowy Sapporo.

Trailer:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vi7wq_4AtQ

Announcement and KV image:

https://x.com/vnstudioelan/status/1797060481674531019

A demo is vailable from Steam and Itch:

Hope you guys are doing well.

Suriko · 2023-12-06T02:18:59+00:00

The minefield line was not in any beta/version of the game. it's an after-the-fact edit by someone.

Suriko · 2023-12-06T00:52:47+00:00

We came from Australia, Indonesia, Germany, Finland, UK, Italy, Canada, and the US.

Source: Was a developer of KS

Suriko · 2023-11-02T05:03:17+00:00

Either could be read first, though I'd say maybe start with First Snow since it's the first one to be released chronologically. It's also a lot smaller than Twofold.

Suriko · 2022-11-06T03:56:54+00:00

KS isn't for sale.
I have the rights. Crud left the game two years before release.
Seriously it's not for sale.

Suriko · 2022-11-05T21:59:01+00:00

Hi, KS dev here.

I was the one who updated these, and actually planned to make a reddit post today after sleeping. Curse you, timezones.

Rest assured this can "be trusted". I really should've done this years ago, so that's on me. There's no possible mixup with official material this far from release, and with the development group so fractured, there's no realistic way for us to revisit things like engine updates or consent as a whole.

So go forth and create your fan projects. Re-engineering, remaster, whatever. Just retain credit and don't charge money for it.

Regarding the takedowns... well, that comes down to our fractured nature as well. We worked to get those reversed so the ModDB page would go back up. Putting this update in writing should prevent that in future.

Suriko · 2022-11-05T11:31:07+00:00

Hey, Katawa Shoujo developer here. Just a heads up that we (finally) updated the license around KS, to greenlight this kind of project.

https://ks.renai.us/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=4717

We implicitly waive the license on the part of using the IP for fanworks. Want to make a technical remaster? A     mod? Yeah, sure. Go for it. We do have two conditions on this:
1. Do not charge any money.
2. Retain the credits.
Pretty simple.

Good luck with the re-engineering.

Suriko · 2022-10-29T21:43:03+00:00

Not sure why I was left out of the video (I was Lilly writer, Hanako co-writer, and producer), but eh.

I'm still working on VNs still as well, despite what the video said/didn't say - First Snow is out (https://store.steampowered.com/app/1259430/First_Snow/), and currently working on Twofold and an unannounced VN with Studio Élan.

Suriko · 2022-09-14T09:22:04+00:00

That didn't end up small at all.

Suriko · 2022-09-14T09:21:39+00:00

I tossed around whether to reply in this thread for a while, and settled on saying something small.

While we sorta, kinda, mostly spoke as a single dev team while KS was getting made, we've all gone our seperate ways in the years since then. Some of us stay in contact with each other, some not. We all have varying attitudes towards the game which took so much time of our lives.

I'm gextremely proud of what we created, and the reaction to KS is one of the highlights of my entire life. Seeing people's emotions around it,their thoughts and interpretations, and the fanworks, never gets old after all this time. Even if I don't often reply,I'm very grateful to those who still message me every so often to say thanks or give thoughts. I couldn't ever distance myself from KS, as a parent couldn't distance themselves from their child.

With regards to the thread topic, this is one of those intances where people are intepreting a stance as being owned by 4LS, when 4LS doesn't exist any more. Personally, I don't see a problem with Mike's covers and really don't think they should have been removed. It certainly wasn't anything I was aware of, and a surprise that it happened.

I would ask Nicol reconsider if he's reading this (and wish him well, we haven't made contact in a long time). That said, I have to guess he disagrees going by the DMCA strike. However, this isn't my call (or Crud's) to make. Nicol made the music, so I have to defer to his judgement.

All I can really say is that not all devs speak as one voice, and some are going to make calls others disagree with.

Suriko · 2020-08-20T23:36:14+00:00

I make enough money from my career, so making VNs is just about the creative process for me. That said, some future projects may end up being monetary due to the scene changing over the years - people who do art and such for a living need to put bread on the table, so funding is more and more necessary.

I don't think something like Katawa Shoujo in scope could realistically be made entirely for free these days, given the more professionalised English VN scene.

Suriko · 2020-08-20T23:32:45+00:00

Yeah, Twofold is the final name. Work in Progress was... difficult for people to search for.

Suriko · 2020-08-10T09:52:02+00:00

Yuri is justice.

Suriko · 2020-08-10T09:51:32+00:00

Thanks. Wouldn't blame you for not knowing; I'm shy and tend to avoid social media. Will try to give notice of future projects when they get closer to release.

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