Most indie developers go radio silent after a rough launch. Not Neyunse.
The Roses of Love creator just dropped a brutally honest letter about their visual novel’s troubled release. After seven years of development, they’re owning up to the problems instead of making excuses. It’s giving main character energy in the best way possible.
The letter hits different because it’s so real. Neyunse doesn’t sugarcoat anything:
“I know this game didn’t have the smoothest launch, and the content may not have been the best. Just as the story might not have been to everyone’s liking or needed further refinement, there is still much to correct in future releases. This game has been a tough learning experience regarding what the reality of the gaming industry is like.” – Neyunse on Steam
Seven years is a long time to work on anything. That’s longer than most people stay at their jobs. For an indie dev working solo, that’s basically half a decade of your life poured into one project. The pressure to make it perfect must have been unreal.
But here’s what’s actually cool about this whole situation. Neyunse isn’t just throwing in the towel. They’re learning from the mistakes and planning future releases to fix the issues. That takes guts in an industry where bad launches can kill studios.
The gaming community is so used to corporate PR speak that genuine honesty feels revolutionary. We’re used to developers either going completely silent or blaming players for “not understanding the vision.” Neyunse took a different path.
What makes this even better is how they shouted out their team. The letter specifically thanks claire from NoranekoGames for sprite support and the translation team of Suki and MaryZ. Plus a whole list of Early Access players who stuck with the project through development hell.
That’s actually pretty rare in indie gaming. Usually you only hear about collaborators when things go well. Acknowledging your team after a rough launch? That’s real leadership energy right there.
The timing of this letter matters too. Roses of Love is available on both Steam and Itch.io right now. They could have easily just patched quietly and hoped people forgot about the launch issues. Instead they chose transparency.
Indie gaming has always been about taking risks that big studios won’t. But it’s also become this weird space where developers feel like they have to be perfect all the time. Social media makes everything feel like it’s under a microscope. One bad launch and suddenly you’re getting ratio’d by people who’ve never made anything.
Neyunse’s approach is lowkey revolutionary for that reason. They’re showing that you can mess up and still maintain respect from your community. You just have to be real about it.
The visual novel space is particularly tough right now. There’s so much competition and players have really high expectations for story quality. A seven-year development cycle probably means the team was fighting scope creep the entire time. Every year that passes, your standards get higher but so do everyone else’s.
This whole situation reminds me why indie gaming matters. Big studios would never publish a letter like this. Their PR teams would have a collective heart attack. But indie developers can actually connect with their players as real people.
The fact that Neyunse called this “a tough learning experience regarding what the reality of the gaming industry is like” hits hard. The industry can be brutal for small developers. Publishers don’t care about your seven-year journey. Players can be harsh when expectations aren’t met. But sometimes being honest about that struggle connects better than any marketing campaign.
So what’s next for Roses of Love and Neyunse? They mentioned “future releases” to address current problems. That could mean major content updates or maybe even a complete rework. Either way, they’ve earned some goodwill with this approach.
The indie gaming scene needs more developers who can admit when things don’t go according to plan. Neyunse just set the bar for how to handle a rough launch with class.
