Hello, this is BanjihaGames.
First of all, we would like to sincerely thank everyone who played Fakebook.
Thanks to all of you who played Fakebook, we were able to gain courage and joy in making games.
Although belated, we wanted to share the story of how we launched Fakebook and briefly talk about our plans.
Fakebook was our very first STEAM title at BanjihaGames.
Because of that, there were many shortcomings and clumsy parts, but we are truly grateful to everyone who played the game and left reviews and stories.
We will continue to do our best to become a better indie game development team.
Fakebook was a relatively experimental game set on the stage of social media, where spying and deduction unfold.
Throughout development, we had many worries and concerns, but in the end, it was an honor to successfully launch and present the game to players.
The part we focused on most while developing Fakebook was <to calmly portray the SNS culture familiar to all of us>.
While Fakebook deals with provocative themes, the fun and message we wanted to convey do not lie in sensationalism.
That’s why we tried to present SNS as it is, piece by piece, without forcing any message or answer.
A memorable episode was during the SNS research stage.
Not only myself writing this post, but also many of our team members, who weren’t usually active on social media, invested a great deal of time actually using SNS for the sake of development.
Personally, I wasn’t much of an SNS user either, but this project gave me the chance to jump between countless accounts and explore different sides of the SNS world.
At one point, I stumbled upon dark, hidden accounts and found myself checking them daily, unintentionally experiencing shock, tears, fear, and a chilling sense of unease that I still recall vividly.
Of course, the world depicted in Fakebook is exaggerated.
Even so, if while playing Fakebook you found moments where it overlapped with your own SNS experiences, or triggered certain thoughts or emotions—then perhaps the world we aimed to create and its intentions were at least partially conveyed to you.
As many of you know, Fakebook was prepared for release through an early crowdfunding campaign in Korea.
During that process, we included backers inside in-game accounts, communicated with players in various ways, and polished the story and features until the game was complete.
We would like to once again thank those who supported and played Fakebook from its crowdfunding stage.
Perhaps because of that process, the final game felt like a social media world more real than reality itself, blending fictional accounts with those based on real people.
One thing that made me glad we created the game was the ads displayed in the upper-right corner during play.
You may have noticed that fictional ads and real-world company ads are mixed in together.
Among those ads, you might have seen one for Not-So-Scary Company, an organization that supports socially withdrawn individuals.
From my knowledge, they provide some of the deepest understanding and most practical solutions for hikikomori issues in Korea.
Even before developing Fakebook, I had a personal connection with NotScary Company.
I thought if our game could reach someone wanting to escape isolation, we could serve as a bridge—and so we arranged a small collaboration.
That’s why you sometimes see their ads in the upper-right corner.
If you click on the ad feed, you’ll even find a quirky photo of myself, NotScary Company CEO, and BanjihaGames’ Director Yoo-Won Lee posing together in a suspiciously energetic way…
After releasing Fakebook, just a few days ago, I received a call from the CEO of NotScary Company.
They told me that Fakebook had, more than expected, actually helped connect people wanting to escape isolation with their organization, and had provided practical help.
If our game managed to help even a single person in that way, that alone fills us with pride and gratitude.
We’d also like to briefly share our future plans for Fakebook.
Right now, we are pouring all our energy into translation and localization.
As you know, the game is packed with memes, enormous amounts of text, and countless images, making it very challenging to translate.
Even so, we are working hard on localizing the game into English and Chinese.
Our goal is to release globally this December, and we are committed to reaching that milestone.
Thanks to a great opportunity to participate in BITSUMMIT this year, we are also seriously considering Japanese translation and release too.
If any decisions are made in this regard, we’ll make sure to share them with you.
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And about the DLC… and platform expansions…
To be honest, we are still only considering them; nothing has been decided or started in earnest.
Still, we also have our own ambitions, along with lingering ideas and untied story threads… so we firmly believe that someday, the opportunity will come.
As a small indie studio in Korea, everything takes us time, and we are still clumsy and lacking in many ways.
But we promise to keep moving forward, little by little, without stopping.
We kindly ask for your continued support and interest.
We’ll keep working harder!
Thank you, always,
And please Join our Discord!