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A Letter from the Producer: Wrapping Up the Year and Looking Ahead
142 View2026-01-01
Dear Pilots,
This is Chris, producer of Rotaeno.
As we welcome the New Year, on behalf of the entire team, I’d like to take a moment to sincerely thank every pilot who has supported us throughout the past year. Looking back on 2025, it’s honestly been an incredible journey. Together, we achieved a lot:
- 117 new songs were added, including 42 original tracks.
- 12 major version updates, from V2.6 “A New Era” to V2.17 “The Solstice Recollections”.
- 4 story-version updates, including our first-ever summer event story“Endless Summer Rhapsody”, as well as 3 Submission side stories.
Last year, we made a promise: “In 2025, Rotaeno will deliver the largest number — and the highest quality — of original songs and updates we’ve ever made.” Did we live up to your expectations?
Behind the scenes, our team has grown significantly. We now have more than double the number of members compared to last year, and we’ve even moved into a new off-site workspace. None of this would have been possible without your continued support. Looking ahead to 2026, we’ll keep pushing ourselves to create even more exciting, meaningful content to surpass what you’re expecting!
Survey Report
To better understand what our players think and care about, we previously conducted a player survey. In total, we received 6,454 responses! Thank you so much for your enthusiasm and support! I’ve personally gone through every result, including the detailed comments. We have carefully noted all your feedback, and it will be invaluable in guiding our future improvements.
Based on the survey, the most common concerns we saw were:
- While updates have become more frequent, the overall quality has suffered due to too many collaborations.
- Events feel too grindy, especially when rerun events are held alongside new ones.
- Rewards from past events are difficult to obtain. New and returning players have no way to claim rewards they previously missed.
- Even after more than a year, “Stardust” still has no practical use.
- The price of “The Special Pilot” is considered a bit high.
- Main story updates are too slow... and where is Chapter 4???
Improvement Proposal
Focusing More on Quality, with a Healthier Update Pace
Over the past year, we significantly increased our update frequency. In the second half of the year, we were even releasing a new version every 3 weeks. We did this mainly for two reasons: first, to push ourselves to improve productivity; and second, because frequent updates are necessary to maintain a stable revenue balance for the team.
However, as time went on, it became clear that our current team size simply isn’t large enough to sustain such a fast pace while consistently maintaining high quality. As a result, some updates may not have fully met your expectations. So starting in 2026, we have decided to adjust our update schedule to ensure that quality always comes first.
We will adjust our update cycle to 1 update every 4 weeks. Each version will receive a higher budget, and the additional time and resources will be invested directly into songs, artwork, charts, systems, and overall event quality. At the same time, we will reduce the frequency of collaboration content and place a stronger focus on original content. Please stay tuned!
Reducing Event Grind
We’ve realized that our recent update pace has also made event scheduling feel too intense and stressful, especially during the summer when rerun events and new events overlapped. To help reduce the grind, we will introduced a few new features recently:
- Collection Bonus System: Increases event point earning efficiency based on the number of event collections owned, allowing veteran players to complete events faster.
- Miles Booster: Players can consume Miles once per day to gain an event point bonus. The amount of Miles consumed depends on overall exploration progress.
We’re also planning further improvements to the event system to make gameplay feel more flexible and more varied.
New Event Mode Available! Improvements to Rerun Reward Claims
We’re also working on a brand-new event mode called “Wandering Event.” In this mode, you won’t need to jump into a specific event stage. As long as you play songs through Quick Play, you’ll be able to earn event points naturally. We hope that this mode allows you to fully enjoy the music and gameplay itself, free from the pressure of event schedules or grinding.
The Wandering Event is planned for testing in Spring 2026. If everything goes smoothly, it will be released alongside regular events, serving as a new way to claim rerun event rewards, while also offering additional new rewards.
The Stardust Shop is Coming!
We are planning to open the Stardust Shop in Summer 2026. This will be a permanent feature where you can use Stardust to purchase rewards from past events that have already completed their reruns. The shop will also feature special collections for players who have already collected all the event rewards. Don't worry, every bit of Stardust remains valuable, and there will be more approaches to get the Stardust!
About Special Pilots...
We’ve seen quite a bit of feedback about special pilots, especially regarding their price. Some players also suggested increasing their value by bundling exclusive songs or charts with them.
We understand where these ideas are coming from. However, if we were to lock songs or charts behind special pilots, it would significantly raise the cost of core content, and that’s not something we want for Rotaeno.
The introduction of special pilots is directly linked to our increasing development costs. We wanted to find a sustainable way to support the game's long-term growth. Therefore, we view these special pilots as an opportunity for players who are willing and able to provide extra support for our operations. This funding helps us create even more ambitious updates, while keeping the core game content accessible and affordable for the majority of our players.
Because of this, we’ll be keeping the current pricing and content plan for special pilots. We are deeply grateful to everyone who has chosen to support us through these purchases. We promise you will see Rotaeno continue to improve.
Main Story Chapter 4
Development for Main Story Chapter 4 is currently in full swing! To ensure we deliver an experience that surpasses the previous three chapters, "The Flower" will need a little more time to release. We kindly ask for a little more patience and understanding.
Before Chapter 4 arrives, we will continue to release more original content updates and side stories that dive deeper into the core lore. We promise never to release half-baked content just because our focus is on the Main Story. On the contrary, we want to ensure that every single update is worth your wait.
In Closing
Thank you once again for your continued support. Our team is incredibly motivated, and we’re excited to step into the year ahead and keep making Rotaeno better with you.
By the end of 2026, we hope you’ll be able to say, “I’m really glad I played Rotaeno.” And when that day comes, we hope we can say just as sincerely: “We’re really glad we created Rotaeno.”
There's so much more I'd love to share with you all, but let's not get too sentimental just yet. Let’s experience this unprecedented year together first. Then share our stories again when 2026 comes to a close.
Happy New Year to all of you!
We look forward to another great year with you all!
We look forward to another great year with you all!
Sincerely,
Chris
Producer of Rotaeno
Chris
Producer of Rotaeno
Comments
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Is there any notice on when the survey badge will be handed out? I finished the survey before the specified end date in game, however now I cannot find any information regarding it even existed in the first place.
2026-02-26
Hopefully Special pilots can be reduced in cost slightly eventually.
2026-01-18
Thank you for the hardwork Chris and everyone in the team, I look forward to Rotaeno's Chapter 4.
2026-01-05