Hello everyone,
A lot has happened since the very first prototype of Hana, and even more since the latest playtests. When I started this project, I was alone, with the somewhat crazy idea of creating a community-driven game relying only on my developer skills.
The arrival of generative AI quickly became a real solution. It integrated itself into the project very naturally and helped us generate environments, test art styles, prototype new areas and validate gameplay… in short, to build a first version of Hana with decent visuals, without any artistic skills to begin with.
This approach worked for a while. It allowed us to run several playtests, test combat, classes, dungeons, server stability… and most importantly, to gather a community that kept growing month after month.
At the beginning, there were only around fifty of you, then a hundred, then several hundred… and today, as I write this devblog, there are thousands following Hana across our different platforms. Thank you so much for your support — truly.
But as the project moved forward, its limitations became more and more obvious. AI-generated 2D environments and 3D characters never really blended together in a natural way.
Many of you told us the characters “stood out too much”, and to be honest, you were right. Shadows, camera perspective, character placement, lighting — nothing was truly aligned.
We could have kept iterating quickly thanks to AI, but that would never have been enough to build the world of an MMORPG meant to last for years. And above all: the project is no longer a solo one.
After going from solo dev to a small team of 4 (2 devs, 1 3D artist and 1 for SFX), over the past months we welcomed three essential people: a game designer, a 3D artist/illustrator, and a composer. They brought skills I could never have imagined on my own, and a creative atmosphere AI could never replicate.
When you’re surrounded by people capable of creating something real, beautiful and coherent, it becomes hard to justify AI remaining at the center of the artistic direction.
This is why, for several months now, we’ve been working on a complete 3D overhaul of the game. There’s nothing spectacular to show publicly just yet — the work is huge and still in progress. But we’ll reveal the new artistic direction during our upcoming Kickstarter.
This is a true turning point for the game. Hanacontinues to follow the same ideas and vision, but it is finally getting a solid technical foundation. And this is where the Kickstarter comes in.
From January 10 to February 8, 2026, we will launch a crowdfunding campaign to help us cross this major milestone. The goal isn’t to “fund a full MMORPG” — that would be unrealistic — but to make the transition to 3D possible, allow us to dedicate more time to development, and look toward the future with more stability.
Even a modest amount matters: in the video game world, a successful Kickstarter is above all a market validation. It’s what will allow us to access additional support, partnerships and more substantial funding. It’s a lever — not a final goal.
Meanwhile, we want you to be able to play and see what we’ve been able to create so far without any budget. So during the entire Kickstarter campaign, we’ll run a winter playtest.
This playtest will still use the current version of the game, the 2.5D version with AI environments. That’s intentional: you’ll be able to see what we managed to build in our free time, while discovering the 3D vision on the Kickstarter page.
The playtest will also bring its share of new features, but we’ll save the details for an upcoming devblog, more focused on patch notes.
By the way, the Kickstarter “Coming Soon” page is already online. If you want to support us — even without spending anything — you can follow it.
The more followers we have before launch, the more the project will be highlighted by Kickstarter, which can make a huge difference on day one. The link will be available on our social networks and on Discord.
Kickstarter: January 10 → February 8, 2026
Winter playtest: throughout the entire campaign (2.5D version with AI).
This is where we stand today: a project that has grown, a team larger than ever, a community pushing us forward, and always more ambition for what comes next.
The key takeaway from this devblog is that the Kickstarter announcement is not a finish line, but a crucial step toward making Hana the game we’ve envisioned from the start.
Thank you again for your patience, your support and your feedback. We’ll show you everything very soon, and we sincerely hope to see you during the playtest and at the campaign launch.
See you soon,
Lord Eden