Well, that wraps up another year. A lot happened, a lot I didn't expect, a lot I was upset of because of prior events this summer, but overall, this was a great year. Thank you everyone for attending, this was one of the more eventful years, minus this weekend where no one showed up 😹. 

With Umirama 2025 out of the way, I want to relax and recooperate with loved ones for the remainder of the summer. This summer has been a long one for me, due to many factors:

• Dental surgeries

• Burnout/lack of motivation in regards to U&C content

• Family related issues

• Feeling emotional and hopeless about the future

• College and exams

• Exercise and staying healthy

• Bad habits/addictions

• Horrible sleep schedule/laziness

• Being broke

• Managing my relationship

Obviously these are things only I should be worried about, but they are more or less the reasons why I've been doing less with U&C as a project. But this Umirama has definitely upped my spirits, thank you to everyone who attended, or even just hung out in the server. Any bit counts. 

With that little complaint out of the way, I will be focusing on other U&C related content too. If everyone remembers the prior Umirama newsletter, I want to work on mods or other projects in relation to the characters. What mods or projects involving these characters right now are still unknown, as I wanna do some worldbuilding and character development first, as people are INCREDIBLY good at not only drawing my characters wrong, but misinterpreting them too, even after lore writing for 4 years straight. When those projects are being made I will definitely post about them, and even put them in the Side Projects tab, for convenience sake.

I will also try to update the Lore and Info channel weekly like I used to do 2 years ago, I've just been burnt out from, artist's/writer's block. If not every week, then every two weeks tops. I will also be looking for ways to make an official wiki page, which I will also post once I make one, as that will be convenient for everyone. Although it might be hard to find, as I don't want to use shitty sites like Fandom.

I would also like to apologize to my previous team, everyone who used to be at 'Blue_Star Games', for being so demanding and persistent. I understand that we were all working for free, as a small indie team, and what I gave everyone was the bare minimum work. But I felt like I was too harsh and pushy sometimes for wanting any kind of work done. Obviously, not many people did their work. Some left with good reason explaining it to me beforehand, some disappeared for months with no explanation just lurking in the chat, and some just talked and didn't contribute anything at all. So I ultimately decided to disband the team with no hard feelings or intentions, and decided to work alone. Again, I would like to apologize. I'd say I'm pretty good at running a team and giving everyone their jobs, but pretty much nothing came to be. Thank you though for trying to believe in my overly ambitious dream.

But the content that we did make has been archived for anybody interested, available below. I will compile all my sprites and artwork once I get the chance.

I'm sure this is what everybody wanted to see. This has been the most hyped up thing in this fanbase for a while now, implying I have much of a fanbase to begin with. But it's been years without proper content, the most substantial content yet being a mod to a Minecraft mod. Crazy stuff. 

So, after a year of thought, and working more or less by myself for the past while, I've decided to reboot the franchise from the ground up, by myself. Umi & Candy is coming back in full swing, but it'll take a lot longer now, as I'll be doing it alone. Umi & Candy is now...

A comic. Yep. Umi & Candy is going to be a comic series. A multiple choice Undertale-esque videogame, with Mario & Luigi-esque combat, and Warioland-esque escape sequences was a lot of work for 7 people, let alone 1, so I've decided to pull the reigns back a bit. I'm gonna do what I do best. Draw, and write. A lot mpre managable.

I've always had a passion for writing, even if I felt like English classes were always pointless, as we were always reading a dead guy's novel or theatrical play. But I want to leave a proper mark on this world, something people will remember my name for. Nova. Nova, the author of the best sci-fi, horror, parody comic ever. So Umi & Candy is going to be a comic, under the new company label, "Star & Soul Comix" which I'm sure everyone has seen by now in the Discord server.. The Star, representing me, and the Soul, representing my care, love and appreciation for this series, as well as the small fanbase I've gathered from it. You guys are part of the Soul too, I argue the best part, since I've somehow still been going after 4 years.

Since I'll be working alone, don't expect this first comic issue to be releasing anytime soon. I'm still in college, doing my last year of something I didn't even wanna do. But I do hope to release it by the end of this year, or the very start of next year, aiming for a Christmas or January release. The comic will use a lot of story content from the scrapped "Demo Zero" Godot build, I don't want anyone's hard work to go to waste.

I'm open to any helpers or any criticism just as long as people actually help out, instead of mooching around or doing the bare minimum. But for the time being, Umi & Candy is a solo project, done by just me, managed by just me, and owned by just me. You can keep up to date on the Discord and on the Bluesky page, where I'll be posting things when they release.

I hope everyone is looking forward to it.

Well, that more or less sums up everything I need to say. Thanks everyone for attending this year's Umirama. There's no secrets on this page, I promise. But thank you everyone for attending. I look forward to talking to everyone again soon. Next year I promise to do something better.