[Producer's Letter] You Saved Morimens - Here's Our Promise For The Future Finale
Hello everyone! I am Light, the producer of B.I.A.V. Studio.
The fact that Morimens has made it this far is inseparable from your discussions, recommendations, and support across all platforms—more often than not, those voices carry more power than we ever imagined.
This letter is both an expression of my gratitude and a record of our journey: a chance to earnestly write down the story of how we got here, and to clearly share the future we are committed to building within our capabilities.
Letter Below
Key Points
I’m Light, the producer. I’ll be in the comments to answer your questions.
Morimens began in 2019. By late 2021 and mid-2024, we were on the verge of disbanding twice. Both times, we chose to finish the story, cementing our theme: "Resist oblivion through remembrance."
In November 2024, we launched the Final Chapter for our 1st Anniversary and were prepared to say goodbye. However, your support on Reddit, Discord, and X triggered unexpected growth. This provided the funding to keep moving and kickstart Part II: "Stars Came Right (Astral Reign)."
Since 2025, we have been rebuilding: fixing legacy bugs, completing missing systems,pushing for professional human English localization, and securing development resources through new partnerships.
In 2026, we released our first Eastern Grotesque character, Xu. Originally drafted in 2021 and shelved for four years, we restarted her production in 2025.
Final Commitment: At present, the project's operational situation is steadily improving.However, if we ever face a shutdown crisis again, I promise to do my utmost to complete the story's conclusion and provide a deliverable Offline Version, ensuring your memories and investment do not vanish.
Preface: If you knew the world would eventually end, would you still choose to create?
1. An Idealistic Start
In 2019, we formed our team with a mission to create something "unsafe": a project that used dark aesthetics to present H.P . Lovecraft’s cosmic horror. For the gameplay, we chose high-difficulty Roguelite deck-building as our core. This didn't fit the typical commercial logic of live-service gacha games, but we felt the experience had to be defined by pressure and uncertainty—otherwise, the "cosmic horror" would just be a gimmick.
In 2020, we released our first trailer. The response from early players was incredibly encouraging and attracted more creators to join us. We thought the project would only get smoother from there, but reality soon taught us that this path would be anything but easy.
2. Hard Choices
By 2021, a storm of problems hit us, leading to a severe financial crisis. Our lack of experience, the complexity of the core gameplay, the difficulty of meeting local market's censorship requirements, a shifting capital environment, and the pressure from high-budget competitors all collided. We were left with two choices:
Disband the team: End the project there and let everyone go their separate ways.
A desperate pivot: Use our remaining budget to rework the game and push it toward markets outside our home region.
We knew the second option was high-risk. We had to cut content we loved, rewards were uncertain, we lacked publishing or investment support, and we had no funds for self-promotion. Even if we launched successfully, it felt like we were headed toward a dead end. Even so, we chose to continue.
3. Why We Kept Going
We kept going because our passion hadn't burned out, and we felt the players' wait shouldn't be in vain. More importantly, we believed that even if the end of service is inevitable, the act of creation and the experiences shared along the way are never meaningless.
So, we named the project "Morimens" (忘却前夜). The Chinese name translates to "The Night Before Forgetting," while "Morimens" is derived from the famous Memento Mori—"Remember you must die." We set the theme as Existentialism: on a stage of cosmic horror that preaches nihilism, we wanted to tell a story of "mortals resisting the gods."
At the very beginning of the story, during the opening ceremony at Mythag University, you are asked to carve your own name onto your tombstone. You know exactly what might happen in the future, yet you still choose to begin the journey and become a Keeper.
That is not just your story in the game. It is a reflection of our story in reality.
Part I: Dusk and Dawn
A Rushed Launch
In November 2023, facing a critical shortage of funding, we made the difficult decision to launch the mobile version in Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan. This followed our grueling "Polar Night" and "Dawnbreak" beta tests.
To be honest, we weren't ready. The content was thin, bugs were everywhere, and balance issues were a constant headache. We knew this was hurting the player experience, but our only choice was to launch and pray we could fix the ship while sailing it.
By May 2024, the situation turned dire. We hit a massive funding crisis with only two months of runway left. Downsizing was unavoidable. Designers, artists, and engineers began to leave one by one. But we refused to go quiet or simply pull the plug. Instead, we set ourselves one final mission before the end.
The Final Task
We committed to three core goals before the team disbanded:
Finishing the Story: We believed that if you start a story, you have a responsibility to finish it. Even an imperfect ending is better than leaving players in limbo forever.
Expanding Language Support: We didn't have the budget for professional localization, but we didn't want to ignore our international fans. We saw players on Reddit using screen translators just to play. We decided to implement machine translation to lower the barrier to entry, while being fully transparent about the quality in the settings menu.
The Offline Version: We wanted to ensure that if the servers ever went dark, the game wouldn't just vanish. By developing an "Offline Mode," we ensured your progress and memories wouldn't be deleted. It felt right—extending the game's theme of "Oblivion" (the fight against being forgotten) into the real world.
We tried to signal this "end of life" phase to the community: First through hints in our 0.5 Anniversary video, then through direct posts, and finally by accelerating the plot toward a grand finale where all Keepers unite.
We wanted our players to be fully informed before spending another cent or hour of their time.
The "Brutal" Reality
With no money and no time, we had to adopt a brutal workflow. We gradually shrank the team to just 20% of its original size. Because the team was downsizing so rapidly, we had to speed up our pace just so people had enough time to hand over their unfinished work and ideas to the few remaining staff before their final day.
It was a revolving door of goodbyes. Almost every week, a colleague would finish their final task, hand over their notes to the skeleton crew, and leave. For those of us who stayed, it felt like watching comrades fall one by one in a losing battle. The workload was crushing, but the emotional toll was even worse.
In November 2024, during our 1st Anniversary, we finally released the final chapter. We spent our very last bit of budget to commission Emi Evans to perform the ending theme, "Ex Oblivione <▼ >".
At that moment, the community, the developers, and the characters in the game were all prepared to say goodbye for good.
But then something completely unexpected happened.
Part II: An Annihilated Rebirth
The Community Miracle
After we released the Final Chapter, the community showed us support that defied all expectations.
Players across different countries and platforms knew the project was on the brink of death. They saw the "Machine Translation" warnings in the menus.
Yet, they chose to stay. They chose to support us financially and spread the word across X, Discord, and Reddit.
That was the turning point. Just as we were preparing to say our final goodbyes, the anniversary update triggered a massive wave of growth.
The revenue and enthusiasm from that "ending" gave us the funds to do something we thought was impossible: begin development on Chapter 2," Astral Reign."
A Brand New Chapter
Starting in January 2025, we began the slow process of rebuilding. We are finally putting the project back on a sustainable track:
Game Improvements: We’ve fixed long-standing legacy bugs and finished the "Archive" section, a feature that should have been completed ages ago.
Localization Improvements: We now have our own in-house English localization team. Most in-game text has been fully replaced with professional human translations, and more are on the way.
New Partnerships: We’ve partnered with Altplus for independent operations in specific regions, securing the funding needed for future development.
Collaborations: We launched a long-term collab with Mist Sequence, bringing the protagonist Mouchette (CV: Ikumi Hasegawa) into the world of Morimens—ensuring her story isn't forgotten.
The Second Anniversary: We introduced Murphy: Fauxborn (CV: Mamiko Noto), a character inspired by Cthylla, the daughter of Cthulhu.
As of late 2025, the game is in a healthier state than it ever was during our first year. We are still a small indie studio, but your feedback has convinced us that this world is worth saving.
The only way we can truly repay you is by continuing our work with even greater sincerity and exploring the further possibilities of this world.
In January 2026, we launched our first Oriental Horror style Awakener—"Xu." Her birth carries a very unique meaning for all of us.
Part III: Huangpu Whispers
The Prototype (2020–2021)
The character "Xu" has been a ghost in our files for six years.
Her story began in 2020 during a Call of Cthulhu (CoC) tabletop session the team was playing together. We became captivated by "The Bloated Woman" and the haunting atmosphere of 1920s Shanghai. That session gave birth to Xu's first draft: a figure draped in luxury robes, a high-society felt hat, and a black fan.
We soon realized that simply drawing "bloated, black long arms" provided plenty of shock value, but lacked that layer of "indescribable" quality central to cosmic horror—that specific sense of oppression wrapped in beauty and etiquette.
We decided to pivot our direction toward "the horror hidden beneath elegance," shelving the idea until we had a more mature opportunity to create her.
In 2021, our artist KPKSS accidentally produced a second draft during a practice sketch, and it instantly captured the exact paradox we were looking for:
A yellow and black silk qipao paired with a folding fan.
The mystery enhanced by a fan cover.
Eyes with a strong, alluring gaze as key points of recognition.
Incorporating imagery of the Deep Ones from the original texts, KPKSS added tentacle elements to Xu and connected the imagery of "eyes" to peacock feathers.
She transformed the feathers—which are naturally full of eye-like patterns—into white mink fur.
Upon closer inspection, however, you realize they aren't feathers at all, but tentacles covered in eyes.
It was perfect. But then, the survival crisis hit. We had to shelve Xu to focus on characters that were easier to finish. The draft was buried in our archives, and KPKSS eventually left the team.
We thought Xu was lost to time.
The Restart (2025)
In the summer of 2025, just after we overcame our survival crisis, our update schedule was finally returning to normal. We had just launched Doresain (CV: Takehito Koyasu), the elegant Ghoul King, but we were still deep in "production hell" and needed to plan the next character for the Caro Realm immediately.
Our chief scriptwriter, Jiyue, stumbled upon Xu’s old files. She couldn't look away. We decided then and there: Xu would be our featured character for the upcoming Spring Festival.
After four years of silence, Xu finally entered production. We reached out to KPKSS once more to lead the redesign. Four years had passed since that initial sketch, and her understanding of the unique visual language of Morimens had grown far deeper and more mature.
Our new team members, artist Meimei and scriptwriter Ningyi, collaborated closely with KPKSS to stay true to the original vision while adding new layers.
To further emphasize the core concept of "horror beneath beauty," we pushed the design even further:
The Texture of Horror: We emphasized "feathers growing from the body like scales," with eyes emerging directly from the flesh.
The Magnolia: We added a magnolia symbol to her forehead—a flower whose fragrance is beautiful but signals the onset of decay. It captures Xu perfectly: alluring, powerful, and utterly irresistible.
The Voice: We invited Rie T anaka to play Xu. We asked her to find the delicate balance between maternal tenderness and the "love" of a non-human entity to answer a central question: How would a non-human existence express love?
As a funny side note, our scriptwriter Ningyi was so unsettled by the story she was writing that she had repeated nightmares, mostly about the three Concubines and their dark, blurry faces.
Resonance
We wanted to weave Xu’s narrative elements into every part of her—from the writing and gameplay design to the UI and music. Our goal was for players to not only see her, but to read, play, and hear her presence throughout the entire experience.
UI: Wang Miaomiao incorporated Xu’s body curves, feather imagery, and signature colors into the typography and decorations of her promotional titles. Seeing the text is like seeing the person.
Combat: Battle Designer Mijiu came up with the "Resonance" and "Stealth" mechanics, reflecting her nature as a predator who hides behind allies, waiting for the perfect strike.
Music: Composer Frank blended traditional Chinese elements with melodies that shift between comfort and danger.
The Stats: Finally, I set Xu’s CON (Constitution) to the highest level in the game. It seems counterintuitive for a character who looks so delicate, but when you realize what she truly is underneath, it makes perfect sense.
Xu’s six-year journey from a forgotten sketch to a centerpiece character reflects the spirit of B.I.A.V . Studio. People may come and go, but the creative soul of this project remains.
Links where Light is answering questions:
Let’s Talk
I will do my best to respond to your questions in the comments. I’d also love to hear from you:
1. When did you start playing Morimens, and what brought you here?
2. Which scene in the game touched you the most?
3. What kind of content updates are you most excited to see?
4. Do you enjoy these behind-the-scenes stories? Who else would you like to hear about?
5. Is there anything you want to say to our team? (I will translate your messages and share them with the staff!)
Finally, I want to sincerely thank every single member of this community. You are the reason we are still here.
Link to Reddit
Link to Discord
