User:Alexandra IDV/Heart of the Woods

Heart of the Woods is a yuri visual novel video game developed by Studio Élan and published by Sekai Project. It was released for PC in 2019, and is planned to be released for Nintendo Switch in 2020.

Development
Heart of the Woods was developed by Studio Élan, and was their first game as Élan; the studio was founded by one of the developers of the 2016 game Highway Blossoms, with the goal of creating yuri games. The game was directed by Josh Kaplan, who co-wrote it with Rachel Gruber, and edited by Ally Kaye and Minute, the latter of whom programmed the game. The art was created by Rosuuri, Reneé Park, Grant Ferell, Hui, Emma Hugin, and Adirosa, and the music was composed by Sarah Mancuso and Kris Flacke. Dell Kramer performed the song "Snowy Days", and In Love With A Ghost and Em performed the ending song.

According to Kaplan, the reason for using the visual novel genre to tell the story came from its accessibility, a love for the genre, and as a starting point into other mediums. The game engine, Ren'Py, was used for its user-friendliness and lower requirements of programming experience.

The game was announced by publisher Sekai Project during the Anime Weekend Atlanta convention in October 2017, along with The Waters Above, another Studio Élan game. Heart of the Woods was originally released for Microsoft Windows, MacOS and Linux on February 15, 2019. A Nintendo Switch version of the game was announced at E3 2019, and is planned for release in Q1 2020.