[thelettergii]

Surprise! I'm solo developing a game called Sugarplum Cafe - a merge crafting game where you run a dessert cafe and serve fashionable ladies inspired by sweets 🍰

I have opened my inbox again if you want to ask me anything about the game! Sugarplum Cafe is heavily inspired by fancy patisseries, tea parties, and frilly fashion - I feel like there are never enough more pastel shoujo aesthetic games out there, and I can only be the change I wish to see!

The game is still very early in development, but here are 3 ways you can support this game right now:

Keep following me on socials! I will still share updates here, but I would also love to see you over on Bluesky or Twitter if you have either!

Join my brand new mailing list! You'll get all the info I'd post on social media but you won't miss anything thanks to pesky algorithms.

Support my Patreon! Paid members can play an early version of Sugarplum Cafe right now! (PC only)

I'm a little nervous pivoting from fanart to an original project, but I made this game with the goal of designing lots of pretty ladies with cute clothes, so I hope it won't be that different than my usual art. I can't wait to show you all the characters!

I've always wanted to do more with my art than just post it online, so I'm really excited for you all to play this game. I hope you are too!!

[thelettergii]

My take on Iridesia, the new faerie in Neopets! (I think now that they are on the front of the plot page it no longer counts as spoilers, right? 😅)

I'm very excited that we have our first nonbinary faerie AND a rainbow-themed faerie just in time for Pride Month!! I've been dying to redesign their outfit in my style, but I couldn't decide between two versions. Which do you prefer, White (above) or Grey (below)? 🤍🩶

I'm dyingggggg to redesign more faeries, but my break from working on Sugarplum Cafe has been long enough 😅 so let me make some progress on my game, but I am sure I'll be drawing faeries again later!

Just in case it counts as spoilers, I put their original design and my design notes below:

As the first nonbinary faerie, I wanted to keep their fashion androgynous. It also seems like their outfit is meant to be fighter-like, so I kept that concept.

I changed the cape to a scarf which would not block the wings IRL but still add flow to the design.

To match the moth antennae, I changed the shape of the wings to resemble a luna moth. They unfortunately still resemble butterfly wings to me, but at least the color schemes match.

I turned the wing pattern into a "holographic shattered glass" effect as a nod to the original stained glass concept. I just wanted to practice this pattern to be honest!

I ended up making two versions: 1) White to emphasize the rainbow theme, and 2) Grey to bear a closer resemblance to the original.

I kept the original concept of the stained glass wings for the Grey version, but made the color scheme match the rest of the rainbows.

[thelettergii]

It's my birthday and I made it into the Neopets Art Gallery! One of my bucket list items finally came true 🥹🙌⭐

(yes my birthday is on 6/7 I did not choose this life)

The faeries have always been my favorite part of Neopets, so I knew I had to draw something for Fyora Day! I am Team Faerieland ride or die 🩷💜💚

I don't know why I've never submitted to the Art Gallery before, I think I was just shy, but I was SO stoked to get that secret avatar! I am so easily motivated by virtual moving icons...

[thelettergii]

Sugarplum Cafe at Fanime!

Sugarplum Cafe was at Fanime's Indie Game Showcase last weekend! It was a whirlwind (and I'll write more about it at the bottom of the post), but the biggest surprise was people drawing fanart on the spot!!

Thank you to puruk0y/piopuru on Instagram for...owo who's this? An unrevealed Lady from the demo? 🍒

Then arsenic_cyanide on Instagram drew Lady Mint and Lady Jasmine in a shoujo anime style *w*

And last but not least, this canonical fanart of Vanilla Madeline from bon.komera on Instagram 🙂‍↕️

And of course, thank you to everybody who stopped by my table! I've wondered if Sugarplum Cafe was too niche, but so many people clicked with this game even in its early development stage. I guess that niche is larger than I thought...

It was wonderful to make new friends, reunite with old ones (s/o to college friends and my Homestuck club who I haven't seen in a decade???), and see IRL friends play my game for the first time.

It was surreal to see so many folks get enthusiastic about an idea that's really only been living in my computer and my head and nowhere else. If I needed motivation to keep working on this project, this was it 🥹

If you want a more detailed breakdown I wrote a full recap about Fanime on Patreon, which will be free for 7 days!

[thelettergii]

Surprise! I'm solo developing a game called Sugarplum Cafe - a merge crafting game where you run a dessert cafe and serve fashionable ladies inspired by sweets 🍰

I have opened my inbox again if you want to ask me anything about the game! Sugarplum Cafe is heavily inspired by fancy patisseries, tea parties, and frilly fashion - I feel like there are never enough more pastel shoujo aesthetic games out there, and I can only be the change I wish to see!

The game is still very early in development, but here are 3 ways you can support this game right now:

Keep following me on socials! I will still share updates here, but I would also love to see you over on Bluesky or Twitter if you have either!

Join my brand new mailing list! You'll get all the info I'd post on social media but you won't miss anything thanks to pesky algorithms.

Support my Patreon! Paid members can play an early version of Sugarplum Cafe right now! (PC only)

I'm a little nervous pivoting from fanart to an original project, but I made this game with the goal of designing lots of pretty ladies with cute clothes, so I hope it won't be that different than my usual art. I can't wait to show you all the characters!

I've always wanted to do more with my art than just post it online, so I'm really excited for you all to play this game. I hope you are too!!

[gayweedelf]

I had a great time playing this at fanime this year. I can't wait to check out the full release!

[thelettergii]

Thank you so much for stopping by and playing!! It was great meeting you this weekend also!! (and banger username)

[thelettergii]

Batman Beyond, designed by @pixiegiftfashions and illustrated by me 🖤

Gina's second design for this year's @heruniverse fashion show was inspired by Batman Beyond, her favorite Batman animated series! Featuring a organza jacket with light-up buildings made of LED wiring, which reveals a sleek black and mesh ensemble with red removable batarangs 🦇

We submitted three designs but only one outfit can be selected per designer, so stay tunes for the chosen outfit in July! In the meantime, you can check out Zatanna, the first design, here!

[thelettergii]

Zatanna, designed by @pixiegiftfashions and illustrated by me 🎩🪄

I had the incredible opportunity to illustrate Gina's designs for this year's Her Universe Fashion Show! We submitted three designs but only one outfit can be selected per designer, y'all are NOT ready for the design that was chosen but I got permission to share the others!

This year's sponsor and theme was DC Comics. For Zatanna, the concept was "magician and her assistant". We came up with two color schemes - the magenta is based on Justice League Action and the violet is based on Teen Titans Go; we submitted the violet for sponsor licensing reasons but I'm still partial to the magenta!

If I can get personal for a bit...longtime followers know my art used to be much more fashion-focused. I really wanted to be a fashion illustrator, especially in the geek/pop culture-inspired space - there are more gigs in that niche than you'd think! But try as I might I got rejection after rejection, so eventually I gave up and pivoted to game development. What are the odds that this would happen years after I gave up on that dream? 

This is the first time Gina's gotten a design selected after 12 years of applying, and I'm so happy to be a part of that! Not only did I love bringing her sketches to life (well, she'll actually bring a design to life in July!), but she let me get involved in the design process and offer feedback to help polish and shape these designs. I'm particularly proud of the ribbon sash, that was my suggestion!

This gig was really a dream come true, and I'm so so grateful to Gina for giving me that chance 🥹 

Stay tuned for Part 2 next week!

[thelettergii]

Long time no see! I'm still working on Sugarplum Cafe, but it's very hard to create a thing + post about the thing you are creating at the same time.

From time to time I need a break from game development so I'll be sharing some art I've made during those breaks! Starting with Lady Milk Chocolate, Lady Vanilla, and a pair of sugar spoons. 

I was testing out some new techniques to see if I'd want to redraw the game in this faux-traditional style, and as much as I love the look, it took a long time to draw like this. I've gotten faster since then though, so there's a non-zero chance...!

I'm getting ahead of myself here but I'd love to have enough one-off Sugarplum illustrations for an artbook someday! 

[thelettergii]

Hello! A new issue of the Sugarplum Newsletter is out now. Check it out for some more updates on my game Sugarplum Cafe!

This month though, I'm actually taking a break from game development to work on illustration gigs for other folks. I'm not allowed to share this work until certain dates have passed, but I'm hoping I can post again starting next month! 🤞

Here's a sneak peek:

TBH I've been feeling discouraged about the game, so this was a nice change of pace. I got to hone my art skills some more, and I'm feeling better about where my art is going than I ever have before - longtime followers know that means a LOT coming from me.

In fact, one of these gigs is fulfilling a dream of mine I've had for years...!

Thanks for sticking with me this long! It's very hard for me to create and post at the same time but just know that if I'm not posting I'm always working on stuff I wanna share with you all soon 😤

[tomatoteddy]

Been a fan of Sugarplum Café for a little over a year now and while I was suffering through a bout of art block, I decided to try my hand at drawing all of the ladies!! (This was also honestly just me testing out my chibi artstyle more lol)

Individual pictures of each of the ladies under the cut!! And Sugarplum Café as well as all the ladies here belongs to @thelettergii !!

[thelettergii]

I can't believe I didn't see this right away but AHHHHHH OHHHHH MY GODDDDDDDDDD

These are SO stinkin cute in your style!! The poses!! The sass!! You captured their personalities so well I honestly cannot pick a favorite ;w;

Oh my god thank you so much!! Ahhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[thelettergii]

Look at this fanart of Lady Jasmine I received from @/hsundere on Instagram!! I am always so grateful when people draw my Sugarplum Cafe characters 🥹💙

Haven't been posting about my game lately as I am still in the development weeds - trying to manage both creating something + posting about the thing you create is so tough 😩

For now I've decided it's more important to focus on developing the game, but you can join my mailing list to get a monthly newsletter with updates on Sugarplum Cafe!

At some point I will get to a point where I can start posting more about the game soon I promise 😤

[thelettergii]

Hypothetically, if we were to make sugarplum cafe fanart, would it fine to tag you or should we just stick to using the hashtag? (I may or may not be drawing some of the ladies….. 👀)

Ooh both are fine! Thank you for asking :D

(aaaaa i can't wait to see)

[thelettergii]

A new Sugarplum Newsletter is out, with some really exciting announcements - that will be newsletter exclusive for now!

But good news! You can click here to read the newsletter for free, and maybe consider subscribing to my mailing list through that link too. You'll not only get updates on the game every month, but I talk about sweets I've tried in the name of research :)

I know I should post on socials more, but I'm in "heads down" mode as I try to get the game to a point where I am ready to yap nonstop it on social media, if that makes sense? So in the meantime, the newsletters are gonna be your best source for Sugarplum Cafe updates!

Mailing list subscribers are how I currently track interest in the game, so I'd really appreciate it if you joined the mailing list!

[thelettergii]

Yet another new issue is out! :)

Still very busy behind the scenes, so there's a lot to share in the latest newsletter!

[thelettergii]

Will Sugarplum Cafe have voice acting? :)

Not at this time! Primarily for budget reasons, especially when I'm going to have like...a ton of characters lol.

But also in general I like leaving these characters open to interpretation? Part of that means I don't really have strong visions in mind for how they would speak, but I like the idea of leaving that open to players' headcanons for now!

[thelettergii]

A new Sugarplum Newsletter is out, with some really exciting announcements - that will be newsletter exclusive for now!

But good news! You can click here to read the newsletter for free, and maybe consider subscribing to my mailing list through that link too. You'll not only get updates on the game every month, but I talk about sweets I've tried in the name of research :)

I know I should post on socials more, but I'm in "heads down" mode as I try to get the game to a point where I am ready to yap nonstop it on social media, if that makes sense? So in the meantime, the newsletters are gonna be your best source for Sugarplum Cafe updates!

Mailing list subscribers are how I currently track interest in the game, so I'd really appreciate it if you joined the mailing list!

[thelettergii]

I made Sugarplum Cafe badge ribbons for Ursa Major this weekend!

If you play my demo you'll get a white ribbon, and if you crash the demo you get a bonus pink ribbon. Let's hope I don't run out of the pink 💀

You can play my game at Ursa Major's Game Lounge this Saturday in SF Japantown! If you can't make it, join my mailing list to get alerts for remote playtests!

[thelettergii]

My game Sugarplum Cafe will be at Ursa Major, a J-Fashion convention in San Francisco this weekend! I debuted the game here last year, so what an honor to be back.

If you like desserts, tea parties, and fashionable ladies, this game is for you specifically! Come play the new demo this Saturday and you'll get a special badge ribbon! 🎀

If you can't make it to Ursa Major but want to play, join my mailing list to keep an eye out for online playtests!