Takii Noame, a Japanese indie game developer specializing in yuri visual novels, announced on October 4 that they have resumed work on Watamari Part 2 – A Fake Marriage?. The game had been delayed indefinitely back in August, after the developer’s bank blocked revenue transactions related to all of their past Steam games. In a blog update on Note, Takii Noame wrote about their “debanking” ordeal and how they dealt with it.
“This is a recipe for anyone who was happily making a new yuri game,” they write, “only to have their Steam sales blocked by their bank for some reason, completely throwing their schedule into disarray near the end of development and leaving them feeling like they’re going to throw up.” According to Takii Noame, their problems started when they saw an influx of revenue from their Steam releases due to a sale, which caused their bank’s automated checks to flag them for suspected money laundering.
From there, Takii Noame was accused of violating the bank’s terms, which the bank (SBI Shinsei Bank) attributed to “adult content patches” they’d released for their past yuri titles (releasing external patches that restore adult content in Steam games is a common practice among eroge publishers). Back in their August announcement, the developer also mentioned that even asking their publisher to send them revenue related only to all-ages games through Japan’s Post Bank was met with rejection.
To deal with the issue, they were asked to submit a “huge amount of documentation” by their bank, which is why they ultimately decided to postpone the release of Watamari’s sequel. “I had to tear apart the schedules of all the contractors whose availability I’d painstakingly coordinated, apologize to everyone who had been working with me to keep things on track, and reschedule everything,” they write.
However, as the developer goes on to advise peers dealing with similar issues, “spending time preparing all those documents is completely pointless.” Ultimately, Takii Noame says the problem was only resolved after they changed banks and begrudgingly gave up on adult patches for their past yuri games. They express sympathy for developers whose games are entirely focused on adult content, saying “all you can do is pray.”
On a brighter note, development on Watamari Part 2 – A Fake Marriage? has now fully resumed, with the developer planning to announce a new release date soon. With over 15,000 Wishlists on Steam, the upcoming title is a visual novel in which the player becomes an angel of love and, together with their mistress Nene Yakumo, guides other couples toward yuri relationships.
