Hey everyone, Syon here!

It's absolutely insane to think about it, but it's officially been five years since the first episode of National Park Girls launched. As cliche as it is to say, it feels like both a lifetime ago and not very long ago at all. Either way, I'm so glad we got Episode 5 out before reaching this milestone. That would've been embarrassing.

To celebrate this occasion, I'm stoked to reveal that we've got a couple announcements for ya!
The first of these announcements is small, but important. Steam achievements are finally fixed across the board, the credits in Episode 5 display now, and the art gallery has been updated with lovely new art. Including work from Élan's very own Adirosa.

It won't be the last update, though. Because we'll soon be doing a massive overhaul of National Park Girls. This includes:

• Redone backgrounds.
  
• Completely new UI.
  
• Increased accessibility options.
  
• Improvement to sprite direction (specifically so that everyone is facing each other when speaking, like in Episode 5.
  
• Additional proofreading and slight quality of life adjustments to the script.
  
• An additional key visual from Satchely.

The goal of these updates is to make NPG a smoother, more consistent visual novel, and to align it with the quality our audience has come to expect from Studio Élan games. Please look forward to it.
We still aren't done, though. Because all these updates will be included in National Park Girls: Love Our Parks Edition!

Very soon, all five episodes of National Park Girls will be delisted from digital platforms and replaced with one release that includes every episode. This has been something we've wanted to do for quite a long time, and I can think of no better opportunity than now. We're still figuring out details such as what price this edition will be retailing at, so stay tuned. While I love NPG's episodic structure, it has often deterred people from enjoying the series. With this update, I hope more people will get to experience Eve's story.

And finally, it will be National Park Girls: Love Our Parks Edition that we will be offering up as a physical release! Over the last several years, Studio Élan and Bellhouse titles have received physical editions, and National Park Girls will soon accompany them. Expect to be able to purchase the physicals at conventions we booth at and the Studio Élan webstore[vnstudioelan.com]. More details will be revealed at a later date.

In addition to all these announcements, we are pleased to let you know that we'll be offering a batch of brand new NPG keychains[vnstudioelan.com] featuring the various Park Girls, drawn by our friends Ringo and Myuto! Expect those on the webstore and at conventions as well.

Once again, thank you for continuing to play and enjoy National Park Girls. My life would look quite different without these nature gremlins. I hope they've brought as much to your life as they have to mine.

- Syon

Discord[discord.gg] - Tumblr[vnstudioelan.tumblr.com] - Newsletter[vnstudioelan.com]

The final episode in the National Park Girls series is playable now! Follow Eve as she separates from the rest of the girls, only to meet the gunslinging demigod Death Valley.


https://store.steampowered.com/app/2310480/National_Park_Girls__Episode_5_Eternal_Evergreen_Part_2/

The National Park Girls series started over 4 years ago as an episodic journey following Eve and now it's finally reached its conclusion.

Because the last episode is now released, the previous episodes of National Park Girls are on sale. So if you haven't checked out the rest of the series yet, now is the perfect time.


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The final episode of National Park Girls is now available for purchase!

That's right, the episode 5 will release exactly 2 weeks from today. It's been a long time coming and the finale is finally here. You can read more about this announcement here[www.patreon.com].

National Park Girls - Episode 2: Eternal Evergreen Part 2 is the final installment of National Park Girls. After an incident that shakes her to her very core, former park ranger Eve Aadams casts herself into exile. In the scorched depths of Death Valley National Park, she plans to ride out the rest of her days. That is, of course, unless Yosemite has anything to say about it.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2310480/National_Park_Girls__Episode_5_Eternal_Evergreen_Part_2/

Hey everyone, Syon here!

I’m excited to finally finally finally be letting you all know that the release for National Park Girls - Episode 5: Eternal Evergreen, Part 2 is right around the corner!

It’s so close, in fact, that it’s now available to wishlist here on Steam! Highly encourage you to go and wishlist episode 5 so you can pick it up the moment it drops! Right now it’s looking like August or September. Either way, it’s happening.

Thank you all so much for your patience. I promise the conclusion to Eve’s journey will have been worth the wait!

- Syon

Hey everyone, Syon here! Not too long of a gap between Episode 3 and Episode 4 this time. We're getting better tat this, huh?

If you don't know by now and it wasn't obvious already, National Park Girls - Episode 4: Eternal Evergreen Part 1 has been released! Join Eve and Yosemite as they go on an adventure across the park to uncover long forgotten secrets about Yosemite's past. Meanwhile, Yellowstone and Zion play a very existential game of Uno.

I hope you enjoy this episode of NPG as much as the other episodes! Episode 5 might take us a little longer just because of how many new art assets there will be (hope you like new outfits), but I'm sure it will be worth it.

Speaking of Episode 5, you may notice that your saves are (once again) broken upon downloading Episode 4. We're really sorry about this and figured it wouldn't happen again. However, we had to overhaul our sprite engine in preparation for Episode 5, and as a result, things went kaplooie. Whoops. Unfortunately, there's nothing we can do about it, as the engine overhaul was necessary for efficiency and optimization. Otherwise, NPG would run sluggishly on your hi-tech pro gamer PC.

To explain it in a little more detail, here's our programmer, Kari. Take it away, Kari!

***

Howdy campers, today is the release of National Park Girls Episode 4! Last night, we pushed out an update to make the game compatible with it, and prepare for Episode 5. The sprite engine NPG was originally based on was extremely heavy, inefficient, and mostly a holdover from old tech that was designed before this game was even planned. It's always been a problem that caused NPG to stutter at points, which for a visual novel, is pretty crazy.

Fixing this would have required remaking how the sprites work completely from scratch, and it always ended up being something we didn't have time for during the development of episodes 2 and 3 and pushed back. With episode 5 on the horizon, we knew we had to change it before it was too late. Episode 5 is by far the most ambitious one, there's a ton it adds, and if we used the old engine the workload would have doubled. There's a lot of technical and logistical reasons why, but this was the only way we'd be able to keep making episodes for the game without it exploding.

There is a downside to this, unfortunately. Retooling the game to have it do what we need it to for episodes 4 and 5 will break saves. We weren't really sure if it would before we pushed the update, but there was a chance of it. Between potentially breaking saves, and giving National Park Girls the finale it deserves, we chose the latter. Your gallery progress and achievements should be unaffected, but we know getting back to a specific place in the story can be annoying. We're continuing to look into a solution for it, and will keep you updated on progress.

We apologize for the inconvenience, and we're going to work as hard as we can to bring our ambitions to life, and make a grand finale worthy of National Park Girls.

Thank you for playing, reading, and understanding.

Happy Trails!
Kari

***

So there you have it! We deeply apologize for the trouble, but we promise that this is what's best for NPG and will make for a far more pleasant experience.

Enjoy Episode 4! We're in the home stretch now.

- Syon

Hey everyone, Syon here. We know it's been a long year for everyone. Us too. But National Park Girls is back to help liven the mood!

National Park Girls - Episode 3: Daughter of Zion is now available on Steam! Pick it up now and you'll get a 15% launch discount. Pretty dope AF, ey?

Go catch up with Eve and the Park Girls after their long hiatus! I'm sure they'll appreciate the company.

It's been almost one whole year since Episode 2 of National Park Girls has been released, but now the Park Girls are back in a brand new adventure!

Yosemite has been acting real weird lately. Well, weirder than usual. Could her somber attitude be related to Zion in some way?

National Park Girls - Episode 3: Daughter of Zion will release on November 6th, 2020! Make sure to put it on your Steam wishlist so you can catch up with the girls as soon as it drops!

Hey everyone, Syon here! You've all been very patiently waiting, so now it's time to reward you!

National Park Girls - Episode 2: Happy Trails is now available on Steam! And if you get it within the next several days, you can purchase it at a 10% launch discount!

So what are you waiting for? Go read it and join Eve and Yellowstone as they take a hectic hike through Dunraven Pass and doom western civilization!