#Wheatflour Wonderland Announcement Transcript

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elfin bison Aug 1, 2025, 2:13 AM

@slim arch has put together a transcript of the announcement/Q&A session held by Chelsea earlier today!
An audio copy of the session is here: #wheatflour-wonderland message

slim arch Aug 1, 2025, 2:24 AM

First off, all of the big important points — Wheatflour Wonderland will be coming to all current platforms on September 18th. So that means Switch, PC on Steam, and Arcade will all be getting this content on the same day, September 18th.

We heard y'all when you were talking about all the FOMO and the impact on the community of different platforms getting content at different times. Some of that we can't change, but our goal for some of these really major moments and major DLCs is to try and keep everything as close as possible together. Luckily, for this one, we were able to get Arcade, Switch, and PC all aligned on that September 18th day.

Now, because PS5 is coming out next week digitally, we did have to delay the Wheatflour launch by about 2 weeks, so PS5 will be getting Wheatflour Wonderland on October 2nd.

Another thing we wanted to do was to make sure that on these super exciting days, everyone would be able to get something — even if they couldn't pay for the DLC. So, on September 18th, we will also be releasing on Switch and PC Content Update 3. Content Update 3 will be totally free, same as Content Update 2, same as Content Update 1.

Content Update 3 is going to bring Switch and PC players up to date with version 2.8 on Apple Arcade. One of the coolest things coming in 2.8 is the new avatar species — the rodents. So you'll have a new species to choose from. You'll be able to make cute little chipmunks, big chunky hamsters, or adorable little gerbils. A lot of different options in that area.

Yes, so there are lots of fun screenshots that we will be posting to show off some of those new avatars. You'll also be getting all of the content that was just released in 2.7 and all of the content that is yet to be released in 2.8. So there are several other things coming in addition to the rodent species.

So, Wheatflour Wonderland and CU3 coming on September 18th to Switch, PC, and Arcade. Well, Arcade will already have 2.8, but you get the gist. So that's what's coming.

For Switch and PC, Wheatflour Wonderland is going to be a paid DLC. So it's going to be $14.99 USD — obviously, there's going to be conversions for wherever you're at. But we hope that you'll enjoy the DLC and feel that it is really worth that price point and lives up to it.
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Before I go into the feature list — since I know some people are more or less sensitive to spoilers — I wanted to go ahead and give a first chance for people to ask some questions.

So how this will work is that there should be a chat that you can access if you go up, at least for me, on the top right. And you can go ahead and post questions there. I'm probably not going to be able to answer everything, but the mods are going to help surface some of the questions that keep coming up around Wheatflour Wonderland. So let's go ahead and open it up for questions for a little bit.

"Will there be pre-orders?",
So pre-orders for wheatflour wonderland on steam, we are hoping to get those out as soon as possible. I am hoping that we'll be able to get it out today. Once it is live we will make a heads-up post that pre-orders on steam are live. The Switch pre-order is a little bit more up in the air so we don't have anything to announce about that at the time.
"Are there going to be more animal avatars coming out?",
Yes! We love adding more avatar species — it's something that we're just going to continue to add to the game over time as we can. We have several more concepted out, so you can expect those to drop in every few updates.
"Will City Town be coming to other platforms?",
City Town will definitely be coming to other platforms — it's a matter of when, and we don't have anything to announce about that today, unfortunately.
"Will Wheatflour Wonderland be complete at launch?",
The Wheatflour Wonderland is going to be fully complete when it releases, so that's why we felt good kind of putting it out there. We have been working on Wheatflour Wonderland for most of this year, so we're really, really excited to be able to put it out on all platforms as a complete experience on September 18th.
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"Is there going to be new furniture in Wheatflour Wonderland?",
Yes, absolutely. I believe there are actually going to be at least two furniture sets that you'll be able to get through a variety of different means. And Cogimyun definitely has her own personal furniture set as one of those. Like some of the other characters that we've been giving furniture sets, you'll be able to get Cogimyun's — and I can assure you it is incredibly cute.
"Is that why Hello Kitty's cafe changed?",
Yes, that is exactly why Hello Kitty's cafe changed. Well, A: Hello Kitty's cafe had always been one of our smallest interiors — and yet also one of the interiors where the most cutscenes happened. So we had always been kinda thinking about giving Hello Kitty's cafe a bit of a glow-up. The same way we had been doing to My Melody's shop, having that bit of the Wheatflour Wonderland story was definitely kinda the forcing function to make that happen. So yes, all of that was in the works when Hello Kitty's cafe re-org kinda came out.
"Will there be more visitors for other characters?",
Yes, of course. Much like avatar species, adding additional visitors is something that we are committed to always doing. Right now, we have really been focused on Retsuko's storyline and bringing in some of Retsuko's visitors. She's got a very interesting and unique cast.

Basically, every NPC we had to make for Retsuko's visitor cast has required a unique model. Hopefully not to get too into the weeds, but if you've been around you know that we have kind of 3 basic body types for our avatars: short, tall, and chonky. And when characters also fit those body types, it makes it a lot easier for us to develop them. It means we can reuse a lot of the animations, which really cuts down on the amount of work we have to do as a dev team — which means we get to release characters faster.

Because everyone in Retsuko's universe is a different species, we've essentially had to make unique new bodies for almost every visitor. So if you guys have been here for a while, you know that we were releasing 3 or 4 visitors per update. That kind of dropped down somewhat significantly when we switched over to working on Retsuko just because her visitors required a little extra care, effort, and development time.

Once we've kind of moved through Retsuko's storyline, theoretically we'll be able to kind of ramp up again and get some more visitor characters out for some of the other folks in our main cast.
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"Does Wheatflour Wonderland use strawberry crates or something specific to the DLC?",
That's a great question. Strawberry crates are very much a My Melody and Friendship Island thing, so I guess that'll depend on how close to Friendship Island Wheatflour Wonderland is. We will have to see.
"Are the rodent avatars more hamster and gerbil oriented, or will we get others, such as rats?",
I believe there are certain heads that are going to have more rat-like ears. The goal was that, between the different patterns that we offered and the different kinds of head and body shapes, you should be able to create a broad range of different rodents.
"What resources should we be hoarding in preparation for the new DLC?",
The new world is probably our richest world yet. There is so much to find and engage with there, you shouldn't need to hoard anything. You should be able to go into the new area and be wowed and amazed.
"Will there be recorded voices for quests?",
Unfortunately, no. For our studio, VO recording is just a little too cost-prohibited. We have hundreds of thousands of words of dialogue, and voice acting talent is something that we can't really make make sense financially.
"Can you tell us a bit more about those sparkly jewels?",
Yes, of course. Some of you picked this up immediately. A big part of Wheatflour Wonderland’s theme was inspired by magical girl tropes and magical girl anime. And of course, magical beautiful gemstones and frilly, kind of fantastic outfits are all part of those.

So gemstones are going to play a major role in Wheatflour Wonderland. They're one of the things that you'll be able to find around Wheatflour Wonderland, and they tie into many, many different mechanics. Definitely a fun thing to go around, find, collect, and utilize.

"Is the Level 35 going to be normal rate or Wish me mell rate?",
The goal of Cogimyun was to have a lot more levels that go a little bit faster than levels with other characters. So while there are more levels, we don't necessarily want it to take more time than characters that have 20 levels. So that was our goal. Again, there’s a lot of Cogimyun furniture, and we had to have some places to give it away. So Cogimyun's friendship levels are a big part of that.
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"Can we play in the DLC if we have not yet completed everything in the original game?",
Yes! So the Wheatflour Wonderland storyline actually branches quite early. Like I said, it's kind of its own self-contained component. When it comes to the overall storyline of Hello Kitty Island Adventure, our goal is to not have to make people get to the very end before they can experience the new content we're releasing.
"Will we be able to cross-trade DLC items with people who do not have the DLC?",
Unfortunately, no. So what will happen is that if you have the DLC, you'll be able to trade with other folks who also have the DLC. Folks who do not have the DLC will not be able to obtain anything from the DLC.

There is a very small caveat to that — there is a multiplayer minigame, and people who do not have the DLC will be able to earn points in that minigame, but they won't be able to redeem those points without purchasing the DLC.

"What kind of gameplay will there be in the new DLC?",
Okay, so if you've been here for a while, you know that I'm a huge fan of open-world games and have a variety of them that I play very, very regularly for inspiration — and just the joy of it.

One of the things that we haven't been able to have before in Hello Kitty Island Adventure is some of the kind of environmental puzzles that are just around the world. Think about Korok puzzles in Breath of the Wild, or the kind of totem puzzles in Genshin Impact.

One of the things I'm really excited about with Wheatflour Wonderland is that we put a lot of effort into having those kind of very casual, implicit environmental puzzles kind of all around. So I do really hope people like them when that releases.

"Is the wheatflower a new flower?",
Alright, so a lot of folks have wanted additional information about the wheatflowers. Yes! Wheatflowers are going to be the new flower type that is going to be available in Wheatflour Wonderland. They will have the same functionality as other flowers — so you'll be able to transfer colors and patterns. They will also bring a unique effect to the game.
"Will we be getting new balloons to float around with in the DLC?",
You know what — I'm not 100% confident in my answer to that, so I'm going to put a pin in it and hopefully come back when I feel more confident. I know that we were going back and forth on all the different things we could create for this, and I'm actually not sure where we landed on balloons.
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"What kind of costumes are there going to be?",
So, as I mentioned, magical girl anime was a big inspiration for the overall feel and vibe of this world. So a lot of what you're going to see are vaguely Victorian, fancy-style outfits with a lot of bright colors and jewel tones. So, you can expect to see a variety of those showing up in the game — and they will be customizable.
"Will there be anything coming to Switch 2?",
Some folks are asking about Switch 2 again — unfortunately, we can't announce anything about the Switch 2 at this time. I know, guys, I'm sorry.
"Will there be cabins in Wheatflour Wonderland?",
So, there will be cabins in Wheatflour Wonderland. They are going to work a little bit differently — that's all I will say about that.
"How many flower plots are there?",
I think people who like flowers will be very excited about the flowers in Wheatflour Wonderland. And hopefully, for all the folks who have expressed that it’s kind of less their thing, we've created more of a visual solution that makes them kind of less sticky-outy in a negative way.
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"Can people who don't have the DLC visit it on your island?",
That's another one I don’t think we are going to wind up allowing. Right now, we're investigating some of the ways that could be abused. It's something we have been trying to figure out if we can do, but right now it’s not looking hopeful, unfortunately. There are just a lot of complications if you allow someone into that world — in terms of them potentially messing up their file in various ways. So, I'm going to say no. And if it happens to work out — fantastic.
"What about the wands?",
Good question about the wands. The wands are one of our major new mechanics. They're one of the things that tie into gemstones and some of the new critters. There are 10 new critters that are going to be available in Wheatflour Wonderland.

And in terms of some of the special things that the wands can do — those will be restricted to the critters of Wheatflour Wonderland. That said, certain aspects will carry over to other locations. I understand that’s vague — I apologize — but I don’t want to spoil too much.

"Is Gudetama in Wheatflour Wonderland?",
There is actually no Gudetama in Wheatflour Wonderland.
"Does Cogimyun get any outfits?",
She does!
"Can we call residents to this new area?",
Yes, absolutely. You will be able to bring your residents into Wheatflour Wonderland.

Okay, thank you guys so much for hopping in. Again, the main announcement is in our announcements channel. We are going to be working on compiling some of these Q&A answers and posting them as well. And we do have a few more screenshots that we will be sharing today. And we will be posting all of those to the heads-up channel as well. Thank you guys so so much, we are really really excited to share Wheatflour Wonderland with you September 18th!