May 26, 2023, 3:39 p.m.

SIF1 SIF2 announcements

Hi everyone! Deby here :)

I know a lot of you have been wondering what's gonna happen to Sukutomo after SIF ends, so I'm here to give you a bit of an update <3

First of all, I think I've been through all the stages of grief in a loop ever since the news dropped, and I'm sure a lot of you are in the same state. SIF has been a huge part of my life for many many years, and it's thanks to SIF that I met the people I feel the closest to today. It's thanks to SIF that I started Sukutomo, which then extended to "Circles" that gave birth to many other apps like Bandori Party or Idol Story, and many more to come, I'm sure. SIF literally changed my life, in more ways than one!

That said, I'm really looking forward to SIF2. A major update was very much needed and a fresh new start makes a lot of sense. I have high expectations and I'm super excited to start playing! So I'm trying to stay positive and not let my nostalgia turn into bitterness. This new game is a good thing, I think!

Now enough about me, let's talk about Sukutomo and Circles. As you may know, I have stepped down from my position as Sukutomo manager a while back. I still own the web app and pay for most of it, and I'm still the main decision maker and server admin, but it's rdsathene who is the manager. He's the one who's been keeping the site alive and thriving, organizing community events, making sure the database gets updated and the staff team is happy. Huge shoutout to him, as well as Muqours, dburr, Zehel, triangle, Maralina, junebagel, Eiling, Edelyne, Kach and Mari Ohalloween, from the staff. Y'all are legends.

The reason behind my decision to distance myself from Sukutomo was because I've been focusing on growing Circles and its framework, "MagiCircles", which is the tool we use to create all the apps that were created after Sukutomo. It's a very powerful tool that offers a ton of features that allow us to create better databases and communities. I listened to feedback I received throughout the years, including on Sukutomo, to improve it every day. Our biggest app that uses it at the moment is Idol Story! With Hoshino as a manager, I absolutely adore what we were able to build with Idol Story. The goal of Idol Story is to be your one stop for everything Love Live!, and although we started with SIFAS, we're slowly extending to include more details about the license as a whole. For example, we have really cool pages about all the idols in the license (even Liella, Hasunosora and School Idol Musical), as well as all the voice actresses. Our database of songs is also worth checking out.

I'm sure you get where I'm going with this:

Idol Story will cover SIF2 \o/

We already know we'll have a database of cards and songs, including a way for you to keep track of your SIF2 cards on your own, customizable profile. As we learn more about the game and until it gets released, we're deciding on the features we plan to develop to help make your SIF2 experience smooth, enjoyable, and of course, add that "community" aspect to your gaming we know you all love. I hope you'll look forward to that and you'll be happy to join Idol Story, if you haven't yet. The community is absolutely lovely and welcoming, so we can't wait to get more members thanks to SIF2 addition!

If you want to follow SIF2 news, you can already follow Idol Story on Twitter and Instagram. This way, you won't miss anything SIF2 related!

Now, what will happen to Sukutomo?

Even though Sukutomo is getting a bit old and doesn't have as many shiny features as our other apps have, many of you have reached out to us, on Sukutomo and Idol Story, so we know you love it here and you want the community to stay. Even if some of you have not been very active as of lately, you still want to keep your access to the posts you wrote and the interactions you've had with the community. I totally get it! That's why I decided to keep Sukutomo running \o/ Yep, you heard it, it's not going anywhere!! The cards you added to your collection that show up on your profile will also remain available after SIF1 closes for good. You'll be able to look at your collection of cards as a nostalgic little archive. So if you were considering updating your cards before the closure, go ahead, now is the time!

It's been announced that there will be a way to transfer your SIF1 account to SIF2, and keep your cards in an "album". We don't know exactly what it entails and if the cards will be available when playing songs. And I'm sure you heard of the European drama that's been going on: all Europeans players were denied the option to transfer to SIF2, and many players around the world have been wrongly tagged as European and will not be able to transfer as well, and that sucks. I'm one of those players, unfortunately. I don't have a solution for you, but if you're one of the lucky players who were able to get your transfer code: I'm considering implementing a way to have the SIF1 cards you added to Sukutomo get copied to your Idol Story SIF2 cards collection. Before being able to implement that, I will need to wait until after the release to learn more about what will be transfered exactly. That's another reason to update your cards collection on Sukutomo, if you were considering it!

Donations

I'm sure you know, all of this costs money. Especially with Idol Story, where we've decided to provide the highest quality images for you to download, because we want you to have the best Love Live! experience you can get. As an example, last month (February 2023), I spent $842.34 on server and other techical fees, and thankfully received $526.64 in donations which helped cover some ot it. So if you'd like to support my projects, either Sukutomo being kept alive as an archive of our precious SIF1 memories, or Idol Story growing to cover SIF2 and everything Love Live!, please consider donating <3

You can donate on Patreon, PayPal or Ko-fi.

Of course, you should only donate if you can afford it! I understand if you can't, and appreciate your support either way <3

Conclusion

And I believe that should cover all the questions we've been getting in DMs. If you have any other question, feel free to message me. The easiest way is to send me a private message on Idol Story, right here! I also reply to Sukutomo private messages, it just takes a little longer. And the rest of the team is available on Twitter, Discord, and many more places: check out our contact page.

Y'all know I LOVE YOU ALL and I want to once again THANK YOU so much for all the support you've given us and our silly little idol apps. THANK YOU!! I look forward to this new chapter in our Love Live! journey, together!!!