2026 Yearly Poll – What You Guys Said

First off: thank you so much for the thoughtful, detailed, funny, wonderful responses. I loved reading through every single one of them.

🏆 Clear Top Priority for 2026

Most of you are emotionally invested in CT:OS and want steady momentum more than anything else. I'll manage my time this year so that the 3 CT:OS updates that I've planned will happen above all else.

What You Love Most

The most repeated themes for CT:OS:

• Characters and their arcs (including gushing about the ROs haha)

• Relationship progression and emotional payoff

• The tennis matches, excitement, and the customizability of stats/tennis builds

The heart of CT:OS for you isn’t just "sports" — it’s the people, intimate moments, and slice-of-life, slow-burn moments. And... you guys came for the romance and stayed for the tennis.

The most repeated themes for Merry Crisis:

• The angst & emotional tension

• Distinct romance routes and how each RO feels different

• Mature, grounded emotional writing

Merry Crisis works because it’s intimate, subtle, and emotionally sincere, not because it’s flashy or overly dramatic for drama's sake.

Suggested Improvements

The most repeated themes for CT:OS:

• Wanting more downtime / quiet, intimate moments, including more mundane ones

• More information about MC's mother and/or more scenes with Coach Sy...

• Questions about what the rest of the chapters / timeline looks like for CT:OS

I'll work on adding more quiet, simple moments between the dramatic beats; there are some coming up, such as down-time at night after the quarter-finals, where you get to talk to your doubles partner (or Sam). Also, I'm surprised by just how much 'mommy' (and mommy equivalent) interest you guys have showed.

The most repeated themes for Merry Crisis:

• Specific polish is required: occasional pronoun bugs and clarity issues.

• Wish for choices to echo more strongly later on with more payoff for emotional decisions/key moments

• More family scenes

Heard you guys on the continuity and polish/bug fixing. I'll do an editing pass for pronouns, errors etc. as soon as I finish writing all the chapters! I'll also work on weaving in more branching and variable flags for key moments/decisions.

💡 What Would Increase Support

You guys consistently mentioned:

• More consistent updates

• Bonus scenes and snippets

• Even earlier early releases

Sounds like instead of worrying about any extra perks or content, my focus for next year will be setting and meeting a regular cadence of updates and snippet releases.

🎮 Most Hyped Future Projects

Funnily, two ideas tied for first place with 30% of the votes each.

• Space Diner

• Silver Screen

Followed by:

• Golden Boot (World Cup tie-in)

I'll bear this in mind for 2026 and 2027.

🌱 Big Picture

No bells and whistles needed. I'm gonna keep doing what I'm doing, and the three big things I'll commit to will be:

1. 3 chapter updates for CT:OS

2. Consistent bonus snippet releases (let's aim for... at least 3?)

3. Polish/Editing pass for Merry Crisis that looks at choice impact and continuity

Raffle Winners

Shoutout to these lucky folks picked by a spinning wheel! Thank you so much for being part of the community 💛 I've reached out to you either through the Tumblr/email you provided.

Once you've confirmed if you'd prefer the snippet or a vote on bonus content, I'll update again on the outcome :)