Alpha Preview Update (August)

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Bug Reports

Incomplete Routes

Shepherds of Haven Development Log

Content Added: 

• 14,000 words of new content

• New Shery character interlude

• Help Shery confront a bully from her past

• The romance between her and MC heats up in her last interlude before the Ascendancy Festival!

• Small content updates and tweaks have been added to her interactions in Chapter 8 to better reflect the events of this interlude, both in scenarios where Shery is being romanced and if her relationship has been locked to "hated" status

Changelog:

Critical Fixes

• Added a "redirect" if you fail to successfully solve the mystery in Wallmire in Chapter 7, which previously led to a "Game Over" incomplete route. Please note that this shortcut will be removed in the final version of the game (when that incomplete route has been filled out)!

• Fixed a bug in the quickbuild if you tried to progress past the Chapter 7 checkpoint.

Miscellaneous Fixes

• Fixed an oversight where a few achievements (primarily related to Caine) weren't showing up in the Achievements screen.

• Fixed minor (invisible) bugs throughout Shery's previous interludes. Adjusted a few thresholds so that Sherymancers have an easier time romancing her.

To Do: 

• Leaving Chandry's play early during the Ascendancy Festival is still incomplete.

• Blade's souvenir still needs to be added to your room decor.

Notes

Hey, everyone! You may be wondering why another Ascendancy Festival route hasn't been added to Blade and Trouble's this month. That was my original intention, but I'm sad to share some hard news [CW: family illness, death]: two weeks ago, I unexpectedly received a shocking call in the middle of the night that a family member in a different state had been suddenly rushed to the hospital, and that he was not expected to live through the end of the week. He and his wife lived alone, and my fiance and I had to drop everything and drive nonstop in order to make it in time, and the next several days were consumed with everything from helping to prepare their house to receive him for hospice, setting up the hospice equipment, becoming his caregivers and administering all of his medication in his final hours--and then everything else that followed after, including the funeral arrangements and logistics of helping my widowed aunt deal with their house and the aftermath of, well, everything. It was a brutal, exhausting week, and we are still grieved by his passing, though I'm also extremely grateful we were able to make it in time to say goodbye as well as help my family in their time of dire need. I am okay, so don't worry about me, but just wanted to let you all know what happened and how it ended up throwing my plans for the month out the window. I'll be taking this weekend off to fly back out to attend the funeral as well. [/CW]

Given all that, I'm honestly shocked I was able to get out an update at all, but I'm grateful I did! It honestly provided me some comfort and respite once we got back home: Shery's so sweet, and the relationship developing between her and MC (platonic or romantic) is downright lovely, at least imo! 🥺❤️ I wouldn't have been able to write a massive Ascendancy Festival route this month, both physically--somewhere around 30,000 words, looking at the last two--and emotionally, so I called an audible and switched to writing Shery's interlude, instead. She's all caught up to the Ascendancy Festival now, joining everyone else except Tallys, Riel, Ayla, and Halek! And I've been wanting to write this interlude for the longest time. This part of Shery's past is outlined more in her short story here on Patreon, and I've been eagerly awaiting the chance to get to it in the game: there's an achievement that you can unlock for her in this interlude that I had to go hunting for in a document I first wrote in 2018. That's how long I've been anticipating this part of her story!

There is a trigger warning for this update, however: Shery's sixth interlude addresses bullying and mentions of physical assault. Please be aware of this and protect yourself accordingly if need be!

After the breathless, massive updates for the last few months, paired with the release of the public demo, and the breakneck sprint to get the Twine version out in the months before that, I was hoping for a bit of respite this summer, now that those large concerns have been taken off my plate... But alas, c'est la vie! I'm still playing catch-up on a few things--I haven't been able to bug-hunt in-depth recently, the latest shipment of my bookmarks (a reprint for a missing batch) has gone missing again, I'd like to update The Wild Dark again soon (along with working on my neglected book), wedding stuff keeps creeping up, and the artist for Shery's room art is still dealing with personal life stuff, so that will have to finished at some point in the future! ...But I can only do what I can do. 😆 Trying to learn to breathe and be content with that!

What’s Next:

Possibly the next Ascendancy Festival interlude, or a regular character interlude (Ayla, Riel, and Halek are all sort of poking up their heads), or even the start of Chapter 10--it just depends on how the month goes right now!

Thanks for bearing with me, and thank you so much for your support as always! I hope you all are well and are taking care. If you like this update, please feel free to leave your thoughts on Discord, here in the comments, on the itch.io page, or on Tumblr! I haven't been able to reply or reblog very much lately--lots of stuff in my ever-growing, slightly discomfited queue--but your messages truly mean the world to me and are a bright light in the world, more than I can say. Thank you for everything, as always!

Estimated total wordcount: 1,348,000 words