Twine Build Release (Alpha Preview Update)

It's here. 

The Twine version of Shepherds of Haven is finally ready for you to play!

I strongly encourage you all to read the devlog I posted on itch.io, which outlines all of the technical details, known issues, and to-do items you should be aware of. But I didn't want to bog this post down with all of the nitty-gritty: I'm just going to let you guys see it for yourself!

Play here

Password: welcome_to_the_weave

Bug reports

Incomplete Routes

There's also a new website, new social media accounts at Bluesky and Tumblr, and a newsletter so you can get important announcements straight to your inbox! If you sign up for the newsletter now, you'll also receive a free digital Shepherds of Haven wallpaper as thanks! :)

I'm not going to lie to you all, it almost broke me getting all of this ready for you in time. XD Not only was the abrupt demise of Dashingdon a sudden surprise that threw urgency on the fire, but this month was only 28 days and I had all of this other stuff going on, including the fact that I was planning on using this month to address some very important wedding stuff! I'm now massively behind schedule on all of that, not to mention everything else that slipped through the cracks this month: the goody, the short story... I still need to send out people's bookmarks, and my Tumble queue has lapsed, so I need to devote some time to filling that back up, and my novel manuscript's been sitting there gathering dust... It's also my birthday this weekend, and the festivities my fiance and friends have planned kind of put a deadline on all that! 😂 It was so crazy this last week that I haven't even done my laundry and I was just working every day from 10 AM to 3 AM, sometimes just in my pajamas all day, eating toast over my laptop like some kind of frenzied gremlin LOL. I struggled with feelings of massive guilt for letting so many things pile up, but I kept telling myself that focusing on one thing was imperative, and that finishing this Twine build was what had to come first. The mantra "progress over perfection" got me through to the other side!

And you know what, guys? I'm so proud of what I managed to do. It's been a solitary, strenuous effort these last few years, porting this massive 1.2 million word game to an entirely new engine, learning 4 different kinds of code and workflow systems that were utterly foreign to me, pulling together the artistic talents of so many different creatives into one specific vision. It's not done by any means--the main story is only converted up to halfway through Chapter 8--but I'm so thrilled with what I managed to complete with just a few weeks' notice. It literally feels as if I got the work of a year done in one month. And I hope it shows! I'm SO EXCITED for you guys to finally be able to experience the game that I've been sitting on that it's hard to even express it!!!

What's New:

• UI! A new UI for the game awaits you, including a range of visual themes to switch between light and dark mode, each with its own ‘minimalist’ version for those who favor strict readability! Stat screens, achievements, notifications, codex entries, newspaper articles, journal entries, Chandry’s storefront, the day off hub, relationships, the character guide, the inventory, your room, trading cards, gambling, and so much more have been redesigned from the ground-up!

  • Miss the old look? Switch the font to Georgia and use the "Scholar" theme in your settings. You can even toggle "prioritize stat bars" if you want to change everything back to just stat bars!

• A vast range of settings to customize your game! Includes several fonts and ways to read the text, including OpenDyslexic font, as well as toggles to disable or enable visual effects, music, and character art. 

  • By default, character portraits are toggled off to respect all reader experiences. However, I love them, so I highly recommend turning them on. ☺️

• Robust save system! Now, you can not only use 10 different save slots on your browser (including autosaves), you can also download saves directly to your device, arrange and rename them as you like, and even use them to play the game between different devices and browsers!

• Interactive maps! Explore and learn about the world of Blest like never before!

• Music! A gorgeous custom soundtrack for the game was designed and composed by Ivan Duch and will play at key moments in the story.

• Art! New character art, character cards, collectible trading cards, background art, codex documents, bestiary notes, and so much more have now been integrated into the game. Don’t miss the absolutely gorgeous cover designed by Angela Wang!

• Fully mobile compatible! Though desktop is strongly recommended for the best gameplay experience, Shepherds is mobile-compatible and feature-rich regardless of what device you play it on.

Although the story and heart of Shepherds remains exactly the same (with some minor editing and tightening), there are a few gameplay QOL improvements that also took place:

• Trouble and Briony are now romanceable by players of all genders.

• All players can change their pronouns at any times. Pronouns do not affect romances.

• Gambling is now unlocked earlier.

• Two day offs is now unlocked earlier.

• You can now allocate different points in magic and weaponry training to different skills, not just one at a time.

Note: If the game is running slowly on Google Chrome, that's because itch.io may either be throttling bandwidth (due to too many players trying to play at once) or it's how itch.io interacts with Google Chrome and running an iFrame in a browser. This won't be an issue in the final version of the game--since it will be a download and not an online browser game--but if it's causing issues in the meantime, try using a browser like Firefox!

What's Next:

I'm going to take a bit of a break this weekend to celebrate my birthday and get some of the crunch stress/adrenaline out of my system--then I'll be using the beginning of the month to get everything back on schedule: Patreon rewards, replying to messages, laundry (lol)--all the looming stuff that's piled up! Once everything's settled and back on track and achieved a tolerable equilibrium again, I'll focus both on getting back to adding new content (more character interludes) to the alpha build and converting the rest of Chapter 8, 8.5, and 9 where I can.

Thank you all for your patience, support, encouragement, love, and good vibes as I labored with this for the past months. Working on this so intensely made me really revisit just how much I love this game, its world, and how grateful I am to you all for helping me bring it to life in this way. It literally would never have been possible without you.

Thank you so much for everything. I really, really hope you enjoy! 😉

❤️