Caelyn Sandel

August Checkin!

Hey pledges! As always, thank you so very much for sticking with me. I know I didn't have any updates for you in July, but believe me when I tell you that there's a lot of good stuff in the pipeline.

My work for Freehold Games is coming along well, and my hindren creatures are already in the main branch of Caves of Qud! The big hindren village update should be sometime in the next few months, and we may have it in beta within a couple of weeks! Stay tuned there.

As for p...

Growth, the Novel!

Hey pledges! Thanks so much for your support, as always.

Dani and I finished 'book three' of growth, and have fully accepted that at 79k words, we've made a complete novel here. Linked here is the full text of the book. There's just been our own editing pass so far, but we're going to be polishing it a bit more before we e-publish.

We're going to be getting some art from Rhys Pittman, too! We're all very excited.

Just to be redundant, here's the link to the document again:
2018-05-21 16:01:48 +0000 UTC View Post

Hey, how's Caelyn Doing?

Hey, now that Patreon lets us make poll posts, why don't I take advantage of it? I haven't asked my wonderful pledges for feedback in quite a while, and I'm overdue!

So please let me know how I'm doing! Please note that if you rated me any lower than 'really really good', you're technically promising to leave a comment with feedback. So... do that, please. I always want to improve!

As always, thank you so, so much for supporting me. I've funded around sixty games and a bunch of stories t...

Growth, Book Two!

Hey lovely pledges!

Dani and I have finished book two of Growth, our speculative fiction light novel trilogy! While we'll be releasing all three books free to the public for #litenoveljam2k18, I'm proud to be sharing the drafts with you ahead of time!

We've commissioned an artist to do some sketch illustrations for the books, and as I receive those I'll share them here too, but in the meantime, please enjoy the story!

In case you didn't get the chance to read the first book, here's...

Growth Book One Preview

Hello pledges!

I hope you all enjoyed getting a chapter-by-chapter preview of Growth. I'm pleased to announce that Dani and I have finished the first seven chapters, which we've compiled into a single light novel that we're entering into the #litenoveljam2k18.

The link above is our draft of book one in its entirety, waiting for illustrations and edits. Feel free to comment if you'd like, but otherwise please enjoy the story :)

My March has been All Qud's

Chag sameach, pledges, and happy birthday to me!

Thank you, as always, for your amazing support. I've been hard at work designing new stuff for Freehold Games's Roguelike Magnum Opus, Caves of Qud. I'm learning so much and doing so much; I can scarcely believe that I get to be a designer for this amazing game.

I've been posting snapshots and previews of my work on the #CavesOfQud twitter hashtag, so if you wanna see everything I've posted, 2018-03-31 13:59:59 +0000 UTC View Post

Growth, Chapter 4

Dave poked his blonde-mopped head into the apartment, looking around. “You here, Chase? You decent?”

“Never,” the young man whose long black hair draped over the back of the couch shot back.

“Um. He’s decent, don’t listen,” Dave said behind him, then opened the door fully and ushered Sarah into what seemed like an awfully stereotypical bachelor pad, complete with clutter. “Sorry about the… state. Chase forgets that the recycling bin exists.”

“Th...

Growth, Chapter 3

“I think it’s above freezing today,” Zoë murmured, her breath fogging up the window.

“Hallelujah.” Sarah sighed, looking up from her phone. “God, this has been ridiculous, I can’t believe they closed the warehouse. Aren’t New Englanders supposed to, like, be able to deal with snow? I can’t afford to miss more days of work.”

“I want to go outside,” Zoë said, turning. “I can’t stay cooped up in here. How’s… my hair look?”

Sarah opened ...

Growth, Chapter 2

[cw: unexpected hair loss]

Sarah woke up a few times throughout the night, every time dragging herself unwillingly to the bathroom to pay the consequences of the half-gallon of water that Zoë had insisted they both drink before retreating to their rooms. Every time muttering dire and insincere epithets aimed at the roommate who had done this to her, every time drinking, as instructed, another cup of water, every time chasing her face to the pillow and succumbing...

Growth, Chapter 1

 [Co-Author's note: Trying a new way of sharing my fiction with you, friends. Let me know if you like this style, or if you'd rather I go back to sharing a link. Growth is written by me and Danielle Church.]

[cw for alcohol use in this chapter!]

“Heyyy, I’m home,” Zoë called from the door, shouldering it closed as she slung her satchel off and tossed it on the floor next to the boot mat. She swept off her toque and coat in a single motion, hanging them from ...

Dark and Quiet, Part 1

Hello lovely friends!

I'm pleased to report that I've finished part one of Dark and Quiet, my apocalypse love story! I plan to post it on my website's blog shortly, but in the meantime you can read it here:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1o0o2wsFyBoooJSI2yAUsvWvK8ErzQu3DTZKByOfmQHY/edit#

I was originally thinking that I'd make it just a short story, but a...

Process preview: Dark and Quiet

Hey lovely pledges!

I'm working on a small story based on some experimental storytelling that I did over on twitter—#QuietDays and #DarkDays. After thinking about it for a bit, I decided that it might be fun to let you all peek in on my process.

I'll be using the Blossom Vignette method on this project, which means that I won't be writing in order from top to bottom; I'll be writing phrases as they occur to me and letting them 'bloom' out from there. If you see that I've updated, there...

February Pledge Update!

Hello, dear pledges! Thank you so much for your support!

Since my Patreon is monthly now rather than per-work, I figure that you might like a sort of State of the Caelyn address so you know what your support is helping me do.

As I announced, I've started doing work for Freehold Games's magnum roguelike opus Caves of Qud. Specifically, I'm designing a village of cervitaurs (deer people) called hindren, and designing a procedurally-generated mystery quests. It'll be months before my work a...

The Big Relaunch!

Hello, darling pledges!

Thank you SO MUCH for sticking with me through a year of big changes. 2018 is gonna be another year of big changes, and I'm really hoping that you'll decide to stick with me for it through this one as well. There are gonna be some changes and there are going to be some experiments, but there are also going to be NEW PROJECTS and EXCITEMENT!

The biggest change is that I am switching this Patreon to monthly. What this means for you...

Smut do ya think?

Hello, lovely pledges!

In addition to the work I do here and professionally at Evil Overlords, I do a lot of recreational writing and freeform text roleplaying. In the process, I've rekindled my interest in writing erotica, both as static fiction and interactive fiction, and I'm thinking of making a more serious effort of it.

How would you feel about it if I released paid erotica through Patreon? Please check all that apply!

Vapor and Salt

Hello, lovely pledges!

I'm pleased to announce that I just finished a working draft of my new interactive fiction work, Vapor and Salt! Those of you who have played A Hindren's Guide to Qud will remember our main character, Khashind, who now works to earn his keep in the great salt desert. V&S is one of my biggest games in quite a while, and I'm proud to have it herald my return to indie work.

This game is a fanwork for the amazing roguelike Caves of Qud, but requires no prior knowle...

Where the Heck is Caelyn

Hello, lovely pledges! It's been a while, hasn't it?

It's Caelyn again, here to explain why I vanished off the face of the Earth for a while. The simple answer is: things have been extremely hectic! Since you last heard from me, I was hired as a Staff Writer for Evil Overlord Games, who is building a multiplayer interactive fiction game called Susurrus: Season of Tides.

Does this mean I'm done making my own games? Heck ...

shhh, FKMS Secret Early Alpha!

Hey friends, what I have to show you is not a complete game but a working early alpha of a larger-scope game than this Patreon would support. By creating stable milestone builds, however, I can still show off concrete progress as I work on it!

Finder, Keeper, Maker, Sleeper is a rafting crafting game about four mysterious people traveling down a river. You play the role of Keeper, helping guide the other three safely along.

2017-03-01 03:17:41 +0000 UTC View Post

Ace Elliston and the Case of the Hooded Figures!

Hey lovely pledges! It's gonna be another two-post day. Here's the public one, a full game release cominatcha from me and my dear writing partner Cass Marshall.

Join teenaged detective 'Ace' Elliston as she pursues the unpursuable, proving the unprovable, all to prove the existence of the supernatural in the little city of Nineveh, NA!

No prior reading is required for this interactive fiction! Just click the link and play!

2017-02-28 20:07:24 +0000 UTC View Post

Groceries and Ghost Stories, Act 2

Hello, lovely pledges!

AoC fans rejoice—the Groceries and Ghost Stories serial continues with several more chapters. The link above includes the first ones too, so make sure you're caught up. There'll be another post up later today or tomorrow to round out Act 2.

Big thanks to my contributing authors: Dani Church, Hoodie Aida Kitten, Kara Hurvitz, and Isalba Glaciere.

Nineveh, NA

Hey friends! My first release of 2017 is a dynamic fiction called Nineveh, NA about a place called Nineveh, NA. It's set in the universe of Cass Marshall's neverknown, a modern fantasy horror setting, but is intended to be a somewhat less dark and more explicitly social pocket of the universe.

http://inurashii.xyz/nineveh.html

Expect some cleanup to old things this month; my Patreon page is in sore need of some upd...

The 2016 ADVENT Calendar

Those of you who've been with me for a while know that I try to do a kind of year-end retrospective, and call it the ADVENT Calendar. Well, here's this year's. More of an interactive art piece than anything else, it was a very raw year for me and so this work is very raw too.

Happy New Year, everyone. Let's stay strong and stick together.

Love,

Caelyn

http://inurashii.xyz/ADVENT2016/

The Seedlings Sequence: Book One

Hello beloved friends and patrons!

Thank you for sticking with me all throughout this ghastly dumpster fire of a year! Happy New Year and good riddance! As you all know, it's been a simply hideous year for me, and I'm looking forward to barreling into 2017 with my paws swinging.

My penultimate release of the year is part four of the Seedlings Sequence , which now has its own landing page and chapter selection. I hope...

Transplant, a Text Adventure

Our second release today sees me brushing the rust off my Inform 7 chops. That's right, I'm releasing a classic text adventure. This one is set in the AoC, and while the trappings are of the classic "escape the room" type, hints of a greater story indicate that this won't be an isolated work...

You can play this game online through the link here, but if you'd prefer to use your own interpreter, you can download the .gblorb file through the 'Home Page' link.

Let me know if you have any pr...

Groceries and Ghost Stories, part one

Hello lovely pledges! This month, I'm hitting you with a one-two punch of cyber-fantasy set in my pet universe, the Age of Corporations!

The first release is a work of static serial fiction I've been co-writing with several of my regular writing partners and friends: Hoodie Kitten, Dani Church, and my own spouse Kara Hurvitz.

Those of you who have read Tales from the Securemarket or Que Sera Sera may recognize some characters, but those of you who don't shouldn't end up confused at all.<...

How the Light Gets In

My only October release is another small piece of dynfic about my father.

Thank you so much for supporting me during this difficult time. I hope to return to my normal creation schedule and an improved scope of work starting next month. I am incredibly grateful that you have all stuck with me, and I look forward to diving into projects the way I used to.

I love you all very much.

http://inurashii.xyz/ho...

a Seedling and a few words

Hi friends. It's been a little bit, hasn't it? I have a late-ish release for you, and it's small, but I'd like to tell you a bit more about what's going on. But first: this release is the 3rd chapter in the Seedling Sequence, a story about an apprentice alchemist. Here are links to all of them so far: 

http://inurashii.xyz/seeds.htmlhttp://inurashii.xyz/seeds...

Mortal Queue, remastered!

http://inurashii.xyz/queue.html

Hi friends!

Gosh, my life has been difficult and strange, but here I am with my 2nd August release right under the wire. I finished coding it and am now uploading it from the car as my spouse and I are driving  back from my parents' house in Maryland! The future is pretty cool, huh?

Anyway, this release is a remake of one of my earliest small game jam games, Mortal Queue...

NULL vol. 1! Gen Four Lore Galore!

Hey friends! I'm pleased to announce the very first COMIC release of my Patreon! NULL is a story set in the Generation Four universe about a young woman who has the unfortunate luck of having a famous superhero for a mother and also having a power-nullifying field surrounding her. NULL was drawn by Cass Marshall and scripted and storyboarded by Cass and me.

(the zip file for NULL is attached to this post, by the way!)

But that's not all of the Generation Four related stuff that's been ha...

The Editor

http://inurashii.xyz/the-editor.html

The Editor is an interactive story about the newest resident of the Lon Fon Apartment Building in New Washington. When fire alarm testing drives many of your floor's residents out of the way, you take the opportunity to figure out who's after you and the other tenants.

Set in my Age of Corporations universe and co-written with Cass Marshall, creator of Generation 4, this ...