Hi everyone!

Episode 7 is now out. The episode comes with close to 1000 new renders and 14 animations.
A scene was removed and will be included in the next one because I was not happy with the animations and so they need some polishing.

- Fixed a bug that threw up an error when you viewed image#2 in the gallery
- Fixed some typos

If you find errors/typos, post them on my discord.

Hi everyone!

Episode 6 is finally out. As most of you know, the update got stalled after I moved to another country. It took me a while to find a place, get settled in and get back on track so I apologize for the delay. Things are good now, though and the next update will be here much sooner than all the previous ones. I'm aiming for a release in the first week or two of January but I'll post it even sooner if I finish. I've written most of the script for the next episode so I just need to work on renders.

Please go through the patch notes to learn about some new features that you may not be aware of.
For those of you who feel like the 'slow burn' is getting too slow, all I can say is wait for the next episode because that'll change things. Thank you for sticking around and again, I apologize for the delay. Moving in took much longer than I anticipated. Episode 7 will be here sooner than you think.

If you have any questions / bug reports, please join my discord channel. You can find the link by clicking on the discord logo in the main menu.

- CC

• Added a Character Journal - You can find the character journal in the menu. Look for 'Journal'. If you don't see any entries, just start the episode and they should fill up after like one second. Entries will be updated the more you interact with the character. Heart symbols on journal entries indicate main LI's (LI's that will have a unique solo ending should you choose to go with that route). Please remember that you can pursue all the LI's and change your decision to be a one woman man later on if you want to experience all the relationships for now. Your call.
  
  
• Added achievements - Achievements for this episode have been added and should automatically sync with your Steam account. Note that there are achievements from older episodes that will come with the next episode. I didn't activate all of them because I thought having so many pop ups would get annoying. The variables are tracked and saved in your game so you will get them when I activate them even though they're older ones.
  
  
• The dialogue system - I didn't talk about this one when I implemented it in the previous episode but basically, sometimes, you'll get options to respond in a certain way - Friendly, Funny, Flirty, Aggressive. These responses will be linked to achievements/bonus image unlocks/bonus action and dialogue unlocks. For example : If you're always aggressive, you might be able to perform aggressive actions in some scenes based on how high your aggression points are.
  
  
• General notes - As you all know, I moved to another country and it took me a while to find a place, settle down and start working, which is what caused this gap between the previous episode and this one. I apologize for the delay and assure you that releases will be much faster now that I'm all settled in. The next episode is planned in the first few week or two of January and may even be out if I finish before that.
  
  I realize that the slow burn might be getting too slow for some of you. All I can say is that the next episode will change that. I've already written down most of the scenes for the next one so I just have to start working on renders now. If you have any questions or if you find any bugs, feel free to join my discord channel. Click on the logo at the main menu and come say hi.
  
  Thank you all for giving my game a shot!
  
  - CC
  

Hi everyone,

After a pretty long wait, I'm finally typing this from my PC in my new home. I wanted to post this sooner but I decided that I wanted to show you guys a render too so I waited for a bit until this was done. I apologize for this whole process taking so long. There was so much going on with the apartment and just when I was about to sign the contract, someone else approached my agent with a better offer so there was a lot of back and forth. I ended up giving them the better offer in the end because the place is quiet and away from distractions. I prefer living in quiet places where there's not too much to do around because based on my experiences, the 'fun' places are super crowded on weekends which is what I wanted to avoid.

With regards to the game, I'm back on work mode so I'll start posting weekly progress starting from today. My place is filled with cardboard boxes as I type this but my first priority was making sure my files and assets were functional so I had to come create a scene before cleaning up. I'll do my best to work as fast as I can without compromising the quality of the game.

Thank you all for understanding and also I apologize again for the pause.

Hi everyone,

After weeks of hunting for an apartment in the new country and trying to look for a real estate agent that isn't trying to screw me over, I finally found a place and am done with the paperwork. The official move in date is the end of this month.

I've written the script for the entire next episode which will be the biggest one so far so the process shouldn't take too long once I move in since I just have to work on renders. I've been so busy with setting up my bank account and busy with the tax process in my home country that I just wanted to get everything out of the way before I posted here on Steam and even on my Patreon.

I'll post again when my pc is setup and render work has started.

- CC

Hey everyone,

There's going to be a tiny patch soon that fixes some grammatical errors and also gives you the option to skip the 'gift' from Aren at the start of the game (lewd scene with Carmine). I've been meaning to add this for a while now since some players brought up the issue about the scene being forced on the player.
Keep in mind though, avoiding the scene will also lock you out of future Carmine content.

I can't render on my pc for a while but I missed making renders so I started working on my laptop which is super slow compared to my pc. The laptop is still special to me though because that's where I created the first two episodes.

I'm working on adding a journal feature which is basically a log for relevant characters you've met so you don't lose track of them. Don't remember a character? Click on the journal, click on their face and see a tiny description about them to refresh your memory. Since code is all I can work on for a while, I decided to work on the journal feature. The code is already functional and just needs some finetuning so it'll be part of the next episode.

Here's a render from a future scene and also a random render I created because I missed working on Lanya.

Hope you all have a great weekend!

- CC

Hey everyone,

No spoilers ahead but I recommend reading this after you've played the update.

First of all, thank you for being patient.
Somehow, after every update, something happens irl that takes me away from my work for a little while. This time it's the move to another country. I leave this month so I couldn't really delay the episode any long since I still have to pack. Overall, I feel like I got the message that I wanted the episode to convey, across.

Up until now, the story has been very light hearted and more of an introduction to most characters and places. With episode 5, I wanted to really throw the plot in there while still trying to maintain the pacing as much as I could. From the pov of my script, more could have happened in this episode which I will include in the next update. (These won't count towards episode 6 but will be added to this one. So the release of episode 6 will include some content for episode 5 too).

Please remember that the length of one episode doesn't indicate the length of every future episode. Some might feel short, some might feel long. There's a lot that has to happen before episode 15. And If I feel like an episode was 'too short', I'll always add more to it in the next update. The story is above everything else for me so I won't try to finish it just for the sake of hitting that 15 episode.

I'll have to start packing up my PC as soon as possible since I leave in two weeks and need to make sure it's packed well. If some bugs do pop up, I'll use my laptop to fix them. Nothing game breaking should show up though since this is a pretty straight forward update in terms of coding. If you find typos or errors related to text, please post them on my discord under the bug reports channel. Here's hoping that this move helps me really settle down and gives me the opportunity to work on the game uninterrupted.

I hope you continue enjoying the game.

-CC

This update comes with the current content for episode 5

- ~800 renders
- Some new animations
- Added a personality scoring system for some dialogue choices that'll be obvious based on the icon next to them. For now, these will just track your points which will translate to achievements whenever they're implemented.

Hey Steam!

Hope you're all doing well. I got an opportunity to move to another country soon (mid June) which will be a great step for me personally and for the future (family wise). It came up all of a sudden and I couldn't let it pass by so I've been busy with visa work and stuff but that's all done and now I just have to wait. I wanted the episode to be out in the first week of May but it looks like it'll take a little while more. It wont go into June.

Render wise I'm pretty much done and just need to create and add the usual last minute 'ideas' that pop in my head. Coding wise I'm a little behind and will catch up now that I'm done with my paper work. Sorry to do this to you guys. I'm sure the episode will be worth the wait. Friendly reminder that if you have any urgent questions about the game, dm me on discord since I'm usually online there much more than Steam. I had this nagging habit where I was hooked to refreshing my page pretty often and I'm trying to train myself to chill a little bit for a while.

Here are two random renders.

Hey everyone,

After my last post here, I had some exams I had to attempt and had almost decided to drop them because they came out of nowhere and I wasn't prepared. However, I ended up 'trying' to clear tem instead of dropping them. I probably wont get through this time but I just wanted to give it a shot since I had already paid for them. I've been back home for the past 4 days now and I resumed renders as soon as I got back. I'll have to speed it up a little this month because I want to release by the end of the month or at least the first week of next month.

Working on these renders has really been fun for me because I can finally start introducing important characters. I had created a bunch of them maybe 3 months ago but they weren't ready to show up in the story yet. I was trying to be ambitious with two free-roam events this time but I'm probably going to have to stick to one event. They won't be confusing free-roams and will be very straight forward just like my other ones. It looks like this update will have at least 10 scenes if not more so it's taking me a while to create these scenes before I throw the characters in. I want there to be at least some variety since a lot of VN's use the same assets so I try to change colors / textures, add / remove props so there's a slightly more unique feel to the scenes. Most players won't even notice things like this but it's just something I think is important since there are 1000's of VNs out there.

tldr : If all goes well, I'll have the update out by the end of this month. If there are hiccups, Early May.

Hey everyone,
I want to post progress updates on Steam more often but as far as I know, people get emails when I post an announcement (please correct me if I'm wrong). Which is why I don't post as much here because I assume it'll be annoying for most people to get progress emails every now and then. I'm usually around on the discord server for any questions regarding progress etc. I do want to keep everyone in the loop so I'll post more updates here but if it gets overbearing, feel free to comment.

I had to travel the entire month of February so I couldn't make any render progress during that time. I did however code a lot so I got some code out of the way for episode 5. Renders started as soon as I got back home in the beginning of March and are still going on. We're currently at around 250 renders and a few animations. I have some exams coming up on the 21st until the 1st of April and I'll have to travel again for those so renders will pause until then. Coding and bug testing however will continue even while I'm travelling.

This episode will also include a patch that makes your first encounter with Carmine optional. Please note that you will miss out on any side quests from her if you chose to skip her scene from episode 1. I'm adding this because enough players have told me that it feels like it was forced on them. The patch is ready and tested.

I'll have a tentative release date for the episode by the end of this month but please keep in mind that it will take me some time because of the travelling I had to do in February. I'm constantly working on the game though and will keep you all posted more often as long as the posts don't feel to spammy for everyone.

A few previews from the episode -

Hi everyone,
The second half of episode 4 is now live.

The update comes with 800 new renders and 15 animations. And of course, some new tunes.

There was an issue at the last release where you couldn't load your game if you saved at 'save your game now'. I made sure not to make the same mistake again so your saves should be fine.

If you find any bugs, feel free to head over to my discord server and report them there. I'll patch them and upload them asap. This could be from spelling errors to game breaking bugs. Anything at all.
I hope you like the update !

Hey everyone!
For those of you who celebrate, I hope you're all having a good Christmas. For those who don't, I hope you're having a good day regardless.
I just got back from a family lunch and I've been up for 23 hours now. My software is crashing a lot so I can't leave batch renders overnight and have to monitor the renders to make sure they go through. It's a minor issue because I can just restart the software and it works fine. The only downside is I lose some sleep for a while but I'm waiting to post this update because it was really fun to work on.
I'm almost done with all the scenes I wanted for this release. There's just one scene left which I don't want to skip because I want it to be part of this release. It just feels like it should be here. So I'm sorry but it's probably going to take 2-3 more days. I've proofread the scenes so far so it's just this one that I have to code and go through again. It'll be a mini free-roam event so I'll have to go through pathing too to make sure there are no major bugs.
Overall, I'm pretty happy with the progress although I'll be 2-3 days late compared to what I had in mind. I'm gonna take a 3 hour nap now and continue rendering as soon as I'm up. Happy holidays!

-CC

Hey everyone,

Here's a little preview from the next update. Development has been good so far and as of now, the tentative release date is looking good too.
I'm aiming for a pre Christmas release and if I get some time, I'll put in Steam achievements too. If I don't, I'll just keep that for the next episode.

Just wanted to give you a quick update and let you know that development is going well so far.

Thank you for your support!

-CC

There was a bug that would take you back to the main menu if you saved when the game 'asked you to save'.
It's been fixed. Thank you for bringing it to my attention!
Also fixed a few typos here and there. Discord is always open if you find more.

Hello everyone!
I finally managed to get the first half out.
A few things to note before you play - This is just the first half of episode 4. The second half will be longer. This one is heavier on the filler/casual side of content. The plot reveals I have in mind were completely out of place in this first half and it'll be better if they come up together in the second half. This means that two large scenes won't be part of this release even though they're rendered and ready to go. Sorry, I'm doing this from a story telling point of view. The placeholders for bonus images are in place but the images will also come out with the next part.

To sum up, I hope you like this first half. Again.. it's a very light hearted release and is more on a casual side. If you want a more plot heavy serious version, the next release will do that for you. My next semi break is only in the at the end of January which is when my sister gets married. So I'll be here all of November and December. The next half will be out before Christmas!

Happy Halloween, everyone!

I hope you have a fun and safe holiday. The new episode should be out within 7 days. I'm close to done with the episode and I hope you enjoy it. More details about the episode will be up in a new post with the release.

-CC

Hey everyone!
I hope you've all been doing great. I'm sorry I didn't pop in with updates for a while now. I've had a very busy month with family events and an engagement which were all in different states so I've been travelling a lot. My work flow took a hit and it took me a while to get it up and running again.

It's been a while since the last update so I hope by now every one has managed to play the missing scene from before(Talitha's visit). I made a post about it as soon as I patched it in but I'm not sure if everyone read the post so I hope you didn't miss out.

I'll give you an exact release date as soon as I know what I can commit to. It'll definitely be out in the month of October but I would think there's a higher chance of it being in the second half of the month. My travelling aside, I had some issues with my writing for a while and I just didn't enjoy the content I wrote so I scrapped a LOT of it and started over. One thing I definitely don't want to do is release content I'm not happy with myself. If I don't like it, I can't expect anyone else to like it.

Just a reminder that the upcoming episode will be split in two parts. So the next two releases will count as ONE episode.
If you have any questions, you can always dm me on discord.
I hope you have a great rest of the week!

-CC

Hey everyone,
Thanks to a_svensson, a major bug has been found. I've fixed it and uploaded the fixed version.

The bug : If you're pursuing Talitha - After the scene with Amaris staring out the window, all you get is a black screen and text that she spent the night.

The fix : You get an actual scene of Talitha spending the night. The black screen with text appears AFTER you play through that scene.

I apologize for the inconvenience. For those of you who have already played through this episode, a quick renpy tip is to :
1. Head to options and select skip unseen text.
2. Go back to your game and hold down 'ctrl' . This will fast forward your game until there's a choice that
pops up
3. Fast forward until the Amaris scene and play the Talitha scene.

A few of you asked me why Talitha was skipped and I was under the impression that you wanted more than the current Talitha scene. Turns out you didn't get to see any Talitha scene.
Again, sorry about this. The fixed version is already uploaded in case you want to watch the Talitha scene.

-CC

Hey everyone,

After all the hurdles and issues, I finally managed to post episode 3.
The update size should be around 400mb.

This is my first update on Steam and even though I struggled a little with the updating tools (Totally my fault, not Steams), it's nice to see the episode live.
There's also a 10 day sale starting right now.

My Steam journey has been great so far so I'd like to thank all of you for your support. Many of you are joining my discord too so that makes me happy.

I've finally moved on from my 2060 laptop to a 3090 PC which means I'll be able to update much more consistently and much faster.
I haven't slept all night and it's ~9 am here so this is just a brief announcement that episode 3 is live. Goodnight!

-CC

Hey everyone,

I hope you're all having a good weekend! I'm waiting on some renders as I type this so I thought I'd leave a random update for those who are interested in knowing.
I'm keeping around 3 more days to work on renders, followed by a few days to work on code, and then some bug testing. I'm liking how the episode is turning out so far and I hope you like it too.

The update should be done on time with no problems. I really want to have a sale when the next episode is out so those who have the game on their wishlist have a chance of getting it at a discounted price. The next sale I can have is on the 8th of August so it looks like that should be our release date. Random reminder - updates are free.

I read every review the game gets because I want to know what you like/ don't like about the story so far. There are so many positive reviews and I'm very grateful to have all of you try the game in such an early stage. I've seen a few posts about the length of the game being short right now and I hear you. This is fairly early access and It's nice to know that you still enjoyed the game. I'll try my best to dish out updates as fast as I can and development time will improve as soon as I can upgrade to a PC. I'm going to be investing in a 3090 or 3080ti (for those who are curios) which is a massive upgrade from my current 2060 laptop.

If you have any questions / suggestions, as always, my discord pms are always open. A few of you already contacted me so feel free.

-CC

Hey everyone,
First of all, thank you all for buying the game. Just looking at the number of users put a huge smile on my face that I wasn't able to shake off for a while.

My original plan was to release a new episode WITH the launch but my trusty laptop wasn't so trusty anymore and so that took around 2 weeks to fix. Needless to say, I had to recuperate from a loss of data before starting to work on the next episode.

Things are back on track now and the new episode ETA is somewhere around this month. More towards the end if I'm being realistic since I have to go through a few rounds of bug testing and I also plan on making a few quality of life changes. These will not affect the plot in any way. If any of you have suggestions, please feel free to join my discord server and either pm me there or just post it in chat and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. Again, this update and any future updates for at least a year if not more are completely FREE.

Progress wise, I'd say I'm more than 60% done (script, renders, code, music). My pms on discord are always open if you have more detailed questions.

Once again, thanks!

-CC

Hey everyone,

The day is finally here and I'm excited to have all of you play my VN, I got an overwhelmingly positive surprise with the number of wishlists and I'm really grateful to all of you who hit that button.

Nothing is more encouraging than seeing so many people support you and your idea as a solo developer.
I'm new in the business but I'm here to stay and I hope you enjoy the current state of the VN and all the upcoming content.

I'm having a 10% off on launch to celebrate my first release on Steam.

Thank you all once again.

-CC

Hey, everyone! I'm really excited for my release on Steam and some of you have already wish listed the game so thank you for showing interest in the project.
I've been playing VNs for a few years now and I've always had this story in my mind that I really wanted to turn into a game some day. This game has been in development for about half a year now and I've loved every part of working on it. I'm a solo developer so I do the writing, art and coding myself. I just feel like I have more control over everything this way and it's been working out great so far.

The Swordbearer - Season1 is going to be a long journey. Most of my time and energy goes to this project because I love working on it.
I'm not sure what you're looking for in adult games but I can assure you, this VN will always prioritize story over adult content. Does this mean there'll be extensively long periods of time with no adult content? Of course not. This just means that the story has a higher priority. There's a good amount of adult content so far and I'm sure you'll agree when you go through the current version of the game.

As it stands, the Steam release will have the first two episodes but I'm doing my best to also include the third. Things are looking good so far, so I'm hopeful.
Thank you again for checking this game out. I'm super grateful that you're interested and hope you enjoy playing it as much as I enjoyed developing it.

-CC