I spent a while working on the gamepad controls to make something that ran nicely and felt intuitive. I really like playing visual novels on the Steam Deck, so I hope everyone has a good time with it. Have fun!

[ 2025-02-19 21:48:48 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello folks, Amarantus was released one year ago. It's been a big year:

• Over a thousand copies sold !!
• Very Positive on Steam !!
• Very on-brand custom emojis and also Steam trading cards!!
• Amarantus got reviewed by Eurogamer !!
• Amarantus got on two GOTY lists!
• Amarantus won multiple awards !!
• People drew fanart! Meme fanart! Flower imagery fanart! Family friendly fanart! Family unfriendly fanart!* The full spectrum of fanart!
• We released a soundtrack ! and an artbook!
• The artbook made people cry!
• There are, like, multiple full playthroughs of the game on YouTube now, you can go check them out
• I got to meet up with other members of the team and we got to hang out IRL and have a nice time :)

Thank you for playing, for sharing, for checking it out, for telling people about it. For anything that gave this one little game a little bit of real estate in someone's head for a little bit of time. Thinking back to a year ago, there are so many ways I might have imagined feeling now - and most of them were bad. I was determined to be pessimistic pre-launch. Instead, thanks to you, and yours, we get to feel satisfied. I don't think there's anything better. Thank you. *(I won't link this, but it's out there! Someone made money on Patreon off drawing sexy Amarantus characters! What greater success is there!!)

[ 2024-06-27 21:24:33 CET ] [ Original post ]

Thanks to all of your support, Steam's decided we qualify for trading cards, badges, custom emoticons, and all that other cool stuff. We've got......five trading cards!
We've got badges!
I spent a loooong time thinking about how to translate Amarantus' rich painterly art style into 18x18 pixel emojis. I wanted them to be emojis I could actually imagine people using, but that also had a distinct Amarantus Energy. I hope you enjoy what we did with them.
--- Thanks for all your support this past year, folks. See you in a few weeks for the one-year anniversary. -R

[ 2024-06-11 12:39:56 CET ] [ Original post ]

Amarantus is 25% off to celebrate international women's day! Ari always drinks his respect women juice. If you've already played Amarantus this is a great opportunity to pick up the artbook and soundtrack for 25% off, too! Check out our stream for the event (I had a good time playing the game for the first time in months - it turns out I've forgotten a lot of what I wrote in there) and respect some women in your life. -R

[ 2024-03-02 03:34:15 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hurray! The artbook is here! I've spent months chipping away at this project, and I'm so happy to finally get it out to you. The Amarantus artbook contains all the comic inserts from the game along with commentary, plus discussions of how some of the game stuff works behind-the-scenes, character discussions + concept art, and other interesting stuff to look at, if you enjoyed Amarantus and/or are interested in the experience of making a game over ten years. Check it out! https://store.steampowered.com/app/2798270 The soundtrack is now also available on Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/2651250 And you can now pick up the game PLUS the artbook PLUS the soundtrack, for a 15% discount: https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/38079/Amarantus__Game__OST__Artbook/ Thanks for reading! - R P.S. Amarantus was recently shortlisted at the Queer Games Festival and has just been nominated for the Freeplay Narrative Award. We're honoured and proud (the company we're in for the Narrative Award is truly wild), and I hope you are vicariously proud too!

[ 2024-01-30 07:38:42 CET ] [ Original post ]

Back at the start of October, a few members of Team Amarantus headed to Melbourne International Games Week. We'd been lucky enough to get a nomination for Excellence in Narrative at the AGDAs, and though we figured it was an extremely long shot - the category was stacked! - we decided it was a good reason to see each-other again and live it up for a bit. Well, things didn't quite go as planned.
sorry about the weird focus of this photo I was very excited and am not a photographer We're extremely honoured, and proud, and grateful, and still can't quite believe this is real life. Thanks for playing Amarantus, thanks for being interested in it, thanks for clicking on this article. P.S. While we were at MIGW we also went to Parallels, a showcase of Interesting And Unique Games From Around Australia, and I haven't stopped thinking about Proximate since. A text-only 2D narrative horror game; incredibly cool; check it out.

[ 2023-10-16 07:41:21 CET ] [ Original post ]

• Some typos corrected
• Some track timestamps changed to loop seamlessly

[ 2023-09-16 07:26:26 CET ] [ Original post ]

Thank you everyone for your support this past month (six weeks, even!) since launch. We're so happy our game found you, and you found it. Here's our Amarantus V1.1 update for all of you:

• MacOS support! Thank you for your patience, Mac owners. We hope you enjoy.
• Steam Deck support! The Steam Deck's earned a bit of a reputation as a Visual Novel Machine so we're excited to have Amarantus running natively on the Deck. (Tip: changing the font size to Large in the Accessibility settings makes for a really nice experience.)
• Cross-platform cloud saves! For those of you who started out on a PC and want to mix it up a bit.
• Improved controller support! We've remapped some of the controls and improved the controller experience generally.
• More save slots! We've received requests for more save slots to help you get Truly Chaotic with your choices. The number of save slots has now gone from 21 to 39. Get wild!
• Minor text and branching tweaks.

[ 2023-08-07 17:00:43 CET ] [ Original post ]

get it get it get it (there's a new updated demo with save files that carry over, too)

[ 2023-06-27 06:30:33 CET ] [ Original post ]

Amarantus is releasing on June 27 2023. We've been working on this game for a long time, and we're excited. See you then.

[ 2023-06-05 08:46:00 CET ] [ Original post ]

[previewyoutube=y68uHZbLPUk;full][/previewyoutube] (happy April 1st)

[ 2023-03-31 23:37:48 CET ] [ Original post ]

We'll be doing a full playthrough of the demo and we're going to be doing it messy. What's the worst possible run? Let's find out. See you there!

[ 2023-03-30 08:34:23 CET ] [ Original post ]

The Amarantus demo has just launched! And to go with it, a demo trailer: [previewyoutube=r60eXOWtpQI;full][/previewyoutube] The demo comprises the first 30-45 minutes of the game. You'll have some big choices to make, opportunities for one or two truly regrettable decisions, and a glimpse at the sort of consequences that might await you in the full game. Let us know how you go with the demo by hopping into the Steam Demo Discussions forum, or email us at amarantus@ub4q.games! And if you enjoy the demo, don't forget to wishlist the full game & follow the page for updates!

[ 2023-02-06 17:41:32 CET ] [ Original post ]

Amarantus has been in the works for a long time, and these days it's unusual for us to make any significant changes...which is why we're so excited about the feature we've been working on for the last couple of months:
We've added player character portraits! Arik, the protagonist and player character in Amarantus, has always been a character in his own right, with his own personality, issues, and backstory. Some visual novels lean more towards blank slate/self-insert player characters, but it's important to the story that we're telling for Arik to be his own person. You can push Arik's personality and attitudes in different directions based on your choices throughout the game, but the heart of who he isthat's out of your control. Sometimes you might even be surprised at how he interprets the decisions you make! Putting Arik's face on screen while he's speaking adds a clear distinction between him and the player, and shifts the energy of the game in exciting and interesting ways. Remember, Arik isn't youand your path to happiness may not be his. Check out the updated trailer and screenshots on the game page to see how the new portraits work in action.

[ 2022-08-25 10:33:04 CET ] [ Original post ]

Arik's hit breaking point. A tyrant is running his country into the ground, and nobody seems to be doing anything.
It's time to gather your friends, hit the road, and make your way to court to take the Lord down.






Cultivate platonic, antagonistic, or romantic relationships—and more.
Arik can pursue different potential relationships with each member of the party—or leave them to make their own (invariably terrible) decisions. But be cautious: not every relationship will go well. You might find yourself setting up two party members...then demanding they break up.




Every decision you make affects Arik's motivations and personality.
Soft and gentle lad with a heart of gold, or angry and aggressive timebomb? Each decision opens up new possible relationships with party members—and shuts other doors for good.




Struggle to keep everyone happy—or pick favourites and alienate others.
Party members have distinct outlooks, wants, and needs. Keeping some of them happy might mean betraying others. Walk a fine line to keep everyone happy, or pick favourites and drive others away.


In this elaborately constructed world, there's a lot to find:

• Announce your brilliant plan...then glimpse a party member silently rolling their eyes in the corner of the screen
  
• Learn to correctly pronounce someone's name, permanently updating the UI
  
• Nickname your lover after the stupid thing they said that one time
  
• Screw everything up
  
• Learn how to make your friends laugh
  
• Have a poorly judged hookup really early on and then spend the rest of the playthrough awkwardly trying not to address it
  
• Experience the thrill of almost, but not quite, holding hands with somebody you love
  
• Make one bad decision and then try to redeem yourself while everyone makes snide comments
  
• Tell three characters in one day that they're the love of your life, then navigate the fallout
  
• And a lot more of that sort of thing

Features

• Four unique characters to befriend, betray, woo or wingman
  
• The potential for romantic, platonic, sexual, antagonistic, and polyamorous relationships with different party members
  
• A single playthrough takes 3-4 hours, multiple playthroughs required to uncover the truth
  
• Unlockable graphic inserts by award-winning comic artist Hien Pham
  
• Dynamic and immersive sound design underscored by original post-rock soundtrack