As some of you might have noticed, Serment will be available at a 35% discount throughout the Summer Sale. Do grab a copy during this period if you can! In other news, a second content update is currently being worked on, and we estimate it will be ready in around two months time (late August this year). The update will include several new events to put more focus on some side characters, as well as a small new section for the dungeon. Of course, just as the first one, this content update will also be available completely free of charge!

The content update is finally here! Here's the complete changelog:

New features/QoL changes:

• Added a music room and CG gallery (Under "Extra" option in the main menu)
• Added an indicator in the map for locations that currently have an event
• Summoned party members can now be dismissed at any time(from the status screen)
• Colored orbs now have their own minimap icons

New contents:

• Added an epilogue event for each main character (Under "Extra" option in the main menu after completing their main story)
• Added 2 new common events (available for all 4 main characters)
• Added 5 new event CGs to collect
• Added a postgame battle gauntlet challenge in the pub. Unlock conditions:
  • At least 1 day after the pub's special event has been suspended (Day 44+)
  • Alice's quest on Floor 2 has been completed
  • All 8 dungeon floors have been fully mapped in a single playthough (Can be both the current or a previous playthrough)

Balance changes:

• Increased effectiveness of several food items
• Reduced buffs duration of Emilia's lunch combo
• Greatly reduced required cooking time
• Simplified activating conditions for some existing events

Bug fixes:

• Greatly reduced occasional BGM stutter in the dungeon
• Fixed date/time texts sometimes persisting through a fading transition inside the dungeon
• Fixed missing SFX for some battle skills
• Fixed Exploding Fruits sometimes having lower HP than intended
• A few other minor polishes

It's been a while, but we're still alive and kicking! Back in February, we mentioned we were working on a content update for Serment. It's now almost ready, and will go live on Monday, May 13. The update will include several new events and gameplay features. Some important QoL features (Events preview in the map, for example) will also be added, as well as a couple of minor bug fixes. We'll go into the changes in more details when the update hits.

• Added hotkeys explanations in the Codex dungeon manual (Instant battle and big map view)
• Dungeon movements keyboard controls can now be remapped in the Config menu (Only letter and number keys are accepted)
• Relocated floor 6's East waypoint
• Added 2 new waypoints to floor 6

Changelog

• Fixed a rare crash on floor 8
• Fixed Orochi's battle AI not working
• Fixed battle SFX sometimes not being played
• Fixed a few typos
• Increased EXP given by floor 7 enemies
• Greatly increased EXP given by floor 8 bosses

• Fixed a potential crash in "all items" tab in the status screen

• Reduced lag in the status screen when having too many items in the inventory

• Fixed a crash in battles when "Auto-hide mouse" option is disabled

• Fixed a potential framedrop when previewing armor stats in the shopping and crafting menu

• Fixed some typos

• Increased movement speed inside the dungeon

• Added an option to disable walking animations in the dungeon (Can be found in the Gameplay tab in the Config menu)

• Fixed a bug with AOE skills sometimes not dealing damage to secondary targets

• Some minor tooltips edit

• This is caused by the walking SFX being played repeatedly at the same time as the BGM, which the Ren'Py game engine is not very comfortable with. Removing the code to play this SFX completely fixes this issue, but reducing its ingame volume to 0 doesn't, so unfortunately, players who encounter this issue can't get rid of it at the moment.

• We're still currently working on potential solutions to this problem.

A few more balance changes and QoL features.

Changelog

• Increased amount of EXP received from battles

• Party members now recover MP after battles (2 for Mage and Maria, 1 for others). MP will recover even after escaped or lost battles

• Added item rewards for winning the pub's special events. The items will be given to all playthroughs that have already passed the special events as well

• Players can now choose to start a new game with 1,000,000 G after completing the main story for any of the 4 main characters

• Players can also choose to start a new game with the special item "Angel Wings" (Reduce all travel time to 5 minutes and remove battle time) after obtaining it in a previous playthrough

• Greatly increased fishing success rate and rebalanced potential rewards

• Added an option in the config menu to disable stamina consumption

• Reduced the amount of money needed for contract payments. Save files already past the payment dates will be refunded the extra amount

• The dungeon manual can now be viewed in the Codex menu

We've just released a small update to address some of the concerns players have raised.

Changelog

• Reduced travel time in town

• Reduced random encounter rate in the dungeon

• Reduced money lost when losing or escaping a battle

• Increased money gained from battles

• Rebalanced stats upgrade cost

• Reduced the area where the fishing button can appear

• Increased fishing timing window and success rate

It's been a bumpy ride, but Serment is now finally available for purchase, with a week-long 20% launch discount! Serment was our first attempt at making a game, and the inexperience really led to a lot of delays. For that, we apologize. At the same time, we are very grateful for all of your encouragement and support. Serment is not a perfect game by any means, but we hope it will give you an enjoyable time! If you encounter any bugs or issues, please report them directly in the forum or to the email address posted there and we will try to address them as soon as possible.

After a lengthy wait, the full version of Serment is finally ready to be released! Unfortunately, the Steam's Winter Sale is coming very soon. Clashing the initial release window with such a big sale is very worrying, thus, following our publisher's recommendations, the game will be set to release on February 1, 2019. There are a few problems from a commercial perspective with releasing a game near a big sale, and I'll try to elaborate a bit more on this matter so you can understand our reasoning for choosing such a release date (Fortunately, no major gameplay bugs or related issues this time, so expect no more delays after this). Firstly, each game on Steam has a small window shortly after release, where it publicly appears in several places on the Steam client, notably the "New releases" list. This largely serves as an initial visibility crutch for a new game, and there's a snowball effect where more popular games will subsequently appear in other places such as the "New and Trending" list, the main store's banners or Steam's recommendations while less popular games will quickly fade into obscurity. During major sales like the Summer of Winter Sale, this initial visibility is severely reduced to make space on the Steam client for featured discounts. So releasing a game during the sale is very undesirable. Then, why not release the game before the sale instead (for instances, right now)? Due to Steam's compulsory review before release (which takes more time than we expected due to the recent changes in Steam's policy about games with mature contents), the earliest possible release date would be next Monday, December 17. The Winter Sale will start shortly after, so the game's spot in the "Specials" list due to its sale discount (which is also a very significant amount of a new game's visibility) will be quickly swallowed up by thousands of other featured deals. Thus, releasing right before the sale is also a no-go. But then, why wait a whole month after the Winter Sale? Why don't we release the game right after it ends? Past data from our publisher suggests that right after a big sale, the number of store views and purchases immediately plummets, and remains a lot worse than other normal periods for a solid 3 to 4 weeks. We speculate this is due to potential customers being occupied with their recent purchases during the sale, so they're not immediately looking to buy any additional products. Thus, our publisher recommends a 4 weeks gap after the Winter Sale before Serment's release, which leads us to the date of February 1. The timing is rather unfortunate, so we apologize and hope for your understanding.

It's been a while since the last one, but the demo has received another update! Aside from 2 new events, this update also includes several QoL and gameplay features, as well as some balance and UI improvements. The complete changelog would be too long so it won't be posted here this time. Moving on, as some of you may already know, we have been doing QA for the last few months to get the full version of Serment ready for release. Unfortunately, there are still some bugs to be sorted out and improvements to be made, so the game's still not polished enough to go on sale yet.ːsteamsadː However, as I've mentioned in some discussion threads, all the core contents have been finished so it shouldn't be too long from now!

As some of you may have noticed, Serment's release has been... rather delayed, to put it mildly. We've had people messaging us asking about the situation or offering to help us with the testing process. It's an honor to know there're this much interest in our game, and believe me when I say we are just as impatient as you are! However, the delay is a necessary evil and I will now elaborate a bit more on why we are taking so long. First off, as I mentioned in another part of this discussion forum, there were several design flaws present in the demo that we didn't notice until testing the full game. Redundant mechanics that served no purposes ("Hang around" option in most places in the demo), mechanics that are not scalable beyond the small scope of the demo (Buffs and debuffs being purely percentage based and stacking indefinitely), lack of replayability between different routes, we had them all. These problems can't be left unaddressed and after some discussions, we decided to rework major parts of the design from scratch instead of making impromptu fixes whenever things go wrong, otherwise there'd be no end to them. This was our inexperience as developers showing and we have no excuses, but if we have to choose between a timely release and a quality game, we would always choose the latter and I hope you can agree. There are also many bug fixes and polishing touches to be made. Unclear UI, awkward controls, unnatural dialogues, unnecessary clicks or button presses are some of the issues we've been trying to tackle. Here're a few polishes we've done since the last demo update to give you an idea of what to expect in the full commercial version:

• Added visual indicators for several UI elements
  • Example 1
  • Example 2
• Added some QOL features
  • Review crafting orders
  • Confirmation for important choices
  • Make another purchase instead of moving back to the shop menu
• "WASD" keys can now be used to navigate the game's interface to make it more convenient for players using a mouse and keyboard

As some of you may have noticed, Serment's release has been... rather delayed, to put it mildly. We've had people messaging us asking about the situation or offering to help us with the testing process. It's an honor to know there're this much interest in our game, and believe me when I say we are just as impatient as you are! However, the delay is a necessary evil and I will now elaborate a bit more on why we are taking so long. First off, as I mentioned in another part of this discussion forum, there were several design flaws present in the demo that we didn't notice until testing the full game. Redundant mechanics that served no purposes ("Hang around" option in most places in the demo), mechanics that are not scalable beyond the small scope of the demo (Buffs and debuffs being purely percentage based and stacking indefinitely), lack of replayability between different routes, we had them all. These problems can't be left unaddressed and after some discussions, we decided to rework major parts of the design from scratch instead of making impromptu fixes whenever things go wrong, otherwise there'd be no end to them. This was our inexperience as developers showing and we have no excuses, but if we have to choose between a timely release and a quality game, we would always choose the latter and I hope you can agree. There are also many bug fixes and polishing touches to be made. Unclear UI, awkward controls, unnatural dialogues, unnecessary clicks or button presses are some of the issues we've been trying to tackle. Here're a few polishes we've done since the last demo update to give you an idea of what to expect in the full commercial version:

• Added visual indicators for several UI elements
  • Example 1
  • Example 2
• Added some QOL features
  • Review crafting orders
  • Confirmation for important choices
  • Make another purchase instead of moving back to the shop menu
• "WASD" keys can now be used to navigate the game's interface to make it more convenient for players using a mouse and keyboard

It's been a while, but the next demo update is finally here!

Complete changelog:

• Added a new event in the pub.
• Slightly improved dungeon movements when using a controller.
• Added default commands in battle if the player's mouse is inactive.
• Added remappable keyboard controls - Can be found in the "Gameplay" config panel (Experimental).
• Improved Maria's sprite.
• Fixed some minor bugs.
• Reduced Rocky's STR and HP.
• Reduced Land Turtle's HP.
• Reduced required G amount for the 2nd payment from 14,000 to 10,000.
• Reduced the number of fishing spots to 4.
• Damage penalty due to level difference is now capped at -30% instead of -50%.
• Removed walking time inside the dungeon.
• Increased amount of time passed after a battle to compensate for the above change.
• Party members now no longer leave the party when visiting the shop.
• Closing the status screen no longer resets the selected character if she's still in the party.
• Improved equipment stats preview when shopping/crafting (Will now show the difference of each individual stat).
• Added a scripted end for Kiku's battle on day 2.
• Added keyboard hotkeys for battle menu - remappable in "Gameplay" config panel.

It's been a while, but the next demo update is finally here!

Complete changelog:

• Added a new event in the pub.
• Slightly improved dungeon movements when using a controller.
• Added default commands in battle if the player's mouse is inactive.
• Added remappable keyboard controls - Can be found in the "Gameplay" config panel (Experimental).
• Improved Maria's sprite.
• Fixed some minor bugs.
• Reduced Rocky's STR and HP.
• Reduced Land Turtle's HP.
• Reduced required G amount for the 2nd payment from 14,000 to 10,000.
• Reduced the number of fishing spots to 4.
• Damage penalty due to level difference is now capped at -30% instead of -50%.
• Removed walking time inside the dungeon.
• Increased amount of time passed after a battle to compensate for the above change.
• Party members now no longer leave the party when visiting the shop.
• Closing the status screen no longer resets the selected character if she's still in the party.
• Improved equipment stats preview when shopping/crafting (Will now show the difference of each individual stat).
• Added a scripted end for Kiku's battle on day 2.
• Added keyboard hotkeys for battle menu - remappable in "Gameplay" config panel.

We have just added several missing functions for controllers (backtracking in battle menus, adjusting config values, etc) in the latest demo build. Aside from a few instances (for example, when entering the main character's name), the game should now be fully playable with a controller (please update the demo to the latest version before trying this out)!

This is still an experimental feature. If you find any bugs while playing with a controller, please report them in the discussions forum.

We have just added several missing functions for controllers (backtracking in battle menus, adjusting config values, etc) in the latest demo build. Aside from a few instances (for example, when entering the main character's name), the game should now be fully playable with a controller (please update the demo to the latest version before trying this out)!

This is still an experimental feature. If you find any bugs while playing with a controller, please report them in the discussions forum.

Remember when we said there won't be many more changes to the demo unless it's a patch with new contents? Haha, gotcha!

Complete changelog:

• Dungeon minibosses will now only appear after winning a certain number of battles on the same floor (For example, Land Turtles can only be encountered after at least 3 victories on Floor 2).
• Added a "game over" theme.
• Added missing sound effect for "Purify" skill.
• Improved several existing sound effects.
• Added some visual polishes.
• Fixed a few minor bugs with status screen's inventory.
• Reduced randomness of HP bonus on level up (Average amount unchanged).
• Rebalanced several enemies.
• Revised some dialogues.

Remember when we said there won't be many more changes to the demo unless it's a patch with new contents? Haha, gotcha!

Complete changelog:

• Dungeon minibosses will now only appear after winning a certain number of battles on the same floor (For example, Land Turtles can only be encountered after at least 3 victories on Floor 2).
• Added a "game over" theme.
• Added missing sound effect for "Purify" skill.
• Improved several existing sound effects.
• Added some visual polishes.
• Fixed a few minor bugs with status screen's inventory.
• Reduced randomness of HP bonus on level up (Average amount unchanged).
• Rebalanced several enemies.
• Revised some dialogues.

After months and months of procastination, we finally got off our lazy asses and created an official Twitter account! Follow us here if you're interested in sneak peaks of what we're working on between major updatesːsteamhappyː

We're focusing on the full version, so there won't be many changes to the demo from now on unless it's a patch with additional contents.

Complete changelog:

• Added multiple minor visual polishes.
• Fixed a few typos and rewrote some dialogues.
• Removed an exploit to reset lost battles without loading the game.
• Improved the big dungeon map's UI (It's now easier to count the number of tiles).
• Added random gameplay tips when transitioning to a new day.
• Added notifications when receiving and completing a quest.
  
  

1 new boss battle and some more changes/bug fixes!

Complete changelog:

• Added 2nd encounter with Sera on Floor 3.
• Cooking multiple food items now only require half the time after the first copy (For example, cooking time of a Fruit Cake is 30 minutes. Cooking 2 Fruit Cakes at the same time will now take 45 minutes instead of 1 hour).
• Fixed buying/selling/cooking/crafting quantity not resetting to 1.
• Fixed a rare bug where variables are not updated after a new patch (Might be incompatible with save files from version 2.02 and below. Sorry about this, it will not happen again).
• Fixed buying food items crashing the game.
• Fixed some typos.
• Changed battle speed calculation formula (Characters with extremely low AGI are now a bit slower).
• Tripled essence drop rate (All non-boss enemies have a very small chance of dropping essences).
• Fixed Ice Shrapnel’s damage not being calculated correctly.
• Increased Shadow Cross’ damage.
• Increased Vampiric Touch’s lifesteal percentage from 20 to 50.
• Nerfed Shadow Slime’s INT.

• Fixed Floor 3's Recharge key being disabled.

A few more fixes and changes.

Complete changelog:

• Rewrote a few scenes (Removed some nameless characters' dialogues and made minor adjustments in a couple of other places).
• Each summoned party member now takes an equal share of G dropped in battles (All dropped items and treasure chests are not affected).
• Increased G rewards and loot drop chance of most enemies to compensate for the above change.
• Fixed the inner waypoint of Floor 3 not working.
• Replaced the confirmation message of deleting a save file to avoid confusion with loading.
• Replaced the 2 center doors in Floor 3 with a single door requiring 2 keys.
• Slightly reduced amount of MT drained after losing a battle.
• Increased amount of MT drained otherwise.
• Fixed Young Wolf's battle AI not working.
• Added a "Load" option in boss battle menu.
• Reduced initial selling price of all weapons.
• A weapon's selling price now scales with its level (Up to 80% of buying price).

A few more bug fixes and some small balance changes! Complete changelog:

• A new day now fully restores all characters' MP.
• Fixed failing a payment resulting in a black screen instead of restarting the game.
• Fixed wrong travel time calculations if the player goes with Maria for breakfast on day 3.
• Fixed not being able to finish Ino’s lunchbox quest if the lunchbox is given to Ino from 5.55 p.m onwards.
• Fixed Ino’s lunchbox quest being repeatable.
• Fixed wrong popup messages for Floor 2’s treasure chests.
• Fixed Floor 2’s spinner temporarily disappearing after turning in the same tile.
• Fixed Floor 3’s keys not working.
• Closing the game menu now resets the selected character to Ninja and the inventory tab to “ALL”.
• Fixed the dungeon background sometimes not disappearing after going home.
• Fixed character sprites sometimes not being hidden after dungeon events.
• Fixed picking up the Tiger Claws in Floor 3 crashing the game.
• Increased EXP reward and loot drop chance of Land Turtles.
• Increased selling price of Onimaru.
• Reduced amount of G lost after losing a battle.

We have released a small patch for the demo! Here's the complete changelog:

• Slightly improved memory usage.
• Fixed a few bugs with eating food in battle.
• Added a text popup displaying HP/MP healed after eating food or using "Focus".
• Fixed warp point, recharge key, locked door, spinner and arrows not working if a random encounter happens on the same spot.
• Added several minor visual polishes.
• Reversed the Auto-forward bar direction in the config screen (Higher bar value now reduces the delay).
• The 4 bars inside config screen are now adjustable by keyboard (Left and Right buttons, controllers are not supported for now).
• Fixed a few bugs with displaying overly long character names.
• Included ingame time and save year in save file's description.
• Added some tooltips explaining status effects when hovering over the 4 elemental resistances in Status screen.
• Added some tooltips explaining the level mechanic when hovering over character level in Status screen.
• Number of keys left inside the dungeon is now visible.

The long awaited demo for Serment - Contract with a Devil is now available to download! Experience a taste of this wonderful visual novel - dungeon crawler hybrid where you play as a girl who is mysteriously revived by a beautiful devil! But with any miracle there is a steep price to pay - instead of claiming our heroine's soul as repayment, she demands an enormous sum of money! Get ready to dive into this light-hearted adventure and make that dosh with exciting features such as 4 playable main characters, turn-based RPG battles, minigames, and more. Don't resist the temptation to try out Serment - Contract with a Devil's demo! Also don't foreget to check out the beautiful gameplay videos on this title: Dialogue Gameplay: https://youtu.be/P2jGX77LqsE Boss Battle Preview: https://youtu.be/aLy1WZBwdZw