We'll be streaming a pre-recorded developer plays video during the Steam Visual Novel Fest 2023!

We'll always have Paris, a short narrative experience about loving someone with dementia is out today!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1520310

This is the story of Simon Smith, a retired chef who lives with Claire, his wife of fifty years. Claire is slowly losing her memory, and Simon must balance his love for her with his desire to maintain normality and autonomy over the confusion that is infiltrating both their lives.

We'll always have Paris is a wholesome narrative game that explores the lived experience of memory loss, and the beauty of a love that lasts two lifetimes.

This is a maintenance release which fixes a few issues with Sarawak that came up with players since launch, and adds some further polish to the game.

• - Added more background music and sound effects
  
• - Added parallax to images
  
• - Added volume control to main menu screen
  
• - Added scroll speed option
  
• - Added all options from main screen to the in-game menu
  
• - Added exit to desktop option to in-game menu
  
• - Reworked hints to improve clarity
  
• - Removed unnecessary animations in Chapter 2 crossword
  
• - Minor image updates
  
• - Title music is always enabled when returning to main menu
  

This is a minor maintenance patch for Sarawak. In particular, it contains

• Miscellaneous editorial fixes
  
• Fix for music playing in chapter 5 when streamer mode is turned on
  
• Fixed a bug that could cause Sarawak to fail to boot in rare cases
  
• Version number is now shown on the boot screen
  

Don't miss out on the launch week discount, and share Sarawak far and wide if you enjoyed it!

We will be streaming a play-through of the first two chapters of Sarawak during The Big Adventure Event starting this Thursday 21 January through to 25 January. Join us, ask us questions, or send us your comments.

See you there!

Sarawak will be participating in The Big Adventure Event starting this Thursday 21 January through to 25 January. We'll be in the company of lots of awesome adventure games, plus you'll be able to try out the final demo.

See you there!

Happy New Year everyone!

We're excited to say that Sarawak is in the very final stages of testing, ready for our Steam release on the 28 January. It will be playable on Windows, Linux and macOS for now.

That's 22 days to go!

A giant thank you goes out to a long list of supporters and beta testers for all their help and feedback. We couldn't have done it without you!

Please wishlist Sarawak here if you haven't already, and feel free to share with anyone you think will enjoy playing Sarawak.

In the meantime, enjoy this trailer we've put together ahead of the launch.

[previewyoutube=AKqUAfg5yMA;full][/previewyoutube]

I'll be livestreaming my upcoming Narrative Adventure Game - Sarawak - on Saturday as part of the Steam Autumn Festival. I'd love to show you all how it works and answer any questions you may have about it.

Sarawak is a literary mystery game set in Oxford and Borneo.

Sarawak will appeal to players who enjoy the cosy pleasures of sinking into an old-fashioned mystery novel as well as the thrill of a classic puzzler game.

Best described as a text-based narrative adventure, gameplay is split between interactive narrative choices and image-based puzzles. Sarawak's beautiful and interactive illustrations set it apart from similar games of the genre, and players will need to open locks and doors, discover secret rooms, hack into police equipment, pore through newspaper archives, and light up a jungle research station to progress the game. Sarawak will appeal to players who enjoyed the likes of 80 Days, A Case of Distrust, LucasArts adventure games or Agatha Christie novels.

The premise is that a university professor is found dead outside the protagonist's hotel, and the police arrest her holiday companion for the murder. The professor left a trail of secrets, which the player must solve to continue with the story. The more the player unravels, the more conflicted they will become as they start to question who is lying and who is telling the truth.

I'll be livestreaming my upcoming Narrative Adventure Game - Sarawak - on Saturday as part of the Steam Autumn Festival. I'd love to show you all how it works and answer any questions you may have about it.

Sarawak is a literary mystery game set in Oxford and Borneo.

Sarawak will appeal to players who enjoy the cosy pleasures of sinking into an old-fashioned mystery novel as well as the thrill of a classic puzzler game.

Best described as a text-based narrative adventure, gameplay is split between interactive narrative choices and image-based puzzles. Sarawak's beautiful and interactive illustrations set it apart from similar games of the genre, and players will need to open locks and doors, discover secret rooms, hack into police equipment, pore through newspaper archives, and light up a jungle research station to progress the game. Sarawak will appeal to players who enjoyed the likes of 80 Days, A Case of Distrust, LucasArts adventure games or Agatha Christie novels.

The premise is that a university professor is found dead outside the protagonist's hotel, and the police arrest her holiday companion for the murder. The professor left a trail of secrets, which the player must solve to continue with the story. The more the player unravels, the more conflicted they will become as they start to question who is lying and who is telling the truth.

Narrative adventure set in Oxford and Borneo. It's for anyone who loves sinking into an old-fashioned mystery novel but also enjoys the thrills of a classic puzzler game.



Hello! We're Marina and Duncan from Cowleyfornia Studios, and we're excited to be sharing the first two chapters of our upcoming debut game Sarawak.

We're planning to release in January 2021.

Do stop over to our Community Page and share any questions or feedback!

We reached an important milestone this week.

The words have been written, the puzzles created, the characters drawn, major bugs exterminated. That can only mean one thing: Sarawak is now playable from start to finish.

We told ourselves we'd take a week off to celebrate and take a bit of a breather. Our trip to Malta that we had booked for this week was cancelled due to the virus, so we fired up the barbeque and drank lager in the torrential rain here in Oxford instead. Not quite the same as drinking Cisk on the beach with our friends, but honestly, it felt great. Anyway, our time off has resulted in us brainstorming ideas for our next game, which is always a lot of fun.

Fancy beta-testing?

Sarawak is soon ready for a proper playtest, so give me a shout if you're interested in being one of our beta testers. We'd be very grateful!

Thanks to This Week in Video Games for having us on this week's show! This podcast is always worth a listen especially if you're into narrative games. If you are interested in hearing a bit more about Sarawak, and its development, check out this week's episode.

https://anchor.fm/this-week-in-video-games/episodes/54-Hyper-Scape--Cyberpunk-2077-and-Interview-with-Cowleyfornia-Studios-talking-Sarawak-egb7cm/a-a2kkg6c

Hello everyone!

We are a husband and wife team based in Oxford, and Sarawak is our first project together. Duncan has written the engine, and Marina has done the artwork and writing. Our backgrounds are in software development and writing (by way of theoretical physics and medicine), and we both love books, puzzles and games.

In Sarawak we are working to merge these interests with something that has both the interactivity of a game along with the narrative flexibility of a book. Since this is an AMA, please ask us anything you like, including any aspects of indie dev life, the engine, our backgrounds, or whatever interests you really. We look forward to your questions!

Hello everyone!

We are a husband and wife team based in Oxford, and Sarawak is our first project together. Duncan has written the engine, and Marina has done the artwork and writing. Our backgrounds are in software development and writing (by way of theoretical physics and medicine), and we both love books, puzzles and games.

In Sarawak we are working to merge these interests with something that has both the interactivity of a game along with the narrative flexibility of a book. Since this is an AMA, please ask us anything you like, including any aspects of indie dev life, the engine, our backgrounds, or whatever interests you really. We look forward to your questions!

Hello everyone!

We are a husband and wife team based in Oxford, and Sarawak is our first project together. Duncan has written the engine, and Marina has done the artwork and writing. Our backgrounds are in software development and writing (by way of theoretical physics and medicine), and we both love books, puzzles and games.

In Sarawak we are working to merge these interests with something that has both the interactivity of a game along with the narrative flexibility of a book. Since this is an AMA, please ask us anything you like, including any aspects of indie dev life, the engine, our backgrounds, or whatever interests you really. We look forward to your questions!