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Alpha Preview Update (October)
🕑 Added 2025-10-30 06:15:35 +0000 UTCPassword: candle_and_crow
Shepherds of Haven Development Log
Content Added:
11,000 words of new content
New Ayla character interlude
If you're a student of Belnus Farplane (Journeyman background) and romancing Ayla, Ayla takes a hard turn into the "star-bound lovers/fated mates" territory we never saw coming! Their romance unexpectedly became so intense in this interlude!
Changelog:
Critical Fixes
Fixed a bug that affected setting Red and Ayla's romances properly in the quickbuild
Fixed a game-breaking error that occurred when greeting Prihine's friend Eva warmly in Chapter 9
Fixed a Binder choice showing up twice during the third trial of the labyrinth
Fixed a broken conversation choice in Lavinet's first day off interlude
Fixed a bug that occurred when choosing to stare stonily at the Sponsor in Chapter 5
Fixed a game-breaking bug that occurred when discussing Blade's fears during his confession at the Ascendancy Festival
Fixed a bug that occurred when telling Halek he's right during his first day off interlude
Fixed a dead end if you're unable to spend time with all of the companions in Capra (due to not having spent the proper amount of time with them in Haven beforehand)
Miscellaneous Notes:
Leaving Chandry's play early during the Ascendancy Festival is still incomplete.
Blade's festival souvenir might show up regardless if you went with him to the festival: this should resolve whenever you start a new file from scratch.
As always, hard refreshing your game may help load these new bug fixes if you don't find them implemented on your side.
Notes
Hi everyone! I hope you're all having a spooky end to your October! I'll keep this log brief, but it was a fairly chill month for me until it wasn't! I got some restful writing done on my novel manuscript earlier in the month, now that it's been reframed and (once again, lol) restarted--I could at least salvage the majority of it, so I was able to get back up to 50,000 words before the first week was out. And wedding planning is finally starting to coalesce to the point where there are just little loose ends to wrap up rather than big huge urgent items to address seemingly every single day... I do not know how people regularly do this, I now understand why so many people dryly remark that it's like a full-time job. It sure feels like it! But yes, it was a very productive month--we also got some lovely postcard art done for the Vice-Commander Patrons and higher, as well as some capsule art done for the game's (perpetually forthcoming, not started yet--) Steam page, and Red's room concept art done, with Briony's room already started and blocked out! Then, in the middle of the month, we flew out to NYC for a friend's wedding, which was incredible! They got married at the base of the Brooklyn bridge, with the NYC skyline behind them... It was like something out of the movie! We also ate insanely well, because it's NYC, and it was also fun to revisit some old stomping grounds, and even have afternoon tea in the parlor of a very "Gilded Age" brownstone!
And then. On the last day of the trip, my fiance started feeling unwell.
We made it home and he came down with a seemingly minor cold. I made him chicken noodle soup and briskly went about my business over the next few days. In the 11 years we've been together, it tends to be that only one of us gets sick; I can count maybe two or three times in the past decade that we've both been hit at the same time.
And then I got hit.
And boy, I'm mostly fine now, but that was a doozy. A solid week of being hammered with some kind of terrible barbed-wire mallet, some unholy combination of COVID or the flu or the worst cold I've ever had in my life, I'm still not even sure. It knocked me flat on my ass! There were a few days where I couldn't even really lift my head, and my thoughts trundled around in my brain like a death-spiral of ants... It was really weird.
Anyway, he took good care of me, and I'm okay now, but trying to finish the update while being that sick was hell, lol. I still can't tell if some of it comes across as a little delusional, because I definitely don't think I was totally lucid when I was writing it... but I'm satisfied with it for now! And I'm honestly shocked (in a good way) at the turn Ayla's character and her relationship to MC has taken. I think it hits a lot harder if you're taught by Belnus Farplane, but even without that, I think there are fascinating subterranean things happening in this interlude that even I didn't expect.
At least, I think that's the case. I still am a little bit sick, lol.
And her romance got so juicy!! I think an argument could be made that Ayla is the sleeper agent "red string of fate" RO of the game! Soulmates, fated lovers, whatever you want to call it... I was kind of shook by how intense she and romanced!MC got in some scenes... It's like they know something we don't...
Sorry, the Dayquil is definitely still in my system.
What's Next
Probably an Ascendancy Festival interlude (I like to take breaks in between them, because they are gigantic beasts at a minimum of 22,000 words long, plus they can feel a bit repetitive back to back), or the start of Chapter 10, which I'm still percolating on. Also, the polls will continue for our next commissioned art piece, we have all of those other art commissions in the pipeline, and I'm going to try my best to do a Q&A next month, keeping fingers crossed that Thanksgiving festivities and holiday scheduling don't make things too complicated. So hoping we can look forward to that!
As always, I very much hope you enjoy, and that you all have a very fun Halloween if you celebrate! Cheers and happy reading! 🎃
Estimated total wordcount: 1,379,000 words
Comments
Lena Nguyen
Hi, the game is still in progress, so nothing has been written in the main story past that point - that’s the end of the current alpha build! It should have a message stating so :) Does that make sense?
R.
I am confused. I loaded my save and when i finish chapter 12 i still am exiting the court in haste and that's it. Am I meant to assume I need to replay from the very beginning to move past that?
Lena Nguyen
Wow, thank you so much for the incredibly kind words!! 💖 I'm so happy that you gave the alpha build a try and that you enjoyed the experience! Thank you for taking the time to send such a lovely message!
Julie
I just finished the alpha build for the first time and I have *feelings!* What an incredible feat of writing, visuals, and coding! The characters feel so fleshed out, and the relationships progress in a natural way. The writing *itself* is fabulous. It is abundantly clear that you write for a living. I'm so excited that I discovered this epic work of art! Thank you for sharing it with us
