Hello, I’m writing this on my phone (and I’m an awful texter so please forgive any typos) because I tried to use my laptop charging cable (despite the fact that it electrocuted me) because my computer was dying as I was finishing up bug-testing for the update. Anyway, it nearly caught fire, so here I am on my phone! I will be offline/generally unreachable until the new cable arrives this week! 😅 And if there are any bugs in this update, I’m sorry, I was racing against my laptop’s b...
2020-06-24 16:31:00 +0000 UTC
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If you have access to the new character page (going public soon), you'll know we needed portraits of each of the characters on the page! Here are Croelle, Halek, Caine, Prihine, and Mimir, done by iwonn-arts on Tumblr: Briony, Blade, Trouble, Chase, Riel, and Red are already done, and the rest of the girls are currently in-progress! :)
2020-06-23 23:04:08 +0000 UTC
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Blade won the commissioned art poll, so now we have to vote on what style commission we want him to be portrayed in! I'm adding more options to this poll as well, so you can vote on multiple options, mix and match, and combine! Hopefully it works!
Note: the references provided below are examples only; the actual artist and style of the commission will almost certainly differ!
Character reference sheet:
2020-06-23 23:00:34 +0000 UTC
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Flash poll! I am beginning to incorporate the "Captain's squad" into the game: you get your own little squad of green recruits to lead and mold if you're a captain or higher. Each day off you can take some time to train them, and their performance (and what path you set them on) will have some effects late in the game.
If you've played the alpha build and Shery's latest day off, you've met two of the recruits already:
- Justyn Hattoc, a cranky former bard and minstrel wh...
2020-06-22 23:44:17 +0000 UTC
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Hi everybody! I hope you're doing well as we enter the final weeks of June! Here's some updates:
- I've been working on ShoH for the past few days, cleaning up hanging loose threads and whatnot. I've actually finally completed Trouble's route in Chapter 1 (the branch where you storm the Equalists' compound first, instead of sneaking in). It is pretty rough and fast-paced and will need lots of refining in the future, but it is playable and legible, so I can finally say Chapter 1 is a...
2020-06-21 18:52:12 +0000 UTC
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We're down to our last two tarot cards! You know what that means... we'll have to make more... jk... (?) Vote below on who you'd like to see next!
2020-06-20 19:30:41 +0000 UTC
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Here she is!!! The queen! ❤👑
2020-06-20 19:28:49 +0000 UTC
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Hello, everybody.
For this month's goody, I'm going to reveal to you something that I vowed I would never breathe a word of to any living soul. This is something I've buried down deep, out of cringe, embarrassment, and loathing of my younger self.
Many years ago--over a decade ago--when I was just a foolish teenager, I thought about making Shepherds of Haven into a manga.
It (titled Haven + Hael) was meant to be a collaboration between myself and an artist fri...
2020-06-10 20:05:23 +0000 UTC
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Characters and ROs won the last poll, so now it's time to decide WHO will be the subject of our latest art commission! Remember that I will have new art styles and mediums as options this time around, as well! :)
Vote below on who you'd like to see as the subject of the next art commission!
2020-06-08 21:56:00 +0000 UTC
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So the Wild Hunt absolutely trounced the Wild Ride, so here's another poll for you! If you recall, I need help naming Briony's two companions: the first one was decided to be Ronan. This second one is another childhood friend of hers, a half-Elf half-Mage young woman with close-cropped platinum hair and calm, counseling, but light-hearted disposition.
What do you think this companion's name should be?
2020-06-07 15:05:01 +0000 UTC
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Hello! If you have access to the alpha build (see the pinned post at the top of the Patreon feed), I have uploaded a new build with some stat fixes and changes implemented. The problem I detailed in the last update (regarding fairmath) has been mostly fixed!
What's been adjusted:
- Magic stat checks, such as killing the Faceless Lords with magic successfully
- Relationship checks, such responses depending on overall friendships/approval and romance flag...
2020-06-07 15:00:03 +0000 UTC
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So I'm starting to finalize the major holidays of the Blest calendar year, both for a codex document and for some other secret things... And there's a summer holiday that I'm planning on incorporating (with spooky pagan roots/Midsommar vibes), but I can't for the life of me decide on its name! So I'm leaving it up to you to decide!
Here's a rough draft of the holiday's description in the codex:
The Wild Ride/Wild Hunt is...
2020-06-01 23:36:14 +0000 UTC
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If you haven't done so already, please message me or comment below if you'd like to have your name added to the Shepherds of Haven credits! 😃 Names like John S. or John Smith are preferred by Hosted Games (over usernames like hottie69420), but you can send in whatever you're most comfortable with! Thank you so much for your support and I hope you're having a lovely start to your June! <3
2020-06-01 22:36:19 +0000 UTC
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I hope you enjoyed Caine's story! It was actually going to be the basis of a novella for a long while, in which the journey to Lindell took much longer and was fraught with more peril, and eventually Caine would run away to search for his father, who he had more cause to believe was actually alive (in the original version), but I never got any farther with the plot than what you see here!
And in case any of you are worried about Nilus (whose caravan you are traveling with in the b...
2020-06-01 22:34:36 +0000 UTC
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[CONTENT WARNING: there is a description of animal death/sacrifice (the killing of a chicken) as well as one mention of the R word (referring to sexual assault). Please read at your own caution!]
The horse fair at Orlop smelled of blood and churned dirt.
The bandits that had been plaguing the northwestern territories for the past year had hit the place hard; everywhere, there were overturned carts, wandering livestock, and some slaughtered merchants lying face-dow...
2020-06-01 00:08:09 +0000 UTC
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5/31 Edit: Several bugs are now fixed! Please see my notes at the bottom of this post!
Hello, Zuko here! I bet you thought I wasn't going to update this month, didn't you? I pulled 18-hour workdays to make this happen! :D Click the link for lots of new content!
What's in this update:
- 29,000 words of ne...
2020-05-30 17:00:00 +0000 UTC
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General
Anonymous: Hi Lena! As an IF writer, how do you feel about the following: 1) choices that don’t result in an outcome favorable for the MC (not a game over though) 2) locking romances if the MC does something that really clashes with the ROs worldview/character. Do you view it as something risky/controversial, something you don’t see as necessary, something you’d prefer to avoid or, on the contrary, have in the writing? Or something entirely diffe...
2020-05-28 00:30:03 +0000 UTC
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Hello, it's time for the author Q&A for the month! :) I will answer the first 20 questions sent in before the deadline! Any questions after the first 20 will be saved and answered in next month's Q&A! ❤ (Please keep in mind that we have some questions (8) left over from last month as well!)
The deadline for this month will be Wednesday, 5/27 at 12 PM MST.
For those of you who don't already know the drill, send in your questions by either...
2020-05-25 19:00:00 +0000 UTC
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Not even half an hour after I first posted, the commission was completed lol! Look at his clothes... the hammer! *dying* I will definitely have to make a better Tumblr page to view all of the commissioned art and character design/reference pages we do!
Another time... Also, I didn't realize this, but on Patreon desktop you can MEGA zoom in on these pictures! 👀 The detail is stunning!
I hope you enjoy! <3 Thank you for voting, deciding, and supporting, and for making this pie...
2020-05-21 20:56:15 +0000 UTC
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See my newest update post for my context about this: it's time to vote on our next commissioned art piece!
I'll be including more style options and examples this time around, so be on the lookout for that! 👀 What subject do you want us to focus on this time?
2020-05-21 20:01:02 +0000 UTC
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Hi everyone--wow, this week just flew by!
I've gotten a wee bit done on ShoH these past few days: I'm really hoping to update the alpha build before the end of the month with at least one route of Chapter 4 done (probably not the one you expect) and at least some of the previous day-off scenes as well: I've made headway on the Chapter 4 thing and Trouble's next day-off scene (in which we re-encounter Lazu Reen)!
I know, I know, that's confusing as all get-o...
2020-05-21 20:00:05 +0000 UTC
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I'm going to have to start coming up with more art for you guys, since we're starting to run out of character cards to reveal! 👀 Unless we start making character cards for all the side characters...
Vote below on which character card you'd like to see next!
2020-05-20 18:56:49 +0000 UTC
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Briony won last month's character card art poll, which makes this month a little bit of a the month of Briony (what with her portrait as well)! <3 This card, like Croelle's, was also done by mafuriah on Tumblr, and is full of symbolism that will make sense as more of Briony's story is revealed! 👀 I hope you enjoy! ⭐
2020-05-20 18:53:35 +0000 UTC
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Hi everyone, welcome to the 2nd week of May!
Unfortunately I don't have any news on ShoH this week: I've been swamped with trying to meet a deadline for work, so I haven't had any time to work on it! (I'm also up north visiting family for Mother's Day/a mini-vacation, so there's that, too.) The deadline is next week, so after that I hope to buckle down and blaze through at least one complete route for Chapter 4! There are a lot, though (more than in previous chapers) so that might be a ...
2020-05-14 23:21:10 +0000 UTC
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Hi everybody! For this month's goody, I'm publicly releasing the visual references and moodboards I've made on Pinterest for Blest's world, setting, and characters. I hope this adds a new element to envisioning ShoH and a new dimension to imagining the story--if you wanted to see what I have in mind beyond plain text and the occasional art commission!
Please keep in mind that these visual boards are mean...
2020-05-10 18:53:17 +0000 UTC
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So we've done this a few times now and it's actually been very helpful in solidifying certain characters to me! As with Lavinet's lady-in-waiting, Clara, Chase's ex Saya, Caine's mom Oleandra, and even Naolin and Avonis--I always have these vivid ideas and pictures of the characters in my head, and the roles they have to play in the story, but I'm not very good at choosing names for them! Your help has been invaluable in overcoming that, and after we decide on their names together, the charac...
2020-05-08 01:29:26 +0000 UTC
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Hi there everyone, I hope your May has gotten off to a fantastic start!
My update for this week:
As usual when I've put out a big alpha update, I tend to have a "cooldown period" immediately after where I quietly work on other aspects of the game, to give my brain a break and time to incubate the next steps for the main plot. So this week I've been working on doing some housecleaning (in regards to the codex, newspaper, and glossary), adding some new documents (like an overview of...
2020-05-07 23:49:40 +0000 UTC
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I hope you enjoyed Tallys' story: I found it weirdly haunting for April! Whose story would you like to see next? (I'm going to have to start throwing characters like Moonsilk and Mekduk into the mix someday, lol, but then I'm afraid you won't be able to make the hard decisions about them! 🤣)
2020-05-01 23:00:02 +0000 UTC
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If you haven't done so already, please message me or comment below if you'd like to have your name added to the Shepherds of Haven credits! 😃 Names like John S. or John Smith are preferred by HG (over usernames like hottie69420), but you can send in whatever you're most comfortable with! Thank you so much for your support and I hope you're having a lovely start to your May! <3
2020-05-01 22:14:46 +0000 UTC
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[ANGST WARNING: If you know anything about Tallys' past, this story could be a major bummer. Read at your own caution!]
When the clan settled in a forest on the edges of the Norm township, Tallys felt an uneasy stirring in her gut.
“It’s the ratra,” said Luthe, Tallys’ cousin and one of the clan’s ahfuri scouts. “Siktir lan, you can sense it too!”
“It is not the ratra,” Tallys answered, snapping shut one of her books...
2020-04-30 22:57:56 +0000 UTC
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