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Alpha Preview Update (July)
🕑 Added 2025-07-31 19:02:47 +0000 UTCPassword: blackberry_chambord
Shepherds of Haven Development Log
Content Added:
28,000 words of new content
Ascendancy Festival - Blade route
Blade's confession
Quickbuild feature added
Changelog:
Critical Fixes
Added a "redirect" if you fail to stop Thurl's ambush in Chapter 7, which previously led to a "Game Over" incomplete route. You can now choose to "rewind" and pretend that you had succeeded in that encounter instead, allowing you to continue the game. Please note that this shortcut will be removed in the final version of the game (when that incomplete route has been filled out). Ironically, the number of people who will have to use this shortcut will inevitably be reduced by the introduction of the quickbuild feature, lol.
An "autoname saves" toggle was added to the Settings menu. This should only affect people who are playing the game on the itch.io app: a pop-up dialogue asking how you'd like to name your saves was preventing people on the app from being able to use saves correctly. If you run into this error, use the new "autoname saves" toggle to automatically name your saves, bypassing that dialogue pop-up and avoiding the app throwing an error.
Miscellaneous Fixes
Trouble's prizes and the souvenir doll from Chandry's play now appear in your room as decor after the Ascendancy Festival.
Fixed not getting 20 gold (even if you earned it) while working a side job on your days off.
Changed the background of Chandry's market.
Fixed a long-standing bug that occurred when talking to Shery the first time she faces off with the recruits, especially if you're on a romance path with her.
Fixed a bug that occurred when holding your silence with Naolin.
Fixed a cosmetic bug during Riel's walk in his interludes.
Fixed a bug that occurred in the last trial of the Crystal Tournament.
Fixed a bug where the Prologue end screen didn't inform you if you'd unlocked a new achievement (The Wolf Triumphant or A Leashed Dog).
Fixed a bug that occurred while "intimidating" the little kids who fought with Caine during one of his interludes.
Fixed a bug that occurred when rejecting Chase during his FWB casino initiation.
Changed the magic stat check to defeating Thurl without psionic magic in Chapter 7 from 100 to 95 (the maximum cap for that chapter)
Fixed a bug that had the journal stating that Croelle saved you during the encounter with the Inquisitors in Chapter 1 (if you went with Tallys), even if that didn't happen
To Do:
Leaving the play early is still incomplete.
Blade's souvenir still needs to be added to your room decor.
Notes:
At the eleventh hour, here it is... the newest update to the alpha build, which brings with it Blade's festival route and his long-awaited confession for all Blademancers! 🎇🎆🫠
This was a crazy month, and possibly the hardest update I've ever had to pull off! Most of it was timing: I know that I said last month that my life was about to get way less stressful and my schedule far more clear because I'm finally finished with converting old ChoiceScript content into the Twine build, but then life came along and humbled me very quickly. Here's how things shook out:
Releasing the public demo this month required several days of preparation and several days of bug-chasing after. (However, the response has been incredible, and I'm so grateful for everyone's interest and support! Thank you so much for your interest in Shepherds of Haven if you're here now because of the public demo! You all left such nice reviews/ratings (didn't even know that was a thing on itch.io lol) and comments that it was very revitalizing!)
I hadn't done the Q&A in a while, so that took a bit of time as well
Some movement on the author side of things required some urgency on my part, which is always exciting, but distracting!
I had to take a few days to go wedding dress shopping (I found my dress! I wish I could show you all XD) as well as look at suits with my fiance. We also had a tasting and a flurry of things to check off our list--only 7 more months to go...! (That sounds like a lot of time, but it doesn't feel that way 🥲)
itch.io and Steam kind of imploded...? That didn't actually really have anything to do with me but of course it happened days after I posted the demo, haha
I wrestled with my first huge writer's block on my novel (vanquished, for now, but it did make me sit in my despair for a bit)
The coding and programming for the new quickbuild tool ate up a shocking amount of time. (It was such a pain in the ass!)
I then proceeded to struggle with writer's block for the actual update over the course of several precious days. I just couldn't concentrate, and my mind was oddly scattered, and I started to panic as the days crept by... Then I figured it out. In the latter half of the month, I tend to leave the house and go work in the library or the coffee shop for the full work day, around 6-8 hours, which necessitates finding locations that are open until past 5. I don't really drink caffeine (in fact, I am boring and pretty much always just order water when given the choice) but a new Starbucks opened nearby, and its hours worked for my schedule, so I started going there. My go-to order was a Pink Drink, which I thought was just coconut milk, acai, and strawberry... I did that for something like 8 days, and then I was casually making conversation with the area manager (?) when she dropped in, and she asked why it was my favorite drink (seeing it on the table by my elbow), and I said that I liked that it had no caffeine, and she gave me such a frozen, startled look of guilt that I immediately felt my stomach drop. It turns out it does! All of their refreshers do, which I did not know!!! I thought they were just "refreshing" lmfaoooo, like lemonades. :') That's no one's fault but my own, lol, but I was all scattered and hyper and anxious because I was unknowingly consuming wayyyy more caffeine on a daily basis than I have in years. As soon as I stopped, I was pretty much fine again!
...Anyway, I tell you this whole entirely mundane saga to explain, guiltily, why this update is a few days later than usual. But it's done now, and I'm pleased as punch! Some of you might be surprised by how eloquent Blade ends up being in his confession, but it's because he's been zipping up his emotions for so long that they all came tumbling out in his passion, like water bursting from a dam. He became a yapper suddenly LOLLLLL. Some moments in his romance route definitely took me by surprise, and I had to accommodate accordingly: [spoilers for the update, read after playing the update if you don't want to know] in the original novels, the protagonist is absolutely blindsided when Blade spontaneously tells her he loves her, but part of that is because they're childhood friends, so he's had a lot of practice living with his feelings for many years, and has a better hold on them, because they've been a part of his worldview for so long; he's so good at living with it (and is generally a little more socialized in the novels by dint of having the protagonist as his childhood friend) and concealing it that the highest compliment he pays her appearance up until that point is telling her that the way she looks in a fancy dress "is adequate" LMFAO. So he's not as thrown-off and flustered about his feelings in the novels as he is with the suddenness of MC coming into his life in the game; and of course novel!MC was completely surprised and taken off-guard when he told her he loved her: he kept it on the down-low for many years, whereas this Blade was not able to do that, because of his specific background and also because of the utter panic and dismay he felt when game!MC showed up and knocked him sideways in the game. Hopefully that makes sense? He became kind of deranged lol. I say all of this because I thought Blade's romance route was going to go similarly as in the novels; that when he finally told MC that he loved them, that it would be a total surprise; but the two of them had other ideas. Not only was Blade utterly feral in his pining (so many almost-kisses and touches, the man was so down bad that I literally could not restrain him!!) that I'd have to make MC somewhat of an idiot not to notice after a certain point, but there was also this: I realized that a romance with Blade would go -> utterly confusing because his methods of signifying attraction and interest are completely foreign, subdued, or downright bizarre to most strangers -> but the more you fall in love with him and become close to him, the more you'd be able to read his subtle looks and expressions and gestures and what they really mean (which I hope comes across in these last few interludes) and the more you'd simply come to know him, down to his core, which also means coming to understand the undeniable fact of his love and loyalty. Then the confusion becomes more "is he going to do anything about it" or "is this a good idea to pursue" rather than "does he have feelings for me" (clearly he does after a certain point). I'm just yapping because I've been in this headspace for the last few weeks, but hopefully that all makes sense! [/spoilers]
Also. This update finally adds back in the quickbuild feature, which allows you to quickly build a character and worldstate and jump to specific chapters. I was hoping that Twine's multiple saves would do away with the need for this feature, but for testing purposes, it's probably better to have it, especially for testing alternate routes without having to do the game all over again, or being able to proceed past failed stat checks without having to start over.
However. The quickbuild tool is purely for quickly viewing content. Do not use it with the expectation of building a “perfect” playthrough or run or MC. Things like your journal, codex, discounts, items, relationship statuses, and collectibles will all be messed up and scrambled in comparison to a real, bonafide playthrough, so this tool is best used to jump ahead to view new content or routes you may not have otherwise accessed because you took other choices. Think of it as a “read-only” mode. Do not use it with the idea that it’s a perfect cheat! I will not spend time resolving bugs or continuity errors that arise through use of the quickbuild tool.
Sorry if all the warnings come off as a bit much, but I want to frontload its use by being VERY VERY CLEAR about its intentions and what’s going to eventually happen to it, because if we get all the way to the game being finished and launched on storefronts, and I get a bunch of messages asking where the quickbuild went or why the game feels harder (because you can't manually set your stats anymore), I will actually cry, haha.
I think that's all I've got for now! Unfortunately, the artist who's working on Shery's room art suffered a medical emergency this month, so they were not able to finish it on time. I've seen the lineart for it, though, and it's sooo cute! 🥹 Let's hope for the artist's speedy recovery; sorry for the wait in the meantime! Cute-tanuki also confirmed that Croelle's character sheet will be started shortly, and I had a lot of fun writing this month's short story, which is a summer horror AU. It's a genre I love and can't get enough of (if you have any of your own recs, feel free to comment!), so I look forward to expanding on that world and story soon.
What’s Next:
I am realizing that the Ascendancy Festival interludes are monstrously beefy, as you can see by the high wordcounts: having 3 activities, Chandry's play, a confession scene, all the choices and all the different platonic/romantic flavor text, is extremely difficult to get done in one sprint, especially because each festival route has almost no overlap with another character's: almost no text gets "reused." So I might have to rethink how to pace these out, or maybe having a better schedule (and no caffeine) will make things easier next month. I'm also really eyeing starting Chapter 10!
I very much hope you enjoy! Feel free to leave your thoughts on Discord, here in the comments on Patreon, the itch.io page, or Tumblr; I've been really enjoying reading through them, and you have no idea how much your enthusiasm and feedback continues to drive and inspire me! Thank you for everything!
Estimated total wordcount: 1,334,000 words
Comments
Lena Nguyen
Hi, this is the July post—the latest password would be on the August post, which is pinned to the top of the feed! :)
JasperQuinnzel
Is the Alpha password working for other people it keeps telling me it's the wrong password
Dani
Blade's confession is so beautiful and passionate and I can't stop thinking about how lovely it was to have my MC go from being curious about Blade, to understanding and embracing all the layers and quirks to him and being ok with the thought of 'this is enough because there can't be more' to pure, genuine love overspilling into a real, healthy relationship despite both Blade and MC's fear of the future and what it means for the Shepherds. I fear I'm going to keep leaning towards Blade's romance when I try other playthroughs!!!
Taylor Laszko
I have a quick question about a different Thurl option if you don’t mind me asking. It’s totally okay if you don’t have an answer for me, but I was wondering if you know when the diplomatic approach/saving(?) him route will be added? I’d just like to know so I can shelve that play-through for now if it won’t be any time soon. Also thanks for the amazing content and stories as always! I offered to beta years ago and I’m still keeping my fingers crossed you’ll let me when we get there! 🫡🙌🏻
Lauve ッ
Love, LOVE the confession ❤️❤️
Lena Nguyen
Thank you so much, this is such a lovely comment!!! 🍾💖
Lena Nguyen
Hi Theresa, I did reply to your other comment, not sure if you saw it! It sounds like it's your mobil device or browser: check the "troubleshooting guide" pinned as a sticky on the itch.io page or under the development log link at the top of this post! It addresses lots of save issues and methods that might help. You may have to manually download saves to your device to keep them from being wiped, as mobile browsers like Safari will automatically wipe your cache after a certain amount of time--unfortunately there's not too much I can do about that on my end, but do please check out the troubleshooting guide, there are some steps that can help! https://itch.io/t/5040635/browser-troubleshooting-guide
tackyjewels
Accidentally deleted my saves last month so THANK YOU for the quickbuild so I could read the update fast!! Blade's confession was perfect, just perfect, I felt like a champagne bottle was popping in my chest the entire time I was reading. Beautiful writing as always.
Theresa Partner
Sorry if you saw this post elsewhere - I’m just a little stumped. Is there a way to save my progress and return to current gameplay? I’m saving as I go, but it seems to erase anyway and I can’t return to the storyline I’ve saved.
stream doomsday diaries by eaxford
update: i will be incredibly exhausted at work tomorrow and it is 10000% worth you. "you unman me." what the fuck lena (complimentary) also the absolutely gorgeous kick in the chest feeling i got (again, complimentary) when MC just Realizes that blade is in love with her when burning the wish papers. blademancers are saving money on their groceries this month cause we have dined so well here
Lena Nguyen
Hi, did you get other romantic scenes with him during the festival? Did his rock change color or did anything happen when you burned the wish paper? I commented in this thread the requirements to get him to confess—if you seem to meet all of those requirements (you can check with Mimir on the day off after the festival to see how many romance flags with him) then it’d be helpful to know if you got the other festival scenes!
Jordyn
Kay
Omg, thank you thank you thank you for Blade’s confession it was ✨perfection✨ also I love it’s canon that Lavinet took him on a shopping spree 😆 ok so the play took me out cannot wait to see others reaction to it and then Blade’s confession did NOT disappoint it was just *chefs kiss* I love how MC and Blade were discussing keeping their relationship on the DL (which yeah, I don’t think is gonna last long) and I think my MC is gonna drop the ball on this one, she’ll be floating on cloud nine. Ok so, I realised this comment is all over the place but that’s on you for absolutely demolishing us 🤭 I’m off to reread 💕
ren
Hi Lena!!!! Thank you so much for all your hard work this month, you're seriously killing it! I've read Blade's Ascendancy Festival route over and over again and I cannot stop.... what have you done to me... playing the game extensively and trying different RO routes means I've developed a soft spot for everyone but the OG blademancer in me never dies. I am so so happy with how the relationship has developed this far, the fireworks confession really made me so soft :') and can we talk about how beautiful your writing is??? the tenderness, the Yearning... I love him I love you thank you
Lena Nguyen
I'm so glad you loved his confession! Yes, he was internally panicking like "NOOOO IT ACTUALLY WORKS" and was like trying to tamp down his emotions but internally freaking out about it, lol! The red and gold means love :) I'll leave it to you to infer what the pink meant lol
ItaLii
I’m really curious, what do the colours Blade’s rock turned mean? And what exactly had him upset before he picked it up, maybe something like “Oh this works and i’m fucked” sort of thing? I absolutely loved his confession btw
Lena Nguyen
Yay I'm glad you liked his confession!! And I know, I thought the refreshers were just for non-coffee refreshment LOLLL, so hopefully I can spare someone else the surprise! "I'm not afraid of a rock" - big talk for a man who gets called out by one 2 seconds later 😅
Lena Nguyen
Thank you kingdom!! I hadn't thought of it that way, but you're right, Blade was really the first "RO" I ever wrote so this feels quite momentous! 🥹
Lena Nguyen
Thank you so much!!
Lena Nguyen
Ahhh that's actually such a cute picture, I'm glad the quickbuild can be of help, it definitely cuts down on repetition!! And that's so cute that sweet bby was squealing too! So glad you enjoyed it! <3
Lena Nguyen
Thank you so much for the kind words!! <3
Lena Nguyen
Yay, I'm so glad you enjoyed it!!! <3
L
Same here!
Hanja
Lena, you're amazing! I've waited sooooo long for this! But now I'll have to wait even longer, because Blade hasn't confessed his love to me. What am I doing wrong???? I've been flirting with Blade as my only RO from the very beginning.
Jennings
I read it yesterday and !!!!!!!!! Perfection!! Thank you for your hard work Lena!!! It is certainly paying off!
Inoempriss
Lena!!! I'm squealing at 6am(because i stayed up catching up on my new Blade route all night) like a school girl! My long awaited Blade festival 😭😭 Thank you for this. Yes, your honor, I love him❤️❤️
aga
w o w, and I do not say it lightly, your work ethic is truly inspiring?? Thank you!!
Rachel Costa
IT'S HERE AHHHH :D Thank you so, so much for the quickbuild, I've got a toddler so getting any time to read at all anymore is super rare and as much as I would adore replaying and reveling in every chapter, time isn't on my side at the moment! And the lil bab loves when I read to him so I managed to buy time by reading the festival aloud to him and when I couldn't help squealing as I went, he squealed too, it was awesome hahaha. He's already a fan! <3
chocolatezz
Lena. Lena. I love you so much for this. It's so great.
Cattro
I'm so glad I did that new Blademancer route earlier this month - I loaded up that save file so quick!! I did not expect to see a Blade confession! The whole thing took me by suprise in such a pleasant way. I'm really liking the Blade we finally get to see under all those walls. It's so beautiful 😭🥹 Side note - "I'm not afraid of a rock." is officially my favourite Blade line. Yeah caffeine when you're not used to it is not a fun time. Glad you worked it out! I had no idea those refreshers even had caffeine in them.
kingdom-dance
Bladerunners im so happy for y’all get your maaaannnnnssss 🩵🩵🩵🩵😭 Lena congrats on finding a dress!!!! Yipeee!!!! Also oh nooo not the referesher mix-up.. a canon event for non caffeine drinkers i fear 🫣 Also this must be such a massive moment for YOU as your OG MC was the first Blademancer!!! 🥹🥹
gemekaa
Why do I need to work instead of playing this? 😭😭😭
Vinny
Happy for Blademancers, this feels like a long time coming. But as someone who’s not interested in Blade (or any other males for that matter) I do hope the next route is one of the girlies.
Avery
My trans masc gay self who can't comfortably play as a woman over here pouting (/j) I kid, I kid, I'm still gonna play the update platonically, I like to think my MC and Blade are weirdly besties somehow despite having very different personalities. I like that you're putting so much into each of the festival routes and making them unique, that's a lot of work and I eagerly anticipate the next one! This month has been crazy with all the nonsense going on, I'm glad you're doing well despite all that!
rala
NEVER THOUGHT ID SEE THE DAY HOLY SHITT IM HYPED
Lena Nguyen
THANK YOU EM!!! The bug fixes are made much easier by the detailed bug reports everyone submits! 😌 Also LOLLL the green tea productivity is so true, just to be sure to get enough water and sleep to counteract it once you lay down the pen! 😂
emeraldgreaves
lena you are absolutely killing it with the bug fixes. *and* the blade interlude, *and* the quickbuild, *and* the q&a? amazing. also, i feel you on the mysterious caffeine. the week i stayed up until 3AM every day writing a metric ton of words was also the week i kept steeping green tea on my breaks to be efficient, and i only put together the connection multiple years later.
Lena Nguyen
Good luck on your exam, and I hope you enjoy! And typically, I haven't found that updates mess with *all* saves, or even any if we're lucky, but it really depends on things like your browser, itch.io, or even what page you saved on, as it might have been replaced by new content, and sometimes that throws an error, whereas saving two pages back might have been fine. I highly recommend using the 'download saves' feature in order to have hard copies of your saves that aren't only stored in the browser! Also sometimes 'hard refreshes' can help resolve errors! There's a troubleshooting guide I wrote that might help if you run into issues :) https://docs.google.com/document/d/1PQxqoOXNpDVyGKrmYgDRwhMtCr_EvZsYcqNbS1yk8Ds/edit?tab=t.7wqtwujv4nmg Also, there is a quickbuild feature now, so if anything did happen to your saves, you can still jump forward to the new content relatively easily rather than having to start all over! Hope that helps!
Lena Nguyen
Ah, what perfect timing, I hope you enjoy!! And it's no worries at all haha, I thought it was a hilarious mishap on my part and a nice explanation for why I was mysteriously feeling so scattered, but thank you for the sympathy!! XD
Vilma
FUCK YEAH
andrea
I'm about to take a 10 hour train ride this literally couldn't come at a more perfect time for me 🥹 tysm for all your hard work!! And I'm so sorry about the accidental caffeine. I work in service myself and those situations always feel so bad even when it's no one's fault
Jennings
Blade’s WHAT!!!!! I’m RUNNING to the alpha
ItaLii
YEEEES *falls to knees* I have been so blessed I can’t wait to get into this
IPrettyBirdI
Ok so I just submitted a bug report that I couldn't access the build because it was giving me invalid password, and literally a second later you post this update and now I see why 😅
Panda7995
Aahah <333! Unfortunatly I will not be able to immediatly play since I have a medical examination, but after that it's on! Also, will the update mess with my saves? Questioning since I'm new on patreon. Thanks Lena ❤️❤️❤️
stream doomsday diaries by eaxford
i am screaming i’m crying i’m throwing up i can’t believe i’m still at work and can’t play yet
