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Krasue Games
Solo-dev creating adult games with a strong focus on gameplay intermingled with 18+ content. I've had years of industry experience and have a passion for horror and retro games, as evidenced by my first release "Halls of the Pale Widow".
In the library Hello everyone! Sorry for not posting anything last week. I had intended to get either a new Dev Log or even a new build out, but I ended up spending most of my time crunching to get the Steam Build Review version of the game ready.
As of writing this, the build is still under review. I submitted it on Monday, but I’m not sure when the process will be complete. I’ve heard mixed things – some developers say reviews can be quick, whilst others have reported waiting around a month. So right now, I’m kind of in limbo. I can’t say for sure when or even if the game will be approved for sale on Steam, so as you can imagine, this period is filled with trepidation.
Steam Review Build
To meet Steam’s requirements, I had to rush through and do a few things such as preparing a trailer and setting up Steam Achievements – essentially, anything listed on the Steam page as a feature had to be at least mostly functional.
That also included controller support. While controllers have technically worked since the first or second build, some menus like the extras menu or the in-game map screen never functioned properly. Those issues, however, are now fixed! There are still a few things that could be polished, but with controller implementation finally complete, that’s a very long-standing task I can finally tick off.
Now that everything is submitted, there’s not much left I can really do except wait. I was hoping to maybe release the game or start the marketing push fairly soon, but with the review ongoing, my hands are mostly tied.
Performance and OptimizationLight Complexity - Hurts my eyes While waiting, I decided to try and address something I’ve been neglecting for a while: performance.
On my main PC that I use to develop the game, Sin Spire runs buttery smooth – but that’s to be expected, as I’m running it on a 4090. Obviously, not everyone has that kind of hardware, and for a game with a retro style, it feels odd to have to recommend high-end PCs just to run it. So, I got to work on optimization.
I have an older laptop from about six years ago that runs a GTX 1650. I figured that’d be a good system to test with, as I imagine most people on mid-range systems are running hardware roughly in that range or higher (at least if statistics are anything to go by). I also ran the game on a Steam Deck, which is another good point of comparison for performance.
Prior to this, a community member had done some testing and shared their insights on lower-end systems. Essentially, the game ran pretty well on the equivalent to a 1050, but I wanted to deep-dive into a few commonly flagged areas when it came to performance issues.
Surprisingly, during testing, I noticed that the Tutorial Cave and Starting Hall dropped below 60 FPS. That was odd given how simple those areas are. After some digging, however, I realized that I was relying way too much on non-baked lighting.
The game mostly uses dynamic lights since the dungeons are procedural – as they’re built at runtime, I can’t really bake lighting information to improve performance. The dungeons themselves haven’t been too bad because I already did quite a lot of optimization on them early on. But I never optimized areas that were purely static and didn’t need dynamic lighting.
So, I baked the lighting for those few areas and made additional optimizations. The results were great – smoother performance across the board with similar, if not better, visuals. I did have to re-learn a lot about Unreal’s baked lighting systems as it’s been a long time, but it was definitely worth it.
The ForestThe Forest - Where performance goes to die The biggest culprit for optimization by far, however, has been The Forest.
The Forest is one of the few areas I’ve commonly seen complaints about regarding performance. I had naively assumed that because I was using World Partition (introduced in UE5) and foliage instancing, any performance hit would be negligible. I was wrong.
There were multiple issues, including but no limited to:
The moon casting shadows for every single object.
Trees using overly complicated materials with advanced shading models.
HLODs doing the opposite of their intended function by actually hurting performance.
I spent two full days optimizing the Forest alone – adding fixes, rebuilding binaries, and testing on my laptop. Thankfully, it was worth it, as the whole Forest has seen about a 40% increase in performance with almost no noticeable visual degradation (thanks to the fog and dark lighting).
Does that mean the area now hits 60 FPS on the 1650? No – it averages around 50 FPS now, which is much better than the 30 FPS I was getting before. I haven’t tested it on the Steam Deck yet, but that was also noticeably rough in previous builds.
Unreal 5’s landscape system combined with World Partition wasn’t quite the magic bullet I had hoped for. In some ways, UE4’s older system was simpler to understand and optimize. The upshot to all of this, though, is that for future projects I’ll be going in aware of these issues and their solutions, resulting in better-optimized games from the get-go (hopefully).
File Size and Next Build
Because of the new baked lighting, the game’s size has increased – still under 2GB, but well above the 1GB target I was initially aiming for. Realistically, though, 2GB isn’t bad at all for a 2025 release.
As for a new build, there will probably be at least one more build before release. It’ll include bug fixes and the performance improvements mentioned above. However, I won’t be adding in any new content beyond Ophelia’s sex scene. The remaining purification animations and anything else that could be considered “new content” will be saved for the final release as well as general polish.
Steam PricingCurrent Steam Page - Subject to Change Since this ties into the release, I figured I’d mention it. I’ve done my best to match the game’s price to similar indie titles, which is tricky considering there really aren’t really any games like Sin Spire. It’s both a blessing and a curse.
While there are first-person, multi-layered dungeon crawlers out there (some even procedural), Sin Spire’s adult content makes it a unique case – a niche within a niche. I think the price I’ve chosen is fair, but I understand that not everyone will agree.
Credits and Translations
A quick note on credits – I’ve now locked them in as of the beginning of the month. Anyone who has reached out regarding that, I’m afraid the window is closed. Apologies to everyone who messaged me in the past week or so, and thank you to everyone who responded.
Also, the translation documents that I’ve mentioned a few times have been completed! If you’d like to help translate Sin Spire into your language, feel free to reach out. At the moment, I have Chinese and Russian translators, but I’d love to expand further.
I can’t thank you all enough for the support you’ve given me – both financially and through your kind words. Sin Spire exists because of you, and as we near release, I’m able to comfortably and excitedly think about what project comes next.
But we’ll leave that for another time. Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you all next time.
Hello everyone! I’ll open today’s Dev Log with an admission: I’ve been distracted. Not completely – it’s not like I’ve spent the whole month goofing off – but things that should be simple have been taking longer than they need to.
A few logs ago I mentioned that as we got closer to the finish line, things became strangely harder to work on. Now that the game is closer than ever to completion, I’ve found myself slowing down a bit again – unintentionally, but noticeably.
That said, plenty has still been done, and I’d like to share what’s been accomplished, what’s coming next, and what’s been distracting me (it’s still development-related, don’t worry).
What’s Been Done
I’ve been mostly working on bug fixes, content additions, and general polish. But there has been one pretty major change to the end of the game:
When the credits finish rolling, you’ll now return to the Starting Hall with Savina instead of the Main Menu. I still need to write a note explaining this “post-game,” but essentially, you’ll be able to re-run every dungeon you’ve cleared so far – including the final one – and continue upgrading your character and talking to Savina.
You can also technically complete Ophelia’s quest if you missed it, though she’ll still act as if the final boss hasn’t been beaten. On that note, Boss fights are disabled as you’ve already basically beaten them but there is still the Boss Rush available from the Main Menu.
A few players have also reported a nasty crash at the end of dungeons, right before the Boss fight. Thankfully, that issue has been fixed — the solution was staring me in the face for a while. There was a similar crash months ago that I fixed, but didn’t realize the fix also needed to be applied to the Boss Door.
On top of that:
I’ve fixed (as best as I can) all major cloth clipping.
Projectiles are now automatically removed when cutscenes start, preventing them from interrupting or damaging the player.
Ophelia’s quest now has its end sex sequence implemented – no more placeholder text. You’ll be able to see that scene in the next build.
Upcoming Builds
With the game nearing completion, there will likely only be a couple more builds before release. If the Steam review process goes smoothly, I’ll spend some time implementing API features like achievements, but otherwise, the public release build won’t be drastically different from the Patreon builds.
If things don’t go as planned and I have to release through other means, I’ll have to rethink a lot more than just the release of Sin Spire. But for now, the next test build will mainly focus on small bug fixes and micro tasks rather than new content.
Distractions
I mentioned being distracted earlier, but if it’s any consolation, those distractions have been productive ones.
Lately, I’ve been experimenting with ideas for my next project. It’s far too early to start pre-production, but I’ve been researching and doing some early in-engine tests for visual style and rendering workflows. The next game won’t share Sin Spire’s aesthetic, so I’m trying to make sure Unreal can manage what I want to do.
That said, I know it’s the wrong time to get side-tracked. I still have Sin Spire to finish, so I apologize for the delay – especially to the translators who’ve been waiting for updates. I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.
Credits
As many of you know, I’ve been collecting names from my Supporter-tier – both past and present – for inclusion in the credits. I’ll be closing that window soon so I can format and time everything properly.
Thank you to everyone who responded! If you’ve supported me in the past few weeks, I’ll try and message you about your credit as soon as possible. Anyone joining today or tomorrow will also be included in that, but soon after, I’ll be finalizing the credits with the names I’ve collected up to that point.
What’s Next
I’ll likely prepare another small build soon. Not much has changed content-wise, but I’d like to keep testing updates until I’m ready to send the review build out.
It’s a bit of a shame that I missed the October release window, but in hindsight, it might be for the best – Steam Next Fest pushed a lot of games that would’ve drowned out visibility for Sin Spire since I don’t have a demo.
There are still plenty of bugs to squash and purification animations to finish, but progress is progress. See you all next time.
Hello everyone! At the beginning of the month, I released Sin Spire’s first beta test build – hopefully the first of only a few. After that, I took a longer-than-intended break from development.
While some issues were found with the released build, feedback overall has been generally positive. In this Dev Log, I’ll be going over what’s left to do for the game and how long things might take.
Missing Content
So, now that the game is playable from beginning to end, what’s actually left to work on? Well, outside of bug fixes, missing content is obviously the biggest thing I’m paying attention to.
I mentioned this before but Ophelia’s scene after you complete her quest still isn’t in the game and is my current priority. There are a few headaches involved with her scene but nothing too bad.
The rest of the missing content includes mostly purification scenes:
Front animation for Butcherette
Front animation for Wraith
Animation for Creeper (Intro Boss)
Animation scenes for Twisted
Animation scene for Banshee
Drain animation for Girlfriend
Drain animation for Mangler
Lastly, some of Savina’s voice lines are still missing. The recordings are done – I just haven’t finished editing and assigning them yet.
Bugs
Of course, a big part of what’s left is fixing bugs. I even found a few new ones during my most recent playthrough that somehow slipped through earlier testing.
Here’s the current list:
The Creeper (intro boss) sometimes doesn’t move in the tutorial
You can parry the Girlfriend’s bullets, staggering her from a distance
Boss voice lines no longer play during purification
Opening the boss door in the 4th or 5th dungeon can cause a crash
Raven’s body disappears after loading a save following his final dialogue
Projectiles remain active during Vanessa’s death
Crouching while purifying puts the player into the floor
Stalker grabs can make the player fall through the floor on respawn
Reload animations can get mixed up, causing infinite reloading
(Free Mode) Enemies may freeze after certain animations
Savina’s relationship scenes can be interrupted
Various cloth clipping issues
Voice audio levels are inconsistent
Controllers are not supported in the Map or Extras menus
The player may T-pose after a purification scene (animation issue)
Typos in tutorial notes and dialogue
I’m leaving out the dungeon generation bug since, as I’ve mentioned before, it’s not easily fixable without a full system overhaul. It happens very rarely (maybe once every 20 runs, and usually in the last two dungeons for me).
That’s one of the few bugs that will likely remain at launch, though I’ll continue trying to debug it post-release. While I can't fix the bug itself yet, I'll do my best to make sure that the progress lost from both that and the crashes are minimal.
If you find any other issues not listed here, feel free to report them in the Discord server.
Ending
I wanted to briefly address the ending, since it’s been the subject of a lot of discussion – both positive and negative. Some players are still hoping for a “good ending,” but as mentioned already, that was cut. Just to reiterate: there will be no true good ending.
The reason for it being cut has been addressed a few times already but the decision was made for both practical and creative reasons, and I apologize to anyone who expected it based on earlier posts. For now, I won’t be adding any new story content – at least not before release.
Whether or not I do some post-launch content is something that’s still undecided. Especially as there are numerous concerns and factors that come into play when it comes to actually releasing the game.
Supporter Credits
I’ll soon be reaching out via private messages to everyone who has supported me to confirm whether you’d like your name included in the game’s credits or not. While I did plan for this to be an opt-out, I'm also very aware that people may not want their name (especially their real name in the case of some people) associated with this kind of project.
Since tier descriptions don't mention anything about credits at this stage, I figured it'd be best to just give people ample opportunity.
Translations
Now that the endings are finalized, I need to finish preparing translation documents for translators. I’m admittedly slow at this, but I’ll do my best to get them sorted soon.
I already have a few translators on stand-by for the ending, but if you (or someone you know) might be interested in translating the game into another language, please contact me on Discord or leave a message in the server.
Next Steps
This post is already long enough, so I’ll keep this short: I plan to submit a review build to Steam this month.
That’s a pretty big milestone and it will decide a lot about both the project’s future and my own. While I believe the game is complete enough for Steam’s review process, this step also involves removing Patreon/SubStar links and other non-release elements from the build.
That’s all for today. I’m not sure how many builds I’ll release before launch, but I’ll try to put out at least one or two more to help test and verify fixes.
Thanks again for all the feedback and support – it means a lot. See you all next time.
Hello everyone! Sorry for the late post. I’m quite tired and have a few things to cover, so let’s just dive right in.
Boss Fights & Cutscenes
Last time, I mentioned there was only one boss fight left. I’m happy to say that, that fight is now finished! I’ll keep the details light for now so you can experience it when the time comes, but with that out of the way, all boss fights in the game are now playable!
On the cutscene side of things, I’ve completed everything required except for one major change: I’ve decided to cut the planned “good ending.” Some of you might wonder why I would cut it and not just try and rework it, but at this stage it would simply take way too long. Add to that the fact that I’ve been sitting on the completed recordings for a while and reconnecting with some of the voice talent might be tricky.
But despite that, I’m still happy with everything that’s in the game right now. In fact, I was a bit concerned about creating the good ending as I didn’t want people to miss out on some of the other content. Cutting that one ending still leaves 3 different potential conclusions to the game so there is still some variety.
With that decision made, the game’s full narrative is now complete – a huge milestone that officially marks Sin Spire entering its beta phase.
Missing ContentOf course, there are still some things I want to address before I release the game’s 0.1 beta. Over the course of development, quite a few things have been left unfinished with the intention of revisiting them later. Well, “later” is now and it’s time to address things like the Pendant model being a sphere or the various missing purification animations.
There are also the sex scenes for Ophelia and the final boss that still need to be worked on. I imagine that in the coming week, these two particular things will take priority as they do feed into the game’s endings and story.
Sanity Checks
I’ve started doing more “sanity checks” – essentially replaying areas (and doing it badly) to make sure that things that used to work still do. For example, I found that Boss Rushes had broken recently – if you die during the fight, you’ll get stuck on a black screen. Things like this remind me that when testing, I need to also make sure that fail states work. So, I’m going to have to do some runs of the game where I Intentionally screw up.
Translations
Translations will not be ready for the first beta release. Preparing docs, sending them out and replacing lines one by one in-game is a long and tedious process. I simply won’t have time to even get started on this before the beta release. I apologise to everyone who was hoping to see the ending of the game translated – you’ll have to wait a bit longer when my schedule mostly clears up.
Trailer & Release PlansWith the game essentially in beta, it’s time to start thinking ahead to the future – potentially the near future. During the week, I began working on the game’s trailer – a hard requirement for Steam’s release process. It’s been put on hold for now as I focus on more critical tasks but the first cut of it is essentially done.
As for the release plan: My goal is for the beta period to be relatively short. I’d like to move towards the full release now that the game is almost content complete. This also means that I won’t be adding much beyond what I’ve discussed so far – even things I’ve historically said would be in the game might get cut if I deem them to be not important enough.
I’ll share more concrete details regarding this in October. Ideally, the game would see its release during the spooky month, but I can’t yet say how stable the beta will be once it’s out. So, no promises as of yet.
Beta Release
So, after all this talk about the beta, when will it be available for you guys to play? Well, the plan is to release it at the end of the month. That’s not a promise – unexpected things can happen – but that’s the target. I won’t be around next weekend, so the earliest release day would be the 30th.
That’s everything for now. Big milestones have been met this week which is exciting. I’ll see you all when the beta drops.
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