Hello everyone! This past week has been quite productive, with several gameplay additions and story elements coming together. While there aren’t many new art assets, I did work on a few key models and animations to support these updates.

Let’s start with weapons. There are two new additions to the armory. A common complaint from players of the Alpha build was the lack of defensive options when you had no money. While I initially liked the tension this added—forcing players to adapt and scrounge for items—I understand how it could become frustrating after repeated deaths and losing all the money you’ve accumulated.

To address this, I took on a suggestion from someone in the Discord group: introduce a basic weapon provided, for free, by Savina. I expanded on the idea, drawing inspiration from a certain merchant in Dark Souls II, If you have no money, Savina will now give you the Shiv.

Currently, the Shiv is a weak melee weapon with a generous parry window, but I’m brainstorming ways to make it more interesting. One idea is to make it a near-instant-kill weapon that breaks after one or two uses, requiring repair kits to maintain. The weapon is only available if you no money at all, so getting a new one after it breaks isn’t so straightforward.

The second addition is the Torch. While the Flashlight is great for illuminating dark areas, I wanted to offer an alternative. The Torch lights up the immediate area and can also be used as a weapon. Though it won’t set enemies on fire (by design) or do any meaningful damage, a quick swing will momentarily stun them, allowing you to slip past. It’s a cheap and simple tool designed to make traversing certain areas easier.

Next, I’ve made some changes to Hiding Spots. Previously, they shared the same spawn logic as chests and other items, which caused issues—like getting trapped in areas where clipping occurred upon exiting. Hiding Spots are now manually placed, with a 50% chance of spawning. This keeps the randomness while eliminating the clipping problems and ensures there are always a few Hiding Spots per floor.

I’ve also been hard at work on the boss battle with the Witch. Up until now, the only boss fight in the game was against the Creeper (the cave Stalker, not the Minecraft mob). While that fight isn’t fully finished, I needed to shift focus to the Witch battle, as it’s critical for progressing to the next dungeon.

The Witch is a ranged enemy who throws fireballs at mid-range and homing fireballs at long-range. You can deflect these with precise timing—similar to a parry—to stagger her, creating opportunities to get up-close and personal. To prevent players from cheesing the fight by staying at a distance, the Witch has moves to punish people role-playing gun turrets: at mid-range, she dodges side to side, and at long range, she closes the gap with an explosive attack that deals significant damage. The fight is designed around finding the sweet spot between mid and close-range combat. After defeating her, the story progresses, and the next dungeon gate activates.

Finally, I’ve been working on Stalker voice lines. This week, I received recordings from the Stalkers’ actress and began implementing contextual voice cues. Previously, lines played randomly while the Stalker roamed the dungeon. Now, lines are more contextual—for example, reacting when she sees you or voicing frustration when she loses track of you. Some lines and non-verbal sounds are still pending, but it’s coming together nicely.

Next up, I’ll be finishing the Witch boss fight, writing more story content, and beginning the implementation of the next dungeon’s Stalker. I’ll also be setting up more rooms for the second dungeon, as it’s starting feeling a bit too repetitive. Miscellaneous props, like the altar, are on my radar but will likely come after the next Alpha build. My primary goal remains to make the second dungeon fully functional and playable by the end of the month.

Thanks for reading and I’ll see you all next time.

Hello everyone! Today I bring to you another Dev Log. This week's topic is writing! The game's script isn't finalized yet, so I've spent much of the past week developing dialogue and plotting for the three main story characters. Two of them are nearly done, with just one remaining to be fully written.

Finalizing the script now is crucial, as it impacts all additional flavor text, cutscene planning and the ending of the game. The end sequence itself was actually written a while back, but much of the story leading up to it still needs work. Originally, I had planned for branching dialogue with various choices that characters would remember, but writing this has proven more challenging than expected. Instead, I've made most dialogue sequences more linear. Rather than presenting multiple choices at every opportunity, a lot of dialogue will instead have a single choice that continues the current conversation.

I've also been balancing the relationship system, particularly with Savina. I mentioned some time ago that advancing relationships with certain characters would require specific actions. For instance, Savina appreciates it when you buy high-value items and check in with her often. In contrast, the Raven's story is more straightforward.

Speaking of the Raven, I used his scenes as a test for fully voiced dialogue. Initially, I considered reserving voice acting for major scenes only, using UI sounds and reactions like "hm?" for most other dialogue. However, I’m now considering having all dialogue fully voiced to enhance immersion. This makes it even more important to finalize the script soon so I can start getting lines recorded. Because of this, Savina and Ophelia likely won’t be voiced by the next alpha version.

Ophelia is the last character needing a full script. Depending on how you played the alpha demo, you might have encountered her more than once, but she still has a lot of dialogue and scripting work to be completed. By scripting, I mean programming the game to progress her dialogue based on certain events. Scripting for the Raven and Savina is pretty much done. I also haven’t cast Ophelia yet, as I plan to start looking for an actress once her script is complete.

While this has been a writing-heavy week with fewer new visuals, I’ve included a couple of images in this post of a new enemy. She doesn’t have an official name yet but is listed as "Statue" in the game files. She functions similarly to SCP-173 or the Weeping Angels from Doctor Who—she only moves when you’re not looking.

These enemies are challenging since they can’t be damaged and require a special item to defeat. Testing them has been intense; I often end up kiting them around the level while having to manage other enemies. Her purification mechanic isn’t fully implemented yet, as I’m still working out the details. This addition came from direct requests by players who saw statues in Halls of the Pale Widow and wanted to see them fully realized here.

I do apologize if it seems like I'm potentially spoiling the surprise, but even as the developer, I've had my fair share of scares from when these statues suddenly appear out of nowhere.

That's all for this week! Next, I'll continue writing Ophelia's story, finalize and format scripts, and then return to preparing the second dungeon for the next alpha release. Boss fights remain a priority, but I really want to focus on wrapping up the scripts before tackling those.

Thanks for reading and see you next week!

Hello everyone! I hope you're all doing well. You might notice a lack of images in today's dev log. After releasing the alpha build, I decided to take a short break from development (aside from bug fixes), as getting the alpha ready was pretty involved. Today, I'll discuss the alpha release, Steam page launch and what's next.

Since Dev Log 14 two weeks ago, I reached a few major milestones. First being the release of Sin Spire's Steam page. Setting it up was an essential step for preparing the test build as I wanted people to have easy access to the game's links, socials and more from the menu screen. With the Steam page live, I finally put together the alpha build release.

Releasing the build was exciting but also stressful, with a bit of last-minute crunch to make sure everything worked smoothly. Of course, there were still a few hiccups–I had to push out a hotfix on the same day and then another on the next. Thankfully, despite that, the feedback has been great and I felt comfortable enough with the reception to take a small break and relax for the rest of the week, letting the feedback accumulate. Being a solo developer often leads to tunnel-vision, so hearing what people genuinely think has been very encouraging. Most of the build's contents, the tutorial and first dungeon, has been received well with only a few requests for tweaks and features.

For those interested, the alpha is available for Supporters at this link here: https://subscribestar.adult/posts/1545882

A public demo is planned closer to the game's actual release. Now, what's next? For test builds, I plan on releasing a new build every month with significant updates such as new scenes, enemies and dungeons. While ambitious, much of this content is already in the game–it just needs polish, testing and fixes. I'm aiming to release the next build by the end of this month.

There's still a lot to finish up in regards to the game itself, though. The story needs to be fully written, the cutscenes need to be animated and Stalker interactions, boss fights and a handful of new enemies are required before I can even think about entering beta. The list may seem long, but I personally believe it's manageable.

I'll probably regret saying this, but I'm aiming to release the game Q1 2025. While that may seem soon, Sin Spire was always intended to be a short, replayable game. Originally, it was meant to launch in October as a simple dungeon crawler with zero story. The scope has since grown along with the development timeframe. Even so, keeping development short is key for me–without a release goal, the game would risk expanding endlessly and might never be finished.

My vision for Krasue Games is to create manageable, focused games on a steady schedule, rather than keeping people waiting for years and years. Larger projects will likely come in the future, but for now, Sin Spire is probably the most ambitious game I'll tackle until I have a budget and possible small team. Until then, my titles will aim for shorter development cycles.

That about wraps it up for what I wanted to discuss this week. I hope the text-heavy post with no images isn't too much. Next week, we'll be back to regular updates with new renders and content. I have no specific plan on what I'll tackle first from that list, so we'll just have to find out next time. See you all then and have a great week!

Hello everyone! This week has been a bit unconventional compared to what I initially planned. I had intended to focus on more animations, but I soon realized I needed to prioritize getting the Steam page ready to meet my personal goal of launching it before sharing the test build, which I still aim to release this month. So, I shifted my focus and fast-tracked the work needed for the Steam page which has now been submitted for review.

The review process is a bit unpredictable in terms of timing, especially with the Steam Next Fest happening, which likely means a lot of submissions are in the queue. Hopefully, everything goes smoothly. In the meantime, while waiting for the review to go through, I've been working on the test build—Ensuring that everything necessary is included and that the build ends at a defined point. 

It might be a bit disappointing to hear that there is an endpoint to the test, but I'd prefer players test a small, replayable section and provide feedback from that rather than explore unfinished areas. I've also been doing additional bug fixes and clean up. The build is currently around 1.87GB uncompressed, which is a manageable size for most people to download and try out, I hope.

If all goes as planned, I should have a build banked this week. If the Steam page gets approved, I'll share the test build likely next Sunday in place of the usual dev log. I'll be away next weekend so I won't be able to work on the game or write a dev log but I can schedule a post in advance.

The last few things I'm working on for the test build include some audio edits, particularly adding voice lines to enemies that have been recorded but aren't implemented yet and ensuring that all current enemies have purification animations, as that's crucial to gameplay.

Since I've mainly been focused on the Steam page and test build, I'll take this opportunity to introduce Ophelia, who you can see at the top of the post. She is the last story character in the game to introduce and plays a significant role. She's also currently the poster-girl for the Steam page. She's a lot more reserved than Savina, with a blunt and taciturn personality that contradicts her gentle appearance. Her story will unfold as you progress through each dungeon. With her revealed, all three story characters have now been shown off. Every other character is either an enemy or Stalker with either limited or no dialogue.

Ophelia, Savina and the Raven will all be present in the test build, and you'll be able to progress their storylines but only to a small degree. The rest of their stories still need to be written and I hope to tackle that soon.

So, that's it for this week. Most of my time has been spent preparing the test build and the Steam page. Once those are done, development will resume as normal. While I did complete a lot of animations this month, my priorities shifted a lot more than I expected. 

Getting the Steam page up will be a major milestone for me, and I hope the feedback from the test build can help motivate me to push forward. It's easy to hit a period of stagnation when working on a project day-in and day-out, so once the test build is out, I'll likely take a short break mostly focusing on any bug fixes and feature requests that pop up.

Thanks again for all your support. I'm excited for you guys to try the test build when it's ready. As for the animations and other things I planned to discuss, I'll try and post a few images sometime this coming week. 

Thanks for reading, take care, and I'll hopefully be back with another update in a couple of weeks. If anything goes wrong with the Steam page, however, I'll make a post here ASAP as that could impact the test build's release date. But if all goes well, make sure to keep an eye out for its release next Sunday.

See you all later!

Hello everyone! I hope you’re all having a good week. Last week, I was in a bit of a strange headspace, and while I can’t say I’m all clear headed, I’ve still made some good progress. This week’s work includes adding a new enemy, working on test-build specific features and working on lots of animations. I’ll save the animations for a different post due to them being explicit.

First off, let’s start with the horrifying/lovely lady in the image above. This is a brand-new Halloween-appropriate enemy type I call the Banshee and she’s tuned as one of the highest threat enemies in the game. I wanted a fast, feral type of enemy that could also use ranged attacks and the Banshee checks both boxes. She will hurl electric bolts at the player and then charge in for close range attacks with speed.

Her design draws inspiration from a couple of different sources. Some time ago, I saw some very sexy/creepy fanart of Dark Samus and I somewhat mixed what I saw there with the Revenant from Doom 3, giving her a transparent body with a visible skeleton beneath it. I’ve always wanted to have a skeletal enemy in the game, because skeletons are cool.

I experimented with shaders to achieve the overall look and, to add some extra flair, I gave her glowing eyes that leave behind light trails, similar to the demon ninjas from Onimusha. She doesn’t wear any clothes because I couldn’t come with an outfit that wouldn’t clash with the transparent look so I left her naked which is probably for the best. I also censored the image for the public post but the uncensored is available on Twitter/X.

In addition to the Banshee, I’ve also been working on some test-build specific features. Nothing exciting, just watermarking the game version on the screen and adding an introductory message with a changelog. I also linked all my socials on the menu as well as created a backdrop for said menu for when you start the game up.

I’ve also been hard at work on those sex animations I mentioned last week. I wrote up a list of the general animations I need to create and I’m just about half-way done. The next week or so will be spent on continuing this and setting them up with specific enemies in-game before moving onto more unique animations for the Stalkers, Savina and another character.

The enemy roster has also been finalized. Not having a set number of enemies was weighing on me, with so many potential designs overwhelming the creative process. So, I decided to officially lock the roster. It might disappoint some, but I’m only adding three more enemies to the game. I realized that whatever I don’t work on in this game, I can work on in future projects.

The last three enemies are designed to feature unique gameplay scenarios to spice things up, rather than just slapping the player around like the rest do at the moment. Additionally, variations of existing enemies are still planned, so the variety should still be there even if only cosmetically.

Next week, I’ll continue with the animation work and chip away at one of the remaining enemy designs. I’m also planning a bit of clean-up for the test-build and will work on preparing promotional material for the Steam page (again). So pretty standard stuff for me.

Anyway, that’s all folks! Thanks for reading and I’ll catch you all next week. Until then, take care!