We’re a small, UK based writing duo – call us Yip and Yap – working on various interactive projects including interactive fiction (IF) stories and visual novels (VN). If you like the fantasy genre, heavy worldbuilding and character focused narratives, you’re sure to find a story worth following here.
Links: Cerulean Square - itch.io
Projects:
Icarus and the Suns, an interactive novel by Yap
Intro post: HERE
Demo (Prologue to Act One): HERE
The search for Lanetria, a visual novel by Yip
Intro post: HERE
Demo Unavailable (Still in very early development)
Meet the writers:
Yip (she/her):
Hi, I’m Yip, and I mostly work on Cerulean’s visual novels and coding. I tend to spend my time offline, but that doesn’t mean I’m not working behind the scenes. My projects are still in very (very!) early development but expect to see interesting things soon!
Yap (he/ they):
What's up my darling goobers! I’m Yap, the IF novel writer and artist in this duo. I’m a bit of an overachiever, currently working on way too many projects, often about magic, gods and family. My first story just released a demo (see above) and I hope y'all like it should you give it a read!
Pleased to say that chapter 2 of Pactbinder is now live on COGDemos.
It's a pretty big one at about ~97k words long, which is bigger than the Prologue and Chapter 1 combined by some ways.
Combined with more minor amends to the earlier content, the game now has more than doubled in size to ~168k words.
Outside of the content outlined below, I've also reworked the menu system to keep track of interesting mysteries the Pactbinder picks up along the way during their time at Hightower.
Some things to look out for in Chapter 2:
A proper introductory tour through Hightower.
Some nice friendly murder accusations.
A matriculation ceremony beneath the gaze of a perfectly innocent and magnificently painted fresco!
I hope that you enjoy the release, and please don't hesitate to let me know if you have any feedback or commentary; I'm making sure I have the time to review and action it!
I'm done!!!! Fuck my stupid baka uni and fuck my stupid baka coursework. This shit was ass but it's over! I'm taking a rest day then getting back to writing. I miss my characters 😞😞😞
Once again, I feel like it's been a long time since anyone has said anything on this blog... I promise nobody is abandoning any projects; 2025 was just crazy towards the end and keeping people updated on what we're up to fell to the wayside. Here's hoping for a better 2026! I figured to kick off the new year I'd let y'all in on some of the plans we have moving forward.
For those of you following us for Icarus and the Suns, first of all thank you for the great response!!! I know the demo is pretty short so far, but according to itch's analytics its been played on browser nearly 4000 times and that's just so crazy to me. I honestly never expected it to be seen by that many people. As for the future of the demo, I have good and bad news. The good news is that I've finished the first two scenes of act two. The bad news is that the following three scenes are going to take a while to finish. Like some of y'all might already know, I'm in my last year of university and to be totally blunt, deadlines are kicking my ass. My priority for the next month has to be getting things finished for school. Plus, my plan for scene three ended up requiring way more variation than expected, basically tripling the wordcount for that section, and that's not including the code. At this time I can't offer any specific prediction for when the next update will be, only that I'm aiming for no later than around springtime.
Until then I'm going to do my absolute best to keep this blog active, or at least more active than it was last year. And of course I'll be writing as much as possible too. As always asks are open if anyone feels like chatting.
This is the little surprise I mentioned in the devlog a few days ago. The old one way always meant to be a placeholder, something I put there until I had the time to spruce it up. I think y'all will agree this is so much better.
So... Uni is back on. Probably not the best way to start a development log but it is what it is. Since its my last year my priority for the next few months is gonna have to be school. That isn't to say I wont be engaging with this blog or writing the next chapter, but things are probably going to slow down for a while. It doesn't help that certain things have been getting worse in my personal life lately on top of everything else.
As for happier news, I have one more little thing planned for Icarus this month. Not a new chapter obviously, but I think its gonna be pretty neat anyway. I look forward to sharing it~~
Sooo.... I've officially made a template/ guidebook for folk to make their own IF novels.
Template available HERE
This is a (hopefully) easy to use starting point that should help Twine newbies get going on their first projects. It includes:
A fully set up UI bar that's simple to edit and change
A light and dark mode with easy to edit colour palettes
A full character creation section which you may reuse for your own purposes
A corresponding profile with a prewritten/ precoded description of the player character
Two different ways to create character sheets for things like ROs or side characters
Some basic tutorial on how the more complicated code works
I never thought I'd understand Twine to such a degree that I'd feel comfortable sharing a template/ guidebook for people to use yet here we are. I'm well aware that it's not quite as pretty as some of the other ones that are available but I'm still dead proud. And besides, I do like how customisable it is: don't want the banner than get rid of it, don't like the header than change it. Plus, I think the tutorial parts are at least a little helpful. It took me forever to figure out how to do some of the things on this guide so I'm really happy that I can, at least to some degree, help people out.
Of course it is more template than guide so there are some parts of it that you'll just have to figure out (mostly the more complicated of the two character sheet options) but regardless, I think this should be a good enough starting point for people who are curious.
Just read Icarus and I'm already in love with this story! ♥️ All the characters are so interesting and I'm excited to discover the world you created. You have a great way of combining your own twist to the myths and I adore your writing! Also really enjoyed the options to react to the revelation about the father. Keep up the great work 🫶🏻
Ahhh thank you for the kind words! I love worldbuilding so seeing people like my kinda ridiculous take on Greek myth and the world of Helana is such an ego boost! I'm glad you liked the options too; I was almost worried that there weren't enough -_-
I lied. Dark mode is available now! I also took the chance to fix the weird looking settings pop up so that should be easier to read now. And on the topic of easy reading, there were a couple spelling mistakes that needed editing so I've got those too.
Thanks for your patience with all those little bugs and as always y'all can find the demo HERE.
Public Demo of God-Cursed through Chapter 6 Available
Link: Your Saves are Broken, I'm sorry.
It's here! It's finally here!
Quick Notes:
Asks: feel free to send in questions or comments about new content. If Asks contain spoilers, I will do what I did for the last update and make a separate post so I can hide spoilers. I'll tag you in the post, if applicable.
I will be traveling for a few hours today; however, I'll be available after to provide support for anything that went wrong while I was out.
I'm hoping it goes smoothly since the Early Access went well minus a few hiccups; however, I have made updates since that released and there's always the risk that I've exploded something...
If you find something game-breaking, feel free to message me right away either to the inbox or via DM.
Spelling/grammar/typo reports should go to the form linked in the game to prevent repeats to the inbox.
Bugs can still be reported via the Ask inbox.
So, with that out of the way, what can you expect?
All content through Chapter 6! It's likely that I will continue to make corrections and even some addendums (flavor-text and the like), but it's all there content-wise.
Some corrections to grammar, code, and the like (corrections are still ongoing from earlier chapters).
Patch in Chapter 5 for Zahn's moment with the MC before they split off for a bit.
New segment for the ending of Chapter 5 that fleshes out what was cut due to time constraints for the last update.
Several revelations.
703k Words including code and all variations, codex, etc... (The previous demo contained around 481942 words for perspective.)
A heartwarming reunion with your family and friends.
Two spicy moments with one demigod.
A mysterious fortune card (tarot) reading which changes depending on your choices.
Perhaps a little smooch from someone?
And probably a few bugs too...
I sincerely hope that you enjoy the next part of your journey. This chapter focuses on building your relationships to all of these ROs and giving your MC a bit of a break (but not too much of one). Events are still catching up to them and there's no shortage of things to worry about.
Chapter 7 will be written next and will be a little more linear, so my hope is to have it out before the end of the year.
Just found your demo for Icarus and I love it! I'm so interested in ??? bc its like how long have they been with us? Also nota fan of mom <.< I don't trust her. bc its like why you showing up now? why you abandoned us?! I got so many questions. But I can not wait for more. I'm looking forward to it. Also I love our bff they are the best.
Its always so fun reading comments like this, I love watching people question Icarus' mum and her intentions cos yeah.... she's totally not suspicious haha
Just found your demo for Icarus and I love it! I'm so interested in ??? bc its like how long have they been with us? Also nota fan of mom <.< I don't trust her. bc its like why you showing up now? why you abandoned us?! I got so many questions. But I can not wait for more. I'm looking forward to it. Also I love our bff they are the best.
Its always so fun reading comments like this, I love watching people question Icarus' mum and her intentions cos yeah.... she's totally not suspicious haha
Is this a safe space where I can admit my mother finds Helios sexy or should I pretend he isn't a massive dilf.... Oh, the questions one must ask themselves
