Sun Labyrinth

Tumblr of visual novel developer Sun Labyrinth. Art and updates live here.

[sunlabyrinth]

Poor Kalevel...

....when a hatchet job is written about her, she asks an old frenemy for help, then he backstabs her!

Just another day in Aeser... from Tell a Demon, my #visualnovel which is on sale on Steam right now!

Get it here.

[sunlabyrinth]

Sculpting Markaius' face from my World of Aeser series.

Read about him in my story games here.

[sunlabyrinth]

After a long period of sculpting & trial and error, I finally have some papier-mâché faces of some characters from the world of Aeser.

From left to right: Julius, Kalevel, Tetrine, Tell - and you can read/play stories they're in here: sunlabyrinth.com

All related to Empress of Aeser. More on that later. 😉

[sunlabyrinth]

This Dream of Hours

This Dream of Hours is a cozy mystery otome visual novel with three love interests set in a small magical town.

Play the demo here.

Miriam returns from her long apprenticeship in Arizona to find things have changed in the small magical town of Ninebark, Pennsylvania. 

Miriam's father is engaged to a ghost, her ex-boyfriend, the Phantom (yes, that Phantom), is singing at the Winter Ball...

...and the ball itself proves to be a disaster because the elf prince's chosen Cinderella has gone missing, and if she isn't found in 72 hours, the town of Ninebark will cease to exist. 

Meanwhile, the Kill All Humans Society is running the Death Cap Festival and doesn't care if hapless mortals stumble in.

Can Miriam prove her ability, stop the Kill All Humans faction, find love and the missing Cinderella before it's too late?

Features

Three love interests, including Victor Frankenstein (but not including Erik the Phantom)

Sprites that blink!

Original soundtrack, including vocal tracks by Josh Kashdan

Artwork handpainted in Krita

A cozy mystery set in a magical small town

An ambulatory mermaid godmother who thinks she knows French...

... and this guy, here:

Play the demo here.

[sunlabyrinth]

This Dream of Hours

This Dream of Hours is a cozy mystery otome visual novel with three love interests set in a small magical town.

Play the demo here.

Miriam returns from her long apprenticeship in Arizona to find things have changed in the small magical town of Ninebark, Pennsylvania. 

Miriam's father is engaged to a ghost, her ex-boyfriend, the Phantom (yes, that Phantom), is singing at the Winter Ball...

...and the ball itself proves to be a disaster because the elf prince's chosen Cinderella has gone missing, and if she isn't found in 72 hours, the town of Ninebark will cease to exist. 

Meanwhile, the Kill All Humans Society is running the Death Cap Festival and doesn't care if hapless mortals stumble in.

Can Miriam prove her ability, stop the Kill All Humans faction, find love and the missing Cinderella before it's too late?

Features

Three love interests, including Victor Frankenstein (but not including Erik the Phantom)

Sprites that blink!

Original soundtrack, including vocal tracks by Josh Kashdan

Artwork handpainted in Krita

A cozy mystery set in a magical small town

An ambulatory mermaid godmother who thinks she knows French...

... and this guy, here:

Play the demo here.

[sunlabyrinth]

Drown the Bride is now available on Steam!

Drown the Bride is now available for purchase on Steam. (It's also available on Itch).

When a young actress finds herself on a boating trip with her dearest friend and her friend's fiancé, the latest in a long line of horrible beaus, she must use all her wiles to keep her friend's head - and her own - above the water.

Gameplay

Drown the Bride is a point 'n click adventure visual novel game set in a historically themed fantasy world. Your choices impact the plot while exploring and interacting with the world progresses the story.

Story

When Rosemary agrees to chaperone her shy, motherless and very dear friend, Tetrine, on a trip to the coast, she didn't expect her friend's fiancé to be such a bore.

Luckily, Rosemary is both an actress and an excellent judge of character. It should be a piece of cake to convince her friend to give this one a pass. Only, it isn't, and the longer they stay at the house on the cliffside, the more convinced Rosemary becomes that her frend's fiancé isn't just a heel - he's got his heart set on murder.

Will Rosemary be able to persuade her friend to leave? Or will Rosemary lose a dear friend?

Features

8,000~ words of content

Lots of pixel art animation & hand-painted artwork

4 distinct endings

Very puzzle light

Get it on Steam

[sunlabyrinth]

Rosie: Why are you so worried? Trina: I'm so late sending out that letter. He said I could bring a friend…

(for Drown the Bride).

--

Some ephemera I've made, and pendants I collaborated on with my mother, for the World of Aeser over the years.

[sunlabyrinth]

(☝️ The pixel art version)

Rosie: Now is better than never. Why don't you give him one of your charms?

Trina: Do you think he'd like that?

Rosie: It's for luck. It's the thought that counts, even if he doesn't believe in magic.

Trina: I don't know, I think Fell is a skeptic. He might take it the wrong way.

Rosie: If he doesn't take it for the gesture it is, that says something about him, doesn't it?

Trina: Do you think so?

Drown the Bride is a short interactive adventure about a young actress named Rosemary who must use her wits to prevent her best friend from being murdered.

Wishlist on Steam:

Drown the Bride on Steam

A short interactive adventure about a young actress who must use her wits to prevent her best friend from being murdered.

It comes out in a couple days (August 25th).

[sunlabyrinth]

Rosie: Why are you so worried? Trina: I'm so late sending out that letter. He said I could bring a friend…

(for Drown the Bride).

--

Some ephemera I've made, and pendants I collaborated on with my mother, for the World of Aeser over the years.

[sunlabyrinth]

Drown the Bride...

... is coming to Steam.

When a young actress finds herself on a boating trip with her dearest friend and her friend's fiancé, the latest in a long line of horrible beaus, she must use all her wiles to keep her friend's head - and her own - above the water.

Gameplay

Drown the Bride is a short point 'n click with visual novel-style branching set in a historically themed fantasy world. Your choices impact the plot while exploring and interacting with the world progresses the story.

What's new about the Steam Version?

This version adds a custom soundtrack, in-game & Steam achievements, an Endings Replay gallery, controller support and other fixes.

Wishlist on Steam

[sunlabyrinth]

Ember & Wolf

New short flash fiction game.

Ember escaped the Wolf of Sophir a long time ago - or so she believed.

Red Riding Hood with sleep paralysis.

Free to play here.

---

Still set in the World of Aeser. If you've seen the world map in Tell a Demon, Sophir is located way up in the mountains. That's the nice thing about having a big story world...

Trying out an ink + linocut style. Working in traditional media and off the computer is really helpful right now. So yes, still getting back into the swing of things.

[miscellaneousramblings]

Favourite game developers - Sun Labyrinth (@sunlabyrinth)

It's been more than ten years since Asher's first version was published, and the world of Aeser has expanded so much since then. Everything is worth the ride: the art, the characters, the writing... I love all of these games very dearly.

I encourage anyone who enjoys visual novels and point and clicks to give them a go, they're all very well-written and most of them are free or very reasonably priced. They span multiple POVs and moments in time but the story-world stays the same (magic world still reeling from imperialism/fascism with an aesthetic that echoes the 1920s).

[sunlabyrinth]

ten years~

[sunlabyrinth]

Closing My Patreon

Patreon Page

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And we're back (almost)

After some time off, I figured out how I could fit game dev into my life again. So I have about four projects queued up, a couple of them set in the World of Aeser, and this one, called the Third Voice.

The Third Voice

A heartbroken inventor, in an attempt at reaching his girlfriend's ghost, accidentally creates software that taps into the thoughts of those around him, including people who are spying on him through his smart devices--and they want his invention!

---

Not much more to add, and I think the other (kind of secret, but some are announced on Patreon) projects are probably more of interest to regular followers, but I needed to write something silly to recover from the past six months or so. (I can now say from personal experience that I do not recommend getting poisoned by manganese.)

[sunlabyrinth]

Phasing out working on games

Hi guys, kind of a sad announcement, but one that has been a long time coming.

You can read more about it here.

[ewa-jednak-chce-spac]

Rosemary Deid from the World of Aeser game/vn series by @sunlabyrinth. She's the best friend of Tetrine Reish (the main character) and appears in Asher (the first part of the trilogy) and its prequels - Winter's Trumpet and Drown the Bride. While initially I was rather neutral towards her or even disliked her a bit, I began to like her after playing Drown the Bride, in which she's the main character.

If you haven't played these games, I strongly recommend them - you can tell they were made by an artist and that the author enjoys creating her world very much (which reminds me about Tolkien's attitude towards his world, although on smaller scale).

[sunlabyrinth]

Oh, wow. It's so nice seeing Rosemary getting some love. ❤️❤️❤️

It was fun fleshing her out for DtB, complete with a few silent film references~~

[sunlabyrinth]

1. Who are the other potential love interests in the Empress of Aeser except Markaius? I guess that the female one is Kialee, but who's the other male love interest? If this supposed to be a secret, don't tell!

2. Which characters in the World of Aeser are lgbt+? Tetrine and Tell are bi/pan, Kalavel is attracted to (only?) women, Allie (female mc) and maybe Judy/Felicia are attracted to women... what about other characters?

Kialee is not a romantic interest in Empress, but Kalevel is.

Yeah, I think Kalevel is only attracted to women. I say 'I think' because I don't plan these things. If it feels natural for the character, I go with it. One Tell a Demon ending suggests at least an alliance between Kalevel and a man and maybe something more. However, I can't answer your question about how the other characters are because it may change if it feels right for the character in a different route or context.

I am not very 'commercial minded' in my approach to writing games. I prioritize what seems right within the themes, the characters and what they want, and I aim to be true to the player's choices. So that means I don't prescribe routes like a writer god ("And now! You and you shall smooch at the midpoint whether you like it or not!").

So that means that the answer atm to your other question, is 'probably Julius' because that was what I had envisioned for Empress before I wrote Tell a Demon and introduced Tell as a character. So if Tell and Julius start out with a platonic relationship in Empress, that may mean Julius is a romantic option for Tetrine.

Empress has more of a twisty Noir treatment, esp. later on. So we'll see.

[sunlabyrinth]

Drown the Bride is a point 'n click adventure visual novel game in which you play as a young actress named Rosemary, who finds herself on a boating trip with her dearest friend and her friend's fiancé, who is the latest in a long line of horrible beaus. When things take a dark turn, Rosemary must use all her wiles to keep her friend's head - and her own - above the water.

Download it on Itch.

Story

When Rosemary agrees to chaperone her shy, motherless and very dear friend, Tetrine, on a trip to the coast, she didn't expect her friend's fiancé to be such a bore.

Luckily, Rosemary is both an actress and an excellent judge of character. It should be a piece of cake to convince her friend to give this one a pass. Only, it isn't, and the longer they stay at the house on the cliffside, the more convinced Rosemary becomes that her frend's fiance isn't just a heel - he's got his heart set on murder.

Will Rosemary be able to persuade her friend to leave? Or will Rosemary lose a dear friend?

Features

About 8,000 words of content

Lots of pixel art animation

4 distinct endings

Very puzzle light

Download it on Itch.