#progress update

[childrenofcain-if]

locked in and deleted a bunch of exposition and whiny ahh dialogues to replace it with better ones. it’s so hard to tell readers information about what is going on without making it rambly so i had to watch a goddamn youtube video on it.

my skill issues aside, i’ll be writing for at least five days a week and grind enough to hopefully aim for a release soon. i’m already bummed out that my hospitalisation took my focus away from writing so if i don’t manage to release a chapter or two this year, i’m gonna go join a monastery or something.

here is the word count so far:

i’m not sure how long this chapter will be since my planning was quite simple. there was not going to be any heart events this time around, but the ROs and MC are way too cute pls 😭 i’m not gonna be able to help myself writing these scenes and truth be told, i’m not even a big romance guy most of the time.

anyways, that’s all i have for y’all today. make sure to eat, stay hydrated and touch grass or i hope a chicken bites your toes.

[loveafterdeath-if]

It's time for a little progress update.

Chapter five is shaping up to be a bulky chapter, as expected (three paths, plus other paths within those paths and other routes waiting to be written will do that). So far, despite the lil shit I caught recently (ciguatera), I am progressing rather well. 

Two paths have already been written, Athiel and Robin's, with around 60k words (there's bit more but I'm excluding the repetitive text. Also, make it around 10k per playthrough only). And honestly? If I had to give a percentage, I'd say we're at 10%?

In these you'll actually learn more about what happened, but not the exact same information will be given in each path. You'll get different perspectives on the situation, different clues about stuff.

A lot of events will happen in chap 5, and honestly, each time I finish one path, I'm like, 'I can't wait to write the other path' or 'I can't wait to write what follows'. SO it's a very very good sign, because I LOVE what I'm writing. So far, there haven't been any moments where I was, like, 'oh no, I hope I finished this one soon, it's boring'.

Doesn't mean it's not tho! I think Robin's path could be boring for some since they're not an RO and no ROs are present. It's basically explanations. But man did I enjoy myself writing it.

Anyway, lemme tell you, I LOVE what I have for the ending of chap 5—no worries, like I said in a previous ask, no cliffhanger in sight. I just love that it's something that was actually decided with my patrons a whiiiiiiile ago. Some patrons will probably remember, others won't—I won't confirm anything either way.

I'm currently writing Jordan's path, one that, imo, will be quite appreciated thanks to the drama it has. This is one of the paths I've been most impatient to write!!!

Also, I still have to update the public demo with the few fixes I've made... Sorry about that! I just feel drained after a day of working on LAD, trying to be active on tumblr and just living, hahaha

Will do it soon... soon...

[lillified]

How's TD going?, looking forward to the next video

it's going as fast as I can manage it! I've been trying to get work done in between gigs and client stuff as often as possible. the main reason you haven't seen more TD stuff is that I spent some time working on content that i ultimately decided to scrap, and I've been doing a bunch of pre-prod work prepping updated designs, locations, ETC for the episode I'm currently working on. If you haven't seen, I decided my original plan for episode 2 would work as a series start, so I'm retooling that into a proper "episode 1" with the pilot as optional additional viewing! I might try to make a quick video showing off the scrapped content this week or next, but I'll be a bit busy, so fingers crossed I manage to put it all together. here's to hoping!

for now, I hope you'll appreciate this pic of the shot I'm working on right now:

[ramonag-if]

Crown of Exile First Draft Complete 🎉

​I am happy and excited to announce that the first draft of Crown of Exile is now completed 🎉

It's been years in development, and while we're still a way off from its final launch, the full game is now completed and will shift into edits in the coming weeks. What this means is that by February 2026, expect an updated Steam demo release in anticipation of the game's full release in Q2 of 2026.

I cannot thank you all enough for the amount of support, kindness and patience you have shown me. Writing has always been my passion, and so stepping into the world of designing my own interactive fiction was definitely new for me. I learnt a lot throughout this process and have come to appreciate you even more during the tough moments when it felt like the code was fighting me on what I needed it to do.

While the game is completed, it doesn't mean there won't be any updates. As I work towards polishing it for the final release, I'll be asking for your feedback. If you would like to help shape the final game, consider providing feedback through this form​.

And for those of you who can't wait to play the full game, you can get early access to the alpha version by subscribing to my Patreon​.

Thank you again to everyone, and I hope you have a festive holiday season ✨

[naturalecho]

MAY 2026

Happy end of May! I can’t believe spring is nearly over 🫨 Time flies when you’re making an IF. I’d love to release Chapter 2 this summer. Truly, it’s all I want in life right now 😭 The good news is that summer tends to be a little quieter at work, which means I can sometimes get away with writing when no one’s looking 👀

Speaking of writing, I’ve been doing a lot of it lately!

Let me tell you about it!

HIGHS: I really started digging into the Lodge route this month, which has been a blast! It’s actually kind of funny how different the Cold Zone and Lodge routes feel. When I was writing the CZ route, everything felt slower, more contained, and more introspective. Which, I suppose, is the whole point. You’re literally isolated with nothing but your thoughts lol

The Lodge route is much livelier. No one’s miserable yet, everyone has an actual bed to sleep in, and there are more people around to stir the pot. Though honestly, a lot of that might come down to introducing Misty and Marcel. They’re fun! The first five ROs you meet all exist somewhere in the same general plane of reserved and/or shy, with Kailee as the main exception. Then you add these two little firecrackers, and suddenly it’s a whole new ball game.

I love how the group dynamics change depending on who’s around. It gives you a chance to see different sides of the ROs, and it makes me really excited for future chapters when everyone is present and accounted for.

LOWS: Adding to the group is fun, for sure, but...THERE ARE SO MANY BRANCHES HOLY SHIT! Lol I'm not kidding! In the Lodge route, there are four main branches, and within three of those, there are nine variations. On top of that, there are also smaller scenario-specific details that only apply in certain situations, and all of those need to be accounted for too.

I keep trying to think of ways to stop it from exploding into all these wild variations, but cutting too much would also dull the story. You wouldn’t get to experience those shifting group dynamics, and that’s kind of the fun of this chapter. It’s definitely a lot to handle, but honestly? It might just be this chapter because of the whole advantage situation. We’ll see if it gets this chaotic again with what I have planned in the future. (It probably will! I don’t think I’ll be able to resist 😭)

Something else I’ve been struggling with this month is MC personality. I don’t want to overwhelm people with a million choices every time there’s a personality bump. But I also don’t want to force myself to come up with options for every single stat if they don’t naturally fit the context of the scene.

Sometimes choices give multiple bumps across multiple stats. Sometimes they only bump one. But I do worry that I’m leaning on certain stats too often and neglecting others. I dunno--I imagine most of you would prefer more variety in the choice sets, so it’s definitely something I’m thinking about as I keep writing.

And that's about it for this month. It was pretty productive, and I'm hoping June will be even more so. Until next time lovelies!

BYYYYYYEEEEE~

Current Word Count: 190K (approx. +66K words for ch.2)

Wait! Before you leave, I have a question!

When you're reading a choice set, which do you prefer?

Action + dialogue (e.g. You frown. "That's not what I meant.")

Dialogue only (e.g. "That's not what I meant.")

Voting ended onJun 2

[sayonararegret]

[moastudiess]

03.02.2026~

The very adorable research building that I am in which makes me feel like I’m working on a cloud, and my finance homework (doom)

Today I went to my research lab meeting and worked on a plan for the week to actually start implementing some chain of thought reasoning into our RAG ai model, and now I plan on getting up to speed with my finance and statistics lectures

[scapegoated-if]

Hey all! Upon further thought, and a lot more writing, I have decided that I will release Chapter 3 in two parts.

Like I said before, there is a logical intermission point that I think would be fun to see you guys left at, and since raised, I cannot shake off the idea. It makes the most sense in the long haul, and gives me the chance to pace myself better while not leaving you guys high and dry for too long--which I have been conscious of.

Both parts will still be extraordinarily long and I have created a chapter skip shortcut for the upcoming release, so you guys shouldn't have too much to sift through.

I'm just excited for you all to see the edits. I've also included graphics and images in the articles to texturise the story more and increase the sense of realism. All in all, I need Chapter 3 (Part 1) to be yours imminently before I go stir crazy.

Stay groovy!