Alpha Preview Update (December)

Hi everyone, against all odds, I managed to get a decent amount of work done on the alpha build this month! The holiday crunch was a killer this year, and in between scrambling to get presents for everyone, going back and forth between my in-laws and my family's houses (traveling on Christmas Eve, no less!), and all the other busyness and demands (more interviews--they never end!--learning more Twine and JavaScript, managing some very exciting commissions, making time to see visiting family and friends, multiple birthdays and holiday parties, and writing a substantial special short story for a Commander-tier Patron), I'm feeling like I need a second winter break! 😵 So I am very happy with the amount I managed to write for Shepherds, in spite of all that!

Play the alpha here

❗️➡ Password: cellardoor ⬅ ❗️

Report bugs here

View bug reports here

What's New:

• 12,000 words of new content
• New content for Chapter 7
• Sharing a room with Blade path is complete
• Minor tweaks to past conversations and chapters, including some changes to certain cave scenes with the boys in Chapter 7, and the ability to pull a gun during the brawl in Rivercross in Chapter 6. In Chase's "sharing a room" scene (not yet published), he will make a reference if you shared a tent together in Chapter 3, but you will have to replay Chapter 3 in order to implement this. I wouldn't worry about that now, though--it will probably only be relevant in the next update!

Developer Notes:

I only got Blade's room-sharing scene done this time! 😭 I wanted to finish all four, but that would have left me no time to truly celebrate Christmas or New Year's Eve; so I decided to pace myself and go at it at a less breakneck pace in order to enjoy the holidays. 😅I hope you'll enjoy his conversation if you select him as your roommate, though, especially if you're romancing him--I guess he knows how to flirt a little bit, after all!

Total wordcount: 690,740 words without code

What's Next:

More Chapter 7, and hopefully finishing those other three room-sharing routes! Also, Mimir! Very serious revelations! And an amusing potential cameo for anyone who read Red's short story "Possessed"... 

Also next month, there will be some new surprises on the Patreon side of things! Blade's theme song is done, and it sounds fantastic... 👀Halek's character sheet is underway, as are Ayla and Tallys's character cards--which look INSANE! Look forward to it, because I'm buzzing out of my seat with excitement!

I hope you enjoy, and that you have a very wonderful rest of your week. I'll be working on Trouble and Riel's short story this week (hoping to finish it before NYE, though we'll see--we're still at my in-laws' house and it's holiday chaos as usual), so if I'm not online and don't get to talk to you before then, HAPPY NEW YEAR! I hope everyone had a very happy holiday (a merry Christmas, happy Hanukkah, happy Kwanzaa, Yuletide, Winter Solstice, Saturnalia, whatever you might celebrate)--and I hope you have a lovely start to 2022! I am very excited to see what the new year brings for all of us: this year personally feels like a time of hope and change. Even as I explore the possibilities for Shepherds (I'm currently brainstorming ideas on random road encounters while traveling, to squeeze in even more little missions and bonus content and tiny fun misadventures), I can tell it's going to be a time of great growth and flourishing for the game. I wrote about 300,000 words this year--about 1,150 pages! All three LOTR books in 12 months!--and it's all thanks to you: your patience, encouragement, and incredible support. So, from the bottom of my heart, thank you. Thank you for everything you've done and continue to do; thank you for helping to nourish this story and world, for continuing to motivate me and cheer me on, and for allowing Shepherds to grow to its full potential. I am truly so thankful! And again, Happy New Year, and cheers to more content, more stories, and more fun with these characters in 2022! 🌟🎉