May's alpha demo is live! 🎉
Additions:
~7,000 words of new content in the form of rewrites to chapter one
~5,000 words of new chapter three content
SailingShellsGames posts
Latest update additions and fixes
Update launched today for Leas: City of the Sun. Here's what's new :)
Added checkpoints to the beginning of all chapters (except chapter one, since that's just the same as restarting the game).
Fixed an issue where the chapter nine checkpoint wasn't working once you got to chapter ten.
Fixed a...
2025-05-29 01:20:11 +0000 UTC View Post
Keo Bonus Story: Games Past the Walls (female Keo)
“Not all of them are angry today. That’s good.” Keo lowers her hand from a spellcasting-ready position. I stare over at the giant ironwood tree a few hundred meters from us and feel a sense of relief that my instinct was right in bringing us here.
“It feels... calmer here than where we came from,” I frown, wondering why that desc...
2025-05-27 21:36:42 +0000 UTC View PostKeo Bonus Story: Games Past the Walls (male Keo)
“Not all of them are angry today. That’s good.” Keo lowers his hand from a spellcasting-ready position. I stare over at the giant ironwood tree a few hundred meters from us and feel a sense of relief that my instinct was right in bringing us here.
“It feels... calmer here than where we came from,” I frown, wondering why that desc...
2025-05-27 21:33:34 +0000 UTC View PostKeo Bonus Story: Games Past the Walls (nonbinary Keo)
“Not all of them are angry today. That’s good.” Keo lowers their hand from a spellcasting-ready position. I stare over at the giant ironwood tree a few hundred meters from us and feel a sense of relief that my instinct was right in bringing us here.
“It feels... calmer here than where we came from,” I frown, wondering why that de...
2025-05-27 21:29:22 +0000 UTC View PostIt's fun seeing how language changes in different environments.
The three ROs come from pretty different environments, and I find myself often double-checking to make sure they're all using the right idioms. Like, if there was a swarm of flying fae swarming up to attack, Wren would compare it to a big wave, Keo would compare it to a dust storm, and Rin would compare it to a rain cloud bursting.
I...
2025-05-27 16:20:58 +0000 UTC View PostExtended Writing Update
The chapter one changes are officially done - they come out to a little over 7,000 of new content! I think it works so much better. I made some more action-driven choices for MC, from death magic stuff to different ways to argue with the council or hide something important from them, or in a few places ingratiate MC with them. I haven't done any...
2025-05-25 23:23:02 +0000 UTC View PostMy brain is a menace/here, have some lore 🤪
I want reparations from my own mind for the fact that it made me listen to Mystery of Love by Sufjan Stevens while I'm writing a throwback to the Guide and Midran.
(They weren't romantically involved but they had (or have, if your MC kept them both alive) a stretching-across-eternity kind of love for each other and agh help I didn't pl...
2025-05-23 22:19:26 +0000 UTC View PostA question for you 🌱
Are the demo's import questions getting too long? Specifically the version where you fully customize your character and answer every single thing that's relevant to the demo.
2025-05-22 15:12:05 +0000 UTC View PostRin Bonus Story: Strife Season's for Two Things (nonbinary Rin)
I duck at Rin's shout, dropping to crouch with my hand on the cracked, dusty earth to steady myself and feel a whoosh of air in the spot where my head was. I pivot, grip my dagger in my hand and pop back up hard, throwing my shoulder into the chest of a green-skinned humanoid fae.
The creature—a particularly nasty fae I recognize as a Ri...
2025-05-21 02:19:54 +0000 UTC View PostRin Bonus Story: Strife Season's for Two Things (female Rin)
I duck at Rin's shout, dropping to crouch with my hand on the cracked, dusty earth to steady myself and feel a whoosh of air in the spot where my head was. I pivot, grip my dagger in my hand and pop back up hard, throwing my shoulder into the chest of a green-skinned humanoid fae.
The creature—a particularly nasty fae I recognize as a Ri...
2025-05-21 02:16:33 +0000 UTC View PostRin Bonus Story: Strife Season's for Two Things (male Rin)
“Behind you!”
I duck at Rin's shout, dropping to crouch with my hand on the cracked, dusty earth to steady myself and feel a whoosh of air in the spot where my head was. I pivot, grip my dagger in my hand and pop back up hard, throwing my shoulder into the chest of a green-skinned humanoid fae.
The creature—a ...
2025-05-21 02:13:05 +0000 UTC View PostExtended Writing Update
I swear someday I'll be done with chapter one. 😂 Listen, I've said before that the first three chapters of a game are the hardest to write and I stand by that. Fortunately, I'm not averse to chucking what I think doesn't work into the bin and making something better - in this case, a lot more opportunities to mouth off to the council or 2025-05-19 01:18:36 +0000 UTC View Post
Leon Poll 5: Scars & Tattoos
For those keeping track, the picture of Leon so far is: Extremely pale with short, curly brown hair, green eyes, and a slender build.
For poll 5 you can pick multiple options!
I'll use the top 2 tattoos and the top 1 scar (unless the "none" options win, of course!).
2025-05-18 01:20:07 +0000 UTC View PostLeon Poll 4 results!
This one was close whew, man! Results below.
Here's Patreon:
And here's Ko-fi:
That leaves us with a total of 7 votes for short cu...
2025-05-18 00:11:30 +0000 UTC View PostMe, letting the voices win
They said to rewrite the council interaction and give an option for MC to tell the nobles to their faces that they ain't sh*t.
Monthly Extra: A letter from Rivena (Wren's sister)
My dear, wonderful, maddening [sister/brother/sibling],
Don't even start with me - I can feel you rolling your eyes all the way from Nosret, but you've earned 'maddening' ten times over as far as I'm concerned. Leave it to you to get...
2025-05-14 01:16:22 +0000 UTC View PostLeon poll results 3 + Poll 4: hair style & length
The complexion poll was a pretty close race on both patreon and ko-fi between extremely pale (9 votes), light olive (7 votes), and the pasty white option that was suggested by one of the wonderful patrons here (5 votes)!
So far, we've got a brown-haired, green-eyed Leon with a slender build and extremely pale skin. Next up is his hair styl...
2025-05-13 18:03:23 +0000 UTC View PostExtended Writing Update
Burning the midnight oil this week lol 😂 I've been bouncing back and forth between revising chapter one (again, to no one's surprise) and adding new chapter content. The first three chapters of a story tend to be the most difficult for me to nail down, and this is no exception. To be honest I think that's probably common among writers. It's s...
2025-05-12 02:21:50 +0000 UTC View PostSneak peek ~ Dramaaa
Text reads:
"I am sorry to be selfish," Keo says with a huff. "I know we have greater concerns. But Rin stole from us, evaded our questions, made it clear [rin_heSheThey] hated everything fae, and encouraged us to torture a fellow agent. All th...
2025-05-07 14:37:04 +0000 UTC View PostA quick note:
Welp, that's the last time I attempt to use the queue feature on my platforms 😅 I'm so sorry the Wren bonus story was a few hours late! To make up for it, I'm going to release a sneak peek post today for all tiers 🧡
2025-05-07 11:13:07 +0000 UTC View PostWren Bonus Story: Strife Season (male Wren)
“It’s official: I hate strife season.”
I look up in surprise from the fae corpse I’m sketching. It’s a Liner—a long insectoid fae that looks a lot like a dragonfly with pitch-black scales so dark they shine blue. Its wings still beat furiously in death, keeping it suspended about an inch off the ground as its c...
2025-05-07 11:09:25 +0000 UTC View PostWren Bonus Story: Strife Season (female Wren)
“It’s official: I hate strife season.”
I look up in surprise from the fae corpse I’m sketching. It’s a Liner—a long insectoid fae that looks a lot like a dragonfly with pitch-black scales so dark they shine blue. Its wings still beat furiously in death, keeping it suspended about an inch off the ground as its c...
2025-05-07 11:06:17 +0000 UTC View PostWren Bonus Story: Strife Season (nonbinary Wren)
“It’s official: I hate strife season.”
I look up in surprise from the fae corpse I’m sketching. It’s a Liner—a long insectoid fae that looks a lot like a dragonfly with pitch-black scales so dark they shine blue. Its wings still beat furiously in death, keeping it suspended about an inch off the ground as its c...
2025-05-07 11:01:13 +0000 UTC View PostLeon poll 2 results + poll 3: choosing his complexion 🌱
The results are in! So far we've got a brown-haired Leon with a slender build :)
Next up: what complexion should he have?
2025-05-05 20:08:39 +0000 UTC View PostExtended Writing Update
I got so much done this week, good lord. Mostly prepping tier content here, going through and finishing up the bonus stories (I wasn't able to completely finish them last month but now they're good to go!), drafting out my ideas for how the letter for the monthly extra should go (it's from one of Wren's sisters, fun fact), and laying some ground...
2025-05-05 00:04:19 +0000 UTC View PostMay's Content Schedule :)
Here's what to expect this month ~
This is a bonus stories month, so there's going to be tons of content! 😄 The story topic selected in the last poll was "Strife Season."
Every Sunday: Extended Writing Updates. (Citizen tier and up)
Monday May 5th: Leo...
2025-05-03 15:51:08 +0000 UTC View Post
April's alpha demo is live! 🎉
You can play it here :D It's ~14,000 new words (about the same as the last update), for anyone counting. You'll see some new content in chapter one and then a bunch of new stuff following where the last demo left ...
2025-04-29 18:41:30 +0000 UTC View PostExtended Writing Update
It's the end of the month, which means I'm working away to get the demo ready for launch. I finished up the Leon and Tiane scenes in chapter one, restructured the previous scene where everyone's together at the den, and tweaked some dialogue in the final chapter one scene with one of the people you can question (since the new scenes answer some ...
2025-04-27 21:15:47 +0000 UTC View PostLeon poll 1 results + poll 2: choosing his build 🌱
The results are in - Leon's hair will be brown!
Next up: What build do you want him to have?
2025-04-25 14:33:37 +0000 UTC View Post