Sin Spire – Dev Log 41

Hello everyone! Today’s post will be light on developments regarding the game as there’s not much to discuss, but I do have some big news to kick things off:

Sin Spire has officially been approved for release on Steam!

This is a huge deal and a massive milestone not just for Sin Spire but my game dev career in general. With this, I can now release the game at any time. It’s a huge relief – waiting to find out whether I’d be allowed to sell the game on Steam was extremely stressful. However, while this is fantastic news, there is an issue. The timing of everything has created a complication and that leads us to today’s main topic.

Delayed Release Date

My original goal was to release Sin Spire in December, so I could hit the 2025 release window. The game is in a good enough state to launch but I made a pretty big mistake on Steam’s backend.

I was able to change it before so had assumed I could keep doing so until the game came out, but I set the release date to October this year. As you can tell, it’s a bit past October. To change this now, I need to go through Valve. The problem is that the earliest date I can choose would be mid-December – not early December like I had hoped.

This would put the release of Sin Spire right in the middle of the Steam Winter Sale. Releasing during that window is something I absolutely want to avoid, as the game would get buried under the flood of discounted titles. The sale lasts quite a while, so instead of rushing to squeeze a release in beforehand, I’ve decided it’d be better to wait until after it’s over.

This also gives me extra time for marketing, showcasing and possibility preparing a demo for Itch or other platforms.

As for the new release window:

Sin Spire will be launching in early 2026 – either late January or early February.

I won’t announce the exact date here as I’m still determining which day works best. Once that’s decided, I will make a proper announcement.

What’s Next?

There are still things to polish before release. I’m planning on adjusting the game’s economy which is an area that hasn’t received much love. I’m not reducing the required number of dungeon runs (a lot of scripting depends on that), but I can certainly try to make the experience less painful, especially on Easy difficulty.

There are also additional animations and bits of other content to finish, though none of those should take too long. Outside of that, I’m planning to slow things down a little and avoid crunching if I can. With the holiday season approaching, it makes sense to take things at a slower pace as there will be numerous distractions.

I will still write up a Christmas post like I did last year. I feel that it was a good way of capping the year off and it’d give me the chance to reflect on this year’s developments.

What’s Been Cooking?

While waiting for Steam’s approval, I spent a lot of time experimenting with what comes next. I actually have two potential future projects lined up:

• A larger, long-term project with no concrete end point (at least not yet).

• A smaller, experimental game that will act a bit like a tech demo – similar in the vein of HotPW, meant to test new systems.

I don’t have many details to give for now as I’m still making key decisions. A lot of the prep involved has been foundational – making engine-level changes and so on. I’ll talk more about these projects once Sin Spire has been released.

Anyway, that’s all for today. Like I said, not a lot to talk about in regards to the game itself but Steam’s approval allows me to finally move forward without worrying. I do still need to think about the people who obviously can’t get the game through Steam and will be exploring options soon. I’m open to ideas.

Anyway, See you all next time.