Krasue Games

Sin Spire – Alpha Test Build 0.0.3

Hello everyone! I had considered delaying this until Sunday to stick with my "only post on Sunday" plan, but since I promised February would be the month for the next release, I decided to drop it today. This build isn't quite where I wanted to be but I still hope you enjoy it!

Now let's go over some of the changes.

Savina's Voice Acting

Savina now has voice lines for most of her dialogue! Some lines and entire dialogue trees are still unvoiced since I hadn’t finished the script when I sent it to Xeraphina. Also, the audio levels are a bit off due to an editing mistake, so I’ll need to adjust them in a future update. This has also resulted in some of the automated mouth movements being quite extreme. Despite that, I hope you enjoy hearing her speak more!

Introduction Cutscene

Back in January, I mentioned working on the game’s intro cutscene—a short, atmospheric sequence with no dialogue. This is now in the build when you start a new game. It’s compressed, still a work in progress and the audio is rough, but it should help set the mood.

Dungeon Three

The third dungeon is now playable, along with the interconnecting boss fight against the Duchess from Dungeon Two. This dungeon introduces a brand-new Stalker that I haven't showcased yet. I’ll let you all experience her first before formally introducing her in the next dev log.

Additionally, this dungeon features two new enemy types. However, the dungeon's layout generation isn’t quite where I want it yet—it currently generates a lot of very long hallways, so I’ll be tweaking that in a future update.

Stalker Lust Draining Sequences

This is something that I have mentioned mostly in passing and said I would work down the line. It was added on a whim whilst working on the Duchess's defeat sequence. After many requests for it, now when a Stalker captures you, she will drain your lust with an animated sequence. These only have one animation stage and can be finished quickly. I made them short since I didn't want players to get too frustrated getting locked into an animation upon defeat.

For those who'd prefer to outright skip these sequences, I’ve added an option in the game’s settings to disable them entirely. I’d be curious to know if anyone actually uses this option!

A more detailed changelog can be found in a new Changelog.txt included with the download as well as the game's introduction screen. There are plenty more changes such as price reductions for items and skills as well as balancing modifications.

If you have feedback, which is always appreciated, feel free to send a message on the Discord Server as that's where I'm most active. As always, thank you all for your continued support and see you next time!

Known Issues:

• The player sometimes snaps back to their previous position at the end of a sex scene.

• Controller support does not work in the Map or the new Extras menu.

• Enemies may stand around during a sex scene—or sometimes spin for no reason.

• The Stalker Timer sometimes continues after changing floors.

• Stalkers may freeze when you start hiding.

• Audio levels for Savina’s voice are inconsistent and need adjustments.

Sin Spire – Dev Log 23

Hello everyone! It’s been a while. As some of you may know, I got sick a few weeks ago and have only recently started recovering. Unfortunately, this was a major setback, as I wasn’t able to work while I was ill. But I’m happy to say that I’m well enough to get back to development, and there’s plenty to update you on.

Gameplay Adjustments

First off, I’ve made some balance changes based on feedback. After seeing how many players considered the shotgun to be “the only good weapon” or “overpowered,” I decided to nerf it slightly while boosting the damage of the other guns. This should make more weapons viable without completely gutting the shotgun’s usefulness. I’ll continue tweaking these numbers as needed.

Another change is that enemies no longer collide with each other. This might seem minor, but it solves an issue where enemies would get stuck on doors—not because of bad pathing, but because they were blocking each other. With this change, navigation should be a bit smoother.

The Old House

Now onto the more exciting content: the newest dungeon, currently called The Old House. This dungeon is styled after a traditional Japanese house, featuring paper doors and wooden walls. I wanted to repurpose the sliding door functionality I originally made for the now-cut school area, and this setting fit perfectly.

In terms of layout, The Old House is a mix of the first two dungeons—combining claustrophobic spaces with open areas, but with an added hazard: floor traps. If you’re not paying attention, you might fall to your death. This, combined with new enemy types, makes for a more intense experience.

New Enemies

With a new dungeon comes new threats. These threats have been designed to make use of the trapped environment.

• The Smiler: This is an enemy I’ve shown before, but haven't discussed her AI or how she's meant to play. She doesn’t attack you physically. Instead, she deals damage to your sanity from a distance, making it harder to navigate. In an environment full of traps, this can be deadly.

• The Wraith: The game's first true ghost-type enemy. Unlike other enemies that have to path through doors and obstacles, the Wraith ignores objects entirely, phasing through walls and steadily pursuing the player. This has led to quite a few jumpscares during testing, as she can easily sneak up on you while you’re distracted. You can see what she looks like at the top of this post.

The Duchess Boss Fight

I’ve also started work on the Duchess boss fight for the second dungeon. This fight has been tricky to design, and I’m still tweaking it.

Initially, I wanted The Duchess to be a non-combative boss who only summoned minions to fight for her. However, in practice, this made the fight feel underwhelming. Right now, she follows this pattern:

• She stays in one spot until the player gets close, then runs away.

• Ranged attacks won’t work—she has a shield that blocks projectiles. The only way to disable it is to get in close and hit her.

• If you get too close, she pushes you back, sapping your stamina and staggering you.

• Meanwhile, she continuously summons minions to keep the player occupied. Up to four at any given time.

Mechanically, this all works, but gameplay-wise, it’s a lot of running and chasing, which reminds me a bit too much of Micolash from Bloodborne—and that’s not exactly a great thing. Those who've played the game will know what I mean. If I have time before the next update, I’d like to make this fight more engaging.

What’s Next?

While I can't say that I'm back on track, I’m confident that the next update will be ready by the end of the month. Since I've been doing hotfixes and patches after the release of every update, I imagine the same will happen after 0.0.3.

The next few things I need to do before I can safely bank a build are the following:

• Finish the third Stalker's AI

• Edit and Implement voice lines for the Duchess boss fight

• Animate the Duchess defeat sequence

• Improve the Old House's gameplay and enemies

An additional stretch goal is to implement more of Savina's lines as a lot of her dialogue was recorded not too long ago. I haven't been able to work more on the script since I was sick but now that I'm mostly better, at least enough to work, I plan on getting back to that soon.

That’s all for now. Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you next time!

Regarding Weekly Posts

Hello everyone! After receiving a lot of feedback following last week’s Dev Log, I’ve decided to adjust how I approach these updates. Writing Dev Logs every weekend has been quite involved and, at times, stressful. Many of you shared that you’d be fine with fewer, more substantial updates, so that's the plan.

I haven't finalized any decisions yet, but moving forward, I'll only be writing Dev Logs once I feel that substantial progress has been made. I’ll still aim for Sundays since that’s usually a free day for me, but I won’t stick to a rigid weekly schedule anymore.

With January coming to a close, I also wanted to let you know that Sin Spire’s next alpha build won’t be ready this month. I’m aiming for a February release, and I want to ensure the update is more polished than previously planned. While I’ll save most details for the next Dev Log, I can share that there will be new enemies and animations in the game. I hope the update will be worth the wait and that I can reduce the number of bugs needing immediate attention (there are quite a few at the moment).

Thank you all for your patience. Having a community like this is very new to me, and I'm still learning as I go. The fact that I've been met with as much kindness and support as I have has been very encouraging and I hope to reflect all that in February.

As always, stay tuned and I'll see you all next time.

Sin Spire – Dev Log 22

Hello everyone! Today’s post might feel a bit reflective as my day has had a rocky start and, truthfully, this week has been a bit of a challenge. Burnout has been creeping up on me – perhaps because the Christmas season didn’t really offer the kind of break I needed. Still, I wanted to follow through on my commitment to weekly updates, at least for now, so I figured I’d discuss some of my current overall goals.

Game Completion

As I’ve mentioned before, my goal is to finish and release Sin Spire in the early half of this year. Initially, the timeline was much shorter, but the scope of the game has grown beyond what I originally planned. I underestimated how much time it would take due to this expanded scope, but I’ll do everything I can to meet the current goal. The next few months are going to be busy for sure. For the rest of this month, I’ll be focusing on the following:

• Finish greyboxing the Trap Dungeon

• Complete the Duchess Boss Fight

Next month, I plan to speed through the next two dungeons and aim to complete them both within the month (if not, I’ll be sure to mention it).

My current focus is to get the game into beta as soon as possible. This means additional art, enemies, and sex animations will take a back seat until the game is completable. Once dungeon 5 is finished and the campaign is playable up until the End Game, I’ll circle back to these things.

What’s Left of the Campaign?

There are three dungeons left to fully complete. Two of them have usable art assets whilst one of them still needs to be redesigned. Then after that there’s still the End Game section which will conclude the game’s story.

The story itself is almost complete. The script needs one final draft and then I can begin casting for Ophelia’s voice (the last character that needs one). The Raven’s voice lines are fully recorded and Savina’s are about halfway done.

As I mentioned in the last Dev Log, you will be seeing a lot more placeholders in both Dev Log images and builds. There will also be fewer new enemies and sex animations, which I know may disappoint some of you who’ve been looking forward to more variety. However, rest assured these elements will get their time.

For now, the focus is on getting all the basics in place so that, no matter what, I can get to an MVP (minimum viable product) sometime in March.

Development Logs

I also want to briefly address Dev Logs. I believe they’re important for keeping you all in the loop and ensuring I don’t go silent. However, writing them every week takes time and energy that could be spent on development, resting, or practicing (something I’ve been neglecting).

I’m considering two approaches moving forward:

• Fewer Dev Logs with more content (e.g., a massive update twice a month)

• More frequent but shorter Dev Logs focusing on specific features rather than covering everything.

I’ll post a poll during the week to gather your feedback, but feel free to share your thoughts and comment here as well!

Practice Art

On a related note, if you’re interested, I could share some of my practice art. As a 3D artist primarily, I’ve been somewhat neglectful of my art practice lately. Normally, I’d do character sculpts here and there, but I feel like I’m getting a bit rusty. Practice art wouldn’t be related to Sin Spire in tone or style, but it might still be fun for some of you to see. Let me know if it’s something you’d enjoy – it’d be a new experience for me.

Next Up

Next week, I’ll be revealing the Stalker for the Trap Dungeon. She’s a fun character with some of my favorite voice lines. Despite the hiccups this week, I’m really looking forward to sharing more about her with you all.

That’s all for now. Thanks for reading this long, wordy post. Your support, as always, means a lot to me and keeps me motivated even during times of burnout.

See you all next time!

Sin Spire – Dev Log 21

Hello everyone! I hope you’ve all had a great week. This week, I revisited a previously showcased enemy, worked on animations for Savina and started development on the third dungeon, now called the Trap Dungeon.

Savina’s Animations

I kicked off the week by animating Savina’s reactions to player actions. For instance, if the player attacks her, she now expresses her frustration by yelling and stomping her foot. I also added several new animations to enhance her dialogue – simple nods and head shakes as well as gestures.

While I’d love for dialogue to be more fluid, similar to the animation test I posted a while back, it simply isn’t feasible. Instead, my goal for regular dialogue is to have enough animations to add additional flavor to the interactions without creating an unsustainable workload. Fully animated sequences with dialogue will happen but only at key moments, of which I want to save my energy for.

The Banshee

Some of you will remember an enemy I showcased a few dev logs ago; the Banshee. After finishing the animation updates to Savina, I revisited the enemy to finish her implementation. While I had already completed her design, I had yet to work on her AI and animations.

The Banshee is a fast, powerful enemy designed to be a challenge late-game. She has a large health pool and uses a mix of ranged and close-combat attacks. At a distance, she throws projectiles and then quickly closes the gap. Her up-close attacks are designed to keep up with player movement so players will need to parry her to reliably incapacitate her. Even then, she recovers quickly.

I want encounters with the Banshee to feel both fun and challenging, but we’ll see what happens once players get to experience the fight for themselves.

The Trap Dungeon

Lastly, I started work on the Trap Dungeon. As the name suggests, this dungeon’s main gimmick is its abundance of traps. The Stalker here also incorporates traps into her mechanics, changing the general approach to the dungeon’s design. Unlike previous dungeons, which use the roaming timer system, the intention for this dungeon’s Stalker is to only start actively stalking once the player triggers a specific type of trap (you’ll figure out which one fairly quick).

While I did have a visual design in mind for the dungeon, various factors have led to heavy revisions. This was a bit of a blocker for me as I was very fond of the original idea. Regardless, I can’t really procrastinate the whole dungeon for much longer so I’ve decided to, for the first time, greybox the entire dungeon instead of creating art assets first.

For the first two dungeons ( and potentially the last two), I designed the general art assets first, before creating tiles for procedural generation. While this approach has worked, it also forces me to focus heavily on visuals early on, which can be a distraction. Moving forward, I’ll use greyboxing to prioritize mechanics and leave the art for later. If I don’t finish everything this month, you might see some greyboxed assets in the next release, similar to other placeholders already in the game.

After this, I’m considering stepping away from adding any new gimmicks or layouts for each dungeon. It’s been surprisingly stressful from a time-management perspective. The dungeon after the Trap Dungeon will be similar to the first two, and the final dungeon will likely combine elements from all the previous ones. I also don’t plan to spend too much time on visual design for future dungeons, as I want to focus more on new enemies, animations, and so on.

Next Up

My next goals are to continue work on the Trap Dungeon and begin implementing the second main boss fight. Most of the assets and dialogue for this boss are ready, so I’ll be focusing on animations and logic.

That’s all for now. Thanks for reading, and see you next time!

Sin Spire - Dev Log 20

Hello everyone! Welcome to 2025! This marks the first full year I’ll be working as “Krasue,” having started this journey midway through 2024. While this is a dev log, there’s not a ton to share yet. After taking a couple of days off for New Year’s, I got back to work on the 3rd, so progress has been a bit limited so far. No visual aids this time.

I’ve managed to work on two things the past couple of days. Their importance isn’t very high but they’re still nice to have. The first thing I did was revisit the opening cutscene, focusing on redoing animations and polishing the environments. I haven’t shown off the cutscene as of yet but 0.0.3 should feature its rough debut. It currently runs a little over two minutes and is designed purely as a mood-setter – there’s no dialogue. Pacing it has been a challenge, and I’ll admit that cinematography is not my strongest skill. That said, I think it’s coming together.

I’ve also worked on cutting together and implementing Savina’s voice lines. Xeraphina, her voice actress, provided me with some miscellaneous lines, which I’ve been editing and assigning in-game logic to. For example, like the Raven, Savina will now react if the player attacks her. She will also comment on the player climbing around on various objects in the starting hall.

I also intend to work on some animations for her pretty soon. Currently, Savina has a simple idle animation, but I want to make her feel more dynamic by adding some subtle motions and more dialogue specific animations. While I haven’t started animating her voice lines specifically, that’s on the to-do list. Unfortunately, due to the lack of any good lip-syncing plugins (I’ve tried a couple) all the lip-syncing will have to be done by hand so that will take some time.

For the rest of this month, I plan to finish off what I’ve started with Savina’s lines and animations and then immediately dive into working on dungeon three. The third dungeon’s gimmick has been rolling around in my head for a while now. However, the timeline is tight, so it might not be as polished as I’d like once the 0.0.3 build drops.

The dungeon itself needs to be visually redesigned from scratch, which does give me a chance to incorporate some lessons learned from the second (manor) dungeon. Many players have mentioned that they appreciate the wider spaces in the manor compared to the claustrophobic catacombs. While the cramped design was intentional, I hear the feedback and plan to balance the approach to future dungeons.

So, for 0.0.3 I’ll need to work on:

• The Duchess Boss Fight

• Dungeon Three’s Layout

• Dungeon Three’s visual design

• Third Stalker’s Logic and Animations

Alongside that, I also need to keep writing the story and communicating with my voice cast. So, like I said, quite a lot to do.

Anyway, that’s all for now. This has been mostly a brief check-in after the Christmas/New Year’s break. Next week, I’m not sure how much I’ll have accomplished as I’m still easing in to the year, but, as always, I’ll keep you all updated. Thanks for reading and I’ll see you all next time!

Merry Newyear! (2024)

Hello everyone! I hope the holiday season is treating you all well. I figured I’d put out a post as a bit of a year’s retrospective. It’s been quite an interesting one, that’s for sure.

Starting off the year on a high note (sarcasm), I lost my “dream job” and had to figure out what to do next after being laid off from the games industry. My job loss was part of the mass gaming layoffs that are still affecting companies today. The game I spent years working on? Shelved indefinitely, with most of the work never to see the light of day.

Years of wading through bureaucracy, slowly having the fight in me drained by upper management... all for nothing. But hey, let’s not get too bitter about it. Thanks to some severance pay, I decided to be brave (read: stupid) and return to something I’d tried pursuing years ago: indie development.

This started off strong, with a solid idea and plenty of know-how. I wanted to create a horror game (SFW) using the story of Little Red Riding Hood as a general template... but it never happened. Like many projects I’ve worked on, scope creep and indecisiveness got the better of me. What seemed like a manageable bite turned out to be more than I could chew. After a few months, I abandoned the project and fell into a development slump.

That’s when I had an idea for a different kind of game for a different kind of audience. Years ago, I had dabbled in adult projects – something I was particularly interested in. I enjoy making sandboxes and had created a few fun experiments in the past, though the content wasn’t very “marketable.” I tried to reformulate some old ideas and began work on a project called Velero. However, after a month or so, I realized the scope was, again, too large. I needed some security and assurance that I wasn’t working on something no one would play. So, I took a break and shifted focus to a quicker project.

Halls of the Pale Widow (Originally called SexyGhostOneshot) was a game I made earlier this year to gauge interest in my gameplay style and to test how quickly I could make something. The low-poly aesthetic, initially planned for Velero, was repurposed as a soft tribute to older horror games. After about three weeks (not including breaks), I released the game and was genuinely surprised by the positive response.

Initially, I planned to return to Velero, but I decided to stick with horror-themed games for the time being. I wanted to follow up HotPW with something that expanded its mechanics, especially the procedural dungeons. Enter Sin Spire – a dungeon crawler with action gameplay in a horror setting. Originally, Sin Spire was meant to be a quick, storyless project that I could finish in a slightly longer timeframe than HotPW. However, the scope grew to include both a story and multiple characters.

Much of my original design document for Sin Spire has been scrapped, with features being added and removed regularly. I’ll likely dive deeper into that in a future retrospective once the game is finished. Despite trimming many elements to avoid spending years on it, the game has still become much larger than I initially planned.

What started as a 3-month project turned into 6 months... and now I’ve decided not to impose a deadline. All I know is that when it’s done, I want to work on something much smaller and simpler.

Throughout this challenging development cycle, one thing has kept me going: you guys. I know it sounds sappy, but without an audience, I might’ve given up by now. I tend to be very secretive, and in the past, my projects often fell apart because I felt isolated and got tunnel vision. Having your support – whether financial or simply cheering me on – has made a huge difference.

This year has been full of tough decisions, but surprisingly, things seem to be working out. This might date the post in either direction, but I recently reached $1,000 a month in Patreon revenue – a massive milestone that has me wanting to pop open the champagne and celebrate immediately. I know life happens, and pledges come and go, but having an audience at all is something I’m deeply grateful for. Whether you’re contributing financially or cheering from the sidelines, thank you. Truly, thank you.

Here’s to 2025 – may it bring a smooth release for Sin Spire and even more games to follow. Until then, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

See you in 2025.

Sin Spire – Alpha Test Build 0.0.2a

Hello, everyone! This is the Supporter release of Sin Spire Version 0.0.2a! This update focuses primarily on tweaks and fixes, but there are a few new pieces of content such as the Witch’s voice acting for her sex scene and the new “extras” menu which will let you have a rematch with her. Of course, as mentioned last time, there are also new bottle weapons that you can use to distract enemies (Or throw into a wall accidentally and get swarmed).

A full changelog is in the game’s introductory message as usual.

The Extras Menu

I’ll probably cover this again in a proper post, but I figured I’d mention a bit about this now as the intentions will be somewhat clear for anyone who checks it out. The Extras menu on the main menu is a directory of gamemodes and additional content that you will gain access to as you play. Among these will be challenges such as the Boss Rush, which is the name of the boss rematch mode.

There are also placeholder images and names for challenges and freemode (which currently has no work put towards it). For the rematch, you’ll need to have already defeated the Witch before being able to fight her again. The game should do this automatically, but if the option appears greyed out, try loading the game and then going back to the main menu.

The mode will use the loadout from your current save, so you’ll have all your levelled up abilities and weapons/items. If you saved with a rifle and 5 health drinks in your inventory, then that’s what you’ll spawn with in the boss arena. I’ve also added a timer so you can see how fast you can beat the Witch and beat your best time.

Feedback and Bug Reports

As always, any feedback or bug reports are greatly appreciated! Feel free to share and discuss over on the Discord server.

Thank you all for your continued support! I hope you enjoy this update and I’ll see you all after Christmas!

Known Issues:

• Player will often snap back to their previous position during the end of a sex scene

• Enemies can sometimes get stuck on doors also meaning the player is blocked

• Controller support does not work in the Map or the new extras menu

No Dev Log This Week

Hello everyone, I’ve been debating whether to release a Dev Log this week or not. I didn’t want to break my usual schedule, but after some thought, I decided it’s better to skip it this time. Progress has been slow over the past few days due to technical issues with one of my drives. Thankfully, no important files were lost, but I’ve been frantically backing up everything I can and still have quite a bit left to sort through.

The good news is that the drive is working again, and I’ll be able to get back to work this week. However, with Christmas just around the corner, my available time is becoming more limited. That said, I still plan to release both an update next week and a special Christmas/New Year post. So, there’s still plenty to look forward to.

I won’t dive into a full project update or a year-in-review just yet – that’s something I’m saving for later. For now, I want to thank you for your patience and understanding. Next week, those in the Supporter tier should gain access to the next alpha version, 0.0.2a, which focuses primarily on bug fixes and new voice acting. No new dungeons as that's saved for 0.0.3.

Thank you all for your support, and I’ll see you next week!

Sin Spire - Dev Log 19

Hello everyone! Happy December! Last week, I released 0.0.2 of Sin Spire’s Alpha build. This new build included the Witch Boss Fight, the second dungeon, new items and more. The reception has been very positive and, when compared to the 0.0.1 release, very few game-breaking bugs were found. The influx of positivity and excitement has motivated me to dive straight into work this week, instead of taking a break like I did after the first release.

Gameplay Changes

Rather than having a long-running paragraph, I’ve decided to try breaking down the changes into headers and bullet-points. Let me know what you think of the format. Anyway, the current changes I’ve made so far include:

• Sex Scene System Modifications: Adjustments made to avoid odd blending between stages.

• Voice lines in the Witch Fight: The Witch now laughs and yells during combat.

• Implemented ‘Dirty Talk’ During Sex: A system that allows for dialogue to be spoken during sex.

• Stalker Mouth Movement: Automated movement has been implemented for any voice lines that a Stalker can say (This is basic and not detailed).

• Enemy Reset: Enemies now reset between floors, preventing them from bunching up between run-throughs.

• Improved AI awareness: Enemies can now hear better.

• New Throwable Weapon-Type: Added support for single-use throwable weapons.

The last addition of Throwable Weapons was influenced by the changes to AI awareness. Previously, enemies could hear you but wouldn’t properly update their investigation location. For example, if you are heard and then an enemy decides to check that location, you could then run somewhere else and fire, say, 10 shotgun blasts, and the enemy would still be focused on that first location. Now, AI will update their investigation location on the fly. This adjustment is particularly important for Stalkers, as it was too easy to slip behind them before.

To compliment that, I implemented a throwable bottle, which can be purchased from Savina. They’re cheap and deal very little damage, but their purpose is to distract enemies. I’m sure some players will attempt to use the bottles for a challenge run of sorts, considering how cheap they are, but the intention behind them is to throw them away from your current location to misdirect enemies. For example, if a Stalker is approaching your location, you can throw a bottle to divert her path.

Adding the throwable weapon-type required significant changes to the weapon system, but it seems to all be working well. I have to admit, throwing bottles has been surprisingly satisfying – I ended up spending way too much time just chucking the things at walls during testing.

Art Changes

Alongside the gameplay improvements, I’ve also started work on replacing placeholder assets. Among the placeholders replaced, most significantly, was the Altar. The new Altar now features a glowing green crystal shard with particle effects, making it both more visually appealing and helping it stand out as an object of significance. This is to encourage players to interact with it before speaking to Savina when entering the Starting Hall for the first time.

I’ve also been replacing some other assets, primarily in the Starting Hall, but still have a few key objects to replace – particularly the statue in the center and the doorways on either side. On the note of statues, I’ve created a new material and texturing process for statues. To test this, I used the Statue enemy type found in the second dungeon. The new statues have been retextured to have softer highlights to make them look more like stone rather than shiny metal.

There’s still plenty to replace, but I’m looking forward to when all the major eyesores are gone from the game.

Last Week’s Release

There are a couple of things I’d like to mention about last week’s release. First off, there were two bugs that have stuck out to me as a problem:

• Repeatable Witch Boss Fight: This allows players to ‘farm’ the Witch and become overpowered.

• Main Quest Soft-Lock: No one has done this to my knowledge, but the risk is there for those who participate in a lot of dialogue.

These bugs aren’t game-breaking, and I have mentioned them on the Discord and how to avoid them, but I’ve received some messages about how the game is “too easy” and how “farming” the Witch can result in becoming overpowered. Guys, if it wasn’t obvious already, you’re not meant to be able to do that.

I initially wasn’t going to release a hotfix, or any fix for that matter, but the impact on balance and the danger of breaking the save file due to that soft-lock, has convinced me to release another build this month after all. I’ll probably release a 0.0.2a version of the game later this month. I’m mostly waiting on the rest of the Witch’s voice lines to be ready before I push that out.

This means that the next update will include all the changes mentioned earlier and more. It won’t feature a new dungeon as I hadn’t planned for a December release and have just been focusing on smaller tasks. A full changelog will be made when the next update is ready.

Final Thoughts

I’m really glad to see so many people enjoying the current build and providing that much-needed feedback. For now, I’ll be going back to replacing placeholders and, eventually, starting to put together the next dungeon. Unfortunately, I will be making a significant change to a dungeon I previously discussed. The reasons are somewhat external, and I’ll share more details down the line.

That’s all for this week. Thank you all so much for your continued support! The game is steadily coming together and, dare I say, quite quickly. See you next time!

Sin Spire – Alpha Test Build 0.0.2

Hello everyone! Today, I bring to you the second version of the playable alpha build for Sin Spire! This version includes a lot of fixes and new features as well as the entire second dungeon. The second dungeon has been designed to be more challenging than the first, though its difficulty is not yet finalized. If you have any feedback on the difficulty–or anything else–please let me know in the Discord server!

Bug reports and feature requests can be submitted in the comments here, but it’s much easier to track them on Discord. Also, please avoid reporting any issues already listed in the Known Issues section below.

This build is playable up to the second boss fight, much like the first build, which ended before the first boss fight. After speaking with Raven, I recommend leaving the dungeon and saving your progress so you’re prepared for the next update.

A full changelog is available in the introduction message when you launch the game. Your previous save files should still be compatible, although you’ll miss out on testing the new Playtime feature, which tracks your active playtime (excluding time spent loading or in the main menu).

Thank you all for your support! I hope you enjoy this update, and I look forward to your feedback.

Known Issues:

• Statues can sometimes hit you after being purified

• Player will often T-Pose during the end of sex scenes in Third Person

• Enemies can sometimes get stuck on doors also meaning the player is blocked

• Controller support does not work for the map

Sin Spire - Dev Log 18

Hello everyone! Another week has passed and we're nearing the final week of November. As I mentioned previously, my plan was to release the next alpha build by the end of the month. However, since I typically post on Sundays, I'll be shifting the release date to December 1st. This means that in a week from now, the new Alpha Build will be available! As a result, this will be the last Dev Log for the next couple of weeks.

Before diving into what to expect in December, let's review what's been worked on in this week. First, the Witch Boss fight that I mentioned last week is mostly complete. It's fully playable, and defeating the Witch will unlock the next dungeon. However, due to time constraints, I've used placeholders for the Stagger and Purification animations, borrowing them from the Witness.

I’ve also implemented the Stalker from the second dungeon, visible at the top of this post. She’s quite different from the Witch; she’s slow during her roaming phase but speeds up significantly once she starts chasing you. Her background is that she’s forlorn—jealous, sad, and angry. There’s more to her, but I’ll let you discover that in the game itself.

The Manor, the dungeon in which she roams, is much wider compared to the claustrophobic Catacombs. This makes it easier to evade enemies and rush for the door. However, this isn't ideal and feels too easy, so I've added new elements to increase the difficulty.

The first addition is a new trap that covers a large area and deals significant damage. The main change, though, is the introduction of Keys. Starting with the Manor, there's now a chance that the door to the next floor will be locked. In such cases, you'll need to find an "Obsidian Key," a new generic key item for locked dungeon doors. On floors with locked doors, a key will spawn somewhere and you'll need to explore to find it before progressing.

I've also made the keys purchasable from Savina. The whole system is a bit of an experiment and will need tweaking to find the right difficulty balance. Engaging with each floor is great but I don't want it to come at the cost of overall enjoyment.

Most of the gameplay features for Alpha 0.0.2 are complete, so next week I'll be focusing on bugs, tweaks and, hopefully, animations. While I had hoped to introduce a new enemy type and the second major boss fight, these will probably not make it into the next build. Instead, I'll prioritize the above, including unique sex purification animations for the Witch and Automaid. The build will be banked on Saturday, so there's still some time.

After this build, the next one likely won't release until January. December will be a busy month for me, so while I'll continue working on the game and writing Dev Logs, it's best not to expecting anything playable beyond December 1st. On the plus side, Alpha 0.0.3 should be a lot more polished.

That's it for this week! Next week there won't be a Dev Log, as the next build will be released instead. Thank you all for your continued support and I'll see you soon. Take care!

Sin Spire - Dev Log 17

Hello everyone! This past week has been quite productive, with several gameplay additions and story elements coming together. While there aren’t many new art assets, I did work on a few key models and animations to support these updates.

Let’s start with weapons. There are two new additions to the armory. A common complaint from players of the Alpha build was the lack of defensive options when you had no money. While I initially liked the tension this added—forcing players to adapt and scrounge for items—I understand how it could become frustrating after repeated deaths and losing all the money you’ve accumulated.

To address this, I took on a suggestion from someone in the Discord group: introduce a basic weapon provided, for free, by Savina. I expanded on the idea, drawing inspiration from a certain merchant in Dark Souls II, If you have no money, Savina will now give you the Shiv.

Currently, the Shiv is a weak melee weapon with a generous parry window, but I’m brainstorming ways to make it more interesting. One idea is to make it a near-instant-kill weapon that breaks after one or two uses, requiring repair kits to maintain. The weapon is only available if you no money at all, so getting a new one after it breaks isn’t so straightforward.

The second addition is the Torch. While the Flashlight is great for illuminating dark areas, I wanted to offer an alternative. The Torch lights up the immediate area and can also be used as a weapon. Though it won’t set enemies on fire (by design) or do any meaningful damage, a quick swing will momentarily stun them, allowing you to slip past. It’s a cheap and simple tool designed to make traversing certain areas easier.

Next, I’ve made some changes to Hiding Spots. Previously, they shared the same spawn logic as chests and other items, which caused issues—like getting trapped in areas where clipping occurred upon exiting. Hiding Spots are now manually placed, with a 50% chance of spawning. This keeps the randomness while eliminating the clipping problems and ensures there are always a few Hiding Spots per floor.

I’ve also been hard at work on the boss battle with the Witch. Up until now, the only boss fight in the game was against the Creeper (the cave Stalker, not the Minecraft mob). While that fight isn’t fully finished, I needed to shift focus to the Witch battle, as it’s critical for progressing to the next dungeon.

The Witch is a ranged enemy who throws fireballs at mid-range and homing fireballs at long-range. You can deflect these with precise timing—similar to a parry—to stagger her, creating opportunities to get up-close and personal. To prevent players from cheesing the fight by staying at a distance, the Witch has moves to punish people role-playing gun turrets: at mid-range, she dodges side to side, and at long range, she closes the gap with an explosive attack that deals significant damage. The fight is designed around finding the sweet spot between mid and close-range combat. After defeating her, the story progresses, and the next dungeon gate activates.

Finally, I’ve been working on Stalker voice lines. This week, I received recordings from the Stalkers’ actress and began implementing contextual voice cues. Previously, lines played randomly while the Stalker roamed the dungeon. Now, lines are more contextual—for example, reacting when she sees you or voicing frustration when she loses track of you. Some lines and non-verbal sounds are still pending, but it’s coming together nicely.

Next up, I’ll be finishing the Witch boss fight, writing more story content, and beginning the implementation of the next dungeon’s Stalker. I’ll also be setting up more rooms for the second dungeon, as it’s starting feeling a bit too repetitive. Miscellaneous props, like the altar, are on my radar but will likely come after the next Alpha build. My primary goal remains to make the second dungeon fully functional and playable by the end of the month.

Thanks for reading and I’ll see you all next time.

Sin Spire - Dev Log 16

Hello everyone! Today I bring to you another Dev Log. This week's topic is writing! The game's script isn't finalized yet, so I've spent much of the past week developing dialogue and plotting for the three main story characters. Two of them are nearly done, with just one remaining to be fully written.

Finalizing the script now is crucial, as it impacts all additional flavor text, cutscene planning and the ending of the game. The end sequence itself was actually written a while back, but much of the story leading up to it still needs work. Originally, I had planned for branching dialogue with various choices that characters would remember, but writing this has proven more challenging than expected. Instead, I've made most dialogue sequences more linear. Rather than presenting multiple choices at every opportunity, a lot of dialogue will instead have a single choice that continues the current conversation.

I've also been balancing the relationship system, particularly with Savina. I mentioned some time ago that advancing relationships with certain characters would require specific actions. For instance, Savina appreciates it when you buy high-value items and check in with her often. In contrast, the Raven's story is more straightforward.

Speaking of the Raven, I used his scenes as a test for fully voiced dialogue. Initially, I considered reserving voice acting for major scenes only, using UI sounds and reactions like "hm?" for most other dialogue. However, I’m now considering having all dialogue fully voiced to enhance immersion. This makes it even more important to finalize the script soon so I can start getting lines recorded. Because of this, Savina and Ophelia likely won’t be voiced by the next alpha version.

Ophelia is the last character needing a full script. Depending on how you played the alpha demo, you might have encountered her more than once, but she still has a lot of dialogue and scripting work to be completed. By scripting, I mean programming the game to progress her dialogue based on certain events. Scripting for the Raven and Savina is pretty much done. I also haven’t cast Ophelia yet, as I plan to start looking for an actress once her script is complete.

While this has been a writing-heavy week with fewer new visuals, I’ve included a couple of images in this post of a new enemy. She doesn’t have an official name yet but is listed as "Statue" in the game files. She functions similarly to SCP-173 or the Weeping Angels from Doctor Who—she only moves when you’re not looking.

These enemies are challenging since they can’t be damaged and require a special item to defeat. Testing them has been intense; I often end up kiting them around the level while having to manage other enemies. Her purification mechanic isn’t fully implemented yet, as I’m still working out the details. This addition came from direct requests by players who saw statues in Halls of the Pale Widow and wanted to see them fully realized here.

I do apologize if it seems like I'm potentially spoiling the surprise, but even as the developer, I've had my fair share of scares from when these statues suddenly appear out of nowhere.

That's all for this week! Next, I'll continue writing Ophelia's story, finalize and format scripts, and then return to preparing the second dungeon for the next alpha release. Boss fights remain a priority, but I really want to focus on wrapping up the scripts before tackling those.

Thanks for reading and see you next week!

Sin Spire - Dev Log 15

Hello everyone! I hope you're all doing well. You might notice a lack of images in today's dev log. After releasing the alpha build, I decided to take a short break from development (aside from bug fixes), as getting the alpha ready was pretty involved. Today, I'll discuss the alpha release, Steam page launch and what's next.

Since Dev Log 14 two weeks ago, I reached a few major milestones. First being the release of Sin Spire's Steam page. Setting it up was an essential step for preparing the test build as I wanted people to have easy access to the game's links, socials and more from the menu screen. With the Steam page live, I finally put together the alpha build release.

Releasing the build was exciting but also stressful, with a bit of last-minute crunch to make sure everything worked smoothly. Of course, there were still a few hiccups–I had to push out a hotfix on the same day and then another on the next. Thankfully, despite that, the feedback has been great and I felt comfortable enough with the reception to take a small break and relax for the rest of the week, letting the feedback accumulate. Being a solo developer often leads to tunnel-vision, so hearing what people genuinely think has been very encouraging. Most of the build's contents, the tutorial and first dungeon, has been received well with only a few requests for tweaks and features.

For those interested, the alpha is available for Supporters at this link here: https://www.patreon.com/posts/sin-spire-alpha-114590560

A public demo is planned closer to the game's actual release. Now, what's next? For test builds, I plan on releasing a new build every month with significant updates such as new scenes, enemies and dungeons. While ambitious, much of this content is already in the game–it just needs polish, testing and fixes. I'm aiming to release the next build by the end of this month.

There's still a lot to finish up in regards to the game itself, though. The story needs to be fully written, the cutscenes need to be animated and Stalker interactions, boss fights and a handful of new enemies are required before I can even think about entering beta. The list may seem long, but I personally believe it's manageable.

I'll probably regret saying this, but I'm aiming to release the game Q1 2025. While that may seem soon, Sin Spire was always intended to be a short, replayable game. Originally, it was meant to launch in October as a simple dungeon crawler with zero story. The scope has since grown along with the development timeframe. Even so, keeping development short is key for me–without a release goal, the game would risk expanding endlessly and might never be finished.

My vision for Krasue Games is to create manageable, focused games on a steady schedule, rather than keeping people waiting for years and years. Larger projects will likely come in the future, but for now, Sin Spire is probably the most ambitious game I'll tackle until I have a budget and possible small team. Until then, my titles will aim for shorter development cycles.

That about wraps it up for what I wanted to discuss this week. I hope the text-heavy post with no images isn't too much. Next week, we'll be back to regular updates with new renders and content. I have no specific plan on what I'll tackle first from that list, so we'll just have to find out next time. See you all then and have a great week!

Sin Spire 0.0.1a Hotfix Released (New 0.0.1b)

Hello everyone, this is a very quick update. The release of the alpha test came with a few bugs that are pretty game-breaking so this is a hotfix addressing those as well as a few smaller ones.

You can grab the hotfix on the original post here (It replaces the main link): https://www.patreon.com/posts/sin-spire-alpha-114590560

Here's the list of fixes:

• Tutorial boss no longer disappears

• Weapons do not spawn at world origin anymore

• Fixed item shop descriptions

• Removed visible weapons in cutscenes

• Spent casings now fall properly

• Witch's voice lines no longer play with the forest stalker

• No more broken feet for Cave Stalker

• Fixed disappearing cursor after shop

• Timer no longer goes below 0

• Timer should no longer flash when above 30 seconds

• Sprint should now stop when you release it below 10%

• You should no longer fall through the landscape in the overworld

Edit: Fixes from 0.0.1b

• Tutorial Stalker no longer falls through floor

• Added additional collisions to the overworld landscape to prevent falling through

I ran through the game once and nothing bad happened, but that doesn't mean that these same bugs won't appear. If you do witness these bugs, you can let me know either on Discord or post a comment here about it. If it's one of the game-breaking bugs, I'll try and fix it or at least implement a work-around. Outside of that, I hope everyone who was stuck before can now continue without issue.

Thanks.

Sin Spire - Alpha Test Build 0.0.1 (hotfix 0.0.1b)

Edit: the link has been changed to the hotfix. If you're still on version 0.0.1 or 0.0.1a, use the new link to download version 0.0.1b.

Hello everyone! So, the day has finally arrived—the first Playable Test Build for Sin Spire is now available for download! While this demo is missing a lot of content, it still includes the first dungeon. Here's a quick rundown of what not to expect going into this build:

• Smiler Enemies

• Banshee Enemies

• Any Stalkers aside from the Witch

• Any dungeon aside from the catacombs

• More than one sex sequence per enemy

• Sex sequences with the Witch

There's still plenty to play with, but I wanted to highlight these omissions as, if you follow the Dev Logs, they were previously highlighted elements. Regarding the sex sequences, the intention is for there to be two animations per enemy. However, at this stage, there is only one available for each.

Also, if you missed it, the Steam Page is now up and running. Please take a moment to wishlist the game, as it really helps.

Regarding Feedback:

Please share all your thoughts, feedback and bug reports directly on the Discord Server. This makes it easier for me to keep everything organized and avoids repeated reports. Plus, you can see if someone has already flagged an issue before posting.

That's all for now! I hope you enjoy playing through this little, unfinished slice of the game. Without using any cheats, it should provide you about an hour of gameplay before you hit the end screen. Have fun!

Known Issues:

• Automaid does not remove clothing during sex scenes

• Player will often T-Pose during the end of sex scenes in Third Person

• Enemies can sometimes get stuck on doors also meaning the player is blocked

• Controller support does not work in the Map

• Gun reload sounds don’t stop when you switch off or enter a cutscene

• Stalker voice lines are random (Recording isn't finished)

• Hiding spots can/will spawn in game-breaking places

Sin Spire - Dev Log 14

Hello everyone! This week has been a bit unconventional compared to what I initially planned. I had intended to focus on more animations, but I soon realized I needed to prioritize getting the Steam page ready to meet my personal goal of launching it before sharing the test build, which I still aim to release this month. So, I shifted my focus and fast-tracked the work needed for the Steam page which has now been submitted for review.

The review process is a bit unpredictable in terms of timing, especially with the Steam Next Fest happening, which likely means a lot of submissions are in the queue. Hopefully, everything goes smoothly. In the meantime, while waiting for the review to go through, I've been working on the test build—Ensuring that everything necessary is included and that the build ends at a defined point.

It might be a bit disappointing to hear that there is an endpoint to the test, but I'd prefer players test a small, replayable section and provide feedback from that rather than explore unfinished areas. I've also been doing additional bug fixes and clean up. The build is currently around 1.87GB uncompressed, which is a manageable size for most people to download and try out, I hope.

If all goes as planned, I should have a build banked this week. If the Steam page gets approved, I'll share the test build likely next Sunday in place of the usual dev log. I'll be away next weekend so I won't be able to work on the game or write a dev log but I can schedule a post in advance.

The last few things I'm working on for the test build include some audio edits, particularly adding voice lines to enemies that have been recorded but aren't implemented yet and ensuring that all current enemies have purification animations, as that's crucial to gameplay.

Since I've mainly been focused on the Steam page and test build, I'll take this opportunity to introduce Ophelia, who you can see at the top of the post. She is the last story character in the game to introduce and plays a significant role. She's also currently the poster-girl for the Steam page. She's a lot more reserved than Savina, with a blunt and taciturn personality that contradicts her gentle appearance. Her story will unfold as you progress through each dungeon. With her revealed, all three story characters have now been shown off. Every other character is either an enemy or Stalker with either limited or no dialogue.

Ophelia, Savina and the Raven will all be present in the test build, and you'll be able to progress their storylines but only to a small degree. The rest of their stories still need to be written and I hope to tackle that soon.

So, that's it for this week. Most of my time has been spent preparing the test build and the Steam page. Once those are done, development will resume as normal. While I did complete a lot of animations this month, my priorities shifted a lot more than I expected.

Getting the Steam page up will be a major milestone for me, and I hope the feedback from the test build can help motivate me to push forward. It's easy to hit a period of stagnation when working on a project day-in and day-out, so once the test build is out, I'll likely take a short break mostly focusing on any bug fixes and feature requests that pop up.

Thanks again for all your support. I'm excited for you guys to try the test build when it's ready. As for the animations and other things I planned to discuss, I'll try and post a few images and gifs sometime this coming week.

Thanks for reading, take care, and I'll hopefully be back with another update in a couple of weeks. If anything goes wrong with the Steam page, however, I'll make a post here ASAP as that could impact the test build's release date. But if all goes well, make sure to keep an eye out for its release next Sunday.

See you all later!

Sin Spire - Dev Log 13

Hello everyone! I hope you’re all having a good week. Last week, I was in a bit of a strange headspace, and while I can’t say I’m all clear headed, I’ve still made some good progress. This week’s work includes adding a new enemy, working on test-build specific features and working on lots of animations. I’ll save the animations for a different post due to them being explicit.

First off, let’s start with the horrifying/lovely lady in the image above. This is a brand-new Halloween-appropriate enemy type I call the Banshee and she’s tuned as one of the highest threat enemies in the game. I wanted a fast, feral type of enemy that could also use ranged attacks and the Banshee checks both boxes. She will hurl electric bolts at the player and then charge in for close range attacks with speed.

Her design draws inspiration from a couple of different sources. Some time ago, I saw some very sexy/creepy fanart of Dark Samus and I somewhat mixed what I saw there with the Revenant from Doom 3, giving her a transparent body with a visible skeleton beneath it. I’ve always wanted to have a skeletal enemy in the game, because skeletons are cool.

I experimented with shaders to achieve the overall look and, to add some extra flair, I gave her glowing eyes that leave behind light trails, similar to the demon ninjas from Onimusha. She doesn’t wear any clothes because I couldn’t come with an outfit that wouldn’t clash with the transparent look so I left her naked which is probably for the best. I also censored the image for the public post but the uncensored is available on Twitter/X.

In addition to the Banshee, I’ve also been working on some test-build specific features. Nothing exciting, just watermarking the game version on the screen and adding an introductory message with a changelog. I also linked all my socials on the menu as well as created a backdrop for said menu for when you start the game up.

I’ve also been hard at work on those sex animations I mentioned last week. I wrote up a list of the general animations I need to create and I’m just about half-way done. The next week or so will be spent on continuing this and setting them up with specific enemies in-game before moving onto more unique animations for the Stalkers, Savina and another character.

The enemy roster has also been finalized. Not having a set number of enemies was weighing on me, with so many potential designs overwhelming the creative process. So, I decided to officially lock the roster. It might disappoint some, but I’m only adding three more enemies to the game. I realized that whatever I don’t work on in this game, I can work on in future projects.

The last three enemies are designed to feature unique gameplay scenarios to spice things up, rather than just slapping the player around like the rest do at the moment. Additionally, variations of existing enemies are still planned, so the variety should still be there even if only cosmetically.

Next week, I’ll continue with the animation work and chip away at one of the remaining enemy designs. I’m also planning a bit of clean-up for the test-build and will work on preparing promotional material for the Steam page (again). So pretty standard stuff for me.

Anyway, that’s all folks! Thanks for reading and I’ll catch you all next week. Until then, take care!

Sin Spire - Dev Log 12

Hello everyone! This week I come to you with… not much. Something unexpected happened earlier this week that threw off my schedule. I won’t go into details, but it made working pretty difficult. I did manage to get back to it yesterday, but it wasn’t quite enough time to prepare anything to show. At least, not anything that isn't explicit (which can't be shown in public posts).

Rather than leave you with nothing, though, I figured I’d outline the general plan for this month and briefly talk about what I’ve managed to do this week.

Before the hitch, I made some headway earlier this week on animations. I worked on a rough draft of the animation set for the Butcherette (seen above) and started working on a new sex purification sequence. Yesterday, and the day before, I also worked on a new enemy type with all the needed animations for them.

The new enemy is currently called the ‘Lost Soul’ (Inspired by the enemies from DOOM). As the name-sake implies, these are floating head enemies, though they don’t explode. They fly around erratically making them hard to hit with their small hitbox, though they go down quickly due to their low health. I also plan on using these enemies to help develop my enemy skins/variations system.

Visually, the initial model I created leans heavily into horror (wide open eyes and a gaping open mouth), but I plan to diversify the design somewhat. I’ll be creating some alternative looks, from a more attractive face to an evil and demonic version. The purification sequence for them is probably the simplest so far, being a floating head.

I also started work on another enemy type, but they’re still too early in development to share any real details. I’ve realized that the variety in monsters isn’t quite where I want it to be yet. A lot of enemies still have human skin tones, but I want some to appear more distinctly otherworldly or inhuman, like the Smiler with her blue-ish skin tone. Any monsters I add to the game will lean on the strange and supernatural designs rather than the more typical roster you’d see in a dedicated monster girl game. So, no Nagas, Plant-girls etc. for Sin Spire. More ghosts and ghouls.

I’ve also been considering how to streamline the animation process, mainly for sex anims. With so many enemies, I’m now looking into animating basic sequences on a simple human model and then retargeting and editing/adding detail for different enemies. This should save time at the cost of pose variety, but I’d rather let every enemy have at least two sex sequences that may be similar to another enemy’s than one or no sequences at all. There will be edge cases and I’m sure that I can get creative with more non-standard humanoid enemies like the Leg Amalgam.

Now, looking ahead, here’s what I want to achieve with the rest of the month:

• Create a variety of sex sequences that can be reused and retargeted.

• Create animation sets for all enemies, including those added during the month.

• Add basic grab attacks for all Stalkers (Important for the Steam Page’s Promo Materials)

• Steam Page Launch: I’m still aiming to finish the Steam Page this month. I’d like to get a teaser trailer out before submitting it, along with Savina’s redesign (which I mentioned last week). If it looks like the teaser trailer isn’t possible, I’ll submit the page anyway.

• Test Builds: Thank you all for your patience. I still plan on releasing builds after the Steam Page is up, but if it doesn’t seem feasible, I’ll simply focus on getting a test build out regardless. All current supporters will get access to the first test build. After that, I haven’t decided. As making builds will take time as they involve clean-up, I may move them to a higher tier. But that hasn’t been decided yet and won’t apply to the first build.

Keep in mind that the test build will be rough. It’s not a polished product, but it’ll give you a feel for the game as well let you experience the first dungeon at the very least.

That’s the general plan! While I aim to get all that done this month, sometimes unexpected things happen, as they did this week. I’ll make sure to keep you guys posted on progress, and I plan to share some previews for supporters throughout the month—similar to the Savina dialogue test. These won’t follow a strict schedule, so you’ll just have to keep an eye out, both on this page and potentially on the Discord.

Thank you all for your continued support! I’ll see you next time, whenever that may be.

Sin Spire - Dev Log 11

Hello everyone! Hope you're all doing well. This week marks the final post of "Art Month." Moving into next month, I'll be primarily focused on animations, along with working on gameplay systems to support those animations. So, while animation is the priority, it'll likely turn into more of a "variety month" as I handle a few other things as well.

The week started with a dive into the game's UI. I hadn’t touched it much since working on the core gameplay systems many weeks ago, and it was due for a visual update. There weren’t any major overhauls—mostly refining margins, improving readability, and adding some paneling and background images. Visually, it's a small update, but it helps make the presentation feel more final

I also started work on a tutorial area. I've discussed some of the gameplay mechanics in previous posts, but realized that for people actually playing the game, a more contextual explanation is required. So, I created a fairly scripted tutorial segment with a unique little dungeon. It's 5 minutes tops and mostly consists of specific gameplay sections with plenty of notes explaining what to do.

The area also introduces a unique Stalker designed specifically to teach hiding and evasion. The focus for this Stalker, unlike the previous ones, was more on creating something freaky and terrifying. This is the only enemy in the game that is designed to actually jumpscare you. I won't show it off or anything, I want it to be a nice surprise for build testers and future players.

While working on the UI, I decided to tackle controller support. What started as simple testing escalated into fully implementing gamepad functionality. This includes dynamically updating the prompts based on which peripheral you're using and also adding two sets of bind buttons to the settings menu to allow for custom rebinds.

This of course meant I needed to get controller support also working with menus, which Unreal Engine doesn’t handle well by default. A lot of work was needed so that menu navigation behaved as one would expect. This wasn't something I was planning on spending much time on but it ultimately took up most of the week.

I’ve since played through the tutorial and the opening segment of the game using only a controller, and I’m happy to say it works quite well. While I’m not sure how many of you will use a gamepad for this type of game, I hope those of you who do will appreciate the effort that went into making it functional.

Lastly, I worked a bit on the game's intro cinematic. It’s a brief, minute-long scene that sets the stage and provides some unspoken context for Sin Spire's world. Cinematics and cutscenes will be rare in the game, so don’t expect too many of them.

In addition to the intro cinematic, which plays as a video when you start the game, I’ve also developed a first-person, in-engine cutscene system. These will allow me to trigger short sequences that don’t directly interfere with gameplay, helping add some flair to certain moments.

So, while this week didn’t strictly align with the "Art Month" theme I had in mind for September, there’s been solid progress. Since much of it is still a work-in-progress and not art-related, I don’t have many screenshots to share at the moment that show off more than just the tutorial area.

In the coming week, I’ll be starting animation work, focusing on giving some of the previously designed enemies proper combat animations and AI. I may also look into giving Savina a much-needed makeover. Also, as I'll be working on "Purification" AKA sex animations in October as well, I will be posting some previews for Supporters—apologies for delays in that area.

Thank you all for your support, and I’ll see you next time!

Sin Spire - Dev Log 10

10th devlog! That's an achievement in and of itself right there.

Hello everyone! This week has certainly been an eventful one. First off let's start with the cast of the game. I briefly mentioned that I was doing some casting for voices in the game, well I am now happy to announce that most of the roles have actually been cast (save for one very important character, sadly). As well as that, I've finished modelling all the non-generic enemy characters! I did decide to cut one of the dungeons to keep things manageable, so there will now be five dungeons instead of six. Still quite a lot considering just how different each dungeon is meant to be.

I don't have much to add regarding voice acting. For those in my paid tiers, you might have seen the video I uploaded earlier this week showcasing Savina's voice and expressiveness. The game's script isn't finalized yet so what you heard was a test line, but I am still happy with how it sounded. Some of the monsters even have voices now, which adds a nice bit of a immersion to the game.

A much bigger milestone: All the Stalkers are done! This is huge as it means I can start taking proper screenshots and working on promotional material. They're fully rigged but don't have animations yet. I'm itching to dive into animation work so I can see these girls come to life, but for now I'm still focusing on art. I won't show off all the stalkers in this post, instead you can see a picture of one of my personal favourite designs at the top of this post - the Mangler. Bonus points if you know what she's a reference to.

There's an additional character I worked on who isn't a stalker and isn't female. One of the only other male characters in the game outside of the player, in fact. He plays a significant role in the story, so you'll be seeing him quite a bit. With all the character work I've been doing, the first character I made, Savina, is looking a bit outdated already. I will probably be giving her a minor makeover fairly soon (particularly her hair).

Aside from character stuff, I've made progress on the Overworld environment. I think I've mentioned this before, but the overworld serves as a miniature open world. It's mostly sparse, with a few items and notes to help with world-building, but I still need to put some work into it—even though environment art isn’t my strong suit. So far, I've mostly just been creating buildings for the roads and improving the fog effects. I wanted denser fog, something closer to Silent Hill, so I added noisy fog particles to really obscure the player's vision and create a more atmospheric feel.

Lastly, I've been working on the script. It's still a heavy work in progress, but I'm feeling good about the characterizations. The story isn't designed to be deep or long—it’s mainly there to support the dungeon gameplay and provide some objectives outside of that.

That's about it for now. The game is coming together, though there has been a slight delay with the test builds. I'm hoping to really push publicity next month (October) along with finally getting the Steam page up. I'm calling next month "Animation Month" because I'll be focused on creating gameplay, cinematic and sex animations. If time permits, I might also work on a teaser trailer to put out along with the Steam page but we'll see what happens there.

Thanks for reading, and I'll see you next time. This coming week, I'll be reviewing the art I've done throughout the month and filling in the gaps where needed. The quality of the later dungeons has taken a bit of a dip but, honestly, I don't think people will play Sin Spire for the pretty environments. Still, I'll try and make sure everything is polished up and consistent.

Take care!

Savina Dialogue Animation Test

Just a small animation test I figured I'd share. The voice actress is the same as the Widow from HotPW. She actually has made a new identity for her voice work as XeraphinaVA which will be a lot easier to credit that just "B". The line in question is part of a larger piece of dialogue, but I cut it out to test with as I liked the delivery.

Animation is quite rough but I'm overall happy with how it turned out. Not all the dialogue in Sin Spire will be animated this way, only certain sequences. I'm thinking of maybe throwing out the odd WIP image or video every so often. I did say that I would but have been a bit too much of a perfectionist to actually do it.

Let me know if you'd like to see more scraps like this in the future! Anyway, see ya later.

Sin Spire - Dev Log 09

Hello everyone! How's your week been? This one felt quite long for me for a multitude of reasons, and I’m feeling pretty exhausted. Lots of juggling various things.

In case you didn’t know, this week marked the launch of the Krasue Games Discord server! This server is a place where I can communicate directly with all of you, especially when test builds start rolling out. It’s also a good place for more informal updates. While there’s not a lot of activity just yet, the server only launched a few days ago, and I'm pleasantly surprised by how many people have already joined.

If you haven't joined the server yet, you can find the invite post below or simply click here: discord.gg/SC3ATASjAW

Now, onto the game. This week I’ve been tackling more weapons, gameplay tweaks, and Stalkers. I know I said this would mostly be an art-focused month, but I did some build experiments to check the current file size and ran through the first dungeon a few times. While doing so, I noticed a few areas I could improve and found some bugs to fix.

The build size is currently around 2.5GB, which isn’t bad for an in-progress version. I’m hoping to shrink that a bit before releasing any Patron builds. Speaking of, I’ve also started working on the Steam page! It still needs more screenshots to be ready, but it’s an exciting step forward.

Regarding weapons, I’m happy to report that I’ve finished the four guns I planned: the Mauser Pistol, Lever-Action Rifle, Double-Barrel Shotgun, and Thompson M1A1. These weapons and their ammo can either be found as loot or purchased from Savina.

I also completed a high-rarity Katana, part of the melee weapon set. The Katana is powerful but breaks easily. I’ve got a couple more melee weapons in mind, but overall, I’m feeling confident that the weapon line-up is nearly where I want it to be. Now I can return to focusing on art without worrying about further weapon implementations.

And on that front, I also worked on a new Stalker: The Girlfriend. Initially I was aiming for a bubbly, cutesy look but instead ended up with the look seen at the top of this post. Her personality is still meant to be quite chipper, which I think will be a funny contrast to her darker aesthetic. She wields a gun but, like all guns at this point, only uses it to stun the player. I’ll be finishing her animations and AI in October.

I also spent time on the dungeon where she appears, but I’m struggling to make it visually interesting. Originally, it was just an apartment building, but I’m considering revising it into something more thematically appropriate—maybe a love hotel or something similar.

That’s all for now! It’s full steam ahead, and there’s still plenty to do before the end of the month. Next week, I plan to finish another Stalker and continue working on environments. Props are high on the list to help make the dungeons feel more lived-in. I also need to give the UI an art pass. While the general HUD elements are fine, the shop and inventory screens are still very barebones.

I’m still aiming to get as much art done this month as possible, but I’m being realistic about the timeframe. I think the key is to focus on getting the basics done first rather than aiming for perfection on the first pass. I'll probably do another full art pass once the game has reached beta.

Thanks for reading, and I’ll catch you next week!

Discord Server Now Up!

Hello everyone! This is a brief update to let you all know that I’ve created a Discord Server. While it won't see much activity for now, it will eventually be a place to discuss feedback and suggestions once test builds start rolling out. I'll also be posting announcements and updates there, so it's a great place to stay in the loop on smaller updates that don’t warrant full posts.

A few things to note: I’m not a full-time Discord mod, so my focus will remain on game development. I’d appreciate it if you could follow the rules and keep things running smoothly.

For now, the link is public, though I may change that if spam becomes an issue. There’s no Patreon bot in place, so if you need a role change, just shoot me a message. That said, all exclusive content will still only be posted here on Patreon. The roles on Discord are more of a formality.

This is my first time running a Discord server, so it should be an interesting experiment! I look forward to seeing you there.

Sin Spire - Dev Log 08

Hello everyone! I come with news of progress! This week, I focused on something I had been neglecting for a while – weapons. They had taken a bit of a backseat as I prioritized characters, dungeon generation, and other core mechanics. However, since I've set a goal to create most, if not all, of the art assets (3D models and textures) by the end of September, it was time to tackle this.

Before diving into weaponry, I also worked on something I mentioned last week: the logo! Initially, I considered commissioning someone for it but decided to give it a try myself. The result? Not great. I ended up with a bubbly, cartoony logo that didn’t match the darker tone of the game. After going back to the drawing board, I created a minimalist, horror-themed logo that I’m much happier with.

Seen above is a WIP title card. I’ve omitted a key character from the WIP since I plan to reveal her at a later date. With the logo done, I can finally start creating art for the Steam page. A few more screenshots, and I’ll be ready to overcome this self-imposed roadblock and start working on the Test Build.

Now, back to weapons.

I had a few ideas for the direction of weapons in Sin Spire, many of which were inspired by Silent Hill (the lead pipe is a direct nod). While I’d always planned to include firearms, I hadn’t yet implemented systems for ammo or projectiles. Over the past week, I modelled, animated, and implemented two firearms: the Mauser Pistol and the Lever-Action Rifle.

While I worked on these relatively quickly, it ended up being quite draining, especially with everything else I’m juggling. To avoid spending too much time on weapons, I decided to limit the number of guns to four, representing core archetypes: pistol, rifle, shotgun, and SMG. Since Sin Spire isn’t a shooter, there won’t be a heavy focus on a wide arsenal. There will be more melee weapons, but not many and those are simpler by comparison.

In addition, I’ve been integrating last week’s environment assets into the procedural dungeon generator. There were a few bugs, and I had to create a new door type, but everything is mostly functional now. Soon I'll hopefully be able to finish off all the base assets for every dungeon.

I’ve also been working on a story-central character, the one planned to appear on the title card. I won’t reveal her just yet, as I plan to dedicate a larger post to the story in the future. I’ve also started looking into voice casting. None of the enemies or Stalkers have voices yet, and there are quite a few of them, alongside the story characters. I’ve asked my friend (who voiced the Widow in HotPW) to help with casting, and some work has already been done there. I’ll share more about this as the process unfolds.

Overall, progress is steady, which is great. There are still plenty of art assets to create for enemies, Stalkers, and environments. That said, I think I can get a significant chunk of it done this month. I’m not counting animations in the September goal—those will be worked on next month, along with story elements and gameplay polishing.

Anyway, that’s all for this week. Next week will be... something. Most likely more art. I also apologize for not having any exclusive content for Supporters the last few posts. When I get back to working on enemies, I’ll make sure to prepare some special content for you guys. Until then, take care!

Sin Spire - Dev Log 07

Hello everyone! This week has been largely business as usual. As I hinted at last week, my focus has been primarily on art assets—specifically, environment art. While this isn't exactly my forte, it's an essential aspect of the game I needed to tackle. Everything seen in this post is heavily WIP.

To be honest, environment art has never been my favourite part of game development. If I ever bring someone on board or use purchased assets in future projects, it would probably be for environments. It's not that I'm terrible at it—at least I don't think so—but my passion has always been with character art. However, environments play a crucial part in showcasing the variety that Sin Spire is meant to offer, so I dedicated this week entirely to it.

As you know, Sin Spire will feature six different dungeons, each with its own unique theme. You've already seen a lot of the first dungeon, the Catacombs, but I'm happy to say that there are now three other dungeons currently in progress: The Manor, The Old School and the Slaughterhouse. With four out of six dungeons now at various stages of completion, I think I'm making good progress.

The Manor is where the Automaids originate. It's designed to be a grander, more imposing structure than the manor seen in HotPW. The Old School has a more contemporary setting, modelled after typical East Asian schools. It's a nod to certain Japanese and Korean horror games, complete with monsters dressed up as school-girls. The one seen above is a new addition. Lighting and mood for both the Manor and School are very WIP so they may end up looking drastically different in a future post.

The final dungeon I worked on is a bit of a tonal shift in comparison to the images I've shown so far: The Slaughterhouse. Up until now, I've mostly kept any gruesome imagery to a minimum, but with The Slaughterhouse it's unavoidable. This dungeon is meant to appear later in the game and is designed to ramp up certain horror elements. The imagery is quite grisly and I hope I'm not breaking any rules by posting it publicly. It's fairly non-descript in nature but you can clearly tell that those are bodies strung up.

The images you see here were taken from Test-Levels. So far, only the Manor and the Catacombs are playable to any degree. The Old School and The Slaughterhouse still need tilesets for the procedural dungeon generation. My plan for the next week is to focus on setting up those two dungeons in the generator before moving onto the final two dungeon designs. Once the base assets are done—walls, floors and mood—I'll shift my attention back to Stalkers and enemies.

On a side note, the status of the test build remains at a standstill since I haven't yet created anything for the Steam page. Among the things I need is a logo. I have a few ideas in mind but graphic design is not my strong suit, so I might commission someone to create or refine it. If that doesn't pan out, then you'll have to settle for my MS Paint-level logo when the Steam page goes live.

That's all for this week. I hope to have even more progress to share. Until then, than you so much for your support and have a great week!

Sin Spire - Dev Log 06

Hello everyone! After a short break due to illness, I’m back at work on Sin Spire. While I’m not fully recovered, I’m well enough to concentrate again. Since I’ve only been back at it for a few days, I don’t have much to show, so I figured I’d take this opportunity to discuss some things I’ve been putting off talking about.

First, a quick update: Pictured above is the latest addition to the game’s enemy roster - the Butcherette. She’s a large, cleaver-wielding foe, designed to be a high-threat but slow-moving enemy. There’s still a lot of work to be done, particularly with animations, so expect more updates next week. I’ve been working on other things too, but I’ll save those for another time.

Now, onto the main topic I wanted to discuss: releases. Even though Sin Spire is in early alpha, I’ve been thinking a lot about the release timeline. My goal is still to release the game this year, with some flexibility for early next year if needed. I know real life and unexpected events, like illness, can disrupt the development cycle, so predicting timelines can be tricky. But regardless, my aim remains the same as when I first announced the project.

Another big goal regarding releases is releasing the game on Steam. This has always been a dream of mine, even before Steam became a major platform for indie games. My plan is to submit the application for a store page as soon as I have enough promotional material ready. I’m still figuring out the process, but getting the page up early seems like a good move, especially considering the next point I'm about to bring up.

I’ve been considering releasing Development Builds. This would be to gather feedback and interact more closely with the community. Though, my main concern has been about making a good first impression. I don’t want the first build to be a bug-ridden mess, especially if it somehow makes it way off Patreon and finds itself elsewhere. Ideally, it’d be released in good shape with links to all relevant socials, including the Steam page.

For distributing the builds, I’m open to suggestions. I might send them directly to patrons via email or simply link the download in a private post. Let me know your preferences, and we’ll try to figure out the best approach.

One of my favorite parts of releasing Halls of the Pale Widow was engaging with the community after its initial release. To facilitate more direct feedback in the future, I’m considering creating a Discord group. Although I have some concerns about managing it, especially with the prevalence of scam bots, locking the server behind the lowest Patreon tier could help. That said, I don’t really want to exclude those who can’t pay from participating in the discussion. It’s something to think about, depending on interest. It might be good to just try a fully public link and see how that goes.

In the coming weeks, my focus will be on creating artwork for the Steam page and preparing for build releases. I want to clean up the builds so you’re not downloading unnecessary gigabytes of data. There’s no strict timeframe for any of this but I will post updates in the usual places. Until then, it’s time to hunker down and get back to work.

Thank you all for your continued support, and see you next week!

Sin Spire - WIP 01 (Witness and Maid)

In the absence of a proper showcase, I decided to take some screenshots from the game. It wasn't intentional to only focus on the Maid and Witness enemies as there exist NSFW animations for the Leg Amalgam as well some WIP stuff for the Witch.

That said, this will have to do for now. In the shots above, you can see the Maid attacking, followed by a sex sequence with the Witness enemy. I also show the WIP third person camera that you can currently switch between. I'm thinking of using that to replace the camera angles system from HotPW.

You can also see the cloth swapping for the Witness which both exposes her breasts and pulls up her skirt. All enemies will have a variant of their clothing that will get exposed during a sex scene, though I am considering adding some controls to completely remove clothing as all monsters do have full nude bodies. That hasn't been entirely figured out yet.

I'm thinking of potentially showcasing some assets in a rougher state rather than their (close to) final state as seen here. For example, seeing animations whilst they're in development or characters without finished textures etc. This is currently just a consideration.

That's all for this week. Once again, I'm sorry for not having a lot to show. The next time I do a showcase I'll try and include actual animations and more. See you guys next time.

No Dev Log This Week

Hello everyone. Sadly, this week has not been productive. Last weekend I became ill and, despite hoping to bounce back quickly, I still haven't recovered yet. I noticed signs of illness even as I posted the last update but genuinely thought I'd be fine by now. I have an appointment with my doctor next week so hopefully after that, I'll be feeling mostly better. For now, I deeply apologize for the lack of updates.

The state of the game is pretty much where I last left it at. I started fixing the corrupted files that I mentioned and made quite a bit of progress. Aside from that, however, I've had to step back as I haven't been able to concentrate and have no energy.

During the downtime, I decided to revisit some older game titles, specifically from the 5th and 6th generation of console games. This was both for fun and for inspiration. It's no secret that I have a fondness for that time in gaming and like to reference it. I've already been getting a few new ideas; Sin Spire has very much been at the forefront of my mind.

Before I wrap up this post, I want to thank you all for keeping up the project so far. It's been a lot of fun and very exciting. I'm hoping that I'll be better enough to work next week, though if there any setbacks I'll make sure to mention it on Twitter.

That's all for now. I will be posting some WIP screenshots for Supporters later today. Thanks for reading and take care.