With the summer almost behind us, we’re pleased to share a summary update on our development progress.
This month we participated in the Steam Visual Novel Fest, which brought a little bit of feedback here on the Steam forums and on Discord, which we appreciate. Overall it’s been a quiet summer which is great because it allowed us to keep our full focus on writing out Act 3 scenes spanning everything from terror tactics, rage filled attack charges, tender romance moments, and acts of unyielding loyalty.
We sincerely appreciate all the words of encouragement. With Act 3, we remain steadfast in our determination to produce the best version of the game possible. This is the core reason why things are taking longer than expected. While being careful to not add fluff, and subsequently cutting out what doesn’t work, there are moments when I come across choices so thrilling and worth exploring, that not doing it would hurt the role-playing experience. These are the moments where I do take the extra time to write an entire branch giving the appropriate weight to the choice being added.
As a result, I am still writing and tweaking Act 3. I’ll need another three months to finish the story by the end of November, which together with a period for community testing sets the public Act 3 release to Q1 2024.
I understand the wait for Act 3 and full release is long, and as a solo developer I can only agree; it’s a long stretch for me too. However, I’m proud of how the game is shaping up.
We've decided a long time ago to not rush the game and thanks to a patient and supporting community and partners we were able to create something unique. The Act 3 scenes I already have are definitely the best I’ve written yet, full of player choices, overwhelming odds, and heartwarming character interactions, and I’m looking forward to sharing them with you all.
With many of the in-depth character conversation scenes locked-in, it feels like the crux of writing Act 3 has been solved, and now all that’s left to do is diligently finish writing out the action scenes and tying up the loose ends for a satisfying conclusion to your journey.
Thank you for your support and patience. This game wouldn't exist without you all.
We are delighted to both be a part of it to welcome new players, and to share a summarized update on the progress of development since our last communication.
A few days ago, we released an important update to the game that fixed loading issues caused by ambient tracks and the hidden, but already present, localization functionality.
We would also like to express our gratitude to all of you for providing feedback on the Steam forums and Discord. Your reports on bugs in the more obscure branches, scene variants, and suggestions for improving the immersion have been invaluable in enhancing the game for everyone.
The game has passed an important internal localization testing round, and we’ve received more testing reports from our translation partners, which helps us inch ever closer to the full launch in 8 languages.
The most significant focus remains on writing Act 3, and we are making steady progress day by day. True to the style of the previous acts, interacting with the characters is anything but straightforward, with each interaction carrying multiple layers of context to explore and influence the outcomes.
Drawing from the experience of community testing in Act 2, which initially featured only a handful of scenes, we are preparing a more substantial testing build this time. We will keep you updated on its availability.
We sincerely appreciate all the words of encouragement, as well as your continuous support and patience. This game would not be what it is without each and every one of you.
A lot has happened since our last announcement, so we’re pleased to share a summary update on development progress.
Sacred Fire participated in the Steam Tabletop Fest last month and we'd like to thank everyone for your feedback here on Steam forums and on Discord. This resulted in many small bug-fixes and tweaks in today’s update, as well as a small refinement to the female character's backstory description and starting effects.
We’re continuing to prepare localization, as the full launch will include support for a total of 8 languages. With almost 300,000 words in the game’s script, this is no small task!
Some of the languages were enabled by a grant from the Slovak Arts Council, which is of course wonderful but also required us to tweak our development timeline to fit certain requirements.
At least now we know we got it all working correctly. The translations of story texts are progressing at a good pace that should leave enough room for testing them with the community before we release them with the full release of the game.
Most importantly, writing on Act 3 continues. The many game states that have accumulated for Act 3 (characters being alive or not, characters being allied or not, reactions to achievements or betrayals of the player character, etc.) are raising the complexity of the scenes.
Thankfully, writing the two previous acts has prepared us for the challenge, and we’re making progress on the main conflict resolution scenes, as well on some more personal long awaited scenes, like the Raven rescue mission, and the Etain backstory revelation scenes.
We’ll keep you informed about our progress and the availability of a community testing build, leading up to a Q3 Act 3 release.
Thank you all for your words of encouragement, and for your continuous support and patience. If you haven't already, you can join the community on Discord, or leave feedback here on Steam forums about the game.
In this short update, we’d like to let you know that while all is well with the team and the game, as we keep working on Act 3, we discover new things to resolve for a satisfying ending for the main story and the many character relationship states.
At the same time, the localization of the previous acts is in full swing and while we work with experienced translators, they do need our assistance with context here and there which results in hundreds of questions due to the sheer amount of text.
So we'd like to ask you for a little bit more patience while waiting for Act 3 - it’ll be ready by the end of Q2 2023.
I can't wait to see which routes, self-expression choices, and endings players will favor in their playthrough, and plan to collect your experiences with the complete story in a survey afterward.
The next sale for the game will be the Steam Spring Sale starting on March 16th.
If you haven't already, you can join the community on Discord, or leave feedback here on Steam forums and let me know what you think about the game.
As we continue working on Act 3, we've managed to squeeze in a minor music playback update: 10 new ambient nature tracks are used at the chapter's end for more variety based on location.
You can also pick up Sacred Fire with a 25% discount during the Iceberg Publisher Sale!
If you haven't already, you can join the community on Discord, or leave feedback here on Steam forums and let me know what you think about the new music playback and/or the game.
Thank you for your continuous support and patience.
As we continue working on Act 3, we'd like to share an important update adding a 3rd path to the previous heroic or cowardly play-through of the 'Royal Feud' battle.
You can also pick up Sacred Fire with a 25% discount during the Steam Winter Sale!
This new path is available both when you decide to stay behind in the main hall, or when you stay behind in front of the fort gates.
You can now fight to open the gate to bring reinforcements and directly save your brother's life.
Besides adding 3 new risk chains to the game, this also gives the player freedom to choose how challenging the playtrough will be.
This also presents the first time your people are left without any guidance whatsoever from Wid, and thus is a direct test of the leadership goodwill you accumulated with them.
We'd like to thank our community for helping us to deliver a great Act 2 this year. Thank you for your continuous support and patience, we can’t wait to bring the final Act 3 to you next year.
Happy holidays!
If you haven't already, you can join the community on Discord! It's the place for all things Sacred Fire.
The annual Czech & Slovak Games Week is here to celebrate games made by passionate teams from two countries that share the history of a united struggle for independence and freedom. As part of the festivities, Sacred Fire is 25% off during the event.
A perceptive observe may spot a link why we're not introducing the Caledonian resistance as one tribe, but as a community of different people, able to look past their differences, united in their suffering and struggle against a common oppressor.
Sacred Fire has been selected for the opening live stream, so I've recorded a video introducing the game to new players:
Game update
We've also pushed an update with lots of small polishes to text and scenes in the game.
more than 2000+ lines have been polished by our editor Scott Hamm
the flow has been refined in a dozen of scenes
some historic reference fixes reported by the community have been implemented (using "sling" instead of slingshot, "legionaries" instead of legionnaires, "a candleholder" instead of a fork that would probably not make it into a Caledonian royal feast)
many story flow bug-fixes reported by the community have been addressed
including Act 1 losing Raven and/or Etain states not correctly transferring to Act 2
Roadmap update
To make sure we can continue and finish up the story in the rich choice-making quality people love about the game, we’ve adjusted the Act 3 milestone to Q1 2023.
We would like to extend a heartfelt thank you to all the community members who help make the game better in various ways, and also to all those who support us - thank you for your patience, we can’t wait to hear what you think about the final Act 3.
If you haven't already, make sure you join the community on Discord! It's the place to be for all things Sacred Fire.
To boost role-playing even more, we’re adding a lot of new player choices and story beats to the game based on your feedback and suggestions. A big thank you to all of the testers on Discord for helping us make these new additions as immersive, tense, and fun as possible!
NOTE: there will be spoilers ahead for Act 2 — proceed at your own risk!
TLDR:
<*> Yes, you can kill your opponents in both Act 2 duels <*> Yes, you can avoid all injury in Act 2 (both the back-stabbing and the spear)
Here are the changes and additions in detail:
1. GLEN BATTLE
There are some changes even before the battle begins. You can now stop Ygrain from leaving the safe spot before the battle.
NOTE: There is no penalty if you don't stop Ygrain. Overall, this update respects your progress, so you don’t have to replay Act 2 if you’re happy with your playthrough.
The ‘Rescue Brian’ scene is now a proper risk chain, with smart choices making the rescue run a little bit easier.
You can avoid getting stabbed by Flavius. Your allies, be it your feathered companion Talon, or a former rival like Morl can warn you and help you dodge the cowardly backstabbing. If it’s Talon who warns you, make sure to feed him afterward 🙂
You can kill the Roman commander Flavius. The Romans get a more thorough implementation as a beast with many heads. There are multiple Roman commanders leading the punitive raid, some obsessive like Flavius, some more rational. Gaining insights about them is crucial when making choices that will impact who you’ll be facing in the final battle in Act 3.
2. REST SCENES
The male protagonist’s playthrough gets three romance beats in Act 2. Clair’s is part of her expanded backstory, which is itself full of new choices that can dramatically alter her fate. Etain comes to repay the favor, if you took care of her while she was unconscious at the beginning of the game, and keep you company, while you recover after the safe spot battle. And Morrigan can reveal her softer side after the pivotal royal feud battle if you manage to save her son. She plays a more active role in the courtyard aftermath and saving her son can elevate your status even if your protagonist's heart is already taken.
The female protagonist’s playthrough gets all the nuanced text variations contributed by the talented Jennie Kong, and a better Leif introduction in the ‘Ygrain questions the threat’ and ‘Crying girl’ scene in Act 1. Besides Leif, new romance beats are reserved for Act 3, due to the male characters being introduced a little later in the story.
3. HILLFORT BATTLE
You can avoid getting spear-stabbed by Kean's man. Again, your companions and allies might help to make this easier, or you can just get lucky. Furthermore, you can dodge Wid slamming into you, keeping a zero pre-scripted damage path possible.
You can kill Kean - let’s be honest, he had it coming 😉 That being said, for certain end goals, there is value in letting him live after defeating him. There are multiple instances when the protagonist can go for the kill; including a ‘trial by combat’ duel that can prevent the loss of life of your men. Morl can prove to be an extra obstacle if he got banished before.
On the flip side, once Kean is defeated, you can get the raiders to join your ranks. Things go a lot easier if you understand who Clair is and help her in her dilemma. Morl can again prove to be a hindrance. Or, if you managed to turn him into an ally in Act 1, he can help.
This results in two new Act 2 endings 'STRONGER THAN EVER' or 'A DECISIVE VICTORY'. Losses are tracked across each major battle now, affecting subsequent battle risk chains.
NOTE: If you got ‘A HARD WON’ victory in the original Act 2 release version, there is no penalty and you don’t have to replay Act 2.
Also, based on community feedback, the queen and king dynamic leading up to the battle has now been better explained with the refined motives and behavior of king Uther.
5. OTHER CHANGES
A no man’s land community backstory moment was added to Chapter #1. When returning from the hunt the player can better understand their place in the community before they decide whether they want to warn the others or share their prey with them.
It also provides context on how the necessity to survive, and a common enemy, motivated the remnants of the Caledonian people originally inhabiting the no man’s land to look past their differences and accept slaves escaping the Roman empire, or warriors from subjugated provinces like Gaul, into the resistance.
Thank you for your support and patience while we work on Act 3. In the meanwhile, I hope these changes will make the available scenes even more immersive.
- fix duel endings (Flavius, Kean, berserk mode) - fix missing or repetitive stat changes in duels - prevent scripted vitality loss causing game over - fix missing voice-over lines
Sacred Fire - Act 2 Is Here!
Hello everyone!
Thanks to the amazing help from our community testers, we’re excited to let you continue your Sacred Fire story, as Act 2 is now available! In this blog, we'll outline what you can expect from the second act.
Before we get into (minor) spoiler territory, here's what some of our Discord testers had to say while playing through Act 2:
flori2412 “Wow, this was scary! Well done!”
Metastatic “Love the choices you have with your brother.”
yangao5e “Another marvelous act. Great job.”
And for those who prefer hard numbers, these are the contents of Act 2:
27 new scenes.
2 big battles and 2 one-on-one duels, each with a unique twist.
3 new major locations with 25 unique shots
9 new characters, with 18 new insights to uncover
4 old characters got their art upgraded based on your feedback
A Visual Overview
Note: there will be minor spoilers from this point, so read along at your own risk!
Act 2 brings several major battles…
…and one on one duels…
…that will test not only your cunning and willpower...
…but also the loyalties your choices inspired...
…on and off the battlefield…
…in characters both old and new...
…and maybe even in some that were long forgotten.
Enjoy!
We appreciate your patience as we finished up Act 2. We're very happy with how it ended up, and we hope you enjoy continuing your story. Feel free to leave any feedback on the Steam forums, or on the official Sacred Fire Discord!
Kind regards, Andrej and the Iceberg Interactive team
OLD SAVE NOTE: we went to great lengths to make sure you can continue with your old save, but still some big changes were made to the story structure, so saves older than 2.6.0 won’t work. But if your save is that old, chances are you’ll enjoy the improvement made to Act 1 too.
