Veil of Dust: A Homesteading Game
Descent of the Hunted to release on 2/23/24 as part of the Women's Day sale
The QA phase (in preparation for release) for Descent of the Hunted is well underway, so I'm right on track. This game has been an interesting departure from Veil of Dust (our previous game) in that it focuses 100% on story. Since that's what we consistently heard was the favorite element of VoD, it makes a lot of sense to do a story game. (Link here)
The other obvious difference is the genre, although I think horror and VN fans will be a little more primed for the seriousness of the themes than Farm Sim audiences might have been, lol. In any case, I have had my hands full with our new baby and haven't done any promotion, so I hope this game manages to reach players despite that. If you liked VoD, Wishlist Descent of the Hunted, then purchase and review it as close to the release as possible! Reviews help Steam recognize new games as legit.
Both Veil of Dust and Descent of the Hunted will be part of the Women's Day Sale coming up at the end of the month. Each highlight and explore different women's experiences in storylines straight from the quill of a female writer, as it were, so I'm confident they'll be great additions. My co-creator for Veil of Dust has also noticed that there's something fundamentally different about our female character designs, noting that they've been totally free of pressures external to the female creator's intentions. That's something special you can only get from tiny, independent teams.
Thanks for reading!
-Elle
Veil of Dust is now launched to V1!
Four new romances - for a combined extra replay of around 20 hours - and a variety of other game enhancements await you with the full release update.
We hope you have as much fun playing these new story arcs as we had adding them to the game.
Thank you so much for your continued support. This has been a labor of love: over three years of effort, with thousands of hours of work on nights, weekends, and days off. Having the motivation to complete this massive project is helped each time we hear that we've touched someone's life in some way. Please continue to let us know (through Steam, Discord, etc) what you think of the game, we love to hear from you!
- Elle & Mike
Veil of Dust: Full Game V1 coming Late March/ Early April
We're finally rounding the bend on having all our story content implemented with the remaining 4 romance arcs added, and thus, a full version 1! (Insert trumpet sounds) It's been a colossal project for two people, but we're proud of what we've done, and I, personally, feel good about putting a host of love stories into the world that are healthy, dynamic, and written entirely by a woman. So rarely do we see relationships in games depicted with realistic complexity, but I think that's what makes them feel like a real connection. I'm excited to hear what players think (so don't forget to leave a review, it helps with visibility and we're so tiny, we can use all the help we can get!)
As with our early access releases, you can expect a tested release that's been lovingly QA'd by yours truly, so don't feel you have to wait for updates to play. They will be a little slower to come from this point on, but we'll still be tuned in and committed to delivering a crash-free experience.
Thanks so much for following our labor of love and we hope it means as much to you as it does to us.
-Elle
Shane protagonist / Town addition update now live and ready to play!
The update we mentioned previously is a-go! Go ahead and give it a download, we'd love to hear what you think of the new content! Thanks so much for your support!
-Elle
Our Dec 11th release will bring us to around 2/3 of the complete game!
As the last post mentions, this release implements Shane as a playable character and realizes our vision of the Fantasy/ History experience split - Shane's adventures focus a lot more on the town of La Grande and its inhabitants, who embody the experiences of the people who lived in that time and place, warts and all.
Just as a reminder: You will not be able to access old save files once this release pushes, so finish up anything you want to do now, or don't install the update until you have. This is the message you'll see if you have old files:
What are the next steps for Veil of Dust?
Well, in a single word, content. We're going to focus on implementing the remaining 4 romance arcs (Nina, Clara, Arthur and Alysse), which will bring us to the full game as we've envisioned it. After that, we may do some enhancements to features and things like that, but it kind of depend on what happens with sales - We know there's a lot of people that won't touch Early Access games (and I don't blame them - I've bought some EA games that were completely unfun and unplayable) so we're hoping there are some players waiting in the wings for when we leave EA that we'll see convert once that's released. At that point we'll assess how much more we want to commit - We're a two-person team and this is a big game, after all!
Updates for Dec release: Feature list & A heads-up for save files post-release
I hope the dark and dreary part of autumn is offset by the wafting smells of pies and other seasonal treats. What might also offset it? How about a foray into the sun-drenched deserts of Eastern Oregon!
That's right, we're officially feature complete and will be starting QA. We're on track for our Dec 11th release goal. Here's the feature list:
Playable Shane:
Shane as a playable character
Storyline and visual variations for Shane
Town of La Grande and 14+ inhabitants
Two small arcs for ‘friend’ characters for Shane
New melee fighting weapon for Shane
1 Romance Storyline for Shane
2 teaser arcs for Shane’s other romances
Around the homestead:
Cows and Chickens
Furniture
The ability to make dyes and dye furniture
Decorations for walls and tables
3 additional crops
Many new recipes
QOL:
Set quick-equip items
Sort Inventory
Keybinding
Better upgrades menu
Also: If you have an old save file it will not work after you download the new release so please finish any playthroughs you want to complete in the next few weeks.
I'm excited to see what you all think of being in Shane's head instead of being his sibling! Thanks for your continued support and make sure to share us with any friends who might be interested!
Stream highlight reel available - Now with funny(?) editing!
Veil of Dust winter release preview - YouTube link in description
Streaming on Oct 15th for the Dreamhack Beyond indie Showcase
Dev log: 8/24/22 - Town added, Shane as a playable character, house decoration
- The town of La Grande setting is set up, including interiors and exteriors
- Shane is now a playable character
- House Decoration including wall and surface decorations, furniture, and custom colors for dying certain objects.
- There are now multiple save slots
- A new UX for selecting upgrades to the homestead
- Additional things that were a lot of work but would be boring to read about
Still on the docket for development for the November Release:
- A complete romance arc for Shane with Sylvia Wagner, daughter of the Lutheran Pastor
- Teaser romance arcs up to Friend level with Shane's two other romancables
- Multiple townie NPCs
- Stock Animals
I haven't post too much here, so I'd appreciate it if you could like this post if it was valuable to you so I can make sure to post updates more often. Thanks!