Thank you so much, I'm so glad you're enjoying it! And yes it's a Six of Crows reference lol, I think I was reading it at the time I was writing that section!
I am still working on getting the Steam page up! It takes a bit to convert the game into a file that Steam can play, so that's still in the works. 😅 I would very much appreciate wishlists when the time comes, though!! I will announce when the Steam page is up on social media, though the most surefire way is subscribing to my mailing list so you'll get a direct email! 🥺👉👈
Thank you so much for your kind words, I'm honored to hear you're enjoying the game!! Sorry about that behavior, I'll try to make a mental note to investigate it when I'm back from vacation in the future. If you feel like submitting an official bug report through the form linked in the game description, that will ensure I remember, but otherwise no worries!! Thank you again for supporting the game!
Hi, this isn't an expected behavior, but I can't recreate it on my end and I've never heard of anyone else experiencing it! Pressing 'C' on the keyboard does bring up the codex as a keyboard shortcut--could your specific keyboard/mouse settings have a command or shortcut tied to long-pressing the left mouse button?
Thank you so much for your incredibly kind words, I'm so happy you enjoyed Shepherds of Haven! (Even to the point of losing sleep over it, haha!) The alpha build is always available on Patreon and adds roughly 1 million more words to the game, but either way, I hope you'll play the game again when it's complete! Thank you again for taking the time to send such a kind message!
The game is planned to be released on Steam and itch.io, and the downloadable file on itch.io should be playable on mobile, just as the web version is now. If the game does release on app stores, it will be as a paid product!
Thank you so much, it's an honor to hear Shepherds was your first interactive novel experience! You can access the longer version of the game, which is updated every month, by becoming a member of the Patreon, though you're right that the completed product is also planned to be released on itch.io and Steam if you can wait for it to be finished! Thanks so much for the kind words!
Hi there, yes, if you got a message saying “this is the end of the public demo,” it’s indeed over! The demo ends at that point in Chapter 4. :) I’m so glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for your kind words, and there’s always more over on the Patreon/alpha build version, as well!
Hi, yes, this game was on Dashingdon originally, and it sounds like you certainly played it before! It was first uploaded in 2018, though, so it's understandable if some details feel mixed up or fuzzy. :) I'm glad you're enjoying this iteration of the game, thank you for your long support!
Hi, typically you need to accrue a certain amount of romance flags in order to get a confession from/an opportunity to confess to an RO. Flirting with them outside of their orientation doesn't net these romance flags, so right now, confessing to them and being rejected on the basis of MC's gender isn't a planned occurrence in the game. The opposite can happen, though, where a character may misinterpret flirting or other signs from MC and confess, then be rejected on the basis of MC's orientation! Hope that helps!
Hi there, yes, I plan to release the game on Steam when it's complete! I hope to have the Steam page up soon for wishlist purposes too! Thank you for your patience until then and for your kind words and support! :)
Hi, what’s giving you trouble specifically? And are you looking at the most current alpha build post? The alpha build was last updated in August, so you’ll need the password from the August post! Hope that helps!
If you could submit a bug report form with more details and a screenshot of what you see, that would really help! The bug report link is at the bottom of the game page!
Thank you so much for your lovely feedback! And I understand what you mean: it's expounded in later interludes, but the difference between MC's knowledge of Ket culture and Blade's is actually intentional; it's meant to highlight the differences between a child of immigrants who struggles with assimilation and a divorce from their heritage/their parents' culture, versus someone who was brought up in that culture but is deeply critical of it. I'll have to look at those early parts to see if I can make that clearer, but Ket!MC and Blade have more conversations about it as the game goes on! An Elf!MC who talks about the same thing with Tallys (or a Norm!MC who defends their people from her) will also have a different level of knowledge and perspective from a Hunter!MC, all depending on what their origin is and what exactly led their family to end up there! Hope that all makes sense!
Hi, most of the companions don't enter relationships or confess in the demo--that's later on in the game. But you can start to flirt with and romance Shery by picking options she enjoys! Her romance is a bit of a slow burn because she's so shy :)
Hi there, thanks for trying out the demo! There's no official guide or walkthrough yet, as I don't want to maintain one until I know the game is pretty finalized and complete, though I know there are some fan-made ones being shared on our Discord, where some people made personal documents that tracked stat changes in the early chapters. There's also a wealth of information to be found on Tumblr: if you check out the #game mechanics, #stats, or chapter tags on the blog, like if you have a question about a stat check or something in Chapter 1, visiting this link has all of the info about that chapter! https://www.shepherdsofhaven.com/tagged/chapter+1
Hi, thanks for this, the details help a lot! That'll be fixed in the next update! And in the future it would be wonderful if you could report bugs through the bug report form so I can keep track of everything! :) Thank you!
Thank you so much for the kind words! <3 One day Halek may become an RO through DLC--that'll be decided through a vote on Patreon when the time comes! :) Glad that you're enjoying the game!
Note: we’ve implemented some fixes on our end to hopefully reduce the chances of this happening, but in case it still does, here are some tips below. Please keep in mind that this shouldn’t be an issue in the released version of the game, which will be a downloadable file, not an online browser game that relies on the internet!
Google Chrome recently updated how it manages GPU and CPU resources on its browser. If you notice drastic slowdown and lag while playing the game on Google Chrome, that’s because the browser devs decided to be very silly and make my life exponentially harder. Try this:
Go to chrome://flags
Disable “Accelerated 2D Canvas” and “GPU Rasterization”
Performance should improve; it fixed the issue completely for me. If it doesn’t, try this:
Go to chrome://settings
Search ‘acceleration’ and toggle off graphic acceleration
This didn’t help much in my case, but is a popular troubleshooting tip online. If none of this helps, try going through the Troubleshooting Guide if you haven’t already!
If you're seeing strange bugs, missing updated content, or broken assets, you may be playing an outdated, cached version of the game, or you happened to be playing while the game was undergoing an update. Your browser sometimes holds onto old files (HTML, CSS, JavaScript) to load things faster — but after an update where variables, content, or assets have changed, this can cause confusion, as you might still be playing on a cached version of, say, V.1.0.0, while everyone else is playing V.2.0.0!
To fix it, do a Hard Refresh to force your browser to reload the newest version of the game!
💻 On Desktop:
Windows: Press Ctrl + Shift + R or Ctrl + F5
Mac: Press Cmd + Shift + R
Alternative: Type ?v=2 after the alpha build URL, which "tricks" itch.io into thinking you're playing a brand-new URL and breaks its habit of pulling from a cached version of the site
📱 On Mobile:
Type ?v=2 after the alpha build URL, which "tricks" itch.io into thinking you're playing a brand-new URL and breaks its habit of pulling from a cached version of the site
OR manually refresh the page twice
OR close and open the browser tab
OR (worst-case) play in Private/Incognito Mode to bypass cache
Don't worry! Your saved progress won't be lost by doing this. The game uses your browser’s local storage, which will stay intact during the refresh, so your saves are safe. This will just make sure you're seeing the latest version of the game, rather than an old cached version!
