27/09/2026 - Act 1 Out Now! 🎊

The fully finished Act 1 is out now, with an estimated 13+ hours of content! I hope you enjoy it!

I feel fairly confident that this version of the game should be mostly bug-free, but please let me know if you find anything! I'm honestly more anxious than excited about the launch, because I'm so afraid I accidentally missed something gamebreaking...

...But for now, I'm feeling extremely tired, and could really use a break from Saki for a while. With all this finally done, I'll take some time to rest for once, and maybe work on another smaller project for a while before continuing with Act 2.

Compatibility With/Changes From Prior Versions

For those who played the 0.5/Early Access version of the game, your save files should still be detected and transfer fine to this version. If there's any problems with that, please let me know immediately!

In addition to all the new story and side content, there have been a lot of smaller tweaks to the existing 0.5 content. There'd be too many to list here (or for me to remember), but if you're interested, the most significant recent ones are:

• Heavy and Grab attacks performed while grappling an enemy now have brief invincibility to make crowd control easier.
• Being Posture Broken while Blocking now puts you in the 'Guard Crush' state rather than the 'Hurt' state, meaning you have a chance to dodge away and save yourself, rather than being completely stunned. I want to minimize the frequency of moments in which the player is left unable to move, and I thought it was way too punishing to be left wide open like that for mistiming a block...
• Small tweaks to the difficulty presets. You may need to re-select your preset from the settings menu to update everything to be accurate.
• All weapons should now more consistently stun enemies. They should have been doing that in the first place, but some were bugged.
• New textbox speed and textbox font choice options.
• Removed the "Weapon Draw ++" ability, as being able to draw three weapons per battle seemed a little excessive... you should be refunded 200 XP if you bought it in an earlier version.
• There's a new 'Continue' option on the main menu that'll automatically load your most recent save. It won't work until you make a new save in this version, though...

Please have fun! - HSTopaz

7/09/2026 - Act 1 Coming Soon...

Oh, I'm late again... Hello, anyway. 

This is a very short post, but an exciting one. To be straight to the point, I'm estimating that the fully complete Act 1 of SBH will be released within the next month!

I've gone back and forth on the exact terms I've been using with this game a bit over the years, so to be clear, 'Act 1' refers to the first 5 chapters of the game's main story. The current '0.5' version of the game is only the first 3 chapters, so this update will be adding 2 additional chapters, a bunch of new side content, and a lot of little tweaks to existing things!

I think in the last post I estimated a release date of around the end of the year, but I've managed to work faster than I expected, and almost everything is now complete. All that's really left to do at the moment is to write a few pieces of miscellaneous flavor text, and to get some friends to playtest it. 

One playtester has finished it at the time of writing, and provided a lot of valuable and very mortifying feedback. It feels like going to the dentist to have my rotten teeth removed. 

Despite all that, I'm feeling satisfied with how the game is at the moment, and hopefully you will be as well.  

Until then, though... thank you for reading!

- HSTopaz

28/07/2026 - Playing as a Boss!

Hello again! The slacking developer has finally gotten around to this month's post. I've been quite productive on the game lately, but I just haven't been in the mood to write...

The good news is that this is actually the first post in a long time in which I have something significant to share gameplay-wise!

Scarred By Heaven Progress

I recently finished making the main story content for Act 1, and so I've moved on to doing a bunch of the side content that I definitely want to be in the game when I release it. The first thing I decided to start with was the one I was most excited for–'Virtual Reality' combat! ...Which is a gameplay mode that lets you play as characters other than Saki!

For as long as I can remember, I've always really loved it when games let you play as an 'enemy' in some way, like Vergil in Devil May Cry, or even simpler things like the 'helpers' in old Kirby games. I don't really know why, but I always found it fascinating to encounter an opponent, and then later have the option to control them–even in cases when it's extremely clear that they weren't designed to be controlled (lol). 

To that end, having a side mode where you can play as the bosses has been a long-time 'dream' feature for me in SBH. Being able to flesh out unique playstyles for the major characters is incredibly fun for me, and doing it in a self-contained arcadey mode means I can keep the scope relatively small, and not have to worry too much about making them as complex or balanced as Saki. It's also really easy to do, asset and code wise, since I'm just recycling their pre-existing boss attacks, and retooling them to work as a playable character!

The framework of the mode is fully finished, but the only character right now is Livio. He's all about big whip sweeps and absurdly long juggles... compared to Saki, he's more like playing Sceaven Warriors or something. Friday is also planned to be playable on launch, though I think I want to take a break from the VR junk for a little before making her.

---

Next, I want to work on a handful of small quality-of-life changes that have been nagging me, like customizable text speeds for dialogue, and a proper 'storage' option that lets you remove undesired items from your inventory without just selling them. 

I also want to add some dedicated 'bonding' sidestories for the major characters, in which you can hang out with them casually and learn more about them. They're planned to be something unlocked gradually alongside the main story, so you'll only be able to see a few parts of each in Act 1.

Honestly, I feel a little mixed about 'hiding' certain pieces of the characters away in side content, as I feel like character development in games is usually more satisfying when it's fully a part of the main story... But I do feel like for SBH's narrative, it makes sense for these things to be something you have to actively 'seek out' during downtime. I'm hoping I can strike a balance with both 'sides' of the story contributing to each character's growth.

...And besides, it's a video game, so I may as well take advantage of 'side content' being an option at all, right? ~~

...But that's about all for today. There's also a few other sidestories I've been working on, but I don't want to spoil them too much yet.

Personal Notes

Almost the eighth month of the year, already... How terrible.

I wanted to participate in Art Fight this year, and even created an account, but I ended up falling into pretty low mood, and it slipped my mind... I only remembered it late last night, like it was a child I left at soccer practice. 

I think this current rut is just the natural rising and falling of my mood that I've always lived with. It's frustrating to feel depressed for seemingly no reason, but I thankfully know myself well enough to know that all I have to do is wait for it to end on its own. Also thankfully, working on SBH is one of the few things I do remain passionate about when the melancholy grips, so my moodiness won't affect my productivity there. It's good to have a project to anchor yourself in emotionally trying times.

I don't have much else to report in my life, otherwise. Today's interesting game I can share is Urban Myth Dissolution Center, which I'm currently in the middle of playing. It starts a little slow-paced and is a little rough, but I've gotten pretty invested in it. It has a strange writing style that I find quite engaging...

...But that's it for today. Thank you for reading!

- HSTopaz