August Goody (3DS Game) (Patreon)

Shepherds of Haven, as many of you know, has had a long journey to get to where it is today. Originally it started off as novels: I think there are some 20+ novels on my hard drive for it, along with countless short stories.

But then I started to branch out into other mediums. First it was (very briefly and horribly) a manga. Then I wanted to try my hand at game-making.

Before I landed on ChoiceScript, I tried making a sword-and-sorcery-style RPG using the world and story of Shepherds of Haven!

In that iteration, it was still called Haven and Hael. At first I was just using Shepherds as an easy way to develop my rudimentary game-making skills--since I wouldn't have to develop a brand-new story and characters to learn and practice--but as I became more proficient with using the RPG Maker engine, I started to think that I could actually do it!

Sadly, I wanted choices to affect the storyline, and a traditional-style RPG just wouldn't cut it in that respect. But I still have the dozens and dozens of pages of planning when I was thinking seriously about making it an RPG: here's the MC's planned movesets in that iteration, where they could choose to be an Enchanter, Healer, Elementalist, or Battle-Mage, and wield a sword, dagger, bow, or gun. (Obviously its roots are very similar to ShoH today!)

Take a look below if you're curious about the kind of attacks MC would have had in their arsenal!

Movesets for the MC in Haven and Hael 

But wait! Are you curious to actually play the game? Well, I've uploaded the entirety of my work on it to the RPG Maker system so that anyone can play if they want to! The working demo is about an hour and a half of gameplay if you take the time to explore everything. You can explore Haven and the Shepherds' compound! You can click incessantly on everything because I put hidden things and secrets everywhere! You can go on your first mission with Blade, Trouble, and Tallys!

How do you play? 

If you're so inclined, you need:

• A Nintendo 3DS system
• An internet connection

Download the free app "RPG Maker Player" from the Nintendo eShop onto your 3DS. It is free and you don't need to own anything else to use it.

Once it's downloaded, use the "Search" function to find my game!

Nickname/Creator ID:

Rinari/55168

Game: 

Haven and Hael

Product ID:

2mjg8wrk

You can use either my creator ID or the game's product ID to find it. After that, it's a simple download and then you are ready to play!

If you do choose to play, a few notes:

• The game doesn't "end", it just keeps going. I don't think I ever figured out how to make it end--I never got that far, and it was years ago, so I definitely don't know how to do it now! Once you've left the sewers, that's pretty much the end of the content, though you can still run around and explore if you want to!
• I was planning on using custom assets way down the game's development, but the characters now use preset assets. This doesn't matter for the majority of people, but Blade, Trouble, Tallys, Shery, and Caine definitely look different--they're just preset character models, a rough approximation, not the real thing! Just imagine their real faces in place of the lame assets!
• You have to equip your weapon and armor in the menu. I never figured out how to make the game start with things already equipped!
• Hal, Arta, Chandry (but meaner), Lavinet, Prihine, Chase, and many others all appear in this demo in some form or another. Can you find them all?

If you do end up playing, please let me know what you think! I put over 100 hours into making this fun little slice of an RPG, and playing it over again years later, I was actually very proud!

Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy!