Big updates and buried treasure
Proper week this time, the 18th through today. Two real updates, two things that have been sitting under my nose for years, and one correction where I was flat out wrong.
September 20 and 24, 2026
Dawn Chorus
Cozy queer romance VN set above the Arctic Circle in Norway. Free.
v0.58 finally landed on the free itch build. This is the Lake, Jørgen and Guðrún update, roughly 25k words of new scenes, and it is the biggest the game has had.
The dev’s own description of making it: more than a month of writing and testing, “pulling my hair out, litres of coffee and ADHD meds,” and then a rework of nearly the whole thing anyway. I felt that.
Then on the 24th there was a hotfix, and the reason is very human. While compiling the update he accidentally pulled parts of the newer Patreon script into Rune’s route, and the newer script wasn’t compatible. So if you grabbed v0.58 in the first few days, redownload it, especially if you were anywhere near Rune.
Meanwhile The Waves, Lake’s side story, is still rolling out a chapter every two weeks on Patreon before it comes here free.
September 21, 2026
Hypermancer
3D turn based RPG about bara and muscle growth. Free while it’s in early development.
The overdue build showed up, and it’s a big one. 0.1.2, after a month of silence following 0.1.1 in August. I flagged it as late last week, so credit where it’s due.
The dev’s note explains the delay: while making one animation he worked out a proper cutscene workflow for the whole game, then went back and reworked every single cutscene with it. That’s the kind of delay I don’t mind.
Still free, still explicitly no generative AI, and it stops being free once it reaches Alpha. Grabbing it now is not a bad idea.
Two I should have told you about ages ago
No news hook. I just went looking properly this week and found two big, well loved things I have never once mentioned here, and that feels like a failure of the newsletter.
Where The Demon Lurks: you play an exiled Demon Lord hiding out in the sleepy town of Kibbleton, meeting demons, angels and assorted misfits. Mostly kinetic, SFW with occasional fan service, a few hours long. It is sitting at 4.8 from 716 ratings, which is enormous. Win/Mac/Linux/Android. 🛒 Get it on itch.io
Light My Way: LGBTQ+ thriller horror kinetic novel. A fox named Lucian on the continent of Stradia, haunted by powers he doesn’t understand and lights only he can see. Love, betrayal, grief. 4.7 from 216 ratings, no generative AI, and English, Latin American Spanish and Simplified Chinese. Prologue and Chapter 1 are free in your browser. 🛒 Get it on itch.io
👀 On the radar
A correction, and it’s mine. I have been telling you the Vampire Therapist Xbox port was unconfirmed. It shipped. The dev’s own announcement covers Switch, PS4, PS5 and, his words, “all those weird Xboxes with funny names.” That question is closed and I was carrying stale information. Sorry.
While I’m there: Little Bat’s next game is called Better Than Us, it’s on Steam with a 2026 window, and it’s about lying to the ultra rich. 🛒 Get it on Steam
Canticle … on track and nothing new needed. Chapter 4 wrapped on Patreon with 0.4.7, the big revision hits Patreon in two halves across October, and the public build is still aimed at early November. That remains the date I’m most looking forward to.
SHIP … the flooded 1950s port city mystery I flagged last week has crept to 4.8 from 16 ratings. Quietly building a reputation.
Those NPC’s Love Stories … Steam still reads “To be announced.” No change.
Twin Coves … now five months with no itch devlog, still 78%. Kickstarter is where the dev actually posts.
📺 Catch me live
I stream every week, usually Sundays around 3PM EST. Bara and gay story driven games, plus whatever horror indie catches my eye.
Premiering tonight, 6PM: We Found the Missing Murder Footage… and Things Got VERY Hot | Marble Mirage Episode 3 ▶️ Watch it on YouTube
Newest video: One of these men will be found dead in the morning. Can you guess who?
See you Sunday 🐹