The Patreon for Bride of Shadows is live! If you've already read the announcement on my blog, this is identical, don't read it again because there's really nothing different except for this sentence and the next one. You can click on the image or right here to go to the Patreon but be sure to read either this post or the Patreon intro post before subscribing. 

What's in The Nightborn Edition?

Right now, not a lot of extra stuff apart from Night V of the Zealot route. When I started writing Bride of Shadows, my aim was to avoid paywalling the story. I know from experience that there's no better time for romantic escapism than when you don't have money. So instead of clipping Bound/Unbound modes from the free version or stopping it after x amount of nights, I opted to make a version with early releases and fan-chosen extras. Each month, we're going to have polls on things like additional tendencies, story branches, and features that will be exclusive to The Nightborn Edition. Your version will have a lot of extra choices and even a few unique story lines.

I took the liberty of adding one much-requested feature to the new edition, and that is a brand new Bound Mode which has an MFM-poly story line and an optional Valdricht only route*. In this mode, Valdricht and Serax will have a platonic maker/progeny relationship. Starting in Night VI or VII (depending on your route) Bound mode players will be able to choose whether to try to juggle the passions of both ROs, or go deep down the Valdricht rabbit hole. Or you can make two save games and do both.

This Sunday we'll have our first poll relating to some baby stuff and I'll be posting an excerpt. Apart from that, I'll be pretty hands-off for the next few days as I focus on finishing the Heretic Night V route. As soon as that is done and edited, it'll be added to The Nightborn Edition as an early release. Then we'll have some polls that will let you shape Night VI and the upcoming NSFW content. I'm dying to write the NSFW Zealot scenes.

The extra content aside, the Patreon will go a long way toward helping me to write Bride of Shadows full-time, which means more content, more quickly, for everyone.

What if I can't/don't want to subscribe to Patreon?

The Nightborn Edition will be available on Steam & Itch once the Bride of Shadows IF is complete. I don't have a date on that, it will be dependent on whether I'll be able to write full-time this year. If there is a subscription service similar to Patreon that works in your country, let me know and I'll see about setting up an account.

For everyone else, the free Bride of Shadows updates will be one week after each Patreon update. They'll still have all the content I'd initially planned, including the NSFW stuff!

I donated on Ko-Fi, can I have a free month?

You sure can! In fact, I've already sent messages to everyone who gave a Ko-Fi donation. You should have a link waiting for you that will give you one or more free months of Darksinger membership, depending on how much you donated. If the value of your free months doesn't meet or exceed the amount of your Ko-Fi donation, let me know because I may have sent you the wrong link. Likewise, if you didn't get a message, let me know. I might still use Ko-Fi in the future, either for alternate memberships or goal funding, but for the time being Patreon isn't as temperamental with payments and NSFW content so I'll be focusing on that.

I am one of the two people who donated on Itch.

First of all, you're wonderful. Second, feel free to message me for a link to a free month of the Patreon or the March Nightborn password if you aren't able to do Patreon.

The Patreon page looks so boring and plain.

I KNOW! But I'm not allowed to make it look pretty until I finish Heretic Night V and the new Elovyr map. It's a rule I made because I know I'll sink at least a full day into making it look fancy. Also, The Nightborn Edition store page is basically identical to the regular game. It's driving me insane, too, but that's gotta wait. Writing always comes first.

Final Note

Please remember that the new edition is a work-in-progress and that the extra content will be added as patrons begin voting on it. Right now, it's very similar to the free version, with only the new Zealot night and some hidden variables. The Heretic route is under construction to make some updates for the new Bound mode and will not be playable until the Heretic Night V update next week.

Thanks for reading and supporting my writing. Even if you aren't able to subscribe to Patreon, I appreciate you just following me, chatting about the story, and sharing it with others who might enjoy it. I am grateful every day to be able to write and share Bride of Shadows with you.

-Mortish

*I hear you barking. I know you want a Serax-only route. Maybe it can be a thing later. I kind of have an idea of how we can make it work. Give me some time to think it through. I don't want to promise any story routes until I know 100% that they'll work in the context of the broader plot and that they'll be satisfying.