Those Long Dead is a medieval fantasy interactive fiction story, with angelic imagery and themes worked in, and a focus on romance. It is rated 18+ for depictions of swearing, potential sexual themes, violence, and death. More warnings may be added as development goes on.

Three generations.

That’s how long it’s been since this kingdom was conquered. In a time of great upset, the First Queen led a rebellion against reviled rulers and oppressive laws. Waging war with unmatched cunning, she rallied many powerful soul mages, known as angels, to the cause. From that conflict, the kingdom of Calcherth was born, built on the bones of the old empire. The First Queen ruled with great compassion and wit, but not all sins are forgiven with time. For the deaths she had caused during the war, the First Queen was murdered by the very people she had endeavored to lead.

The loss of its ruler did not spell the end of Calcherth, however. The coup was quickly suppressed, and the First Queen’s son took the throne in her place. Now, many years later, the scars on Calcherth’s short history have faded, and advances in soul magic improve lives for many within its borders. However, those same advances are viewed as a threat by Calcherth’s neighboring kingdom, and many fear war is on the horizon once more. To make matters even more dire, the Second King has suddenly passed away, leaving his youngest son to succeed the throne long before he is old enough.

The effects of these events are so far-reaching, that even you are beginning to feel them, far to the southwest in the remote town of Lest. You are the child of a retired knight of the kingdom, who traded in his sword for the deed to Lest’s tavern. The Fool’s March, your father has named it, and the humble, but beloved tavern has been the center point of your entire life. But now, with rumblings of war, your father plans to pick up a blade once again, heading to the capital to enlist and leaving you behind in your childhood home. With him no longer by your side, what will you do when a threat to the entire kingdom comes for you? What will you do when you find out you may be a soul mage, yourself?

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Everybody says timers are great for ADHD… and they are 100% right. Why is this helping so much. I’m mad I didn’t try it for so long.

Oh my gosh, I had no idea I had gotten a response to the question I’d posted!! I am so, so sorry this response is so late!! Thank you so much for reading the demo again to check for me, I appreciate it so much. It’s really good to hear perspectives on my writing that aren’t just my own. 🙂‍↕️ I’m glad it still flows well even without the same impact as the other two paths, and you’re right, it is an important option to include. Thank you for reassuring me. 🥺💕

Hey guys. Sorry for the silence here… After I heard about all the stuff going on with Steam and Itch.io delisting and removing “adult” games, I’ve been very disheartened and worried about TLD’s future, to the point that I’ve been scared to even check if it got removed from Itch.io or not. As of now it doesn’t seem to have been delisted, but I don’t know if that will change.

As you know, Those Long Dead, along with any other interactive fiction game I would make, is geared towards an adult, queer audience. The RO’s in it are queer, and I have long planned to have various adult content, including completely optional sexual content in the romance routes, in the game. Because of this, payment processors pressuring Steam and Itch.io to delist or remove anything with the broad label of “adult” content is a huge deal to me and my work. I could remove much of the adult content of my games, despite the detriment to the story, but I will not remove the queer inclusion within it, and I have long seen queer media labelled as “adult” or “inappropriate” simply for being queer. I’m very scared the same will happen to Those Long Dead, because I’ve seen this kind of sweeping removal before, and I do not trust it. Even if it’s just NSFW content today, what will it be tomorrow?

I really cannot overstate how terrified I am that this change in game hosting platforms will be permanent, because if it is, I’ll have no idea where to host TLD as it develops, or where to publish it the day it’s finished. I’m a mentally ill woman in her late twenties with regular physical pain, and because of this I don’t currently have a job, or even a lot of hope to ever get one. I was really hoping to maybe be able to support myself a little through the few skills I have by making games, but if this restriction on game platforms is permanent, I genuinely don’t know if I’ll get to. I still want to finish TLD, no matter what, but I just don’t know what’s going to happen right now.

I don’t know how many people are reading this, but please, do what you can to push back against this decision by payment processors, no matter how big or small. In the meantime, I’m going to do my best to keep working on the next update for Those Long Dead, and just hope the game is still listed on Itch.io when it’s ready!! 😭💕

Does anyone who prefers the friendly dynamic with Kaine (not BFF or strained) have any feedback on chapter one’s flow with that choice? I was rereading parts of that path while writing today, and I’m unsure if it has a good flow or enough impact. 🥺

Crawls out of a hole in the ground covered in blood. Along with very slowly working on chapter two, I’ve been refining the first chapter a bit more with edits and little additions, and one of the changes is that Kaine will nickname your MC something if on the BFF/Crush path. You can select the nickname from a list. It’s really cute, I promise.

Hello again! My last update I was waiting for doctors appointment and tests to be done, and I am now being treated for something that I am hoping is the source of my physical health issues. It’s been about a week on the new medication, and I can’t be sure yet, but I think I’m starting to feel a bit better, so I’m a little hopeful!

On that note, I’ve returned to working on TLD as regularly as I’m able. My plan for the immediate future is to finish edits to the first chapter, and get at least a rough draft of the full second chapter finished, and then I would like to share that as an early-access alpha build through Patreon.

There are two reasons for the alpha build: First, last time I pushed an update straight to the public demo, there were several bugs, typos, etc, that I had missed, and I would like to have these tested and fixed through sharing an alpha build via Patreon as a testing period, before the update is made public. Second, and I hate to say it, but as someone who cannot currently work because of mental and physical health issues, any kind of financial support I could possibly receive from this project, I sorely need. So, I would like to use Patreon as a way for readers to support my work, while gaining access to different benefits or behind-the-scenes content, such as the alpha builds.

I know I soft-launched a Patreon previously that has been quietly available, but if my health improvement holds, I would like to get much more serious about it with the next TLD update.

Sorry for the long update, but I hope it’s nice to hear some good news this time? 😅

Hey there! Don’t worry, I’m still around, and work on TLD is still ongoing. Unfortunately, I will admit things have slowed down in the past months, because of some health issues I’m still trying to figure out the cause of… I have a theory, and a referral to a specialist, but I still need to wait a while until the appointment to see if said theory has merit.

What bothers me the most about my laundry list of health issues is that it’s getting harder and harder for me to concentrate… on anything at all, really, way beyond what could be written off as my ADHD diagnosis. So writing has become a lot harder, even if it’s all I want to do. Which to be honest, really sucks, because I want to share more of TLD’s story so bad! 😭

But yeah, summary of this update is that I am waiting for doctors appointments, but in the meantime I am still trying desperately to do the tiny bits of writing I can manage. Hopefully, I can get my health issues sorted out soon, and get back to doing things that I enjoy, like writing TLD. 🥲💕

Um, I genuinely wouldn’t know, I’m afraid! I think any device that can view a webpage could theoretically play the itch.io build, but I don’t have any ios devices to test that specifically. As I’ve said previously, I’m mainly developing this game for desktop/PC, and because of that mobile support is not a big priority of mine, though I have tried to fix things enough that the game is at least somewhat playable on mobile… hopefully… 🥲

Thank you, anon!! 🥺💕 You guys give me so much encouragement, it keeps me going. And yes, ADHD gang! 🤝