Hi! I'm Aeriel, also known as Duchess, the lead dev at Foxdrift Studios. It's been a long time since we announced anything on itch.io, so I wanted to give a massive update on our progress with Garden of Seif and what you can expect next. 

First, I want to dive in and talk about what Garden of Seif is all about for those of you who may not know or need a refresher.

Summary:

Iris, an undercover assassin, is on a mission to knock out her marks with the help of her anonymous partner, Ace. Things turn upside down when a guild of enemy assassins is after her bounty. Amidst her journey, she runs into two mysterious men, both claiming to be trustworthy, but their secrets could lead her deeper into trouble.

This game is a fantasy/adventure otome, with two routes featuring our leading male characters: Seth and the mysterious Dust Hunter. 

Our April 2020 demo was very short, and while it did receive good attention, a lot has been upgraded since its release. This led to our major decision to release a newly polished and extended demo. We want to give people a taste of what to expect in the full release. You'll get to play through some of the choices, which were not available in the original demo. 

What's New:

Art & Designs

• Animated and cohesive UI design.

• Iris's side portraits are probably one of the most significant additions to the game. My biggest goal with Garden of Seif was to create a protagonist that went beyond the self-insert MC and had a personality and backstory of her own. We now have 18 different side portrait busts for Iris, and it's really brought her character to life. They were very much Disney-inspired as far as being expressive.
  

• Seth and the Dust Hunter have received a new pose since the last demo.
• All characters have received more expressions, really enhancing their personalities.

• Other technical aspects have been polished, i.e., more save/load slots, the gallery, and the game menus all have been reworked.
• The text has been adjusted to increase legibility.

Story

1. The game remains pretty much intact as far as the dialogue and plot in comparison to the 2020 demo. The only changes have been the clean-up of wordiness. This includes lore elements added to the journal/encyclopedia in the journal menu of the game instead of in extensive dialogue dumps that we found interrupted the gameplay. 
2. Another minor change has been various world lore names and titles. We had discovered that some of the terms we chose either too closely resembled real-life places, or they just didn't fit. We want to establish that the world in Garden of Seif is a fantasy world. We got creative by fleshing out the map and cities within the continent of Zalstar.
3. Past chapter 1, you'll be introduced to a large portion of the cast. Previously, readers only encountered Seth and Iris. Now you'll be able to dive into more of the story and even experience a few choices!

To those of you downloading and playing the current demo, thank you. We are looking to add an updated demo (chapter one) for the short version as soon as possible. You can be on the lookout for the final demo in January 2022, which will include three chapters and two prologues, and all of the updates mentioned above.

A full release is on the horizon; we're aiming for a late 2022 release. The exact month is TBD and may rely somewhat on how our planned Kickstarter will turn out. That being said, this leads us to our last announcement. We're happy to disclose that we plan on releasing a complete side story for the 2021 Winter VN Jam! Garden of Seif: Curse of Gravehollow Peaks will feature Iris and Seth and their journey in the fantasy world of Zalstar. 

Summary: 

Two assassins embark on a journey to wipe out their marks, but they wind up lost in the snowy Gravehollow Peaks. Some say there's a beast hidden within the cave of the tallest peak, a beast that curses the mountains with eternal snow. Will they ever find a way out?

This story came into my head when we expanded upon the map of Zalstar. There's a lot of lore in Garden of Seif. When developing the map, we conjured up a mysterious area known as Gravehollow Peaks. Gravehollow Peaks is a snowy mountain range in the southwest. Legend has it that travelers who trek this area never return. Mysterious mountains cursed with eternal snow? That fits nicely with the winter VN jam theme! We really just wanted to get something out there that's complete, but also a fresh take on the story we've been invested in for so many years.

So here we are! I hope you guys like what we are bringing to the table this winter. Thanks for reading!

-Duchess