- New Explore Mode - 14 September 2026
Greetings from the void... We hope you're doing well! And if you aren't, that you will be soon.Today, we'd like to announce that a new play mode is being added to each chapter of the full game. It's called Explore Mode!Explore Mode allows the player to immerse more directly in this adventure through the otherworldly void by performing simple actions to proceed through its environment.Since everything in our game's original vision had to be told through either visual novel or battle scenes, the types of events and stories we could tell became limited... This became increasingly clear while developing the later scenes of the game.One of our biggest creative goals is to consistently surprise the player with each chapter, and create the feeling of “anything is possible.” So these added exploration segments are intended to give the story more room to breathe, while increasing the variety of…
- 💛🤍 Nonbinary Coded Games Festival! 💜🖤 - 13 July 2026
Greetings from the void... Emblems: Sunless Vow is being featured in the 💛🤍 Nonbinary Coded Games 💜🖤 Steam Festival!!Click below to peruse over 180 games by devs who are nonbinary, genderqueer, and outside the gender binary, along with games that have nonbinary rep! Including our beloved (?) Magic themself 💚https://store.steampowered.com/curator/46105077/sale/NonbinaryCodedGames...Additionally...We'll be sharing news about a new mode in September 2026!We've implemented a new feature for the full game to help create more variety in the overall experience... 🤫 Because of this, the dialogue has been reworked a bit to fit with the new vision, but the bad attitudes and silly jokes remain strong.As a reminder, we'll be releasing the full game in 2027. At that time, it will have amassed a novel-length story... We hope you'll be ready to settle in for the ride!Thank you as always for read…
- Our Other Game! 🪽 + Storyteller's Fest 2026 - 11 May 2026
Greetings from the void... We mentioned last time that we were pausing work on Emblems: Sunless Vow in order to complete a smaller project to support our development.Angel Clicker is now finished! It's a biblical yuri incremental with pizza, tea dates, and dragon fights! (Yes, you read that right!) 🐲 If you enjoyed the character interactions in Emblems, then please consider purchasing Angel Clicker as well! It shares our signature blend of humor, drama, and relationship shenanigans... 💙💚💜Secondly, we'd like to announce that Emblems: Sunless Vow is being featured in the Storyteller's Festival 2026! 📚Click the banner at the top of our page to see over 300 visual novels and narrative games, both on-sale and upcoming!Now that Angel Clicker is finished, we'll be returning to focus on development for Emblems. We hope to release it in Q1 2027! With the gameplay elements mostly finalized,…
- Emblems 2027 - 10 December 2025
Greetings from the void... We hope everyone is doing well, and if you aren't...that you will be, soon! 🔮✨ Today, we have two announcements!1️⃣ First, we'd like to announce that Emblems will be releasing in 2027. This is for several reasons, including the fact that we simply got too ambitious with our timeline. (We're only two people, and neither of us are able to develop fulltime!)2️⃣ Our second announcement (closely related to the first one) is that we have paused development on Emblems for one month to create an entirely new game! Our hope is that the sales from this game will allow us to reduce our dayjob hours to more fully focus on Emblems... However, we do also really love, and care about, the new game!!!Allow us to introduce: 🪽 Angel Clicker 🪽 An incremental clicker with optional rhythm elements. Help Heavenly Architect Legion defeat her eternal archrival Lucifer once and for…
- More Skill Tree + Quality of Life! - 16 October 2025
Greetings from the void... We hope everyone is doing well, and if you aren't...that you will be, soon! 🔮✨As we continue to improve the main game, we just can’t help but go ahead and add those features into the demo as well...it's a tragic character flaw of ours. Please enjoy these quality of life improvements at our expense!Endless Chaos! – We’ve added the option to immediately start a new run of Chaos, right from the end screen. Jump right back in with the same settings, or try a new setup – all options, including Tribulations, Crit Style, and the newly added Permanent/Forbidden Favors, can be adjusted here!Let me try that again... (Restart Battle!) – You now have the option to restart any battle in Story mode from the settings menu. If things aren’t going well, or you know you could squeeze out a few more levels, give it another shot!No, really... Let Me Try That Again...! (Return to…
- Polished Demo (&More) - 7 August 2025
Greetings from the void...We hope you're doing well. Our plan for the full release is on-track, set for sometime between December 2025 and February 2026! 🔮✨ Among many other things, we're working hard on finalizing the rest of the script, drawing art for new road events, and creating animations for secret bosses.In the mean time, please enjoy these hot-and-ready updates to the demo, fresh out of the abyss-oven! 🍕Patch notes for August Demo update:Skill Trees (The Relic of Mercy) are now available to view in both Story Mode and Chaos Mode! Get a glimpse of what awaits you in the full game.New Mechanic: Precision. Defeat enemies with exact damage to gain bonus EXP! (The existing Precision Favor now increases this effect.)Damage Breakdown: hover over any damage number to see a breakdown of the factors that contribute to it.Trial Rooms: Added a chance for a battle in Chaos to be marked as…
- Chaos Mode (New Trailer) - 25 May 2025
Greetings from the void... Hello, everyone. You may have noticed...that your copy of Emblems: Sunless Vow the demo has an update available. Well. That might be because... 🎉 The first taste of Chaos Mode is finally here! 🎉 And we've updated our trailers + screenshots accordingly. Do check them out if you'd like a quick preview! Chaos Mode features... Procedurally generated maps that change with each run, as well as a wider range of game mechanics. Right out of the gate, you'll be battling Vengeful Spirits, Support enemies, and wacky modifiers! Access to over 50 Favors (100+ in the full game!), which provide upgrades for the entire run. An upgradeable shop with a devilish shopkeeper, who is very...erm. Grateful. For your patronage... (You'll see.) Flexible difficulty! 3 main difficulty settings + 7 optional Tribulations. And, just like in Story mode, you will always accumulate experienc…
- New Demo! - 3 March 2025
Greetings from the void... We hope you're well! March 3rd...is finally here. Which means... The time to unleash our updated demo upon the populace has come! We've worked hard, and hope you'll enjoy the... Condensed Narrative (30 min to play the whole demo!) Additional CGs Updated Visuals / Effects New Music! Mysterious Cliffhanger ??? Please let us know what you thought, or if you encounter any bugs! (By accessing the feedback form on the main menu.) And thank you so much for playing. P.S. In light of all of these changes, we decided not to rush out the trial of Chaos Mode for this version... But only visuals remain! We've thoroughly tested it, and are excited to roll it out in the next few months. See you soon! Tonic & Ikiru
- Progress Update (New Trailer) - 13 December 2024
Greetings from the void... Hello, everyone. And we hope you're having an auspicious holiday, if that's relevant. This will be quick update just to say three things. 1. We created a new trailer! Please check out the new 1st video on our steam page. This trailer focuses on the characters more, showcasing their voices and animations. We're very excited to show off a few more of Tonic's CGs, too! And Ikiru learned a lot of cool transition effects for this video, so if you don't like them...don't tell him. 2. Congratulations to Two and a Half Studio's release of the Date with Death DLC - Beyond the Bet!! Gabby had generously offered a kickstarter tier for fellow indies to have an "ad" featured in the chat screen portions of Date with Death... So, you might just see an Emblems: Sunless Vow ad on your next run! If tsundere-wooing is also your favorite sport, that is. 3. Work on the game is pro…
- Progress Update (Demo & Buffs) - 1 November 2024
Greetings from the void... It's that time again. Yes, that's right. Today, the two of us bring you a brief update on our development progress. 1. We have restructured our introduction, and are continuing to make our demo more "efficient." As a result of shortening our first mega-scene, we realized it would be good to rearrange some other parts of our demo as well. In sum, the demo will now end after Chapter 2 - but it will contain many more exciting things in the shorter duration! (Trust us. It's true.) Some of the less-secret, but still exciting things are: an additional CG, so many UI updates, various effects & background adjustments, and that promised taste of Chaos Mode. The demo is down for now, while we complete these changes. (audience awws) However, we aim to reupload it in January or so. It should feel quite different, so, when the time comes... We hope you'll give it another s…
- Progress Update (Intro & Chaos) - 18 August 2024
Greetings from the void... We hope you're well. Today, the two of us bring you a brief update on our development progress. 1. We are currently condensing the introduction to our game. This includes the initial dialogue scene + tutorial. The streamlined version will allow you to get to the gameplay faster, is flashier, and truer to the action-setting of the story. 2. We are now testing Chaos Mode, the roguelite version of the game. We plan to release a taste of it in our next big demo update. If you enjoy being mercilessly battered by the void, we think you'll like it. 3. We are creating a Party Reward mechanic that awards buffs regularly throughout each Chapter, based on the total number of levels you have accumulated. For example: "Damage all enemies when gaining a level." 4. We are also creating a Type Advancement mechanic that gives unique upgrades to each type, based on how often th…
- Bug Fixes (Balance & Reference) - 26 July 2024
Greetings from the void. The two of us are hard at work on refining the intro to the game. And of course, completing the rest of the 13 Chapters! But in the mean time, we've brought you... A balance adjustment. And minor bug fixes. • Balance: Boosted the experience bonus of the Precision Advantage to +75% • Fix: The Type + Crit References will now stay active in the bottom-right corner after Chapter 3. • Fix: Tutorial boxes for new mechanics will now show every time you start the battle in which they are introduced. • Fix: Story scenes will now only be skipped by clicking the "Skip" arrow in the top-right of the screen. • Fix: If the "Scrolling Background" setting is disabled, the screen warp intro to boss battles will also be disabled. • Fix: Music will now fade out properly in certain situations. (All of them, we hope.) • Polish: Minor edits to opening cinematic.
- New Feature (Support Enemies) - 5 July 2024
Greetings from the void. We've brought you...a new feature! A crit change! And minor bug fixes. • New Feature: Added "Support Enemies" to Chapters 4 – 6. Support enemies apply a temporary buff to other enemies, creating more varied scenarios in the middle of battle (that aren't quite as game-changing as a Modifier). This mechanic was already designed for Chaos mode, but we decided to bring it into Story to add more variety. • Balance: We have changed the mechanic of Spirit’s Crit. It now deals 1 extra damage and heals 1 Vit for every 2 Vit missing. At 50% Vit, this will be identical to the original version...but it will become much stronger now, as his Vit decreases. Will you take the risk? • Fix: Controller input will no longer go into super slow-mo during Relic unlocks. • Fix: The Mercy of Growth will now be unlocked appropriately. • Polish: Darkened battle backgrounds to better empha…
- Bug Fix - Retry (Bosses) - 17 June 2024
Edit: Anyone who had enabled "Skip Dialogue" can now also join in on the bug-fix-fun below. Greetings from the void. We've brought you...a major bug fix for the boss fights! Let's have a nice, big shout-out to the hero who sent us such kind and detailed feedback regarding this issue. (Applause) And remember: You too can be kind and detailed...when you press the Report Bug button today, found on the Main Menu of the game. Do let us know of any strange issues you encounter while playing. We'll do our best to fix them quickly. • Major Fix: Retrying from the Game Over screen will now return you to the main menu, where you can click "Continue" to try the fight again. This will fix many potential issues. • Fix: Enemy attacks that hit 2+ targets will no longer cause issues if there are no additional targets to hit. • Fix: Choosing “End” in the Game Over screen will now properly check the max R…
- Demo Release + Dev Stream! - 16 June 2024
Hello, everyone! We have some good news... The Demo for Emblems: Sunless Vow is officially HERE! ⚔️🔮🪴 And we're so excited for you to get trapped in the void- we mean, give it a try. You get to fight marbles with marbles! ...with amnesia! Just like you've always wanted. Plus, watch us play the game for the rest of Next Fest! The two of us will be live in the chat on: Sunday, June 16, 2024 @ 11am - noon EDT Sunday, June 16, 2024 @ 8pm - 9pm EDT Come on by and say hello...if you dare.
- Emblems Demo Live Stream - 16 June 2024
Join us as we make our way through the void... with marbles! And amnesia! https://steamcommunity.com/broadcast/watch/76561199228006112
- Emblems Demo Live Stream - 16 June 2024
Join us as we make our way through the void... with marbles! And amnesia! https://steamcommunity.com/broadcast/watch/76561199228006112
