- New Playable Endings - 8 May 2026
Hello everyone,It’s been a while since the last update, as I’ve been focused on implementing the feedback you provided on the story-complete testing build. While the vast majority of the new Act 3 content worked well, the non-interactive epilogues simply did not have the intended impact. It became clear that the player experience that had been elevated to great heights throughout the three acts came down crashing with an abrupt ending. This issue was not just about a few bugs that could be fixed. The only real solution was a new, fully playable post-siege scene, where you get to interact with your favorite companions, transform the ideas that undermine you into something positive, exert your influence, and reap the benefits of your hard work.So that’s exactly what I’m excited to announce today with a brand-new update to the testing build:DISCLAIMER: the following text might include mino…
- Story-Complete Testing Build Available - 22 November 2025
Hello everyone,It's with great joy that we share today's news with you - we've finalized Act 3 with the last 2 ending scenes, which means for the first time ever, all Early Access players can access a story-complete testing build of our game via our Discord.Each of the endings features numerous new risk chains, duels, and dialogues, navigating the fine line between demonstrating credible strength without triggering the arrogance of a veteran Roman commander or pushing exhausted allies over the edge.How much trust you've built matters when you want to open the gate with the enemy poised to strike.How well you came prepared determines whether you can foil even the most brutal negotiation tactics.The game offers paths to boost your numbers in daring ways even after the siege has begun.To celebrate Czech & Slovak Games Week, we’re also running a 35% discount all week long to make it easier…
- Fall Update - 3 October 2025
Hello everyone,It’s been a while since the last update, as I was aiming to reach the story-complete testing build before posting, but with September gone, I realized the gap between updates would just grow too long, and wanted to keep you informed on what’s happening with Sacred Fire.Beyond the usual real-life mini-bosses to take care of (money, health, family), the main reason for the slower-than-anticipated progress is the complexity of the Act 3 final scenes. Even in mid-summer I was optimistic, but then the main siege scene took seven times longer to set up than a standard two-NPC dialogue scene, because of the clashing forces visuals and many NPCs and game states. Which one of the Roman commanders is still alive matters a lot While I was in the end able to implement this most complex Act 3 scene, and the story will be delivered in an uncompromised scope, the tradeoff is delay. My i…
- Spring Update - 28 May 2025
Hello everyone, With spring well upon us, we’ve prepared a week-long 33% discount and a detailed development update. First things first: for those asking if the 1.0 release will happen this year we can say the progress we made now should make that possible. We'll share a more precise date once Act 3 testing is complete. The following text contains minor spoilers. Now, today's update to the testing build is quite substantial and includes: Two unique aftermath scenes for the missing children rescue mission: A scene where you talk to a stranger and prepare peace negotiations An event where you handle the garrison's outrage upon the arrival of the Romans Companion siege preparation talks, including: Tactical choices on how to improve the fort’s defenses Requests from various characters to prioritize their private goals during the siege Night raid scenes, featuring: A Roman camp infiltration…
- 2.6.4f5 - Community feedback fixes and improvements - 11 March 2025
UI fixes and refinement: left-over tooltip fix bottom UI bars critical values flashing: less aggressive and only when stats change for worse remember boosted dice rolls in rewind mode Better async loading: better loading progress animation in game and title scene loading no lag while verifying save directories at title startup scene no lag in switching between characters in the continue the game screen no lag when checkpoints screenshots are generated and saved More robust save system: remember last save slot fix prevent overwrite of old Early Access save slots Community feedback changes: new game tutorials on/off toggle after first pop-up tutorial non-lethal attacks also on dogs in Act 1 Bug fixes: dark UI background in character screen stays even during combat scenes Fixed an instance when NPC received an item, but gained no wealth in Act 1
- Winter Update - 28 February 2025
Hello everyone, With the end of winter approaching, we’re ready to roll out another short development update – along with a 33% discount! First things first, we know that some of you have been asking about a release month for 1.0. While we’re still waiting for Act 3 testing to be complete to make a better estimate, we can already tell you that we’re aiming for a late summer release this year. Today’s update marks an important milestone for us, as the testing build has been updated with the rescue mission scenes you can see in the intro cinematic. Note: The following text contains minor spoilers. For the first time, you can explore how all the ideas behind the tactical options seen in the intro were discovered. You’ll also get to experience the companion dynamics in this high-stakes scenario, if you’ve managed to learn the location of the captured children from a certain hostile warlord.…
- Fall Update - 12 November 2024
Hello everyone, To celebrate Sacred Fire’s participation in the Czech and Slovak Games Week, we’ve prepared a historically low discount of 33% and another short development update. While we continue to add more bits of Act 3, we’re also going to be testing quite a few new things in today’s update to the testing build: Role-playing The player character has always been able to use insights to spread rumors about characters and weaken their renown. To add another layer of consequence to your choices, if feeling angered or betrayed, characters from your community can now spread rumors about you to weaken the strength of your titles (epithets like ‘the Strong’, or ‘the Swift’). On top of the above change, level-up costs for Titles and Ideas have been rebalanced to make the higher levels more valuable and reward the player for unlocking more of them. End-of-line dice rolls can be boosted now…
- Summer Update - 30 September 2024
Hello everyone, With the summer in the rear-view mirror, here is a short update about the development progress of Sacred Fire! While it’ll take a little bit longer before we’re ready to release a new testbuild with a fresh batch of scenes from Act 3, there have been a couple of pieces of community feedback we’ll be testing. There will be a direct way to turn off tutorial pop-ups fairly early into the game. While these tutorials are useful to people new to the genre, they’ve been bugging more experienced RPG players or streamers enough to let us know about it. Some players also asked for the ability to boost the NPC checks that appear at the bottom of the screen next to the Continue button. Currently, the game already enables players to spend their motivation on keeping their fear and anger low, so as to not negatively affect NPCs. We realized that the 4 “presence” traits from the charac…
- Act 3 Testing Start and Roadmap Update - 29 June 2024
Hello everyone, As part of the Steam Summer Sale festivities, we’ve prepared the long awaited Act 3 Testing build for you. While the testing build contains only a handful of scenes for now -- like another set of rewards and dynamically generated dreams as you rest after the big Act 2 battle -- it contains also the long awaited resolution to your and Etain’s childhood friendship backstory for both male and female protagonists. Like last time, the testing build will be expanded gradually with more scenes, advancing your Sacred Fire journey towards its grand finale. Please note that the testing build does not contain voice-over, as we need to fix all the bugs in Act 3 first before recording with the voice talent. As mentioned before the decision to cut no corners when writing Act 3 increased its scope considerably. And while we think the experience, without all the different resolutions an…
- Spring Update - 13 May 2024
Hello everyone, Welcome to the latest update from the trenches of solo development. First things first - the testing of what’ll be available of Act 3 will start at the end of spring, meaning by the end of June. Those waiting for the full release, will then have to wait a little bit longer, as the feedback and amount of bugs in the testing build will determine the 1.0 release date. While our last update was marked by the joy of writing out the story to its full potential, the increased scope meant spending more resources on localization and voice-over, putting increased pressure on the development. It’s thanks to my publishing partner’s flexibility and my determination that we tackled all the hurdles and can now bring you the good news of the game moving towards the finish line in an uncompromised state. I understand the wait is long, both for players who’ve experienced the game recently…
- Winter Update - 21 February 2024
Hello everyone, With the new year in full swing, we're excited to bring you a brief update about the game's development progress. All the writing is now finalized, and localization of Act 3 has commenced. In the end, Act 3 contains almost twice as much content as Act 2. Currently, I'm in the process of integrating visuals, stat changes, and dice rolls into all the lines. Minor spoilers ahead. In addition to the three main Act 3 events—the Raven rescue mission, the Roman camp infiltration, and the ultimate battle with several siege stages and iconic moments—we're pleased with how we've tied up all loose ends. We've brought all relationship arcs, mysteries, conflicts, and player agendas to a narratively satisfying conclusion. Furthermore, Act 3 boasts over 10 pages worth of individualized epilogues detailing the fate of the kingdom and the characters based on your choices, including a var…
- Roadmap Update & The Annual Czech and Slovak Games Week - 14 November 2023
Hello, everyone! https://store.steampowered.com/app/900400/Sacred_Fire_A_Role_Playing_Game/ As mentioned in our last announcement, Sacred Fire is participating in the annual Czech and Slovak Games Week, and you can pick it up with a 25% discount all week long! With only a handful of scenes left to write to conclude the whole story, the rest of the development is now easier to predict. So we are bringing you an updated roadmap, including the final milestone: the release of version 1.0. Once the writing is complete, the next phase is to set up all the visuals and dice rolls for Act 3, line by line, and prepare its English version for community testing, which will begin in Spring 2024. Based on our previous testing and bug fixing experience, we realized that by the time it’s done, we’ll be able to complete the art for character customization and localization needed for the 1.0 release. Thi…
- Autumn Update & The Annual Czech and Slovak Games Week - 31 October 2023
Hello, everyone! We're thrilled to bring you a brief update on our Act 3 progress and share news about an upcoming event! Sacred Fire will be part of the annual Czech and Slovak Games Week, with a 25% discount starting on November 13th. Over the past few months, we've been focusing on writing the final battle scenes and all the intricacies leading up to it. These pivotal moments will enable players to amass various allies and tactical options that may greatly influence the outcome of the fateful battle. Moreover, multiple paths have been implemented enabling you to avoid the battle. You can act cowardly, opportunistically, and pragmatically, or look for diplomatic and peaceful resolutions. With only a handful of scenes left to write, it’s an exciting time for us, being this close to finalizing the story. What’s a challenge, but also a joy to watch, is making sure the rest of the cast st…
- Roadmap & Act 3 Progress Update - 31 August 2023
Hey everyone, With the summer almost behind us, we’re pleased to share a summary update on our development progress. This month we participated in the Steam Visual Novel Fest, which brought a little bit of feedback here on the Steam forums and on Discord, which we appreciate. Overall it’s been a quiet summer which is great because it allowed us to keep our full focus on writing out Act 3 scenes spanning everything from terror tactics, rage filled attack charges, tender romance moments, and acts of unyielding loyalty. We sincerely appreciate all the words of encouragement. With Act 3, we remain steadfast in our determination to produce the best version of the game possible. This is the core reason why things are taking longer than expected. While being careful to not add fluff, and subsequently cutting out what doesn’t work, there are moments when I come across choices so thrilling and w…
- Summer Update! Act 3 Progress - 30 June 2023
Everyone's favorite summer sale is here! We are delighted to both be a part of it to welcome new players, and to share a summarized update on the progress of development since our last communication. A few days ago, we released an important update to the game that fixed loading issues caused by ambient tracks and the hidden, but already present, localization functionality. We would also like to express our gratitude to all of you for providing feedback on the Steam forums and Discord. Your reports on bugs in the more obscure branches, scene variants, and suggestions for improving the immersion have been invaluable in enhancing the game for everyone. The game has passed an important internal localization testing round, and we’ve received more testing reports from our translation partners, which helps us inch ever closer to the full launch in 8 languages. The most significant focus remain…
- Spring Update! Act 3 Progress - 29 April 2023
Hey everyone, A lot has happened since our last announcement, so we’re pleased to share a summary update on development progress. Sacred Fire participated in the Steam Tabletop Fest last month and we'd like to thank everyone for your feedback here on Steam forums and on Discord. This resulted in many small bug-fixes and tweaks in today’s update, as well as a small refinement to the female character's backstory description and starting effects. We’re continuing to prepare localization, as the full launch will include support for a total of 8 languages. With almost 300,000 words in the game’s script, this is no small task! Some of the languages were enabled by a grant from the Slovak Arts Council, which is of course wonderful but also required us to tweak our development timeline to fit certain requirements. At least now we know we got it all working correctly. The translations of story t…
- Act 3 Roadmap Update - 28 February 2023
Hello everyone, In this short update, we’d like to let you know that while all is well with the team and the game, as we keep working on Act 3, we discover new things to resolve for a satisfying ending for the main story and the many character relationship states. At the same time, the localization of the previous acts is in full swing and while we work with experienced translators, they do need our assistance with context here and there which results in hundreds of questions due to the sheer amount of text. So we'd like to ask you for a little bit more patience while waiting for Act 3 - it’ll be ready by the end of Q2 2023. I can't wait to see which routes, self-expression choices, and endings players will favor in their playthrough, and plan to collect your experiences with the complete story in a survey afterward. The next sale for the game will be the Steam Spring Sale starting on M…
- Audio Update & Publisher Sale - 24 January 2023
Hey everyone, As we continue working on Act 3, we've managed to squeeze in a minor music playback update: 10 new ambient nature tracks are used at the chapter's end for more variety based on location. You can also pick up Sacred Fire with a 25% discount during the Iceberg Publisher Sale! https://store.steampowered.com/app/900400/Sacred_Fire_A_Role_Playing_Game/ Also, all the 1,700 voice-lines got re-mastered and the whole volume system mixing music, effects and voices got tweaked for a more balanced default experience. If you haven't already, you can join the community on Discord, or leave feedback here on Steam forums and let me know what you think about the new music playback and/or the game. Thank you for your continuous support and patience. Sacred Fire Twitter Facebook Iceberg Interactive Twitter Facebook YouTube Steam Publisher Page
- Act 2 Finale Update & Winter Sale - 22 December 2022
Hey everyone, As we continue working on Act 3, we'd like to share an important update adding a 3rd path to the previous heroic or cowardly play-through of the 'Royal Feud' battle. You can also pick up Sacred Fire with a 25% discount during the Steam Winter Sale! https://store.steampowered.com/app/900400/Sacred_Fire_A_Role_Playing_Game/ SPOILER WARNING: minor spoilers ahead — proceed at your own risk! This new path is available both when you decide to stay behind in the main hall, or when you stay behind in front of the fort gates. You can now fight to open the gate to bring reinforcements and directly save your brother's life. Besides adding 3 new risk chains to the game, this also gives the player freedom to choose how challenging the playtrough will be. This also presents the first time your people are left without any guidance whatsoever from Wid, and thus is a direct test of the lea…
- Czech & Slovak Games Week — Update & Sale! - 14 November 2022
Hey everyone, The annual Czech & Slovak Games Week is here to celebrate games made by passionate teams from two countries that share the history of a united struggle for independence and freedom. As part of the festivities, Sacred Fire is 25% off during the event. https://store.steampowered.com/app/900400/Sacred_Fire_A_Role_Playing_Game/ A perceptive observe may spot a link why we're not introducing the Caledonian resistance as one tribe, but as a community of different people, able to look past their differences, united in their suffering and struggle against a common oppressor. Sacred Fire has been selected for the opening live stream, so I've recorded a video introducing the game to new players: Game update We've also pushed an update with lots of small polishes to text and scenes in the game. more than 2000+ lines have been polished by our editor Scott Hamm the flow has been refined…
