Well. It’s been a journey. This project, started on a whim in 2017, picked up and put down many times, is now live on Itch (and “Coming Soon” on Steam) and Steam!

https://tangledwebgames.itch.io/crown-of-thorns

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2212810/Crown_of_Thorns

Crown of Thorns is a dark, atmospheric adventure game, full of bleak environments, scraps of lore and scripture, and glitch art. There is no combat, just exploration, mystery, puzzles, and a slowly evolving story. A walkthrough is also available for download in case you get stuck.

After some deliberation, I decided to charge $3 for Crown of Thorns. Not because I expect to make a profit, but because I don’t want to cheapen the work of other indie devs who need the money more than I do. I doubt I’ll even break even on art commissions, to say nothing of the hundreds of hours I put into this project, and yet I know there will be some who think “An RPGMaker game by a no-name dev that has you can play through in a couple hours? And you’re charging money for it??”

I dunno. This may be a silly hill to die on. I’m not a capitalist, and I don’t think money is the best way for a culture to express its values. And maybe voluntary payments and platforms like Patreon are a better model for independent artists anyway. But still, I don’t like the expectation that some players have that indie devs’ time and effort aren’t worth anything.

In any case, there are free copies available on Itch for anyone for whom the $3 is a barrier at all.

-Louis