Refuge of Embers
A downloadable game for Windows, macOS, Linux, and Android
Early Access Release
Refuge of Embers is in active development with about 160 minutes of gameplay, 9 animated h-scenes, and 39,097 words in its current state. We're a small team and the art style is time intensive so updates typically come 30-60 days apart. Our free demo covers the events of the first act of the story, but we've added an early access option for anyone who wants to support development of the game. If you'd like a more active role check us out on Patreon. Our monthly supporters have access to current game builds, polls to influence the design of the game, pinup art, and behind the scenes content like concept art and sketches. If you want to follow along in real time or watch our artwork livestreams you can also check out our Discord server.
Immerse yourself in hand-illustrated world that draws you deeper into the narrative. Refuge of Embers follows the renamable main character Harth as the world he knows gives way to change that causes him to discover a deeper purpose. Harth lives a simple life with his friends in a remote frontier village at the edge of the known world. Events eventually lead him to Pyre, the enormous capital city where he encounters unusual new characters and situations. How will Harth and his friends react to the strange new world they find themselves in?
Meet a large cast of well-developed characters, each with their own distinct personalities, backgrounds, and motives. Forge deep connections with them as you navigate the complexities of their relationships.
With an intricate web of choices and consequences, unlock various endings that reflect the impact of your decisions. Replay the game to experience alternative storylines and unlock all possible outcomes.
Unravel the many mysteries and secrets scattered throughout the story to unveil more about the lore and background of the game. Character accessories, hidden messages, and even entire bonus scenes will await you as you find objects hidden throughout the game and explore menus.
Easily enable or disable adult content at any time, including:
- X-Ray View
- Impregnation
- Mild BDSM
- Multiple Partners
- Male on Male
- Female on Female
- And more...
View public updates and even unlock supporter perks by reporting bugs or typos
Current Builds | Polls | Art Livestreams | Concept Art | Pinups
Purchase
In order to download this game you must purchase it at or above the minimum price of $12 USD. You will get access to the following files:
Download demo
Development log
- Refuge of Embers 0.17 release20 days ago
- Refuge of Embers 0.16 release87 days ago
- Refuge of Embers 0.15 releaseJul 18, 2024
- Refuge of Embers 0.14 releaseApr 20, 2024
- Refuge of Embers 0.13 releaseJan 31, 2024
- Refuge of Embers 0.12 ReleaseNov 18, 2023
- Refuge of Embers 0.11 ReleaseSep 03, 2023
- Version 0.10 Public ReleaseApr 23, 2023
Comments
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When will the Russian language appear in version 0.18 0.19
We're considering translating just the prologue to test the waters before we decide what languages to translate to. That's coming after a major rewrite in version 0.21 so it's still several months away, then the full translation would be when we finish the entire game if we can afford to do it. Russian and Japanese are at the top of our list.
How and where to find hidden images I went through the game, but I didn't find any hidden images, and one scene with Eren is enough for me. where can I find her?
They'll be unlocked at the end of the game. Each character will have 7 of their own effigies hidden throughout the story to unlock the bonus scenes.
When will 0.18 be released?
Version 0.18 was released on 8/25 and version 0.19 will be released within the next few days.
I mean when it will be released here
Version 0.18a is the current early access version here on itch.io unless I messed up and forgot to update a download link.
Ah I see what may have been the cause of the confusion. The actual download link is indeed for 0.18a, but the devlog section still has 0.16 listed
Password RIPHARAMBE doesn't seem to unlock anything
It's now 'THEGAME'
Love the art style. Coming to steam?
Yes but only the final game so it won't be live until late next year.
Will version 0.18 update here?
Yep, if you buy the game here that includes all future updates. It takes us a few hours to update everything across all of the platforms so it may pop up a few hours ahead or behind on some sites vs others.
We haven't added the bonus scenes yet but they'll be at the end of the game. Eventually each character will have 7 effigies that you can find on their route, and finding all 7 of them for a given character will unlock their bonus scene.
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Spanish?
We're planning to add language support when the script is finished in the full release if it makes sense. We may also translate the free demo with the prologue to test the waters at some point.
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Oh ya ,bn entonces tengo esperanza y gracias
is this coming to steam? I see a steam thing in a screenshot below
Yes but only as the final release
How to get cheat code?
i see that there's M/M content, is there really gay content on the game, or it is that kind of game that has one gay scene and thats it? bc im tired of that bullsh*t
To be real the game is about 10% M/M and 90% M/F. There's one male love interest named Rithe. We were originally planning to add more characters in the second act but had to reduce scope.
oh ok, thank you for answering
I would love to try this in future if it gets free.. ;/
What does the mystery options do?
It's written in that weird language, can't figure out what it says.
Anyone got a guide for the demo? I'm missing one each scene and two effigies
Effigies appear right after u choose whom you'll invite for the festival.
For scenes, just trial and error ig. Use skip to fast forward to the dialogue options and try all choices.
Definitely promising! I love the handpainted backgrounds, and the character sprites are so cute. Rithe is definitely my favorite. Speaking of which, as a bisexual man, I'm so happy there's an mxm route, you usually don't see that in a game like this. I look forward to seeing more in the future!
oh I should add I just got the free demo, but I'm looking to purchase at a later date too :)
Will the Spanish language be in a future update?
It's planned but it might be machine translation. A couple of releases ago I changed some things up to support translations but implementation is still a while off.
great, this game has a lot of potential. i loved it the first time I read it.
womp womp! windows defender won't let me start the game, i had expectations on this game, it's a pity
IIRC Windows Defender blocks all unsigned executables by default. In general you can always do More Info -> Run Anyway if you trust the source. We might also host a browser playable version here on itch at some point.
Вибач dude, i'd rather wait to see how things go, since i downloaded the last demo version, and it's not safe to trust in free things. I hope the best for you and your project.
It's good to be paranoid tbh. One thing I've seen before on itch is people cloning an existing game's store page to pretend to be the devs and setting the download links to malware instead of a game.
I looked into it and it seems like I can probably embed a browser playable version pretty easily. In a few weeks we're releasing version 0.15b and I'm going to update the public demo to a new version that bundles in all of the story revisions plus a new scene we added into the prologue. Once that's done I'll embed the new demo into the store page so that it can be played without downloading.
I could give it a try then, thanks for your hard work
can you change Harth name at the beginning
MC is renamable
Does this game have cucking?
No NTR or cucking is planned
Okay good
hey, mega is asking for decryption key and i couldnt find it anywhere in this page, may i get help?
The links we posted on Mega shouldn't require a key. Is it one of our links or from a different upload site?
its one of the links on the download page
ok, ive solved the problem by downloading the game from a different pc. Strangly it didnt ask for a key this time.
Hey, will the game length change? Honestly, only 90–100 minutes of playtime is too low for me.
Yes but it's really hard to estimate how much. The way we estimate play time is by taking the average reading speed (238 wpm) and just dividing the number of words in the script. It's not a perfect way to measure since it doesn't include time spent watching scenes or animations without dialogue but it should be a good ballpark number. Final script will probably be at least 75,000 words or 315+ mins but honestly I have no idea.
Gotcha, I'm really hoping for you to add more to the story because it seems interesting. 315+minutes is a good length. Well, thanks for responding and have a good day!
This seems like a great game but I'm just curious where the game password and codes what are those because there's an option to put them in but I don't where are they
Password is 'RIPHARAMBE' and unlocks all of the scenes in the replay gallery
Is there a guide or walkthrough?
Journal in the gallery is going to have one. For now though prologue branches into 5 paths depending on who you go to the festival with then rejoins at the end of act-1.
is this game have any scene sounds ?
Just music and environmental sound effects. We probably won't be able to add voice acting or h-scene sound effects.
aghhh man, okay i see
That's a cryin' shame!
I like how theres male on male you dont really see that much i love it beacuse im bi so i kinda relate
is there??
yeah you just have to enable it it’s only one scene so far I think
thanks!
Hello! if i buy it now do i have to pay for future updates? i know some WIP games you pay by chapter/release and some you dont so i was just wondering
Buying it once as early access gets you the whole game when it's finished. We're not splitting it into different chapters or anything.
Basic roadmap is:
v0.01-v0.10 | Prologue (Free Demo)
v0.11-v0.15 | Main Story Updates
v0.16+ | Romance Routes
love the hand drawn art and if its buy once get all updates I'll gladly support
is there pregnancy content?
Right now there's a static impregnation scene in the beginning and pregnant character sprites with multiple stages are viewable in the gallery, but the LI paths won't have pregnancy until mid to late game.
Will there be an update this year?
We have one scheduled for tomorrow, then the next one scheduled for the year 2056
I'd wait a bit longer than 2056, don't risk releasing it at the same time as the elder scrolls 6
Agreed, i think in the middle of one piece, aka years 2170 would do wonders
Will it be possible to have multiple lovers like many other games on itch, or are you going for a more personal, traditional style of romance?
Either way is fine, I'm just curious having finally tried the game out. I must say, I'm already looking forward to what comes next! (Also love the wording for the end of version message :P )
We're planning a harem ending but the true ending will be one of the 1 on 1 romance paths.
That's good, it's refreshing to see something more traditional. I think I know who most of the player will go with for the first time though...
#TeamEryn;PHey, just wanting to play it safe so I wanted to ask about the alerts I got from security vendors.
Jiangmin
Trojan.Generic.gyxrm
Zillya
Downloader.Banload.Win32.100284
The mega links here on Itch.io and posted on our Patreon page are our official upload links and should be safe.
Jiangmin always detect that on itch.io games, take a look at the virustotal's community section, i don't know about the other one tho
Is this game still ongoing?
Yes, next release is a large one and should be done in about 1-2 months
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No NTR CONTENT RIGHT?
No NTR content is planned
We still have zero interest in adding NTR
Quick question, I saw there was a m x m option in the menu, is that content for Biorn or is it content for npcs or both?
It will be both, but the first MxM scene between the MC & Rithe is planned for version 0.1
So is this going to be a Harem game were you have have all the lovers, or will you isolate various characters by picking others?
There will be individual story endings for each character plus a harem ending depending on your choices in the main story arc of the game. The harem ending will make more sense when we move past the prologue.
This game is way to short to be rated by now, but the artwork is amazing and very very unique.
I already felt in love with some of the characters and I'm totally happy that there is an optionsmenu in which I can toggle things. (for example: male on male is a cool thing to watch, even as a lesbian like me)
I'm totally looking forward to what comes next. Especially after the content right now falls a bit short. ^^
Hey :) can you publish the original stamp-like game icon somewhere with good quality, please? It's for a virtual library thing I do (png is perfect)
Edit: forgot to say what you do is amazing, thx for the game
Here you go dude, thanks for the feedback on the game
Awesome! Thank you so much ^.^
is there male on male
It's planned and can be toggled in the options menu along with all other optional content. Rithe will be one of the romanceable male characters along with others that will be introduced after the prologue.
is there any mxm available in the game right now?
Not yet, it's planned for version 0.10
So the android version is really buggy and does not run properly it keeps shutting down
If you're using a save file from a previous version it'll definitely crash, I'm changing how the variables and sprites are handled so it probably won't start working with old saves until version 0.10. Let me know if that fixes it, otherwise I'll take a look into it.
Not using old saves first time playing the game just seems to crash after saving and loading and when you get to the stream at the very start of the game
What hardware are you using? I haven't heard of any other issues yet so I'm betting it's a performance thing. The game loads in a bunch of huge 1080p png files all at once especially at that first creek screen when I animate the sprites, and tbh I wasn't sure if a phone would be able to handle it. If that's the case though I'll add some performance settings over the next few versions.
I'm using an oppo 2z
I spent some time looking into it today and there's a good chance optimization could be causing the issue. If I'm right it'll be fixed in version 0.08.
I see potential in this game, what you did is good, keep up the good work, I am impressed at your awesome game.