Once Ever After

Released: Oct 14, 2022
Platforms: Windows
Last updated: 10 Sep 2026, 04:35 GMT

Updates & announcements

10 posts

14 Oct 2022Developer post
Version 1.0.0 and leaving Early Access!
Over the past five months, I've been fixing bugs, adding quests, writing new scenes, and otherwise polishing up the game. Since version 0.7.0 hasn't shown any major issues, and that was the last planned content update, that means the game is now complete! The new version 1.0.0 sh
07 Oct 2022Developer post
OEA 0.7.0 - Content Update!
It took a while to commission the new art, but as promised, I'm back with a content update! See the notes below for a whole spread of different additions. OEA 0.7.0 A brand new scene drawn by Crescentia! It is automatically unlocked for anyone who has reached the gallery, but nat
It took a while to commission the new art, but as promised, I'm back with a content update! See the notes below for a whole spread of different additions.
OEA 0.7.0

A brand new scene drawn by Crescentia! It is automatically unlocked for anyone who has reached the gallery, but naturally occurs in the early game during the first visit to Wilhelm's Tale.
In addition, a new variant scene previously not accessible has been added.
A new quest has been added to Hoodton. This one is available over the entire game, as it unlocks the above scene.
Another quest has been added, but only to very early Hoodton. This offers small advantages but is mostly there for flavor and additional content.
New option in menu: fast combat animations.
Further boosts to the story mode items.
Additional bonus added for story mode users in Hoodton.
More enemies respawn in the ice palace, in case players feel they need to level while inside.
Minor bugfixes and cosmetic improvements.
You can see there are more sex scenes, more quests, and a number of quality of life improvements that I hope will further smooth out the game. This concludes my plans for adding content!
Once everything is confirmed to be working, there's nothing stopping the game from leaving Early Access. Please do report any bugs or further issues if you notice them, otherwise I'll be thinking about picking the final release date. ^-^
Original post
30 Apr 2022Developer post
OEA 0.6.2 - Trading Cards and Tweaks!
First, about trading cards: now that the game is stable, I'm actively submitting the materials. Hopefully these will pop up before too long, but it isn't entirely up to me, since they're subject to Valve's approval. There are going to be more hoops to jump through, especially giv
First, about trading cards: now that the game is stable, I'm actively submitting the materials. Hopefully these will pop up before too long, but it isn't entirely up to me, since they're subject to Valve's approval. There are going to be more hoops to jump through, especially given a character like Ulfina. But you should get a notification when your cards appear in your account, so there won't be another announcement about them.
Meanwhile, we have another week of work that includes both some new content and some more tweaks. I believe we're hitting a reasonable level of polish! Meanwhile, I want to point out that the Arena Champion has a fancy new custom sprite:
Additions

The Arena Champion has been given a new custom sprite.
Cloud saves should be enabled for all players. Report if they aren't!
An endgame point to grind gold has been added to Canisan Plain. I never intended for the player to be able to grind gold, but if players are going to do it anyway, I'll provide a more rewarding option.
A new revival skill has been added to New Canisan. It's meant to smooth the transition from the earliest weak revivals from Herbalist to the final form of Stomachcutter.
Changes

Lumberjack Hide has been buffed to better defend against critical hits, and another NPC has been added to emphasize this concept.
Skills that affect target rating have been tweaked to be more effective.
Slight dialogue changes and improvements.
Minor improvements to story mode items.
Further minor bugfixes.
I think this will be the stable version of the game for the near future, barring any critical hotfixes in case something surprising is discovered. The next update of the game will take a while longer, but should be a content update instead of polishing.
On that note, feel free to suggest any other characters you'd like to have custom sprites! I'm thinking that the steampunk wolf could use a top hat, for example. You can also feel free to request any other content and I'll at least consider it. Hopefully version 0.6.3 will be a nice chunk of new content taking the game close to its final form. ^-^
Original post
21 Apr 2022Developer post
OEA 0.6.1 - Difficulty Modes, Rebalancing, and More!
Hello, everyone! This has been a crazy first week for Once Ever After - I'm glad that so many of you have enjoyed the game. ^-^ This post will include multiple things: discussion of the new difficulty mode just added, a full changelog for 0.6.1, previews of future additions, and
Hello, everyone! This has been a crazy first week for Once Ever After - I'm glad that so many of you have enjoyed the game. ^-^ This post will include multiple things: discussion of the new difficulty mode just added, a full changelog for 0.6.1, previews of future additions, and a question regarding Steam trading cards for all players!
Difficulty Options
One of the biggest changes to the game is the addition of four new items that will change the combat difficulty. You can now find a white-colored NPC in every major town (Bangville, Hoodton, New Canisan, Grimmton) who will give them to you. Equipping them will create something more along the lines of story/easy mode. I think that this will be closer to the experience that some players want, and in any case it's designed to be a more relaxed experience.
Using these items doesn't lock off any story or scene content, though it does change how some of the optional bosses work. This is a "first draft" - I've done my best with these, but there's obviously no time to thoroughly retest an entire game. I welcome additional feedback from anyone using this equipment.
Full 0.6.1 Changelog
Balance Changes

The difficulty mode items mentioned above.
A number of enemies have been tweaked, particularly in the Overgrown Tale and Canisan Mine.
Certain defensive skills have been altered so that they scale better at higher levels.
The AP granted by many bosses and mini-bosses has been increased.
Gold given by enemies has shifted, largely increasing.
Minor Changes

More detail added to the dancing minigame tutorial.
Various anti-frustration mechanics added.
Various minor bugs have been fixed and other details polished. Most of these are edge cases.
There are a few bugs that have been reported that are a bit more mysterious: they appear to only affect one or two players and can't be replicated on my end. It is suspected that the game engine has a memory leak, as the problems seem to be more common with less RAM. I'll do my best to fix these, but they can be slippery, so in the meantime you should know that closing the game occasionally during long play sessions should help. Also, hopefully the autosaves should prevent loss of progress!
Future Updates
Please continue to provide feedback on the game! I wanted to get this update out now for the sake of players who might be returning to the game this weekend, but there are more improvements in the works that will take longer to finish:

I intend to add a system that allows you to refund AP you have spent on skills. This requires non-trivial new coding, however, so can't be added instantly.
The Arena Champion will soon be getting a new sprite of custom pixel art! Feel free to request other characters you'd like to see get a makeover.
Some additional sidequests are being planned, but it takes longer to conceive and create new content.
Steam Trading Cards and Point Shop Assets
This game was approved for trading cards almost immediately, but developing them can be a bit time-consuming and I thought it was more important to respond to player feedback. However, you can expect them sooner rather than later! Please let me know what you'd like for the cards... high resolution character art? A glimpse at the original sketches of the characters?
Steam is also encouraging devs to make items to put in the points shop. Is this something that players want? Is there anything you'd like to see? On my own, I'd probably just focus on the game, but I'm happy to look into this more if it's something that people are interested in.
Okay, I think that's all for now. Look forward to more updates as OEA advances through the Early Access period!
Original post
15 Apr 2022Developer post
Once Ever After is live!
I'll be sending out announcements later in the day, but the game is live now! So if you've been following the page directly, please enjoy. ^-^ No achievements at the moment, even if you see leftover data suggesting they exist. Updating the framework to make achievements work brok
05 Dec 2021Developer post
Visual Upgrade #3 + Final Beta
The game is getting closer to release: if you haven't seen the announcement elsewhere, I'm planning on a Q1 2022 release. It's been years, but we're finally almost there! This would be a good time to wishlist the game if you haven't already. Currently an essentially final build i
07 Mar 2021Developer post
OEA 0.4.0 Beta Testing (Story-complete)
Backers on Patreon and SubscribeStar now have access to a build of Once Ever After that is plot and gameplay complete. The final version will need more parallax maps and will get more polish, but this one is the first release that's a full game. There's a lot included: 0.4.0 Chan
15 Aug 2020Developer post
Visual Upgrade #2
Despite the craziness of 2020, this game continues to move forward! Though I wouldn't call release imminent, we're now much closer to the completion of OEA. For example, Crescentia has finished drawing all the scene art, covering more than 20 scenes with 150+ images. Various UI e
19 Dec 2019Developer post
Visual Upgrade #1 + Status Update
Since this game has been in progress for some time, I wanted to give a progress report about what has been done. We'll start with the major piece yet to be completed: replacing the game's many visual placeholders with real assets. For example, check out the temporary and final fo
02 Mar 2019Developer post
Once Ever After Beta Testing + Developments
Once Ever After has just taken a major step closer to release! Fans on Patreon or SubscribeStar currently have access to the first build. More information is available from my blog: This build has 5-10 hours of gameplay and 9 fully-illustrated scenes! After making improvements to

Updates & announcements

Status Update