Celestial Crowns
A downloadable Visual Novel for Windows, macOS, and Linux
10/12/2023
Will you choose the heart, the pen, or the sword?
Set in a world where they worship the planets, play as the newly crowned Ruling Monarch of the kingdom of Lauté. In ancient times, the Royals were masters of the elements with the ability to spellcraft that made people believe they were gods. Nowadays, the ability has faded with misuse, and the only Royal left known to have this ability is King Aalam of Andromeda. With your kingdom on unsteady ground after your father's recent assassination, this dangerous King with magic beyond comprehension has an offer you can’t ignore:
Accept his hand in marriage, or go to war.
All 3 love interests have their own plot within the overarching story of Celestial Crowns. The routes will vary greatly, feature 60K+ words of new content, and allow you to visit new locations and meet new characters.
Aalam is the King of Andromeda. For unknown reasons, he is determined to have your hand in marriage, and has threatened war if you refuse. No one knows anything about him, not even what he looks like. Can you really accept stepping down from your throne to join him in Andromeda?
Sahi is the new general of the Lauté army. He joined the King’s army and grew up training alongside the heir to the throne, you. You became fast friends, and it wasn’t long before he realized he wanted something more. With his new title, he is finally of the proper standing to be an eligible match for you. Will he have the courage to speak up about his feelings?
Lune is the Royal Advisor. He believes you should accept King Aalam's offer of marriage before irreparable damage is done to both countries. Lune doesn't think you're fit to rule and isn't afraid to tell you. It's not like he likes you or anything.
All 3 love interests have their own plot within the overarching story of Celestial Crowns. The routes will vary greatly, feature 60K+ words of new content, and allow you to visit new locations and meet new characters.
A story-driven narrative with stat-building aspects that allows a unique experience in each playthrough.
Create your character: The default player name is "Terra," but you can adjust the main character's name and choose their body type, skin tone, and pronouns.
Choose your personality: Your choices will add stats to the MCs personality. Mix and match different traits to shape different scenes and find your ending. Players will have choices based on 9 different traits. There can be as many as 9 different options for every choice encountered for an immersive roleplaying experience. More stats in certain traits will unlock more choices down the road for endless replayability!
Find your affinity! Your spellcrafting element will be determined by choices you make. Throughout the game, you can master ice, fire, earth, or lightning.
📖 270K words
🎨 25 CGs
💖 3 love interests
🎭 Customizable MC (body, pronouns, skin tone, personality)
🎬 10 endings
❤️🔥 Optional 18+ scenes
Sprites, UI, Writing - Harlevin (@CapMinyan)
Editing - Leah (@Averxy)
Editing, reward design - Anim8dn8
CGs - Erupan (@ErupanGalactic)
BGs - UltraDynaMika (@ultradynamika)
Music - FaeFeld Productions (@Faefield_P)
Sound design - Slaleky (@Slaleky)
Currently working on: Editing the third and final draft
Demo Updated 4/6/24
Follow for previews and updates:
https://celestialcrownsvn.tumblr.com
See the devlog below
Update 1.58.2: fixed an issue where Aalam wasn't blinking properly.
Download
Click download now to get access to the following files:
Development log
- November Update21 days ago
- October Update58 days ago
- September Update88 days ago
- Update 8/6/24Aug 06, 2024
- Update 5/5/2024May 05, 2024
- Demo UpdateApr 07, 2024
- Beauty Kills the Beast - A Celestial Crowns SpinoffApr 02, 2024
- Update 4/1/24Apr 01, 2024
Comments
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with every new update or bugfix i am getting more and more excited! No rush just super excited XD
I can't figure out for the life of me how to get onto Aalam's route 💔💔💔
Either way, i am excited about how this game will come along! I probably won't be able to play the full version (im poor) but i definitely wish you best of luck with it! :)
To get on Aalam's route, make sure your 'gentle' stat is higher than the aggressive and strategic stats. If aggressive and strategic stats are both 0, and gentle is one, even, you'll get on his route. Hope that helps! Thanks for checking out the demo ^^
Thanks!
CAN'T wait to get my hands on the full version 😃 btw this isn't a rush- I'm just showing my excitement 😅
So glad you're excited!
Looking forward to the eventual full release!
I'm so glad to hear it!
what was updated just now? I got a notif
sorry, I forgot people would get notifications! It was a small bug fix, I post what was updated in each version at the end of the itch.io page if there’s no devlog. This time, Aalam’s sprite wasn’t blinking properly, and I left in some test code by accident.
This demo full game?
No, the demo is just the first three chapters of the full game, which will be about six.
ah okay... thanks for answer
hi! ^^ what options should I pick for sahi :)
for Sahi, you’ll have to go to war, so make sure to choose the “aggressive” choices more often than gentle and strategic! If you have as many or more points in aggressive you can get on his route.
I tried ToT I picked agro whenever it came up and gentle only with him
hmm it could be a bug then, I’ll look into it! In the meantime, if you can recall the exact number of times you picked each one (or the choices you made) let me know and I’ll work backwards!
um...I'm not sure if this was a bug or not so I'm just going to point it out just in case but when I got to the praying scene with Lune the first time the mc prayed to jupiter for strength and I got an achievement about lightning powers but when I replayed and made different choices my mc prayed to Eris for cunning but I didn't get any achievement this time. good game by the way, I'm already in love with the mc.
both Jupiter and Eris are for lightning coincidentally, so it’s not a bug! Thank you for playing and I’m so happy you enjoyed it.
is the game going to be free or is it only the demo that is free
The game will be $20 upon release.
time to start saving up i need this game
Hi there!
I am creating a collection of fully blind accessible games, and your game is listed under the "blind support tag". The word "blind" means different things to different people, and within that wide spectrum their are various levels of expertise with visual UI's. but as a fully blind gamer, I am wondering what features this game provides for those who can not see the screen at all. Do you have "screen reader" or "text to speech" support? Is your game fully playable with a keyboard or controller, rather than having to point the mouse at buttons on the interface? If the answer to those questions is no, it would still be great to know what options are provided for those with less severe visual impairments, so that I might make them aware of your game's usability for them. Thank you for any information you can provide, it's very much appreciated! :)
Hello! The game engine has a built in text to speech feature that can be accessed by pressing ‘v’ on the keyboard. Yes the game is fully playable with keyboard only. You can use the arrow keys to select choices and ‘enter’ to activate them, and advance the text with space bar. I have the stats in the choice label text so that the screen reader is able to read them.
More information about the keyboard uses can be found on the Ren’Py website here: https://www.renpy.org/wiki/renpy/Help
Or I’m happy to answer other specific questions! Thanks for reaching out. If you have suggestions for how I could improve the experience for blind players, please let me know!
Hey I appreciate the reply, thanks!
It seems like you are already doing allot, which is awesome! And I appreciate the link too. :)
I'll try the game and let you know if I encounter anything. I may not have time to play through the whole thing, but if anything obvious is their, I'll catch it.
Thank you for your commitment to accessibility, and I applaud you for being a good example to other Renpy devs.
It really caught my attention. I enjoyed it
I noticed a bug or typo. When putting your falcon out to fly, at least with a male falcon, he is referred to as "he" correctly once, but then is referred to as "she" in the rest. I don't know if this is the same for the female falcon as I haven't gotten that far into the game with a female falcon chosen.
I noticed another typo after getting all three LIs endings/beginnings. In the beginning, the MC says they've gotten King Aalam's letters for six months and that for the past six months they haven't been able to walk past the library without slowing/stopping because that's where they're father died. Then, at King Aalam's ending, they thank their people for the honor of being their Ruling Monarch for a month. Then in Sahi's ending, one of the people shouts about the MC having been a Monarch for barely three months.
I would think that right after the MC's father's death, the MC would have been crowned Ruling Monarch. So we have at least three different amounts of time given for how long they've been ruling: one month, three months, and six months. I assume six is the correct amount and that this will be fixed in the second drafts of all the routes, but I just thought I'd point it out just in case.
Love the game, though. I can't wait to see how the story progresses. Also, I'm curious how much more comes after the demo. Is the demo a fifth of the final length? A forth? A third? Half? It feels like a third to me, honestly, but that's just because that would be rather satisfying and it does evoke the feeling of the beginning, middle, ending structure of a story.
Thanks for pointing this out! Yes I'll be fixing this in the next update. If you go by word count, the routes are currently planned to be about ten-fifteen percent longer than the demo, so a little less than half? Story wise, I think of it as a third, with 'prologue, route, ending' being the signposts, because the endings are pretty long in this game compared to my other games.
Thank you for the reply! I'm super stoked to play the full game. Keep up the great work, but don't burn yourselves out! ^_^
I think this game has a lot of potential. The plot is interesting and the characters are well-developed.
I consider Sahi to be the only acceptable choice as RO or marriage option (unless the game permits a different RO than the person the MC marries). I like him and would choose only him but I cannot yet manage to actually get on his path.
I cannot decide whether I dislike Aalam or Lune more.
No RO should threaten war to force a marriage (however historically plausible that may be) so that rules out Aalam as RO.
Lune repeatedly insults the MC (main character) and makes clear he feels he should be in charge instead of the MC. He is somehow heir to the throne which should also make him a suspect in the MC's father's assassination. The only plus side out of accidentally getting stuck on a route to marry Aalam was naming Sahi as heir instead. Considering the MC rules by right of Celestial blood (effectively Divine Right of Kings), my MC would NEVER tolerate an advisor like Lune.
I would dislike Lune even more except that it appears the MC is every bit as incompetent as Lune claims. The one thing the MC was actually supposed to be good at, using a blade, resulted in the MC managing to drop the MC's dagger when faced by an assassin. There is not even a choice of whether to get drunk and humiliate oneself at the ball.
The two biggest decisions in the game are who to romance and choosing foreign policy (war with Andromeda, renegotiate trade deal under duress and risk war with the South, or give in to threats and marry Aalam). Those decisions apparently get made for the MC rather than actually letting the MC choose. The fact that a walkthrough is even necessary demonstrates that the choices are counter-intuitive. The MC has no choice of dance partner which would be the logical place to let the MC pick which RO to pursue. When speaking with the maid, leaning towards war is listed as the aggressive option yet raising aggressive appears to make the MC give into the forced marriage with Aalam which makes no sense.
My personal take on the personality traits is that it makes perfect sense that the responses of the potential ROs and other characters should depend at least in part on the MC's personality. However the MC's personality should not be used to block the MC's choice of actions.
If you still need help getting Sahi, I managed to get him going confident with the letter and I think some other option, wait until the next day for the meeting, gentle when asking to talk to Sahi privately, I think I did naïve when walking down the hall with him to the meeting room, doing the top option of "we know how to get our hands dirty" during the entertainment (this is what those one or two Confident choices are for), and continuing with gentle ruling when talking to him. Everything else, I went aggressive, since you need to start a war with Andromeda to get him. I got four personality traits up, with the two highest being Impulsive and Aggressive, with slightly lower Spoiled and Gentle.
If you go too high with Confident you'll likely get Aalam. So, Confident, Witty, Impulsive will likely lead to Aalam.
If you go Strategic or Practical, you'll get Lune, though I also got him when I went with high Naïve with low-ish Witty, Confident, Aggressive, and Gentle (I tried a lot of different stuff in my endeavor to get Sahi.)
Gonna romance the socks off Lune! Oh you don’t like me? Ha. Ha. Ha ha haha ha. Boi when I’m done with you you’ll be on your knees begging for my hand in marriage. I’m coming for you. You can’t escape. :)
I keep getting all the route’s BUT Aalam’s, I’d like a bit of assistance with this
Raffling off some route guides if you'd like to join! Otherwise, I've posted hints in the comments.
https://harlevin.itch.io/celestial-crowns/devlog/523114/route-guide-raffle-
Hello! Still need help getting Aalam? He likes someone spunky and with some bite to them, as Harlevin says in a comment on here. Witty, Confident, and Impulsive seem to be the best with him, and either Gentle or Aggressive ruling style (I got him mixing Con and Agg and Con and Gen when I was trying for Sahi.) Hope this helps if you still needed it! ^_^
I need help !! I’ve seriously tried everything, such as going with confidence, impulsive and witty responses, but nothing seems to work. I even did what you mentioned and maxed out my confidence and aggression, but sadly I still don’t get to choose the option to go to war. I only get the trade ban one. Ughhh, do you know if there are any guides the creator posted…? I can’t seem to find any. I really want to be on Aalam’s route.
if you want to be on Aalam’s route, make sure to throw in some gentle choices! That is the ruling style you need to choose marriage.
Going to war is Sahi's. Agreeing to marriage is Aalam's. I do not know of any guides myself, but I hope you saw Harlevin's comment to yours about doing some gentle choices because that's the ruling style you need for his. So I guess, witty and gentle are probably the main things for his route? I haven't played in a while. I may have to go back and experiment and write down every choice I make and what endings I get.
YAYY! I finally achieved Aalam's route. Once I picked out the witty and gentle choices it was easy from there. I got to see some new scenes as well, so thank you for helping and Harlevin as well !!
Awesome! I'm glad I could help, even if only a little.
I’ll say too in the next update, I have made it easier to get on the routes, so you shouldn’t have trouble after that!
hi !! i just wanted to know if there will be a walkthrough in the future so it might be easier to get together with the person you prefer? the art is lovely and i love the different relationship dynamics <33
Hello! Thank you for playing, and I'm so glad that you enjoyed it! There will be a guide available as a Kickstarter reward, and it will be available for purchase with the full game as well.
Here are some hints though: Aalam prefers Monarchs with a bit of spunk. Sahi might advocate against war, but that's what needs to happen to get on his route. Lune will appreciate those who keep a level head.
So we *have* to go to war to avoid marrying Aalam? Interesting 🤔 ...is killing him going to be a possibility? Because to be honest I already kind of hate this guy, and I haven't even played the demo yet 😂
No, there is another way to avoid marrying Aalam, and that will put you on Lune's route.
How will the optional 18+ content work if you can choose the protag's gender? There will be both MxF & MxM alts?
That's correct, there will be alternate content based on the body you choose at the beginning of the game.
That's a lot of work! I respect it hahaha 👏
I'm assuming the male protag will be the bottom in all of the gay scenes?
For the MxM scenes, one character always tops, one will ask your preference, and one character always bottoms. I wanted to add a little variety there and I felt it made sense based on their personalities. This is shown in the MxF scenes by making the mc more aggressive or submissive.
Super cool! Thanks for clarifying 👍 Good luck with the kickstarter!
The art is very good <3
Thank you so much!
Welp, ik what i'll be looking forward to.
Ooooooh minyan!!!!! Another game! So exciting! I have GOT to get my VN on again... took a break for a bit... still doing the VO... and naturally thought about your games. My heart is in my throat waiting for this.
Hiii! Yes, it's good to be back! Word on the street is I'll be doing paid voice acting for this game if the KS goes through...so I'll def link you to the auditions!
Much thanks!!! You know you're one of the few where I'd do it for free (ssshhh!) even if the KS is short by a bit.
You're so sweet
🤗 Audition is up! https://twitter.com/harlevinvns/status/1590547557708894208
ahhhh this looks super cool!!! I'll be following this one for sure owo
Android please???? And download button where?
Its not out yet that's why
ah thanks for answer xixixi
I can only approuve games with ruling Queen! Looking forward to know more about this game fellow dev!
thanks so much! Really looking forward to Imperial Grace :)
This looks interesting. I'll download it later today and let you know what I think so far.
thanks so much for your interest! The game is still in development, so no demo just yet. But I will be posting devlogs with my progress! Here is a link to the first one: https://harlevin.itch.io/celestial-crowns/devlog/425187/intro
Oh, okay then. I thought there was something to download, but that's fine. I did read the dev log already and it sounds pretty good so far. Can't wait till there's something to try out!