itch.io

We're grateful to all the people who manage to get here to itchio given all the challenges you have to deal with to find it ❤️ Trust me, we want Obscura to be as easy to find and buy for the Chinese audience as possible and we're even more frustrated with Steam than you.

Your suggestion is something we considered to try and get a lower rating, but we think the thing that's getting the game a high rating in the first place is just Cirrus' route. Steam won't tell us if that would work unless we actually try it, and there are some problems that would come from putting a whole route (and one of the most popular ones) in DLC form, which makes this not really an option. We have some other plans in the works that may be able to solve this problem eventually, but none of them are quick solutions 😔 

Thank you so much for your support and patience while we figure out what to do next! 

Thank you for the love! We're so glad people in China are enjoying OBSCURA and sharing it with each other ❤️

Unfortunately, we don't have control over OBSCURA being blocked on Steam. Steam has decided OBSCURA has too much sexual content, and while don't agree with this decision they will not change it; we asked them to reduce the rating and they refused. Steam automatically blocks certain types of mature content on from being sold in China or Germany, which is why we're blocked.  If it was our choice, we would lower the rating because we think it doesn't make sense.

Right now German and Chinese players can buy the game on itchio and get a Steam key that way, and the key does work like normal, we. We're trying to find other ways to get around the block, but there's not a lot of options available to us. We know that itchio doesn't work for everyone and we're sorry, but it's the best we can offer at the moment.

It's fair to say we got a fair bit of good luck to be able to go (we're definitely an outlier in the indie romance VN space and it would be unfair to pretend otherwise), but I do also believe that you can make your own luck with some hard work. Thank you so much 😊

Keys aren't given automatically, there's a button you'll have to press on the download page to receive your key.

The ending guide is on the Steam community hub 😊

The builds are identical, the only difference for you is the platform you'll be using to download and play the game, and if you live in Germany or China the game is inaccessible on Steam due to laws around mature games. And since you can get a Steam key for the game here on Itch.io, you can buy once and get the game on both platforms.

We have no plans in selling different content on the two storefronts, either.

Unfortunately Steam decided our game contains too much Adult Content (we're as confused as everyone else about this), and they're currently blocking the sale of OBSCURA in Germany and China. There's not much we can do about this right now, we have disputed the rating and they disagreed with us, and the geoblocking is due to laws in those countries regarding the sale of games with mature content.

The good news is you can buy the game here on Itch.io, and you'll be able to redeem a Steam key that should work on Steam like normal (we haven't heard from anyone having problems with it, at least). 

There's a button on the download page that'll let you redeem  a Steam key. You have to press the button to request the key, they're not distributed automatically since some players come to Itch specifically because it's not Steam and they wouldn't use a key anyways.

Steam has not decided in our favour, unfortunately. We're just too spicy for Steam, I guess 😔 But we are now offering Steam keys here through Itch.io, so you can redeem a key here and should be able to play on Steam as usual.

We've added the option to redeem a Steam key via Itchio now 😊 Thanks for asking!

It's a bit of a "patience meter". Try playing without adding anything to it, or filling it up. There's three versions of a major scene depending on how many points you get.

14.99 USD isn't the final price for the game since it'll definitely be raised when the game is complete, but purchases are one-and-done. If you buy OBSCURA now you'll get the rest of the Chapter Two and all of Chapter Three as they come out, same if you buy it later, the price may just be a little higher. If you use Steam or Itch.io's app (and we are including Steam keys here on Itch.io now) you'll get the new chapters automatically as updates, otherwise you'll get an announcement about the update and just need to download the updated build.

Ah, unfortunately Steam has decided that OBSCURA is Too Horny and tagged it with Frequent Sexual Content, which appears to have blocked the game from sale in Germany. We think this is silly, but we have to play by Steam's rules while we're on their platform. While a solution to this may come in the future, we don't have any control over if or when it happens. In the meantime, you should be able to get the game here without any issue. Sorry about that one.

I'm super impressed you found us here, of all places! Here's a link, please enjoy your stay!

Each love interest has three chapters planned, so the game is about halfway done. If you want to wait for the game to be closer to completion before buying it, we totally understand that choice.

Unfortunately, I'm not a Mac user so I can only pass along information second-hand that may be able to help you. You may be able to right-click the icon and choose "Show Package Contents", and then go into the folders to find a different launcher that should? work.

In this case, I went into the Obscura.app folder, then Contents, and then MacOS, and there was a file called Obscura there, which hopefully launch the game? I'm afraid I can only be of so much help in this case; this is  a tutorial from a dev friend of ours who has been able to use this method before, but I can't test it on my own.

Hi! Glad you're enjoying the new content 😊

The guide is on Steam in the Community Hub, it's the same guide just with fewer flashy visuals.

Yeah, Steam decided we belonged in Horny Jail about two days before release, so we complied with their rating request so we wouldn't miss our release day. We're currently disputing this status with them because we think they're being extremely silly about the BDSM content. Hopefully this matter gets resolved soon.

As for Steam keys on Itch.io, it's not something we're doing at the moment, but I've brought it to the team to consider.

Ah shoot, I forgot to check the OS checkboxes after the patch (this trips us up so often). I've fixed what should be the issue, so 2.0.1 should be downloadable now.

Whoa, I understand the frustration but bring it down a notch. Itchio does not have regional pricing, our audience is majority American, therefore we priced the game here using USD. I would recommend checking Steam, which has regional pricing implemented, to see if the price there makes more sense to you.

In this case you need to download and launch the 2.0.1 build specifically. 1.6.1 is the demo version so there's no Chapter 2 in it to play.

The price is going to go up slightly as we release more content, but you only need to buy once and then you'll get the rest of the chapters as they release.

The ending guide is now available in the Steam community hub; I needed to rework it to suit Steam's formatting.

Ending guide is now available on Itchio if you buy it here, on Steam in the community hub, and it's on our Discord server.

We couldn't post the pdf directly on Steam, so I had to take some time to revise and rework the guide for Steam's formatting. It's now available on Steam, if you click the "Guide" button in the ribbon below the play button.

We couldn't post the pdf directly on Steam, so I had to take some time to revise and rework the guide for Steam's formatting. It's now available on Steam, if you click the "Guide" button in the ribbon below the play button.

We couldn't post the pdf directly on Steam, so I had to take some time to revise and rework the guide for Steam's formatting. It's now available on Steam, if you click the "Guide" button in the ribbon below the play button.

We couldn't post the pdf directly on Steam, so I had to take some time to revise and rework the guide for Steam's formatting. It's now available on Steam, if you click the "Guide" button in the ribbon below the play button.

We couldn't post the pdf directly on Steam, so I had to take some time to revise and rework the guide for Steam's formatting. It's now available on Steam, if you click the "Guide" button in the ribbon below the play button.

Nope, it's one-and-done. We're going to raise the price slightly as more content releases, but once you've bought the game you're good to go, you'll get all future Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 updates.

If you're playing in the 1.6.1 build then you're still playing the demo; you need to download and be playing the 2.0 version to access Chapter 2.

You're correct, and we will add that demo saves are compatible with the early access game. There's some bugs that may pop up from loading very old demo saves, but the save files are all still accessible. 

Yes, Chapter Two continues directly on from Chapter One. Demo saves do carry over, so if you have a save close to the end of Chapter One from a demo, you can load it in the 2.0 version and simply continue.

There's about 50k words of new content total. Based on comments and reviews we've gotten so far, I'd estimate that a straight shot to only the good endings would take about 3-4 hours altogether, depending on reading speed, maybe 2 if you're very fast.

It's an issue with Steam; they think the game is Too Horny, we think this is extremely silly. We're disputing this rating now, so hopefully we'll be able to bring the rating down soon.

Oh lord, that's a tough one. We have internal estimates, but we're not comfortable offering a public timeline, given we all work on this game as a side-project. If you'd like an assurance that Keir and Cirrus' routes will be complete before buying, we'd suggest following us on a social media platform (or here on itchio) and waiting for an announcement. Waiting for the end of Early Access is very reasonable and we respect that choice.

At the moment we're not offering Steam keys through Itch.io, but this is something I can discuss with the team as we move forward. Thanks for bringing it to our attention! 😊

Which build of the game are you playing? If it's a number lower than 1.6.1, this is an old bug and should be fixed. If it's 1.6.1 or 2.0, then I need to go bugfixing again.

Three chapters in total!

Steam currently thinks we're Too Horny, which we think is very silly. We're going to dispute the rating with them in the next few days and hopefully bring it down, but we didn't want to get into a fight with them about this a day before release. So that's almost certainly what's causing your issue.