Cairn: Mathair's Curse — patch notes and updates
Stored observation / content update:
Dated developer announcements recorded from Steam. Open the source for the complete update.
| Update | Date | Excerpt / source |
|---|---|---|
| Soundtrack Release and Happy New Year! | 2026-01-05 | Hope everyone had a wonderful time over the festive period! Here's a photo from the group's shinanigans over the holidays:Soundtrack release!Really happy to say the full soundtrack is now uploaded to Youtube! Thank you to my partner for putting it all together to enjoy in one go :) If you would like high quality formats of the soundtrack, it is available currently on Bandcamp, and will be available via Steam soon (awaiting Steam approval!)Please note some tracks have been updated since the game release - this is due to file loss unfortunately, and the tracks re-created. These are the following: Low TideAwnie IslandBrae Croft Mother's SongBarg |
| 1.01 Hotfix #1 | 2025-10-27 | Some wee changes and fixes post the 1.01 update :) Fixed vile video game reseller selling collectables that don't count towards collection (he was doubly vile) Fixed soldier incorrectly chucking you out in chapter 10 Chapter 2's special ant types will now use their stronger abilities once you have access to a trader Chapter 2's special ant types have swapped damage values Shop signs now direct you to the trader in Chapter 2 Added a Great Thistle near the cemetery in Late Chapter 1 |
| Update 1.01 is LIVE! | 2025-10-24 | I've been very busy the last couple of weeks since release!Feature updates:Look out for the great thistles - these plants will provide your party with a free recovery!The first piece of feedback I've focused on for this update was providing some kind of rest point/relief for players. Particularly in the early chapters where items can be most scarce. With this update you can now find scattered throughout Albaness a mysterious flower which when touched provides a one time full recovery for your party. This means you should chew through your items just a little less quickly.A combat speed modifier has been added to the main menuAnother request w |
| Hotfix #10 Pre-Update 1 | 2025-10-19 | A few issues before the first update: Fixed a bug causing players to become stuck when returning to Eilidh's room in Chapter 4 in the second half of the chapter Fixed an issue with some character sprites Fixed a bug causing incorrect pickup audio to play in Chapter 2 Corrected a calculation dealing with average player levels |
| Hotfix #9 | 2025-10-14 | Larger fix list for later Chapters Present incorrectly attempts to send you to a unassociated cave entrance Offset camera after encounter in Ch13 Sound effect volume reduction on enemy attack effect Alterations to some NPC dialogue Correction to a few weapon descriptions Percival Refers to character as incorrect name in a couple spots Fixed scrolling background to lift in Ch13 Altered Enemy health and weaknesses Ch13 Various grammar/spelling corrections Altered skill costs for Graham Fixed an enemy being vulnerable to the venom state |
| Hotfix #8 | 2025-10-13 | I'm still working on a bigger patch but here's a few small fixes :) Small Day 2 dialogue changes Corrected a delay on some enemy encounter animations in Chapter 1 Fixed an issue where the dog would leave the party after battling beetles (Dog became more scared of beetles than superheroes) Added shortcut option home on retrieving the medicine |
| Hotfix #7 | 2025-10-12 | Altered Robo Enemy abilities to prevent skill spam LIFE and SPIRIT have increased regen from Defend ability Encyclopedia spelling corrections Excluded accessories from menu Quick Equip Fixed a sprite overlap issue in Chapter 5 Corrected some signage in Chapter 5 Fixed an issue where a quest was completing too early in Chapter 5 Fixed an issue where an enemy wouldn't pull from their full music track list in Chapter 5 Small item usage corrections in menus Fixed a problem where sending an incorrect item in Chapter 10 would prevent progress |
| Hotfix #6 | 2025-10-12 | Fixed a music change in chapter 12 Fixed a music change in chapter 13 Fixed a bug with duplicate character in chapter 8 Added a consumable item to a Chapter 11 seller Fixed Sprite Error in Chapter 12 |
| Hotfix #5 | 2025-10-11 | A few more smaller bugs while I work on the larger update :)Fixed an incorrect music track playing during the intro of Chapter 8Added in a guy to provide players with items etc when provided with a codeAdded LIFE/SPIRIT recovery when the character goes to bed at the end of the day in Chapter 2Fixed a bug where saying No to going to bed softlocks the game in Chapter 2Fixed an issue where a team member joining the party would play an incorrect sound effectFixed an issue where the cat refused to take his given name (Cats amiright?) |
| Hotfix #4 | 2025-10-11 | Fixed an issue where the player might repeat a scene and get stuck in Chapter 7 |
| Thank you for playing Cairn: Mathair's Curse! | 2025-10-11 | Thank you for Playing!Really blown away by the response to Cairn: Mathair's Curse! I'm very glad people are enjoying the game so far. Thank you so much also to everyone who has left a review, many of them are very thoughtful and insightful! If you're playing the game, please do consider leaving a review of your experience! Recent and Ongoing FixesI also wanted to note on the following issues either fixed or currently being worked on: Steam Deck and Linux players ran into a compatibility issue earlier today. That’s now fixed, and should be running smoothly again! A known issue with enemies running away causing a softlock - I'm currently implem |
| Hotfix #3 Solved a Beetle Bug | 2025-10-11 | Fixed one of Farmer Sandy's beetles causing a repeating battle/animation |
| Hotfix #2 | 2025-10-10 | Another wee update to fix the following issues: Fixed an issue with a stop sign stopping the player (A bit too much) Fixed an issue where a cat's agility goes down after a certain level (It gets lazy) Added a vendor in the Chapter 1 woods after a big event. |
| Hotfix #1 | 2025-10-10 | Just a wee update to fix the following issues: Fixed an issue where beetles will disappear before being fought in Chapter 1 Fixed a problem with entering a door in Chapter 2 Altered the credits section Another small hotfix is due shortly as well for some additional bugs |
| Cairn: Mathair's Curse is OUT NOW! | 2025-10-09 | After 5 years of development, I'm excited that Cairn: Mathair's Curse is finally released into the world! Thank you to everyone who is interested, wishlists or plan to purchase the game! It's a real passion project, both to classic JRPGs and in its personal story. I hope you not only enjoy the adventure across Albaness, but resonate in the emotional moments across the game. And wack some enemies!If you give it a go soon, please consider leaving a review for Cairn: Mathair's Curse! As my first commerial game, and for a solo dev - every review makes a massive impact within the Steam ecosystem! |
| Cairn: Mathair's Curse launches October 9th 2025! | 2025-09-09 | After 5 years of development, I’m very excited to announce that Cairn: Mathair's Curse will launch on Steam on October 9, 2025!It’s been a very personal project, and I’m excited and a little terrified to be sharing it with the world soon.What started as a side project really became my life for a long time. I hope anyone who plays it will connect with the passion and nostalgia that has gone into it. And, of course, there are plenty of funny characters and silly monsters to fight!Here a wee teaser trailer to celebrate the announcement! |
| Combat Updates in 2025! | 2025-09-01 | It’s been a busy year for Cairn: Mathair's Curse!Earlier this year I finished the game from beginning to end - but development hasn’t slowed down. One of the biggest changes this year has been a complete overhaul of combat, loot, and character progression!Each main party member now has two distinct “flavours” of abilities, and the items you discover throughout Albaness are tailored to those playstyles.For example. Graham, the main spellcaster has two sets of weapon choices:Literature (novels, stories, etc.) powers up his strongest spiritual attacks - fireballs to incinerate foes, waves to sweep them away.Ancient texts (stone tablets, carvings |
| Cairn: Mathair's Curse is taking part in TurnBasedCarnival by acramdigital! | 2024-11-13 | I am excited to share we are part of the Turn-Based Carnival by acramdigital, showcasing loads of great turn-based games! Check out the link below to the Steam event page live from 13th November - 20th November for all the amazing games turn-based games! https://store.steampowered.com/publisher/Acram/sale/Turn-BasedCarnival2024 |
| October 2024 Update! | 2024-10-01 | I’m back! I recently took a needed break, but now I’m back working full time on Cairn: Mathair’s Curse, and I’d like to share what’s happening now with development. I’m working on the last incomplete chapter of the game. To give an idea, there are 14 chapters in the game. If you’ve played the demo, the demo is about half of chapter 1. Not all the chapters are quite as hefty as chapter 1, but it gives an idea of what to expect for the full game! My testers have been testing the rest of the game bar the chapter I am working on. After I finish developing this chapter, I will be doing the bug fixing and tweaks from the testing and implementing mu |
| A Developer and Development Update | 2024-09-10 | I'd like to share an update on the release of Cairn: Mathair's Curse. Recently, I've had some health issues meaning I've been unable to work on the game, as I needed a break to recover. Thankfully, I'm getting better but I've decided to delay the game's release. It's really important to me that the game is complete and as polished as possible when it's released. Thanks to everyone who is excited and has left encouraging words over the past few months and years, it means a lot! I'll be able to set a new release date once I'm fully recovered and back in full swing. |
| Cairn: Mathair's Curse is taking part in Tiny Teams 2024! | 2024-08-08 | I am very excited to share we are participating in Yogscast's Tiny Teams 2024 Festival, which showcases games from micro studios and solo developers! I am very honoured for Cairn: Mathair's Curse to be participating in this event, and especially excited as the latest demo for Cairn: Mathair's Curse will be streamed on the Yogscast Youtube and Twitch channel on Saturday 8th August 2024 between 5pm and 8pm BST! Check out the links below to the Steam event page live from 8th August - 15th August for all the amazing games made by tiny teams! Big shoutout to Yogscast Games for organising this event and streams all week! Tiny Teams 2024 Steam Page |
| Watch the developer play during the PixElated Festival! | 2024-07-29 | We'll be streaming the latest demo at 6pm BST! Tune in this evening to check it out! |
| Mother & RPG Direct 2024, new trailer and release news! | 2024-07-28 | We were very excited to release a new trailer as a part of Mother Direct 2024! It was a great event, put together by Kody Nokolo on the NOKOGODO youtube channel. At the end there's some exciting news about Cairn! Check out the trailer: The full Mother Direct 2024 broadcast is here! https://youtu.be/PHlB4wvYOnk If you watch to the end, you'll see the planned release window to be October 2024! We'll announce the exact date closer to the time. In the meantime I hope you enjoy all the new bits we're showing in the trailer and the demo! Cairn: Mathair's Curse is also taking part in RPG Direct, which showcases many of the games featured in Mother D |
| Cairn: Mathair's Curse is joining PixElated Fest on July 29th! | 2024-07-22 | We’re super excited to share that Cairn: Mathair's Curse will be joining the PixElated Festival next week! This festival is featuring some of the best pixel art games on Steam. From retro-style classics to contemporary indie gems all in one place! There will be discounts, live streams, art contest, demos, developer chats - all centered around your favourite games. We will be streaming the latest demo build of Cairn during the event! Check out the official line-up and more information about the event here: http://pixelatedfest.com/ |
| Demo updated, thank you for playing! | 2024-06-07 | It's been a week since we released the Cairn: Mathair's Curse demo and I'm very happy to hear people are enjoying the demo - it is beyond encouraging, so thank you for giving it a go if you have! We also received some kind constructive comments so we've made some updates to the demo build. Combat re-balancing. The demo-only area allowed higher levels and more XP to grind, and I underestimated how easy the final fight would be in the demo! I've made the demo enemies a fair bit tougher Bug fix that hopefully fixes a screen freeze on Steam deck Some extra signposting to lead the way around Awnie Island Dialogue's with choices now allow multiple |
| Demo is out NOW! | 2024-06-01 | We've just released the demo for Cairn: Mathair's Curse here on Steam! We've updated it to include an updated part of the first chapter of the game, with some demo exclusive content thrown in to give a taster for the full game. Do let us know what you think if you try it! |
| Cairn: Mathair's Curse is coming in 2024! | 2024-04-26 | Cairn: Mathair's Curse has been in development for 4 years, it's been a journey! But we're very excited to say we will be releasing in 2024! Some exciting festivals this summer, so we are excited to share more in the coming months. Thank you to all who have been following along, newly or from many years ago! :) To celebrate we've created a new trailer - had some very kind and positive feedback so far! We've also started posting to Youtube and Tiktok - follow for little snippets and fun videos of the game! Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@CairnMathairsCurse Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@rossgamedev |
| RPG Maker Festival 2024 Demo Stream! | 2024-02-14 | We're streaming the Cairn: Mathair's Curse demo during RPG Maker Festival 2024 on steam! Tune in to see some weird enemies, funky tunes and cute pixel art! |
| Turn-based Carnival Demo Live-stream! | 2023-11-20 | We're streaming the demo again for the turn-based carnival hosted by Acram Digital on Steam! We have recently updated our demo, so download it and give it a go! |
| Turn-based Carnival Demo Live-stream! | 2023-11-15 | We have recently updated our demo, and are very excited to share it in a live-stream during Turn-based Carnival hosted by Acram Digital on Steam! During the carnival you will also be able to download the demo and give it a go! |