Lives across centuries. One feeling they cannot name
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Before We Begin
Perpetūra · An Interactive Novel
Stories
The Anthology
Codex
Uncovered
About
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Lives apart, across the centuries
Each story is self-contained, and quietly part of something larger.
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A throughline
Shared chapters shift in tone depending on the path you are drawn to.
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A codex that unlocks
Fragments, letters, and objects: pieces of a mystery that connects them.
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A question, never asked aloud
The feeling they cannot name is the thing the game is really about.
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About 2–3 hours each
A slow burn, written with the restraint of literary fiction.
What to Expect
First-person prose in past tense. No character sprites, no stat screens. A handful of pivotal scenes carry a small illustration now, but this is still a story told in words — the pictures are punctuation, not the point.
Each story has 3–5 routes: mostly romance paths and one solo path where the protagonist chooses herself. The solo path is not a bad ending. It is a genuine resolution, as complete and emotionally honest as any romance.
Your choices accumulate quietly. The story watches what you're drawn to, and the world shifts around your attention. By the midpoint, your route is set. By the end, the choices are yours alone.
Content & Maturity
A romance written for adult readers. Expect grief, death, and loss, confinement and coercive control portrayed as harm rather than romance, and violence that mostly happens where you can't see it. Intimacy ships sensual by default; an explicit tier (18+) unlocks the fuller variant where a story has earned it.
Privacy
No personal data, no cookies, no tracking across sites. The game counts a few anonymous events (a story started or finished, and which route) so I can tell which stories players reach. It respects Do-Not-Track, and your saves stay on your device.
Install
Add Perpetūra to your home screen to read it like an app — full-screen, and available offline.
On iPhone or iPad: tap the Share button, then Add to Home Screen.
Current Version
You are playing v1.0.11.
v1.11.6 · A New Address
Perpetūra has moved to a home of its own. Nothing in the stories has changed.
✦ The game now lives at perpetura.lacunaedesigns.com
✦ The old address still works, and still takes you here
✦ Your progress is saved to the address you play on. If you have been playing at the old one and would rather not start over, sign in there first and your progress will follow you across
v1.11.0 · The Fifth Story
The last door on the shelf opens. Five stories now, and one of them has been waiting a long time.
✦ The fifth story is playable — a full story with three roads through it, and an ending for each
✦ She opens once the fourth story reaches a certain ending. One road leads there; the shelf keeps her secret until it does
✦ Her more intimate scenes sit behind the same age toggle in Settings as everyone else's
✦ The path map now names each chapter exactly as the story does, and no longer spills its text outside the boxes
✦ Nine codex entries could never actually be collected. They can now, so the codex is completable at last
✦ The atlas reads properly on a phone, and its labels no longer sit on top of one another
v1.10.4 · A Long Read Through
No new chapters. A close pass over the writing itself, most of it in the first story.
✦ A handful of chapters used to tell you outright that nothing much was happening in them. They don't any more
✦ Something planted early in the first story, and quietly picked at for chapters afterwards, finally gets its answer
✦ Two people who mattered to the story and then slipped out of it now get the ending they were owed
✦ More choices ask you something the page hasn't already answered
✦ Long stretches of unbroken text across the fourth story now sit in paragraphs you can actually read on a phone
v1.10.0 · The Celestial Atlas
A new look for everything outside the reading, and the longest editorial pass yet across all four stories.
✦ The title screen, codex, settings and about pages are rebuilt around a celestial design
✦ The Atlas is now a map you can pan and zoom through, tracing how the stories reach each other
✦ The codex has room to breathe, and entries that were counted but never actually opened now do
✦ Settings and the feedback form are reachable again on shorter screens, where the title screen used to trap them
✦ Several chapter titles across all four stories gave away their own endings before you read them. They don't any more
✦ A number of choices asked you to decide something the page had already described; those now sit where the decision really is
✦ New scene art in two places that had none, and two older pieces redrawn to match what the writing actually says
✦ Assorted continuity and phrasing fixes across all four stories
v1.9.8 · A Closer Read, Continued
More of the same quiet line-by-line pass, on the first and third stories.
✦ A stretch of the first story reads more plainly now, and a small continuity slip near its ending is set right
✦ A few turns of phrase that recurred a little too often in the first and third stories now vary the way they should
v1.9.5 · The Same Habit, Everywhere Else
The phrasing pass from last time, continued — across the second, third, and fourth stories this time.
✦ More lines, across three more stories, read more plainly where they'd leaned on the same trick as before
✦ A handful of choices in the first and fourth stories now read more like her actually talking, less like a menu
v1.9.4 · Smoother Reading
A pass on the reading experience itself, plus a continued closer read of the first story.
✦ Text no longer jumps around while it's being typed out — it settles into place from the first letter
✦ Choices no longer shift or wobble when you hover over them
✦ Scene images no longer shove the text below them when they load — and now sit a little smaller, with room to breathe
✦ A handful of lines in the first story read more plainly where they'd leaned on the same trick once too often
v1.9.3 · The Same Closer Read
The continuity pass continues — this time on the third story.
✦ A choice in the third story now leads to a scene that actually follows through on what you picked
v1.9.2 · A Closer Read
A continuity pass on the first story, prompted by careful players noticing exactly the right things.
✦ A couple of choices in the first story now lead to scenes that actually follow through on what you picked
✦ A few lines that assumed you'd taken a path you hadn't now read correctly whichever road brought you there
✦ The Codex reliably marks a finished story as finished, wherever you close the book
v1.9.1 · A Few Faces, Correctly Placed
A quiet accuracy pass. No new story — just the Codex catching up to the story it was already telling.
✦ Fixed a handful of spots, across every story, where the Codex introduced someone before you had actually met them on the page
✦ The fourth story's cast now age with her as her story goes on, rather than only at its very end
✦ A small notice on the title screen, for anyone who has come far enough to see it
v1.9.0 · The Fourth Story
A fourth story arrives — the largest yet — and it is keeping its name to itself. Liuyan's story has been told again, with more room to breathe.
✦ A new story — the fourth, and the first set in the present day: more roads through her life than any story has given one woman, and the longest yet to read
✦ Who she is stays a mystery until you meet her — a woman living two lives, whom almost no one truly sees. Her name is yours to discover
✦ The fourth story unlocks once you have finished three of the others — she was written to be met late, and she is worth the road there
✦ Liuyan's story rewritten from end to end — fuller chapters, the same story told with more care. If you have read it before, it is worth reading again
✦ Your saves still work, and every choice still leads where it did
v1.8.0 · Reine, Rewritten
The second story has been rewritten from end to end. If you have read it before, it is worth reading again.
✦ Every chapter of Reine's story reworked, line by line
✦ Quieter scenes given room to breathe, and more of them
✦ Her three roads each read more distinctly their own
✦ Your saves still work, and every choice still leads where it did
v1.7.0 · Hyunjae, Rewritten
The first story has been rewritten from end to end. If you have read it before, it is worth reading again.
✦ Every chapter of Hyunjae's story reworked, line by line
✦ Quieter scenes given room to breathe, and more of them
✦ Her three roads each read more distinctly their own
✦ Your saves still work, and every choice still leads where it did
v1.6.3 · A Smaller Fix
One more quiet tidy-up.
✦ The way to stay in touch here in Credits got a little smoother
v1.6.2 · Quiet Housekeeping
A small tidy-up behind the scenes.
✦ A few quiet fixes and a new way to find your way back here
v1.6.0 · Music and Moments
Every story found its voice. A few of its moments found a face.
✦ A theme song for every finished story — sung, with lyrics, unlockable once you complete it
✦ A new Soundtrack tab in the Codex: play or pause anything you've unlocked
✦ Finish a story and its menu music quietly switches to that story's own theme
✦ Key art — a handful of pivotal moments in Hyunjae's, Reine's, and Liuyan's stories now carry a small illustration alongside the prose
v1.5.2 · The Sentence-Level Pass
The first story, rewritten line by line — and a pocketful of fixes.
✦ A full prose pass over Hyunjae's story, prologue to every ending — same story, weightier sentences
✦ Lighter touch-ups in a handful of scenes across Reine's and Liuyan's stories
✦ A small new moment early on Liuyan's road, for the attentive
✦ A Liuyan codex entry that could be missed now unlocks properly (and back-fills if you already passed it)
✦ Ending keepsake cards now save to Photos correctly on iPhone, and the portrait no longer stretches
✦ The story shelf scrolls natively now — smoother swiping, especially on phones
✦ Menu polish: Esc closes Settings, and a leftover empty tab is gone
v1.5.0 · Liuyan
A new story opens, and the whole game has a new voice.
✦ New story — Liuyan, Tang Dynasty China: a blade-for-hire and the legacy she carries alone
✦ A brand-new soundtrack across the game — every story, and every path within it, now has its own music
✦ New themes for the menu, the prologue, and the codex
v1.4.0 · Room to Breathe
A tidier title screen, and saves that remember what you were doing.
✦ Settings now live inside the title-screen orrery — no more separate gear button
✦ Replaying a story you've already finished? Resume now picks up right where you left off
✦ Fixed the volume slider sticking on iPhone, and settings now reachable from the title screen too
✦ A few more passages read a little smoother
✦ Bug reports now carry a touch more detail automatically, so fixes land faster
v1.3.1 · A Quieter Kind of Update
A careful pass through everything already on the shelf.
✦ Reworked passages across the stories so the prose reads smoother, start to finish
✦ The title-screen orrery breathes a little better: rebalanced proportions, more room around it
✦ Story carousel fixes: the arrows stay put, and tapping a side portrait no longer launches its story
✦ Want to hear when a new story opens? There's now a quiet signup in About → Credits
v1.3.0 · The Clockwork Redesign
Every menu rebuilt as one piece of clockwork.
✦ A new title screen: an orrery you turn to reach each part of the game
✦ Stories now glide past as a deck of cast portraits
✦ The Codex is one instrument now: a map of connections, with reading plates for lore and characters
✦ Friendlier on phones: pinch and zoom the connections map, long entries scroll, lots of small fixes
✦ Sign in with Google from the title to keep your saves in the cloud
v1.2.0 · Reine
A second story opens its doors: Belle Époque Paris, 1893.
✦ Reine's story is now fully playable, start to finish
✦ The most seen woman in Paris, and the art no one is allowed to see
v1.1.2 · Second Readings
The Codex now keeps up with what you uncover.
✦ Some character entries deepen as a story reveals who someone truly is
v1.1.1 · Faces, Found
The character gallery now fills in as you play, and the art got a careful second pass.
✦ Characters now take their place in the Codex the moment you meet them in the story
✦ New portraits for the people around Hyunjae — her mother, Jiseon, and Boknyeo
✦ A second pass over the portrait art, and new faces waiting quietly for the stories still to come
✦ Housekeeping behind the scenes so returning readers see the new art right away
v1.1.0 · A More Visual Perpetūra
The cast steps into view, and every screen gets its own atmosphere.
✦ A new Characters tab in the Codex, with portraits of the people you meet
✦ Redesigned story selection, each story introduced by its cast
✦ New artwork behind every screen, tuned to read beautifully on phones
✦ A clearer note on how AI is used here, and an open invitation for artists to collaborate
v1.0.11 · Polish & Honest Notes
A careful pass over Hyunjae's story, and a more honest About screen.
✦ Polished the prose through the middle chapters so the quiet moments carry more
✦ Let one of the gentler turning points arrive as a moment rather than a summary
✦ Steadied a few story threads so the cost of a choice actually lands
✦ Added a content note and a short, plain-spoken privacy note to the About screen
v1.0.10 · Story Polish
A few small refinements to Hyunjae's story.
✦ Gave a familiar face in Hyunjae's world a little more of her own to want
✦ Tidied a few turns of phrase so they sit right
v1.0.9 · A Lighter Touch
A small writing pass, and quiet work on what comes next.
✦ Refined the prose at one of the story's emotional turning points, trusting the moment to speak for itself
v1.0.8 · Steadier Bug Reports
Quiet plumbing work so telling us about a problem just works.
✦ Screenshots now attach reliably when you send feedback, so a picture travels with your note
✦ The feedback tool loads more dependably, and keeps working even offline
v1.0.7 · Ways to Follow & Support
A small, friendlier corner for staying in touch.
✦ Quick links to follow along on X, Instagram, and Tumblr, tidied into the Credits page
✦ A new place to leave a tip on Ko-fi, if a story stayed with you — the game stays free either way
v1.0.6 · Three Endings, Three Feelings
A pass through Hyunjae's final chapters to let each path land in its own way.
✦ Reworked the closing scenes on all three routes so each ending carries its own distinct note
✦ Warmed up the writing in the most pivotal moments
✦ Smoothed out repeated turns of phrase
v1.0.5 · A Small Fix
Tidying up yesterday's animation update.
✦ Fixed a hiccup where screens would play their entrance animation twice
v1.0.4 · Gentler Motion
A little more grace in how things appear, and friendlier for everyone.
✦ Choices, the title screen, and the menus now ease in softly instead of snapping
✦ Full support for the system "reduce motion" setting — turn it on and things stay calm and still
✦ Clearer keyboard focus outline for anyone navigating without a mouse
✦ Bigger, easier-to-tap buttons on small screens
v1.0.3 · Progress Fix
A small fix to how story completion is shown.
✦ Finishing a story now fills the progress bar to 100% (it used to stop at 95%)
v1.0.2 · Smoother Updates
Behind-the-scenes fixes so the game stays current and feels better on mobile.
✦ Updates now reach you reliably — including the mobile home-screen app
✦ Fixed the Codex and About tabs on mobile (they scroll instead of overlapping)
✦ Clearer, more responsive feedback button
✦ Small polish throughout
v1.0.1 · Polish Pass
A small update focused on quality and polish for Hyunjae's story.
✦ Clearer choices, grounded better in the scene before you pick
✦ A prose-polish pass for a smoother reading voice
✦ Continuity tidy-up across Hyunjae's three routes
✦ A few extra quiet character moments
✦ Full QA pass: all routes, saves, codex, audio, and the pause menu verified
v1.0.0 · Launch
Hyunjae's story arrives: two love interests, one solo path, and three distinct endings.
Perpetūra is free to read. Follow along, or leave a tip if a story stays with you.
Perpetūra is the work of one person. Every word of every story, every character and the world they move through, every choice and the unnamed feeling beneath it: written, designed, and held together by Lacunae alone. The years, the rewrites, the long candlelit hours. Hers.
AI is a tool in the workshop, not the author. It assisted in drafting, in building the engine that runs the game, and in generating the score; the character art is AI-generated as a placeholder until original work takes its place.
Artists & Collaborators
Perpetūra is a small, independent project, and would love to bring its cast and world to life with original art. If you are an illustrator or character artist and these stories speak to you, reach out through the Feedback & Bug Reports form, choose the Other category, and include a link to your work.
Music
Music created with Suno, used under commercial licence.
