A Sweet & Spicy Timeline

• First Short Story ♥

  7th September, 2025

  To commemorate the first anniversary of adopting Juno, oli published an original short story for the first time!

• First Poem ♥

  10th August, 2025

  Snowdrops was the first poem published to Sweet & Spicy reviews. It’s a sensitive, vulnerable poem, written by oli as a way to process traumatic grief.

• Hiatus #2 ends!

  17th July, 2025

  After about a year (and a bit) hiatus #2 ended! Sweet & Spicy came back with a merch review of LlamaFloofs’ latest line and a long overdue update on everything that happened during the break. It felt good to be back!

• First time playtesting

  30th July, 2024

  The first reviewer copy of a game that oli received was Dates and Wires. Three years later, oli was commissioned to play test / QA a game for the first time – and it was none other that Dates and Wires! Oli has experience in QA in other industries, so it was exciting to apply those skills to a more meaningful project.

• Hiatus #2 starts-ish

  6th May, 2024

  Due to a second round of personal circumstances, oli had to stop streaming. Ongoing health issues made streams sporadic over a few months, before conceding a proper hiatus would be best. Posts to Sweet & Spicy also dwindled during this time.

• Announced Project: Beast ♥

  14th February, 2024

  On Valentine’s Day, 2024, because oli is a hopeless romantic, they announced both Grimamour Games and Project: Beast. Grimamour Games is an indie game development studio founded by oli, and Project: Beast is the working title for the studio’s debut game. A massive amount of prep was undertaken in the weeks leading up to this announcement, which was a team effort from many, lovely people.

• Converted the Sweet & Spicy server to a community server!

  13th February, 2024

  This felt like a major step in some ways, but also completely natural in others. The server had been operating as a community server for a while, and this shift made it official.

• First VIP stream

  20th January, 2024

  Kicking off with Dahlia’s route in Speakeasy, oli and RJ ran the first VIP stream on the Sweet & Spicy discord server – open to patrons, subscribers, and donors.

• Adopted Yuki! ♥♥♥

  2nd January, 2024

  Not necessarily a professional achievement, but adopting Yuki changed oli’s life completely. Having a kitten running around the apartment did mean new prioritisation was in order, but it also meant lots, and lots, and lots of cat photos.

• RJ vtuber debut!

  22nd October, 2023

  RJ debuted as the loveable (tsundere) vtuber that they are ♥ It was a huge blast playing through so many games and getting to know their new model and lore.

• First time on a podcast

  19th October, 2023

  This was oli’s first time appearing on a podcast, and it was to discuss Candied Hearts with the rest of the dev team! Once the initial nerves had subsided, it ended up being a lot of fun. Apparently it was the start of a trend, too, as oli then went on to do another podcast appearance on 28th October, for Nochi Studios!

• Attending PAX Aus with a Media pass

  6th October, 2023

  This was an incredibly exciting milestone for oli – attending the PAX Aus 2023 convention with a media pass! Interviewing local indie game developers and sharing their projects on Sweet & Spicy was extremely rewarding and inspiring~

• Vtuber debut & Oona, the Heartbroken ♥

  3rd September, 2023

  Within 2 months of returning, oli finally debuted as a vtuber! The subathon stream lasted 2 days, and was easily a highlight of oli’s entire streaming career. Oona, the Heartbroken was also premiered during the debut stream, which is a micro visual novel written and directed by oli as a prologue for the ‘Oona’ vtuber character.

  Aca was the artist behind the character sprites, and Kristi kindly supported with the background art. Kohi was instrumental in getting the visual novel ready in time, both by programming the entire game, and nudging oli to get back on track, aka try to ignore the shiny (baldur’s gate 3).

• Hiatus #1 ends

  17th July, 2023

  After 6 months, oli returned to streaming with the same game they started with in their first stream – Amnesia: Memories. It was a heart-warming experience, with so many friends showing up to welcome oli back ♥

• Candied Hearts Demo Released!

  2nd July, 2023

  Oli co-wrote the demo with Kristi, aka HusbandoGoddess, for Candied Hearts, an adorable romantic visual novel written for Otome Jam 2023. The demo was published on this day, with a huge wave of support!

• The First Bookclub Meeting!

  6th April, 2023

  On this day, Fawn (admin for the Sweet & Spicy discord server) held the first bookclub event on the server! It has been a consistent, well-loved event ever since. We meet weekly in a voice call and discuss one route each week until we’ve finished the game. It’s a lot of fun – and kicking off with Norn9 was a great way to start~

• Hiatus #1 starts

  3rd February, 2023

  Due to personal circumstances, oli had to suddenly take a break from streaming. RJ played an enormous role in keeping the wheels turning at Sweet & Spicy during this time, as well as moderating the discord server with Fawn. Lack of stable internet and housing meant streaming was off the table for a while, so oli focused on writing for Sweet & Spicy and dabbling in game development for the first time…

• RJ joins the team !! ♥

  13th (Friday!) January, 2023

  RJ wasn’t publicly added to the team until 28th February, but Friday 13th of January is when we had a meeting to discuss them working with oli at Sweet & Spicy. Friday the 13th may be unlucky, but that day was very much the opposite. RJ joining Sweet & Spicy was one of the best things to happen to this website and our community. ♥♥♥

• Became an affiliate

  27th October, 2022

  A little over a month since the first livestream, oli became a Twitch affiliate! The second half of 2022 was a dizzying whirlwind of rapid growth that was overwhelming, inspiring, and humbling — a beautiful storm~

• First Livestream!

  21st September, 2022

  Known then as Oona Tempest, oli took to Twitch for the first time with just a static PNG and a copy of Amnesia: Memories. Many friends (and colleagues!) were met through streaming, and it quickly became a huge part of oli’s creative pursuits.

• Sweet & Spicy Discord Server

  3rd September, 2022

  Throughout July and August, oli built the Sweet & Spicy discord server. On 3rd september, it was announced as being available to the public! Since then, the discord community has blossomed into a welcoming, inclusive space for anyone and everyone to gush about their favourite romances (and husbandos!) ♥

• Launch: Sweet & Spicy Patreon!

  28th October, 2021

  The first ‘welcome’ post went live on the 28th October, 2021, for the launch of the new Sweet & Spicy Patreon. Since then, it has grown to include regular updates, early access, VIP discord roles, custom fanfic, and VIP-exclusive content.

• First News Article

  23rd August, 2021

  Sweet & Spicy expanded from reviews to news AND reviews! ♥

• First post on Ko-fi

  11th August, 2021

  After 5 months of mind-blowing support and lovely comments, the first post on the new Sweet & Spicy Ko-fi was posted! (Ko-fi membership came a month later, on 11th September)

• Zodiac Archetype Review series starts

  3rd July, 2021

  The first installment of the Zodiac reviews series started on this day with the Gemini archetype – oli’s sun sign!

• First review copy of a game

  12th June, 2021

  On this day, the game review for Dates & Wires was published on Sweet & Spicy reviews, which was the first review published for a game oli received a reviewer key/code for. It was an exciting milestone that made Sweet & Spicy feel like a more professional, legitimate outlet for game reviews.

• First Closed Beta Participation

  8th May, 2021

  This was the first time oli/Sweet & Spicy had been invited to participate in a closed beta for any game – which happened to be Tears of Themis! The game guide oli wrote for Tears of Themis ended up being one of the first posts to get past the 1k views milestone!

• Sweet & Spicy Reviews launch day !!

  27th March, 2021

  With three reviews, a single home page, and big ideas, Sweet & Spicy Reviews launched on 27th March, 2021. Oli conceived the idea during lockdown as a way to regularly practice writing, using their passion for otome as their motivation. It ended up turning into something far more meaningful than they imagined ♥