Keeping it short because I’m sick. Version 4.53 is out for supporters, featuring bugfixes and adding in more enemy sprites. Hopefully all the sprites should be finished this week. I have contracted Sigrid for the kitsune dance sprites, I hope to have the minigame put in this month.
Other than bugfixes I made a lot of good progress on Ophiucus. I’m going to keep working on bugfixes as they come up.
Tales of Strings: Guise of the Goddess Released!
This is one of the first ToS stories I wrote and has been sitting around waiting for art for over a year. Now it’s out and you can read and enjoy it! It has living-statue tf, twinning, hypno, and hot sex. Naturally.
A friend of mine, Nibs, sent me a pre-release copy and it’s really good! It’s a fairly long story with a lot of illustrations about a hapless everyman who gets turned into a horny tigress by a demoness. I’m not doing it justice with that description, a lot of stuff happens, it’s a story! If anything about the above sounded hot, go give it a look. You can get it on Wechange, or check this bsky post to see more from Nibs.
Sweet Tooth
One sent to me by Britney. A short but very good story with some hot stuff and also Blorbo #7 who has taken over my life. Check it out on Wechange!
His relentless positivity is a blight on this world.
I don’t usually read a ton of stuff by other authors so you know it’s good if I’m recommending it, damn it.
VN Results
After reviewing feedback from the forms, we’ve decided to proceed with a different VN set in the Pandemonium verse since that’s what the audience craves. There will likely be a poll put up next week with a bunch of story pitches for you to pick from, along with the TFs in the stories.
If Only Shadows doesn’t win, I’ll probably publish the original script for free since it’s not going to get made otherwise. Maybe it can inspire you.
Hello, everyone! Marionette, here. That’s right, you’re getting two update posts today! This one is a little different, though, because it’s about Discord and the Bottled Starlight Discord server, as opposed to the game itself.
We’ve been looking into using a bot on Discord to assign roles for various purposes, and after one of the studio team members had multiple disastrous false starts at creating a custom-built bot (hi, it was me), we’ve decided to go with Carl-Bot.
The purpose of this bot will be limited for the time-being to handling two roles, one for spoiler channels and one for the #political-events channel (#previously current-events). Going forward, you’ll need to use the two reaction emotes in the new #role-selection channel at the top of the channel list to gain access to the two sets of channels. By default, spoiler channels and the political-events channel will be hidden by default for all members.
A part of the reason we’re including the #political-events channel is this is because, at the end of the day, we’re a game studio. If we could focus entirely on making games and talking about game-related topics, we would. However, games are a form of art, and art often runs afoul of certain types of people. The channel exists for just this reasons. We know people will want to occasionally discussion current goings-on, but especially with the horrific things currently coming out, we’d like to give people a chance to escape from that if they so choose. Not everybody needs to have that content in their faces 24/7, and not having any chance at a reprieve is unhealthy, to say the least.
Just as a warning, the #political-events channel will be more heavily moderated than the rest of the server. We’ve had a few flareups there in the past, and we do try to keep things civil. We’ll also have a delay in chatting there to slow things down a little for the sake of sanity and moderation.
What #role-selection channel? It isn’t there!
If you can’t see the #role-selection channel, it may not be turned on for you. Discord, in their infinite wisdom, have decided that not everybody needs to see new channels when they’re created. I think we have our server properly set to show new channels when they’re made, but let’s face it: Discord is chaotic and doesn’t always properly respect its own anything. So if you don’t see it, there will probably be an option near the top to see “All Channels” or “Server Channels” or whatever Discord have it named this week.
I have a question!
If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to ask us on the #fan-discussion or #everything-else channels in Discord, and we’ll be happy to help, or figure out why Discord isn’t working like we think it should be for you!
The latest release has shown some problems with Windows 11. The program fails to load graphics or crashes outright. After some testing, the problem is Windows 11 related, so users of Win10, OSX, or Linux are unaffected.
If this is you: 1) Play the SDL version. The SDL executable does not have any issues so far. 2) If the SDL version does not work, you can use the AL executable but do not run the game in fullscreen. I don’t know the exact issue but there must be some kind of fullscreen conflict with the Allegro drivers.
I will look into a more long-term fix. Alternately, Microsoft might patch Win11. The game should be playable for all users if they use the above steps.
If you’re a Patron, or a Subscribestar supporter, or you paid money on Itch, or you somehow (through means nefarious) got your hands on the secret supporter pages, you can now play the Chapter 2 update!
This update contains: 100+ new maps, covering three new major areas. The Old Capitol Grounds, Mount Litorea, and Northeast Trafal. Three new transformations, Raptor, Raccoon, and Kitsune. Two bosses. A dozen new enemies plus some recolours of old enemies. Two new TF comics by artist Giga. A dozen new topic-able characters to interrogate. Two tourists. A very horny kitsune. Ridiculous scenes. Gambling. Secrets. Things that are definitely NOT puzzles but you could think they were puzzles if you weren’t paying attention. Overhauled combat balance. Westwoods is now much more dangerous, and the average enemy difficulty Westwoods had is now in the Capitol Valley. A ton of new combat abilities, including two new skills for Izuna. The Relive menu now works (it previously didn’t) in Chapter 2. Some silly costumes. More recoverable lost books, detailing the early history of Trafal. And more!
This work took 10 months. Some things are still incomplete: Some areas got cut for time. The Grand Imperial Hotel is laid out but I didn’t have time to finish the quest/boss in that area. There’s a mountain pass that isn’t complete (it leads back to Vuca Pass from the east) Some sprites are placeholders (for some enemies and named NPCs) and will be patched in when they are completed. The Kitsune Dance minigame is incomplete (the code and music are ready but the sprites are nowhere near done) and will hopefully be ready in time for the full launch in February/March. The minecart puzzle is incomplete (don’t have the sprites ready) Likely a few other things.
I need to really whip the artists to get them to complete everything.
As usual, this version goes public for everyone one month from now. This will probably be the first week of March because that’s when the proper Monday lands (I do releases on Mondays, y’know). If you want to play it NOW, you can of course pay us $$$ on Patreon, SubscribeStar, or Itch.io. Or, you can send us heartfelt poems, pictures of your cats, dogs, ferrets, parrots, turtles, or other nearby animals, or maybe just say “This gud, pls pls” and I’ll relent. Our studio email is pandemonium AT starlightstudios DOT org
Up next: Bugfixes. I’m sure there will be a hundred bugs coming in. The testers have done a pretty good job but there’s always things that need fixing.
Otherwise, I will be prototyping a Visual Novel engine called Project Ophiucus. This is me taking a vacation (in between bugfix patches) because I’ve been working on this for 10 months and it starts to drive you a little crazy. After that prototype is out, Witches of Ravenbrook, full steam ahead.
Special thanks to the testers, Aaaac for the combat design work and a whole bunch of AI and abilities, Coco for advertising work, MKRU for the cross-promotion (Sorry we took SEVERAL EXTRA MONTHS), and TheChicMonster for handling some of the talk sprite sheets.
Still Need Feedback on the Other VN
We published this last week and while the feedback has been generally positive – we need more of it! We need survey results to make an informed decision on if this is a good project for us to pursue and which parts you’d want to see more of. If you have a minute, check it out. It’s free!
Upcoming Projects
There’s a free update for Witch Hunter Izana in the works. Artist Xandra is working on giving the game full-fledged talk sprites. Whenever the full set is complete, a patch will be issued. It doesn’t require any real coding from me (the code is done, I just need to recompile a few things).
The Yuki Update requires a lot of code and writing additions, so it will take a lot longer and might not be released until after Witches of Ravenbrook is at least a decent chunk completed. It will also be a DLC, probably releasing for 5 dollars (most of which goes to the artist, Xandra).
Witch Hunter Izana: The Emissary is a future DLC (likely after WoR is completed) which features a new area, new bosses, three new transformations, and a lot of cool new lore. Once again it requires a bunch of code and design so it’s not on my immediate priority but it will get done eventually. Here’s a taste.
Project Fox has also been outlined. I intend to prototype it sometime during WoR’s development cycle (working on a different project is VERY helpful to a coder’s mental health. Spending 10 months on RoP and 9 on WHI in one go kinda drives you nuts). Project Fox is a puzzle-oriented exploration TF game with time rewinding and, as you can guess, kitsune TF as a central mechanic.
Project Myrrh is a relatively short puzzle game we’ve been wanting to prototype for a while but real-life stuff keeps on getting in the way. It’s being helmed by Koops at the moment. Let’s hope 2026 calms down a bit so we can get it ready.
Project Ophiucus, mentioned above, is an adventure-type game where you move between rooms, solve puzzles, find items, and try not to get transformed into statues, dolls, maids, and more. The prototype should hopefully be completed in February or March before I start work on Witches of Ravenbrook. The artist is Xandra and it takes place in a version of Pandemonium where Mei decided to go on a few more adventures before heading into the mirror at the end of Chapter 1.
In addition, the next update cycles for Runes of Pandemonium: Chapter 2 will be a lot shorter. The Windthrall questline, the Grand Imperial Hotel, and the Harpy Tower Defense will be short, small, focused updates that won’t take most of a year to release. The next big one is the Ice Spires update which is still not even half the size of the Old Capitol Grounds update. Then we start working on the Trials of the Dragon.
Oh, and there’s a ton of Tales of Strings in the pipeline. The next release, Guise of the Goddess, is due out in early February. After that, Bound by Love and Grace, Solace of Orange, Until Only I Remain, and Twin Jade Eyes are all in progress.
So that’s what’s coming in the future. Now if you’ll excuse me I gotta get back to work.
Questions and Answers
The Link Pile
Where to find us:
Our Patreon and Subscribestar are great places to support development! You can also get cool bonus stuff like concept art and early releases of Pandemonium!
A Visual Novel Prototype! Only Shadows for Comfort VN prototype now available.
Yep, Bottled Starlight has partnered with Sigrid Vjeol to produce a prototype for a visual novel project. It is currently a prototype you can get for free on Itch.io, and we’re very interested in feedback. Do you want us to finish the project? Want to see more like it? Once you’ve played it, you can fill out a google form to let us know!
The prototype is about 30 minutes long depending on how much optional reading you want to do. You can find all the details about the game on the Itch.io page, including a guide written by the ever-helpful Klaysee so you don’t get stuck.
Runes of Pandemonium Chapter 2 Update – Probably Next Week!
At present I am adding in more NPCs, topics, and journal entries. All the bugs are fixed (that I know of) and it’s the home stretch. If nothing horrible happens, the Old Capitol Grounds update goes live for Patrons/Subscribers on January 26th, 2026.
Yeah it took… several months longer than expected. In my defense, it’s also GIGANTIC and I did a bunch of WHI stuff as well as some engine upgrades on the way.
After the patron update goes out, it becomes public for everyone one month later, which will be at the end of February 2026. As usual you’ll be able to send us poetry, photos of your animals, or just heartfelt praise, if you don’t want to send us money to play it early.
Everyone is back to work. Right now, most of the Bottled Starlight team is trying to get the Chapter 2 update out the door (more on that later) so right now, it’s Inky working through some things. You may have seen on the KS posts (if you’re a backer) that she has started on some of the upper tier rewards. Let’s take a look!
There’s about 30 of these to work through. Koops has to help finish up some Ch2 stuff and then will be able to help Inky get them done. We’ve also been concepting out some of the characters who didn’t appear in the prototype.
Hopefully there’s exactly enough here to tease you. Not a big update this time, next one should be meatier.
The Chapter 2 Work
I am almost done cleaning up the many bugs that have been reported by the testers. Trello doesn’t have a function to count cards but I think it’s over 100 bugfixes. Some of them are “this bookshelf is missing collisions” and some are “hey this thing happens that will take 2 hours to track down” so we’re on track. I should have the remaining bugs sorted out this week.
Once the bugs are taken care of, I need to write the journal entries, add some more NPCs (some areas are only populated by exactly enough NPCs to do the quests), add some more topics to existing characters… and then we’re ready to go.
The team is now back to work. Koops and Urimas are getting sprites done, I’m working through a log of like 100+ bug reports (there’s no thing on trello to auto-count the cards but THERE’S A LOT) that will probably take me all week to clean up. A lot of them are “missing collision here”, some are “spend two hours digging around to find out why there’s an extra line break here”.
We’re still on track for a Patron release by the end of the month.
There’s also another special goodie we intend to release soon, possibly in a week or two. Look forward to that!
I’m tired!
Next week will be our WoR update week. We have some new forms to show off and Inky has started working on some of the backer rewards.
Story Stuff
The next Knights of Justice story should be out fairly early, and as an extra treat, another Tales of Strings story is also planned for this month! A lot of pieces are coming together.
I have sent a build to the testers so they can run down all the bugs. There will be many. There are about 100 maps, about that many NPCs, like a dozen quests of various sizes, 30+ new enemies, dozens of new skills, new forms, new TF sequences, and so much more to test.
What I’m saying is, look forward to a patron build in January.
Chapter V: A Fanmade Mod!
Wow, cool, wow, a fanmade mod you can find right here! This mod is the prologue, featuring a new character, Emilia, who has grown up in the Regulus breeding program and is about to graduate. However, her unique skills, unique personality, and difficult relationships come to a head and she is thrust into a scary situation!
It’s a few hours long, has an optional dungeon, no TFs (but Emilia is a necromancer who summons skeletons) and tons of silly dialogue and not-so-silly drama. Go check it out! If you need help, visit the mod chat on our discord.
Oh and start a new game (the mod is not meant to interact with other chapter saves and the like).
Holiday Schedule
Next week will be a very, very brief post. Probably just a roundup of questions and fan art. Don’t expect much of me until January.
That’s right. Our (unofficial) founding was early in 2016 and I’ll be damned if I’m going to write our birthday piece in January.
I intend to spend most of January hungover, and I don’t even drink. Anyway, I asked the various studio members to say something about our 10 year history. I’m not even gonna proofread them!
(This is a lie I fixed a few spelling mistakes)
Very Brief Dev Update
Psyche! First it’s a dev update. We are VERY close to being ready for testing. I have some more NPCs and examinables to add, I have to put in code to basically cut the kitsune finale (sorry, we’re just not going to have the sprites ready in time. You can do the rest of the questline.) and then I need to add TREASURE to the maps so you can find all kinds of goodies. Then I’ll send a build to the testers and take a day off.
PSYCHE AGAIN I won’t take a day off I’ll be fixing bugs for weeks. Combat is coming along pretty well, I will have to trim a lot of enemy groups and there’s always more balancing to do.
Plus we will have a very special prototype coming up – soon! I don’t know when it will be ready! And when the Ch2 update comes out, I have another prototype to make before we start WoR! AHHHHHHHH
Pandemonium Development 