Quick Development Update
Urimas has one more idle animation to go, Hund is working on a big project, Koops finished the chapter 2 intro and is working on some combat portraits. Stuff is happening!
Project Carnation / Witches of Ravenbrook
This is going to be a big post so I’ll break it up by sections. First we’ll go over some plans for the game overall, plans for the prototype, and then some questions I got on Discord and the CuriousCat.
The Setting
It’s Halloween and Ravenbrook University is having its annual shindig/get down/”party”. Without warning, a coven of extradimensional witches attacks and hoo boy, it doesn’t go well for the humans.
Chris, our protagonist, escapes by the skin of his teeth and finds himself in the realm of the witches. There are four witches you’ll have to contend with, and you can defeat them in any order. The Witch Queen promises that if you kill the other leaders of her coven, she’ll let you go free. Yeah, sure, she seems trustworthy.
The majority of the game takes place in the witch realms, which are magical lands. We haven’t solidified all of them yet, the two we are 100% on are the gardens, where the Witch of Wrath, Dahlia, resides…
Meanwhile, the second area is the Fast Food Joint, run by the witch of Gluttony, Honeybunns. The Gardens is the area the prototype takes place in.
The Gameplay
Once you finish the tutorial, you arrive in the hub area. From there, you can talk to the NPCs, buy stuff (Fluffs, the vendor, likes it when you buy stuff), change classes, and pick a dungeon to dive into.
In the prototype, dungeons are made of static backdrops. I would like to make this fully 3D but it’s not really in the budget quite yet, so 2D images will have to do for now. Your goal is to reach the end of the dungeon and beat the boss.
Dungeons are split into floors, and at the end of each floor is a gate. Gates are often guarded by enemies, but they can also have an event you need to clear. You can also find events (and enemies) in other places in the dungeon. Events might inflict damage on you, cost money, give you treasure or…
Your Influence is tracking how transformed your characters are getting. If a character’s HP reaches 0, they recover half their HP and gain 1 Influence. Influence is very hard to cure, but it gets reset to 0 if you complete the dungeon. It can even make some events easier. For example, the dolls event shown above can be cleared for free if one of your characters is already a doll.
Events can have random outcomes, but you can use a special item, the Opaque Lens, to reveal what the outcomes are ahead of time. Certain classes (or status effects!) might also reveal the outcomes for free. You’ll need to plan ahead, because having a character with [Lockpick] will save you a lot of traps going off, but thieves aren’t as good as knights are. Speaking of.
Combat
The basic engine is the same as RoP’s, except characters make decisions at turn start instead of when their action comes up. I’ve also rewritten the formulas, and you don’t get free MP like RoP or full restores like in WHI. Endurance is an important part of surviving the dungeons.
We plan to have a few dozen classes, all of which can be switched to freely in the hub (or in special spots in the dungeons, if you’re lucky). Each class gains experience, typically 1 point for each battle won. As classes level up, they can increase your stat growth rates, gain new abilities, and gain new proficiencies with weapons and spells.
Classes can also have extra properties that influence events. Apprentices and Wizards know about magic, while Loner is good at lying to people. Each of the transformations will have its own associated class, as well. Doll Maids always transform into a doll when inflicted with Influence, and have inherent [Doll Knowledge] that allows them to talk their was past events, or even trick enemies into giving you free items!
You gain experience and level up from defeating enemies, and your stats and skills are determined by your class. As the game progresses, you will even gain the ability to multiclass. When multiclassing, your stats will be whichever was the highest between your classes, and you can gain extra spells and event properties.
To gain an edge in combat, you can apply Modifications to your items. (I’m still working on the UI, it is currently sized for RoP’s inventory :3)
Modifications placed into an item will permanently increase its stats. Unlike RoP’s gems, you can’t remove them freely. However, if you disassemble the item, you can keep one of the modifications. You’ll get a lot of modifications throughout the game, and not all of them are stat upgrades. Some will give you extra event options, some will increase your weapon proficiencies, and some might give extra XP/Cash from battles.
Losing
Losing is part of the game. The dungeons are tough, some are very tough, and enemies can gain levels and sometimes be extraordinarily strong. When you lose, you get a bad end (obviously) and return to the hub area.
You will lose 50% of the EXP and cash you gained in the dungeon (you cannot lose any EXP or cash you entered with. If you enter with 100 Hexes, and then die at 150 Hexes, you will come out with 125 Hexes). You will also lose any items you did not have equipped. If you find a modification in the dungeon, you should probably equip it right away, otherwise you might lose it if you die!
It’ll be tough but you will always be making some forward progress even if you can’t kill the boss at the end of the dungeon. Class experience gained is always kept, and you’ll start to build up a stock of weapons with modifications.
You can also retreat from the dungeon. Doing this causes you to lose 25% of your EXP/Cash but if a party member is at maximum Influence and is defeated in battle, they will leave your party, and join the dungeon boss as an enemy.
If you retreat with them not in the party, they stay gone. You’ll need to go into the dungeon again and try to find and rescue them, by beating them in combat!
You’ll also be able to pay Fluffs to recover lost members so we don’t wind up with an unwinnable situation, but beware. Your fallen party members keep their original levels and can be quite dangerous.
Difficulty Levels
Before you ask, the game will include difficulty levels. Not everyone wants to lose all their stuff when they die. For you, there is Easy mode, where you keep your items and whatnot when you die. If you really want to feel the pain, Hard mode causes you to lose all your EXP/Cash gained in the dungeon if you die.
The Prototype
I am currently finishing up some of the UI work for the prototype. This is, amusingly, the first time that the player can actually use items from the inventory outside of combat. In WHI you always got a full restore between battles, and in RoP the items are equippables (which is why the Doctor Bag exists). String Tyrant doesn’t count 😡
I also have to finish the Skills UI (so you can check skills outside of battle and also heal yourself with them) and then do a lot of testing. I am hoping the prototype will be available in October, though I won’t set a specific date yet. 95% of the art is done, a lot of items and events need to be done, and of course we need to test it to make sure there are no critical bugs.
The prototype will contain three transformations, one of which is the “You failed the tutorial” transformation that will become a proper playable TF in the final version. It will contain about a dozen enemies, a few bosses, and no handmade dungeons. They will instead be pre-generated random dungeons. I intend to make handmade dungeons in the final game but I don’t have an editor or tools made for it yet.
The game will also allow you to enter randomly generated dungeons after you’ve completed an area’s pre-generated dungeon, so you can get as much loot as you want.
There are three playable characters right now, probably 7 or 8 classes, somewhere around 30 events, and half a dozen bad ends. I estimate the prototype will take a few hours to complete depending on how good you are at RPGs like this, and also how much the playtesters force me to tone the difficulty down.
For cost reasons the prototype will not have voice acting, but I would like the full game to be voiced. We’ve got a lot of great VAs to pick from who are itching to turn into dolls and slimes and werewolves :3
The prototype will, of course, be released for free on Itch.io. After that, we’ll gauge the response, listen to your feedback, and plan out what we want to do with the rest of the game. More characters? More TFs (yes)? More areas? Monsters, classes, items, events, maybe have a thing where a cat just appears on the screen and you have to click it to make it go away and it meows at you?
Questions! Answers!
Some people/cats (you know who you are) sent in questions about the game so I’ll answer them here if I haven’t already.
It takes place on Earth followed by an extra-dimensional witch coven land. No connections to RoP or WHI, this is InkyFluff’s writing and story.
You will unlock special event responses from TFs, and can unlock a class with the TF that gives unique skills and stats. Because it’s me we’re talking about, I will be adding cases where all three of your characters are TF’d so there’s unique dialogue or events, because that’s just fun to do. Imagine showing up to oppose the witch and she notices you’re all transformed, and offers you the chance to join her. You’d take it! You WILL take it!
Yes, in that your transformations will give you new skills and often better stats. Combat, not quite, but events, “usually”. Sometimes, being transformed is a good thing as you can slip by the monsters at an event. Sometimes, your transformed character will sabotage the party!
The prototype has five dungeons plus random versions (same enemies, more loot, random layout) if you want to grind or just really want to stick it to the monsters.
The hub area has shops, “friendly” NPCs, and unfriendly NPCs. The prototype doesn’t have a lot of them, though. Final version, I want to make it possible to rescue some of the other students but that’s one of those things that might get cut.
You can’t draw on the maps, sorry. I know you’re old-school but it’s kind of a waste in a random dungeon.
There are bad endings for each form, and some have more than one form. Inky wants to have multiple good endings and secrets, but that depends on a lot of things and who knows if we’ll have that kind of investment.
No there will not be skitterers we’ll get sued by Bottled Starlight. If I can get the rights I’ll put them in but NOT AS A TF.
The currency is “Hexes”, a thing that only witches can create and is extremely valuable among other beings and deities. Fluffs the shopkeeper is here to get them while the getting is good and skedaddle before the witches decide to take umbrage at her.
I have a few ideas for how to handle secrets in the dungeons. There’s a few puzzles too, I hope I can fit one into the prototype without having to make a whole new UI for it.
You don’t get skill points, growth is done via classes, levels, and socketing stuff in your equipment.
The prototype doesn’t have any cats but it’s a game by a) Inkyfluffs and b) me about c) witches. It’s gonna have cats.
Curious Cat
The Link Pile
Rationally debate this post on the forums! Discussion thread for String Tyrant!
Witch Hunter Izana’s forums page! Get it on Steam or Itch.io! It has a free demo!
Pandemonium’s Steam Page! You can get updates automatically.
Maiden Sealed in Stone, a game Salty translated!
Buy String Tyrant, our gaiden game, on Itch.io! It’s on Steam too!
I write silly books! Here’s the first one.
Ask us questions anonymously on Curious Cat!
Buy our merch on Redbubble and Teepublic!
Give us money on Patreon so we can make more monstergirl stuff!
Alternately, give us money on Subscribestar so we can make more monstergirl stuff!
DO NOT join our Discord and curse at me in person! Our testers might be cats, I can’t tell!
Pandemonium Development 