Quick Dev Update Up Top
Fixed a bunch of bugs, made a bunch of maps. Internal tester build today to test the topics system. Public release of 4.40 is set for the 17th but I might release it on the 14th because that’s a Monday and sure why not.
Witches of Ravenbrook Sponsorship Selection Completed!
That’s right, we’ve made our picks for sponsors and are currently hammering out the various details with the sponsors. There are still two sponsors who requested to be contacted by email: If that’s you please check your email! The sponsors in question were the Satyr TF and Elly the Honeybee NPC.
If you didn’t get the email but were the sponsor please contact me at pandemonium AT starlightstudios DOT org. Thank you.
Kickstarter Status, Trailer!
We’re getting the KS ready, figuring out tiers and rewards and stuff. We also got a trailer for the Kickstarter made so you can watch that on Youtube. It’s unlisted, as the final version will have an infographic at the end telling you where to go to support the project.
The world economy is kind of collapsing right now, but don’t worry. We’re “monitoring the situation” and will let you know as soon as the KS launches. We expect our goal will be around 7000 USD, as we have about that much from the sponsorships and 15000 should be enough of a budget to get the game made.
The New Playable Characters
Penny Chandler. Fueled by caffeine and workaholic tendencies, this Neuroscience student avoided the festivities to finish her schoolwork. When the festivities reached her however, in the form of monsters and reality twisting corridors, Penny needs to stay awake to make it out alive (to finish her thesis paper).
Penny, as a bit of a caffeine freak, has the highest natural speed and critical strike rate. She makes a good healer to get a critical heal in before someone goes down, or a good first-attacker to stun or kill dangerous enemies before they act. Penny also recovers 15% of her HP per turn when she’s not on the front line, as she is an expert at squeezing in a few Z’s (because she hasn’t slept in days).
Alia Larune. The popular musician of Ravenbrook U, everything was set for Alia to perform as the festival’s opening act. Or at least, she was, until the witches stole away her audience. She needs to learn to share the spotlight if she is going to make it through this magical misadventure.
Alia doesn’t have the speed, magic, or heavy damage that some others might have, but she can provide passive buffs to the whole party through her song aura. Some quests might even get you new auras, and Alia can use instruments as unique items to make her songs stronger, or just bash enemies in the head.
Clover Shimizu. A student of Cultural Anthropology and paranormal enthusiast, Clover is not-so enthusiastic about her school being overrun by monsters. With her trusty camera and some exploration skills, she hopes to make it out enough evidence to PROVE that magic is real, damn it!
Clover’s extensive knowledge of the arcane and the paranormal means she reveals enemy HP bars just by being in the front line, and can neutralize their defenses with her special abilities. She can also highlight breakable walls on the exploration field if she’s in the party, making her invaluable for finding secret areas.
Of course all of this is subject to change before release. Inky was kind enough to make some nice concepts and I have discussed balance ideas with the sponsors. I think this should make these characters unique and useful.
In addition, Chris Beth and Lore have gotten some changes. Chris recovers HP each turn and increases defense by 5% each turn, with a cap of +50%, making them a natural tank. Beth recovers some SP each turn, making her a superb magician (or physical fighter using specials, or healer!), and Lore increases ATK by 10% each turn with a cap of +100%. Lore’s the damage dealer, but needs party support from the other characters to make sure those attacks land.
How about some reveals?
Inky’s prioritizing the Kickstarter assets, so here’s some of the hucow concepts for the restaurant area, by BlueLilyTZ. Our heroes are turned into passive livestock! Maybe now you’re less inclined (or more?) to try those milkshakes…
The talk sprites in the prototype weren’t all of them, Inky has made a few more. Making sure the characters are expressive is crucial in an RPG.
The game is (eventually) going to move over to a grid-based inventory system. BlueLily made a lot of item icons and Inky wants to overhaul the equipment system to match. A lot of the UI will change over the course of development.
An older screenshot of the 3D engine with the lights turned up (and using the prototype’s background as a skybox, hahahaha). I wrote an engine that’s meant to be relatively simple and built out of cubic voxels that can quickly be prototyped and then edited in-engine. It supports simple gouraud-style lights, has collision support, and allows obj model loading. There’s still a lot of work to do on it but I am optimistic that it will provide an experience often missing from dungeon crawlers, to say nothing of adult games!
There’s more stuff to reveal but that will have to do for this update post. Look forward to the Kickstarter!
If you’ve got questions about WoR you can ask on our Whispa (I’ll pass them on to the relevant people :3) or you can just send me pictures of your cats and dogs.
Whispers! WHISPERS!
Fan Art!
By Toffee. Salty’s advice: DO NOT LEAVE YOUR BOX.
By Alice. I swear to god Lydie is popular because she uses PRODUCT and also has pink hair. Natalie has black hair and gets zero fan art!
By HeadHonchKnow. I legitimately had no idea how much I wanted furry String Tyrant and now I do. Mary just looks so right.
By Jashakers. It’s really nice when your OC becomes popular but Izuna is taking on a life of her own. She’s gonna get a series of side novels that get declared non-canon when Disney buys us.
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!
If you want extra pictures of cats, you can follow us on Bluesky.
And there’s always Our Discord. You can shout at Salty *in person*.
You can ask us anonymous question on Whisp.sh. If you’ve ever wanted to get smarmy answers to questions, or just know more lore, that’s the place!
We also have a Wiki! We’d appreciate it greatly if people keep it maintained for us. :3
Bottled Starlight Games:
Runes of Pandemonium, the big adventure TF RPG, always free on Steam and Itch.io.
Witch Hunter Izana, a battle-TF RPG. Available on Steam or Itch.io.
Witches of Ravenbrook, a battle-TF dungeon-crawler. The prototype is out now and free on Itch.io.
String Tyrant, a survival horror game, is on Steam and Itch.io.
Other Bottled Starlight Stuff
Salty writes a book series, with audiobooks and illustrations, called Tales of Strings.
Instruments is out now on Itch.io.
Passed Hand is now on Itch.io!
Spiderweb Theory is now on Itch.io!
Mario is currently working on bringing the Pandemonium story series to Itch.
We have some ridiculous merch on Redbubble and Teepublic if you want to be the center of conversation (derogatory / celebratory).
Pandemonium Development 