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!
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.
WoR Kickstarter page (260% funded! Thanks a lot!)
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!
Urban Explorers is now on Itch.io!
Knights of Justice: Varsity Vixens is now on Itch.io!
Knights of Justice: Crush Depth is now on Itch.io!
Knights of Justice: Three Short Steps is now on Itch.io!
Knights of Justice: Knighttime is now on Itch.io!
Knights of Justice: Sticks and Straws is now on Itch.io!
Knights of Justice: Strings Are Attached is now on Itch.io!
Knights of Justice: Only Shadows for Comfort VN Prototype on Itch.io! Let us know what you think!
All of the ToS books can also be found on Wechange.me!
We have some ridiculous merch on Redbubble and Teepublic if you want to be the center of conversation (derogatory / celebratory).
Pandemonium Development 