Month: February 2026

Allegro and SDL Ports Completed

I spent the last week wrestling with various libraries, making sure everything configures and compiles under the new system. I have learned the following:

UCRT64 is pretty handy!
Windows is legitimately terrible!
I didn’t even need Boost!
Whoever made SDL3 deserves a shout out.

Upgrading SDL2 to SDL3 was relatively painless because the developers made a migration guide that basically tells you the new function to use and how, it’s *chef’s kiss* good.

So, the most difficult part is done. Next I will be updating the Steam builds, then the Linux build (doesn’t need much work) and then the OSX build. At that point, the engine is up to spec!

In addition, RoP’s Chapter 2 Update is free next week, and will feature the new UCRT64 version so it (should) run smoothly on all systems. Yay!

Actirangers, Come Forth Released! It’s Free!

Yep, it’s out, and it’s totally free on Itch.io and Wechange.me! This is an official crossover with Spicymancer’s Actirangers characters, a sentai team with a, shall we say, very intense and close relationship (they have sex a lot).

Go check out Spicymancer’s Bsky, or support them on Patreon if you want to see more comics of the Actirangers. Hell, maybe I’ll do more crossovers because this story is fun as hell. It has like six action scenes and is the third longest of the ToS stories.

Special thanks to Mitchell for letting me poach like half the best ideas for the story and ChicMonster for slamming out this baller cover on basically zero notice. All I had to do in exchange was pretend to be a rich guy asking people if they’ve ever been to jail.

Special Chris Shoutout

Someone made a very cute little collage over on Reddit because they really like WoR Chris :3

There’s even a fanfiction bit floating around.

Inky made this in response. Wowie!

WoR’s on the backburner for a little bit as I get the engine updated and basically get all the other stuff that’s built up over the last 9 months cleaned up. I’m working on it!

Continue reading “Development Update: Feb 23rd, 2026” →

The Dance Minigame is In!

Version 4.54 is now available for supporters.

The dance minigame is a feature that got cut from the initial release because the sprites weren’t ready. Big thanks to Sigrid for getting them all done. If you already finished the kitsune subquest, you can talk to Shiori in the dance hall to play the minigame again anyway.

There are still a few sprites that need to be finished, but…

Major Code Overhaul Time

With the help of EldritchWeaver I’m redoing the engine repo to upgrade to SDL3 and UCRT64. This is because Windows 11 is starting to show some problems with running the engine, claiming it’s having memory problems when there aren’t any. UCRT64 is targeted at Windows 10 and 11, and this might at least give us a chance going forward.

This does mean that direct support for Windows 7 and earlier is officially being dropped. According to the steam hardware survey, less than 1% of users use Windows 7 so I’m probably safe there.

We will also be updating to SDL3, which contains a filesystem which means I can drop Boost and PhysFS. I never got PhysFS to compile on OSX which is why it never had dynamic mod directory support, well that’s all gone! SDL3 is also being actively developed so bugs that pop up will get fixed.

We’re also dropping the FMOD executable support since to my knowledge nobody actually uses it.

All of this is going to take a while since I need to redo a bunch of low-level code. The result will be an engine that is more stable, which is good because I’d hate to have to release WoR with a bunch of caveats about Windows 11 on it.

Continue reading “Version 4.54 Kitsune Dance Minigame Released to Supporters!” →

Get Boned

Things are happening in the next WHI update.

Coding and Whatnot

The next update for RoP will be released this week and not only contain all the missing sprites, it will also have the Kitsune Dance Minigame completed. Yes, we got the sprites ready for it. All I have to do is test the hell out of it.

Big thanks to Sigrid for working overtime to get the sprites ready.

Otherwise, I’m working on Ophiucus. I want the prototype to contain some gameplay for you to enjoy, but the big thing for me is working on the interface so it’s easy to make more games in Ophiucus. Not that I have 1000 VNs planned but I have some and VNs are considerably lower overhead than RoP/WHI/WoR.

Fan Art

By https://vgen.co/fyovyy

Questionable!

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!
Guise of the Goddess is now on Itch.io!

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).

Coding Update

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.

Check it on Itch or Wechange!

Salty’s Recommendations

Striped, Collared, and Heated

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.

Look forward to more of that later.

Continue reading “Development Update: February 2nd, 2026” →