Author: SaltyJustice

Release Tomorrow or Wednesday

I’m close to finishing up the chapter 2 bugs that have been posted so I’m going to hold off on the supporter release until they’re done.

The chapter 5 update goes public on the 10th. Get psyched!

Yeah the trailer is age-restricted. Go watch it on youtube!

Tales of Strings: Instruments

Yep, a secret project which is a light novel! You can find all the details over on Itch.io (it’ll be on Amazon later, Mario is working on that)

I want to make some more light novels like this, short and sweet with a few illustrations. But will I? Depends on sales! I have tons of ideas that are all rock solid don’t you worry.

Art by Xandra, writing by me, Salty (hi!) and editing by MarioneTTe.

If you’re a patron/subscriber over 5$ for the month of May or June, just send us a DM on Patreon (or Discord if that’s easier for you) and we’ll get you hooked up with a copy.

Development Update

Giga has finished the new Sanya Sevavi combat pose but I’m not sure it’ll make it into the next update. It’ll definitely make the public release on the 10th. Urimas is currently working on the chapter 5 idle animations, Koops is doing some UI stuff and then character designs, Stinkehund has spent a riotous amount of time making a very cool forest scene for chapter 2, and Wispy is going to draw eyes. You’ll see (oh that was a pun I hate myself)

Fan Art!

Hadezmuze asked me for an art prompt for a warmup so BAM, Rilmani Mei! I like this better than her classic design, especially those shoes. But we all know what you really want is the ears.

If Rilmani Mei is too elegant for you, what if Septima wore a bikini? Yeah she’s still pretty elegant.

And finally we return to Hadezmuze’s favourite subject, Lotta. I gotta say she’s my fave, too. Well maybe not fave but she’s definitely in the top six.

And then we have a silly scene from Tales of Strings: Instruments, by Xandrasubmarine. Who the hell is that? It’s Scarlet, she’s from the String Tyrant prequel/sequel series which is also going to be published as novels when it’s ready (which might be sooner than you think).

Kumquat also commissioned an extremely NSFW version which I am going to post here without censoring because I BELIEVE IN FREE SPEECH.

Randy

Curious Cat

The Links! The Links!

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!

That’s right, v4.31 is now on Steam, Itch.io, and the supporter download page. The changelog is on the supporter page and will be on the Itch.io devlog. I also installed butler on the mac and got it working despite Apple’s best efforts, so hopefully it will be able to generate patches and take less download time.

The update goes public on the 10th of June!

Development Update

I’ve taken care of all the major issues in chapter 5. This week I’ll be cleaning up some chapter 1/2 issues that have come up and going over the engine to clear out memory errors that may still be hiding.

Urimas is working on some 3D stuff, I have set Giga to work on getting some chapter 2 art finalized, and Wispy is drawing eyes.

Something is Coming

I am told that it will be ready on Wednesday, probably. I’ll post an update when it is!

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!

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!

The update can be found in the usual places, Itch/Steam/Secret Downloads Page

Changelog is at the bottom of the post

Update and Stuff

I’m going to spend some more shooting down the UFOs before I move on to Project Carnation, there are lots of small ones popping up all the time. I also want to spend some time using Valgrind to hunt down memory errors so I can get the code ship-shape.

Urimas is going to be working on idle animations for chapter 5 and the chapter 2 loading images, Koops and Chicken are busy with family stuff, Hund is mostly done the chapter 2 mountainscape. Everything is coming along.

Septima

“I have done my best to smile. Do you like it, bearer?” By Xandra.

Curious Cat

HUNGER has caused Dmitri to evolve. Be afraid.

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!

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!

That’s right, it’s now out to supporters. It is on both beta branches of Steam, is out on Itch.io, and is on the downloads page on the wordpress blog. Instructions for accessing that page are on Patreon and Subscribestar (I’ll make another post on those just in case you missed the first time).

Big Ol’ Changelog

//– [ ========Version 4.29 ========= ]
//–Major
*Added three new field abilities to chapter 5. Darkmatter, Steam Droid, and Electrosprite now all get field abilities.
*Added new emotes (mostly yelling or being smarmy) to Unit 2856’s dialogue.
*Added emotes for Agent Almond: ACTION MOTH!
*Fixed the dialogue hang bug for really long cutscenes.
*Added RAM paging for loading files. Should improve stability and decreases memory fragmentation while only increasing load times slightly.
*New quests, trainer, fortune teller, forms, costumes :3

//–Minor
*Added a dialogue topic with 55 about Inhibitor Chips, unlocked when you encounter a latex drone enemy.
*Added a killphrases topic to Christine’s terminal so you know what they are even if you don’t examine any bodies in Cryogenics.
*Added a topic after the Manufactory quest to discuss what happened with 55.
*Christine’s profile will update during the latex drone sequence in sector 99.
*Manufactory noise will now get louder as you get closer to the assembly line.
*Added a new topic with SX-399 about what her name is.
*Added badge to chapter 5 so Darkmatters will leave you alone when equipped.
*Added a number of instances of the PDU appearing during conversations with emotions.
*Updated the start of Regulus City sequence to better flesh out the relationship with Sophie.
*Added some dialogue to the picnic golems in the biolabs movie.
*Added some very angry dialogue to 2856 if you double back after fixing the power modulator in gamma.
*You can now use Electrosprite form to bypass Hydroponics and the Datacore in the Biolabs.
*You can now examine the glass in the amphibian habitat to get clues on the right amphibian for the puzzle!
*SX-399 will now be available in the mines during NC+ after you complete the Sprocket City questline. She only helps out in the mines.
*Pink slimes now have yellow eyes on the sprites.

//–Combat Balance
*Christine’s shock-damage abilities are now color coded yellow (some of the electricity was blue) which should read better on the icons. (Thanks, Sigrid!)

//–Bugs
*Fixed music not playing when loading a game.
*Fixed layer tracks reporting errors when loading the game in certain rooms.
*Fixed some offensive equippable items using the wrong strength indicator.
*Fixed gravemarker paragon in the chapter 1 depths not actually triggering a battle when you say yes.
*Fixed two Christines appearing after the first Equinox boss.
*Fixed a missing “local” in Mei’s prestige job class.
*Fixed a missing talk sprite in a darkmatter conversation.
*Fixed the Tellurium Mines sometimes generating a 0 XP/JP item and printing a warning.
*Hopefully fixed the non-existant Susan bug.
*Fixed equipment cursor lingering in the empty slot when switching to a character who has fewer equipment slots.
*Fixed invalid nude sprite images in Sprocket City considering the costume is never actually used.
*Haunt should no longer be flagged as a buff.
*Fixed some invalid sprite errors in the post-LRT scene in Christine’s quarters.

So What Now?

LIKE THREE WEEKS OF BUG FIXES. But seriously, I’m going to go over the code with Valgrind for a few days and try to suss out any remaining memory issues. There will also be tons of bugs and did you see that huge pile of slime costumes I have to add?

After that it’s off to work on the Carnation prototype. What is Project Carnation? You’ll start hearing more about that in the next few weeks. The art is mostly done, I have to do a bunch of scenario coding and combat redesign.

Niko Cat

Fan Art!

You thought you were getting out of May without maids? No way, Lydie’s back from her vacation and just in time to run into Natalie/Mei wearing the afternoon maid dress! This is why you pay attention to the time when you spend all day inside.

Maybe a bit more apropos for today’s update, but what if 55 got reprogrammed into a cute maid? Yeah believe me it was her idea.

Art by the lovely Xandrasubmarine!

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!

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!

Mostly because the next release comes out on the 15th so I’d rather post the whole update then rather than today, but if you’re just CHOMPING AT THE BIT for an update:

The update is that it’s Dmitri’s birthday :3

Come back Wednesday!

Launch Target

May 15th

Coding and Stuff

I need a couple more talk sprites from Koops, a couple more normal sprites from Urimas, and the finished TF from Dias, and we’re good to go. I am currently adding the fortune teller and updating some of chapter 5’s map code.

After that, I need to add the trainer and the new Secrebot abilities, and it’s all ready to launch.

Curious Cat

Fan Art!

You like pawbs don’t you! This one is by Alice!

We also got a bunch of emojis for the discord server from Xandra!

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!

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!

I’m Old

Note: Urimas is the spilled cup and Wispy is the plate.

Coding and Assorted Hoo Ha

The basic quest for the chapter 5 update is done and I am now adding the big pile of silly gags and bad end stuff. Yeah, bad end stuff. It’s my silliest idea yet. I hope to be done it tomorrow at which point it’s time to add the fortune teller and trainer code.

Urimas got me the new sprites but has like 5 sprite sheets left to go. Koops is still working on the new 55 art (it’s still not done!), Wispy is updating the abilities, and can you believe it, Hund is STILL drawing mountains.

Also, I have seen the first page of the new TF sequence. It’s good stuff.

Very Special Other Game News

Venture Forth is out!

The long awaited DLC for Odyssey of Gianna is out! You can go get it and play it, or don’t! It’s up to you, I’m not your boss!

Fan Art FANATICISM

First we have Izana transformed into a terracotta soldier! This needs to be a thing, we need more of these. Make more terracotta soldiers!

Your guess is as good as mine how this happened. I refuse to learn more.

What exactly do you people think chapter 2 is even about at this point?

And some very special art of the Bride Doll from String Tyrant. She looks familiar but I can’t quite place it. Oh well!

All of this was done by the lovely Xandra. Even Zeke. As a humanoid goat girl playing volleyball.

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!

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!

Coding and Whatnot

I’m about 1/3rd done the Secrebot quest scenario work. Got a bit distracted fixing up memory issues because I noticed a rare crash and now I’m basically cleaning up all the code’s latent memory problems. Hey, it’ll make the game more stable.

Urimas is making an explosion, Koops is drawing pretty dresses, Hund is working on a bunch of trees, and Giga is actually busy so I had to farm out the Secrebot TF to his friend Dias. It’s looking great so far but it’s a sketch so I can’t show it off on the bonus stuff quite yet.

Instrumentality

The secret project I mentioned a while back is now announced. It’s a String-Tyrant-adjacent light novel. 25 pages and a few illustrations! It’ll be available on Itch.io once the art is ready.

Look I get to make doll TF, it’s my thing that I’m good at.

Fan Art!

Holy cow, it’s a frightening amount of fan art by Xandra! Wow!
I am legitimately mad that now I have to make Lydie taking a beach vacation canon and it wasn’t my idea.

No I don’t know why Kumquat commissioned a food safety course. I don’t think Kumquat knows.

Not to be outdone, we have a genie TF commissioned from Daimos by Justin Kombat! Sadly Genie is one of those TFs that you can put anywhere but doesn’t totally fit anywhere, so I don’t know if it’ll make it into RoP.

I do know that Verand doesn’t need a genie because she has everything she could wish for. Maybe she’ll wish for a dog.

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!

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!

Coding and Stuff

Koops got me one of the needed portraits for the chapter 5 update, Urimas is working on a few commissions before finishing the sprites I need, and I have finished doing all the “not new stuff” improvements. Chapter 5 now has field abilities, a host of smaller fixes, new topics, new dialogue, emotes added to conversations that didn’t have them, and more!

I also fixed the longstanding dialogue lag bug and rewrote the loading code to use segmented memory, which should help with out-of-memory errors on some machines.

Next up is me working on the new TF and new quest!

GRZZRRKK

Heyo, my name’s Sigrid Vjeol, I’m a good ‘friend’ and colleague of Salty, she’s just given me permission to spruke the demo for my new game ‘GutterBlight’ a tf rpg where you explore a proto Victorian setting whilst trying to avoid being tf’d by ‘mysterious forces’ it’s a lot like runes in that it’s going to be story heavy and take place in a unique world, but also has a lot of it’s own stuff going on, like a special sub stories exploring what happens to folks post tf

Find the demo here and follow for updates!

Fan Art!

We got a couple new emojis for the discord server. Thanks, Xandrasubmarine!

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!

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!

Coding and Whatnot

I’ve added a number of topics, updated the meeting-Sophie part of chapter 5, and am working on adding a few new field abilities to the chapter. Chapter 5 wasn’t design with field abilities in mind, so you can turn invisible, heal yourself, and nuke enemies with electricity. Pretty basic stuff.

Next week I’ll be adding in the remainder of the topics and workarounds. Hopefully I can get to adding the new quest too, but that’s a maybe. There have been a ton of good suggestions for little improvements to chapter 5 over the year so I want to give them all a consideration.

Meanwhile, Urimas is recovering from dental surgery, Stinkehund is drawing a mountain, and Giga made the Harpy Sanya talk sprites. I’m hoping all the talk sprites for chapter 2 will be ready by the next release!

Curious Cat

The Only Eclipse You Need

That’s the void you crave.

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!

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!