I spent the weekend overhauling the spawn system in preparation for having to put 100 enemy patrols in all the new areas. It now uses a more dynamic prefab spawn system rather than the old ad-hoc one. What does this mean?
For you? NOTHING. Probably.
For me, it means enemy groups can be placed with a single click rather than having to edit their properties in the map editor. Modders can still do that, and editing properties manually can still allow weird things like making certain enemies belong to a different paragon cluster for no reason. Things that basic RoP has no reason to do.
This also allows full-dynamic random spawning. WHI does this by using a lookup table, but the limitation was that the game couldn’t show you what enemies were which on the field. The game used a black-robed sprite (which also meant we didn’t need 500 sprites for all the enemies so it also saved on costs). RoP can now do WHI’s style of random spawning but can generate the entire patrol pseudorandomly, changing when you rest! Yay.
As we are now almost done September, I have put a hard cap on the new stuff. I will be adding three more “things” to chapter 2. Raelynn, Takahn, and Gina/Dawn will be added. Unfortunately I have to cut some things, the Orcs quest in the hotel will likely not make it in. I’ll still try.
I am almost complete the Jake and Kate quest! Yeah smaller quests like this I can knock out in a much shorter timeframe, and I even went and overcomplicated this one by making you go get a wooden rabbit’s foot blessed with canola oil.
Once this quest is done, I have to make a bunch of masked kitsune puzzles (aiee) and then some other crap based on my own discretion.
I will likely start doing the massive balance work this week, depending on how many quests I want to cram in. The ride never ends!
Koops has also been “balling out of control”, making like a dozen portraits in 3 days. Wild stuff. Maybe we’ll make our deadline! (No).
Koops just finished the eagle boss and is going to be knocking out some more portraits and such. Hund is working on the map, hopefully it’s ready in time for the release. I have my guy working on getting some balance stuff in place while I’m working my way through the minor quests. This week I have to code a blackjack implementation and a roulette implementation which is pretty easy but I made the NPCs very sarcastic which should help.
As far as stories go, I just finished Tales of Strings #31. I have three stories in development for release right now, as always there have been some pesky delays but we’ll get them out as soon as possible.
I’m working on minor quests right now while My Guy is going to be getting the start of balance work done. I don’t know how long that’s going to take! Urimas has been working with me to make tiles and Hund is working on the new area maps. Chicken DOES think we’ll be able to cram the cavecrawler TF into the update, meaning there might be up to four new TFs for the update. That makes it pretty easily the biggest update for the game ever.
Inky has completed the NPC sponsor work and is working on the sexdoll TF. We might see this for next month’s WoR update, I’ve seen the concepts and they look awesome already.
Three Short Steps Out Soon (?)
In a big upset, Judith has finished the art for the story before the editing is done. That doesn’t happen often! Knighttime is still in progress, you might get two new stories this month.
Three Short Steps, due to its subject matter, will be released for free. I don’t feel right about charging for it. So enjoy it, it’s a good story!
Kitsune quest is DONE. Took forever, it’s done. I am now going to be working on balance, and have contracted my Balance Guy (oh dear god) to put numbers on things. I’ll be making skills and enemies and stuff for the next little while, might break things up with some of the minor quests like GAMBLING or the kitsune trials of cunning.
PaletteForms Updated to v1.30, Now With Gummies!
Yep, db_palette has done it again. You can find the new gummies on the south beach. I want to make an actual campaign for the PaletteForms mod, at this point there’s so much that it could actually carry a (short) game of its own. My to-do list is long, though, so maybe later.
Here’s our roadmap for the remainder of 2025. Inky has made a big dent on the sponsor concept work, in fact producing several final pieces. She also wants to prioritize the sticker/wallpaper rewards so they’re ready for Halloween. For those of you who are backers of the high tiers, we’ll be contacting you later in the year once a few other things are done. Keep in mind this is the roadmap, we’re working to get these things ready.
As for me, I’m making good progress on the RoP chapter 2 update. After that, an engine tune-up since there have been some odd texture problems reported. There’s also a very small puzzle game prototype I want to do this year and then it’s time for WoR’s tool work. I need to get 3D level editors ready and make a bunch of updates Inky wants for the new UI of the game.
So first, Inky intends to make a few changes to the designs. First, the Witch Queen has some tails and more eyes. Here she is showing off her ankles. Scandalous!
Dahlia is also getting a new design, obscured here with a pixellation filter because IT’S A SECRET. You can see that the colours are darker here, which will be reflected in the level design as well.
Sable! One of the sponsor characters, Sable is Alia’s band manager. She survived the mess at the carnival and made her way to the neutral area in the university hub. How? The skills a good band manager picks up over the years: Getting the hell out of there when things start to go bad.
Sable keeps track of rumours and potential missions for you, helping you find quests and digging up dirt on the other characters in the pactrealms.
Elly! Another sponsor character. She happened to be wearing a bee costume at the carnival and you’ll be able to meet her. When the witches attacked… well, Honeybunns and her minions thought she was one of them. She’s going to need your help to get out of this alive and human.
Pudicitia is a succubus, but she’s not out to steal your lust. Well, sort of. She’s willing to give you some buffs and special items, in exchange for applying Influence or even applying curses to your teammates. Is she an ally? She has her own goals. Stay on her good side.
The Living Sextoy! Another sponsor teaser, this is an enemy you’ll encounter and it’s a full transformation. You can probably guess it’ll be in the Lust realm, and hoo boy is it a fun one. You’ll lose access to most non-healing magic spells when transformed, but get a fairly big bonus to… healing… spells. Yeah, healing. Look it makes their HP go up!
Lastly, we have Trine. Why is he a magic bunny and a doll maid? Trine gets around, he’s looking for a way to escape, just like you are. Unfortunately, unlike your party, he’s… not very good at fighting or sneaking. You’ll have to bail him out more than a few times, but he’s always very grateful.
Now Inky has also been working on getting some of the other characters caught up. So here’s Clover as a waitress!
I have a lot of discretion here so I decided on what I was going to pick to show off.
I hope you think I chose right. It’s nice to see Penny actually happy with a status effect isn’t it.
That’s it for this month. Next month’s update depends on what Inky and the artists get done. Keep in mind she’s still working and we haven’t hired the new artists on yet (currently looking at some portfolios). Very excited!
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!
I have finished the second leg of the kitsune quest, so now it’s on to the next one. The Tests of Cunning! Basically little puzzles scattered throughout Trafal like finding a specific spot on the map or shooting an object. You have to solve any 3 to complete this section of the quest and that means I can add more later. Solve them all and you maybe get a punch in the stomach.
I’ve also got Dias working on the Raccoon TF comics and Urimas working on the new sprite sheets for Sanya.
Next week will be the Witches of Ravenbrook monthly update. I’ll try to slap together a roadmap for that so you can see what our plans are.
WHI Mods!
db_Palette is BACK with a new WHI mod, this time modifying the mummies. As usual it’s on Steam or the publicfolder if you use another release.
I am told an even sillier mod might be on the way. Exciting!
New Tales of Strings Soon???
Chic finished the title and it’s making me crazy how good it is. The other pieces are on the way and I’m so damn excited.
I have also contacted a few more artists for future stories. I hope I can get releases lined up for the rest of the year.
Bottled Starlight is now on Welcome Change!
Yep, we’re on there. You can get the Tales of Strings stories there, and Varsity Vixens is 50% off until the end of August. If you don’t know what it is, it’s a place to get comics and stories explicitly about transformation. Some other big authors like Blackshirt Boy and BritTF are on there, and there’s a bunch of free comics easily found via the search bar. If you’re kind of pissed at Itch.io for their (numerous) fuck-ups as of late, including how they still kinda haven’t paid our studio like 2000 dollars yet (it’s been 4 months, Itch!) maybe give Welcome Change a look.
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!
I have finished the Raccoon stuff, Mario has finished the TF and I will be sending it off for comic production. I have started work on the Kitsune quest, which is long and multi-faceted so this one is going to take a while. It starts with beating up bandits and ends with a HEARTFELT LOVE SCENE.
Koops has been working on finishing up the various characters on the glacier, hopefully I won’t need any placeholders. There’s still a lot of work to do before the update is ready, as I haven’t even started enemy balance work or items. Lots to go!
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!
There might be a new WHI update this week, as it was reported that there might be a memory problem in some way related to mods. I’ll be looking at that as soon as I’m done the Raccoon stuff. Raccoon just needs its volunteer route put in place and it’s ready to go.
Assuming I figure out what’s up with the memory, I will then be working on the kitsune quest (assuming I can not spell it kistune in the meantime). That one is long and involved, requiring two dungeons and boss fights, a bunch of puzzles, a lot of NPCs, and a minigame.
After that, it’s chasing down all the various subquests and NPCs but the bulk of the work will be done.
Inky is making good progress on Ravenbrook, mostly catching up on filling out the forms for the other three playable protagonists and getting to work on the sponsor concept art.
At some point (not this week) I will put together a roadmap for WoR and publish it so you all know what the schedule is going to be. It’s gonna be a big game!
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!
At long last I finished the damn raptor quest which has been bothering me since forever. Now it’s on to the raccoon quest! Koops has been drawing up a storm and clearing out the backlog and Chicken even did Raccoon Sanya’s design! Things are looking up!
Plans for Witches of Ravenbrook
Currently, our plans are to get the sponsorships at least to the concept phase by the end of the month. Inky is working on that. Whenever the sponsorships are concepted out, we’ll move on to the Kickstarter NPC reward concept work, which will be September or so. All of this depends on Inky’s schedule of course. We will contact you via Kickstarter if you are of the tier in question.
Otherwise, it’s mostly me producing asset lists and worrying about design documents. My focus is still RoP for the time being will Inky gets the pre-production ready.
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!
That’s right! The KS is over! I really wasn’t expecting this, I thought we’d struggle to make the base amount and instead we’re at 260%! So what now for WoR? Well, our goal right now is to get all the sponsorship concept art done in August (if possible) while I’m writing design documents.
I’m overhauling how the class system and event system are going to work based on player feedback from the prototype. I think you’re going to like it a lot. I may share some of these design ideas later in the process, but for now, hooray!
Tales of Strings: Crush Depth
The next Tales of Strings story is out! You can find it on Itch.io. If you just want to see cool shark art, check out Judith’s post on it. This one has undersea action, shark transformation, and a bit of romance.
As usual, if you’re a patreon/subscribestar supporter for 5$ total over the months of June and July, shoot me a DM and I’ll hook you up with a free copy. We also accept poetry or photos of nearby animals!
Development Update!
I have implemented both versions of the raptor TF and all the complexities within, so now I just need to finish the final implementation of the quest and then start filling it out. It’s actually a pretty involved quest and I think it’s fun, you’ll enjoy it. Once that’s done, it’ll be moving onto the Raccoon Quest (which is considerably shorter, it’s not even a real quest!) and then maybe the kitsune stuff. I want to get all three TFs in for this release if possible.
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!
Pandemonium Development 