Big Balance Patch Chapter 5 Released to Patrons!

That’s right, it’s out, suckers. You know how I thought it’d be out in early February? Well, bugs kept popping up and god damn.
If you’re a patron, you should go over to Patreon and get the game and then play it. Do I need to explain how to play video games?
I’m tired.

If you’re not a patron, we accept poems, haikus, pictures of your dog/cat/goat/nearby animals, or heartfelt essays about what the game means to you.

As usual, the BBP goes public later. Because I really thought it’d be out in early February, the public launch day is going to be March 15th.
There will also be a very important 5$ patron poll next week, in addition to the usual feedback poll. This poll will determine what our next objective as a team is. Should we do the big UI update, the big mechanical update, the big editorial update, or discard that all and plow straight on to chapter 2? You* decide!

*Offer valid only to $5+ patrons, some restrictions apply. Send a lot of cat pictures and I might consider letting you vote anyway but that cat had better be REALLY cute.

So what the hell is new in the BBP?

Chapter 5’s Big Balance Patch now provides jobs for Christine and 55. Each of Christine’s forms (except Doll) has a set of abilities that all hew to certain themes, just like chapter 1’s forms for Mei. Much like Florentina, 55 also has some jobs, though hers aren’t optional. SX-399 only has one job, to represent her inexperience.

Christine’s forms make use of some new mechanics, such as Positive/Negative electric charges for Raiju and Electrosprite forms. Golem can both repair and also deliberately take hits for her party members. All of Christine’s forms also have a purchaseable “Aura” skill that provides a buff to the entire party!

55 is a much more damage oriented character, with a few support options and far less healing than the previous version. 55 is so tactically flexible, she can change jobs in combat at any time and it doesn’t cost anything, not even an action!

All of the enemies have been rebalanced and have much better progression. All equipment has been rebalanced and there are several new pieces for you to find. Catalyst counts are now set correctly and the game’s UI will even update when you reach the biolabs so you know you’ve found them all.

All of the bosses have been updated. Some of them are going to kick your ass, unless you pay attention to your job abilities and figure out synergies to deal lots of damage.

The Tellurium Mines has had its loot and enemy tables updated. HOWEVER, the generator itself has NOT been updated (that’s part of the Mechanical Patch) so there are likely still bugs where enemies will spawn in walls and whatnot. For this reason, the debug options for the generator are still in place, so use them if you absolutely have to.

Naturally, some minor bugs have been fixed. Typos, misalignments, incorrect sprites, all that stuff. There’s still a lot of small things that will get fixed later in the Mechanical and Editorial patches.

I will be posting a poll next week, initially available to patrons, later to the public, to provide some feedback on the balance and enjoyability of the game. For now? I’m going to go not work because I’ve been busting my ass for like 6 weeks straight.

Curious Questions

The Link Pile

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Development Update: February 22nd, 2021

  • Finish updating the maps
  • Update all the shops
  • Add skillbooks and skillbook markers
  • Give special attacks to the enemies that need them
  • Update missing enemy portraits
  • Finish class abilities
  • Add paragons
  • Test run with dummy bosses
  • Send to testers for balance feedback
  • Implement bosses
  • Redesign Raibie Christine encounter (Moved to Editorial Patch)
  • Send to testers for boss balance feedback
  • Release

I am waiting on a few icons from Urimas and some more testing of the post-gala, and then we’re ready to roll. I expect it’ll be a day or two before it’s out.

Curious Cat

The Link Pile

Argue about this post on the forums!    Discussion thread for String Tyrant!

Maiden Sealed in Stone, a game Salty translated!

Buy our dumb 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!

Join our Discord and curse at me in person! Our testers seem to want to annoy me personally!

Follow our Twitter to see the same content as usual, but wth fwr lttrs! CuriousCat replies go there first!

Development Update: February 15th, 2021

Checklist to Pandemonium

  • Finish updating the maps
  • Update all the shops
  • Add skillbooks and skillbook markers
  • Give special attacks to the enemies that need them
  • Update missing enemy portraits
  • Finish class abilities
  • Add paragons
  • Test run with dummy bosses
  • Send to testers for balance feedback
  • Implement bosses
  • Redesign Raibie Christine encounter
  • Send to testers for boss balance feedback
  • Release

I’ve sent out the first and second tester release and am currently working through the big bug backlog. I’m also waiting on icons from Urimas. It’s possible the release will be this week, but I’m not releasing it until I’m happy with it. So stay tuned.

Curious Cat

The Link Pile

Argue about this post on the forums!    Discussion thread for String Tyrant!

Maiden Sealed in Stone, a game Salty translated!

Buy our dumb 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!

Join our Discord and curse at me in person! Our testers seem to want to annoy me personally!

Follow our Twitter to see the same content as usual, but wth fwr lttrs! CuriousCat replies go there first!

Development Update: February 8th, 2021

Checklist to Pandemonium

  • Finish updating the maps
  • Update all the shops
  • Add skillbooks and skillbook markers
  • Give special attacks to the enemies that need them
  • Update missing enemy portraits
  • Finish class abilities
  • Add paragons
  • Test run with dummy bosses
  • Send to testers for balance feedback
  • Implement bosses
  • Redesign Raibie Christine encounter
  • Send to testers for boss balance feedback
  • Release

All class abilities were completed this week. I’ll be doing my test run very soon, and then it’s off to the testers to make hay of it, those jerks.

I hope to have a patron release next week, but I’ll still delay it if it’s not ready, damn it.

Curious Cat

I think that’s the world-record for Curious Cat Cuestions in one week.

The Link Pile

Argue about this post on the forums!    Discussion thread for String Tyrant!

Maiden Sealed in Stone, a game Salty translated!

Buy our dumb 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!

Join our Discord and curse at me in person! Our testers seem to want to annoy me personally!

Follow our Twitter to see the same content as usual, but wth fwr lttrs! CuriousCat replies go there first!

Development Update: February 1st, 2021

Checklist to Pandemonium

  • Finish updating the maps
  • Update all the shops
  • Add skillbooks and skillbook markers
  • Give special attacks to the enemies that need them
  • Update missing enemy portraits
  • Finish class abilities
  • Add paragons
  • Test run with dummy bosses
  • Send to testers for balance feedback
  • Implement bosses
  • Redesign Raibie Christine encounter
  • Send to testers for boss balance feedback
  • Release

I am about 2/3rds of the way through the class abilities right now. Given our current timeline, I would love to have the release out next week, but if I’m not 100% happy with the balance or if there are outstanding bugs, I will push it back another week.

Curious Cat

The Link Pile

Argue about this post on the forums!    Discussion thread for String Tyrant!

Maiden Sealed in Stone, a game Salty translated!

Buy our dumb 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!

Join our Discord and curse at me in person! Our testers are on the run from the law!

Follow us on Tumblr to see Koops’ awful puns!

Follow our Twitter to see the same content as usual, but wth fwr lttrs! CuriousCat replies go there first!

Development Update: January 25th, 2021

Coding Stuff

We are getting close enough to release that it’s time I start posting my checklist. I estimate the BBP’s first release will be in early February for chapter 5.

  • Finish updating the maps
  • Update all the shops
  • Add skillbooks and skillbook markers
  • Give special attacks to the enemies that need them
  • Update missing enemy portraits
  • Finish class abilities
  • Add paragons
  • Test run with dummy bosses
  • Send to testers for balance feedback
  • Implement bosses
  • Redesign Raibie Christine encounter
  • Send to testers for boss balance feedback
  • Release

Artistry

Chicken is currently slogging through the Petraiain emotes for Mei, and has finished all the reshading for chapter 1. All chapter 1 needs is the emotes for Mei and the gravemarker TF images, and it is complete.

Urimas, like always, is making sprites. We have a couple new enemies and will also need recolored paragon sprites. After that he is making icons for the new skills.

Koops is currently designing animals you can hunt in chapter 2. They are ferocious.

Hund is unemployed.

Curious Cat

Who keeps sending all these questions?

The Link Pile

Argue about this post on the forums!    Discussion thread for String Tyrant!

Maiden Sealed in Stone, a game Salty translated!

Buy our dumb 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!

Join our Discord and curse at me in person! Our testers are on the run from the law!

Follow us on Tumblr to see Koops’ awful puns!

Follow our Twitter to see the same content as usual, but wth fwr lttrs! CuriousCat replies go there first!

Development Update: January 18th, 2020

Coding Stuff

I got to spend this week adding abilities, going through hundreds of script files to touch up and rename things, modernizing the item files, and many other unspeakably boring things. At the current rate I might have a version ready for beta testers next week.

Artistry

Urimas is making icons for all the new stuff, Chicken is working on the remaining art for chapter 1, and Koops still has to get me one more enemy design (come on, Koops!).

Stinkehund remains unemployed 😦

Curious Cat

The Link Pile

Argue about this post on the forums!    Discussion thread for String Tyrant!

Maiden Sealed in Stone, a game Salty translated!

Buy our dumb 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!

Join our Discord and curse at me in person! Our testers are on the run from the law!

Follow us on Tumblr to see Koops’ awful puns!

Follow our Twitter to see the same content as usual, but wth fwr lttrs! CuriousCat replies go there first!

Development Update: January 11th, 2020

Coding and Stuff

I was out of commission for several days last week due to illness, but we’re back to work here and getting all of the enemies and abilities for chapter 5 ready to go.

Chicken has updated some of chapter 1’s shading, Koops needs to get me one more enemy concept for chapter 5, and Urimas is doing that thing where he puts pixels next to each other.

Curious Cat

The Links

Argue about this post on the forums!    Discussion thread for String Tyrant!

Maiden Sealed in Stone, a game Salty translated!

Buy our dumb 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!

Join our Discord and curse at me in person! Our testers are on the run from the law!

Follow us on Tumblr to see Koops’ awful puns!

Follow our Twitter to see the same content as usual, but wth fwr lttrs! CuriousCat replies go there first!

Development Update: January 4th, 2021

Coding and Stuff

We’re back to work here at Bottled Starlight. I am currently slogging my way through the very boring parts of chapter 5’s baseline, getting all the TFs setup, portraits aligned, classes made, and basic skills done. Maybe I’ll have it done this week, maybe not.

As far as art goes, Chicken is back to work on emotes and Urimas is getting me sprites. Koops has another enemy concept to go for chapter 5 and then it’s time for chapter 2 concepts.

Chapter 1 Guide Updated (Thanks, Klaysee!)

You know how chapter 1 has a bunch of stuff in it that you maybe didn’t know about? Well #1 fan and overall good person Klaysee wrote a guide for it, and now that guide is updated for the new version! Go look at it!

Curious Cat

The Link Pile

Argue about this post on the forums!    Discussion thread for String Tyrant!

Maiden Sealed in Stone, a game Salty translated!

Buy our dumb 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!

Join our Discord and curse at me in person! Our testers are on the run from the law!

Follow us on Tumblr to see Koops’ awful puns!

Follow our Twitter to see the same content as usual, but wth fwr lttrs! CuriousCat replies go there first!