And what could be spooookier, than a ghost? A vampire? How about C++ code? Yeah now you’re afraid, afraid of an unstable heap!
I have one boss left to go in terms of animation work. Most of Ravenbrook’s bosses are regular ol’ enemies, but Inky wants a couple of them be cool animated creatures with multiple parts.
All but the last dungeon is ready to go, but I am probably going to do another full balance pass before I send it for a playtest. I like how the game’s challenge is but I think the enemy density is a bit high, and there are always quality-of-life improvements I want to make. I think we are on track for the November public release.
Frightening Fan Art!
It’s Sanya as a pumpkin alraune! This is actually very scary because she doesn’t have a gun and will beat you to death with her fists! By Dias, commissioned by Justin Kombat.
It’s Lydie as a witch, by Xandra! I swear she gets around, maybe she picked up the black arts while on vacation.
And lastly, it’s Polaris by kkstcomms! I hear Kumquat commissioned it but nobody knows, he might be a ghost too.
The only thing scarier than a BLACK cat at HALLOWEEN is a development update.
I am very close to the playtest. All GUIs are done, sound is mostly done, but I ran into some rather severe bugs when implementing a new feature. Temporary status effect TFs! Some enemies will hit a party member and force-TF them for a few turns, effectively stunning them for a while. Unfortunately that exposed a flaw in the state updates which took a while to fix.
I suspect the prototype of Ravenbrook will be out in the first two weeks of November. I still have to actually put the story in, bosses, and balance, as well as a bunch of events. Then it’s polish until I’m happy with the presentation.
I guess we doing Bluesky now
Bottled Starlight now has a bluesky account! Why did we never make a twitter account? Because it’s a terrible place and has been for a long time, and it only got worse with time. Bluesky, however, has way more pictures of cats and you can customize your feed to make it exclusively cats. I guess you could also make a feed of artists and your favourite game devs but I’m not sure why you’d do that.
Most of what we post will be crossposts and cats. You knew that already.
Fan Art
Izuna by Juiceboxing! :3
Xandra is doing alternate dragon forms for the WHI cast and has me at gunpoint, demanding I make a mod so you can play as them! The police laughed when I asked for help! It’s a hostage situation!
I am closing in on the playtest build. Unfortunately there are two major things left, an options menu and making sure saving/loading works, as well as several minor things like making sure consumable items are on the loot lists. I don’t know how long those major things will take, but it’d probably be bad for a prototype to launch without them.
Everything else needed for a minimum-viable-product is done. Hopefully I can get a playtest build out this week and we can start polishing it up for a prototype launch.
Ghost Whispering
This is where cats are. On pillows.
Fan Art
A skitterer by GoopyBoopy! Honestly it’s all about those burly arms and I think the skull-mohawk ties the piece together.
Polaris by Xandra! She’s so cute and has ribbons on her boots which you will never see because she has no combat portrait :3
What if Mei got turned into a secrebot? I’ll tell you what, it’s this piece by Dias and commissioned by Justinkombat. This does imply that as she sucks up dust, her chest will swell up to store it. Think about that, think about emptying a dust bag by opening a valve and pressing on a robot’s tits.
Chicken’s second (maybe third) favourite author died 175 years ago today. What a handsome fella. Reads about his life oh dear. Oh my. Oh dear. Tuberculosis? Oh my.
We doing Whispa now I guess
Curiouscat is dead so now it’s time to move on. We will now accept anonymous questions from Whispa, a site that seems to have been built for a different purpose but whatever. The other ones I tried didn’t even work half the time for non-obvious reasons.
I’ve been killing myself on this thing! The UI is improved and updated, including me forgetting that the vendor UI hadn’t been updated for the new mouse format. Well now it is!
Fluffs has a bunch of silly quotes and will mock you if you can’t afford something. With that, I believe everything except the title screen is done. Title might not get a big improvement until after the prototype.
I’ve also been cleaning up how the game handles events, tagging, loot, and all that stuff.
Inky, meanwhile, is finishing up the remaining player-as-enemy images. I believe there are 5 to go and the title screen, and the art is all ready.
I am thinking an early November release makes the most sense, depending heavily on how well playtesting goes. I think the backend is way more solid than it was for WHI or RoP due to my many investments in code improvements recently, so let’s hope that all goes smoothly.
Anonymous Whispers
If you think for one second I’m not going to post cat pictures in here just because it’s not curiouscat anymore you have never been more wrong and are about to find this out. I assume you read each sentence individually and do not see images before completing each one.
SURPRISE
What The Hell Happened Here
The lasagna, hu hu hu, the lasagna was eaten by a ghost!
For some reason Kumquat did this “MaryThink” icon fan art for String Tyrant.
BigSaltDeluxe drew this accurate representation of Dmitri.
The burger has a GHOST IN IT
Dragor 42 drew a skitterer head! You know, your favourite chapter 1 enemy!
BigSaltDeluxe also drew one!
Anonymous Izuna sketch, made by NOBODY
And lastly, Scarecrow Jeanne by Xandra!
If you’re wondering why there’s so much fan art, it’s because it’s October and it is therefore time to get as much SPOOK as you can. Also Kumquat ran a little contest on Friday only giving away soundtrack keys. Sorry if you missed out but you could maybe go on the discord and get in his face about it.
If you’re an amateur and want to draw some spooky ghosts from chapter 1 as fan art, now is the ideal time. Do it. DO IT.
The sale is on Steam for WHI from the 1st to the 7th of October. String Tyrant is on Sale at the end of the month for Steam Screamfest.
Both are on sale on Itch.io for the entire month of October. (WHI / ST)
If you’ve been waiting for a sale, now’s your chance!
It’s time to CODE
All the UI work for Ravenbrook is done. I am currently cleaning up bugs and filling in all the events, items, loot drops, classes, and so on. Things are on schedule.
I reworked the minimap to make it more legible, thanks to Urimas for the sprites. This is what it looks like with the discovery shadows turned off. It will probably get a few more changes when the game goes 3D, since I want to add things like lakes, buildings, and more. Right now this will do for the prototype.
Curious Cat is Dead!
We won’t be using Curious Cat any more after today’s post. I will figure out a replacement and post a link to it when I do. Fortunately all the questions are backed up on blog posts, all you need to do is comb through those. That’s a good use of your time.
The Final Curious Cats
If you’re sad about the end of Curious Cat, don’t be. For we have Mango.
Fan Art!
Lydie’s world-tour continues and this time she seems to have gotten a job dealing cards to hopeless drunks and gambling addicts. Can her ghostly powers help them to get the help they need? No! Pandemonium does not have social support!
Urimas has one more idle animation to go, Hund is working on a big project, Koops finished the chapter 2 intro and is working on some combat portraits. Stuff is happening!
Project Carnation / Witches of Ravenbrook
This is going to be a big post so I’ll break it up by sections. First we’ll go over some plans for the game overall, plans for the prototype, and then some questions I got on Discord and the CuriousCat.
The Setting
It’s Halloween and Ravenbrook University is having its annual shindig/get down/”party”. Without warning, a coven of extradimensional witches attacks and hoo boy, it doesn’t go well for the humans.
Chris, our protagonist, escapes by the skin of his teeth and finds himself in the realm of the witches. There are four witches you’ll have to contend with, and you can defeat them in any order. The Witch Queen promises that if you kill the other leaders of her coven, she’ll let you go free. Yeah, sure, she seems trustworthy.
The majority of the game takes place in the witch realms, which are magical lands. We haven’t solidified all of them yet, the two we are 100% on are the gardens, where the Witch of Wrath, Dahlia, resides…
Meanwhile, the second area is the Fast Food Joint, run by the witch of Gluttony, Honeybunns. The Gardens is the area the prototype takes place in.
The Gameplay
Once you finish the tutorial, you arrive in the hub area. From there, you can talk to the NPCs, buy stuff (Fluffs, the vendor, likes it when you buy stuff), change classes, and pick a dungeon to dive into.
In the prototype, dungeons are made of static backdrops. I would like to make this fully 3D but it’s not really in the budget quite yet, so 2D images will have to do for now. Your goal is to reach the end of the dungeon and beat the boss.
Dungeons are split into floors, and at the end of each floor is a gate. Gates are often guarded by enemies, but they can also have an event you need to clear. You can also find events (and enemies) in other places in the dungeon. Events might inflict damage on you, cost money, give you treasure or…
Your Influence is tracking how transformed your characters are getting. If a character’s HP reaches 0, they recover half their HP and gain 1 Influence. Influence is very hard to cure, but it gets reset to 0 if you complete the dungeon. It can even make some events easier. For example, the dolls event shown above can be cleared for free if one of your characters is already a doll.
Events can have random outcomes, but you can use a special item, the Opaque Lens, to reveal what the outcomes are ahead of time. Certain classes (or status effects!) might also reveal the outcomes for free. You’ll need to plan ahead, because having a character with [Lockpick] will save you a lot of traps going off, but thieves aren’t as good as knights are. Speaking of.
Combat
The basic engine is the same as RoP’s, except characters make decisions at turn start instead of when their action comes up. I’ve also rewritten the formulas, and you don’t get free MP like RoP or full restores like in WHI. Endurance is an important part of surviving the dungeons.
We plan to have a few dozen classes, all of which can be switched to freely in the hub (or in special spots in the dungeons, if you’re lucky). Each class gains experience, typically 1 point for each battle won. As classes level up, they can increase your stat growth rates, gain new abilities, and gain new proficiencies with weapons and spells.
Classes can also have extra properties that influence events. Apprentices and Wizards know about magic, while Loner is good at lying to people. Each of the transformations will have its own associated class, as well. Doll Maids always transform into a doll when inflicted with Influence, and have inherent [Doll Knowledge] that allows them to talk their was past events, or even trick enemies into giving you free items!
You gain experience and level up from defeating enemies, and your stats and skills are determined by your class. As the game progresses, you will even gain the ability to multiclass. When multiclassing, your stats will be whichever was the highest between your classes, and you can gain extra spells and event properties.
To gain an edge in combat, you can apply Modifications to your items. (I’m still working on the UI, it is currently sized for RoP’s inventory :3)
Modifications placed into an item will permanently increase its stats. Unlike RoP’s gems, you can’t remove them freely. However, if you disassemble the item, you can keep one of the modifications. You’ll get a lot of modifications throughout the game, and not all of them are stat upgrades. Some will give you extra event options, some will increase your weapon proficiencies, and some might give extra XP/Cash from battles.
Losing
Losing is part of the game. The dungeons are tough, some are very tough, and enemies can gain levels and sometimes be extraordinarily strong. When you lose, you get a bad end (obviously) and return to the hub area.
You will lose 50% of the EXP and cash you gained in the dungeon (you cannot lose any EXP or cash you entered with. If you enter with 100 Hexes, and then die at 150 Hexes, you will come out with 125 Hexes). You will also lose any items you did not have equipped. If you find a modification in the dungeon, you should probably equip it right away, otherwise you might lose it if you die!
It’ll be tough but you will always be making some forward progress even if you can’t kill the boss at the end of the dungeon. Class experience gained is always kept, and you’ll start to build up a stock of weapons with modifications.
You can also retreat from the dungeon. Doing this causes you to lose 25% of your EXP/Cash but if a party member is at maximum Influence and is defeated in battle, they will leave your party, and join the dungeon boss as an enemy.
If you retreat with them not in the party, they stay gone. You’ll need to go into the dungeon again and try to find and rescue them, by beating them in combat!
You’ll also be able to pay Fluffs to recover lost members so we don’t wind up with an unwinnable situation, but beware. Your fallen party members keep their original levels and can be quite dangerous.
Difficulty Levels
Before you ask, the game will include difficulty levels. Not everyone wants to lose all their stuff when they die. For you, there is Easy mode, where you keep your items and whatnot when you die. If you really want to feel the pain, Hard mode causes you to lose all your EXP/Cash gained in the dungeon if you die.
The Prototype
I am currently finishing up some of the UI work for the prototype. This is, amusingly, the first time that the player can actually use items from the inventory outside of combat. In WHI you always got a full restore between battles, and in RoP the items are equippables (which is why the Doctor Bag exists). String Tyrant doesn’t count 😡
I also have to finish the Skills UI (so you can check skills outside of battle and also heal yourself with them) and then do a lot of testing. I am hoping the prototype will be available in October, though I won’t set a specific date yet. 95% of the art is done, a lot of items and events need to be done, and of course we need to test it to make sure there are no critical bugs.
The prototype will contain three transformations, one of which is the “You failed the tutorial” transformation that will become a proper playable TF in the final version. It will contain about a dozen enemies, a few bosses, and no handmade dungeons. They will instead be pre-generated random dungeons. I intend to make handmade dungeons in the final game but I don’t have an editor or tools made for it yet.
The game will also allow you to enter randomly generated dungeons after you’ve completed an area’s pre-generated dungeon, so you can get as much loot as you want.
There are three playable characters right now, probably 7 or 8 classes, somewhere around 30 events, and half a dozen bad ends. I estimate the prototype will take a few hours to complete depending on how good you are at RPGs like this, and also how much the playtesters force me to tone the difficulty down.
For cost reasons the prototype will not have voice acting, but I would like the full game to be voiced. We’ve got a lot of great VAs to pick from who are itching to turn into dolls and slimes and werewolves :3
The prototype will, of course, be released for free on Itch.io. After that, we’ll gauge the response, listen to your feedback, and plan out what we want to do with the rest of the game. More characters? More TFs (yes)? More areas? Monsters, classes, items, events, maybe have a thing where a cat just appears on the screen and you have to click it to make it go away and it meows at you?
Questions! Answers!
Some people/cats (you know who you are) sent in questions about the game so I’ll answer them here if I haven’t already.
It takes place on Earth followed by an extra-dimensional witch coven land. No connections to RoP or WHI, this is InkyFluff’s writing and story.
You will unlock special event responses from TFs, and can unlock a class with the TF that gives unique skills and stats. Because it’s me we’re talking about, I will be adding cases where all three of your characters are TF’d so there’s unique dialogue or events, because that’s just fun to do. Imagine showing up to oppose the witch and she notices you’re all transformed, and offers you the chance to join her. You’d take it! You WILL take it!
Yes, in that your transformations will give you new skills and often better stats. Combat, not quite, but events, “usually”. Sometimes, being transformed is a good thing as you can slip by the monsters at an event. Sometimes, your transformed character will sabotage the party!
The prototype has five dungeons plus random versions (same enemies, more loot, random layout) if you want to grind or just really want to stick it to the monsters. The hub area has shops, “friendly” NPCs, and unfriendly NPCs. The prototype doesn’t have a lot of them, though. Final version, I want to make it possible to rescue some of the other students but that’s one of those things that might get cut. You can’t draw on the maps, sorry. I know you’re old-school but it’s kind of a waste in a random dungeon.
There are bad endings for each form, and some have more than one form. Inky wants to have multiple good endings and secrets, but that depends on a lot of things and who knows if we’ll have that kind of investment.
No there will not be skitterers we’ll get sued by Bottled Starlight. If I can get the rights I’ll put them in but NOT AS A TF.
The currency is “Hexes”, a thing that only witches can create and is extremely valuable among other beings and deities. Fluffs the shopkeeper is here to get them while the getting is good and skedaddle before the witches decide to take umbrage at her.
I have a few ideas for how to handle secrets in the dungeons. There’s a few puzzles too, I hope I can fit one into the prototype without having to make a whole new UI for it.
You don’t get skill points, growth is done via classes, levels, and socketing stuff in your equipment.
The prototype doesn’t have any cats but it’s a game by a) Inkyfluffs and b) me about c) witches. It’s gonna have cats.
The big Carnation post will be next week where I go over the game in a bit more detail. If you got questions you want to see answered, then you can either post them on our Discord (link in the pile at the bottom of the post!) or ask them on CuriousCat (link in the pile on the bottom of the post! Again!) and I’ll answer the ones I think are most relevant.
Otherwise, I’m making the game! Events are ready and I’m currently working on the allies-turn-enemies code. The next few weeks will likely be more UI to handle class changing, disassembling, and the other stuff that I hadn’t finished. After that, I send it to the testers and we start getting it ready for release.
Witch Hunter Izana News
Once the Carnation stuff is done I’ll be spending the rest of the year getting WHI’s update ready. WHI will be getting a Japanese translation, Hard Mode, and if there’s time, TG mode, where you can make the cast start as men and the curse TG’s them. That’ll be really funny and hopefully not too buggy.
TG mode will probably be its own patch just to make sure I don’t mess up and unleash a storm of bugs and stuff, plus it will need some new voice acting. Still, the TG crowd will be happy.
After much discussion with the wretched hive of scum and villainy that is our Discord server, there have been some changes to how Carnation works. I will be making a larger post on that later on. Development on it is going well, there are only a few art assets left and most of the underlying game mechanics are ready to go. I basically have a big to-do list, once it gets a bit shorter I’ll start posting it to give an idea of how far we are off from a prototype release.
My prediction is October or Early November, depending heavily on how the bugtesting goes.
The prototype will be free to play just like Witch Hunter Izana’s was, and at that point Inky and I will figure out how we want to fund and develop the game.
Harpy Sanya?
This combat pose rules.
Fan Art!
I’m not going to explain why this happened but here’s Sanya as a skullcrawler/skitterer.
I am also not going to explain why Lydie, Natalie’s ghost maid friend from chapter 1, is now a digimon destined or whatever (I didn’t watch the show sorry).
Look, even if I did explain this it wouldn’t amount to anything, it’d be a word salad. Just enjoy that it looks cool and I can’t be sued for it.
Carnation work is going well, getting almost to a playable state within I think a week. I’m missing the GUIs that will let you actually use the features in question, though so it’ll be a bit longer before I can start internal playtesting. I want to make another post on the game but not just yet, so more later.
Meanwhile, Chicmonster (who did the art for Witch Hunter Izana) is now working on contract on chapter 2. You’ll be getting some Sanya talk sprites out of her, hooray.
Christine Secrebot now has a PDU pose. It had sort of slipped through the cracks with all the stuff that was going on, well Koops made one. Christine regards the PDU, a device that literally obsoleted secrebots which she is now one of, with exactly the suspicion and disdain all secrebots should.
Stinkehund is working on a cool thing that we thought would take a month and is now probably going to take two, but it’s really cool so it’s okay. Hopefully you’ll see it soon.
That’s right, at long last we got it done. There’s been some tumult recently but our art lead is art leading and we’re making progress on chapter 2. The bunny TF is complete, I have the harpy dialogue portraits on the way, and maybe a secret TF that will be announced later???
On Carnation, I am currently working my way through the combat changes. Abilities are now per-class instead of per-character like in RoP, so there were some issues that needed to be attended to (such as all the abilities thinking they were owned by the first party member – and using up his SP!). I am next going to work on getting items up to spec, as they are also quite different from RoP’s version and even WHI’s. Items in Carnation are instantly used without using up your turn, so they are somewhat like 55’s Effortless Action class change skills.
Urimas has delivered the steam droid idle animations and I think we’ll be getting eldritch Christine animations next. Hund is working on a very cool thing that will be revealed later.
The next Tales of Strings is on its way! Art and audiobook are contracted, editing is done. When will it come out? My goal is sometime in September. The first one has alllllmost made back its budget, so it’s time for round 2.
And lastly, our most important team member found a spot to hide.
Imagine the power you’d have if you were permanently invisible.
Fan Art, The Wiki!
After much battling with html or xml or whatever, Xandra has made us a wiki! It’s a community project so pitch in. Currently, it has some pages on slimes and such, with in-game stats and image galleries. Like all good long-term projects it’ll get better if you believe. Alice even made some nice chibis :3
Meanwhile, the secrebots got two new members. I think CR-2-1 and CR-2-2 would be happy that all their friends are now secrebots, too. I would say that but I think they won’t really be happy until everyone is secrebots. Art by Dias, commissioned by Justin Kinniger.
Curious Cat
Surprise Niko!
Niko is a master ambush predator, seen here imitating a loaf of bread.
Pandemonium Development 