I’m most of the way done the work for Monoceros for the prototype. I’d like to spend some time polishing it up, of course, but we’re only a couple scenes away from release. That, and the art. I’m always ahead of the artists.
Urimas is making more bunny sprites, Chicken is still only half at work, and Koops still reports the symptoms of art block no matter how many pictures of cute cats I send her. I was told they are the universal medicine.
On the plus side, Mario finished the werecat story for reals and Patrons get to read it! Today! And maybe it will even go up for purchase when we FINALLY GET COVER ART for it.
Fan Art!
Jeanne works best because she has like a reverse set of bunny ears. Don’t act like you don’t see it.
I’m spending the rest of the month working on Monoceros and getting it ready for a prototype release. Chicken is back to work (nominally) and we’ll hopefully have some concepts from her next week. Koops is going to “revisit” the raptor concept for FEATHERS due to popular demand, and after that it’s more enemies and stuff. Urimas completed some fun stuff that will be in the next release, and Mario says the Werecat story will be out for patrons next week. We’ve decided to coerce Yuuta into doing the cover art for the stories going forth and possibly TF sequences.
Fan Art?
What if Mei was a battle-hyena? Hadezmuze has the answer: It’d look like this (and she’ll kill your ass).
I’m still working away on Project Monoceros. As part of that development work, I updated the pathing algorithms and added some more mod capabilities for remapping paths. I might start using the new pathing system in chapter 2!
Chicken is on a break for the time being. Koops is currently battling the most dangerous foe an artist can face: Art Block. I’m sure she’ll overcome it. Urimas got me some tiles and icons and is currently making our most stupid/ambitious set of tiles for chapter 2. Hund is doing a nice landscape and then presumably is off to work on the chapter 2 map for Westwoods.
Fan Art
It’s Ghost Jeanne by HadezMuze! Who likes DnD and goblins! Never let a DnD fan start talking about it or they won’t stop.
Project Monoceros is the codename for an upcoming RPG set to be released this year. It follows three vampire hunters working to stop an evil vampiress who has taken over a small island east of where chapter 1 takes place. That’s right, it’s a Pandemonium Gaiden Game!
And that means you get transformations. Unlike the main Pandemonium game, this one uses a new Battle-TF system. Characters can get transformed when hit by enemy attacks, and even become enemies if you don’t do something about it. But with the help of some magical charms provided by the church, you can use the enemy’s transformations against them!
Izana is from the order of Witch Hunters, authorized by the church to investigate a fog that has shrouded an island. She meets Caelyn, a knight from Rondheim, and Cyrano, a local bush-priest. Together they will fight their way through several different areas and beat up a bunch of different enemies, from harpies to slimes to ice dragons.
The game runs on top of Pandemonium as a mod, but is a standalone experience. We expect the cost will be $10-$15 USD on Steam/Itch.io. We will have a means of getting free copies for Patrons to be announced as we get closer to the release date.
Unlike other Bottled Starlight projects, this one is being worked on by me (Salty. Hi!) and TheChicMonster, who I have collaborated with multiple times. She’s handling all the art and sprites. Music is by DrDissonance, and I just sorta pointed him at the Castlevania soundtracks so I think we’re going to get some good ones.
Because TheChicMonster isn’t actually a Bottled Starlight team member, development expenses aren’t going under the patreon’s umbrella. Don’t worry, work on Pandemonium is continuing while this project is being made because those wacky artists are always behind.
Our goal is to have a playable prototype ready at the end of July, which will feature four playable transformations (and accompanying bad-ends), a couple boss fights, and lots of stupid witty dialogue.
The UI will be getting an update as we get further along. My goal is to have this game finished later this year, possibly for a winter release. Look forward to it!
Other Development Stuff
Koops finished the Raptors concept, Urimas isn’t sick anymore and has gotten me lots of tiles, and Hund is working on a charity piece. I’m going to spend the rest of the month getting Monoceros ready for the prototype (which also doubles as the game’s demo) and then spend July getting Pandemonium ready for its next release.
How can one person work on two projects like this? Joke’s on you I’m working on four. More on the other ones later.
Fan Art
The Lotta/Doll comic is now actually a running thing and I’m thinking it’ll be better to post it when it’s complete. If you haven’t joined our Discord yet, the link is in the link pile at the bottom of the post. Pages are getting posted in our pad-emonium chat.
But here’s Princess Odar by Luuco! Have you ever wondered what it’d be like if Odar was a girl? Well now you know (hint: HOT). This would not have stopped Sanya from beating her up though.
Unfortunately, Urimas got an infection in his cheek and the pain kept him from making all those cool tiles I need. I have finished all of the maps for the next section, including several extra maps I hadn’t intended to put in but hey, I’m insane. The maps are also glued and ready to go.
Koops finished a new concept for the raptor girls, but it’s not colored yet so I’ll put it up for patrons next week. Chicken finished her art obligations for the fundraiser and that will be our everyone bonus stuff.
Hund did a bunch of weird alternate low-money TFs for Mei, like water, gold, invisible, and ice. They take an hour or two each and might be something we explore in the future to get you more of the content you crave.
Fan Art
Holy shit do we have some fan art for you. This first piece was sent in anonymously. I love the hell out of it.
First, the evil marionette transforming the girls from last week, by BlueLily.
And also by BlueLily, we have jester transformations! My favourite is Lotta with the pawprint pattern, can’t beat that.
How about Gravemarker Lotta? Done by artist HadezMuze. With enough guns to kill a whole crowd of non-believers!
And lastly, a comic about Lotta (Gee are you noticing a pattern?) finding a doll girl and just… taking her along. Will it continue to be a thing? Find out!
Want to see how we’re wasting all your money on cocaine and jawbreakers? You can see it here!
Coding, Art, And Other Stuff
I have completed the map layout work for Westwoods, the next section of chapter 2. Obviously, I still have a lot of work to go. Enemies, scenario, map glue, save points, etc. But hey, the layouts are done!
We had a fundraiser for friend of the team Sinpai last week, so the artists are now working on fulfilling those obligations. Maybe you’ll get to see some of it? I don’t know, it’s up to the people who requested it.
Okay the stuff DrDiss made, you’ll see that. Hoo boy.
Fan Art! Fan Art!
This piece was done by Miraimiru on DeviantArt! It’s Werecat Christine! Commissioned by Justin Kinniger.
Werecats have such a cute widdle nose I love them.
Next up, we have a series of the best thing in the world: Doll Transformations! Christine got turned into a doll, and then decided to help her “friends” get the same treatment. My fave is Lotta because god I love maids, but god damn do Mei and Sanya’s outfits get me.
And here we have SLAYER SANYA by Chris from Discord.
I don’t think she needs the rifle when she has her bare hands.
Lastly, we have a strange piece. Artist Chris from Discord said he’d make a piece for me (Salty) if I worked a couple more hours instead of playing video games or whatever after a workday. So I finished a bunch of maps until my eyes were crossed, and we got: Command Unit Sanya!
We even got inexplicable emotes in case some maniac (not me) wants to mod them in.
Big thanks to all of our wonderful fan artists and followers! Enjoy!
In other news, at 1pm Central time today I will be hosting a fundraiser for friend of the team and noted fan-artist Squeaky Sinpai. The discord is discord.gg/VqgzMBk and will involve playing Minecraft and building (presumably) dong towers. Many of the Starlight staff have made their services available for pledges, so you could get Chicken to sketch your OC or even a custom animation by Urimas! Come by and donate to charity!
Chicken has finished up Izuna’s emotes, Koops is working on some more bunnies (but they aren’t quite done so patrons get to see them next week), Urimas got me some more trees and is working on ability icons. Hund will be doing the maps for Westwoods once I’m actually done them.
Maps for Westwoods are about 40% done. Hoping to have them finished this week.
Release Information
Chapter 2 goes public on the 2nd of June. I’ll make an update post when the time comes.
Fundraiser!
You know what else happens on the 2nd of June? Friend of the team Squeaky Sin is doing a fundraiser to pay off their insurance, because America is hell. It will be on their discord (which is on their DA home page) and will include Minecraft, lots of stupid bonus material, and raffles and extras you can get by donating! We’ll have Bottled Starlight artists giving away sketches and animations for donors, so come by and drop five bucks!
I will post more information on the day of the fundraiser as part of the update post. See you there!
Fan Art? (Yes)
This piece was commissioned from AkuOreo!
I would tell you to be wary around mirrors but you people are going to spend a week hanging out near one just in case.
More pieces from Blue Lily! Finishing up the moth series, and giving us some skunks (from Unity Edition).
I really love fan art. What more can be said besides that?
This week I finished the backend for the 4th party member in chapter 2, and the maps for the upcoming rabbit warrens. Urimas finally got me the tileset so I can start making the Westwoods area.
Chicken finished Empress’ second combat pose. I liked the first one so much that I’ll be using both, with one for an alternate class. I don’t even know what class but they’re both really good pieces! Koops is working on some more bunny designs and Urimas will be getting me ability icons.
I have another project that will be reaching announcement fairly soon, probably before the end of June. Look forward to that.
Fan Art!
I created a page to store all the fan art! The page contains the pieces as well as where you can find the artist. In fact we have even more of it this week!
These were done by artist BlueLilytZ and here is their FurAffinity page.
I keep making fun of the fact that 2022 has been a pretty shit year so far and ha ha it’s really been a shit decade. Chicken got sick, Koops’ cat Niko got sick! Things aren’t great on that front.
I’m making maps for the next part of the chapter and Urimas is almost done the new sprites for Empress.
Version 4.03 is out, mostly bugfixes and a bit of balancing. It should be on Itch/Steam and the patron downloads page as usual. Remember the file contains the changelog.
Fan Art!
Hey you know what rules? Fan art.
First, we have Jeanne transformed into a maid doll, dusting her own runestone. Drawn by Myrmidia. Probably my favourite piece so far!
It’s Mei in her human form (as rare as that is to see). Done by 达达利亚干饭我 (sorry, don’t have a link to their site or anything).
And here we have a kitsune turned into an alraune. Don’t ask how that works. By Mako Hayashi.
Curious Cat
This is now a Niko blog. RoP is cancelled it’s all Niko from now on.
