Tales of Strings: Varsity Vixens is now out!

Yep, the next Tales of Strings story is out. This is the first in a series I’m writing about a sentai team, the Knights of Justice and their struggles against the villainous True Path that loves brainwashing people into animal-human hybrids! Yeah, every entry includes TF, what kind of writer do you think I am? Big thanks to BlueLily who was basically the inspiration behind the whole series, I can’t stop writing about these heroic five.

You can check it out on Itch.io, or if you’re a patron and over the past 3 months have contributed over 10$, send me a DM on patreon and I’ll line up a copy. We also accept cat photos and poetry if money is tight, I just want more people to read my stories damn it. Please keep in mind Lily gets half of all the revenue so if you like his art you’re supporting it!

Ravenbrook!

Things have calmed down on the other fronts so, if everything goes well, the Witches of Ravenbrook Kickstarter will be launching in two weeks. I wanted one week but apparently it takes time to verify bank information, who knew. More on that when it launches obviously.

Game Development, Madness

In addition to getting all the KS stuff ready, I have resumed map work and completed some of the interiors. I am currently working on the Grand Imperial Hotel, which is both an important place where NPCs hang out and also a dungeon where you fight Orc Footballers. Less dangerous and more rowdy than their WHI counterparts, Miss Kigslap is at her wits end with these rough and tumble boyz.

I also completed Mt. Itoi in northeast Trafal, which means the only remaining maps are the hotel dungeon, the Dormine Estate, and the Jenveld Estate.

I also have Mario writing up the two TF sequences that are definitely going to be in the next release, Raccoon and Raptor. I really want to squeeze Kitsune in but there are some challenges on that one, it’s a very long quest chain that will take you all across the Old Capitol Grounds. Hopefully the TF comic pages will be ready by release.

How About Some ANSWERS

Fan Art Freakout!

By https://bsky.app/profile/sitlalikwe.bsky.social (God damn what a piece! Now that’s how you do a TF!)

By https://vgen.co/Superbrantendo

By https://vgen.co/liliwi

By https://bsky.app/profile/aleklah.bsky.social/post/3lqo2kemqsc2t

By https://bsky.app/profile/echobows.bsky.social (Good art captures what is important and for Izana that’s ANGER)

By https://vgen.co/aseruNJZ

By https://vgen.co/Mafuluv/ (If you like ghost maids hoo boy is there something coming for you)

By https://bsky.app/profile/mamiwashizu.bsky.social

By https://vgen.co/qui

By https://bsky.app/profile/vistrology.bsky.social

By https://bsky.app/profile/eggulette.bsky.social/post/3lqq2uw4mr22j (If you want to make Xandra happy this is how you do it)

By https://bsky.app/profile/meushikeii.bsky.social (The cute widdle face on this one makes me insane)

By https://bsky.app/profile/harune-seira.bsky.social (This card predicts cuteness but also strife)

By https://vgen.co/taquitotd (O_o)

By https://vgen.co/Reneriii_/

By https://bsky.app/profile/yamyamyammy.bsky.social/post/3lqs2rsh7ik2q

By https://bsky.app/profile/droachillustra.bsky.social (ZEKE REPRESENTATION)

By https://vgen.co/ramen-nood1es_arts (LOVE IT!)

By https://bsky.app/profile/kirilewd.bsky.social

By https://bsky.app/profile/ourogami.bsky.social (HELL YEAH)

By https://bsky.app/profile/alwenart.bsky.social

By https://bsky.app/profile/eggulette.bsky.social/post/3lqtlvqvrec2k (Quote from Chic “Cute”)

By https://bsky.app/profile/cinnibee.bsky.social

By https://bsky.app/profile/zirathell.bsky.social (What is a RilMANi?)

By https://bsky.app/profile/charlikesalmon.bsky.social

By https://bsky.app/profile/yonniboi.bsky.social (Kitsune Sanya is hard to beat.)

By https://bsky.app/profile/toastitos.bsky.social/post/3lqvpycr4o22p (Might be my favourite depiction of her yet)

By https://bsky.app/profile/eggulette.bsky.social/post/3lqvr4lhges2i (YEAH, YUKI!)

By https://vgen.co/Hollow_OG

By https://bsky.app/profile/midnightsaint.bsky.social (You don’t just have to be cute, suave can work too)

By https://vgen.co/Amini_2301

By https://vgen.co/Lunaakane

By https://vgen.co/ivysberriesss

By https://bsky.app/profile/zuutsu.bsky.social

By https://bsky.app/profile/b0rium.bsky.social

By https://vgen.co/qui

By https://bsky.app/profile/soramaruell.bsky.social

By https://bsky.app/profile/eggulette.bsky.social/post/3lqzrq233js2r

By https://www.instagram.com/miyoi_o?igsh=MWpyZnpic3gzc3k5cA==

By https://bsky.app/profile/mongnyanya.bsky.social/post/3lqzjwgqozk25

By https://bsky.app/profile/emkanmara.bsky.social/post/3lr255vmd2s2r

By https://bsky.app/profile/ourogami.bsky.social

By https://bsky.app/profile/mkrudesign.itch.io/post/3lr2div7o3k2e

By https://bsky.app/profile/lezziecat.bsky.social

By https://bsky.app/profile/jblueorchid.bsky.social/post/3lr2hsmfl4k2o (!!!)

By https://bsky.app/profile/sitlalikwe.bsky.social

By https://bsky.app/profile/aesonia.bsky.social

By https://bsky.app/profile/echochips.bsky.social

By https://vgen.co/HoxFals

By https://bsky.app/profile/eggulette.bsky.social/post/3lr3wc32as22x

By https://vgen.co/tsukinasegawa

by https://bsky.app/profile/royceartsu.bsky.social

By https://bsky.app/profile/droachillustra.bsky.social

By https://vgen.co/huwana_arts

By https://vgen.co/dredzanx

By https://bsky.app/profile/arkmist.bsky.social

By https://vgen.co/000sandboxorz

So Many Links!

Where to find us:

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!

If you want extra pictures of cats, you can follow us on Bluesky.

And there’s always Our Discord. You can shout at Salty *in person*.

You can ask us anonymous question on Whisp.sh. If you’ve ever wanted to get smarmy answers to questions, or just know more lore, that’s the place!

We also have a Wiki! We’d appreciate it greatly if people keep it maintained for us. :3

Bottled Starlight Games:

Runes of Pandemonium, the big adventure TF RPG, always free on Steam and Itch.io.

Witch Hunter Izana, a battle-TF RPG. Available on Steam or Itch.io.

Witches of Ravenbrook, a battle-TF dungeon-crawler. The prototype is out now and free on Itch.io.

String Tyrant, a survival horror game, is on Steam and Itch.io.

Other Bottled Starlight Stuff

Salty writes a book series, with audiobooks and illustrations, called Tales of Strings.
Instruments is out now on Itch.io.
Passed Hand is now on Itch.io!
Spiderweb Theory is now on Itch.io!
Urban Explorers is now on Itch.io!
Knights of Justice: Varsity Vixens is now on Itch.io!

Mario is currently working on bringing the Pandemonium story series to Itch.

We have some ridiculous merch on Redbubble and Teepublic if you want to be the center of conversation (derogatory / celebratory).

Coding and Things That Resemble Coding

I have completed the NPCs and examinables for areas that are not Poterup village, and am now working on Poterup. There are a LOT of NPCs and subplots and topics and stuff in Poterup so this will take a while. Remember when it took me like a week to make the shopping part in Regulus and it was so worth it? Now that but it has foxes.

Once that’s done, it’s time to start on the big raptor quest and maybe some of the other area quests. I really want to get the kitsune TF and questline into the next update because I know people want that one a lot but there’s so much to do in the Old Capitol Grounds!

WHI Passes 1500 Sales, Bitbucket is Now Public

Yep. In fact the original “Public Assets” goal was 5000 sales but people keep asking me for image refs and stuff so here it is. There is still a bunch of new stuff coming to WHI. A new pack-in mod with a new playable character, some new areas added in a free DLC, male main character options, and voice acting update so you can hear Izana howl like a wolf.

Now yes I recognize that at this point you could technically compile all the assets for the game and use a compiled copy of the also-public Starlight Engine to get the game entirely for free. Please don’t do that, this game does help pay my rent. Also I’m sure there are pirates out there who have done the hard work for you anyway.

Link to the bitbucket. You can use the assets here for promotion or even borrow them for your own projects, so long as you link back to Bottled Starlight and don’t attempt to take credit for making them. Have fun!

Questions and Answers (This is in dispute)

A Torrent of Fan Art

By https://bsky.app/profile/kisetsukaze.bsky.social Nobody bites my girlfriend but ME

by https://vgen.co/_YUKIMORIN_

by https://bsky.app/profile/droachillustra.bsky.social maybe we should be hiring droach for our chapter begin/end art.

by https://www.ddinstagram.com/superbrantendoblog/p/DKKXE-ROWIC/

Last month was Mermay so take your medicine! By https://bsky.app/profile/kirilewd.bsky.social

by https://www.instagram.com/dredzanx/ Being dead IS pretty metal

by https://bsky.app/profile/o7saya.bsky.social (Best Mei)

by https://www.instagram.com/miyoi_o/

by https://www.instagram.com/alliruu

by https://bsky.app/profile/hhonchkrow234.bsky.social I blame BlueLily for making me a furry but this isn’t helping

by https://bsky.app/profile/alwenart.bsky.social

by https://bsky.app/profile/gymnopedies.bsky.social

by https://bsky.app/profile/arkmist.bsky.social

by https://www.instagram.com/2dittwoart/

by https://bsky.app/profile/bigmeandragonlady.bsky.social

by https://bsky.app/profile/lechuzaz.bsky.social

by https://vgen.co/6shiragaku9 I am loving this Summer Werecat Mei stuff

by https://bsky.app/profile/eggulette.bsky.social/post/3lqacxsmnqs2l

by https://bsky.app/profile/lepaa.bsky.social

by https://bsky.app/profile/usjkgugu.bsky.social/post/3lqasbzcks22e

(Zeke REPRESENT)

By https://vgen.co/ramen-nood1es_arts

by https://bsky.app/profile/giirroo.bsky.social

by https://vgen.co/TiniPastel

by https://bsky.app/profile/ourogami.bsky.social

by https://bsky.app/profile/jblueorchid.bsky.social/post/3lqbwv3vsy22e

by https://www.instagram.com/stamlex/ (Note: Izuna would never become corrupted she’s too much of a goody two shoes. Best I can do is she writes a gossip article)

by https://bsky.app/profile/jblueorchid.bsky.social/post/3lqd6mhsdo22e

by https://bsky.app/profile/zirmangoes.bsky.social/post/3lqdjaz3f2c2q

by https://bsky.app/profile/angeban.bsky.social (Sophie might have some comments!)

by https://bsky.app/profile/moocaron.bsky.social

by https://bsky.app/profile/yamyamyammy.bsky.social/post/3lqdmhia2qs2c

by https://bsky.app/profile/bigmeandragonlady.bsky.social/post/3lqdnd4kvas2j

by https://bsky.app/profile/yer0.bsky.social/post/3lqdrt2d7422d

by https://vgen.co/Hollow_OG

by https://bsky.app/profile/echochips.bsky.social

by https://bsky.app/profile/studiostardust.bsky.social

by https://bsky.app/profile/theangorabunnie.bsky.social

by https://bsky.app/profile/asphodelis.bsky.social

by https://bsky.app/profile/eggulette.bsky.social/post/3lqf2b374nk26 Finally Florentina gets some love!

by https://bsky.app/profile/vekuria15.bsky.social/post/3lqfdioqun22v

by https://bsky.app/profile/rpg217.bsky.social

by https://bsky.app/profile/waywardrosalind.standingintheodds.com

by https://www.instagram.com/miyoi_o?igsh=MWpyZnpic3gzc3k5cA== (Summer Werecat!)

by https://bsky.app/profile/chqileaf.art/post/3lqfnikno5s2t

by https://bsky.app/profile/redcaise.bsky.social

by https://bsky.app/profile/echochips.bsky.social

by https://vgen.co/mocca_chi

by https://vgen.co/kaede_kazu_ha_

by https://kittensquitten.carrd.co/

by https://bsky.app/profile/dreamysuite.bsky.social

by https://bsky.app/profile/shuinama.bsky.social/post/3lp6iqivwxs2k

by https://bsky.app/profile/fafayu.bsky.social/post/3lqi4bm3a3s2k (EAR TOUCHING!!!!!)

by https://bsky.app/profile/mongnyanya.bsky.social

by https://bsky.app/profile/morux2.bsky.social/post/3lqiale5yxc2s

by https://bsky.app/profile/20halos.bsky.social

by https://bsky.app/profile/portabellashroom.bsky.social

by https://bsky.app/profile/h0neyfr0g.bsky.social/post/3lqivyofsc22r

by https://bsky.app/profile/prismadreams.bsky.social/post/3lqiyfnpoys2m

by https://vgen.co/JunMonMon/

by https://www.instagram.com/2dittwoart/

by https://bsky.app/profile/usjkgugu.bsky.social

by https://vgen.co/000sandboxorz

by https://vgen.co/ShafaskaDreamer

by https://bsky.app/profile/nytilsennia.com

by https://bsky.app/profile/hanpaopaoo.bsky.social

by https://terusan.carrd.co/

by https://bsky.app/profile/zephylyne.bsky.social

by https://bsky.app/profile/aesonia.bsky.social

by https://bsky.app/profile/echochips.bsky.social/post/3lqliwdjtyc23

by https://thegraphbentt.carrd.co/

by https://bsky.app/profile/saltwatercocoa.bsky.social/post/3lqlufro7zc2j

By Coco

The Links will FIND YOU

Where to find us:

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!

If you want extra pictures of cats, you can follow us on Bluesky.

And there’s always Our Discord. You can shout at Salty *in person*.

You can ask us anonymous question on Whisp.sh. If you’ve ever wanted to get smarmy answers to questions, or just know more lore, that’s the place!

We also have a Wiki! We’d appreciate it greatly if people keep it maintained for us. :3

Bottled Starlight Games:

Runes of Pandemonium, the big adventure TF RPG, always free on Steam and Itch.io.

Witch Hunter Izana, a battle-TF RPG. Available on Steam or Itch.io.

Witches of Ravenbrook, a battle-TF dungeon-crawler. The prototype is out now and free on Itch.io.

String Tyrant, a survival horror game, is on Steam and Itch.io.

Other Bottled Starlight Stuff

Salty writes a book series, with audiobooks and illustrations, called Tales of Strings.
Instruments is out now on Itch.io.
Passed Hand is now on Itch.io!
Spiderweb Theory is now on Itch.io!
Urban Explorers is now on Itch.io!

Mario is currently working on bringing the Pandemonium story series to Itch.

We have some ridiculous merch on Redbubble and Teepublic if you want to be the center of conversation (derogatory / celebratory).

A Bit Of Coding

Map glue work is complete, which means I am now going through all the maps and adding NPCs and examinables. In fact, I wrote a bit more about this further down the post! It’s not exciting but it’s fun!

There’s a lot, lot, LOT of NPCs in the Old Capitol Grounds are, it’s very inhabited and has a lot to see and do. It might take me a big chunk of June just to get all of this work done. I haven’t even started on the interiors yet!

Urimas is working on some NPCs as well as some sprites for an experiment I’d like to do at some point. I’ll show those off when they are done.

On Maps and NPCs

So here we have a section of the Old Capitol Grounds, this is what a map starts to look like as NPCs and examinables are populated. The red boxes are things you can examine, the blue boxes are path nodes, and the NPCs are the NPCs.

NPCs have a sprite sheet that is sized differently from the tile sheet, it’s 16×32 instead of 16×16, and they are placed on the object layer. NPCs also have to have special properties set.

Most of the properties are fairly self-explanatory. The Dialogue property is the file that gets called when you talk to an NPC. The type is “Position”, the engine uses this to figure out where an NPC is going to be spawned in the map’s constructor and all the other properties are optional.

I’ve found a system that mostly works for me, there is always a tradeoff between simplicity of the code and flexibility to make more advanced scenes and NPCs. The sheep and chicken NPCs are spawned and set to wander around, no biggie there. The farmer NPCs are spawned, but also create a parallel script. Whenever you walk across a trigger or examine something, a script is called, but this script stops gameplay. Parallel scripts run but don’t stop gameplay, allowing NPCs to walk around as though they are controlled by a cutscene. These constructors just specify which farmer uses which script.

I try to automate these things as much as possible. The script specifies which NPC, a walk speed, and then the nodes the NPC uses. For convenience I name the nodes A0, A1, A2 etc. so that FarmerA uses the A nodes, I do this for enemies as well. The rest is automated by a function, so when you see these in game, the farmers will be walking at random between the nodes. Done!

The key here is making things as easy as possible since I’m going to have to do this a lot. A *lot*, as mentioned above, there’s a lot of NPCs in this area. Having NPCs pathing around really makes even a mundane area come alive and be interesting to explore.

Writing examinables is very easy, just get really stupid with it.

That’s all for now! Maybe in a month I’ll be working on enemies (or maybe not) and I’ll do another one.

It’s Time For ANSWERS

(Edit from Marionette: Don’t take this as gospel just yet. Salty and I will be having discussions on this travesty of “mermaids get legs.”)

Cavalcade of Fan Art!

By https://bsky.app/profile/insanexfrogy.bsky.social/post/3lnlfpjabpc22. Finally we get some more big dragons!

By https://bsky.app/profile/prismadreams.bsky.social/post/3lpkfnsdoyi2b. Why is she sad? Zap it!

By https://bsky.app/profile/morux2.bsky.social. This doesn’t count as shipping they are canonically dating!

by https://bsky.app/profile/mongnyanya.bsky.social/post/3lpkhvtzyrc2d. Aiiieeee!

by https://bsky.app/profile/usjkgugu.bsky.social

by https://bsky.app/profile/mangan3rd.bsky.social

by https://bsky.app/profile/0404a.bsky.social (NEW YAP YAP)

by https://bsky.app/profile/droachillustra.bsky.social (THE BOY HUNGERS FOR GRASS)

by https://bsky.app/profile/b0rium.bsky.social

by https://www.instagram.com/alliruu/ somehow making a black and white character colorful!

by https://bsky.app/profile/emkanmara.bsky.social/post/3lpmqlskt622e

by https://www.instagram.com/archiie_l/ FINALLY SOME STYLE THAT WORKS FOR A CAT

by https://bsky.app/profile/frogbiansvevo.bsky.social Yes, big dragons!

by https://bsky.app/profile/yamyamyammy.bsky.social Oh what is the temple going to think, this isn’t regulation miko wear!

by https://bsky.app/profile/usjkgugu.bsky.social/post/3lpnkkn63tc2s

Also by https://bsky.app/profile/usjkgugu.bsky.social/post/3lpnkkn63tc2s

by https://bsky.app/profile/kirilewd.bsky.social. There’s a NSFW version of this but Dot isn’t wearing a bikini in that one and let me tell you that pup is CAKED so I can’t show it here.

by https://bsky.app/profile/kary-sg.bsky.social Am I going to have to make an underwater String Tyrant now?

by https://bsky.app/profile/sitlalikwe.bsky.social

By Coco

by https://bsky.app/profile/droachillustra.bsky.social (actually caused some FEELS damn it)

by https://bsky.app/profile/eggulette.bsky.social/post/3lpqpyd4scs2d See? She does smile!

by https://bsky.app/profile/eggulette.bsky.social/post/3lpqpql5nj22d Birbs forever!

by https://bsky.app/profile/jblueorchid.bsky.social/post/3lpr6zpk5ec2m Am I gonna have to make an underwater chapter 1 now!?

by https://bsky.app/profile/elisalami.bsky.social AM I GONNA HAVE TO MAKE oh right chapter 5 does have an underwater bit.

by https://bsky.app/profile/mongnyanya.bsky.social AM I GONNA HAVE TO MAKE A BEE TF IN CHAPTER 1 because I did

by https://bsky.app/profile/vekuria15.bsky.social Maram would have no problem fitting in to Victorian sensibilities and setting the bar while she does it.

by https://instagram.com/jun.art69 AWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

by https://bsky.app/profile/fairyqrtz.bsky.social/post/3lprqqlw3kc2g Cats take what they like, you can’t stop them

by https://bsky.app/profile/giirroo.bsky.social okay this is my new bsky profile :3 Jessie is so cool

by https://bsky.app/profile/aleklah.bsky.social/post/3lpsfycp4dc2e

by https://bsky.app/profile/mrlittlestar.bsky.social This is what tea does to a mf (congratulatory)

by https://bsky.app/profile/alwenart.bsky.social

by https://bsky.app/profile/morux2.bsky.social/post/3lpsnwriovc2d

by https://bsky.app/profile/saltwatercocoa.bsky.social/post/3lpssp4el2k24

by https://bsky.app/profile/usjkgugu.bsky.social/post/3lpsz6him722t

by https://bsky.app/profile/nikatheworm.bsky.social You know I think Sanya could really kill it as a maid if she applied herself.

by https://bsky.app/profile/jerlyy.bsky.social

by https://bsky.app/profile/eggulette.bsky.social/post/3lpucyiukgk2m

by https://vgen.co/miyoi_o

by https://bsky.app/profile/mongnyanya.bsky.social/post/3lpu4crrizs25

by https://bsky.app/profile/soramaruell.bsky.social

by Coco

by https://bsky.app/profile/jblueorchid.bsky.social/post/3lpw6oqijwk2j (More Jessie!)

by https://bsky.app/profile/usjkgugu.bsky.social Once again what tea does to a mfer

by https://bsky.app/profile/drcux.bsky.social Don’t worry Chris and Beth, your time is coming

by https://bsky.app/profile/fafayu.bsky.social Sanya has no idea how to kiss a girl!

by https://bsky.app/profile/eggulette.bsky.social/post/3lpwtro77nc2c she DOES know how to devour a pomegranate

by https://bsky.app/profile/alwenart.bsky.social

by https://bsky.app/profile/thebagelchan.bsky.social

by https://bsky.app/profile/meushikeii.bsky.social Now THAT is a good composition

by https://laaras.carrd.co/

by https://bsky.app/profile/morux2.bsky.social/post/3lpxraaem6s2q Sanya would star in fruit commercials hell yeah

by https://bsky.app/profile/maytedraws.bsky.social

by https://bsky.app/profile/lukasfantasticarts.bsky.social Goth Vivify fits so well why didn’t I think of that

by https://bsky.app/profile/droachillustra.bsky.social Actual quote from Chickenwhite: “Huge cock on screen Hhhh that’s so fucking cute and is making me feel feelings omg <3333”

by https://bsky.app/profile/b0rium.bsky.social

by https://www.pixiv.net/en/users/2751567

by https://bsky.app/profile/cinnibee.bsky.social/post/3lpyvpwev5s2r

by https://bsky.app/profile/drcux.bsky.social I’m not even following the symbolism here but I love it

by https://bsky.app/profile/usjkgugu.bsky.social

by https://vgen.co/nymr000

by https://bsky.app/profile/sitlalikwe.bsky.social

by https://bsky.app/profile/eggulette.bsky.social/post/3lq2oy3pjok2b Chicks DIG striped socks

by https://bsky.app/profile/nicanjil.bsky.social I swear do not make me write a happy sequel this game was supposed to be depressing

by https://vgen.co/archiie Fashion IS possible when you photosynthesize. Take note, Kojima.

by https://bsky.app/profile/jblueorchid.bsky.social/post/3lq3fmf5ou22q

by https://bsky.app/profile/studiostardust.bsky.social

by https://bsky.app/profile/yunexa.bsky.social legitimately don’t even know what’s going on in this alternate universe but Sanya is going to be cute and save the world

by https://bsky.app/profile/faefaeye.bsky.social and here is a true work of art!

three above by https://www.deviantart.com/db-palette aieeeeeeeeee I’m losing my mind

by https://bsky.app/profile/shieol.bsky.social/post/3lpwxm5lzhk2w (click through for hypnotic alts!)

Oh my god this post is more art than post please send help.

The Links No Please No

Where to find us:

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!

If you want extra pictures of cats, you can follow us on Bluesky.

And there’s always Our Discord. You can shout at Salty *in person*.

You can ask us anonymous question on Whisp.sh. If you’ve ever wanted to get smarmy answers to questions, or just know more lore, that’s the place!

We also have a Wiki! We’d appreciate it greatly if people keep it maintained for us. :3

Bottled Starlight Games:

Runes of Pandemonium, the big adventure TF RPG, always free on Steam and Itch.io.

Witch Hunter Izana, a battle-TF RPG. Available on Steam or Itch.io.

Witches of Ravenbrook, a battle-TF dungeon-crawler. The prototype is out now and free on Itch.io.

String Tyrant, a survival horror game, is on Steam and Itch.io.

Other Bottled Starlight Stuff

Salty writes a book series, with audiobooks and illustrations, called Tales of Strings.
Instruments is out now on Itch.io.
Passed Hand is now on Itch.io!
Spiderweb Theory is now on Itch.io!
Urban Explorers is now on Itch.io!

Mario is currently working on bringing the Pandemonium story series to Itch.

We have some ridiculous merch on Redbubble and Teepublic if you want to be the center of conversation (derogatory / celebratory).

Maps and Hoo-Ha

I can announce I have completed the 80+ maps for the external areas of the Old Capitol Grounds! Huzzah! That means my next task is – to do the interiors! There are several major internal areas that are basically small dungeons: The Grand Imperial Hotel and the three Estates, as well as the large internal areas in Poterup, and Trafal is dotted with caves which are vital for navigation.

It has been exhausting but the end is in sight. I’m not going to set a timetable just yet on these. In other news, Hund is closing in on her project and the team is now going to be doing some charity art for a little bit since we helped with a charity event over the weekend.

QUESTION ME

Fan Art! Fan Art!

This stuff warms my heart. Really makes me want to get out of bed in the morning afternoon.

By Rawn. It’s the little touches in a design that always do it for me. I love the tiny little rilmani claws, it’s always nice when someone sees those and includes them.

By GetMoneyGhoul. I’m starting to think Maram would be a good Jojo protagonist, but she might be too powerful for most stand battles.

By Bella. Mei! Be careful, blood attracts sharks!

By qui. Let’s face it, we love Izuna for her brain and sense of justice, but being extremely cute isn’t hurting.

By Nomminus. See it’s funny, robot Christine just walks along the bottom of the ocean but mermaid Christine just fits so well, she’s perfect at being a mermaid.

By Kiri. Polaris you just need to accept that people find you cute!

By Shafaska. AGGHHH IT MOVED IT’S A G-G-G-G-GIF!

By qui. Okay this is the correct way to depict paws.

By Gensou. Not beating those Joestar allegations, Maram.

By Midnight Saint. NOT BEATING THOSE JOESTAR ALLEGATIONS, MARAM.

By Bee. No wait is this how you draw paws!?

By Farid. I had never known I wanted Suit Maram, now I only want Suit Maram.

By Mocca Chi. Just two alive maids goofing off after work!

By Matsu. I showed this to Chic and she was legitimately surprised by it. She expected the heroes would get some fan art but never Mr. Tiro. She said, “I remember distinctly drawing the hat, otherwise I forgot this character.” Well I didn’t forget.

By Arkmist. And may lightning strike me down if Christine isn’t a cute raiju.

By Stardust Studio (good name!). We had a vote, middle-left and bottom-right tied for first. My vote is obviously SKULL HANDBAG.

By Ally. Holdup I think Sonic would be better if Sonic exploded into pieces when he got hit instead of rings. Anyone? Just me?

By Yu’er. Just a head’s up to people who want to make demons tempting: Make them really pretty but also kind and thoughtful and also not evil. Really works!

By Morux. I love the attention to Maram’s hair here, especially the little curls.

By dani. Hey dani, maybe stop KNOCKING IT OUT OF THE PARK you’re making the other artists look bad.

Hey Sora Maruell maybe stop KNOCKING IT OUT OF THE PARK. You’re giving all the other artists something to strive for!

By Keii. If I wasn’t already a furry this would have done it. Look at her little hands!

By Eleanor. This style is incredible and so cute, go give Eleanor a follow and then all your money and maybe property. Sell your car.

By Troll_z0r. Yes mirrors DO work underwater, but what really works is Maram’s sense of style. That’s universal.

By Shade. Fuck spoilers, Project Vivify deserves the limelight.

By a. Set off a YAP YAP cascade why don’t you.

By Saya. Once again, the attention to detail of the background chains with a transparent body. I don’t deserve these artists!

A Heaping Helping of Mashed Potatoes and Links

Where to find us:

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!

If you want extra pictures of cats, you can follow us on Bluesky.

And there’s always Our Discord. You can shout at Salty *in person*.

You can ask us anonymous question on Whisp.sh. If you’ve ever wanted to get smarmy answers to questions, or just know more lore, that’s the place!

We also have a Wiki! We’d appreciate it greatly if people keep it maintained for us. :3

Bottled Starlight Games:

Runes of Pandemonium, the big adventure TF RPG, always free on Steam and Itch.io.

Witch Hunter Izana, a battle-TF RPG. Available on Steam or Itch.io.

Witches of Ravenbrook, a battle-TF dungeon-crawler. The prototype is out now and free on Itch.io.

String Tyrant, a survival horror game, is on Steam and Itch.io.

Other Bottled Starlight Stuff

Salty writes a book series, with audiobooks and illustrations, called Tales of Strings.
Instruments is out now on Itch.io.
Passed Hand is now on Itch.io!
Spiderweb Theory is now on Itch.io!
Urban Explorers is now on Itch.io!

Mario is currently working on bringing the Pandemonium story series to Itch.

We have some ridiculous merch on Redbubble and Teepublic if you want to be the center of conversation (derogatory / celebratory).

MAPS! MAPS! MAPS!

There are only 8 exterior maps left to go for the Capitol Valley area! There’s maybe another 7 exteriors after that for other areas, and then it’s time for interiors. I’m hoping to have mapping done by the end of the month. Unfortunately the artists are in a bit of a rough spot for political reasons, but I’m hoping Stinkehund will be able to make the chapter 2 area map before the first release. Might need to have some placeholders for other character art.

There may be a WHI patch just for the JP translation soon, to fix a few bugs and get things ready. There will also (probably) be a budget report in June.

You Ask Too Many Questions, I Give The Right Number Of Answers

The Time Has Come for Fanart

By 20Halos. Love that goddamn watercolor holy moly.

By char. Love the way the cheeks are done in this one, it’s simple and effective.

By droach. You can tell a lot about someone by how calm and organized they are when missing limbs and an eye. If she makes a point of yelling at an Englishman, that’s called a “keeper”. Love the background work on this one.

By Blue_Orchid. MER-MAY. MER-MAY.

By SoraMaruell. MER-AM. MER-AM. Okay that joke was funnier in my head.

By Dani. Look there’s no rule that says dolls can’t play basketball *Doll does a windmill dunk from half court*

By Kori. Fuck I need to write a String Tyrant sequel don’t I arrrrgghhh.

By Myr. MYR-MAY Hell yeah.

By Yu’er. So maybe this is why someone was asking about angels and demons getting along?

By Liliwi. I can’t handle these cute Marams! Aiiee!

By Huwana. It’s like I’m looking in the mirror!

By JunkWorx. LYDIE WORLD TOUR. Absolutely rolls the riddle of the sphinx because she walks on ZERO legs!

By Ezri. NYAAAAAAA put a sock in it.

By Farid. Love the ripped dress because SHE’S BEEN DEAD FOR CENTURIES.

By Ninian. I think this ghost looks great in portraits.

By Jashakers! Something about those shoes has me obsessed, I don’t know if I love them or hate them but I am obsessed with them.

By EchoChips. MERZUNA! MERZUNA! The Fox Goddess ain’t giving you more tails girl sorry. This is the top of the mountain.

By Blue Orchid. There’s no Fairy TF in String Tyrant but I think maybe there should have been.

The Link Pile

Where to find us:

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!

If you want extra pictures of cats, you can follow us on Bluesky.

And there’s always Our Discord. You can shout at Salty *in person*.

You can ask us anonymous question on Whisp.sh. If you’ve ever wanted to get smarmy answers to questions, or just know more lore, that’s the place!

We also have a Wiki! We’d appreciate it greatly if people keep it maintained for us. :3

Bottled Starlight Games:

Runes of Pandemonium, the big adventure TF RPG, always free on Steam and Itch.io.

Witch Hunter Izana, a battle-TF RPG. Available on Steam or Itch.io.

Witches of Ravenbrook, a battle-TF dungeon-crawler. The prototype is out now and free on Itch.io.

String Tyrant, a survival horror game, is on Steam and Itch.io.

Other Bottled Starlight Stuff

Salty writes a book series, with audiobooks and illustrations, called Tales of Strings.
Instruments is out now on Itch.io.
Passed Hand is now on Itch.io!
Spiderweb Theory is now on Itch.io!
Urban Explorers is now on Itch.io!

Mario is currently working on bringing the Pandemonium story series to Itch.

We have some ridiculous merch on Redbubble and Teepublic if you want to be the center of conversation (derogatory / celebratory).

Coding and Stuff

This one is a crash fix, fixing three different crashes. One of these was a longstanding problem in the chapter 5 finale sequence that I couldn’t reproduce until now. Hooray. Thanks for everyone who reported it.

Go get it (Mediafire / Mega.nz)

Otherwise, I have been working my way across Trafal making maps, some of which I’m really proud of. Poterup is done and next is the Jenveld estate, a hive of irritating bandits. Can Sanya beat their asses? Yes. Harpies might give you a quest to take out the bandit leader or something fun like that.

Unfortunately, Koops and Chicken haven’t been getting a lot done and this time it’s not even my fault, it’s actually The State’s fault! I’m not at liberty to go into details, hopefully I can get the next release out using as few placeholders as possible.

Fan Art!

By ltv. What is extremely funny about the Mary-Thinking thing is I needed an icon for it and asked Urimas to whip one up and neither of us thought much of it.

IF you loved Yap Yap, you’ll get a kick out of Arf Arf! By latteswiirl!

By Coco. Finally our beleaguered Penny gets some sleep.

By Raum. It is endlessly funny seeing the Rilmani trying out these “expressions” Mei taught them. Here we see Maram trying to express artistic appreciation.

Both by Nat! C’mon Izuna public displays of affection are so nerdy.

By NextStopPlease. Christine is the only valid reason I will accept for visiting England, and as a reminder, she left.

By Saya. She looks cute but wait till she pukes on the carpet.

By Skyspear! Werewolf just suits her so well and it’s like the first TF in the game. It’s just so great on Izana.

Some more pieces by Coco, providing the range from cool to berserk.

By Rinne. Honestly switching to white and going for suits – also works. Is this high fashion? Am I a designer now?

Rude and Impersonal Questionings

The Pile Of Links

Where to find us:

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!

If you want extra pictures of cats, you can follow us on Bluesky.

And there’s always Our Discord. You can shout at Salty *in person*.

You can ask us anonymous question on Whisp.sh. If you’ve ever wanted to get smarmy answers to questions, or just know more lore, that’s the place!

We also have a Wiki! We’d appreciate it greatly if people keep it maintained for us. :3

Bottled Starlight Games:

Runes of Pandemonium, the big adventure TF RPG, always free on Steam and Itch.io.

Witch Hunter Izana, a battle-TF RPG. Available on Steam or Itch.io.

Witches of Ravenbrook, a battle-TF dungeon-crawler. The prototype is out now and free on Itch.io.

String Tyrant, a survival horror game, is on Steam and Itch.io.

Other Bottled Starlight Stuff

Salty writes a book series, with audiobooks and illustrations, called Tales of Strings.
Instruments is out now on Itch.io.
Passed Hand is now on Itch.io!
Spiderweb Theory is now on Itch.io!
Urban Explorers is now on Itch.io!

Mario is currently working on bringing the Pandemonium story series to Itch.

We have some ridiculous merch on Redbubble and Teepublic if you want to be the center of conversation (derogatory / celebratory).

38

Yep.

Coding and Stuff

I’ve been spending a few days fixing up WHI for the JP translation. Fixed some bugs and added variables that the translation can use to move things on the UI around so things can be aligned better.

I’m also done (about) 50% of the (exteriors) for the Chapter 2 update! There’s like 80 exterior maps and I’m done just over 40 of them. It’s a big update. I hope to take another bite out of it this week, the mapping might take until the end of May.

Questionable

Fan Art Pileup!

By Latteswiirl. This one caused kind of a ruckus.

Because then Alice made these and people just started posting them non-stop in the Discord server, half the server was Yap Yap and the other half was Movie.

Movie

Lydie as a floating spooky ghost maid by Justjall! Cute as heck and animated, which is what Lydie is not!

By Kori. I’m running out of pithy things to say these too are just cute together.

By Rinne!

By Artemichu. If there’s a String Tyrant anime then the audience is in for a big surprise.

By Elisami. FINALLY the most important Bottled Starlight character, Koops’ cat Niko, gets some fan art. Look at this handsome fellow.

YOU THOUGHT I WAS DONE? By Xandra.

Also by Elisalami. The rarely-seen Tennis Christine!

By Shinezenii. Actually this seems like it’s lewd? Like this is a rilmani private moment we shouldn’t be seeing? Am I a voyeur?

Now there we go, just a cute girl smiling broadly. By Dayne-duh.

I think Lydie now has more costumes than Princess Peach did. By Xandra.

“Can you draw the WoR cast as anthropomorphic animals?” “Sure but what does Chris become” “Snek” -Actual conversation
(Chris hates snakes)
(By Xandra)

Apparently the bricks took forever and a half to do but the piece turned out great! By Toffee.

Three pieces where we ask ourselves “What if there was a cowgirl quest in chapter 3?” and Dias answered with the cutest darn cowgirl Jeanne ever. I have to assume Night is going to wrangle them. Yeehaw.

The Link Pile

Where to find us:

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!

If you want extra pictures of cats, you can follow us on Bluesky.

And there’s always Our Discord. You can shout at Salty *in person*.

You can ask us anonymous question on Whisp.sh. If you’ve ever wanted to get smarmy answers to questions, or just know more lore, that’s the place!

We also have a Wiki! We’d appreciate it greatly if people keep it maintained for us. :3

Bottled Starlight Games:

Runes of Pandemonium, the big adventure TF RPG, always free on Steam and Itch.io.

Witch Hunter Izana, a battle-TF RPG. Available on Steam or Itch.io.

Witches of Ravenbrook, a battle-TF dungeon-crawler. The prototype is out now and free on Itch.io.

String Tyrant, a survival horror game, is on Steam and Itch.io.

Other Bottled Starlight Stuff

Salty writes a book series, with audiobooks and illustrations, called Tales of Strings.
Instruments is out now on Itch.io.
Passed Hand is now on Itch.io!
Spiderweb Theory is now on Itch.io!
Urban Explorers is now on Itch.io!

Mario is currently working on bringing the Pandemonium story series to Itch.

We have some ridiculous merch on Redbubble and Teepublic if you want to be the center of conversation (derogatory / celebratory).

Development, RoP v4.42

Version 4.42 is now out on all platforms. This is a bugfix update, fixing some missing images, a couple crashes, and some unused items being in chests and the like in Chapter 2. There may be another patch next week depending on if there’s more bugs found, otherwise it’s full speed ahead on the next major update.

Version 4.42 (Mega.nz / Mediafire)

Fan Art

We got some good bits for you!

By Realmjork! It’s a shame Mei has to leave because I think she’d like dating Nadia.

By Kkst! This full-color image shows Maram being as cute and friendly as biology will allow. Look at that big smile!

By Elly! I think that the power of love and combos might carry them through this. Would people play that? A TF game where if you lose at puyo-pop you turn into a doll?
No, right?
(Jessie just beats the shit out of you with the puyo pops and doesn’t play the game)

I love the prospect of Sanya, an alien from a different planet, arguing about directions with Izuna. Every single one of us knows someone who would do that and if you don’t, it’s you. By Shafaska.

By Eliuniverse. Here we see Maram, Mei’s training partner, practicing her “expressions” with Mei’s help. I’d say it’s going fairly well.

And the best for last, Mary as a Pegasus Knight by chey. I didn’t know Mario was into the Fire Emblem series but he made the :pwease: emote at me when I said we should make one. This won’t go well.
Mario I’m gonna turn people into like, doll knights and doll archers.

On The Subject of Mapping

I asked the Discord chat last week if they wanted to see a bit more about my mapping process. Some people like these little technical or design digressions, and I like writing about them. It’s fun! Maybe you’ll learn something (you will not) but you’ll also get a little preview about the upcoming Chapter 2 update.

So first, some setup. I try to make the maps fit together as much as possible, so as to preserve some amount of continuity when exploring. It’s important to note that the final maps often do not fit together, because of small changes that need to be made for gameplay reasons. This is particularly true of a lot of the stuff in chapter 5 where there is major overlap in the interior areas. Nothing you can do about that, gameplay is more important than playing map tetris.

Maps are named by region, then with a letter indicating which is which. I have an image that tracks their spatial layouts, more or less. While rooms can technically be linked non-orthogonally, this is a 2D game and it’s much easier to have transition points at map edges.

On this image, rooms that are complete have a green box, and the name of the map written above it. In this case, we’re going to be making CapitolNWB (Old Capitol Grounds, Northwest, Room B) which connects to CapitolNWA and LitoreaD.

This is CapitolNWA. I try to make each major region have a unique visual identity, and the Old Capitol Grounds has two: the four types of trees, and later on, the Dragon Villa buildings. There’s no Dragon Villa buildings in this area, they become denser towards the southern parts of Old Capitol Grounds.

I have a 1:1 connectivity image that shows the maps. You can see LitoreaE and LitoreaD here. Litorea’s southern region looks a bit like Northwoods, but the northern part of Mount Litorea is the Red Jungles area. You can see how there are connection points, when they’re close I mark them with a red line, otherwise I put a little buffer on the edge, about 16 pixels. This can be adjusted if the room is resized.

In order to make the edges contiguous, in Tiled I can copy blocks of tiles across to the new map, so here I’ve copied the right edge and south edges of the other maps. This means the river is the same distance from the path. I then move things around until the paths line up…

Here I’ve put a red rectangle around the room when overlaid, so the rooms should now be contiguous. In the final version of the room, typically the edge 2 or 3 tiles get cut off, they’re just there to make it easier to see.

Next we need to decide the map’s overall layout. This map is a section that shows how the river that runs through the Capitol Valley bisects the region, this is the northwestern most part of it. I want the player to be able to check out the river, maybe meet a fisherman, and have a few spots to put some treasure.

This is what the map looks like at first. Tiled has an automap function, so that’s what the oddly colored green tiles are. The path of the river is marked, and I have “edged” the map to define the walkable spaces.

Running across big open empty fields isn’t very interesting, and also means enemies are extremely easy to avoid. You need to decide exactly where you want the “difficulty” of an area to be. Narrow corridors mean enemies have a distinct advantage as it’s harder to get around them, which is why I designed a lot of Westwoods to have narrow paths with enemy groups. Northwoods is more open. The Old Capitol Grounds are meant to have spots you can go to get around enemies, using alternate paths, so here I have blocks out some sight-blocking trees and also marked where I want the player to go to get across the river. The fisherman NPC is going to be there, away from the enemies, but you have to go around to get there, which makes exploring this area interesting.

Next, I block out the ground textures. The Old Capitol Grounds has brown soil under the forested sections, while Mount Litorea does not. This suggests something about the type of trees and soil fertility. In real life (at least where I live, the frozen north) heavily wooded sections tends to have more exposed soil and pioneer species while the scrubby forests and open areas are covered in grass. Okay now for some visual stuff.

Tiled has an Automap function, which converts those squares on the RawTrees layer into actual trees on the Walls0/WallsHi0/WallsHi1 layers. It’s random which tree is selected, this is a thing the automap is capable of doing and I am using here. If I wanted, I could manually place trees but that’d take all day.

You will also note the paths that cut up the grass. These indicate to the player something important (exit points) and also catch their attention to lead them to interesting places. I’m going to add some to lead the player to the right side of the map as well. Next it’s time for detailing and to trim the edges off.

The ground’s first detailing pass, I turned the trees off to make it easier to see. This is the “fat” version of grass edges, which looks more organic. We’ll see the “thin” version around the water’s edge and the paths.

Thin edging involves putting an overlay so the grass looks like it’s growing close to the path on the south side, and a soil overlay on the grass on the north side so you can see bare soil where it touches the path.

Next to the water, the thin edging. I also put a 1-2 pixel overlay tile on the west/east faces of river tiles to show the grass growing close to the edge. These are very subtle effects but they make the game look a lot better in the end.

I add some assorted plants to give the grass a bit of background visual variety. I’ve also added the fisherman, which is not a tile but is actually an Object which gets spawned by the game engine. Next we think about what it’d mean to be a fisherman here. You’re spending a lot of time here, so there’s some barrels to put stuff in, and they’ve built a little shack for when it rains. There’s a table for visitors and some bags and chests for bait and whatnot. The final NPC might not be a kitsune, but I’ve decided to use one as the placeholder. Maybe they’re a human, maybe they’re a kistune Landsward, maybe they’re a raptor warrior looking to settle down.

I’m not going to be placing enemies in yet, that actually comes very late into the design process, typically much closer to the update’s release. I usually make sure all the scripts for the NPCs, quests, map glue, and so on are in place so I can test the quests without having to dodge around enemies all the time. I’m also not going to go over collisions here, maybe in a future post.

Now we add this to our overall image to make sure everything fits together and looks cohesive. There’s a fisherman near the farmhouse, the rivers and paths line up, it’s possible for the player to quickly move across the map when trying to travel, and there are corners to put goodies, huntable enemies, and monster patrols.

While I’m making this, I am thinking about what the player might want to examine. The barrels (full of fish), talk to the NPC, and on the nearby farm, someone maybe left a note that says “Gone fishing, back later”. This creates a little narrative in the player’s head, and makes the world feel contiguous and alive. The farmer sometimes goes fishing, takes the fish back and either eats them, or takes the Imperial Highway down to Poterup village to the south to sell them. The Imperial Highway is a paved brick road found in parts of the maps that connects all the important areas.

If I’m feeling really spicy, I could even randomly roll if the fisherman is fishing or at the farm, and reroll it whenever the player rests.

A bit on interiors. Interiors tend to have more straight lines in them because people like building stuff in straight lines. The villa tiles in the Old Capitol Grounds make a lot of use of courtyards, gardens, and small rooms attached to larger promenades. As these are ruins, they’re beaten up, falling apart, and have some people living in them in some places or are overgrown.

This is basically what I do when creating initial map layouts for the chapter. I wasn’t as severe in my planning for Chapter 1’s layout but I did go back and edit a lot of things to improve them, whereas I feel like most of Northwoods and Westwoods are really good on their first passes.

When I’m going hard on maps, I try to get three done a day. These take a couple hours each to handle detailing and whatnot, but even if you do think it’s not a lot of labour, it’s all creative work and your brain starts to run out of gas after three maps. After that point it’s time to go do something else.

People Asking Things About Nouns

A cavalcade of links

Where to find us:

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!

If you want extra pictures of cats, you can follow us on Bluesky.

And there’s always Our Discord. You can shout at Salty *in person*.

You can ask us anonymous question on Whisp.sh. If you’ve ever wanted to get smarmy answers to questions, or just know more lore, that’s the place!

We also have a Wiki! We’d appreciate it greatly if people keep it maintained for us. :3

Bottled Starlight Games:

Runes of Pandemonium, the big adventure TF RPG, always free on Steam and Itch.io.

Witch Hunter Izana, a battle-TF RPG. Available on Steam or Itch.io.

Witches of Ravenbrook, a battle-TF dungeon-crawler. The prototype is out now and free on Itch.io.

String Tyrant, a survival horror game, is on Steam and Itch.io.

Other Bottled Starlight Stuff

Salty writes a book series, with audiobooks and illustrations, called Tales of Strings.
Instruments is out now on Itch.io.
Passed Hand is now on Itch.io!
Spiderweb Theory is now on Itch.io!
Urban Explorers is now on Itch.io!

Mario is currently working on bringing the Pandemonium story series to Itch.

We have some ridiculous merch on Redbubble and Teepublic if you want to be the center of conversation (derogatory / celebratory).

Coding and Stuff Up Top

I’m currently working my way towards the next WHI update, which will be about fixing bugs in the JP translation. Fixed a crash, realigning stuff, that sort of thing. I’ve also made maybe half the maps needed for the next Chapter 2 update! Half! There’s a lot.

RoP v4.40 and v4.41 Public, Both of Them? Why? READ THIS IT’S IMPORTANT!

I am releasing both versions at the same time. v4.40 was the version released to patrons last month and it runs out of the box perfectly fine with old savefiles, no additions or changes necessary. It also doesn’t have some of the new bugfixes.

Link for v4.40 (Mega.nz / Mediafire)
Link for v4.41 (Mega.nz / Mediafire)

I am also releasing v4.41, which has the bugfixes and also completely overhauls the topics backend code. This is one of those “I should have done this years ago” changes that I finally decided to do. An explainer is later in the post, but here’s what you need to know:

If your savefiles are currently mid-chapter, you will need to use debug commands to fix topics if you need them for quests. On v4.41, ALL of the existing topic information will be lost when you load a savefile, so if you need a topic to turn in a quest (such as for Polaris in Chapter 1) then you will need to use a debug command to fix that.

If your savefiles are on the chapter select screen, or you end the chapter, then that will fix things for the next chapter. You will see error messages in the console when loading but they are harmless.

The debug password “Kitsune Gossip Column” will unlock all topics for all characters in your chapter. Use this on an old savefile to make sure you can still turn in quests. It will also unlock topics you may not know about, it’s a debug password. You can enter it at a campfire.

The password “Beat Up The Press” will return all topics to their chapter default state.

Tales of Strings: Urban Explorers!

The ongoing Tales of Strings series has its fourth entry out, with art by BlueLilyTZ again. It’s on Itch.io! This one is a slasher flick where the bad guy turns you into a doll instead of goring you with a harpoon. It’s scary! Maybe! I love writing these!

I am currently writing the 10th ToS entry, Urban Explorers is actually the 7th one but I release them when the illustrations are done :3

If you’ve been a patron for a total of 5$ over the past three months (February/March/April) then please shoot me a message on Patreon if you would like a free copy.

Fan Art!

By Saya! You know if you people were this enthusiastic about journalism maybe we wouldn’t be in the mess we’re in. Do I need to TF journalists into foxes? Is that what will save America?

By Veena Val! I know it’s a happy moment but this kinda makes me tear up a bit.

Whispering

Why did I do this? (Skip this part if you don’t care about technical stuff)

When I originally set out to design the game that wasn’t even called Runes of Pandemonium yet, some of the design ideas didn’t pan out. The level-up system had you spend XP to buy incremental stat improvements, for example. Topics, however, did stick around.

How topics used to work was that each NPC (Nadia, Blythe, Breanne, etc) had a C++ object that stored which topics it responds to and a “level”. This level was 0 or 1 by default, but could be any integer. The idea was that a topic’s “level” would increase if you did quests. So if you talk to Nadia about the cultists at level 1, she says they’re weirdos who live in the mansion. If you talk to her at level 2, then that’d be after the alraune/dungeon quest and she’d mention you did good killing the boss. That was the idea.

In practice it was used exactly once, because tracking things via the datalibrary’s variable storage is much easier to understand. Every other switch case uses those, so using topic levels sucked. In addition, it produced some very odd behavior.

Have you ever noticed how the topics list in WHI when talking to Thyme starts out making sense (the shopping topics are at the top of her list) but as the game goes on, the shopping topics start moving to the back? This is an artifact of how topics are registered and sorted. Topics are displayed in the order they are registered in the game state at startup. The problem is that topics that Thyme shares with other characters are registered before Thyme’s shopping topics, since Thyme starts with a T and topics are registered in NPC-name alphabetical order. This could be fixed with an internal sort priority, but this still means savefiles have a bunch of useless data in them since topic levels are stored and never used.

To fix it I just overhauled the topic system. NPCs now have a series of topic objects but don’t share them with each other. This means Nadia now has her own “Goodbye” topic object, different from Florentina’s “Goodbye” topic. To unlock the same topic for multiple characters, the program has some scripts that look for the name of the topic as sorted by “NPCName|TopicName” and just unlocks them by scanning all topics. No levels needed, and it also fixes the problem of a character having two instances (55 in the Biolabs is a different NPC than 55 before the Gala, for example). Well, it does in theory, in practice I’m leaving the code in place because if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

I really should have done this 5 years ago, but it was something you always can do later. Well now I did it! Maybe next I’ll overhaul combat’s internal event sorting and logging architecture. And then beat back the ocean tides with a sword.

The Pile It Is Of Links

Where to find us:

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!

If you want extra pictures of cats, you can follow us on Bluesky.

And there’s always Our Discord. You can shout at Salty *in person*.

You can ask us anonymous question on Whisp.sh. If you’ve ever wanted to get smarmy answers to questions, or just know more lore, that’s the place!

We also have a Wiki! We’d appreciate it greatly if people keep it maintained for us. :3

Bottled Starlight Games:

Runes of Pandemonium, the big adventure TF RPG, always free on Steam and Itch.io.

Witch Hunter Izana, a battle-TF RPG. Available on Steam or Itch.io.

Witches of Ravenbrook, a battle-TF dungeon-crawler. The prototype is out now and free on Itch.io.

String Tyrant, a survival horror game, is on Steam and Itch.io.

Other Bottled Starlight Stuff

Salty writes a book series, with audiobooks and illustrations, called Tales of Strings.
Instruments is out now on Itch.io.
Passed Hand is now on Itch.io!
Spiderweb Theory is now on Itch.io!
Urban Explorers is now on Itch.io!

Mario is currently working on bringing the Pandemonium story series to Itch.

We have some ridiculous merch on Redbubble and Teepublic if you want to be the center of conversation (derogatory / celebratory).