It’s The Holidays so regular posting resumes next week. Sorry I didn’t get the WHI update out but, y’know. Eggnog.
Please enjoy a festive Mango.
Mingball Crosstox!
Development Update: December 16th, 2024
Tales of Strings: Passed Hand
That’s right, it’s out! You can get it on Itch.io! Thanks to everyone for making it possible, I’ve got more stories in the tank too.
As before, if you’re a patron over 15$ over the course of October to December, you can get a free copy. I can send itch.io keys, please contact me via the patreon message thing or Discord if that’ll take too long. The holidays are coming up so sorry if I’m slow.
Other Development
I am working on Hard Mode, and I have done the mod update stuff (currently in testing). You will be getting an updated mod from db_palette, including a new monster form. I want to bundle this in with the Hard Mode update if I can so I hope I won’t keep you waiting too long. The first release will be a public beta, because Hard Mode is going to require a lot of testing to get it tuned right.
Once that’s done, the JP translation should hopefully be completed soon. It might also get bundled in with the next WHI release. I’m also going to be doing some (boring) backend work to reduce the game’s memory and hard drive footprints by unloading data not used in WHI (the game is technically a mod of RoP so there’s some junk that gets loaded but never used). I also have to finish the UI overhaul. Fun stuff ahead.
Whispers…
Fan Art
Great Kumquat is going to start a skitterer band. By Toffee.
They don’t know what the holiday is! It doesn’t even snow on the moon! You’re insane, Xandra! Insane!
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. You can get the audiobook on Amazon as well.
Passed Hand is now on Itch.io!
You can get the Pandemonium novel series by Bottled Starlight writer MarioneTTe on Amazon. Coming (at some point) to Itch.io once the exclusivity deals expire -_-
We have some ridiculous merch on Redbubble and Teepublic if you want to be the center of conversation (derogatory / celebratory).
Development Update: December 9th, 2024
Coding and Stuff
Argh
I have been working my butt off trying to get workshop support ready. The long and short of it is that it keeps crashing due to Steam related interface stuff, the other parts are ready to go. I think I’m going to have to ask the Valve devs for help on this one because it’s driving me nuts.
I will post a Witches of Ravenbrook update later today, just some leftover bugfixes. In addition, BadIron posted a guide to getting the game to run on Android using an emulator.
You can read it here. If you’re using a tablet this might help! I will add this to the Itch.io page during the update as well.
In addition, the AltDragons mod is done and ready for WHI, and hopefully I get the workshop going again so I can update the PaletteForms mod and you can all enjoy it on Steam. Seriously this API stuff is driving me up the wall.
Next week I will be looking into getting Hard Mode ready for release, any additional touches needed for the JP translation, and I’m working on a release optimizer so WHI and WoR will have smaller memory footprints. So much to do.
Tales of Strings 2?
It’s not quite ready yet but will almost certainly be done next week. The audiobook is completed, all images are done, it just needs to be formatted for ADX.
ToS 3 and 4 are also in the “get an artist to do their thing” stage.
Christmas Comes Early
Fan Art
Mary by BeffKawa! At this point I think people are wanting a String Tyrant sequel.
No seriously. Mary by LightKlok.
Some Darkmatter Fanart by PlainJane!
We have a skitterer problem but this could also count as skeleton fanart? By Coco.
These bits of 90’s anime art of the WoR protagonists done by Coco!
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. You can get the audiobook on Amazon as well.
You can get the Pandemonium novel series by Bottled Starlight writer MarioneTTe on Amazon. Coming (at some point) to Itch.io once the exclusivity deals expire -_-
We have some ridiculous merch on Redbubble and Teepublic if you want to be the center of conversation (derogatory / celebratory).
Witches of Ravenbrook Sponsorship Lottery, Dev Update, Fan Art, Mangostraveganza!
Sometimes there’s a lot of stuff going on in one week what can I say.
Witches of Ravenbrook Sponsorship Lottery
A very anonymous, very generous sponsor has decreed that there shall be a sponsorship lottery for the game! That’s right, you can make a lottery entry and maybe you’ll be the lucky one with a playable character or transformation!
It’s free to enter so why not roll the dice? You can find more information on the lottery here. You can find the sponsorship document here.
Other Ravenbrook News
We’re currently making lots of cool concepts for upcoming enemies, areas, and forms. I’ve been working on a new patch, there’s a couple bugfixes I want to do. However my main focus this week will be developing ways to reduce the game’s memory footprint by finding redundant bitmaps and removing them from the load chain. When that is ready I will release the next patch and incorporate that into WHI as well.
We’ll be posting concept art for WoR every month or so. Later this month maybe I’ll post some moon maidens!
Development News
I have been killing myself making the JP translation. The good news is that it’s almost ready and highly adaptable, and could even be ported to other games as the basic system is flexible and could be made by fans. I will be making the JP patch available and then update the mod code later this month depending on Holidays.
Internationally renowned artist TheChicMonster happens to really like money so she took up the job of helping out with talk sprites. Here we have Werebat Sanya. Hopefully this will, at long last, solve the talk sprite artist conundrum which has plagued RoP’s development and I can make this filthy, filthy game.
You should go watch the latest Cute Game Club because Chic forced me to play Webfishing with her for like 4 hours.
Fan Art!
Fan art of the restaurant waitress from WoR, and Christine and Sophie as wind-up toys both by Coco!
What if Sophie was a slime, by Hyena Princess. This is a bit too marketable, people are going to want Sophie Beanbag chairs. You ruined me!
This is apparently based on a Skylines thing? By May. Look I don’t play the game but I love the idea of making teeny tiny little pixel characters okay.
Finally some classic beauty! Serenity by PlainJane.
:3 By Sam
You know Pygmalie has killed fewer kids than Ms. Frizzle right? She killed Arnold, he’s dead. By Goopy.
Izuna by Alice! I hate Twitter so here’s a linktree!
Lore is developing quite a following, people like bad girls. Joke’s on you she’s a good guy who fights evil! Suckers!
Whispers
MANGO MANGO MANGO MANGO
Mango is world-famous, she has been called the “cat of all time”.
Born athlete right there.
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. You can get the audiobook on Amazon as well.
You can get the Pandemonium novel series by Bottled Starlight writer MarioneTTe on Amazon. Coming (at some point) to Itch.io once the exclusivity deals expire -_-
We have some ridiculous merch on Redbubble and Teepublic if you want to be the center of conversation (derogatory / celebratory).
Witches of Ravenbrook: Sponsorships, Plans, and More!
Quick Development Update
I’ve already issued Patch v1.01, which you can read the patchnotes of on this devlog. I will likely put together another small patch as there are a few more bugs and changes left to handle. I’m also taking note of all the feature requests and suggestions, though the prototype is a prototype so I’m not going to be adding too much more to it. They will definitely make it into the final game, though.
Project Sponsorship and Our Fundraising Plans
Our plan is to run a Kickstarter for Witches of Ravenbrook in 2025, likely in April or May depending on how long it takes to get some things ironed out. In addition, we have some sponsorship slots available, where people can get their characters in the game!
If you want to read more, or apply for such a sponsorship, just check out this document. There are links to all the forms you can fill out.
We will make our decisions on characters, tfs, monsters etc and contact sponsors in March or thereabouts. If you have any questions, ask them in the Itch.io page comment section and I will update the document. You can also ask via our Whispa.sh page if you love character limits.
Don’t worry, I have some additional artists to bring in if the project hits certain funding goals. InkyFluffs will be joined by BlueLily (Bluesky / Furaffinity), who has already started with concept work for the next areas. I have two additional artists available for contract work if needed, plus all the Bottled Starlight team’s support.
Production will likely begin sometime in 2026, I would like to get some major updates to RoP chapter 2 done first. I don’t think I’ll be able to totally complete the chapter but I would like to have lots done so the Starlight artists can catch up while we make WoR.
But you’re not here for that, you’re here for concepts and sneak peeks. Keep in mind that these are concepts are may change before the final release.
Concept for the pixie enemies, they put your party to sleep.
Concept for a plushie TF. This might be a one-off TF or it might be a full 3-stage Influence TF.
The waitresses for Honeybunns’ restaurant have gone through a few iterations. Don’t… drink the milkshake.
That’s all for now. Back to work on the game!
Fan Art!
Mary and Jessie by ButterflyLatte! This might be the cutest depiction of this budding relationship yet. Shame they’re in basically a horror movie.
Lydie by Nic! You know, there is no way Chicken knew how popular these characters were going to be when he designed them. At this point she’s going to get a spin off that becomes more popular than the main game isn’t she.
Mary Joestar by Xandra. Araki, hire me, I’ll write the most insane shit you’ve ever seen. Pygmalie’s stand can turn you into a doll but Mary’s can throw cards it’ll be incredible.
Curious Whispers
Bonus Mango Monday ft. Whiskey.
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. You can get the audiobook on Amazon as well.
You can get the Pandemonium novel series by Bottled Starlight writer MarioneTTe on Amazon. Coming (at some point) to Itch.io once the exclusivity deals expire -_-
We have some ridiculous merch on Redbubble and Teepublic if you want to be the center of conversation (derogatory / celebratory).
Witches of Ravenbrook Prototype Released!
Go get it, the prototype is free to play.
I’ll have a more comprehensive post later, right now just play it and I’ll work on a patch to fix the problems that have come up.
If you are a new follower due to WoR and are wondering what is going on: We do a post here every Monday keeping you up to date on what our studio is doing. Next week I will outline our plans for WoR, WHI, RoP and maybe even ToS going forward. Wow we have a lot of games and stuff!
Whispering
Fan Art
Polaris by Glacecup! She’s very popular, it’s because she’s wise and also owns her own house.
PUMPKIN
You people deserve a better class of cat and Pumpkin is here to deliver.
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. You can get the audiobook on Amazon as well.
You can get the Pandemonium novel series by Bottled Starlight writer MarioneTTe on Amazon. Coming (at some point) to Itch.io once the exclusivity deals expire -_-
We have some ridiculous merch on Redbubble and Teepublic if you want to be the center of conversation (derogatory / celebratory).
Development Update: November 11th, 2024
Witches of Ravenbrook Prototype Will Come Out On November 18th
The Riders lost.
The prototype is largely ready, we are running over it for bugs and new potential features. Navigation is better, it got some new items, I fixed a ton of memory leaks, and the art is now done and loaded in.
I think it’s good and fun and I want to be done with it because I am insane. Yes, I can’t wait to go back to working on WHI. I look forward to different work. A unique kind of madness.
Other Things
Artists for Witch Hunter Izana, Chicmonster, made a silly Itch.io game about Moo-deng. It’s free. Go play it why not it’ll take you five minutes.
She also made a video about making the game, because she’s a nard. If you want to see Chic talk about learning to code (which is VERY amusing to me) and making sprites and stuff, this is your big chance.
WHO IS THAT?
It’s a Pumpkin Mango double-header! You can stack them now!
Whispering
The Link Pile!
Rationally debate this post on the forums! Discussion thread for String Tyrant!
Follow us on Bluesky for cats (and maybe updates I don’t know)
Witch Hunter Izana’s forums page! Get it on Steam or Itch.io! It has a free demo!
Pandemonium’s Steam Page! You can get updates automatically.
Maiden Sealed in Stone, a game Salty translated!
Buy String Tyrant, our gaiden game, on Itch.io! It’s on Steam too!
I write silly books! Here’s the first one.
Ask us questions anonymously on Whispa!
Buy our merch on Redbubble and Teepublic!
Give us money on Patreon so we can make more monstergirl stuff!
Alternately, give us money on Subscribestar so we can make more monstergirl stuff!
DO NOT join our Discord and curse at me in person! Our testers might be cats, I can’t tell!
Development Update: November 4th, 2024
Carnation
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
The prototype is playable start to finish and has enough events in it. I am currently fixing up some bugs and going over the balance and minor QoL features before I send it to the testers. I swear it is almost ready for playtesting.
I’m losing my mind but it’s almost ready.
Also, if the Riders beat the Blue Bombers I might have to go to Vancouver for a few days and push the release back. Sorry, it’s the Grey Cup, non-negotiable. Now I have just made most of the TF community pray for a Riders defeat.
Other Stuff
Hund is almost done the big thing, Koops is working on some chapter 2 character, Urimas finished all the chapter 5 idle animations.
There’s other stuff coming but it’s all secret damn you.
Fan Art!
Fan art of ghost maid Lydie! I think she might actually be in first place for fan art now.
Dorothy from Maiden Sealed in Stone by Dee, getting dollified and absolutely rocking it. Go hire them to draw things :3
Hey isn’t this technically fan art of another game? You’ll see.
Whispering
I may have gone a bit overboard on that chart.
The Link Pile
Rationally debate this post on the forums! Discussion thread for String Tyrant!
Follow us on Bluesky for cats (and maybe updates I don’t know)
Witch Hunter Izana’s forums page! Get it on Steam or Itch.io! It has a free demo!
Pandemonium’s Steam Page! You can get updates automatically.
Maiden Sealed in Stone, a game Salty translated!
Buy String Tyrant, our gaiden game, on Itch.io! It’s on Steam too!
I write silly books! Here’s the first one.
Ask us questions anonymously on Whispa!
Buy our merch on Redbubble and Teepublic!
Give us money on Patreon so we can make more monstergirl stuff!
Alternately, give us money on Subscribestar so we can make more monstergirl stuff!
DO NOT join our Discord and curse at me in person! Our testers might be cats, I can’t tell!
Development Update: October 28th, 2024
A Very Spooky Update!
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.
Whispers of Ghooooooosts
Very Capable Dmitri
Pretty spooky eh?
The Pile of Candy Links
Rationally debate this post on the forums! Discussion thread for String Tyrant!
Follow us on Bluesky for cats (and maybe updates I don’t know)
Witch Hunter Izana’s forums page! Get it on Steam or Itch.io! It has a free demo!
Pandemonium’s Steam Page! You can get updates automatically.
Maiden Sealed in Stone, a game Salty translated!
Buy String Tyrant, our gaiden game, on Itch.io! It’s on Steam too!
I write silly books! Here’s the first one.
Ask us questions anonymously on Whispa!
Buy our merch on Redbubble and Teepublic!
Give us money on Patreon so we can make more monstergirl stuff!
Alternately, give us money on Subscribestar so we can make more monstergirl stuff!
DO NOT join our Discord and curse at me in person! Our testers might be cats, I can’t tell!
Dmitri Update, October 21st, 2024
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!
Whispers In the Night
AHHHHHHHH
The Link Pile WITH A SIDE OF SCARY
Rationally debate this post on the forums! Discussion thread for String Tyrant!
Follow us on Bluesky for cats (and maybe updates I don’t know)
Witch Hunter Izana’s forums page! Get it on Steam or Itch.io! It has a free demo!
Pandemonium’s Steam Page! You can get updates automatically.
Maiden Sealed in Stone, a game Salty translated!
Buy String Tyrant, our gaiden game, on Itch.io! It’s on Steam too!
I write silly books! Here’s the first one.
Ask us questions anonymously on Whispa!
Buy our merch on Redbubble and Teepublic!
Give us money on Patreon so we can make more monstergirl stuff!
Alternately, give us money on Subscribestar so we can make more monstergirl stuff!
DO NOT join our Discord and curse at me in person! Our testers might be cats, I can’t tell!
Pandemonium Development 