Pandemonium Development

Coding and Stuff

Version 4.35 is a very small update BUT it fixes a crash so it’s important to update to keep game instability down. You don’t want to lose progress because the game crashed, right?

It also fixes the paragon menu bug. There are a few other minor bugs I need to fix but those can wait for later. They are minor chapter 5 issues that don’t crash the game.

Get it from our public downloads folder (Mega / Mediafire), or on Itch / Steam!

Our New Art Director (Is Koops)

(Assistant Art Director Niko)

There have been some shakeups in the studio! Giga has left to pursue other major projects, we wish him well. Wispy is no longer working on RoP as an artist but is staying on as a programmer, he’s also got lots of big art projects to deal with. He may be the art lead in future projects, who knows!

This means Koops has been promoted to art director, having the time to spend on the job. We’re also going to be hunting around for a new talk-sprite artist to help fill in the gaps. This means I don’t have any idea when or how chapter 2 is going to progress, it depends on us finding artists up to the task. We’re still going to move forward just not at the pace I had hoped.

Project Carnation is still being prototyped, there may be other projects in the future if it takes us too long to get caught up on the art. I still want to finish chapter 2 ASAP so let’s hope we find some people.

Curious Cat

The Link Pile

Rationally debate this post on the forums!    Discussion thread for String Tyrant!

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 Curious Cat!

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!

Happy Pride :3

It’s a bugfix update

It’s in our public downloads folder (Mega / Mediafire) or on Steam/Itch.io. You can find the changelog in the public downloads folder as well.

There’s still a few bugs left to go but I have most of them sorted out in this release. I’ve also completed that useful developer and modder utility I mentioned last week. It will be getting updates as I go, and will be incorporated into the modkit… sometime after the Carnation prototype.

It’s basically an in-engine utility that lets you create abilities, enemies, and other things and generate the scripts so you can plug them into your mods. Saves a lot of copying.

Meanwhile, the chapter 2 intro background is done and Koops will be adding the characters soonish. Urimas is still doing those chapter 5 idle animations.

We’re also filling in the various pieces in chapter 2. Sanya’s got a lot of other form poses where she uses her gun but I wanted to capture the alternative to gun violence: fist violence.

Peace is not an option.

Fan Art

Mr. Toui liked the werebat design so much he made his own version. Watch out, her bite petrifies!

I’m not going to explain this one. Thanks, Xandra!

Curious Cat

The Link Pile

Rationally debate this post on the forums!    Discussion thread for String Tyrant!

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 Curious Cat!

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!

No Patch This Week

There’s a bunch of bugs I need to handle, but I spent last week working on some very valuable automation stuff. It’ll be useful for modders, useful for RoP, WHI, and even Carnation. Basically, an in-engine UI that lets you generate prototype scripts!

“Salty’s that’s really unexciting” Yeah that’s programming, baby.

Anyway, Urimas is working on the chapter 5 idle animations, Chicken got really sick so Koops is taking care of him and the cats (our prayers are with Niko and Dmitri). Giga got some more Sanya stuff done and Dias will be working on the Sevavi TF sequence.

Next week I’ll clean up the bugs as best I can and release a patch.

Curious Cat

The Link Pile

Rationally debate this post on the forums!    Discussion thread for String Tyrant!

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 Curious Cat!

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!

It’s Out!

That’s right, version 4.33 is now public for everyone. I’ll be taking down the secret chapter 1/5 update page since it is no longer necessary.

I’ve switched over to using public downloads folders, where you can find all our demos and free games, as well as a changelog. Just click on your preferred download site (Mega.nz / Mediafire), or go to Itch.io or Steam since it’s free there, too!

If you’re hopping back in to see what’s new:
Chapter 1 got two new transformations, some new quests, a big bonus dungeon, new features like a fortune teller who marks catalysts for you and a trainer so you can buy EXP for Platina, and some new costumes.
Chapter 5 got a new transformation, two new quests, new costumes, and even a few idle animations (more on the way) as well as the fortune teller and trainer NPCs.
Chapter 2 has a few art updates.
Chapter 1 and 5 got voice acting in combat, now you can hear Mei shout insults as she attacks!
And all chapters got a ton of bugfixes, from typos to script errors to low-level memory fixes.

Both chapters got a new trailer! They’re on youtube (Chapter 1 / Chapter 5)

I wrote a Light Novel, Tales of Strings: Instruments, which you can find on Itch.io. Art by Xandrasubmarine!

Our tester Ack released a game called Research Tower 4. Go check it out, it has doll TF in it (woah!) and it’s free.
Itch.io TFGS Link Deviantart Link

The tie-in novels are going to be uploaded to Itch.io once their exclusivity agreements expire. More on that when it happens.

Pumpkin continues to be really cute.

So now you’re all caught up!

Now What?

I’m going to be working on a prototype for Project Carnation. Much like the previous prototype (which was Project Monoceros, later Witch Hunter Izana) the fan response will determine if it’s a game we actually make or if it’s an idea that gets shelved. I expect this will take a few months.

Once that’s done, some more minor housekeeping. Releasing WHI Hard Mode, the JP Translation for WHI, getting WHI on DLSite, some minor updates for String Tyrant, and the usual code modernization.

And then, it’s Chapter 2 until it’s complete. I would love to have it done by the end of 2024 but that’s quite unlikely given the sheer size of it, so it’ll probably be done in 2025.

We have some new artists on the team, a cool new method of doing TF sequences via comics, a much streamlined map production system, and an internal method of handling quest writing that is way better than the previous one. In addition the “code debt” that I had built up over the years is mostly cleared. There’s always more I’d love to fix but the huge backlog of bugs is gone and the game is more stable than ever. If anyone can pull off finishing Chapter 2 in 2025, it’s us!

There’s also some stuff happening in WHI that I haven’t even revealed yet but it’s big. You’ll love it.

I’m so tired.

Curious Cat

Fan Art!

A collection of zombees by Xandrasubmarine to “celebrate” the new Zombee Queen Mei costume. That evil cultist really deserves a whalloping I tell you.

The Link Pile

Rationally debate this post on the forums!    Discussion thread for String Tyrant!

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 Curious Cat!

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!

Release Tomorrow or Wednesday

I’m close to finishing up the chapter 2 bugs that have been posted so I’m going to hold off on the supporter release until they’re done.

The chapter 5 update goes public on the 10th. Get psyched!

Yeah the trailer is age-restricted. Go watch it on youtube!

Tales of Strings: Instruments

Yep, a secret project which is a light novel! You can find all the details over on Itch.io (it’ll be on Amazon later, Mario is working on that)

I want to make some more light novels like this, short and sweet with a few illustrations. But will I? Depends on sales! I have tons of ideas that are all rock solid don’t you worry.

Art by Xandra, writing by me, Salty (hi!) and editing by MarioneTTe.

If you’re a patron/subscriber over 5$ for the month of May or June, just send us a DM on Patreon (or Discord if that’s easier for you) and we’ll get you hooked up with a copy.

Development Update

Giga has finished the new Sanya Sevavi combat pose but I’m not sure it’ll make it into the next update. It’ll definitely make the public release on the 10th. Urimas is currently working on the chapter 5 idle animations, Koops is doing some UI stuff and then character designs, Stinkehund has spent a riotous amount of time making a very cool forest scene for chapter 2, and Wispy is going to draw eyes. You’ll see (oh that was a pun I hate myself)

Fan Art!

Hadezmuze asked me for an art prompt for a warmup so BAM, Rilmani Mei! I like this better than her classic design, especially those shoes. But we all know what you really want is the ears.

If Rilmani Mei is too elegant for you, what if Septima wore a bikini? Yeah she’s still pretty elegant.

And finally we return to Hadezmuze’s favourite subject, Lotta. I gotta say she’s my fave, too. Well maybe not fave but she’s definitely in the top six.

And then we have a silly scene from Tales of Strings: Instruments, by Xandrasubmarine. Who the hell is that? It’s Scarlet, she’s from the String Tyrant prequel/sequel series which is also going to be published as novels when it’s ready (which might be sooner than you think).

Kumquat also commissioned an extremely NSFW version which I am going to post here without censoring because I BELIEVE IN FREE SPEECH.

Randy

Curious Cat

The Links! The Links!

Rationally debate this post on the forums!    Discussion thread for String Tyrant!

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 Curious Cat!

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!

That’s right, v4.31 is now on Steam, Itch.io, and the supporter download page. The changelog is on the supporter page and will be on the Itch.io devlog. I also installed butler on the mac and got it working despite Apple’s best efforts, so hopefully it will be able to generate patches and take less download time.

The update goes public on the 10th of June!

Development Update

I’ve taken care of all the major issues in chapter 5. This week I’ll be cleaning up some chapter 1/2 issues that have come up and going over the engine to clear out memory errors that may still be hiding.

Urimas is working on some 3D stuff, I have set Giga to work on getting some chapter 2 art finalized, and Wispy is drawing eyes.

Something is Coming

I am told that it will be ready on Wednesday, probably. I’ll post an update when it is!

Curious Cat

The Link Pile

Rationally debate this post on the forums!    Discussion thread for String Tyrant!

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!

Ask us questions anonymously on Curious Cat!

Buy our merch on Redbubble and Teepublic!

Give us money on Patreon so we can make more monstergirl stuff!

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!

The update can be found in the usual places, Itch/Steam/Secret Downloads Page

Changelog is at the bottom of the post

Update and Stuff

I’m going to spend some more shooting down the UFOs before I move on to Project Carnation, there are lots of small ones popping up all the time. I also want to spend some time using Valgrind to hunt down memory errors so I can get the code ship-shape.

Urimas is going to be working on idle animations for chapter 5 and the chapter 2 loading images, Koops and Chicken are busy with family stuff, Hund is mostly done the chapter 2 mountainscape. Everything is coming along.

Septima

“I have done my best to smile. Do you like it, bearer?” By Xandra.

Curious Cat

HUNGER has caused Dmitri to evolve. Be afraid.

The Link Pile

Rationally debate this post on the forums!    Discussion thread for String Tyrant!

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!

Ask us questions anonymously on Curious Cat!

Buy our merch on Redbubble and Teepublic!

Give us money on Patreon so we can make more monstergirl stuff!

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!

That’s right, it’s now out to supporters. It is on both beta branches of Steam, is out on Itch.io, and is on the downloads page on the wordpress blog. Instructions for accessing that page are on Patreon and Subscribestar (I’ll make another post on those just in case you missed the first time).

Big Ol’ Changelog

//– [ ========Version 4.29 ========= ]
//–Major
*Added three new field abilities to chapter 5. Darkmatter, Steam Droid, and Electrosprite now all get field abilities.
*Added new emotes (mostly yelling or being smarmy) to Unit 2856’s dialogue.
*Added emotes for Agent Almond: ACTION MOTH!
*Fixed the dialogue hang bug for really long cutscenes.
*Added RAM paging for loading files. Should improve stability and decreases memory fragmentation while only increasing load times slightly.
*New quests, trainer, fortune teller, forms, costumes :3

//–Minor
*Added a dialogue topic with 55 about Inhibitor Chips, unlocked when you encounter a latex drone enemy.
*Added a killphrases topic to Christine’s terminal so you know what they are even if you don’t examine any bodies in Cryogenics.
*Added a topic after the Manufactory quest to discuss what happened with 55.
*Christine’s profile will update during the latex drone sequence in sector 99.
*Manufactory noise will now get louder as you get closer to the assembly line.
*Added a new topic with SX-399 about what her name is.
*Added badge to chapter 5 so Darkmatters will leave you alone when equipped.
*Added a number of instances of the PDU appearing during conversations with emotions.
*Updated the start of Regulus City sequence to better flesh out the relationship with Sophie.
*Added some dialogue to the picnic golems in the biolabs movie.
*Added some very angry dialogue to 2856 if you double back after fixing the power modulator in gamma.
*You can now use Electrosprite form to bypass Hydroponics and the Datacore in the Biolabs.
*You can now examine the glass in the amphibian habitat to get clues on the right amphibian for the puzzle!
*SX-399 will now be available in the mines during NC+ after you complete the Sprocket City questline. She only helps out in the mines.
*Pink slimes now have yellow eyes on the sprites.

//–Combat Balance
*Christine’s shock-damage abilities are now color coded yellow (some of the electricity was blue) which should read better on the icons. (Thanks, Sigrid!)

//–Bugs
*Fixed music not playing when loading a game.
*Fixed layer tracks reporting errors when loading the game in certain rooms.
*Fixed some offensive equippable items using the wrong strength indicator.
*Fixed gravemarker paragon in the chapter 1 depths not actually triggering a battle when you say yes.
*Fixed two Christines appearing after the first Equinox boss.
*Fixed a missing “local” in Mei’s prestige job class.
*Fixed a missing talk sprite in a darkmatter conversation.
*Fixed the Tellurium Mines sometimes generating a 0 XP/JP item and printing a warning.
*Hopefully fixed the non-existant Susan bug.
*Fixed equipment cursor lingering in the empty slot when switching to a character who has fewer equipment slots.
*Fixed invalid nude sprite images in Sprocket City considering the costume is never actually used.
*Haunt should no longer be flagged as a buff.
*Fixed some invalid sprite errors in the post-LRT scene in Christine’s quarters.

So What Now?

LIKE THREE WEEKS OF BUG FIXES. But seriously, I’m going to go over the code with Valgrind for a few days and try to suss out any remaining memory issues. There will also be tons of bugs and did you see that huge pile of slime costumes I have to add?

After that it’s off to work on the Carnation prototype. What is Project Carnation? You’ll start hearing more about that in the next few weeks. The art is mostly done, I have to do a bunch of scenario coding and combat redesign.

Niko Cat

Fan Art!

You thought you were getting out of May without maids? No way, Lydie’s back from her vacation and just in time to run into Natalie/Mei wearing the afternoon maid dress! This is why you pay attention to the time when you spend all day inside.

Maybe a bit more apropos for today’s update, but what if 55 got reprogrammed into a cute maid? Yeah believe me it was her idea.

Art by the lovely Xandrasubmarine!

Curious Cat

The Link Pile

Rationally debate this post on the forums!    Discussion thread for String Tyrant!

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!

Ask us questions anonymously on Curious Cat!

Buy our merch on Redbubble and Teepublic!

Give us money on Patreon so we can make more monstergirl stuff!

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!

Mostly because the next release comes out on the 15th so I’d rather post the whole update then rather than today, but if you’re just CHOMPING AT THE BIT for an update:

The update is that it’s Dmitri’s birthday :3

Come back Wednesday!