To marauding tentacle hordes and those who valiantly oppose them,
Following up on our last update, the team continues to plug away at everyone’s favorite octoblood guzzling simulator. Due to a bunch of boring reasons, things are going slower than I’d like, but the 2026 release plan is still on track.
We’re currently working on one of the last major dream sections, centered around a golden city and a cast of colorful weirdos who call it home. Karl (the concept artist) came up with many character designs and ideas, and Marina and Niko (the pixel artists) continue to flesh them out and create the necessary spritework and animations to bring these characters to life.
Concurrently, the demo was recently updated to bring it in line with the development version. While most of the changes were behind the scenes, there are some interesting additions I’d like to share with you.
A number of events were re-balanced to make certain outcomes more likely. For example, it’s now slightly easier to defeat a teenager in a knife fight, and a certain ruffian is more likely to attack Kaf after an unfortunate sewer encounter instead of making a deal. The changes were based on observing many playthroughs since the demo was released and noting how difficult it was to experience these scenes if the player wasn’t explicitly trying to trigger them.
Additional character responses were also added or tweaked to make them more natural and reactive to the player’s choices. For example, in one scenario where Kaf betrayed someone only to help them later, that person would previously continue to respond angrily without acknowledging Kaf’s subsequent actions. To improve this, I added additional dialogue and interactions to cover these gaps.
While the update isn’t about introducing new content, it does complete a quest involving an accountant and a cure for baldness (I doubt anyone will actually finish it, though; It only progresses after the main demo content and takes quite some time to advance). Other changes include a new opportunity to give Mom to a shady organization, and additional special comic issues to find.
A new addition that you might notice right away is the introduction of coins scattered around the city. Since you need money to buy centipede train tickets in the full version, the randomly generated coins will hopefully encourage exploration and provide a way to travel even if you run out of cash.
Beyond that, there were a lot of bug fixes, tweaks to the stress system, and several quality of life improvements. Many of the demo changes actually tie to content from the full version. That includes meeting the cyborgs in the Robot Graveyard, working with a shady “fixer”, visiting the Conman’s shop, and various dream sequences. Please let us know if you tried the demo and ran into any issues.
In the meantime we’ll continue to work on Octopus City Blues one tentacle at a time. Things have been busy and slow, but we’re getting there. You can expect one more update before the end of this year with more information. Until then, please continue to water your rambunctious pet appendages and avoid stepping on any wayward beetles.
Yours faithfully,
Ghost in a Bottle's Malevolent CEO (Creative Excuse-making Officer)
