Hello to all the gamers,
The rumors are true. The conspiracy is real. Hold onto your hats and buckle up because Bossy, the developer of Muffles’ Life Sentence, is going to be having their very first livestream on Thursday 1/2/25 over on the BossyPino Discord!
While this first livestream will be for Patreon patrons only, the plan is to expand into doing these regularly- 2x a month on the days following these Devlog releases (so on the 2nd and 16th). Like anything else, these details might change, but chances are if you’re hoping to hear about the making of MLS firsthand, you want insight into art/gameplay/music creation, or you just want to hear what Bossy’s voice sounds like, then you will find an opportunity soon!
The plan for this first livestream is to look back on Episode 1- an in-depth scoop into what went right and wrong, showing off game assets, a behind-the-scenes look of how the game actually works, Bossy’s music making process, and probably whatever else people watching ask to see.
I thought I would take some time today laying the groundwork for this Episode 1 reflection. I’ll be going into a lot more depth on Thursday, but this is a good chance to get myself in a headspace to answer these questions.
Episode 1- what the heck was I thinking?
Like most of my project ideas, MLS came from a place both very abstract and very specific and concrete. My framework was to make a character-first RPG I could release Episodes of periodically. It would showcase deckbuilder combat to have some uniqueness in the RPG space, stick to an exceptionally simple 1-bit black and white art style to allow me to produce assets as I needed them, and I’d write a large variety of songs that showcase the diversity of the characters and circumstances.
Those were all the specifics I came into the project with. Basically I was interested in making OFF + Undertale that looks like World of Horror. How successful I’ve been at doing that, of course, is up for debate. But with the more solid framework around the game established, the abstract side of things is where my creative juices really began to cook.
Old MLS combat art made with some borrowed assets (artist Kadabura)
A prison full of post-surgical prisoners who have been made to look like their crimes. Setting Episode 1 in a castle on a small, rocky island pelted by rain. Putting a security guard android in a tower who deals with anxiety through shocking himself to the point they’ve become addicted to it. So many of the decisions that flesh out this game are specific and particular, so why am I calling them abstract?
The ideas themselves aren’t very abstract, but the process to getting to them is. Things like the game engine, the art style, and the dialogue system are set in stone. Who the characters are, what they say, and what they look like holds a million possibilities and opportunities! I’ve made countless choices, but I do not think for a moment I’ve made the only choices possible, or even the best ones to meet my goals. I cast a loooong net into the creative void, wait till something bites, and then go with it.
Who was the first MLS character I made?
In the early days of pre-production, when the very idea of making this game was just starting to come together, I realized something. Something really important that was going to change who I was as a game dev, change the scope of all my future projects, and tap into something I’ve never, ever been able to feel successful at.
I was probably going to have to learn to make art.
All of my previous projects have leaned heavily on working with friends who are artists, hiring art help, using and manipulating pre-made assets, or a combination of these. But there was no way in hell that MLS could be made the way it was in my head unless I was the one in the driver seat. I’m getting a headache just thinking about giving up that much creative control for all these little characters MLS has birthed. Would they have come out looking better in another artist’s hands? Without a doubt. Would they undoubtedly look like a MLS character? I figured I would take a crack at it and see what I could do.
And my first ever character designed was… surprise… it was Dee! Dee was literally in the first handful of character designs I was learning to make. I spent hours perched on the edge of my seat, closely staring at the pixels I was drawing by hand, and when I stepped back to take a look I thought “… oh no.”
In other news
To all my patron friends, I’ll see you during the Thursday livestream! To those who can’t make it, I think Nomad is recording it, so there should be a way to check it out after the fact if you’re interested in that sort of thing.
Also, Maddox inmate and bug catcher extraordinaire Lamechial made an amazing point in the MLS Discord the other day- the date I have planned for MLS’s release into early access is painfully close to Steam’s Next Fest event- a time where upcoming games can boost their wishlists and gain views.
I incorrectly thought that games in Early Access could still qualify for Next Fest. I was wrong! Because of this, I’m probably going to delay the game’s release to very soon after Next Fest. In fact, I might do that today…
Hope you all are well, and happy New Years!
Adios~