Muffles' Life Sentence News

[p]Some new fixes and features! Namely that you can use the 'M' key to pull up a map (if you have one for where you are at) and transitioning between chapters now uses the correct color.[/p][p][/p][p]Read here for the full patch notes![/p][p][/p][p]-Bossy[/p]

[p]Hello to all the gamers,[/p][p][/p][p]Once upon a time, a guy named Bossy woke up one day and realized if he didn't extract all the weird and problematic characters swirling around in his head and put them into a game, they were going to work together to overthrow his brain and murder him.[/p][p][/p][p]... okay it didn't actually go down QUITE like that, but all the same, he decided to quit his job and throw everything he had into making a strange little RPG born from his days playing Paper Mario, OFF, Undertale, etc.[/p][p][/p][p]And look at where we are now- EPISODE 3 IS HERE!!! That's like, over halfway.[/p][p][/p][p]The episodes keep getting more and more ambitious, and if I told you about half the stuff coming in Episode 4 you'd think I was crazy.[/p][p][/p][p]Thank you so so much to all of you playing and supporting- and a MASSIVE shotout of love and appreciation to the prison discord, which has been testing the beta version tirelessly. It is amazing to work alongside so many wonderful people.
[/p][p]I will be keeping an eagle eye out for bugs so PLEASE post in discussions/in the discord if you run into anything.[/p][p][/p][p]Enjoy playing Episode 3 :)[/p][p][/p][p]- Bossy[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p]

Hello to all the gamers,

Bossy has been insanely busy. Episode 3 of Muffles has turned out to be the most ambitious, creatively challenging, and comedically degenerate thing I’ve ever made. And that is saying something.

I wanted to touch on something that members of the MLS prison discord brought up a few weeks ago that made me go-

“Oh. Oh crap. Well… huh. DANGIT!”

And that is how I timed the new Muffles Episode to be coming out the day after Deltarune. But first, does this sort of thing even matter?





With the release of GTA 6 on the horizon, the politics and strategies of a game’s release date have been a topic of conversation in the AAA space. Even games of vastly different genres to GTA have been purported trying very hard to time thier games a WIDE distance around the release of what will no doubt be the insane and record breaking release of Rockstar’s next game.

I tend to think this sort of thing is… mostly ridiculous. Mostly. Sure, GTA 6 will take up gamers’ time and make a lot of the other media offerings surrounding it pale in comparison. But I think the reason GTA pulls such HUGE numbers is that it captures many of the very casual (no shade) gamers who do not normally participate actively in this space.

Will GTA compete with FIFA and Blackops (or whatever the biggest online shooty game is right now)? Yeah, it will. Will it compete with RPGs and roguelites and puzzle games?

Yeah I mean, it will a bit. But not a lot! At least, I don’t think so.





That all being said, price point IS something that I think will affect what games people buy and when. And with AAA games climbing up the price pole for… reasons… to start hitting $70 and $80 thresholds, the buying power of gamers at large is going to shrink.

So yeah, if you’re excited about GTA 6 and ready to drop 80 buckaroons on it (or more), and then ANOTHER game you’ve been excited about… let’s call it Dragon Slapper 7… is coming out for 40 buckaroons the week after, you might hesitate on it. 

The voice in the back of your head will say ‘YOU ARE GOING TO GO BROKE STOP BUYING ALL THESE GAMES.’



And some people will say ‘SHUT UP VOICE’ or ‘I KNOW THAT’S YOU MOM’ or whatever, but our dwindling wallets will no doubt affect the market. The more expensive games are, the fewer games players will be buying.

But does this sort of thing REALLY matter on the indie level? And we are talking Deltarune, not GTA 6. How much overlap even is there between Deltarune and Muffles fans? Why haven’t I acknowledged how Game Pass undercuts my buyer power argument?!?



First of all, we ain’t talking $80 when it comes to these RPGs. I don’t know what Toby is asking for his new release, but I’m willing to bet it’s exceptionally reasonable, and each new Muffles episode is $4- even less with the release sale!

This means indie player buying power is MUCH MUCH stronger then that of AAA players. Meaning indie players probably have much larger and diverse game libraries then that of their counterparts. And yes, a fair number of titles they’ve never touched but they definitely will someday don’t you even worry. 

Competition and growth in the indie space is a good thing for everyone. I don’t think timing Muffles so close to Deltarune is the worst thing for its new Episode 3 release but… admittedly it wasn’t very smart to time it for THE DAY AFTER. That was an oversight.

But deadlines are good. Releases are important. I wasn’t ready to change that release date unless I needed to, and I’m SO excited to say we are still looking good for release on June 6th! How freakin' exciting is that?!?





Hello gamers. Hope this frankly unhinged devlog finds you well. I’m trying to take things a little easier on my last weekend before the new episode release. I’m thinking about going out and getting a doughnut in a bit.

Isn’t life a wonderful thing?

Love and appreciation out to allay’all. 

Adios~

Hello gamers,

Well, well, well. If it isn’t BOSSY, doing a new Devlog.

It’s been a while- where HAVE I been exactly? Working on Muffles' Life sentence Episode 3? A likely story!

(But really I’ve just been working on Episode 3 a lot.)

To commemorate the BossyPino Discord Paper Mario stream (happening May 2nd in the discord!) Bossy is THRILLED to make a Devlog sharing why Paper Mario is such an important blueprint for Muffles. Bossy played Paper Mario and its sequel (the Thousand Year Door) a lot growing up and its balance of quirky humor, simple and effective RPG mechanics, and unique art direction made a HUGE impression on him.

At that young an age, brains are like sponges, and Paper Mario got aaaaaall up in there and made Bossy an RPG fan for life.

What practical RPG-isms are best taken from Paper Mario? What does Bossy remember most? Is Bossy a thief who steals from the classics? Let’s get into it!



Even removing nostalgia from the equation, Paper Mario stands out in the sea of early 2000s RPGs.

• Streamlined combat that leverages staples of the genre
  
• Confident storytelling using a wide range of Mario characters and adding many new ones to the world
  
• An art style with exceptional branding and charm that perfectly fits the tone
  
• Very approachable difficulty wise with excellent pacing and difficulty spikes
  
• Zone-based narrative arcs with real stakes and characters we invest in
  
• Companions as helpful and fun to play with as they are interesting to learn about
  

When it comes to Nintendo polish and ability to create unique IPs, Paper Mario is an amazing showcase that stands up today. It gave young Bossy days and days of enjoyment, meeting new characters and exploring a whole new world.





Let’s forget narrative structure for a minute and zoom in on TONE. Deadpan NPCs, absurd situations, weird side quests, unexpected punchlines- the creators of these games clearly had a love for RPGs they wanted to be front and center, while at the same time keeping themselves from becoming formulaic or restricted by the genre.

Paper Mario backs up its excellent writing with visuals that fit the humor- pairing different characters with the perfect jokes. An example that comes to mind is with Doopliss, the ghostly doppelgänger who steals Mario’s body and leaves you controlling just Mario’s shadow. The way body-swap Mario and shadow Mario are illustrated means you’re never confused about who is who, and the contrast leads to hijinks aplenty.



A CRITICAL point- the absurd and goofy situations of Paper Mario do not undercut the sincere emotion and stakes on hand. Characters take themselves seriously and aren’t just there to tell or take a joke. A situation can feel genuinely dire, but when you take a step back to look at the whole thing you can say ‘huh it’s a Italian man and a bipedal tortoise spending flowers to fight a grasshopper-nauseated paper dragon on a theater stage.’



But how does Muffles specifically learn from Paper Mario? The answer is complicated- I don’t REALLY know. Bossy’s brain is a soup (ew) of influences that he’s been pouring games into since he was the wee-est of lads and it all soups together into one soup cacophony that roars so loud it’s hard to hear sometimes.

But here’s a few things that come to mind:

• Classic, simple RPG combat that requires managing HP and MP.
  
• Zone-based pacing and narrative set in vastly different settings with characters and companions specific to that setting
  
• A silent protagonist
  
• Companions that puzzle-solving abilities outside of battle and combat ones in battle (this is a big one actually!)
  
• Comedic tone that is self-aware of the game’s own RPG-ness, but keeps grounded stakes
  
• A broad mix of music with simple but strong motifs
  

Maybe the biggest single ‘steal’ was choosing to have the first MLS companion have an ‘Analyze’ ability. In Paper Mario, it was so fun to start early with the ability to gain special insight into your environment and the new characters you brush up against, and in the bleak world of MLS full of strangely converted characters it turned out to be a pretty cool match.





For all of you reading this the day-of, the discord event is happening tomorrow May 2nd! The amazing Nomad will be playing while Bossy goes ON and ON and ON rambling about how much he loves RPGs or probably something like that. The emulation is all set up, the time’s been set, and all that’s left is to chill out with you lovely fans and have some quality time.

Episode 3 is coming soon. There’s just so much to do. But the release date still is looking good. I hope. No it is, for sure. Oh crap I have to make a trailer for it like at least a week before release don’t I??? IT'LL BE FINE BOSSY CALM DOWN.

Until next time~

Hello to all the gamers,

Welcome to the most MASSIVE MLS bug patch thus far. This one has been cooking for weeks.

• NEW portrait system that should fix character dialogue portraits flickering being randomly blank sometimes
  
• Well of Anger and Myrm's cards have been changed (for now). There's been crashes related to discard-focused decks.
  
• Dialogue lag during longer sessions is gone (I think)
  
• Many text edits/grammatical fixes
  
• Misc visual fixes and some char portraits updated
  
• Some broken char voice lines fixed
  

These fixes were an overhaul that involved going through EVERY piece dialogue and making system changes. Which means... Bossy probably added some new bugs (what a hack).

We've been testing best we can, but if you find ANYTHING, it would mean a lot to Bossy if you could report it (Discord/Steam Discussions are the best places :) ).

Until next time...