Muffles' Life Sentence News

Hello to all the gamers,

We've just released a HUGE new patch for the Muffles' Life Sentence demo! This update brings important fixes and improvements, but due to changes in how the game handles data, existing save files (from before 2/17) will no longer work.

If you want to continue playing the demo, you’ll need to start a new game. It’s a hassle, but these updates are necessary to improve the experience, and pave the way to Episode 2 (and beyond~).

Thank you for your patience and support- and please let us know if you run into any issues.

- Bossy

Hello to all the gamers,

I’m going to keep this Devlog brief for two reasons. One because today we are touching on the dry and somewhat yucky subject of marketing an indie game. And two because I’m writing this the morning of and I want to finish this before my brown rice is done cooking.

[h2]Steam is an indie’s best friend[/h2]

How does a new indie dev, hot on the scene of a VERY saturated market, make a name for themselves and get their game out there?

Well, it’s really really hard.

Luckily, Steam has some genuinely pretty great opportunities for indies, at least in theory.



[h2]1. Upcoming on Steam[/h2]

The biggest is probably getting your game to trend via the ‘Upcoming’ tab. That’s how indies go from thousands of wishlists to HUNDREDS of thousands of wishlists.

Nomad and I discussed long and hard about whether we should wait longer to possibly make Muffles a contender for ‘Upcoming’, and ultimately we decided it was more important to get the game out there for people to play, and that there would be opportunities with other games in the future.

[h2]2. Festivals[/h2]

Another great opportunity Steam uniquely (maybe the Epic/GOG do this idk) provides are events showcasing games of a particular genre or theme. Spookfest, TactiCon, etc. But what people might not realize is that many of these events are hosted by third-party organizations, not Steam themselves.

This means it can be easy to miss these events if you aren’t aware of them, since Steam won’t offer these opportunities directly. If you’re an indie who wants to take advantage of these (and you should) I recommend joining the ‘How to Market a Game’ discord, which has an ongoing list of the best vents you can apply for: https://discord.gg/ccqvY42q.

I am very excited for Muffles to be participating in NextFest this year. It’s no doubt going to be our biggest opportunity before launch to attract new eyes and them scar their retinas with MLS’s high-contrast color palette.



[h2]3. Release/DLC[/h2]

When your game releases on Steam, whether it is early access or not, the people on your wishlist receive an email that the game is available to buy and play. Which is obviously more helpful at selling your game the more people on Steam have wishlisted!

Muffles sitting at around 2k wishlists is still in the small potatoes category. I am so thankful for everyone that has believed in this game and its potential, and at the same time it has yet to make a big enough splash for us to see us able to really take advantage of what Steam has to offer.



And that is part of the reason for the pivot to DLC. Each piece of DLC gets its own page on Steam, can be wishlisted, and has their own page for reviews. This means with every Episode, we have the chance to get a liiiiiiittle bit more visibility. And the episodic nature of Muffles means that having a DLC for each episode is a fair less seamless fit.

[h2]In other news…[/h2]

You have to wear a lot of hats as a solo indie dev. Designer, writer, tester, artist, cheerleader, manager, data analyst, musician, engineer, marketer, etc. It kind of sucks to read this lists and realize the roles related to actually making a game are outweighed by the other stuff.

But that’s where having a great discord community and Nomad by my side really helps. And on days where the path forward is hard and uncertain, they can make all the difference. Hooray for cool and helpful people!

I wish all the best to everyone reading this, and a little reminder that Bossy is having another Patreon-exclusive livestream in the Discord tomorrow Feb 2nd.

Adios~

Hello to the gamers,

As of yesterday I learned that if you save at the last available instance in the demo (post the epilogue a prompt comes up) there is no way that this save can be carried over to the main game.

Other saves made before this point should be useable if carried over to the main game.

I am updating the Demo build now to remove the issue.

To help circumvent this issue further, I am working on a way to bypass Episode 1 if you've played the demo prior via a 'secret code' system. This way, players who are having issues carrying saves forward or no longer have their saves can jump right into post-Episode 1 gameplay.

It's true, Bossy is a hack and makes mistakes. As Early Access starts (it's coming up so soon!), there is no doubt it will bring new delicious issues for Bossy to stress over! Huzaah!

- Bossy

Hello to all the gamers out there,

With playtesting for Episode 2 of Muffles’ Life Sentence coming up SO SOON (literally next Monday), I thought I would take a moment to stop and think about the beta for Episode 1! The ups, the downs, the lessons learned, the bridges burned, the butter churned, so on and so forth.

Let’s kick it!

[h2]What do bug testers do?[/h2]

Bug testing for Episode 1 came in all shapes and sizes- which is great! Larger development studios often need much more strict and regulated testing early in the process. Specific ways of documenting issues, certain timelines, etc. But for Muffles, the variety of different testers and testing approaches was a boon from the start!

The impression I had after the fact was that people were able to lean into the issues they noticed most and had the most knowledge about. Some people submitted bugs focused on grammar and sentence structure, others on gameplay exploits and sequence breaks. If I were to break down the types of bugs submitted, it would looks something like this~

• Gameplay issue (X doesn’t work)
  
• Grammatical (X is missing an apostrophe)
  
• Game design (X is missing an opportunity)
  
• Combat balance (X is too easy/hard a fight)
  

As long as Muffles’ is able to attract as many interested testers as in Episode 1 (and let’s be honest, if Lame and Dyll are on board) then this approach is fantastic! I’ve read through bug reports that were a one-time submitter about gameplay highs and lows vs. repeat reporters that post minute issues and both were so helpful at making Episode 1 as good as it is!

[h2]Bug testing for Episode 2[/h2]

Episode 2 is going to have the same sort of bones as Episode 1. Dialogue, combat, movement, items, etc. But there are few new systems that I suspect are going to be a hotspot for bugs we haven’t seen before. Systems such as~

• Desert map navigation
  
• The eyeball passive system
  
• Muffles’ hat (I’m serious this one is tricky)
  
• Several new puzzle types
  
• Steam achievements
  
• Steam cloud saves and demo save migration
  
• Secret code system
  
• A giant cockroach! (Okay this one is a joke)
  

I think the discord forum method of posting bugs worked great for episode 1. The only big opportunity I see is I think the status of a post (unseen, seen, fixing, fixed, waiting on something) can be a bit unclear. I tried using a binary emoji (fixed vs. not fixed) and I think it worked FINE, but we might be missing an opportunity.

If any of you testers out there have ideas about this, or even BETTER- have other opportunities you’ve noticed, I would love to take those thoughts and ideas and improve the Episode 2 experience for all of us.

[h2]Episode 2 beta starts soon[/h2]
A lesson I learned from Episode 1 is how necessary good communication is- from testers to me, me to testers, and me making notes to interpret later. On this front, I have to say y’all were rockstars on episode 1. So many people dedicated substantial time play, replaying, and reporting their issues, including pictures and descriptions of their experience.

I cannot impress enough how monumentally important this is to the health of Muffles. It’s a thin excuse but I am a TERRIBLE playtester (just ask Nomad) and I knew taking on a whole freaking RPG would be a huge task when it came to finding all the itty bitty issues (and the big ones) strewn throughout.

And with help from y’all, Episode 1 is a solid, fun, and entertaining experience through and through. And I’m SO excited for Episode 2 to hit the same mark.

Long hours of bug fixes here we come yay!

[h2]In other news[/h2]

Wow. Bug testing. Episode 2. Can you belieeeeve it?

Bossy’s life is busier than ever figuring all this stuff out. I hope you all are doing well and are able to spend time on the things you find most fulfilling. That’s been my goal for a number of years now, and I can’t say I have any regrets.

Literally so excited to see everyone’s thoughts on Episode 2. I hope for strong praise AND strong criticism. That’s the best way to make sure Episode 2 is the best that it can be!

Reminder that the public livestream is TOMORROW on the discord (check there for details) and to all of you able to make it, I’ll see you there.

Adios~

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.

[h2]Episode 1- what the heck was I thinking?[/h2]
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.

[h2]Who was the first MLS character I made?[/h2]
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.”



[h2]In other news[/h2]
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~