just-write-studios

[just-write-studios]

2024 Celebration and Recap!

I have never been so excited to celebrate the end of a year. 2024 was far and away the most challenging year of my life, and there is an ENORMOUS amount to show for it!😤

In addition to the strides made with the demo's development for Catalyst: Blind Faith, hundreds of thousands of words written and edited for the full game, and a staggering amount of progress on art and animations, we've had an avalanche of community support. MANY innovations in accessibility were made possible by the Ren'Py community and our Discord's killer members too!

It took me several days just to organize this recap, due to the astonishing amount that was accomplished. I could not have done a fraction of this much work without the love and support of my partner and CBF's producer (I love you Gob <3), the entirety of the legends in Just Write Studios, and all of you who have been cheering development on!!

We'll be celebrating in the community Discord on January 3rd to bring in the New Year! Whether or not you can join us then, I hope you have had happy holidays and are just as excited for 2025 as I am.

The filesize limit and link embeds on Tumblr are a little prohibitive, so I couldn't share every gif, animation, and devlog link here. You're very welcome to check out the high-res versions of all these pics, and the other gifs on my Patreon here!

Without further ado let's dive into this utterly ridiculous recap. I tried to make it easy to read but it's still a lot. I hope you enjoy!!!

ART AND ANIMATIONS

CHARACTER CONCEPTS, SHAPE LANGUAGE, AND DESIGNS ARE CEMENTED FOR:

Father Richard Anscham - Main character

Ray - Arguably actually the main character

Ofelia "Eagle-Eye" Banks - Optional party member

Celegwen - Optional party member

Lord Yech the Disgusted - Optional party member

Orgoth - Antagonist

You can read more about the extensive considerations for these characters and their shape language, silhouettes, AND MORE in this devlog here!

Over 92% of the demo’s camerawork and animations are complete!

WIP sketches are in place for all visuals, transitions, character designs, expressions, poses, and more!

Here on Patreon we have a short trailer showcasing a ton of that action for patrons at any tier! 💖

🙏 Concepts for every deity's CG in the pantheon are a WIP, I am fighting god to not spoil anything but I am very excited 🙏

And the longest animation in the demo, the timelapse near the start, is complete!

Its timing has been improved and thoroughly tested.

It can also be paused or skipped at any time!

MENUS AND ACCESSIBILITY

locked in for this one

The photosensitivity splash screen has been replaced with the Options screen immediately displaying upon first starting the game. This immediate prompt only shows when first starting the game, but the Options screen can be accessed by players from any screen at any time.

A huge visual overhaul of the Options screen and navigation has been made to improve colors, icons, and its layout for maximum clarity!

The Ren'Py Default Accessibility menu has been given a complete style overhaul, massively clarifying features. It also now matches the other menus in Catalyst: Blind Faith. 💖

Created a color picker for the high contrast text feature, with the incredible help of the Ren'Py community. This innovation in accessibility was a multi-week endeavor, that now allows players to choose their font color and contrasting background in real time, all without restarting the game!

The Content Warning, Autosave Preference, and Saves Unlocked screens have had their verbiage updated for clarity and brevity! They are also presented entirely with code, making it (and all other menus) compatible with screen readers and all other accessibility settings!

I've replaced 13 flat images used as placeholders for the chapter title screens with final code! This freed up a whopping 10MB by removing those placeholders.

Now I can display all chapter numbers, titles, and subtitles in any combination with smart interpolation of variables in parameterized text!!!

What this means for players is regardless of how you progress through the game, your chapter numbers will always accurately count up – and if any wacky time travel stuff is involved, it accounts for that neatly too!

The text in-engine also just looks so much nicer aaaa

Text tags (bold, italics, underline, etc.) now render on the History screen!

The timelapse from the prologue also now populates in the History menu!

ADDITIONALLY✨

The main menu's layout and positioning is complete! A total overhaul has been done to its buttons and animations, freeing up even MORE placeholders.

Complete revamp of the Gallery is done, using the Multi-Touch Zoom Gallery code by Feniks!

Custom navigation for the gallery has separate sections for Places, Characters, Gods, Demons, and Demo Endings.

New features in the Gallery include improved navigation, zoom (with mouse, keyboard, gamepad, or touchscreen), rotate, and a timed slideshow with auto-play.

The "Momentos" category has been cut from the gallery, as key item acquisition is now handled with the in-game screen signifying their narrative importance. They populate in the Inventory tab of the Journal menu for reference.

YOU THOUGHT I WAS DONE WITH UI BUT THE JOURNAL HAS BEEN FINISHED AND DESERVES ITS OWN SECTION

LETS GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Final assets are completed!!!!!!!!! Matching the quality, semi-realistic, and painterly style of the final release. 💪💪💪💪

Greatly improved clarity on all assets! Tons of care put into improved ease of navigation! I spent weeks on finalizing the UI design!!!! 🧠🧠🧠🧠

Navigation is now in alphabetical order, with all tabs spelled out (rather than using images alone for deities).

Bug fixed, by adding a named but previously missing asset related to events with the Goddess of Time.

The bookmarks, sub-menus, scrollbars, and all pages now remember where you last left off too. It feels amaziiiiiing

A hover image has been added for the inventory with its final asset! This really helps with controllers especially, for clarity and ease of navigation.

Isometric maps are complete too! Art, their modular nature (areas you have unlocked are the ones that are displayed), and the final code!

The code has been so massively streamlined, I removed 28 redundant lines of code and 1.54MB of images! 💪

The Hover Hand™ has been programmed!

Upon hovering over the first page of any deity's section of the Journal, a shadow will appear of the MC's hand with a nice animation.

The appearance of the hand can change depending on if the player's choice have caused the MC to lose a ton of blood (a little shaky), if he bulks up, different poses to reflect extreme emotional states, etc.

The art asset of his hand will be updated with its final visuals to reflect the MC’s lanky physical appearance before our next build!

🪞 ON THE NOTE OF REFLECTING THE APPEARANCE OF OUR MC 🪞

A new "Find Reflection" feature is now available at specific, story-appropriate moments!!!! Catalyst: Blind Faith is seen through his eyes, so this is so you can view his reflection in appropriate nearby surfaces when it makes sense to.

Just like how the “Find Reflection” feature reflects the MC’s current appearance, his appearance reflects your choices. (Please take good care of him 🫶)

FITTING ROOM

Just for fun (this has no effect on the in-game appearance of our MC, as that would be changing continuity and wouldn’t make a whole lot of sense lol), we have a cosmetic image viewer!

You can view appearances you have unlocked from any playthrough in this demo screen, the "Fitting Room," on the main menu.

This feature is a WIP. A demo version will be available in the upcoming build!

ITEMS OBTAINED SCREEN

Upon acquiring story-significant items, a new screen now displays!

This screen for obtaining items contains an image of the item in question, its name, a description, and accompanying SFX.

Items seen in this fashion always populate in the “Inventory” section of the player’s journal, along with its flavor text.

WRITING

Home stretch and this is the biggest section. STRAP IN

Editing has been completed on all demo chapters! 🎉 The demo script's 46,000+ words across all 13 potential chapters is now 100% complete, with no edits required for future updates or the full game!

The player’s service dog and best friend, Ray, has had his design finalized! New content has been added to 8 separate chapters across many individual scenes in the demo alone to account for the spiked collar that this colossal English mastiff wears.

The structural and continuity considerations for those edits were so extensive that I wrote a devlog about it earlier this year! You can find that here: https://just-write-studios.itch.io/catalyst-blind-faith/devlog/738445/devlog-flowchart-insanity-and-why-it-massively-helped-me-with-extensive-edits-this-month

Achievement names for each demo ending have been revamped, thanks to our Official Discord Community’s votes!

Our itch.io page and the game's description have been updated!

The most intense sequences of body horror throughout the trunk of the story (a WHOPPING 130+ chapters) were evaluated for sensitivity concerns and authentic portrayals of body horror and its psychological ramifications!

4 months were spent on that sensitivity editing, with the incredible review by our lead editor and a team of sensitivity readers, bringing the heart of the story to ~95% completion. Only a few niche combinations of those events remain to be written!

If you are interested in that branching structure and how I manage its complexity, there's there start of a narrative devlog series here: https://just-write-studios.itch.io/catalyst-blind-faith/devlog/846233/devlog-narrative-design-and-the-branching-structure-of-catalyst-blind-faith

Embarking on writing the darkest content in the game – a route where you pursue your relationship with the God of Vengeance above all others - has taken LEAPS AND BOUNDS longer than anything else I've ever done.

It should come as no surprise that writing such serious content with the gravity and care it deserves has been far from a solo endeavor! 💪

SHOUT OUT to KnowledgeDomain, our lead editor. Her standards for quality are astronomical, and only paralleled by her professionalism and dedication to her projects. I am intensely proud to work with her. 💖

In Just Write Studios, we have numerous Quality Assurance experts!! HUGE shout out to our narrative consult, Cirno, who has been working on Catalyst: Blind Faith since day 1. His sensitivity reading, continuity checks, and feedback is invaluable, along with all of the hours he's spent hearing me ramble about outlining and what content to cut or keep. 😂🫶

I've also had the help of a dedicated critique group (QueenofOj and TheRealWiwaxia, you ARE REAL ONES, thank you!!!), as well as a small army of volunteers who have shared their experiences, offered focused sensitivity reading, and an overwhelming amount of support.

IN FACT THERE IS SO MUCH TO BE SAID ABOUT ALL OF THIS WRITING, I began a 10-part devlog series to do justice to it all. That’s where the flowchart all the way above comes from!

I am really looking forward to picking up on those deep dives into the narrative and technical structure, as well as how I handle things like unreliable narrators and sensitive content all throughout 2025! ❤️ We are well on our way to plowing through its crazy narrative structure, and I have also outlined all other routes and narrative structures for the full game!! ✍️

AND LAST

BUT CERTAINLY NOT LEAST

COMMUNITY

VN CONF 2024: I gave a very well-received 20 minute talk at the start of the year with analysis on choices in games! You can find it here on YouTube: "Choices in Visual Novels – What Makes Them Meaningful?"

VN CONF TALK COMIN UP IN 2025: I'm giving a talk on accessibility in games on January 25th! More info here!

HAD A LIVE PERFORMANCE OF THE DEMO IN JANUARY 2024

50k+ interactions on Twitter!

Over 200 auditions!

5 voice actors were cast for a 4 hour live performance: Anicia, Kiri, Lord Rexworth, Cren, and RizzosBT!

Their talents will be featured with voice effects in the full game! 🎙️💯

1,500+ followers on Bluesky in our first 2 months!! ❤️❤️

165 MEMBERS IN OUR COMMUNITY DISCORD ❤️❤️

SO MUCH GOOD FANART (PLEASE GO SHOUT AT THEM ABOUT HOW NICE IT IS)

5 YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF OUR COMMUNITY DISCORD 🥳❤️

Partnering with Feniks to make a tool out of my SFX toggle in a SFX suite of tools to improve accessibility for other Ren'Py Devs!!

Worked with the support of the Ren'Py Discord for the High Contrast color picker tool!!

Many streams of the early development demo this year also aaa! ❤️❤️❤️

AND THIS ISN'T EVEN ALL OF IT (but that's quite a lot and just about everything huuuge)!

I'm elated to rant more in our community Discord and on Bluesky daily with updates. Catalyst: Blind Faith is an epic endeavor and I mean that in every sense of the word.

Despite the incredible hardships 2024 brought for me, I could not be more proud of everything that was accomplished, and am ecstatic for what the new year will bring!! Next month I'll be releasing a roadmap of my goals for 2025. You can find my devlogs here on Patreon and on itch.io!

January 25th is the Visual Novel Conference, where I'll be giving a very short talk on accessibility in games, and all the rest of the year will be blasting ahead with more work for our demo!!!

I'll see you all on Discord, Bluesky, itch.io, and hope to see you at our Discord New Year's party on January 3rd!!!

Thank you for reading!!! Here's to conquering every demon 2024 had to throw our way, and to a very happy New Year!🎉🎉🎉

[just-write-studios]

Been a hot minute, good to be posting again!

Very happy to catch up. Gigantic link under the cut!

I've had the journey this year of learning I have an autoimmune condition, learning how to manage those numerous diagnoses, and am incredibly happy to share that things are calming down with my health thanks to putting the same diligence and effort into finding answers and treatment as I do with my game's development. Thought it would be nice to share my thoughts and how I'm continuing making a large, commercial visual novel in the process!

I wrote up a gigantic devlog to expand on my personal experiences with motivation, project management, living with disability, and sharing a HUGE amount of progress made on my dark fantasy and horror VN this last year!

There's a lot of previews, screenshots, and memes. Like a lot. This is far and away the largest devlog I have ever written, but I've got a lot to say about the subject.

It's no coincidence that themes like overcoming great adversity, and compassion in the face of horror really deeply resonates with me. These things are integral to my game, and more frequently in my personal life. I've had so much joy being able to share authentic and meaningful stories, and to have overwhelming support from my community has meant the world!

I'm deeply looking forward to getting momentum rolling faster with my project, and hope to anyone new to Catalyst: Blind Faith that you enjoy some of these previews if you take a look.

The link is below, if you'd like to check it out!

https://just-write-studios.itch.io/catalyst-blind-faith/devlog/827752/devlog-determination-how-i-stay-on-target-with-a-long-project-game-dev-with-disability-and-milestones-for-c

[just-write-studios]

My CSP journey continues! First attempt at drawing concept art for Ray, your service dog and demon-slaying veteran in Catalyst: Blind Faith! This very good boi will definitely take some time and practice for me to get the hang of drawing him cleanly and consistently but I am tremendously excited!!

also worth noting that Ray is on screen for literally like 80% of the game and damn I spent 40+ minutes last night working on size and perspective for making sure he will be visible on screen okay with the textbox lol. He's more than worth the effort though <3

[just-write-studios]

Moar concept art, for a party member in the full game of my dark fantasy and horror VN Catalyst: Blind Faith!! This is Ofelia, an assassin who is dependent on poison to live--so, naturally, she has learned to weaponize it. ;^) Depending on the choices you make, Ofelia can become a dear friend or romantic partner!

I'm really enjoying working with these brushes in CSP, and can't wait to plug ahead with more character designs. You can find a free, early development demo of Catalyst: Blind Faith here!

Really can't wait to tackle coloring Ofelia too. The interior of her cloak is filled with starlight, and she's got the brightest blue eyes aaaaa

Got a couple fun other things I've been working on for visuals, like some height charts and the design for your service dog in the game! Looking forward to sharing more soon!

[just-write-studios]

So excited to share some concept art of a party member from the full game of Catalyst: Blind Faith! This is Celegwen, a venerable elven sorceress. She can become a dear friend, romantic partner, or even your enemy depending on the choices you make!

This is my second sketch I've done with CSP and I really like this brush. Looking forward to sharing more art with you all soon!

If you're interested in checking out the early development version of the demo for Catalyst: Blind Faith you can find the free download here!

I've been pretty quiet on Tumblr, working very very hard on writing the last few months. I've got over 600k words written for the full game's script and am launching hardcore into art in the next few months to replace all the placeholder/concept assets in the demo with the final art! Look for more updates to the game's page soon!! <3

[just-write-studios]

2023 Celebration and Recap

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

It is so good to round out the end of 2023 by looking back on the overwhelming amount of progress that has been made. I've been gathering up devlogs and progress reports over the last week and am sincerely shocked by (and very emotional about) just how much was accomplished!

Thank you all so much for joining me on this insane journey. I have so many plans for 2024 and could not be more motivated to press on with the development of Catalyst: Blind Faith! I'd love to recap all of this progress with you today. I'm going to break this into categories to help with navigation.

Without further ado! The recap is under the cut.

JUST WRITE STUDIOS 2023 RECAP

ART - BACKGROUNDS

Pictured: The second background for Catalyst: Blind Faith.

Pontos: A ramshackle fishing village, and the first location in the game.

Enchanted Stairs: A mysterious and unlockable location in the demo.

ART - CHARACTERS

Pictured: An early concept for Celegwen, a main character/party member/potential love interest for the full game of Catalyst: Blind Faith.

Father Richard Anscham: A polytheistic human priest—our young, troubled, and compassionate antihero.

Malimos: An easily-amused, spider-like mass murderer, and the first demon seen in the game.

Offala: A treacherously beautiful and unbearably violent monstrosity; the second demon encountered in the game's demo.

Orgoth: A gregarious orc warchief, one of the main characters in the demo.

The Goddess of Time: All of space and reality.

Celegwen: A venerable elvish sorceress, who loves knowledge and anarchy almost as much as her immense Magical power.

ART - GRAPHIC DESIGN

Pictured: An audition lines card I made for our upcoming, live performance of Catalyst: Blind Faith.

Logo for Just Write Studios created!

Logo for Catalyst: Blind Faith created!

Made the audition line cards for a vtuber live performance casting event! If you are interested in keeping up to date with this event, check out our Catalyst Discord or MiMoMedia's official server!

Placeholder, animated credits screen!

Redesigned all 8 holy symbols for the Gods and Goddesses in the pantheon!

Concepts done for all 32 achievements!!

Revamped all of my social media!!

COMMUNITY

Pictured: Sweet mousepads!!

Hosted the 4 Year anniversary stream in the Catalyst Discord server in September!

Featured in the PARANOIA festival in October!

Partnered with mimomedia for a live vtuber performance of Catalyst: Blind Faith (this will take place on January 20th)!

Selected as a speaker for the upcoming VN Conf on January 27th, you can get tickets and more info here!

Monthly updates for our incredible Patrons.

Over a dozen Tumblr posts.

120+ new Twitter followers!

50+ new Discord members!!

8000+ new views on Catalyst: Blind Faiths' game page on itch.io!

800+ new downloads!!!

7 new glowing reviews on the game's page! (This is a great way to support the game, feel free to leave us a nice review if you have played the demo!)

Got the opportunity to make some merch from Vograce, a lucky Patron and we now have matching mousepads featuring Richard and Orgoth!!

DIRECTING

Pictured: The logo for Just Write Studios!

Founded Just Write Studios. <3

Brought together 7 of my strongest warriors (our art director, background artist, lead editor, quality assurance team, and composer)!

Created a studio compendium for Catalyst: Blind Faith!

Managed our 4 year community anniversary event!

Coordinated streams for PARANOIA and throughout the year!!

Partnered with mimomedia!!

Oversaw and picked from auditions from 146 vtubers for the live performance!!!

Participated in a research discussion regarding choices in interactive fiction!!

PROGRAMMING

Pictured: Our robust save and load system!

Timelapse animation with a pause and play button!

Scrolling credits screen

Toggle for any SFX

Toggle for quick menu

Slider for textbox opacity

Revamped inventory system!

Unlockable save system

Robust save and load screen

All splash screens and ending screens for the demo

Pimped out History menu

Sleek functionality for the entire players Journal

Functional gallery (will be finished in 2024)

Learned how to use the action editor in Ren'Py and incorporated tons of camera movement into the demo!!

TIME TRAVEL

SOUND

Pictured: A short sample of the MANY sound effects used in Catalyst: Blind Faith!

Harvested over 160GB of SFX and music.

Laboriously picked out placeholder music for the entire demo

Mixed many sound effects, including custom noises for gore

Unique SFX provided by Amidst None and Addigale Stewart for the JWS logo, choice menus, and more!!

Balanced EVERYTHING

WRITING

Pictured: The completed flowchart for the demo of Catalyst: Blind Faith. The full game's flowchart is way too long for here lol

Beat NaNo twice

Outlined, wrote and edited 545k+ words

Which completed almost three full passes through the script of Catalyst: Blind Faith (70 chapters, 66 chapters, and 49 chapters respectively)!

Mapped every single choice and variable across the script so far in a flowchart in Twine

Finalized choices for two more routes (the remainder of the script will be written in 2024)

Finished the 45k word script for the demo

Brought onboard 16 beta readers, editors, quality assurance leads, and reviewed a cumulative 185 chapters together.

Began a critique group and have reviewed 27 chapters together.

HEALTH AND WELLNESS

Pictured: Our new logo.

Made it through an awful health scare that had me in and out of the hospital (as a result of medication and many misdiagnoses). Luckily I am totally recovered!

Also made it through COVID for the first time (due to aforementioned health issues this was particularly difficult)

Got outstanding support for my long-term sleep issues

Fully upgraded my motherboard, CPU, and graphics card!

Lined up for a nice raise at my day job (I'm working 45-50 hours a week at a day job, on top of all of this, to fund the demo).

Celebrated my nine year anniversary with my partner. Without her support I could not have done any of this. 

We made it! That's the entire recap. I can hardly believe that this year was so remarkably productive, despite everything.

Thank you so much for reading this far and joining me in 2023! This coming year I have BIG plans for development. All of us at Just Write Studios are working incredibly hard to complete the demo of Catalyst: Blind Faith. My goal is to complete the script for the full game, and to get as many art assets commissioned as possible. We still have a lot of work to do, but I am more motivated and determined than ever to get it all done!

Patrons will be getting sneak previews at art assets as they are made, script excerpts, and a whole lot more. Keep an eye out on our socials for updates! You can find us on Discord, Twitter, Tumblr, Itch.io, Ko-Fi, and here on Patreon.

I hope you have a fantastic new year. Here's to a bright and productive 2024! See you soon!

[just-write-studios]

Which Route Should I Write Next?

Happy Halloween! I'm over 500k words into writing my dark fantasy and horror visual novel's script, but I can't decide which route to embark on next lol. I made a poll so you guys can vote to decide! (You do not need to be a Patron!) https://www.patreon.com/posts/which-route-i-92021611

This isn't an exhaustive list of every route that's in the game, cause I've already written a ton, but these are the ones that we're picking from! To show my thanks to my Patrons, they're getting a deep dive into my plans for whichever route wins with this month's post! There's a good three weeks for everyone to decide. I'm really looking forward to seeing how this goes!

Hope you have a very happy holiday, thanks so much for taking a look!

[just-write-studios]

Demon Month Feature: Yech and Remigius

To wrap up dEmOn mOnTh, we'll be taking a look at moodboards and script excerpts for two demons from the full game of Catalyst: Blind Faith! I've been posting all month long about the demons in our game and I'm so pleased to bring you more on Yech and Remigius under the cut!

“This is all a terrible idea. Of course I'll help you.”

“All I need is to satisfy my people. My darlings. My demons.”

I hope you all have enjoyed these teasers and have had a fantastic, spooky month! Tomorrow I have something I'm extremely excited to announce, looking forward to sharing with you then!!

[just-write-studios]

Demon Month Continues with another Teaser!

Hope October has been treating you all well! Today's teaser is for a demon represented by negative space, planned for the full game of Catalyst: Blind Faith — a demon of obscurity.

The art above are stunning inspirational pics by Tang Yau Hoong!

Script excerpt is under the cut!

"The demon's voice croons in your ear. Nails on a chalkboard would sound sweeter. Their voice is so hoarse, you don't doubt that they have screamed for the last several hundred years.

"Please look at me. Please. Please. I'm begging you.""

[just-write-studios]

Demon Month Teaser!!

Happy Friday the 13th!!! Today we've got a particularly heinous monster's concept to share, as well as a teaser from the full script for Catalyst: Blind Faith! (The excerpt is under the cut.)

"From the direction you came—and lining the corridor you have yet to traverse from floor to ceiling—are hundreds of tooth-filled mouths. Each set of bloodied, gaping lips has coalesced into a singular, writhing mass. Despite invoking the power of your Goddess, She cannot reach this monster any longer. You recognize the being of pure communication for what it is in an instant. The demon of Spirit is not merely covering the walls and floor. It is the walls, ceiling, and floor—and your Spirit can discern intelligence in its collective, screaming madness."

[just-write-studios]

Demon Month Feature!!

A quick peek at the second demon from the demo of Catalyst: Blind Faith! A script excerpt is just below the cut!

"The head of the demon moves to face you. The resemblance she bears to a human is all but artificial. Even without standing on two legs, her proportions are monstrous. There are no pupils or whites in the pits of her insect-like eyes, as she leers down at you from a great height. Your stomach turns at the insects crawling beneath the surface of her skin. The hair atop her head is more akin to a shedded carapace than individual strands. Her teeth mirror the claws and fangs upon her more insect-like half, as she bares them all at you, and moves to charge."

[just-write-studios]

DEMON MONTH FEATURE: Mondost, the Demon of Calamity

A very special sneak preview of the script for this demon's appearance!!!! It's from an easter egg route, just for you all, right under the cut! I hope you enjoy!

"The frontmost head of the demon rears its head back and lets loose a blast of fire from its blackened lips. The heat it emits chars and blisters the peak of the ceiling. Heavy chunks of molten stone fall, then collide with the inferno that licks along the waterway. Steam clouds your sight. The lightning that momentarily danced along the water didn't seem to reach you, but the flames left in its wake are abundant. The sheer heat of the room makes your other injuries a trifle. It feels as if you're being cooked alive. As fire dances on water, every one of your lacerated fingers tenses and twitches. Mundane weapons will not do a thing against a monstrosity who rivals the height of a Church. There is only one way you can fathom surviving the brunt of this beast."

[just-write-studios]

DEMON MONTH: Featuring Malimos, the Master of Webs

"Tell me more, human. Tell me of the ways of the insects that creep and crawl above our ruins."

Today's DEMON MONTH feature is Malimos, a spider-like demon who specializes in communication. Character design by our incredibly skilled character artist, Betto!

Spinning is one of the oldest things that makes us human. Spinning textiles, spinning tales— and in the case of this ancient demon, spinning webs.

Feel free to check out our free demo, if you'd like to share your story with Malimos or hear his own tale! He's one of the first demons you encounter in Catalyst: Blind Faith. Be sure to mind your step, though. Like all spiders, Malimos is a carnivore, and typically hunts for live prey.

[just-write-studios]

It's DEMON MONTH!

Happy DEMON MONTH! It's the spookiest and most wonderful time of year. To celebrate this month and the release of the newest update to our game's demo, October will be all about our monsters! In Catalyst: Blind Faith, a phenomenon known as the "Catalyst" is turning mankind into demons. The Catalyst triggers in humans who fall prey to any one element, and it can be anything: fear, grief, generosity—even love. This wallpaper/teaser pic is of almost every demon planned for our full game. I hope you can look forward to meeting them with me!

[just-write-studios]

Catalyst: Blind Faith is a visual novel set in an apocalyptic world where a strange phenomenon turns mankind into demons.

❤️‍🩹Shape the fate of a troubled young priest. 🙏Channel the power of the Gods. 🩸Seek a cure.

The new update is HERE and I am SO excited to share with you all!!!

Before playing, select "NEW GAME" from the main menu. This will ensure you encounter no bugs during this major update!

Huge, exhaustive devlog under the cut!!!! I hope you enjoy!

The following is an exhaustive devlog regarding all of the changes and updates made to the current demo version. It is available for you all on the download page. I am so proud to share this with you all and hope you enjoy!!!!

MAIN MENU

New main menu - New game, first playthrough, and saves unlock variants

Ending achievements redesigned

JOURNAL

Holy symbol redesigned

Journal redesigned (WIP paintover)

Bookmarks for all pages are interactable to flip to that section of the journal

Bookmarks flip from left to right to indicate where you are

UI

New textbox - Default, Flesh, Agriculture variants

New default font

New CTC icon - Default, Mercy, Flesh, Agriculture, Time variants

New cursor - Idle and Hover

New quick menu - Default and saves unlocked variants

Quick Menu toggle - Always or hover

Textbox opacity slider

Choice menus - default and several custom screens

New, clear indicator of choices made previously, turns red on hover.

New history menu

New death screen

All options screens redesigned - Default options, specific sound toggle, controls, and gallery

Chapter Titles - Colors, appearance, and quality quality updated - also now has a full stop so it's easier to read

High contrast outlines on all text at all times for legibility

NVL Mode!!! (In addition to the ADV mode used primarily throughout the game)

SPLASH AND WARNING SCREENS

New photosensitivity screen

New autosave screen

New content warning screen

UNLOCKABLE SAVE SYSTEM

Variable to track first completion of the game

New screen to explain save mechanic unlocking

New quick menu once saves unlocked

Custom save/Load screen accessible from quick menu

Custom load screen accessible from main menu

ART

FINAL ASSETS

Pontos (First BG) - Four color variants

Crowd in Prologue - Two color variants, one pose variant

CONCEPTS or WIP

Richard - Protagonist character concept art

Orgoth - Supporting character concept art (default + color variant)

Malimos - Demon concept art CG

Centipede Demon - Demon concept art CG

Enchanted Stairs - WIP BG (default + color variant)

Holy symbol - Item concept art

Bloody handprints - Item concept art

Buttons during Time travel - UI concept art

ALL OTHER VISUALS ARE PLACEHOLDERS, SUBJECT TO CHANGE

AUDIO

SFX added upon clicking on the choice menus

SFX changed when clicking through the Journal

SFX shortened for Ray, your best pal

SFX added for a burning building scene

WRITING

Several new contingencies added for time travel

Minor adjustments and additional descriptions throughout for clarity!

ANIMATONS

Timelapse - Transitions begin at the end of the prologue, leading into a brand new scene

Skip and pause buttons programmed in the timelapse for accessibility

Softly flashing light on quick menu during Gods monologue in Chapter 1 to point out  the journal

Time travel - Variant scenes dependent on if transitions are on/off, or if flashing lights are on/off

Endings - Each of the 8 endings has a custom series of screens

Credits - Brand new, animated sequence accessible from the options menu and at the end of each playthrough

Socials - All of our socials are available at the end of each playthrough. Kickstarter and Steam coming soon! 

Whew!! It's a lot, right? We're all working exceptionally hard to bring the final assets to you all. In the coming months I'll be sharing my progress on our socials, and strive to bring the completed demo to you all in 2024!

Please share your support on itch.io if you have fun, by leaving a positive comment or a 5-star rating!

Thank you all so much for your time and enthusiasm. I'll be sharing more updates with you all soon!

[just-write-studios]

NEEEWW Upcoming Demo Features!!!

THERE'S A LOT OF COOL STUFF IN STORE I am working incredibly hard so I'll keep this short!!! More under the cut.

WE GOT A LOT INBOUND, STRAP IN

The starting scene/Prologue is totally done with the visuals for our final BG, a crowd, and final UI!!!

The fully interactive, diegetic Journal menu, with bookmarks for navigation!

Dynamic pages in the Journal for every God, the demons you see, people you meet, the items you carry, maps you make, and notes you take! (You can even write your own notes aaaa)

The Gallery has gotten a huge makeover, matching the new UI!

There's literally dozens of new images.

Tons of SFX have been adjusted, balanced, and a few new ones have been added!

A sweet credits animation has been added too, to credit all of the wonderful individuals who have been working on Catalyst: Blind Faith too!!! I'm SO HYPE for this and need to get back to work, but thank you all so much for your support and feedback. Feel free to shoot me an ask about anything (but keep it SFW ty ty <3) The update will be on my itch.io page no later than this Saturday!!!!! Hope to see ya there!

[just-write-studios]

I am VERY pleased to announce that the demo for my dark fantasy and horror VN, Catalyst: Blind Faith, will be getting a HUGE update very soon! The current, publicly available version of the demo is quite old, using art placeholders from the earliest stages of development, and is lacking some awesome features:

My laboriously made, sleek, accessible UI. gRaPhIc DeSiGn iS mY PasSiOn

Cute, troubled, dog-loving, priest MC concept art

Rugged, axe-wielding, family man, bat-like orc concept art

Unhinged 2-minute long timelapse animation that isn't even in the current demo

Deranged, spider-like demon concept art (still cute)

Time travel cutscenes based on your choices!!!!

and much more!

Given that I've been working on Catalyst: Blind Faith since March 2022, that's quite awhile without you all seeing all this hard work! I swore to myself I would make the last update the penultimate version, but I don't want to keep you all waiting well into next year (when I anticipate the completion of all art and music commissions). I'm extremely excited to provide a few teasers here for you all while doing the last bits of polish for this update, and can't wait to share more! In the coming days I'll be posting here about some of the main features the updated demo will have.

Please feel free to shoot me any questions. I love to see your comments too! Our Discord community has been so incredible during the last several months, and we have been working VERY hard to make this game the best it can be for you all!

You will be able to find the demo's update here just as soon as it's ready!