i’ve been meaning to tweak melody’s face and make her look slightly more fox-like for, like, forever. so here it is! a new reference drawing for SLARPG’s protagonist
AT LONG LAST, after teasing her for months, here is the fourth protagonist of Super Lesbian Animal RPG, here to round out the party!!
Jodie Caldwell is a dependable tiger and a knight in training who uses her skills to keep her friends from getting hurt in and out of battle. Relatively wise for her age, not easily rattled, and readily supportive of those she loves, Jodie has become the de facto Mom Friend of the group. There’s no one Melody, Allison, and Claire would rather rely on in times of need, whether it’s a personal problem or a fight against otherworldly monsters. However, Jodie might be getting into some trouble of her own…
Jodie was designed with help from my co-writer @gyrostar, who came up with her hairstyle and the basis of her outfit. We’re both real excited for everyone to finally see her!!
And while Jodie is the last party member, this is still only the beginning, since we’ve got a colorful cast of NPCs that hasn’t even been touched upon yet!
as promised, here’s a look at my pixel art process! these are all the major steps i took to make the exterior of the greenridge public library. if you wanna use this for educational purposes i encourage you to open this up in photoshop or something and go frame by frame
it’s gotten a fresh coat of paint since the original version of the game, and on top of that the layout is getting a total overhaul, complete with some zelda-inspired puzzles to make the dungeon a lot more fun to navigate
i had to draw the girlfriends in winter outfits while it’s still winter
also, while i’ve got everyone’s attention, these two have last names now! melody and allison are now Melody Amaranth and Allison Goleta. and claire isn’t here but her last name is higsby
here is the main battle theme for SLARPG! this is probably the most times i’ve ever redrafted a song in my life—this is like… the fifth or sixth version i’ve made? gosh. but i think all that TLC is paying off! the version that will make it into the game this time around has much better mixing, better drum sounds (from the Commodore 64 lol), and a more solid and exciting arrangement versus the one from SLHRPG. which is really important, since you hear it a lot!
very excited to hear this one in-game. hope you like it <3
the latest area to get a fresh coat of paint in super lesbian animal rpg is the Wasteland! this mysterious, lifeless desert is filled with seemingly ancient mechanical structures and many puzzles to solve, making it an ideal (albeit intimidating) location for melody, allison, and claire to explore
the old version of the wasteland was a low point in the original game, which is why it’s getting a lot of attention now. between the heavy graphical overhaul, the improved layout that should make it harder to get lost, and the lowered enemy count, it should be a lot more fun now
there will also be a lot of new things to see and do in the desert, but you’ll have to wait for the final game and explore the desert yourself!
recently i’ve been working on sprucing up The Uncanny Valley, SLARPG’s forest area. back in 2013 it was just a regular green forest, and it relied on its selection of enemies to make it more interesting. but now the area’s visuals reflect the strange, magical nature of the woods and fit the mood better
oh, and if you haven’t heard the new songs from SLARPG’s soundtrack that got posted this week, you can listen to them here
i hope everyone’s enjoyed this week’s themes! last, but not least, here is a theme for SLARPG’s main protagonist, Melody.
as i wrote this, i knew it needed to have a melody (ha) that was memorable. initially i tried a couple different choruses, but nothing was working—it was too forgettable, unoriginal, or just plain didn’t fit Melody. it wasn’t until i dug through some old compositions of mine that i found a song i wrote four years ago, whose chorus fit beautifully. part of me wanted to hold on to that piece for myself, but the way it came together so nicely, i couldn’t NOT use it.
it ended up being the perfect fit, as bobby explained to me the transition from a rigid, formal melody in the verses to the more relaxed, graceful chorus melody coincidentally parallels Melody’s character arc, saying: “it’s all about her trying to find her voice and figure out who she wants to be.” that’s something i relate to a lot these days, so i’m very happy that the track came together this way.
i had lots of fun making these tracks and i hope folks have had fun listening to them! there will be more to come, but that’s all for now. until then! <3
this, by far, is my favorite thing i’ve ever made in my whole fricking life. like, i hadn’t actually talked to bobby *at all* about making character themes before this happened because the idea hit me like a brick house in the face and i literally could not stop working on it until it was finished. the net result of that being me skyping bobby practically saying “so um idk if SLARP is going to need this but i made it anyway lol hi”
Allison struck me as a character who’s brash, confident—maybe at times too much so—and eager to BEAT EVIL THE HECK UP. that, combined with her reliability, screamed “high-energy positive punk chip-rock” to me, so here we are. and, since she’s described as being thought to “love the sound of her own voice,” the song finishes off with an over-the-top solo that JUST WON’T QUIT (૭•̀ω•́)૭
1. the melody played on the “sax” is also used in the battle theme (folks who played SLHRPG might know why)! ….which fyi will sound a lot better than the old version this time around
2. not counting silly joke tracks/mashups, this is *by far* the quickest track i’ve ever put together. like, factoring out some fine-tuning once the track was fully laid out, the whole thing came together in about five hours. i still legitimately don’t know how this happened.
3. especially considering that the sketch i wrote to start me going on the project was. bad. SO bad. like listen you don’t understand
4. about 75% of the sounds (all the percussion, the rhythmic chords, and the swirly pad) are ColecoVision samples lol
one night last week i was talking to bee about the other two tracks they’d already shown me (which you’ll also hear soon!), and they asked if i wanted a theme for claire. the next day i woke up, got on skype, and found out that claire’s theme was pretty much done
first in this week’s line up of [SLURP] music, a theme for Claire!
with SLARPG’s new protagonists, i wanted to create themes that would speak to each of the characters’ personalities. @ponett described Claire as someone who means well, but whose know-it-all tendencies can make her seem intimidating, bossy, and even reckless. nonetheless, she believes she’s doing the right thing and really wants to prove she’s a good friend.
with this track, i hoped to capture Claire’s awkwardness and know-it-all-itude while still keeping an optimistic vibe to the song. the odd rhythm (7/4 time!) keeps things just a beat shy of symmetrical to represent Claire’s tendency for good intentions falling through. meanwhile, her brainy qualities come through as a super patternistic arrangement: each instrument plays very strict and mathy-sounding rhythms and melodies in each section.
i geeked out a lot while making new tracks, which made me think of how something magic happens when you get to nerd all over your passion—and since Claire’s nerd passion is witchcraft, it seemed fitting to let some of that rigid mathiness loosen up and bring in some mystical vibes with smooth sax action (saxion???), to end on a note that ultimately says “this is what i love.”
also, lots of cowbell LOL
very very excited for the next theme coming up—i’ll be posting it in a couple days. stay tuned!
so excited to share the first new track for slarpg!!! bee did a really great job, this track is fantastic
The official blog of the game of the same name, about exactly what it sounds like, by Bobby Schroeder, Beatrix Quinn, and friends. Available now for PC via Steam and itch.io!
