Muffles' Life Sentence news & patch notes

Hello Muffles enjoyers!

I'm making a small change to make the Steam page simpler.

Beginning on August 3rd, 2026, Muffles will no longer be marked as "Free to Play" with DLCs for Episodes 2, 3, 4, and 5. Instead, new buyers will be able to purchase the entire game as one product for a set price. In other words, you won't have to buy each DLC separately!

If you already own some of the DLC- THERE IS NO NEED TO FEAR! I've been assured there should still be an option to purchase each episode individually.

Those who already own all of the DLCs, first of all thank you <3, and second of all you should not be affected by this change.

Thank you all for the continued support! More Muffles announcements are on their way soon!

-Bossy

Hello g-g-gamers,

Endings are freakin' hard. You're writing, writing, writing and in the flow and you're peeling back layers and building on concepts and just when you think you're getting the hang of it- BAM! Time's up. You have to bring all the loose threads together in a coherent way that is satisfying and doesn't feel rushed.

When I wrote the last chapter for Muffles, I was intimidated. It is by far my biggest story and I wanted to end strong, focusing on the main themes, and doing right by the cast of characters we met on our journey.

And I ignored ALL of these instincts when writing the secret ending, and I'm going to tell you all about it!

Muffles' Secret Ending

WEE WOO WEE WOO spoilers ahead!

I am going to be talking about Muffles’ secret endings, so if you want to remain untarnished by my wicked little secrets until you’ve had the chance to discover them yourself…

Turn back.

Or else. 

… or else you’ll be spoiled! There’s worse things, but I don’t like spoilers personally so I’m reeeeeeally dragging this out to give you a chance to change your mind…

… okay let’s do this.

Muffles' Secret Ending (for real)

Each episode has a secret entrance to a room dedicated to the cult practices of Maddox's previous warden, Tolbus Maddox. He used riddle-bound shadowkeys to hide the entrances from all but the most persistent of prisoners.

The man dedicated years to extracting the secrets that pushed the limits of reason and morality. The texts inscribed in these rooms are some of the only kept records of his findings, and the world might have been better off had they been destroyed.

If you manage to fulfill the requirements of the final cult room, you possess the potential of the Undoom- the culmination of Tolbus's findings and experimentation. You're left with a choice. Destroy the apparatus, or use it as it was intended. Indulge the rite, invoke the never-ending night, and bring an end to it all.

Why does Bossy want players to Ctrl-Alt-Delete the world?

For context, everything cult room related was added after the main story was complete. This gave me a lot of freedom to focus on mostly lore and have a lot of fun with some characters that never got their chance to shine in the main game.

The thing I KNEW I wanted to do with this opportunity was get a little wacky with it. Maybe not 'Shiba Inu named Mira wearing a headset in a hidden control room in Silent Hill' wacky, but still. That close to the end of the game, powerful cards and HP/BS upgrades aren't going to be as impactful as a choice that's fun to see play out.

Lessons for the future

Muffles taught me a lot about endings, and there's a lot I want to improve on for the future. I also learned not to underestimate the power of the secret ending- at least in a game where you can save any time you want.

Muffles was treated horribly by the world. Tolbus believed the world to be beyond saving, and dedicated his life to 'wiping the slate clean.' It isn't unthinkable that Muffles might draw the conclusion that the world has more bad than good in it, and justify a fresh start.

Horrifying.

In other news...

Gosh all this talk about catastrophic endings... what a bummer drag, man. If only Bossy had some reaaaally cool news he was announcing in the near future... you know, to balance out all these bad vibes!

Stay tuned y'all :)

Adios~

Hello everyone!

I was thinking about Muffles today and about all y'all and what might be a good topic for this month's devlog.

The topic of music has been coming up in the Discord recently, so I thought I'd break down one of my favorite Muffles' tracks- The Ballad of Jack from Episode 2!

I try to do something unique with each boss track, and this one's no exception. Follow along with the audio tracks and I'll walk through how I built this song up from nothing but vibes and a rage against Odessa Grudge (I was channeling some Jack energy).

Let's DO IT!

Why this song?

(Spoiler) Jack is the final boss for Episode 2 and I needed to make sure he had a suitably intimidating theme song to accompany the fight.

After writing most of the dialogue immediately preceding the fight, I had a strong idea for how I wanted the fight to feel, and I wrote the song on acoustic guitar in a matter of minutes (I was lucky- many, many songs took DAYS and DAYS to write).

The verse

I pulled on some Western influences in the instrumentation and structured the song so that it started strong, built up over time, and then culminated in an intense chorus ending.

Verse_guitar_stem

Starting with the verse, I layered 2 guitar sounds (one very resonant and echoey and the other a more restrained nylon string sound). These along with the dulcimer make up the main melodic thrust of the song. These are panned mostly to the left ear.

Verse_dulcimer_stem

On the right ear, the dulcimer! Panning string sounds left and right is a CLASSIC rock technique to get a very full sound.

Verse_drum_stem_1

Verse_drum_stem_2

The main drum sound came from a rock kit VST with a lot of low tom hitting, along with a constantly 'ch ch ch ch' hi-hat pedal.

Verse_kick_stem

And then I laid a bass kick sound that I gave a lot of high-end clickiness so it would cut through everything and shine.

Verse_complete

Altogether, the verse came together to sound a bit like a Diablo 2 track mixed with some arpeggiated Spanish flamenco influences. At least that's how I hear it- let me know what you think!

The chorus

Alright, we're finally to the good part.

Chorus_strings_stem

A guitar with some strings outlines a slower melody that is meant to simplify the end section and give it more OOMPH! There might be a lot of notes going on underneath it, but this helps wrap everything up and keep it cohesive.

Chorus_drum_stem

The drums now just emphasize the quarter notes and slam on the cymbals. I kept it simple so that I could be a liiiittle bit tricky with the kick drum.

Chorus_drum_stem

For the most part, the kick mirrors the other drums. But in the last quarter of the measure, I use doubles on the kick to really drive the beat home. Instead of 'BUM BUM BUM' it is 'BUMbum BUMbum BUMbum.' Does that make sense? Hopefully!

Chorus_synth_stem

FL studio has some free VSTs through its FLEX plugin. This one is called Atmos 'Fearsome' and it SO COOL SOUNDING. It makes me think of spirits escaping from the underworld, and something about Jack's skeletal visage pairs perfectly with it for me. I am using it to produce a very high whistly sound, as well as a low bassy one.

Chorus_Bosendorfer_stem

And last, the nobel Bösendorfer- a sort of jangly piano reminiscent to me of western saloon pianos. It is pretty compressed and 'slammy' to help give some extra juice to the chorus and keep the melody from being lost behind the drums.

Chorus_complete

And finally, all together!

In summary

Thanks for following along and listening. I love breaking down tracks like this and would be happy to do more if people are interested. Let me know! I read all the comments. That's right- I'M WATCHING YOU!

This isn't a generic line I wrote- I mean I am watching YOU specifically. Best believe it.

In other news

Happy June! Happy Pride month!

Hope everyone is doing well! The music stuff I alluded to earlier maaaay or may not be linked to Muffles music coming to certain new platforms... some exciting news coming in the near future!

Adios gamers~

(A little music to accompany your reading if you want)

Hello gamers,

Big things are coming. Big, exciting, Muffle-tastic things.

Aaaaaand I can’t talk about any of those things yet so I wanted to share some early Muffles' Life Sentence with y’all and talk about how I went from never having made pixel art to being the sole artist for an RPG.

As always, thank you to all of those leaving comments- I read them all!

Starting with Dee

The first ever character portrait I made was of Dee! This was before I really knew anything about Muffles. 

It was also before I knew anything about character proportions, perspective, dithering, and using symmetry. This is why Dee looks so different from almost every other character in the game- I was still figuring out my style and what the look of Muffles should be.

I ended up having to have another go at a Dee portrait when I made the ‘young Dees’ at the start of Episode 2, and you can see a lot more technique is being used.

Here’s some other portraits from around that time that show the transition from struggling to figure out what works, to having a liiiiiittle bit of confidence. It takes time, and a lot of failures, but one nice thing about using black/white on a 72 x 72 canvas is that you can iterate REALLY FAST.

Comparing new and old character portraits

We just looked at where I started- what did 1.5 years of making characters teach me about making a compelling and readable portrait?

Let’s look at… well, okay this character is a bit of a spoiler so I’m going to avoid saying their name. Just know you don’t see this face until the very last episode.

I’m using only outlining to show that the hair is a bit understated and pushed back. The suit they are wearing tells us they are concerned about appearance and think themselves refined in some sense. I am able to show a little bit of 3-dimensionality on the tentacles and use strategic asymmetry to indicate they are flapping about. Their eyes and brow indicate they are perhaps angry, perhaps obtuse. 

That’s a bunch of words to say I got better at making an interesting character. Because at the end of the day, that’s the only thing these techniques are worth having for. It all has to come together to make someone who at a glance you say ‘oh, interesting, what’s their deal’ and ‘oh, I think they got THIS going on’ and ‘I want to make out with them.’ 

The last one is not a stated goal and is actually something I never think about. This is why I’m still a dirt-poor game dev- if I was giving the people what they wanted, I could be rolling in that game dev DOUGH!

Probably not going to happen.

Works in progress

I didn’t end up recording screenshots of me working on art until preeeeetty late in the process of making Muffles. I didn’t even know that’s something y’all would want to see! But I’ll be keeping that in mind for the future… (makes mysterious hand gestures at you).

Fanart time

Aaaaand here's fanart courtesy of lovely Alan from the Discord to remind everyone that no matter how good at art Bossy gets, Muffles fans will be better.

Holy crap, like- A LOT better.

Bossy you better step it up for the next game.

… in other news

HELLO everyone! How’s everyone doing? Things seem kind of hard right now. Do you feel that way too?

Like, it’s hard to point to any one specific thing, but all around there’s a sort of vibe of ‘why is this so hard’ and ‘can’t I sit on the couch and eat ice cream instead?’

Or maybe that’s just a me thing.

Goodbye, and have a lovely May! I hope your days are rewarding, your insights are profound, and your ice is creamed and probably birthday cake flavored.

(Comment your favorite ice cream flavor below.)

Hello gamers,

It’s finally kind of settled in that the full story of Muffles’ Life Sentence is done and out there in the world. My brain has been working to process it all and right now I’m feeling… great about it!

There’s a few BIG things and features still on the horizon for Muffles (some that are still a bit too secret to talk about) but the full story being out and most of the bugs being fixed has instilled me with some peace as of late. I hope y’all out there enjoy the game, and thank you so much for the kind comments and reviews- I read them all and they mean a lot.

Speaking of features on the horizon… what’s this about a Music Menu? And how did it nearly BREAK Bossy’s brain to make it?

What is the Muffles music menu?

I’d been toying with the idea for a way to listen to the game’s music from in game for a while. There’s the jukebox in Your Mind that you can unlock, but its tedious menu interface and its use being location restricted made it less than ideal.

The upcoming feature I’m working on will be accessible from the pause menu and have a list of every song in the game to listen to! Each song will unlock after you’ve heard it for the first time, meaning you can collect music and listen back to your heart’s content.

And speaking of the jukebox- I’ve actually already repurposed the device in Your Mind to play a random song that you can dynamically change the pitch of while listening. It’s kind of fun! And I like that it serves a different role than the music menu will.

So… fine, Bossy’s adding a menu for Muffles music enjoyers- what’s the big issue?

It’s the OTHER feature the menu brings that self-inflicted a non-insignificant amount of psychic damage to Bossy (and predictably, Bossy is weak to psychic-based attacks).

Every song in Muffles gets a (small) story

I decided (much like Icarus decided he should fly) to include a fun comment/anecdote/story to the menu as you scroll through Muffles songs. How’d this song get written? What story details do I remember from that time? What has Bossy learned along the way? 

All this and more! The music menu will be a fun way to give y’all a sneak peek behind the curtain of how Bossy wrote these songs and share secrets!

But wait, does that mean Bossy wrote something for every single song?

I wrote something for every single song

Every… single… song. Every version, every ambient track, every piano tune, every battle track.

Hundreds of songs- almost 300 in fact. I would look it up but it’s 6:42 AM and I’m still in bed and I’ll look it up before I post this (BOSSY don’t forget to add the actual number here! DON’T FORGET!) (it looks to be 344)

The first 50 were fun. The next hundred were a challenge. The hundred after that were a mire. And the last 50 Bossy let slop-brain write. Any WEIRD descriptions you see, you can probably guess when THOSE got written.

For those on the discord, you might recognize some names mentioned- and Nomad even got to write a few of them! It’s a multi-mention-muffles-music-menu! (BOSSY don’t forget to take the last part out before you post this. It’s dumb. DON’T FORGET!)

Who doesn’t like a good secret?

Ultimately, some really fun tidbits and stories found their way into the music menu, and I think it turned out to be a good opportunity. Would I do it again? I don’t know I’m still kind of sleepy right now. Maybe.

Some examples

• Showdown in Blind Eye: For the longest time, there was this bug during the showdown where Streets would wander in front of the saloon and block people from coming outside, freezing the cutscene.

• The Lonely Heart: Marcelo likes his tools. I tried using instruments that mimicked the sound of metallic clanging and high-pitch power tools.

• Shattered (Shatter's Theme): Originally Shatter was just going to be a guy named Staav.

In other news

Happy April everyone! I’m trying to appreciate these overcast days before the fiery hell that is summer sweeps over the land and reduces us all to cinders. Why couldn’t we just have 2 falls every year? It even has 2 names- autumn and fall!

Thank you all so much for the kind comments and words. I’m so committed to sharing more creative stuff with you all and have more exciting stuff yet to come.

In the meantime, I hope you are healthy, I hope you are brave, and I hope you have a lovely month.

Adios~

• Crash after end game credits fixed.

New Features:

• New card library menu + deck editor UI and optimization fixes!
• If you've used the Pete Mind Refurbishment ring, the TV in Your Mind now has a few channels to watch...

Bug Fixes:

• Card types (the ones listed at the top) have been reordered to put attack/skill at the bottom
• Some cards with overflowing desc shortened
• Credits updated
• Misc text issues fixed

Episode 2:

• Fixed some Dee sprite issues in Deepwater

Episode 4:

• E4 added a sign to the peak to make it a liiiiiiittle more obvious that you can jump off
• Changed one of the dream crimes

Episode 5:

• island on the far right was unreachable (causing issues with getting all Stashes)
• Moved one of the mirror saves on Jangus and fixed issue with being the wrong char coming back from the mind
• Solved issue with Undoom room not staying dark

Hello gamers,

In case you haven’t heard the word on the street… Episode 5 of Muffles’ Life Sentence is live! That means you can now play the entire story, front to back—no more waiting for future releases.

Huge thanks to all of you who have been playing and spreading the good word about Muffles. I’m inspired by so many of you who have reached out with support, stories, questions, and fan art. It keeps me going when things get hard. And sometimes game dev gets pretty hard (I’ll get to that in a minute).

Muffles on the Mind

Unlike those of you playing E5 for the first time, I’ve had a lot of time to reflect on it. Even after it was implemented, we had almost two months of testing before release, which gave me and testers time critique and analyze things.

It now feels like the perfect time to do a mini postmortem and reflect on what I did right—and wrong—in making Muffles. I’m going to focus mainly on the big picture and what this means moving forward, and leave a more detailed analysis for later.

So let’s get into it—put on your thinking caps and fasten your seat belts.

What Did I Want For Muffles?

Here was my list of goals in making my first major game:

• Make a good game

• Focus on writing interesting characters in a compelling story

• Learn how to make art through highly stylized visuals

• Build a community via social media/Discord who would want to hear about my next project

• Be able to make more games

I’m going to go through these one by one and touch on (in my opinion) where Muffles ended up landing. I had big ambitions with my first game and knew how high the stakes were to get it right. A lot of this is based on feedback I’ve heard from others, with my own judgment filling in the gaps.

Make a Good Game

Muffles is interesting. The top-down, three-color pixel art style works surprisingly well. The deckbuilder combat is a bit slow and clunky, but it has satisfying moments and tension. The humor seems to land for a lot of people, and themes of identity are explored without overshadowing the plot.

I think Muffles isn’t always set up to be the most fun game. It also has spooky elements, but it isn’t really a horror game. It’s kind of a weird RPG, but those who go into it expecting a traditional RPG experience will be very surprised.

I think it’s fair to say Muffles has a bit of its own identity crisis—one that makes marketing it and placing it in an easy-to-understand category pretty difficult.

Characters and Story

Y’all love some weird little freaks. And I love writing them. The premise of Muffles gave me a ton of mileage to see a number of characters through to the end while sprinkling in new ones along the way. I think my best writing may have peaked earlier in the story, but I feel really proud of the characters I brought to life and confident about doing more going forward.

Each episode was a bit of a different beast. While I think that makes for a varied progression, it also led to some tonal inconsistencies. Episodes 4 and 5 received a lot of critique, and I’ve learned so much about writing to theme. I ended up doing a lot of rewrites for Episode 5 that helped, but some of that could have been avoided from the start.

Learning How to Make Visuals

People are always so complimentary about Muffles' visual style. As someone who couldn’t draw a good-looking circle before working on Muffles, it’s been meaningful to hear that people connect to the game through the art. Working on Muffles has given me the confidence to try new mediums, explore new styles, and improve my pixel art skills significantly.

The choice for Muffles to be 2D pixel art with a restrictive color palette was a necessary one. While it turned out looking nice, I have mixed feelings. I believe the style and direction are major factors in the game’s marketability struggles. Realistically, any top-down, retro-style indie game is going to turn away a large portion of the gaming audience. Those games can still find major success—but it’s harder.

Find People Who Like the Weird Stuff I Make

If you’ve read this rambling devlog up to this point—guess what? You’re exactly the kind of person I’m talking about!

Muffles hasn’t performed well on social media (aside from some decent response on Reddit), and the Discord is small but growing all the time. But while Muffles may lack player numbers, the players it does have are absolutely phenomenal.

Those of you who engage with others, talk about the story, post fan art, give feedback, playtest, share the game, and read the devlogs—I truly believe that many successful games right now don’t have half the heart and creativity that Muffles’ community has. And that’s because of you. It’s incredibly cool.

Make More Games

To everyone who bought Muffles or supports the Patreon: thank you. Truly. I don’t want my next words to diminish the impact your support has had in helping ensure more games can come out of my brain.

I thought that if I created a really good RPG Maker game inspired by games like OFF and Paper Mario, it could grow into something sustainable—something that would allow me to keep making games long term.

Good news: for now, I’m going to keep making games. I’m not going to substantially compromise my style or the kinds of projects I want to pursue just to build a career in game dev. But I’ve also learned a lot. Change can be good—and exciting—and might help bring the weird ideas in my head to more people in the big, scary world.

All in All

Well, it’s happened again. What I claim to be a devlog is actually just an excuse to stay in bed a few extra hours and sort through my complicated, often conflicting thoughts about Muffles.

You might be wondering… what does this all mean for Bossy and future games?

Nothing outright just yet. But... it probably means moving to 3D. Shorter games—possibly much shorter. Likely leaning more into outright horror. And talking with all of you to make sure the next thing is as great as it can be.

More details to follow. For now—thank you for being part of the adventure.

In other news…

I need to get up. I’m so hungry.

Bye!

-Bossy

General:

E5 (hidden for spoilers):

Hello gamers,

I just pushed the big green steam button, and you know what that means.

Episode 5 is here! You can now play the entire story of Muffles RIGHT NOW!

Wow, what a journey it's been. I feel proud of what I, testers, and players have been able to accomplish. I'm so excited for people to be checking out Muffles and getting to see it through to the end.

We've got a bit more in store after E5, but by and large Muffles is now released. As always, I love hearing your feedback and comments- let me know what you think! And if you find any bugs, PLEASE let me know and I will fix them.

I don't deserve you all. You guys share Muffles with your friends and make amazing fanart and play trying to get every achievement- it is really special getting to make this game for you all and start a career in game dev.

Thank you.

-Bossy

Hello everyone!

This is a pre-Episode 5 patch that fixes/updates a lot of stuff. It even has some new features for E1-4!

Reminder that E5 is coming SO SOON (2/26/26) and if you run into any issues at all, please reach out here on Steam OR in the discord! :)

FEATURES

• Secret Cult Rooms: there's a safe puzzle that unlocks a riddle in each episode that grants access to a secret lore room. Get them all and in E5 you can unlock a secret (horrific) ending!

• Swirlitzer Jukebox: Now works totally differently! Punch it to play a random song, turn the dial to change the pitch.

• New Input: Using an entirely new input system that should make setting hotkeys and using controllers much easier.

• New Nightmare FIght: The Episode 4 Nightmare fight (#3) is now unlockable.

BUG FIXES:

Overall Fixes:

• Visual indicator for accessible Nightmares

• Poncho training dummy battle song

• Some cards/fights rebalanced or changed entirely

• New Poncho codes added (DM me if you want some)

• Fixed the FEAR font (the one Skitter pettys/petty zombies/E1 Fathom uses)

• Now in your mind your forced to be Muffles and can't swap

• Fixed issue where re-entering a map can make Odie tracks disappear

• Fixed a bunch of Kunie tileset collisions

• Many misc bug/text fixes and improvements

Episode 1:

• New art for Spike and Fathom

• Suzan fight song remixed

Episode 2:

• Loveless memory added

Episode 3:

• Fixed doll house issue where you can reactivate petty cutscene

Episode 4:

• Added a ton more E4 battle animations

• Removed out of bounds walking on the mountain

• End of E4 saves with player stuck being Maddox statue can now leave

Episode 5:

• Oh so, so much. But it's not out until 2/26!

Form to pick boss music for NG+ here (spoilers!)

Hello gamers,

Wow it’s a new month already. Episode 5 of Muffles' Life Sentence has been in testing for a few weeks and let me tell you- things are… mostly... going well there!

Endings are hard. And I want to give this game the best final chapter possible. You all deserve it. I want to deliver the best game I can- it’s just a matter of figuring out the right way to make it all happen.

And today, I want to talk about an exciting part of episode 5- and how everyone reading this can (legitimately) make an impact on Muffles' New Game Plus!

The end isn’t the end

For those who don’t know, New Game+ (NG+) is a way to replay a game, often ones with substantial story and game progression, while carrying over your levels, skills, stats, etc. In order to balance things, the ‘plus’ part of NG+ adds some changes to the game, often scaling enemy difficulty up and adding new challenges.

The challenge for these modes is figuring out how many new things to offer in an NG+. Only a subsection of players will ever encounter it, but those that do will LOVE additional features, secret content, and being able to build up their characters higher than ever possible in a single play-through.

A big reason I’m adding a NG+ mode to Muffles is because I’ve started adding more hidden content and puzzles that you might miss on a single playthrough, as well as adding rewards like new color palettes that some players want to use on earlier areas of the game.

The new content is special boss music

In addition to scaling up enemies in combat, certain fights will have brand new, alternative fight music! I thought this could be a fun way to give something extra to future playthroughs, while at the same time not being so exclusive that people feel pressured to play again if they aren’t feeling it.

Here’s some examples of boss music I’m planning on using:

• Song 1

• Song 2

• Song 3

Help Bossy pair music with fights

I need all your help to figure out what songs would be coolest with what fights!

USE THIS LINK to access 14 never before heard songs (you may have heard a few if you're part of the Discord) and let me know what fights you think they'd pair well with. Obviously warning that there will be SPOILERS in the drop-down menus showing the different fights and enemies across the episodes.

Have ideas for song names? Think some of the songs could use a bit more polish? Want to call Bossy a hack? Use the desc section at the bottom of the form OR just message him on Discord directly!

In other news,

Episode 5 is coming so soon. A huge thank you to the patrons and discord members who have given so much helpful feedback on story, mechanics, pacing, and a ton of other things. I'll keep saying it until I'm a broken record- Muffles wouldn't be half the game it is without you.

I'm not even joking- Bossy might have stopped halfway if not for y'all. And what a freakin' shame that would have been.

Hope you all are staying safe and warm. Until next time!

Adios~

Hello everyone and Happy New Year! I am definitely NOT going CRAZY thinking about how fast 2025 flew by and wondering how I'm going to get everything I want done in the new year.

Today I want to talk to you about something front of mind- playtesting Muffles' Life Sentence. Why? Because playtesting on the final episode is set to start REALLY SOON! I'd give an exact date but trust me, it's coming very soon.

How have playtesters impacted Muffles? How do I use feedback to make the game better? And what about RPGs necessitates a lot of player involvement during the creation?

I have no idea. 

Just kidding I got some ideas.

Players are the secret weapon

Our playtesters have much more impact on Muffles than they even realize. It's not just about bugs and typos- they help guide the pacing, flow, balance, and focus of the entire experience. And for an RPG, these things are absolutely critical!

I joke with the inmates (members of the Discord) when they bring up crazy and silly ideas that if they aren't careful I will put their ideas in the game full stop. For some reason, that doesn't in any way stop them from throwing out wild suggestions.

A few ideas from players that I used in game:

• Emo pettys

• Secret dialogue if you sequence break into the Drachencrag orientation room

• A map that Dee scribbled to help you navigate Tangletop forest

A lot of times it's people telling me they really like a certain character, and so I'll give them more of a chance to shine. Other times it's a lot more subtle, with different players having vastly different or contradicting opinions on characters, combat, places, story elements, etc.

No better time for me to touch on how I use (and when I don't use) feedback.

Without a vision, feedback will destroy you

Someone will say "I think this combat encounter is too long." And then you'll shorten it by giving the enemies less health, or simplifying mechanics, or some other method. And then someone else will say "Ah man I really liked how it was before that change!"

And then what do you do? Change it back or leave it as is? Do you listen to the person with the most experience giving feedback? Are you unbiased enough to listen to your own instincts and filter out what some of your players are telling you?

Don't make it so complicated! Follow your pillars and your inspirations!

Because I want Muffles' to feel like the strange and disturbed child of Paper Mario, OFF, and Undertale, I can look to these to know what choices to make. 

If I know the player suggesting the combat is too long is not a hardcore strategy player and prioritizes enjoying the story elements, then their feedback is probably the gold standard because that's the kind of game I'm trying to make!

You have thousands of choices you can make in the process of building an RPG. Follow your vision. Filter feedback through your goals, your inspirations, and your scope, and the choices you are left with are manageable.

Why do RPGs need playtesting

This one's kind of a 'no duh.' RPGs are sprawling, multifaceted, multilayered experiences where player choices stack to make for diverse experiences and where many systems work together dynamically to bring the experience to life. And also it has to be fun. And not break. And support niche strategies because those are cool. And-

RPGs are a less common game genre, especially for indies. Which is kind of weird, because I actually think they are a great fit for indies with a few caveats.

• More curated experiences (just because it's an RPG doesn't mean it needs to be all things)

• Game length and graphical scope are limited

• Insightful playtesters are involved in every step of the process

Even as I write these, I can see how they might seem antithetical to the core idea of an RPG- games that are famously gargantuan, graphically-polished, and wide-ranging experiences. Are you asking yourself- how can there be a GOOD RPG that doesn't meet these principles?

*COUGH* Muffles' Life Sentence *COUGH*

In Other News

New year, new fears. 

I mean hopes and dreams! What are y'all's resolutions? What games are y'all playing? Want to play Muffles' Life Sentence Episode 5? You should join the Discord and hit up Bossy or Nomad!

Until next time~

Hello gamers,

Another month, another devlog! And instead of my usual ramble I figured I'd share some of the progress I've been making on Episode 5! The final chapter for Muffles' Life Sentence is going to be INSANE and I can't keep it all to myself for so long so... let's dive into it!

New Song: Half-Devoured

Half-Devoured (New Song)

Apparently Bossy couldn't get enough of recording music live and so he's back again with a death metal song for Episode 5. His goal- go as heavy as he possibly can.

It's so fun writing these. The entire writing and recording process only takes about an hour, but then picking the best pieces, stitching them together, and mixing everthing takes FOREVER.

I wonder how this song'll be used in Episode 5...

New Large Portrait: Onyore

Since I teased Onyore's portrait art recently, I figured I'd come clean and share the battle art too. It might still need a llittle touching up, but I like it overall. Been trying to experiment a lot more with 3 colors instead of 2 and it's CRAZY how much more you can do by expanding your palette.

Now just because Onyore gets the big art doesn't mean DEFINITIVELY that you're going to fight them or that they're secretly evil or something. But clearly something is going on with this guy, I mean just look at them.

Captain Shatter and his crew of Petty Pirates

Ahoy! I teased Cpt. Shatter on the discord the other day and you're never going to guess who he sails the seas with... it's petty pirates!

Are they all going to be named Petty Pirate or are they all going to get individual names that you can analyze and get their backstories?

You're gonna have to wait and seeeeeee.

In other news...

Happy holidays to all the Decemberists out there! I hope everyone is staying warm, playing games, and spending time with good people. As much as I love fall, winter is such a special time for me. I've got my fingers crossed for snow this year.

Until next time~

Hello there gamers,

And happy belated Halloween! It’s spooky season and I want to talk about something I love love love. Spooky games!

I’m talking about:

• What makes a spooky game vs. a horror game

• How I make Muffles’ Life Sentence a spooky RPG

• Some of my favorite spooky inspirations

Prepare for a scare!

AAAGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!

Something spooky this way comes…

Off the bat I want to establish the chasm of difference between a game with spooky/horrific elements or themes or aesthetics vs. a true horror game. These lists are not prerequisites for these kinds of games or anything, they’re just what come to mind when I compare them. 

Spooky game:

• Pulls from horrific source material to establish the darker side of your world

• Provides moody/creepy settings (dark forests, creepy mansions, caves, etc.)

• References horror tropes and visuals

Horror game:

• Using imagery or sound effects to momentarily shock the player is a key draw of the experience

• The player’s motivation and/or story plot have tension and uncertainty inherently baked in

• Uses less-forgiving game mechanics that make you feel powerless (survival resource mgmt, stealth, etc.)

• The role of enemies is less to be obstacles to rewards or fulfilling a combat power fantasy and more to punish the player and have them question survival

• Uses the unknown as fear vs. just opportunity

It’s clear from these lists that I think of these types of games pretty differently. If we think of it like art, then spooky games are the dead trees and long shadows you add to a nature scene. Horror games are the works of Giger, Zdzisław, and Junji Ito.

Muffles is not a horror game… buuuut…

I love incorporating darker elements into the world and story of Muffles’ Life Sentence, many of which have been there from the start. Set in prison, inmate surgery, your mouth is stitched shut- all that good creepy stuff.

But I wanted to be sure this never strayed into becoming a horror RPG. I love games like Pathologic, Fear and Hunger, and System Shock, which made it easy to know I wasn’t looking to make the game feel like any of them. 

I also knew I didn’t want Muffles, an RPG Maker game, to fall in the footsteps of the many wonderful RPG Maker horror games I grew up loving. The Crooked Man, Witch’s House, Ib, Mad Father- these were some of my first delves into horror PERIOD and so many used the unique limitations of the engine to craft incredible linear horror stories.

So then what did I use for reference, and why bother with spooky/horror in general if you aren’t making a full-blown horror game?

Horror is for more than just horror games

I love games and media that don’t use the horror game formula, but have elements just under the surface that add stakes and depth to everything. Undertale, OFF, and Bloodborne are a few of my favorite all time games and have a darkness to them that can be hard to shake off (hah). They explore madness, corruption of morals, bizarre experimentations, genocide, and more.

I think every RPG needs to include some elements of horror. Role-playing needs a real-feeling unreal world. Bad things happening to good people is core component humanity- but that doesn’t mean it has to be glum and dour (note to self- create some characters named Glum and Dour). 

Tragedy, death, and destruction of precious things can be fuuuuun and thematic! Like an evil hare whose death animation is to perform an Irish jig on your back, shattering your spine. 

Evidence of atrocities can be vague and mysterious! Like the all-to-familiar video game corruption stuff that’s really just purple and black goop or a color palette swap for enemies we see in a bajillion games.

But Bossy… are YOU ever going to make a REAL horror game?

Yes. At some point. Probably. 

In other news

I hope everyone had just the best Halloween. Here, the fall vibes are incredible. There’s a soft pitter of rain and the leaves are red and where they belong- on the ground.

I’m going to start in earnest on Episode 5 on Monday- the last episode!!! It’s exciting to know so much and yet so little about what’s in store for me, Muffles, and for all of you reading who will play. 

Until next time,

-Bossy

Bossy created a softlock towards the very end of the new content and to atone he's fixed it.

What a hack.

Fixes:

• Using the Maddox Island mirror to save/go to your mind will no longer softlock you.

-Bossy

Hello MLS enjoyers!

We gotta ourselves a new patch! Mostly fixing bugs and rebalancing some cards. C'mon Bossy where's Episode 5?!?

• Before the E5 elevator ride added a short Dee cutscene

• Prediction card no longer causes error

• Fortify -> Guard Up

• Death Gripe is now: Deal +5 dmg for every -10 HP you have. Exhaust.

• Broken Binary now requires not Shocked

• Petty Pots analyze added

• Switching faces in Jangus desert makes step count disappear fixed

• Fixed some dialogue portrait display issues

• E3 Softlock talking to Elder Fred from the side fixed

• E4 Train chase NPC collision/normal dialogue fixed

-Bossy

Hello Episode 4 gamers!

Got some tweaks, some changes, and some edits coming your way:

• Ice cube softlock outside of Mr. Smiley's shop fixed

• Deck editing screen has a black bck to make it easier to read

• Added scarlet's speech song to E1 orientation CS

• You can punch Oss to fight him in E1

• Last Oss memory added correct voices

• Added a mirror right before the E5 elevator

• Pesky little cursor at bottom of suspect list GONE

As always let me know if you run into any bugs! Bugs are scary and I will destroy them. (Some bugs are cool this is hyperbole)

-Bossy

Small bug fix patch for Episode 4!

• Train records terminal repeating text bug fixed

• Petty Emos were telling spoilers in Windee City plaza

• Changed some of the court room dream crimes

• Clipping into piano in left half of mind fixed

• A bunch of little misc changes and edits

To all the Episode 4 enjoyers- thank you for playing! Be sure to hmu with any issues or bugs you find :)

-Bossy

Hello gamers,

“What if the next episode had a murder mystery set on a train AND a literal battle of the bands featuring a death metal duo?”

System Upgrade

I’ve added trains

Recording live music

In other news…

Hello to all the gamers,

Once a month, I (Bossy) sit down and reflect on what exciting things I’ve been working on for Muffles and write a devlog to share with all of you.

Well Bossy is SO BUSY working on Episode 4 that he doesn’t have time for a devlog this month. 

What a hack!

For all of you non-haters who have been defending Bossy all of these years, you’re going to have a hard time with this one. Personally, I think he's probably spending the day robbing orphans or something.

So anyway, I’m going to tease some Episode 4 screenshots to make up for it.

Also- announcement time- Muffles Life Sentence Episode 4 release date is set for OCTOBER 16! That’s like, 2 weeks away!

Hope you all are safe, happy, healthy, etc. and be sure to wishlist Episode 4 to play when it comes out.

Hello gamers,

It’s too hot in the world right now. I want a freak blizzard to hit my house and bury me in snow. 

Anyway, today I’m going to talk about the tools I use to make games. Some obvious, some I don’t hear people talk about much.

Some have taken me years to master, and others take nary more than a button click to use. But to be an indie game dev is to dabble in all the trades.

It’s tooooooool time!

Game Engines 

- RPG Maker MV

My chosen game engine recently. It is very easy to get into, and through plugins and scripting can be highly customized. Uses visual coding. Lots of support for things like battles, simple 2D tile mapping, sprite based art, etc. RPG Makers have been around for a while and the iteration from all those years has created a well thought out system. If you aren't sure about this whole ‘making a game’ thing, it’s a great place to start.

- GameMaker 2

A great engine that uses its own language called GML that I found intuitive with my limited C++, Python, and Java experience. Unlike RPG Maker, you’ll have to build every feature yourself, but you’ll be much better set to build real-time games with things like action combat and platforming. 

Art

- Aseprite

Aseprite, my love. An exceedingly simple way to get pixels on the screen. I hand draw most of my art, and I’ve yet to find a better tool to use for it than this one. Make custom brushes, it supports dithering stuff, mirror, make animations frame by frame, etc. If you’re making pixel art and/or you hate Gimp like me, it’s a great choice. 

- Gimp

Okay so I do hate Gimp, but in a way where it’s like ‘hey man I appreciate all you do to help but like, can you communicate better about stuff? And like, I never have any idea how what I do is going to affect you.’ I thought

Paint.net

was going to be my savior, but it lacks some critical features that Gimp has. Dang it.

- NewPixaTool

This is what I use to easily convert royalty free art into limited color pixel pieces. Very little of my game art uses it, but it's great for making promo stuff.

Music/Sound

- FL Studio

I love FL. Been using it since I was like 14. I don’t know if I’d start here without any MIDI or tracking experience, but this is a solid 2nd or 3rd choice down the line of learning music making. You can find lots of YouTube tutorials. 

- Audacity

Great for batching a bunch of files from OGG -> WAVE. And stuff like that. 

Video

- DaVinci Resolve

Make a YouTube short. Or an entire movie. Seriously. It's free and does a frick ton. Don't try to be too fancy starting off- just focus on clean cuts, picking the right shots, and using high quality audio.

- OBS

What I use to record gameplay, certain bugs, and for recording streams (when I remember). I don't even know what people use besides this.

File Mgmt

- WinMerge

‘Oh no my most recent build somehow destroyed everything and nothing's working. But my backup from a week ago works! WHAT DID I DO?! PLEASE TELL ME I DIDN'T LOSE A WEEK OF WORK!!!’ WinMerge will check between 2 files and highlight every difference. It’s a powerful tool that can also combine files together, though I don't use it for that very much. 

-GrepWin

‘I want to find every instance of the word ‘Timmy and replace them with Jimmy. Oh but not on this map. Oh and only if found in THIS file type.’ GrepWin can do it all and more. Use it. Please.

Planning

- TickTick 

My chosen scheduling and to-do list app. Has a good PC and phone app. Supports a bunch of different views and separates things into Tasks and Habits. I pay a cheap monthly fee to unlock the calendar views.

- Trello

Am no longer using, but is a great tool for the whole Agile thing. I was able to plan out my weekly tasks in a pleasingly visual way. 

Creative

- Whiteboard

The most powerful tool of all time. A necessity for me. Stream of consciousness thoughts that would have been lost can become actualized and processed in mere moments. Don’t by bogged down by a notebook you are continuously adding to- use a whiteboard and embrace impermanence!

- Notecards

Can for concepting turn-based stuff, grid based stuff (use scissors), and card based stuff. David Lynch use to write an idea on like 30 of these bad boys and then that would be his next movie.

- Google Docs/Sheets/Keep

Google apps > Microsoft apps. They can still be annoying as hell but everyone uses them (because they work). There are people that make 90% of a game in a spreadsheet. I’m not even joking. I use Keep because I’m an IPhone + PC user, and it lets me access things between both ecosystems (unlike Apple Notes).

- Pinterest

I’m a slut for Pinterest. I spend too much time there. But when ideas for a new project emerge, having a place to find references, color theory ideas, character concepts, etc. is so helpful. Can sometimes be more fun than helpful. Don’t spend too long in concept land- it’s not actually real.

- Chat GPT

Will mostly ask it convoluted questions to get unhelpful responses like (I literally did this one) ‘Design a horror survival game that is Binding of Isaac meets Don’t Starve where you have to survive 10 days.’ Can be more helpful for helping you code, but it has the unfortunate side effect of you will hinder your ability to write code.

- Voice Memos

Simple Apple recording app. Anytime I have a music idea, I hum it or play it. I favorite the best ones, and then use them to base my FL Studio sessions on. I have 1150 recordings and 174 favorited. Which means I should probably go and delete some. 

Networking/Social Media

- Discord, X, Bluesky, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Patreon

Lumping these together just to say I use em. Success with social media is a whole different post and frankly, I’m not sure I’m the person to ask about it. Consistency is key, and it’s all to easy to get distract when you’re trying to be productive on these sites. 

Health

- Hevy

Exercise has been proven to be super good for you. As effective as medication on helping depression. Plus you get to live longer and feel less kinda ‘ehh.’

In other news…

Jackbox tomorrow on the discord! Hyped. Hope you all are well. I’m working on Episode 4 I proooomise. MLS is in China right now for ChinaJoy. How cool is that!

Adios~

Hello to all the gamers! Long time no see. 

There’s been a ton of stuff happening behind the scenes, including work on Episode 4 of Muffles’ Life Sentence! Character design is usually pretty early in the process and has been on my mind A LOT, so why not talk about it with y’all today?

It’s time to make some misfits! Or produce some people? Illustrate some inmates?!

Methods to the madness

First off, what do I mean by ‘designing a character’?

I’m talking about the art, personality, plot arc, and relationships that a new character has. Some of these things evolve over time (just think about Shatter), but a surprising amount gets figured out before they’re even put in the game!

I don’t just use one method to design new characters. But new characters tend to be created out of one of three major categories:

• 1. A specific need in terms of plot

• 2. Messing around with character art

• 3. Influenced by other media

Now, there’s a ton of overlap within the three in terms of the process of MAKING a character, but it gives a good idea of where the design process STARTS.

The plot demands it! (Best way)

It is my overwhelming opinion that the best way to design a new character is by having a need, and then tailoring a character to fit that need. 

Have you ever been playing a game with lots of characters, like an open world adventure game, and there’s characters that have no point to them besides filling empty space? If the game has a town, it should probably be filled with people, right? But because gameplay isn’t focused around knowing the people of the town, the people end up being more set dressing than anything else.

Now let’s take that same example for Muffles- I’ve designed a few towns over the course of three episodes! The first was Blind Eye- an old timey western style town in the middle of a desert. I needed characters to live in the town, but the new setting really demanded something new and interesting, while at the same time not taking me a ton of time (dev work takes so much time).

And thus, cowpoke, miner, and fancy clerk Pettys were born! They fit the context, had a reason to be at Blind Eye, and made it really easy for me to create new and interesting dialogues because they were baked in with ideas.

Another example would be Director Suzan. I needed a character to act as an antagonist early on who would represent the sort of harsh prison reality Muffles’ is waking up to. If she was direct and absolute and angry, she would be the perfect person for other, more lighthearted characters to play off of (Dee).

And so I started playing around with character art revolving around one eye, I made her dialogue all caps, I gave her a vendetta against Dee, etc. Because Suzan was occupying a specific role in the plot, I could figure out the role she needed to fulfill, and then have a ton of fun filling that space. 

Starting with the arting (okay method)

Sometimes (rarely) I work on art without a particular character or plot need in mind. I’m just sketching out ideas, making my interpretation of a piece of reference art, or just doodling in pixels.

The amazing thing about creating characters this way is they come to life without any preconceived notions or plans. Your subconscious plays a role in art creation, and this seems like the truest method to let ideas and concepts rise up without you trying to pigeonhole everything based on preconcieved, arbitrary criteria (pursuing ego instead of a truth, or whatever).

This means new characters can break the mold and be super unique! A great example of this in Muffles would be Dee, who I drew before the game was even a solidified idear in my mind. Marcelo would be another good example- as I worked on his smug little face and beady eyes, and kept leaning into that direction, I routinely asked myself ‘just who is this guy?’ And then when an opportunity for a problematic jailer arose, he was the perfect fit for the job.

Drawing from your influences (the worst way, imo)

I think using a lot of reference and media influences to design your characters is hard to do well. When you think about fully formed characters that you REALLY like, it’s hard to be objective about them, and to pull out specific pieces of them to make your own, unique thing. The danger is you copying wholesale, but more likely you’re making something derivative. That in itself isn’t awful, but it can be a disservice to yourself and the new world you’re trying to create.

OFF is a huge inspiration for Muffles, and to bring up Director Suzan again, there’s definitely a bit of Dedan going on as an influence. Another example could be making Constant an Analyze-able character based on loving Paper Mario, where your first character is a studious little Goomba who can analyze enemies and NPCs.

Feel inspired and follow that feeling

Everyone’s going to have their own process, but for me I tend to:

• Write characters into my initial episode script based on whatever shenanigans are occurring

• I’ll find good visual references and collect some interesting ideas

• Then I draw them up with some interesting expressions

• When I add them to the game I feel it out and change things a lot to fit the moments I’m making

It’s worked well for me thus far, and with the number of characters in MLS, I needed a good method to keep the characters coming!

In other news…

Life’s been so busy. It’s good, but… I’m looking forward to some slowdown soon. Some big announcements are upcoming.

I’m so thankful to all of y’all who believe in Muffles, believe in me, and believe in positivity and hope and spread those things in our discord. Thank you. 

I know at times things can be frustrating, and sometimes you don’t feel heard or respected, and that really sucks. But I believe in you and I believe things get better with time and effort. 

Until next time~

E3 Hotfix patch (spoilers below!!!):

• Nightmare Fuel dialogue now only shows up post episode 2

• Fire sound no longer persists outside the pot room

• Eye of Humor now reads: Cannot Guard. Duplicate Humors. Gain Panic.

• Fixed weird collisions post FrankenDee chase

• Fixed a bunch of Kunie clipping issues

• Issue with walking during first Kunie CS fixed

• If you interact with radio with Headless Dee they will try to protect you from the darkness now

• Can't leave the grove without Kunie's sword

• Fixed issue where spamming continue during doll cutscene caused it to restart

• Fixed disappearing tracks in the Unseen Village

• Added a little hint to be Constant for talking to Isabel

• Re-visiting dreams now is locked to Muffles

• Many text edits

-Bossy

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.

Read here for the full patch notes!

-Bossy

Hello to all the gamers,

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.

... 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.

And look at where we are now- EPISODE 3 IS HERE!!! That's like, over halfway.

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.

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.

I will be keeping an eagle eye out for bugs so PLEASE post in discussions/in the discord if you run into anything.

Enjoy playing Episode 3 :)

- Bossy