Happy 2024!

December has come and gone, and obviously Chapter 5 has not released like we originally had hoped. Late 2023 we got Covid (and unfortunately, it appears to be long Covid). Then Winter Break began, and for parents, that means much less work time. Furthermore, with much of our time and energy going towards preparing for Aground Zero's Early Access launch on January 18th, we ended up pretty far behind with Stardander.

However, we are still working on Stardander and we still plan to finish the game this year. Chapter 5 is about half done, and the final backgrounds are finished, plus Natalie has started art for the older character sprites (plus a variation for a special event in Chapter 5) you can see here:


I decided to delete the dates from our roadmap for now. While we do plan to finish Stardander this year, we keep missing deadlines and between that and the low sales numbers, it has been pretty demotivating. Once we're making more consistent progress, I might add target dates back to the roadmap.

I'm sorry for the bad news - but I hope you'll enjoy Chapter 5 when it is ready!

One piece of feedback we keep getting is that it takes a while to get to Stardander (where most of the story and excitement happens). While we want to introduce Callie and the world before she arrives there (and what is at stake for her), we decided it could be trimmed and re-arranged to be more exciting and move faster.

This update mostly effects the events before Callie arrives at Stardander, and this update also updates the demo.

In other news, while we're progressing on Chapter 5, it has been delayed a bit because of how busy we were in October. I updated the road map, and we're on track for a December 2023 release of Chapter 5. I hope you're excited, as this is going to be a major changing point in many ways, and a return to Callie's perspective for the first time!

Since launch, we've had a lot of feedback, and while this update might not add any content, it does improve and fix a lot of minor issues.

Changelog (effects both the demo and full version):

• Saves list is now sorted by last saved (will only change order of new saves)
  
• Enemies will now show a thinner arrow when using a ranged attack, and both the thin and normal arrow when doing a ranged and melee attack
  
• Added a Harvest All button to the greenhouse
  
• Witches who leave the castle or are unconscious no longer take exams or show up in the fall festival.
  
• Improved study window readability
  
• Clearing battles no longer casts 1 time interval
  
• Harvesting crops is now always successful
  
• Suggest now suggests who to study with
  
• Restore now has a 15% loss of mana sent
  
• Added a text speed option
  
• Minor UI changes/improvements
  

Stardander School for Witches launches in Early Access today at 2PM EDT! Join us in stream for chatting about game and hitting the big green launch button!

[h2]In your own words, What is Stardander?[/h2]
David: Stardander is a RPG/Visual Novel hybrid where you guide four witches through witch school - learning spells, gaining friends (and familiars), uncovering mysteries and defeating dangerous fae who want to exterminate the human menace.

Natalie: A lively, witchy, story-focused interactive adventure in a rich world. It lets you play as four young witches as they grow over seven years of their lives. It hits the notes of spooky, mysterious, and endearing all at once.

[h2]How long has Stardander been in development?[/h2]
David: Weve wanted to do a story-heavy witch game since the release of our previous visual novel, in 2017. But, it took a while to settle on what we wanted from the game (and we released another game, Aground, before we came back to Stardander), so development didnt seriously begin until 2020.

Natalie: Longer than we expected! Stardander actually started off as a magic academy simulation where you play as the headmaster - then it briefly pivoted towards a battle-focused game, and then to a simple event-based design (a la Sort the Court). However, after making Stardander Revenant in one month for a game jam in September 2021 (which we won 2nd place in), we found the right formula - a balanced mix of visual novel, turn-based combat, trials, and RPG elements.

[h2]Who makes up the Stardander team?[/h2]
David: The core team is me (programmer, gameplay designer, editor/sometimes writer), my wife Natalie (artist, story writer, art director), Chase Bethea (composer), and Laura Onderwater (background artist). We have several other collaborators who made additional art - such as illustrations, character designs, enemies and enemy animations.

[h2]When do you expect Stardander to be complete?[/h2]
David: The first half of the game, Part One (Years 1-4), will be releasing on October 2nd 2023. We plan to release Part Two (Years 5-7) in Spring 2024.

[h2]Why include combat and other gameplay elements into a visual novel?[/h2]
David: Personally, I love turn-based combat, and I feel like it meshes really well in visual novels, as theres no time pressure - you have time to think or pause before making your move. While gameplay elements can distract from the story, they can also enhance the story, like one of my favorite visual novel series, Ace Attorney, where the trial system forces you to pay more attention to the story to present the right evidence. It shouldnt surprise you that theres a trial system in Stardander as well! But, for those who only care about the story, all gameplay elements can be skipped or ignored (theres only gameplay penalties for gameplay elements, it never does a game over if you fail).

[h2]What makes your game unique?[/h2]
David: The world is very unique - theres a lot more worldbuilding than is immediately obvious when starting the game (and theres already a lot to start). While the mechanics of stat building, trials, and yearly mysteries have certainly been done, the combination of them is unusual and they work together in interesting ways. Finally, the battle system is different from any turn based battle system Ive tried - and Ive tried a lot. Its designed to let you experiment with all the different spells youve learned, very few of which are damage dealing - encouraging you to get creative!

[h2]Does the team come from a gaming background? What are the teams favorite games to play themselves?[/h2]
David: I play a huge variety of games, and my favorite is often changing based on my mood or what Ive played recently. But I always enjoy Pokemon (and, in some ways better, Monster Sanctuary), Finding Paradise is the only one thats actually made me cry from the story (although all the games in the To the Moon series are great), and I loved the out of the box puzzles of Baba is You.

Chase: I have an eclectic palette of gaming. I started playing games when I was six years old. Starting on my Grandmother's Intellivision and moving to GameBoy (some of my most beloved titles on there like Turok Battle of the Binosaurs, Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle 2, Link's Awakening). Eventually, moving to the N64 and late to the game with Sega and playing on my Fathers PlayStation. I love a myriad amount of games from ICO, Lumines Plus and Shadow of Mordor to Eternal Ring, Beyond Oasis, Twisted Metal Small Brawl and Exit.

Natalie: The only games I played before meeting David were Chips Challenge and Zoombinis (the original!) on my hometown library computer! David and I were briefly hooked on Dofus (an MMO) in college - before quitting in favor of actually-getting-things-done-in-real-life. The games that stick with me always have strong storylines or characters; I greatly enjoyed the Dreamfall series and many of the Ace Attorney games.

[h2]Who is working on the music in Stardander?[/h2]
Natalie: We are very lucky to have Chase Bethea working with us to create the soundscape for Stardander. Chase is an award-winning freelance Composer/Technical Music Designer who has been working in video games for over a decade. His tracks are textural, atmospheric and complex - and his use of dynamic and adaptive techniques keep the music fresh and vibrant.

[h2]What games inspired Stardander?[/h2]
David: Long Live the Queen and Magical Diary were definitely inspirations - they both include stat building mixed with story (with Magical Diary even taking place at a witch school where you learn spells). The battle system was kind of inspired by Into the Breach - the systems are pretty different, but I remember having a flash of inspiration when playing the game. I loved how you were able to see what the enemies were planning next, and then have a chance to counter them with a wide variety of options almost like a puzzle. I used that enemy preparation, player action, enemy action style when designing the Stardander battle system.

[h2]About how long will it take to beat the full version of Stardander?[/h2]
David: It depends a lot on your reading speed, and how many optional exploration scenes and battles you choose to do, but approximately 10-20 hours.

[h2]Will there be multiple endings?[/h2]
David: Kind of. The core seven year story and mysteries are linear (with many optional scenes and minor choices), but theres a major choice at the end that greatly affects the conclusion of the story. Were also planning optional romance routes, which dont change the main storyline but could count as multiple endings. Theres also one secret romance route that DOES greatly affect the main game ending.

[h2]How many characters do you play as?[/h2]
David: There are four perspective characters - although anyone you befriend can fight with you in the battles, and they all have their own stats and spells. Natalie can introduce the characters better than me!

Natalie: In the first versions of Stardander, you played as Dare, the cat-headmaster-fae who runs the school. But early feedback from players told us that this perspective felt distant and less involved than we wanted. So we switched to a student perspective, but then realized there were more sides to the story than a single student character could really bring out. Thats how we ended up creating four unique and colorful main characters. They each have their strengths and weaknesses, challenges and quirks. We hope you love them as much as we do!

Lets kick off the spooky season! Stardander School for Witches Part One is releasing on October 2nd 2023! Get ready for witches, mystery, fae battles, trials, contests and more!

[previewyoutube=C8ZwmF3XAcY;full][/previewyoutube]

Professor Dare, the cat headmaster of Stardander, has returned after a mysterious seven year absence. Protector Rea, leader of the Fae-Human alliance, is suspicious, and wants Callie, who knows nothing about magic, to spy on Dare now that the school is finally re-opened.



As a new student, youll be able to take classes, learn spells, and fight fae. But dont forget to investigate the castles secrets and gather evidence for Rea, as youre not just a student, but also a spy mixed up in dangerous intrigue and rivalry within the crumbling Fae-Human alliance.

Want to know a tad more about the setting of Stardander? Check out our new prologue!

[previewyoutube=0x0dGen6OEY;full][/previewyoutube]

Why Early Access?

Right now, we have finished and polished the first four in-game years - which gets you to a satisfying half-way point in the story. Wed like to get the game in front of players to see what they think and get feedback as we finish developing the last half. Already, the game is around 8 hours of play time. Anyone who owns the Early Access version will get ALL updates and future years for no additional cost (we have seven years total planned). See the Early Access section of our store page for more information.



Main Features Include:

• Colorful Cast: Play as four complex main characters, each with their own reasons for learning magic.
  
• The Power of Friendship: Become friends or frenemies with your fellow witches-in-training.
  
• Optional Battle System: Recruit your friends to help you battle dangerous Fae in a unique turn-based battle system.
  
• Magical Companions: Talk to and form pacts with Fae to gain familiars.
  
• Progress Reports: Take classes, learn spells, and pass your exams. Use your power to cultivate magical plants and brew potions to enchant items.
  

There's been a lot of updates and improvements in the playtest, many of which affect the demo too, so I decided to post all of the playtest updates here!



Changelog:

• Added a Prologue*
  
• Added CGs*
  
• Added Backgrounds
  
• Improved world map
  
• Added difficulty modes to battles
  
• Added achievements
  
• Added the ability to have friends help with studying and the greenhouse
  
• Added school anthem*
  
• Added a calendar of events
  
• Added wands in hand (year 2+ only)*
  
• Added knowledge tab in witch stats*
  
• Adjusted stats/battles
  
• Added chapter saves (work like autosaves, but give you a save you wont lose at the beginning of each chapter)
  
• Added auto-advance to options*
  
• Added a mana cost to change familiars in battle.
  
• Minor adjustments and bugfixes
  

We're really excited to be part of the turn based festival this year - as the battle system is something we're really proud of! I even made a video talking about it and the new quick cast system here:

[previewyoutube=2ow6LVkhNsY;full][/previewyoutube]
I think the Stardander battle system offers something new and fun, even for turn-based veterans! There's strategy involved in being able to cast multiple spells per turn, while knowing who the enemy is going to attack beforehand. And the fact that only a few of the spells are direct damage dealing spells pushes players to get creative and use everything at their disposal to win.

You can read more about the battle system update and more here: https://steamcommunity.com/games/1733050/announcements/detail/3469488996650784384

We will also be live streaming a team playthrough of the game tomorrow at 2PM EST! https://steamcommunity.com/games/1733050/announcements/detail/3497637038443371261
Drop in if you want to see the developers talk about the game and ask us questions live!

Hope to see you there!

Join the devs as we play through Stardander School for Witches and talk about development!

This will be a half hour long stream during the #TurnBasedFest - follow along and try the demo yourself!

While we've mostly been focused on Year 2 and beyond, we got a lot of good feedback during the Steam Next Fest and wanted to post an update to the demo!



One of the biggest complaints I've had is that the battles are clunky, and this update attempts to fix that, along with a number of other quality of life changes and improvements!

Changelog:

• Improved battle UI - you can now memorize spells, and quick cast them without opening their spells list.
  
• Added glossary to encyclopedia, and made some words clickable to bring it up.
  
• Trial gives more info on each evidence (like date you got the evidence and a brief refresher). You can also bring up the evidence list at any time during a trial.
  
• Many edits and improvements to Year 1 - including more foreshadowing for future years.
  
• Added graphics for bars (like the health bar).
  
• Added particle effects.
  
• Added animations to using potions & items, and improved potion crafting animation.
  
• Added enchanting animation.
  
• Added icons to the inventory and crafting menus.
  
• Any ally can now be chosen to make potions - not just the party leader!
  
• Changed Options to Menu on the title page - as there are several things I wanted to put there (credits, community link, and later achievements).
  
• Added load option in game pause menu
  
• Minor improvements/stat changes.
  
• Added a small shake when changing pose.
  
• Removed animal guide and book from equipment. These were part of the original game to increase personality points, but we decided they were no longer needed.
  

Ready for some spooky magical mischief this fall? Were showcasing a demo of our upcoming game, Stardander School for Witches, at the Steam Next Fest from October 3-10! Weve been working hard on polishing the first chapter (of seven) to share for the demo, and were now all set to show it off in time for the festival!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1733050/Stardander_School_for_Witches/

Welcome to witch school! Learn spells, solve mysteries, make friends, and battle (or befriend) Fae creatures in a turn based battle system. Can you defeat the malicious enemy who has laid siege to the world?

Well also be running two featured live streams during the Next Fest.

Join Chase Bethea (Composer) as he reveals the magical mysteries and inspirations behind the soundtrack of Stardander School for Witches!

This will be an hour long stream during the Steam Next Festival - follow along and try the demo yourself!

Join the devs as we play through Stardander School for Witches and talk about development!

This will be an hour long stream during the Steam Next Festival - follow along and try the demo yourself!