Ritual of the Moon

Devlog

• Bug Fix: Now You Can Replay the Game :)
  May 21, 2019 by Kara Stone

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  Just uploaded a new version of ROTM that makes it so if you finish the game and play again starting from day 17, you can actually play it :) Installing an updated version will NOT erase your current p... Continue reading
• Bug Fix: Now You Can Miss Day 28 :)
  May 15, 2019 by Kara Stone

  Just uploaded a new version of ROTM that prevents you from missing 28, the last day, if you miss that day. Now, if you miss day 28, then you can open it on day 29 (or 30, or 31 etc.) and it will still... Continue reading
• What Could Have Been
  April 23, 2019 by Kara Stone

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  Originally I was going to write 28 #RitualoftheMoonReflections but the last one, Pre-Release Feelings: Emptiness, felt pretty final to me - although, I'm told, kind of eended them on a bad note. (If y... Continue reading

  
• Pre-Release Feelings: Emptiness
  April 18, 2019 by Kara Stone

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  The past few months, or maybe a year, I've been feeling very nihilistic. Not much matters. No matter how much yoga and meditation I do, I'm still stressed, in a culture that promotes stress, overwork,... Continue reading

  
• Writing about R o t M
  April 17, 2019 by Kara Stone

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  First, there is a new, very dramatic trailer out for Ritual of the Moon! Please get hype. Now, onto writing about writing. Not last summer but the summer before I wrote the first draft of an essay abo... Continue reading
• The Soundtrack
  April 16, 2019 by Kara Stone

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  I believe music has the biggest affect on mood and tone in time-based multi-media like videogames, film, and installation. The music in Ritual of the Moon is really extremely beautiful. I've been lis... Continue reading
• On deciding when to blow up and when to heal
  April 16, 2019 by Kara Stone

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  The base idea for Ritual of the Moon came as I was fighting with a close friend. Or, I was fighting. She had no idea. I was feeling really abandoned and betrayed. I couldn't decide if I should keep pu... Continue reading

  
• On Achievements
  April 14, 2019 by Kara Stone

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  I was pretty adamant that there would be no achievements in Ritual of the Moon. I hate achievements in all videogames. I think they, at best, annoying and meaningless, and, at worst, a representation... Continue reading

  
• Raw Scans
  April 13, 2019 by Kara Stone

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  To make the visuals of Ritual of the Moon, artists Rekha and Julia handcrafted objects and sourced materials, scanned them, and digitally manipulated them. Here are some of the raw scans. There are th... Continue reading

  
• Pre-Ritual Sale
  April 12, 2019 by Kara Stone

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  In celebration of Ritual of the Moon coming out in 1 week, I've put all my for-sale games on sale at 28% off ! That's Techno Tarot (on desktop), Cyclothymia, Cyber Sext Adventure, Parts to Remember, a... Continue reading

  
• Text Material Trials
  April 11, 2019 by Kara Stone

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  Before we settled on embroidery and wood burning for the text, we tried out some other things like wire, pencil crayon, glue, sparkle paint, and puffy paint. Puffy paint is amazing. Just in general... Continue reading

  
• On Ritual
  April 10, 2019 by Kara Stone

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  These are images of different trials of the calendar. This is the non-black and white, not digitally manipulated raw wood burns. In the past few years I've been thinking about ritual, time, mundanity... Continue reading

  
• Iterations of the Ships
  April 09, 2019 by Kara Stone

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  Here are some iterations of the witch's ship. 10 days until release... Continue reading

  
• On Confidence and Vulnerability
  April 08, 2019 by Kara Stone

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  I've been confident that Ritual of the Moon is good for a long time. I'm often confident in my work. The very beginning is my most self-conscious time. I try to keep everything very sheltered and away... Continue reading

  
• GDC 2019 Talk
  April 07, 2019 by Kara Stone

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  https://www.gdcvault.com/play/1025698/Indie (I start at 51:05). This past GDC, just a few weeks ago, I was on the Indie Soapbox Panel alongside some really amazing people. Each talk was only 5 minut... Continue reading

  
• On Social Media and Crafting Technology
  April 06, 2019 by Kara Stone

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  Here are images artist Rekha Ramachandran made for the social media button. Fun fact: one of them was stolen from an art exhibition I put one (last image). These crafted logos make social media look w... Continue reading

  
• R o t M the RPG
  April 05, 2019 by Kara Stone

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  Early in the design stage I did a little mock up in RPG Maker to get a feel for the layout possibilities and what the character moving through the space is like. It's really cute and honestly I want t... Continue reading

  
• The Altar
  April 04, 2019 by Kara Stone

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  These images are some of the altars we tried out. As always when looking at early versions: wow, colour! Everyday the player must go to the altar to perform a ritual to receive that day's mantra. Fir... Continue reading

  
• Embroidered Text
  April 04, 2019 by Kara Stone

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  I wrote the story of Ritual of the Moon in the first half of 2015. A few months later I hand embroidered all the witch's inner dialogue. It took about 5 of those embroidery hoops. Multiple people have... Continue reading

  
• First Sketches
  April 03, 2019 by Kara Stone

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  These images are thee first digital sketches I did of the layout of Ritual of the Moon. This was back when it was under the working title "Moon Witch", had an inventory, resources, and an opening cine... Continue reading

  
• Talking about R o t M
  April 02, 2019 by Kara Stone

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  I've given many talks where I discuss Ritual of the Moon. Sometimes it is easy and sometimes it is hard. I gave a 15 minute talk specifically on RotM, a "mid-mortem", at the Queerness and Games Confer... Continue reading
• Goals With No Punishment
  April 01, 2019 by Kara Stone

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  This is the image of the calendar in game. As days go on, it marks your choices. At the end, it will hopefully track your emotional landscape for the past month. Even though I've set out to do #Ritua... Continue reading

  
• Mini Games
  March 25, 2019 by Kara Stone

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  Yesterday I wrote a little about the transformation of the mini-games. Before what they are now, a memory game and connecting the dots, there were 3 different mini games that the player had to do each... Continue reading

  
• Connecting the Dots
  March 25, 2019 by Kara Stone

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  This image is some sketches of images the dots connect to. The altar mini-game where the player connects the dots to form an outline of an image wasn't implemented until later in the game's design. Or... Continue reading

  
• Witch Bodies
  March 23, 2019 by Kara Stone

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  #update, #reflection

  Artists Rekha Ramachandran and Julia Gingrich made so many beautiful iterations of the witch's indoor and outdoor outfits. It was impossible to choose which amazing ones would be the finals, so it was... Continue reading

  
• The Title
  March 21, 2019 by Kara Stone

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  Four years ago I was at GDC like I am now. I had been working on preproduction on Ritual of the Moon, then called Moon Witch, and I found out that I got a grant to make it. This was my first major art... Continue reading

  
• From One Full Moon To The Next
  March 20, 2019 by Kara Stone

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  #ritual of the moon, #rotm, #update, #process

  Happy full moon! You probably didn't sleep at all last night. I didn't. This is a big full moon for me because the next full moon will be the release of Ritual of the Moon. It's 29.5 days away. It t... Continue reading

  
• Release date set
  January 17, 2019 by Kara Stone

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  #release date, #hype

  Ritual of the Moon will be arriving with the full moon in April 2019 ☾... Continue reading