Witches of Ravenbrook
A downloadable game for Windows, macOS, and Linux
On the night of devils, treats, and trickery, the ordinary University of Ravenbrook campus is visited by a coven of witches. They're looking for new recruits, and they don't take kindly to refusals.
After a chance meeting with a strange girl, Chris Torres manages to escape with the help of a magical compass. They end up in the Pactrealms, the domain of the witch coven, and will need to explore, talk, and fight to stay human.
Witches of Ravenbrook is a dungeon-crawler RPG which places an emphasis on in-battle transformation. Your party descends into a dungeon, and whenever they run out of health, they are inflicted with Influence that will slowly transform them. Let their Influence get too high, and they might start to ignore orders. They might even join the enemies and force you to fight them!
Fortunately, you are not alone. The tricky shopkeeper Fluffs and the enigmatic Dahlia can provide some advice on how to proceed. You will have access to multiple playable classes with differing abilities and stats, a variety of items, and slottable modifications that let you keep you progress. Dying is not the end, you merely lose some of what you gained in the witch lair, and try again. Getting transformed is part of the fun, after all.
This release is a prototype. It contains three full transformations, five dungeons plus the tutorial dungeon, several playable classes, some rare items, a dozen enemies, four bosses, several "status effects" which are also transformations, three playable characters, and a mischievous shopkeeper. It takes place entirely in the Gardens realm.
The full game will include, by our estimate, three more playable characters, at least six more realms (and maybe secret dungeons, too!), a dozen more TFs, tons of classes, multiclassing, and more!
We also want to add: Grid-based inventory and equipment, 3D world navigation instead of the current flat backgrounds, more NPCs, more shops, and quality-of-life functionality. We've been working on this prototype for several months now, we expect the full game will take 9-12 more months to develop.
Patch v1.01 - Please see this devlog for the changelog.
We will be launching a Kickstarter and supplemental funding options in 2025. A timeline of development will be decided on in the future. Bottled Starlight has already produced multiple games. You can trust that we'll see this one through with the same excellence as the rest.
If you want to be alerted the second it goes live, follow this project. We also post every Monday on our blog, keeping you up to date on what we're working on across all our projects.
Are you interested in sponsoring a character, TF, miniboss, or the like? Please see this blog post for more information. The sponsorship document can be found here.
In addition, an anonymous sponsor is sponsoring a lottery! You can get your character or TF in the game and it won't cost you a dime! More details here.
Bottled Starlight has made Runes of Pandemonium, the free transformation-focused monstergirl game, as well as the battle-transformation game Witch Hunter Izana, and the survival-horror deckbuilder, String Tyrant. All are available here on Itch.io!
The artist and creative lead of Ravenbrook, InkyFluffs, also creates a webcomic called Covenstead, which you can read here. You can also find her art on Bluesky and can support her on Patreon.
Still want more stuff? Tales of Strings: Instruments was written by the lead programmer, Salty.
The musician, DurrDiss, has an adorable little bandcamp. It's so cute!
Download
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Development log
- Version 1.02 Released11 days ago
- Announcing the Sponsor Lottery25 days ago
- Update Crosspost, Sponsorship Information, Future Plans26 days ago
- Version 1.01 Released29 days ago
Comments
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after downloading, how do i actually launch the game?
The executables are labeled Ravenbrook[libs].exe, or just RavenbrookLinux for the linux build.
So thoughts on the Demo...
So please read this after playing yourself...
Beat it on Normal with only a single rerun of a dungeon after Beth to get Momentum rolling, and i didn't have a problem with it.
I rolled the latter part of the Demo over by a Flame up all equipment Apprentice Beth, who did 200+ with basic scorch, Flame Wall was my answers to most enemies.
My loadout was...
Chris: Maid Puppet Knight, as a sort of Paladin, Melee + Healing Utility. Also Doll Events.
Lore: Loner Knight, Melee DPS
Beth: Apprentice/ Medic, healing and Magic utility, and Soon a walking FlameWall Nuke when i met any real resistance. Beth Became so strong that her getting transformed and then scalding the rest of the Party became the biggest threat endgame.
Chris never left the part at post 3 Influence, and he kind of absorbed most of it, other members never went over 1. So i never got to see the lost to the enemy mechanics.
Really liked the event tag system, one recommendation though, once you click on an event you should be able to choose which character you want handling it in the event, or in some way make sure you don't have to switch characters every-time you see a chest so you need to get your Loner to the front of the party. There's transformation mechanics meant to harm the player but play to their fantasy, then there is sub-optimal menu-ing that takes the player out of the fantasy.
The Artist you have has done a great job, no complaints there.
I liked Lore, but Chris and Beth need fleshing out, it's still a demo so there is time for that.
I wish in post Demo i could set my XP to the point where Dungeons could remain Challenging, I think Dungeons should have Level caps which level you below a certain threshold, you then needing Dungeon long upgrades, some of which then stay options permanently, would be better in a rogue like format. If there is no threat from enemies, then to get TF'd, which is the whole fantasy of this game, you need to intentionally lose, which breaks the fantasy.
I hope this was useful constructive criticism, and praise.
The game looks extremely promising. The main ideas are clear, the execution of them is solid and they offer plenty of room for additions. However, the minor elements are where the cracks of this prototype start showing. First, the math of the money gained and spend is completely off. The costs of powerful equipment was far too low in comparison to the average quality of what I could find and how much money I could get. A rare item isn't rare anymore if it costs 400 and an ordinary encounter drop ~200. There is a clear discrepancy here that ruins the looting aspect. Equipment in the dungeons should be more meaningful, I usually only bothered with the weapons, and the shop should demand more. This continues to my second point, the dungeon running is a bit too predictable. Chests are plentiful and their traps arbitrarily dangerous. HP traps do next to nothing, SP trap and influence traps can be anything from harmless to devastating, yet none of this matters since the mechanic effectively vanishes once Lore joins the party. When it comes to these games, Ero Dungeons has some great curios with plenty of outcomes, but that isn't quite a blueprint of what could be possible here due to some other differences. Here, I think dungeon events could profit from some modifiers. Let me make an example, the clock hands are always on the ground at certain spots, free for the taking. Let's say that these could have modifiers such as enemies guarding them, wandering enemies carrying them, they are inside chests, false ones are lying on the ground with traps attached to them (this would make it more meaningful which one you pick up since a second short one would give away the trap) or other events, like maids looking for them which can either end in a fight, helping maids with a risk of influence or Maid Appearance making this second case less dangerous. Some of these could also be applied to chests for instance, and guarding enemies can be visible on the map, but don't move. This also opens opportunities for clearer enemy behavior outside of combat. Guarding, patrolling, fleeing are all options for them, which would make the dungeoneering more engaging. These are the two main issues I see holding the game back right now. The prototype is already really promising, so I hope the final version will be the best it can be.
Good ideas! I'll take those into consideration. The prototype's balance is quite all over the place, the final version will go through way more iterations.
Love this game.
Might try to see how this runs on Winlator, an android windows emulator, will update ti see how well it works
Did a small test, I think it's my settings and downloading from my phone, it technically works, but off screen
Can there be any sex scenes in a future update?
Likely as bad ends in the final game.
amazing game so far, although some visual bugs were present at times (mainly dahlia appearing when she shouldn't), it was a pretty good experience! also an option for text speed would be appreciated because holding m1 felt really weird and maybe a separate slider for the "voice" volumes as well because they sound really weird when sped up.
I'm currently working on a patch, text speed will definitely be in it. You can hold Z to speed up dialogue, or Z+X to quickly skip across dialogue.
Well, I will give creditability where its due, it's a good game. It's like Oddessy of Gianna . Hopefully, the transformations can be used in battle rather than as cosmetics. I would love to roleplay as as possessed plant person or even a maid with the same abilities of that of the enemy. And mental transformations are a must for me. At least dialogue-wise. Like, how in witch hunter Izuna, the dialogue changes when you are equipped with a certain charm. And hopefully, unlike that game, you are allowed to branch out these transformations in order to create unique combos. My problem with witch hunter izuna in the first place was the fact that in later dungeons, you sort of forced into this situation where the only combo you can perform that even does a remote amount of damage is to let the sword girl power up and hit harder. Not to mention, the level-up system is stupid there and takes forever to even make a difference. So, my suggestion is that you focus first on the transformations and the paths to take. So far, you have done well with the interactions.
Thanks for the feedback! Also, you may have missed the "secret" ending which might whet your appetite a bit:
(Try approaching the hedge maze boss with everyone as a doll, you can use equipment or the puppet class to get there)
Huh...neat! Thanks for the easter egg!
I made it through the tutorial okay, but now the enemies are hitting ridiculously harder. I have two party members that are doing about 3 damage against one maid doll enemy who's doing 38 damage. She knocks out my team in three moves. Am I doing something wrong? Is there something specific I need to equip? Or is this a bug in the prototype?
The game is tough, but you can do some things:
Retreat from dungeons to hang onto more XP
Get better weapons
Spells deal fixed damage and don't miss, so you can use up your SP to take out enemies that are tougher than your weapons. Also put modifications into your gear, better than losing it!
I'm having an issue getting it to launch (might be my inexperience with itch)
As in, it won't go past the "new game" screen when I select it. I'm very inexperienced with using itch, is anyone able to help? I'm on MacOS
This is a known problem, I will be putting out a patch today (if I can) or tomorrow. The issue is only on OSX and only on making a new game.
If you don't want to wait for a fix: Download this save file and places it in your Gamedir/Saves/ folder. Start the game and load the save, it's a save during the introduction. For some reason the game can't start new games but has no problem loading an existing save.
Ohh, thank you! Wasn't sure if I was just having my usual number of computer problems. I can't wait to play! :
possible on android?
Not likely, the engine would need a rewrite.
It's pretty good, will this game remain free?
The game will have a full price of 20$ USD, and a free demo which has a similar amount of stuff to what you see in the prototype.
Will it be on steam like rune of pandemonium?
Good game and really enjoying it thus far. My question is why was it tagged as 'adult' in itch's search filter?
It has some adult themes and the final version will contain nudity even though the prototype technically does not.
Ah okay, that makes sense. I was hoping that was the case, but wasn't sure if it was simply mislabeled. Thank you.
I can't seem to save at all
You can save after exiting the tutorial dungeon and reaching the Hub.
OK, thank you
Really good concept! It feels like im playing omori again really good concept anyway :D