Support Katacala Nights: A Sci-Fi Narrative Game
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I am an indie developer fundraising our new point and click sci-fi adventure game "Katacala Nights." Developed in Ren'Py.
- Features an original LGBTQ+ love story amidst a wildly original science fiction plot about the future of modern physics and the soul of science!
- Features a navigable open world! Explore Kiln station from the start!
- Features a novel combat system! Flirt with plant monsters! Schmooze with the wildlife! We're parodying data sims with turn-based combat!
- Features main narrative and side quests! Explore the world to uncover Maridma's secrets!
"Will Lukas rekindle love with a long-lost dream? Will you allow Earth to decay into ruin? Will tremulls run wild on Maridma? Join Lukas and an ensemble of physicists on the mythical planet Maridma as they confront the awe-inspiring, yet lethal cycle of destruction known as the “Katacala.”
Development for Part 1 began in 2021! And we're still going! We are currently playtesting and editing part 1 as we finish our first round of fundraising!
Why we're doing this:
I feel like you have to make the game you've always wanted to play. I wanted to play a romantic game where the love story is central to the plot, but it inhabits a larger world. That way, the game would be about watching star-crossed lovers growing their relationship as events swirl in and out of control.
I grew up reading romance and science fiction. But I don't find many books that do both well, and there's not much satisfying LGBTQ+ stuff either.
As far as games go, narrative RPG experiences about developing relationships are like unicorns. I think the demand is there, but the willingness to take the risk is not! I gave my first shot at this kind of story when I was in high school, but at the time my mind was still too much into military sci-fi. When I got into game design, I decided to take another crack at it.
I wanted to write the most satisfying love story of all time; I wanted to write the most definitive science fiction story. Katacala Nights is my attempt at that mission.
I taught myself coding, wrote 2 drafts of the novel, and spent countless ours designing systems in Ren'Py.
The first narrative element was crafting a love story between two leads - Lukas and Soan. Lukas is a moody troublemaker; Soan is an incisive, larger-than-life figure who sees himself as a mythical figure. Their relationship goes through many trials and phases in the story beginning from their first encounter.
The second was grounding our world in a strong cast of characters. The scientists in Katacala Nights are flawed figures, and they all have a unique relationship to each other, akin to an extended family.
Katacala Nights brings the same attitude of using an ensemble cast to make the world feel alive. Our two love interests - Lukas and Soan - are simply two characters growing together in this larger narrative universe.
At heart, ours is a story about love and families set against the backdrop of a catastrophic, bewildering cosmic event. Your player character must chart a course through the Katacala. Will you reconcile your differences with Lukas? Will you use the Katacala to enrich yourself? Will you elevate physics to a new level? Are you out to simply survive?
What you can play now:
- Part 1 contains chapters 1 - 3. We are playtesting and editing as we condense the rest of the book into parts 2 - 5.
- Story length is 5 - 8 hours depending on how many quests you do
How your funds will be used:
Our initial funding goal is going to be used to market the game further and replace AI generated assets. After all AI assets are replaced, we will use funds to cover the cost of labor.
How we got here:
After I finished the draft of the story, I made the first prototype in Ren'Py in the February of 2024. The first feedback I got from talking to people at the Game Developer Conference in California was that I needed more interactivity beyond dialogue.
I decided to make three changes: make choices action-based, add a combat system, make the game open world.
In June 2024, I made a combat system for Ren'Py. My partner told me that the gaffolids were the coolest designed creature in the game, so I leaned into that. Ren'Py is a funny game engine. Lot of dating simulators. I thought it would be funny if you took text prompts about socializing and made them attack prompts for the gaffolids. So that game is about guessing the correct attacks from these plant-alien thingys. I think one person besides me finished it, but the story mode I made for that one was wild too.
In Fall 2025, I came back to Katacala Nights with a lot more coding experience under my belt. To increase the interactivity of the game, I abandoned the visual novel format. Ren'Py does let you code point-click adventure games, so I settled on an open-world click-point RPG.
In January and February 2025, I designed a fully navigable open-world. This really opened up my quest design. I personally love going around a town in an RPG talking to people, discovering nuggets of story, and doing quests. Even a simple quest where somebody asks you to go to another part of town to talk to their friend can be fulfilling. It's about making you feel like you are earning information.
Soon after I finished all of part 1! We've now moved on to building up our social media and marketing!
DOWNLOAD PART 1 on ITCH: https://gaffolidstudios.itch.io/katacala-nights-part-i
INSTAGRAM @ katacalanights
BUY US COFFEE: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/gaffolidstudios
CHECK OUT MY OTHER PROJECTS: https://gaffolidstudios.itch.io/
Organiser
Cyrus Goodard
Organiser
Leasburg, MO