Katacala Nights Part I

Featuring a full visual novel experience! Playtime is 5-8 hours!

     You're a drifter on their way to a new life in another part of the galaxy. A inexplicable monstrosity no one has ever seen attacks your ship. 

     Everyone said you died. Now you're the sole witness to the most scientifically baffling event in the history of the world.  

     Are you just a survivor? Are you the only Earther who believes what you saw? Are you...a celebrity?

     Katacala Nights is a point-click narrative game where you share friendship, rivalry, and secrecy with a wild cast of personalities as they navigate the unparalleled cosmic cycle rocking the planet.

    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!

Story:

• Original LGBTQ+ love story and an equally original science fiction story about the soul of modern physics!
• The Katacala has returned.  Join an ensemble cast on the mythical planet Maridma as they confront the awe-inspiring, yet lethal cycle of destruction known as the “Katacala.” Is the Dot a physics-shattering cosmic phenomenon? Is it overhyped? Do tremulls exist? Are they destroying the planet? 
•  There are no supporting characters. Who do you trust? The player? Lukas? You share unique narrative control between the player and a secretive Maridyan named Lukas. Your player is one of many characters struggling to find their way on Maridma.
• You decide.  As the sole witness to impossible events, you find yourself at the heart of a deep scientific controversy implicating the fate of Earth and Maridma. Do you elevate Maridma to the status of legend? Do you let Earth slip in to the dust bin of history? Do you use your celebrity status to enrich yourself?
• Wanna slip the physics department laxatives?  Wanna intrude on a dance between a dying man and a spirit of desire?  We have quests for that!

Game Features:

• Text-based click and point science fiction adventure game. Developed in the visual novel engine Ren'Py
• A unique turn-based combat system! Care to flirt with human-eating plants? Scold the alien wildlife? We’re parodying dating sims with text-based combat.
• A fully navigable open world! Go anywhere on Kiln station from the beginning. Take up quests, experience the main narrative, and chart the course of the Katacala!

About us:

Katcala Nights was a labor of love. Mostly I am the one who works on game development while I split my time with work. I did the writing, the story, editing, and programming. I used some AI tools to make a mock up of art, and I am working with artists now to beginning making our protoype th e real thing.

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! 

When I got into game design, I decided to take a shot at my dream. 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 wanted it to feel like this big universe with lots of things happening. Just total RPG narrative immersion.

I wanted  the world to feel alive, so I chose to emphasize a big cast of characters. Our two love interests — Lukas and Soan — are simply two characters growing together in this larger narrative universe.

We are a tight-knit group of individuals without any independent funding sources.  Our pledge is that the game will not receive any net profits until all our AI assets are replaced by the creative works of real artists. But to do that…we need funding. With your support funding our prototype, we will be able to hire a team of artists to 100% replace our assets.

The assets I made using Midjourney and DALL-E are good, not great. They set the vibe and give me a target, but AI is generally less creative than a human who studies a specific art style. I didn’t want to profit from the game until I could afford a team of people.

GOFUNDME LINK — 3000/10000 funding goal!

Our plan is to replace the art and music on a rolling basis as the game receives funding. We are following two rules.

1. Any asset we replace will conform to the existing art direction of Katacala Nights, creating a uniform art direction for the entire game.

2. Any asset we replace will be higher quality than existing assets.

This will take time. We are releasing the prototype and working on funding initiatives to cover the time-labor cost of making the game over the past 2 years and to replace artistic assets. Once our project is fully funded, any additional sales will count as genuine sales of Katacala Nights.

Message us if you want to play test for us! We also have a feedback form! We love constructive feedback! This is a work in progress.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScHxNIplJAlpudEBvNirRRwDyCgankfHpWo-6dt...

DONATE HERE:  GOFUNDME

INSTAGRAM @ katacalanights

PATREON: https://www.patreon.com/GaffolidStudios

BUY US COFFEE: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/gaffolidstudios

CHECK OUT MY OTHER PROJECTS: https://gaffolidstudios.itch.io/

LEARN MORE ABOUT KATACALA NIGHTS