Welcome to March's dev blog! Little critters, the apprentice town and more...
Hey there!
Kitori Academy is becoming more magical day by day. In the pasts months, we've added new areas, buildings and little critters! Let's take a look! 👀
🏕️The apprentice Town🏕️
This area is a little town outside the academy, where your cosy cottage is located. It will feature a variety of houses, a town square, a river and some hidden paths and secrets. Other apprentices and common townfolks will live in this area as well. The apprentice town is the area between the academy and the valley, and it will allow you to enjoy your time while you are not learning new spells, potions or other witchy things.
🐇The creature ranch 🐇
We are so excited about this new feature! On the back of your cottage, there is a nice area to grow crops, but! You can also place little houses for critters like horned rabbits, owls and bees! It goes like this; you can place a cute shelter for creatures you must take care for. They will give you resources to craft potions or other witchy things in exchange.
🎮Steam Deck 🎮
We got our hands on a Steam Deck a while ago, and promptly we exported a first build on this console to test. And Kitori Academy will be completely compatible! From the beginning of the development of this game, we've put a lot of effort into ensuring the game runs smoothly on consoles such as Steam Deck and Nintendo Switch. We've also made sure you can enjoy your favourite cosy witchy game with a controller, mouse, and keyboard.
We are very excited to show you the broom-flying mechanic finally 🧹!!!
Every time you want to adventure and explore the valley, you can do so with style, flying the broom.
You won't fly alone; your companion cat will be with you at all times 🙀, comfortable at the back of the broom.
Daniela, our new character
Daniela has a unique ability; she can charm ghosts. She enrolled at the academy when she was old enough to study this incredible new ability. You will usually find her wandering around places with ghostly auras where she feels the most comfortable.
Although she came from a very wealthy family and grew up in her family's manor, she doesn't care much about all that. And floating around her, we have Tubby, Mochi and Cosmos, the 3 playful doggies you can only see at night. They never leave Daniela's side and are very protective.
We've reached an incredible milestone; we've reached 10.000 Steam followers! We are thrilled with the support Kitori Academy is receiving =)
What we've been up to in the pasts months? We've focused our efforts in the outside areas of the game, the Valley.
The Kitori Valley
This beautiful and extensive area is full of colourful flowers, leafy trees, bushes and tons of mountains and rivers. 🌠 While living as a wizard apprentice, you might decide to skip your daily magical lessons and explore the Valley with your broom. It will be an excellent chance to collect ingredients, meet creatures, and find hidden spots.
The cosy cottage
Every day you wake up in your cosy room where your cat companion awaits for pets and treats. Your room is inside the lovely cottage located in the apprentice town, right outside the academy and next to the Kitori Valley. As shown in the following picture, we've improved the cottage's exterior. The cottage is looking as adorable as ever. A tiny spoiler, right behind the cottage, you will find the garden, where you can harvest fresh crops for your recipes and potions!
Steam Deck!
And we've left the best for the end; we've recently received our Steam Deck, and... we can proudly say that the game runs very smoothly... Enjoy the next video =)
New characters, new environments... Exciting updates!
Welcome to July's dev blog!
As you know, we ran a successful Kickstarter that brought 2470 backers who believe in Kitori Academy, making us incredibly proud of how far the game has come. To all those incredible supporters, thank you! We haven't stopped working since those days, and we have some exciting new updates.
We participated in Wholesome Direct 2022 along with many other uplifting and warm games. And can proudly share that we've reached over 100k wishlist on Steam today!
Unreal Engine 5
We are also very excited to share that we recently moved to Unreal Engine 5, and Kitori Academy looks as impressive as ever.
Alexandra and her Honduran Bat familiars
I would like to formally present you to the first possible character you will be able to be best friends with.
Alexandra is a very sweet and kind apprentice who enjoys quiet times reading books. She is very shy by nature and will hesitate to approach you for the first time, but she will be very happy to meet you and have the chance to be your acquaintance. She always carries her umbrella shaped like a hat to protect her from the sun, where the tiny cute Honduran Bats spend most of the day sleeping or fluttering around at late hours.
She has extensive knowledge of ancient magic history and will be of most help if you need to find some facts about a spell or potion.
Home sweet home
You might remember that we showed your several times your cosy home where you will have your bed, a cosy firepit, and books, and don't forget your companion cat will be there waiting for your pets and treats.
And here is a surprise for you, your room is part of a larger cottage outside the academy, where you will cohabit with other apprentices and will be perfect for relaxing or, if you prefer, practising what you've learnt during the day!
The cottage has a common area with chairs, a table, and a basement where you will have some of the workstations you can use to practice potions, a kitchen and other small rooms that will be revealed in the future!
Last 48 hours of Kickstarter and new Best friend's familiar!
In less than 2 days, we were fully funded! There is only 48 hours left to grab a copy of Kitori Academy in advance and the in-game item bundle!
We are 228% funded, and we've already reached many stretch goals, including the Magical Infirmary new classroom the fruit dragons, and we are hoping to reach the broom flying stretch goal!
This past month has been incredible; the wonderful Kitori Community has grown significantly!
Witch Dragon Hat
But we haven't stopped working on Kitori Academy. We've created some of the in-game items we are offering on Kickstarter. We've created this witch hat with a dragon and a curious knight soldier for this unique in-game item.
Carnivorous plant
This jolly carnivorous plant will brighten your cosy home. If you grab a copy of Kitori Academy, you have the option to add this in-game item as an add-on along with the witch dragon hat and 4 other items.
The cheeky Raven
We want to introduce you to this cheeky raven! As you know, in the academy live other apprentices, and you will be able to become best friends with 8 possible ones. Each one of them has a different special companion familiar!
We have more familiars in the works, but we will keep the surprise for later...
Enjoy the new shiny trailer, where we introduce new game mechanics, new graphics and... new cats! [previewyoutube="T5ZS6LrMBAY;full"] We are launching a Kickstarter campaign, and it's live right now! Why are we doing this? To get support to add all the features we want in Kitori Academy, beautiful bespoke music, more localisation languages, and refine the gameplay. We wish to make this game truly magical!
We have tons of goodies and rewards waiting for you!
Spells, creatures, unexpected magical events...
We've being working very hard to add exciting new things to Kitori Academy over the past months. We want to bring you more magic with spells. You will learn different ones in the Spell classroom, and you will have the chance to cast them in different situations.
One exciting feature we are introducing is the concept of unexpected magical events! And what is this? They are... well... unexpected! On a sunny day, you're minding your business caring for your crops, and suddenly Hopinkson asks for your help.
The flying imps, Tignis, are causing trouble in the spell classroom. Run, go and catch them with your new catch spell!
Some apprentices are getting stuck in the library on a green goo that covers the walls and floors...
Devblog #7 New cat companions and more magic in the garden!
Many, many... more cats!
We have added lots of new cats, from fluffy to hairless. We've also included different types of tails, ears and faces. With all of these variants, you will customize your companion in many different ways!
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Play with your companion cat
We are also working on adding more ways to engage with your cat and get bonding points, which will be essential to develop your magical skills...
If you get close to your companion, you will have the option to select pets, minigames or feed.
One of the minigames we are refining is the magical pointer that your cute companion will try to catch.
The magical garden
We've revisited the garden in the botanic class, and we've added more magical elements to the harvesting system. Now wizard apprentices will create patches of soil with the hoe spell where fantastical plants will grow, like the Morning Pumpkin and a flower with the shape of a teapot.
Say hello to Kitori's Headmaster! Mr Hopinkson is a long-legs toad who bears a great deal of magic but spends most daydreaming about eating insects.
As headmaster, his most important job is protecting the Ancient Tree and the source of magic that the tree provides.
He will be an essential character in your journey as a future wizard.
He is a very hungry toad.
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The Ancient Tree plaza
We talked in other posts about the Tree Plaza, the academy's centre, and where other classes and places connect. We've been rearranging some of the elements of this lovely space and making new flowers, fluffy bushes and other plants. We want to make this space calming and mysterious.
Apprentices teams
We are introducing something new to Kitori Academy, teams! You will pick a banner to represent your team and add other characters to your team. This will bring some secret perks that we will reveal in the future... We asked around social media what other creatures you would like to include for the emblems. You are more than welcome to join our discord server and tell us your ideas! If you prefer, you can leave us your comments in this post.
We are excited to share with you our latest additions to Kitori Academy, spells!
One of the new tools you can use to train your magical skills is the staff that you can see in the picture. You will be able to aim with the staff, and magical things will happen!
A magical trail will be seen on the floor, walls, and objects when you aim with your staff. This spell effect will change if you find an interactive object, and the cat rolls on the air! The cat will also look at where you are aiming!
Friendly wizard duels
Not only you will be able to use some spells around the academy, but there will also be a dedicated area to duel against other apprentices.
Agatha, the spell caster teacher, supervises these duels, and they are completely friendly.
Other apprentices will cheer and contemplate the duel. Duels will give you rewards, for example, points on the spell duel class. They will also benefit you to improve your relationship with the other apprentices.
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You can see on the video that you can cast spells and reflect them with your blue shield!
If you want to talk to the creators, join our Discord
