It's the Saturday update!

Graphics are starting to come together, SH2 is a turn-based RPG so they're not the absolute main focus but I'd like it to be somewhat pretty.

Like the original game, it's all about deduction and choosing the right moment to strike the right character at the right time. While you can murder at random, I think I've succeeded in making that a very risky way to play. One thing I have noticed, and maybe this is just me, but the game is HARD. In all the playtests I've done, I've succeeded in winning... once! It's fairly customisable so I may add different levels of difficulty into it, or even a custom option where you can set things such as town size, switch certain roles off, etc.

Role wise, I've made some of them more interesting. The Changeling Spy for example, can no longer be discovered by the Disciple or Gummy as "Spy", they will always appear to be a non-council town member, as will the Disciple. However, I imagined it's hard for a Changeling to keep up a pony disguise 24/7, so if you're very sharp eyed you might be able to spot them on the roster as sometimes they make a mistake with their eye colour! When there's up to 40 ponies on the roster this is harder to spot than it sounds. The Preacher will still kill the spy as soon as they find them (they methodically work their way through the entire town until they do) and as there's a nice bonus if you kill the spy yourself, it's worth looking out for.

I also felt the Noble was a bit underwhelming, as they didn't really do anything except trigger a full investigation if you killed them (as does the Mayor - this is just one of the downsides to killing at random), so there's a new race in the game - the Alicorn! After a preset number of days, the Noble will become an Alicorn and their status will change to Prince/Princess. They will then become a form of super-lookout, flying over the town at nights and making it much risker for you to venture out to do your nefarious deeds. The ideal solution is to kill them before they transform!

I've also brought back another concept from SH1 - the Mule. If you hung the Mule in that game, an otherwise neutral character, she would curse and kill one townspony. Same applies here! There is no telling who the Mule is - she may even be a council member. If the town lynches the Mule, she will again kill someone at random as revenge. This will probably do you a favour, but she may also target you. This won't kill you outright as you're too powerful, but it will make you much more suspicious to the town.

I'm toying with some other concepts which may or may not make it in. The idea of The Lovers, where if you kill one of them the other goes full vigilante is one. If you have any ideas, feel free to drop them in the comments.

The game has about 50 wishlists on Steam now, which is great - please do wishlist it yourself if you're interested over at https://store.steampowered.com/app/2076260/Slaughter_Horse_2/

I also have a Kofi account at https://ko-fi.com/catsmeatstudios if you'd like to help support development. I will be sending everyone who donates $5+ a Steam Key when the game comes out, so it's a bit like pre-ordering.

The way things are going, I'm still fairly confident the game will come out in August (next month) although of course that's not set in stone. Although it will be a finished product and not early access, I've no doubt there will be a few updates early on as issues I didn't spot arise or things are improved.

TTFN!

Catfood