Disclaimer: most of these graphics are placeholders, especially that terrible background for the cake shop! Game mechanics may also change as it becomes clear what works and what doesn't.

Like Slaughter Horse 1, it uses pixel art. I was surprised with Slaughter School that many people would have preferred those pixels as I imagined pixel art was a bit passé these days. Glad to return to it as I enjoy pixel art a lot more anyway. Technically the game's resolution is 320x180!

So here's how the game works at the moment.

You are a horrid serial killer (I'm not allowed to call you Pinkamena, but you can customise all your details) living in a snowed-in mountain town. Your aim is to kill all the town leaders and take the place over. You have a limited amount of days to achieve this before the thaw arrives and the town can receive outside help.

Many townsponies are harmless. You can murder them, but each murder inflames the town's rage further. If they get mad enough, they'll start lynching whoever seems the most likely suspect. Killing at random may work out for you, but it's more likely it'll eventually get you executed.

With the help of your Disciple and your pet (whose name you may want to change to something toothless) you must try to work out who lives where, what they do and what they're up to, murdering or kidnapping key roles and raising suspicion and insanity against others while keeping your own down.

Even if you discover a town leader, it's not always the best policy to kill them immediately. Example, the Mayor has to go but while they're alive they can disperse a potential lynch mob. The Visitor is annoying, but they also role block other ponies most nights - maybe stopping an investigation into yourself.

You start by working out your luck each day by picking a tarot card. Try not to draw Death. (I know Death is a good card in a real world deck, but not in this game!)

You will get a hint from the Disciple. They are useful at first, but being a bit of a sick fan their ultimate goal is for you to kill them, and if you don't they start getting antsy. If they get too upset they might blow your cover entirely, so you have to find them and judge when it's time to eliminate them.

Every day except Sunday (Stallionday!) you work in your cake shop. You can chat, gossip or interrogate your customers for more information. Gossip and Interrogate yield better info, but carry a level of risk!

You can also bake one of your famous cakes for your pet to deliver to a house. These have various unpleasant effects, such as making the occupant behave temporarily in a very suspicious way, eroding their sanity or even putting them into a murderous rage which will lead to them attacking another pony at random. The more dangerous the cake, the more ingredients you need to make it. Send not-Gummy out to find some.

On a Sunday, if the Preacher is still alive you might choose to attend church. This is currently the only way to lower suspicion against you, although it's not very good for your mental state.

At this point the game may serve you a random happening which might be useful or not.

During the night, you can then choose to visit a house and kill or kidnap the occupant. Kidnapped ponies end up in your basement, and if you indulge in a little torture this helps you regain your sanity, as does murder. If you go completely insane, your cover is blown.

The game then moves onto the next day, and so it goes until you eliminate all the Town Leaders or end up dead yourself!

There's a lot more going on besides, but that's the tl;dr of it. It's a great deal more complex than Slaughter Horse 1, so getting the balance right is going to be tricky. Hoping to have it in a workable state relatively soon, and once it is the plan is to upload an HTML5 version here on GameJolt for playtesting.

Ultimately, it will be available on Android and Steam (I checked for other parody pony games and they do exist on Steam so we should be good).

Happy shanking!

- Catfood