March to the rhythm in this new creation from the masterminds behind Patapon!
Please note, we are waiting to charge for shipping closer to fulfillment. After shipping fees are added in, you will be notified via email before your payment is charged.
パタポンのクリエイターによるこの新たなゲームの世界で、リズムに乗って行進しよう！
Latest Updates from Our Project:
October 2023 Update!
8 months ago
– Fri, Oct 06, 2023 at 05:45:32 AM
※日本語のアップデートは下の方にあります
Helloooooo RataTEAM! Welcome to our first post-campaign monthly update! We are now in October, the intense summer heat is slowly dissipating and Halloween is just around the corner. We have some great updates for you so pull up a chair!
Campaign Information:
Surveys:
Surveys are complete and will be going out next week! Here are a few important details about surveys:
・Surveys will be sent to your Kickstarter registered E-mail. Make sure to check that one. You can also find them via Kickstarter by clicking your profile photo after you log-in (located in the upper right hand corner).
・You will be able to make changes to your survey up until the point that we lock them, which will come 6 months before Ratatan’s final release.
・You will be able to purchase additional add-ons at Backerkit prices.
・Anyone who uses an AppleID will need to provide a secondary Email Address. Unfortunately due to the way AppleID works, we cannot send surveys or updates to those Emails.
・5-10% of backers never answer their surveys and therefore never receive their pledged merchandise. We strongly suggest answering your surveys as soon as you get them to avoid this situation.
If you need help with anything survey related then you can ping our official Discord account (ratatan_game) or send a customer service ticket via the customer-service-tickets channel on the Ratatan official discord, ask questions via the Kickstarter comments section, or go the old-fashioned way and send us an Email at [email protected]
Backerkit Store:
After surveys are done, we'll be turning our attention to the Backerkit store and plan to have it finished by the middle of October.
Discord Roles:
Once the Backerkit Store goes live that is next on our list.
Discord Updates:
If you haven't joined the official Ratatan Discord, you really should! We have added some new channels, a new fan vote, and just closed out our first 1.5XP weekend. Here's the new stuff to check out:
・Original-ratatan-art - Already has some amazing fan creations there. We have big plans for these in the future so if you fancy trying to create your own Ratatan and sharing it with fellow fans, this is your place to do it.
・Fan-emoji-submissions - We'll be voting on these at the end of the month. The winner will be selected to be added to the official Ratatan emojis. Swing over to that channel and add an emoji to the ones you like the most.
・Fan-vote - We love being able to interact with the community! We asked you which new content you want to see in next month's update. It's clear that a new track is pretty high on your list!
・Red Art Games Channels - We've added a section so that you can connect with our amazing merchandise partner Red Art Games. They will have one channel called Merch-chat-and-questions for you to ask anything about the Ratatan merchandise available in the campaign or Backerkit store. There will also be a red-art-general channel for anyone interested in other non-Ratatan merchandise Red Art releases and trust us, you'll love it!
Other Post-campaign Fun Stuff:
In addition to new fan votes and channels on discord we plan to bring the fun to many of our social channels. In the future look out for:
・Question of the month - We'll tweet out an answer to one of the many unanswered questions that we still have in the dev-questions channel on Discord
・Ratatan Trivia - You may think you know everything there is to know about the Ratatans but you'll be in for a surprise!
・Birthday Celebrations - We'll tweet out not just our dev's B-days but also the Ratatan B-days (if such things actually exist)!
・Sneaky Screenshots - You'll see a corner of an image or photo but can you guess what the photo is before we reveal it a week later?
Whew! That's a lot so let's jump into the Developer Updates now.
Development Information:
Hello everyone! This is Tokuyama, the project manager for the Ratatan team. In today’s update, we’ll talk about our current development phase and future plans.
Based on the roadmap that we revealed during the closing stream, the Ratatan team entered the vertical slice phase in October. This phase will continue until the end of December 2023.
Now, I’ll explain the purposes of this phase. We have two major goals in terms of implementing things in the ROM, but two other goals as well, for a total of 4.
First, let’s start with the ROM goals.
1: Make sure the rhythm action battles feel fun
We’re aiming to make Ratatan feel like a complete rhythm action game. Having fun playing along with the music is the backbone of this game, so we must complete this goal, and I’m sure it’s an element you’re all excited about as well. We plan to keep tuning it while adding other actions and features aside from the rhythm commands we showed you during the campaign.
2: Make one stage playable from start to finish (this comes from the definition of a vertical slice, where one stage can be played to completion)
By allowing players to play from the beginning of a stage and defeat the stage’s boss, we hope to use that as a foothold by which to determine the gameplay volume and total amount of data we need. We especially need to keep working on the boss battles, so we’re prioritizing honing those until the fun becomes truly apparent. We intend to add roguelite elements to Ratatan as well, so this includes thinking about how we can use the random events and instant buffs to allow people to enjoy the game even on repeated playthroughs.
Now, I’ll explain what we’re also planning to achieve in this phase based on these goals.
3: Since the build we showed off during the campaign prioritized sharing our image of how things would work from a prototype perspective, it featured many elements that had only been implemented at a preliminary level. We intend to rebuild these things from the ground up so that they will be able to withstand our long development cycle. (It’ll be very tough work, but I’m going to plead to our engineers and have them work as hard as they can.)
4: We also intend to simultaneously consider which middleware and tools we’ll need for the development of the actual game during this phase. We need to start preparing now, because soon we’ll need to start mass producing the data and assets.
In order to devote time to these things, there may not be many visual changes to the builds in the first half of the phase. Still, in order to prepare for our mass-production-phase, we’ll get an early start on assets and music, so I hope to be able to show the fruits of our labor to you periodically in later updates.
It would be sad if we had nothing to actually show, though…so this time, we’ll be presenting you with videos that show off the voices of the Ratatan that are currently implemented in the game, which we weren’t able to introduce during the campaign, as well as an illustration of Ratatan enjoying Halloween. Hope you all enjoy this!
*This image is from something that is currently in development, and may change in the final version.
Illustration by Nami Kato
Illustration by Nami Kato
Lastly, the campaign ended in September, but we’re so overjoyed to have received such a big response from so many players, and are also glad to see that the community is still very much alive. It serves as a great source of motivation for us. We’re going to do periodical community events to keep you all entertained, so we hope you’re excited!
・Red Art Gamesチャンネル：私たちの素晴らしいグッズパートナーであるRed Art Gamesとつながることができるセクションを追加しました。Merch-chat-and-questionsというチャンネルがあり、そこでキャンペーンやBackerkitストアで販売しているRatatanグッズについて何でも質問できます。また、Red Art GamesがリリースするRatatan以外のグッズに興味がある人のためのred-art-generalというチャンネルもあります。きっと気に入ります！
THANK YOU VERY MUCH!
9 months ago
– Mon, Sep 04, 2023 at 06:11:28 AM
※日本語のアップデートは下の方にあります
A Word of Thanks:
Thank you backers!! For us, we have spent months and months planning the campaign with countless development hours going into the project. The campaign team and developers have spent multiple 14 hour days answering questions, adding functionality to the discord, chatting with you, continuing the development of the game, of course, and translating a massive amount of information. It's been a marathon but we reached the finish line. During the whirlwind workflow it's been your kind words, support, and glorious fan art that really kept us going. You really are the best community and we are honored to be able to develop this game with you on our sides. Rarely can you directly affect the fates of the creators you care about but this group has done that. You have empowered us and given us a great opportunity. We will do our best to make this a project you are proud to have participated in.
Illustration by Kususaga Rin
Here's some select comments from the team:
Kotani-san - Supervisor
Whoa! This month went by in the blink of an eye. The Kickstarter campaign has come to an end. It was the first time for us to share information from the start of a project and we were thrilled to see how you all responded to the characters who were just taking their first steps. This may be annoying for them to hear, but they've only just been born and there are still many things yet to be decided. Perhaps the relationships between the characters in your imagination will have an impact on the game! We hope that you will continue to nurture the relationships between the characters right up until we deliver the final product. Rat-tat ⭐︎ Rat-tat ⭐︎ Rat-tat-tat!
Nelnal-san - Character Designer
Our Kickstarter campaign finally reached an incredible goal thanks to the support of so many people! I did my best after assuming the role of designing characters for a spiritual successor game, and seeing your words and all your fan art was a huge motivator for me. I'm always searching for designs that will make people say "Cute!" or "Fun!" at first glance, and I will do my very best to deliver to you my very best work. Please keep cheering Ratatan on!
Adachi-san - Composer
Thank you so much for your help with this Kickstarter. I was so glad to see how many different people were interested in the game. We'll be sure to create a great final product so that we don't betray the expectations of everyone who's supported us, so please keep cheering us on!
Nakasha-san - Director
Today marks the final day of the Kickstarter campaign. All the warm support we received from you during the campaign has really motivated us. Thank you so much. The true development begins now, so we'll keep all your support in our hearts and do our best. Please keep cheering us on.
Rin-san - Art Director
If you rearrange the letters of RATATAN it becomes TATANRA, which is a Buddhist phrase that means "doing something great by having the people around you lend you their hands." Sorry. That's a complete lie (bows). But the fact that all your support has given us great strength is not a lie - it's the bonafide truth. I lie a lot, but I'm serious about development and I honestly want to create the best game possible!
Takahashi-san - Lead Programmer
As a programmer, I've got a lot of stuff to do now that the Kickstarter campaign is over, even though I've actually been working hard on this from the beginning right up to now. Will we be able to keep up this fervor 'til the end? You can put your faith in the TVT Programming Team!
Sakajiri-san - Producer
I was pretty nervous during the early stages of the Kickstarter, but being able to walk through this campaign together with you all led to a super fun and fulfilling month. We're going to use the bonds we created with you all as fuel for the development. The Kickstarter is only one part of a long development cycle, and we want to make sure we fulfill all our promises to you. The frequency of our updates will slow down from here, but we'll definitely keep posting information that'll surprise you. Please keep cheering us on!!
Yasui-san - Executive Producer
We reached the goal on our Kickstarter. I would like to thank the staff and everyone who supported us from the bottom of my heart. I hope we can keep this wonderful parade going. Please keep cheering Ratatan on.
Campaign Information:
Payment Issues:
We are seeing a lot of folks with payment issues. See the information in this update for potential problems. We have also set up a kickstarter-payment-problems channel in the official discord server (general section). Let's try to work together to collect information as a community and help those backers who are having a hard time with their payments going through.
Dark Ratatan Pets:
For those that were keeping an eye on the final stretch goal, we did not clear it but Super Producer Sakajiri-san mentioned during the stream that future funds from Backerkit would count towards that stretch goal. We've seen Backerkit bring in 10% more funding than the base campaign so there is still a good chance we can secure those pets!
Closing Stream Archive:
We've uploaded it to our Youtube channel. Watch it HERE
Connected Community:
Now comes the hard part... The wait for the game. Fortunately, we are further along in production than some other titles we've seen come to Kickstarter so we are doing our best to get Ratatan into your hot little hands as soon as possible. That being said, we have some great plans for the community while you are waiting. Here's our current thinking:
・Twitch Plays
While we need to do some work on having better instructions, people seemed to like what we put together and we'd like to revisit that. Potentially with new characters/etc. We'll probably make this a 3-6 month thing.
・Fan-created content
The fan-art is amazing. We want more interaction and more collaboration.
In order to make it easier for people to create fan content, we are planning to create derivative work guidelines. As soon as they’re ready, we will release these guidelines in a future update.
Our current ideas aside from that are:
・Releasing new fan-art reels to coincide with new music-track-reveals
・A discord channel focused on the creation of fan-created emojis. We'll have official votes on a month basis for the adding 1-2 fan-created emoji to the official emoji list
・Creating a rule set for how best to interact with the IP so that fans can create card games/stories/milk cartons that fit within the game world
・Other Random Murmurs
We couldn't have done this without our amazing moderators. Thanks again one more time: Andokai, Foxley, Just_Kalux, lynncooksfood, owocek, TheoreticalBulletBiter, Lacon, ボス男＠7
We'll be introducing a "ticketing system" soon that will allow you to send direct issues via a back-end system to the moderators. Hopefully this will help get you answers as soon as possible.
We'll be updating you once a month as mentioned before but plan to jump in the discord on a frequent basis. We'll have level-up booster events, new emojis, and new channels with some focused around backers specifically. Point is, even during the slower points of production, we plan to release content where we can to make sure you are enjoying the ride. Got a suggestion? Put it in the crazy-ideas-and-merch section. We'll be looking there as well!
・Roadmap:
For those who missed it, here's the Roadmap infographic in all its glory
The roadmap we’ve revealed today is split up into three-month milestones. After this, will release simple updates once a month to let you know how things are proceeding, and report on our milestones once every three months. We want to make the development process as transparent as possible and also deliver surprises to you when we can. However, this is game development we’re talking about, so there is a large possibility that progress speed bumps and changes may occur, so we hope you will understand when and if they happen.
Here’s a simple explanation of the phase that will begin this month. We did our best to make preparations for everything, even during the KS campaign itself. For now, our team needs to rest. This month, we will focus on recovering from our exhaustion and start aiming to meet our development goals next month.
From next month to the end of this year, we will enter the “vertical slice” phase. What we showed you during the closing stream was a prototype, and there are still a ton of elements that need refinement in terms of quality. In the next vertical slice, we will develop a pre-alpha build that is closer to final version quality. We will also add a lot of art and music to make both the gameplay and the world itself feel fuller.
We hope you’re all excited for future updates.
Producer Sakajiri
Surveys:
We are reiterating what we mentioned on Friday's update:
We have to set up a lot of hooks and tags and figure out the right questions to make sure we get all the answers we need from you in one fell swoop. After all, NOBODY wants to fill out a survey over and over again. This process will take around a month and we'll let you know in future updates that these have been sent out. Once we have a decent amount of surveys in we'll start delivering your backer roles on discord. The goal is to get everything done by the end of the year at the latest. You will be able to change things like your address and survey choices up until about 6 months before the game releases when we lock orders. True fact: Most Kickstarter campaigns end with only about a 90-95% completion ratio. That means, there are many campaigns from 10 years ago where people pledged for something and then totally forgot about it. Please don't abandon our Ratatans and cobuns like that.
Future Problems:
Also mentioned on Friday's update:
There are a decent number of returning backers but just in case we have linked Kickstarter's payment policy below. Every campaign loses about 5 - 10% of its funding due to credit card issues. These largely stem from:
A) Having a debit card or the largely popular JCB card in Japan that is not supported due to card type or card issuing location.
B) Your bank seeing a large charge as fraudulent and putting a stop on the funds from leaving.
C) Your bank seeing a charge coming from Japan and flagging international payments as suspicious.
D) Not having enough money in your account.
In all cases but D, you can proactively call your bank and let them know that a charge of some number of dollars/yen/euros/pesos is going out to a company in Japan and that it is not fraudulent. Kickstarter should send you a message if your charge did not go through and you have a week to rectify it so check your Kickstarter registered E-mail and spam folder if you have concerns. We are NOT a part of the back-end payment system for Kickstarter and even though this directly damages us, there is nothing we can do. It's a bank and Kickstarter charge policy issue so only one of those two places can solve the problem.
As mentioned in the campaign, shipping options won't be determined until we are closer to launch. This is to lower currency risks that can come from currency being particularly volatile recently and to make sure we provide the latest shipping options to you. We want to allow backers to choose the best shipping type that fits their needs.
Backerkit Store:
We have seen people worry about not being able to get some of the limited edition merch due to payday issues or only being able to pay via PayPal/etc. The good news is that we will be doing a Backerkit slacker backer store that you will be able to reach directly from the main Kickstarter page. A few points of note though:
・We will not be offering any of the premium in-game rewards on Backerkit
・Signed versions will not be available via the Backerkit store
・Prices will be slightly increased so that our initial Kickstarter backers who helped make the project a reality receive a small early bird discount.
・PayPal is supported but only if we lock orders... that means committing to shipping options which we don't want to do until we are a few months out from launch. We will probably wait until about 6 months to launch and then update backers that they can use PayPal at that time so please do keep an eye out for future updates.
The Backerkit slacker backer store will go live after we finish sending out surveys and have time to focus on building it out. We will let you know when we plan to set it live in an update after we finish our preparations.
Contacting us:
We are largely looking at the official discord every week and can receive messages there. You can send us a message through Kickstarter's backend. Again, we cannot help with payment issues associated with Kickstarter's credit card policy but we will always love talking with you!
Sleeeeeep!
And with that out of the way... we get back to slow things down this week and begin focus on the main game production. As backers and fans of Ratatan, we leave these links with you:
Discord - Join the discord, talk with like-minded fans. Participate in votes, giveaways, level-ups, achievements. We will pop in from time to time to chat with you as well!
Twitter (X) - Get the latest and greatest updates here
Youtube - Liked that fan video? Archive of the closing stream? Well this is your chance to revisit them with moving pictures!
Fabulous Friday #5
9 months ago
– Thu, Aug 31, 2023 at 08:49:30 PM
※日本語のアップデートは下の方にあります
Fabulous Friday #5
Here we are. The last 12 hours of the campaign. Who really knows how this will end. But one thing is for sure, the developers have never been happier. So much trust! So much passion! So much milk! It will be hard to say goodbye when it's over but don't worry, we have some updates about the future roadmap below. Oh, and we are currently the 36th most funded video game Kickstarter OF ALL TIME! That's out of over 19,300 projects to date!
Campaign Information:
Closing Stream:
Please join us on our Twitch channel at https://www.twitch.tv/ratatangame on September 1st from 8AM EST/5AM PST for four hours of fun, interviews, quizzes, and school uniforms! Here's a list of the content and general timeline. We'll have highgai / AJ as our bilingual host, one of the coolest bilingual dudes there is around! We know it's early... but we really really really hope you can join us!
David Wise Interview:
It wouldn't be a Fabulous Friday without another interview! This one features David Wise who will also be joining us for the closing stream! David is super cool and we cannot wait to start working with him!
Moving forward we plan to keep our backers in the know! Transparency is important! There have been enough bad Kickstarters out there that we feel obliged to give you regular progress updates so you can see your pledges are being put to good use! The goal is to update everyone once a month. Some of these updates may contain spoilers for the game so if you want to go in fresh, stick to the campaign section which will have important information on things like surveys. Speaking of which…
Surveys:
We have to set up a lot of hooks and tags and figure out the right questions to make sure we get all the answers we need from you in one fell swoop. After all, NOBODY wants to fill out a survey over and over again. This process will take around a month and we'll let you know in future updates that these have been sent out. Once we have a decent amount of surveys in we'll start delivering your backer roles on discord. The goal is to get everything done by the end of the year at the latest. You will be able to change things like your address and survey choices up until about 6 months before the game releases when we lock orders. True fact: Most Kickstarter campaigns end with only about a 90-95% completion ratio. That means, there are many campaigns from 10 years ago where people pledged for something and then totally forgot about it. Please don't abandon our Ratatans and cobuns like that.
Future Problems:
There are a decent number of returning backers but just in case we have linked Kickstarter's payment policy below. Every campaign loses about 5 - 10% of its funding due to credit card issues. These largely stem from:
A) Having a debit card or the largely popular JCB card in Japan that is not supported due to card type or card issuing location.
B) Your bank seeing a large charge as fraudulent and putting a stop on the funds from leaving.
C) Your bank seeing a charge coming from Japan and flagging international payments as suspicious.
D) Not having enough money in your account.
In all cases but D, you can proactively call your bank and let them know that a charge of some number of dollars/yen/euros/pesos is going out to a company in Japan and that it is not fraudulent. Kickstarter should send you a message if your charge did not go through and you have a week to rectify it so check your Kickstarter registered E-mail and spam folder if you have concerns. We are NOT a part of the back-end payment system for Kickstarter and even though this directly damages us, there is nothing we can do. It's a bank and Kickstarter charge policy issue so only one of those two places can solve the problem.
As mentioned in the campaign, shipping options won't be determined until we are closer to launch. This is to lower currency risks that can come from currency being particularly volatile recently and to make sure we provide the latest shipping options to you. We want to allow backers to choose the best shipping type that fits their needs.
Backerkit Store:
We have seen people worry about not being able to get some of the limited edition merch due to payday issues or only being able to pay via PayPal/etc. The good news is that we will be doing a Backerkit slacker backer store that you will be able to reach directly from the main Kickstarter page. A few points of note though:
・We will not be offering any of the premium in-game rewards on Backerkit
・Signed versions will not be available via the Backerkit store
・Prices will be slightly increased so that our initial Kickstarter backers who helped make the project a reality receive a small early bird discount.
・PayPal is supported but only if we lock orders... that means committing to shipping options which we don't want to do until we are a few months out from launch. We will probably wait until about 6 months to launch and then update backers that they can use PayPal at that time so please do keep an eye out for future updates.
The Backerkit slacker backer store will go live after we finish sending out surveys and have time to focus on building it out. We will let you know when we plan to set it live in an update after we finish our preparations.
Secret Final Stretch Goal
Well, you destroyed all the core stretch goals-- All 23 of them!! As if the "one more thing" meme hasn't been overused as it is, we have... one more thing! This Super Secret Final Stretch goal will be revealed on the closing stream. To prove that we didn't just think of it last minute we have a hint and will even have art to show about it on the closing stream so this was totally NOT LAST MINUTE! <sticks out tongue>
Final Character Battle Results:
Nyandola overpowered Harigittan and Keroronpa in the final stretch but with the exception of poor Buttonda, all the characters had a good number of votes! That will definitely put the designer's minds at ease. And of course you could always give Buttonda the fan art treatment that you did for Mimizukyun. That really seemed to put a smile on his face!
Final Backer Choice Stretch Goal Results:
This one wasn't even close. Missions and quests was our clear winner! So be it! The final game will feature missions and quests that completionists will love…completely!
Community Goals:
You nailed the Backer Goal and are this close to the discord user goal. But sadly, that Retweet goal totally missed its mark. All is not lost though, if we can get up to 3000 people on the closing stream, we'll consider the Retweet Goal as cleared. After all, the goal is to have as many people watching the stream as possible!
Whimsical Wednesday #5
9 months ago
– Wed, Aug 30, 2023 at 06:10:47 AM
※日本語のアップデートは下の方にあります
Whimsical Wednesday #5
All good things must come to an end and we have almost reached the 48 hour mark. This has been a wild ride and we fully expect an even wilder finish from our amazing community. Let's talk over some of the core data points. Remember, there are a great deal of people wary of crowdfunding campaigns and it's 2023 so the odds were against us but look at what we've achieved as a RataTEAM:
・Currently the 43th most funded video game Kickstarter of ALL TIME and the most funded video game Kickstarter since the Double Kickstarter (thanks for the call-out Kaneko-san and Machida-san!)
・Close to 12,000 backers
・Close to 10,000 registered Discord users
・Over 22,000 registered Youtube users
・Over 14,000 registered Twitter users
Campaign Information:
Backer Vote:
You secured the coveted Dark Ratatans and continue to move forward as we head into our last 48 hours. Amazing!! Now let's talk about that Backer Vote! We've been looking into the variety of awesome stretch goal suggestions you've put forward in the stretch goal ideas channel on discord and have selected 4 of the most realistic options from a financial and time perspective. We have put this live in the fan-vote channel on Discord and on Twitter so please vote for the one you like the most. Please note, the chance of the lesser goals making it into the game is not zero, but for the 1.8M yen stretch goal we'll choose the most popular one. Here they are:
Fishing Mini-Game: Fishing will be added to the game. Fishing lovers will go crazy for it! Jukebox Mode: This will allow you to select BGM tracks to listen to and dance with other players! Missions and Quests: Special missions and quests will be added. They won’t be boring fetch quests, but “special” ones. Infinite Mode: Some sort of neverending game mode will be added. It’ll probably end up as something that will be enjoyable to gamers who want to test their limits.
Toyama-san Stretch Goal:
We do not mess around when we talk about collaborating with some of the greatest game designers out there. Another famous member from the Japan Studio days, Toyama-san had this to say about the project:
Comment from Keiichiro Toyama
Kotani-san and I have worked in close range since the time when SIE was still SCE, so we have been sworn comrades since long ago. In any case, I was always just completely overwhelmed by the passionate, straightforward way he would always explain himself during production. Patapon, which Kotani-san worked on, is a very memorable game to me, as I had a lot of fun playing it with my sons when they were still little. When I saw the announcement about Ratatan, its spiritual successor, my heart instantly started to pound. The atmosphere and sound brought back so many fond memories. On top of that, things were now high resolution, more detailed, and the screen composition looked beautiful. I definitely want to cheer this project on as hard as I can, and I'm wondering if there's anything I can do to help!
Being able to have all of these creators come back and work together on a project just doesn't happen like this! We have all of our Ratatan fingers, claws, and our Xylaria polymorpha crossed (don't you just love science jokes!) so that this goal becomes a reality!
Final Stretch Goals:
Now that we are at our final 48 hours, we are showing all our cards. At 195M yen we have the return of My Room and Base Customization that we had previously set. At 200M yen we have... <drum roll please>... PLAYABLE Dark Ratatans!! Creating 8 different frenemies is one thing but making them playable is a whole new ball of production cost wax! That's why we need to set this goal higher. We know the desire is there but we need to set the goal at a reasonable number versus the production risk. Thanks for your understanding!
Closing Stream:
As mentioned on Monday's update, we will have a closing stream to celebrate the end of the campaign with our fans. Here is our current program content schedule so far:
・Special guests: Haruna Yuzuki, David Wise, Tsutomu Kouno
・New Mini Movie!
・Devs playing the latest build of the game -- it's REAL!
・Play a Ratatan mini-game with us via the Twitch interface
・Giveaway of one Small Canvas Print from Nelnal-san
・Kendama Challenge
・The Great Draw-off
・Ratatan Quizzes
・The Gyutan Game - Extra Hot Version
See the schedule below:
We've added an event in the Discord channel and will be pinging everyone on the Discord channel once during the final 48 hours reminding folks about the stream and once 1 hour before it starts. With the amount of content we have planned, you won't want to miss it!
Fan Art:
Just putting up 3-4 pieces of fan art a few times just didn't seem like enough so we've created this fan-art reel to REALly (har-har) showcase the amazing passion and talent of the community.
Welcome to our ninth and final development update of the campaign!
First of all, director Nakasha-san will talk about the "character customization" stretch goal and how that will be implemented.
We also received a few comments from Nelnal about the design concept behind the enemies that appear in the Pirates of the Paraddean stage, and finally, we'll reveal some of the lore between a couple of the enemies, so be sure to read all the way to the end!
Let's get started!
Character Customization
Hello there. Ratatan Team Development Director, Nakasha, here.
I'm going to try and keep this brief.
With your support, we'll now be implementing character customization into Ratatan, so the team discussed how to introduce customizable elements to the Ratatan themselves and their Cobun.
First are the Ratatans--we'd like for them to be able to change their Melodiums, costumes and even the color of each costume.
Just as changing the equipment they carry changes various elements of your adventure, we would like to allow you the freedom to change their appearance to your liking at any time by customizing their outfits and color combinations. (We'd like to try and include separate settings for performance and appearance if we include parameters that differ per costume.) We are also planning to have the COMtan mentioned earlier be customizable in the same way as the Ratatans.
Next are the Cobun. Cobun will also have swappable weapons and color palettes. Changing weapons will have various effects on your adventures, and customizing colors will be one of the factors that will make your Cobun all the more adorable.
There was also a Premium Reward called Friend in Me that allows backers to name a Cobun, which means they'll be given individual names too. Not just names but we'll also try to add a bit of personality too (long ears, tongues hanging down like ponytails... Y'know, stuff like that).
I haven't thought about renaming it or customizing the minor visual aspects at this time, but would you like to customize this area as you see fit? Please let me know what you think.
Last up is a Stretch Goal we passed the other day--customizing Fortrun.
We're going to allow players to customize Fortrun's hull, bow, and balloons, as well as change the colors of each. We've also started considering such customizations changing Fortrun's function during your adventures. And not forgetting the Premium Reward, so up to four players can fly these flags during their adventure. Let's all fly our flags together when playing online multiplayer.
In this way, we would like to make customization of each element not only change the appearance to your liking, but also change various elements during the adventure. We hope you will enjoy your adventures with your own unique combinations.
Be it character skins or customizable options we haven't considered, feel free to let us know your ideas and questions in the #crazy-ideas-and-merch channel on the official Ratatan Discord! We look forward to hearing from you!
Pirates of the Paraddean Enemy Reflections
Designer Nelnal's Concept:
About the boss designs
The first motifs that came to mind for the subject of sea pirates were manta rays, squid, and octopi. In fact, the designs of the bosses I drew this time were taken from a book I have with about 10 years of ideas stored inside.
While using this particular idea, I designed the enemies so they'd look cool without being too cute, but still have that little something out of the ordinary about them. It was fun imagining how they would move around in the story itself as I drew them. I thought about how interesting it would be if the manta rays were short-tempered, squid were nihilistic, and octopi were bloodthirsty, and their skin color changed every time their emotions changed.
About the lackey designs
I drew the small enemies as creatures that look like things that live in the sea.
There's all kinds of creatures like running seaweed and shellfish with legs.
The Jolly Hermit is designed to have retractable eyes so that it appears to be just a boat while it is underwater or underground. I imagined a situation where I thought it was just a boat, only for a hermit crab to suddenly jump out and startle me.
The Stinger Dinger Raid!
After crossing the vast sea, the Ratatan finally arrived on a new land.
A roadblock sign at the entrance to a hole in the side of a towering mountain screams, but that huge hole is the dream of treasure hunters in search of gold and jewels. It seems that the road ahead is very dangerous.
The Ratatan's song echoes through the dark, empty world...
"GADAN! KINKON! GARURURUH!"
The yells of hunters unable to give up their dreams echo out, and in the tunnels, trolley tracks criss-cross in all directions.
Creatures of the dark jump out at you, and you will need to follow the faintest of lights. When you finally make it out the other side, you find yourselves on a suspension bridge hanging over a deep ravine.
And on the other side, a gang of thieves awaits you!
Will the Ratatans make it across the canyon and into the bustling city beyond?
Scorpswoosh Bill, head of the bandit Stinger Diggers, burbles into its drink.
Today they spotted a girl with a signboard and created mayhem dragging her back to their hideout.
"GIMME A GLASS O' YUMMY MILK!"
The Ratatans arrive, but apparently the tavern doesn't sell any milk!
A duel breaks out between the outlaws and the Ratatan over a glass of delicious milk, when suddenly...Scorpswoosh Bill makes off in his Wagoon drawn wagon!
The Ratatan are in pursuit while Scorpswoosh Bill flees!
Majestic Monday #4
9 months ago
– Mon, Aug 28, 2023 at 06:41:06 AM
※日本語のアップデートは下の方にあります
Majestic Monday #4
The final week begins now! New merch, a crazy new premium reward tier, new emotes, and we are showing off the Ratatan pets! For those of you who graciously choose the His Master's Voice premium reward, we can't wait to have your cute little buddy in the game! This is the final push! Let's see just how far our RataTEAM can go!!!
Campaign Information:
Merchandise Corner:
Weapon of Choice - This reward has largely been overlooked but you've seen the back and forth discussion about which weapon was good for Mushma's Cobun! You've duked it out over the character battle for your favorite Ratatan weapon as well. This is your chance to come up with a really cool name to add to the Ratatan world in a way that only YOU could. Steve's Spear? Milksword? You decide!
Collector's Cards - This set of premium trading cards features all the main Ratatans, their Cobun, core enemies, and weapons. If the Dark Ratatan goal is cleared, those characters and their Cobun will be added as well. The front side will contain art with the back side featuring core information and statistics. Each card is 63 x 88mm, 300g coated paper with matte lamination. This 60 plus card set will come in a shrink-wrapped tuck box.
Price: 11,000 yen
Special Thanks - We know some campaigns offer being in the credits but rather than have a staff role that scrolls for 20 minutes, we want to focus on giving standard backers more value through the closed Beta test and community rewards. However, we understand that if you are a die-hard fan you want to be recognized for your support... that and of course give that little bit extra that can help grab those final amazing stretch goals. So we have created the "Special Thanks" add-on that will put you into the credits of the game.
Price: 1500 yen
Premium Tier Signed Add-on - Since Kickstarter only allows you to choose one main reward, several people have had to make the heartbreaking choice of going with a Premium tier and foregoing a signed artbook as those are separate tiers. Well, say no more, we are adding the ability for Premium Reward Tier backers to get their artbook signed! Please ONLY choose this add-on if you are a PREMIUM backer!
Price: 20,000 yen
Premium Reward Re-issue:
We've convinced the developers to slide in 2 more Audiophile rewards because the last push may have some new backers who want that one last shot to appear in the game. That also got us thinking about legacy and how we can continually honor our biggest supporters. So we have added the Double Take Premium Reward!
Double Take Premium Reward:
This reward grants the backer the chance to appear in Ratatan as an NPC as well as a sequel IF one is created. Very rarely do teams do a Kickstarter campaign for a sequel to a game so this is most likely the only way to guarantee your place in Ratatan 2. Additionally, we are throwing in the chance to meet the team and play an interim build if you come to Japan. Note: Airfare and hotel are not included in this reward.
Price: 1,200,000 yen
Limit: 2
Character Battle Results:
It's hard not to see what makes Harigittan's spikey guitar so appealing. Keroronpa stuck in there until the very end but ultimately this was Harigittan's win. Guitar Smash!!!
Final Character Battle:
This is it, the FINAL character battle! You now have all the Ratatan's names, weapons, and core information at your hands so the big question when you start the game is... who will you play as first?
Closing Stream:
This is it! The party of the year! We will be holding a closing stream from September 1st at 8AM EST/5AM PST on our Twitch channel. Yes, yes, yes... We know... very few parties start at 5AM on a Friday. Alas, with Kickstarter you must finish at the same time you started. While this is not ideal, we can say it's the perfect time for an early breakfast featuring... milk_small! We'll have more specifics on the closing stream in our next update!
We are so close to securing the customized Ratatans and Cobuns so we have decided to show the next goal and it's a BIG one! It gives us the greatest of pleasures to announce Kouno-san of the Loco Roco fame as a collaborator! We are getting the Japan Studio band back together and having Kouno-san bring his unique design sensibilities to the game is a dream come true! Here's what the Maestro has to say:
"A few weeks ago, I was surprised to learn of Ratatan's announcement, and to my surprise, a collaboration proposal came my way. It's to be a spiritual successor to Patapon, a game whose gameplay and fun is already well-established in the world, so at first I couldn't imagine what sort of collaboration this would be. When I got to listen to what the team had to say, however, it seems like I'll be able to make various suggestions, so I hope to mix my energy in with Ratatan in a cool way and create a fun, surprising chemical reaction.
Above all, I am happy to be able to work with Kotani-san and the production staff, as well as with the composer, Adachi-san, who was a great help to me with Loco Roco!
I still don't know what kind of collaboration it will be yet myself, but I am excited and looking forward to it!!"
It's really cool to have a campaign that not only supports folks like Kotani-san but now you will be showing your love towards Kouno-san as well!
Community Goals:
Our final community goals are live and all about seeing where we can end with the final week of the campaign. We already have a robust community on Discord, Twitter, and Youtube so let's see if we can expand that to the point of us clearing these final goals and securing another CD's worth of amazing music for everyone! Tell a buddy/friend/partner/gamer/frenemy and let's do this!!
Development Update:
#8 Game Design: Rhythm Commands
Welcome to Development Update #8!
Just like last Wednesday, we have some more comments from Ratatan team member Shimizu-san who's in charge of the game's battle design.
Hello there!
I'm Shimizu and I'm in charge of the battle design within the Ratatan team. In our last update on Wednesday, we introduced the Ratatan's character design. And today, I'd like to talk more about the game's Rhythm Commands.
The themes for our attitude towards the rhythm commands are, Intuitive and Phrase.
First up, we chose "intuitive" because the Ratatan that the players control can move around freely, and so we're trying to structure the rhythm command inputs so as not to be overly complex.
For example, requiring players to input a string of several button commands would make the controls very complicated, so we considered building the rhythm command system without the need to change the way you press the buttons. This would only simplify the gameplay, however, so we thought it better to approach the game in such a way that the rhythm itself changed depending on the way the buttons are pressed. This way, pressing a button for a little bit or a long time will change the rhythm commands. Also, by tying the rhythm commands to respective actions--these buttons for attacks, these buttons for movement--we will be able to make the inputs more intuitive.
Next, "phrases." In Ratatan, our hope is that adopting phrases like "Rat-tat-tat," "Zun-taka-tan," and "Yah-hoi-hoi" as rhythm commands would help players enjoy the sensation of rhythm with a new instrument that's different from your typical percussion. These work like sampler playback, for example, where you can use one phrase by itself, or change the phrase by playing it again in the middle (like "Rat-tat-Rat-tat-Rat-tat-tat"). This system that combines our desire for enjoyable phrases with the intuitive button inputs I described earlier is the kind of rhythm command we're aiming for in Ratatan.
We're currently working on three different rhythm commands to test out and examine how they feel to play. We hope you look forward to seeing what that experience will be like with each rhythm command.
So what'd you think?
We hope this gives everyone a little more to work with when imagining how Ratatan's gameplay is going to look.
Not to mention, we have our final Ratatan to introduce! With everyone's help, we were able to decide what color their outfit should be, so please be sure to give a great round of applause to Kamonelo and their Cobun!
※Artwork is in development and subject to change.
Melodium: Horn
Role: Healer
Profile: Soothes its comrades with its healing horn.
Does what it must behind the scenes patching up fellow Ratatans, Cobun and Fortrun, but always looks like it'd rather be doing literally anything else.
We also have some still-in-development ideas that our talented agent managed to get their hands on! (We’re not sure if these will make it to the final version or not...)
※Artwork is in development and subject to change.
And with that, all eight of our Ratatans have been revealed! We're sure everyone has a favorite too. It'll be some time before you're able to meet them in game, but we hope you will continue to adore them, make fanart of them and proclaim your love for them on the Ratatan Discord in the meantime!
We also have some other development news for you regarding the premium reward “His Master’s Voice” (the reward that has us put your pet in the game)! Up until today, how the pets will actually be implemented has been shrouded in mystery…
But now we have some in-development concept art to show you all! Here you can see which pet corresponds to which Ratatan, as well as a pet on the left based on Kotani-san’s own beloved cat (featured in the second image)!
※Artwork is in development and subject to change.
We still haven’t decided how exactly they will appear in the game, and the design may change in the future, but we intend to give them roles that will allow them to heal you as cute members of your in-game family! If any of you want to put your family members in game then please consider choosing this premium reward!
There are only a few days left in the campaign, but we’ve still got two updates and the closing stream to go, so let’s keep this Ratatan parade rocking until the very end! See you next update!
Weapon of Choice: この報酬はほとんど見過ごされてきたが、マッシュマのコブンにはどの武器がいいのか、というファン投票をご覧になりましたね？好きな武器のキャラクターバトルで対決したこともあるので、この機会に、ラタタンワールドを彩る、あなただけのクールなネーミングを考えてみませんか？スティーブのスピア？ミルクソード？決定権はコミュニティのものです！
Special Thanks: クレジットの中に入ることを提供するキャンペーンがあることは知っていますが、20分間スクロールするだけの役割を持つよりも、私たちはクローズドベータテストとコミュニティの報酬を通して、標準的なバッカーにもっと価値を与えることに集中したいのです。しかし、熱烈なファンで、サポートが認められたい......そしてもちろん、最後の素晴らしいストレッチゴールをつかむのに役立つ、ほんの少しのプラスアルファを与えたい......という方もいるということを、私たちは理解しています。そこで私たちは、ゲームのクレジットに表示される "Special Thanks"アドオンを作成しました！
値段： 1500円
Premium Tier Signed Add-on: Kickstarterではメインリワードを1つしか選べないため、別のティアであるアートブックを犠牲にしてプレミアムリワードを選んだ、悲痛な選択を迫られたバッカーが何人もいます。そこで、プレミアム・リワード・ティアーのバッカーのために、サイン入りアートブックを入手できるようにしました！
値段：2万円
Premium Reward再発行
私たちは開発者を説得し、あと2つのAudiophile特典を追加することにしました。最後の一押しで、ゲームに登場する最後の一撃を望む新しいバッカーが現れるかもしれないからです。また、今後も最大のバッカーに継続的に敬意を表する方法についても考えさせられました。そこで、Double Take Premium Rewardを追加しました！
