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Pawborough is an upcoming cat-based rpg game that’s currently in development. You can find all their upcoming previews and sneak peaks from their staff here.


The game’s homepage’s
description can be found below:
PawBorough is an interactive cat-based RPG currently in development. PawBorough invites users to collect felines of all different stripes, lineages, and colors, breed them together to discover exciting new combinations, go on quests with a unique dungeon crawling system, and build a web of relationships to personalize the player experience.

Players are encouraged to express creativity as they complete quests by embracing and expanding on the story provided for them. PawBorough uniquely incorporates adventuring elements into its gameplay, including inspiration from community storytelling and tabletop adventure games. You as the player will help decide the direction of the sitewide campaign, collectively interacting with our NPCs and driving the story through everyday play.


Create Your Founders​

After choosing one of the seven Boroughs, create your camp founders and name your piece of territory!​

Customize​

Paw Borough is all about expressing your unique style! On top of dressing your cat up with accessories*, each cat's page will feature a customizable backdrop. Players are able to place decor items in the scene, and any image will be resizable, rotatable, and draggable, including the cat!

*Note for development transparency: PawBorough has twenty breeds planned for the site's lifetime. During production, accessory items will be illustrated on all twenty breeds, regardless of the breeds currently available to the player base. This method of production is to ensure an efficient release of breeds, as well as to avoid severely hindering future development!

Because of this, accessories will be relatively limited at the start. We hope extensive decor and backdrop options will help tocompensate during this period. Thank you!
A cat's page will also feature highly customizable "role" and "relationship" options!

A cat's role in your territory can be custom written and featured on the page! Options such as "loner," "leader," and "camp member" are available to foster a player's own ideas.

For the relationships tab, players can add their cats and, with permission, other players' cats! Relationship groups and individual titles are entirely customizable. Options such as "enemy," "mate," and "family" are available to foster a player's ideas.

Breed​

Cats can be selectively chosen to breed new and exciting combinations. Two parents can produce offspring that share their genes and color range.​


However, in Paw Borough, a cat can have "primary" and "secondary" breeding characteristics, meant to reference the existence of dominant and recessive genes.

If a cat has a previous ancestry, there is a 20% chance that the color and gene option will be chosen from either the dam or sire's grandparent range.

The site library will trace a cat's genetic characteristics and history. We hope this mechanic can encourage new and creative breeding strategies for players to obtain their perfect family!

Create​

Create "pelt" and "partial pelt" items to put on your cat! Download our lineart and illustrate your own colors and markings. If you have a specific design or character you'd like to show off, now you can! The possibilities are endless!

And if you'd really like to take matters into your own hands, you can create an "unclipped" pelt, giving you free rein to illustrate over the lineart and shading of the cat (so long as the illustration remains within the cat's silhouette.)

The world is your oyster!
You will be able to sell your pelts and other art you make by setting up a shop in the Monarch Gallery! Skip out on buying the supplies and printing pelts yourself; we'll do it for you. You take the profit!

The Monarch Gallery will also feature site-assisted commission listings. Advertise your portfolio, list what you will create, and the timeframe, and choose how many slots you wish to fill.

Players can now commission artists with a site-facilitated delivery system, encouraging users to discover, value, participate, and appreciate the community's art.

Note for clarity: to discourage players from expecting instant gratification from artists,not appreciating that labor takes time, and to dissuade artists from engaging in said unhealthy culture, artists are not allowed to set the timeframe under three weeks, regardless of suspected delivery. This limit is subject to extension depending on player feedback.

Paw Borough is built on the culture of roleplay and imagination. We want our players to create their own worlds!​

In addition to player-driven forums, there is a specialized mechanic for customized private, public, and spectated roleplay! Choose a cat to represent each message, including a "narrator" option.​


During a thread, invite other players to join in, spectate, or keep it to yourselves for secret story elements!

Cook​

Cook ingredients for food and decor items! By farming and hunting for raw food items, you can use them for cooking recipes. You may also use this feature to make incense, which can attract new cats with no recorded ancestry to your territory.

Worn recipe pages can be found throughout Mewmoia... Oh, what's this? Each recipe seems to be handwritten with personal notes; perhaps collecting enough will start to reveal some Mewmoian history...

Contribute to Community Story​

We are very excited to present site-guided community storytelling! With this feature, players are given choices on whether to "fulfill" or "answer" tasks requested by NPCs. Every option, including a collective failure or choice to not complete the task, will result in the forwarding of a collaborative site narrative!​


In our example*, players must collectively donate 500 Wicker Baskets to aid the Luna Borough in solving tensions with the Sol Borough. Should it succeed, tensions will lift, and all Sol Borough cats will receive a free feeding! Should it fail, the feud will worsen, and characters will begin discussing battle.

Help NPCs form relationships, start fights, usurp leaders, destroy characters, and experience an ever-growing story through the generations of Mewmoia.

Task requirements will range in variety. Site-wide NPCs and borough-specific NPCs will have major and minor storytelling tasks.

*This storyline example is purely for proof of concept and is not necessarily indicative of canon tasks that will be presented on the site.

And there is much more in preparation for the lifetime of the game! To remain honest and transparent, we chose to share today only the features that the funds from a successful campaign will actively contribute to finishing.

However! Successful funding opens the door for us to do even more! We certainly won't be stopping here, and you can look forward to more developments in the future. 😸
 
Wow very interesting, I love cats. I just might have to check this game out. Did they give an estimate of when it is going to be out of beta?
 
Wow very interesting, I love cats. I just might have to check this game out. Did they give an estimate of when it is going to be out of beta?
Pawborough: Upcoming Pet Game

They’re estimating that they’ll be ready and out of beta by the end of the year, which will be phase 5. I’ma take a wild guess and say sometime between November and December.
 
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They’re estimating that they’ll be ready and out of beta by the end of the year, which will be phase 5. I’ma take a wild guess and say sometime between November and December.
Awesome, I am looking forward to it coming out of beta and I am going to check it out for sure. 😀
 
Oh I remember this!! I was wanting to support it during its fundraising period but I just didn't have the spare change to spare at the time for a key. I think I'll see if I can get in as a tester!

Edit:
Not an applied position but still good to know its up and running! Excited to see what comes of this
 
This looks like a really promising game! It also looks like there isn't any violence like some games can have? Am I right in thinking that?

The artwork looks really captivating, and is something to see just to check out the cat breeds. Meow!
 
This looks like it is going to be a great game 🙂

I will admit, I am intrigued and will be checking this game out when it releases. I love cats so this is something I know I will enjoy.
 
This looks like a really promising game! It also looks like there isn't any violence like some games can have? Am I right in thinking that?

The artwork looks really captivating, and is something to see just to check out the cat breeds. Meow!
You are absolutely right. This game won’t have any violence.
 
I love cats they're my favorite animal! I am definitely interested in this game, I could make a virtual version of my cat Gizmo who sadly passed away earlier this month. It'd be neat to immortalize him in PawBorough. (Or at least have a cat named Gizmo in remembrance of him.)
 
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Pawborough latest’s development update is now available. They’re hoping to be ready for a full-game release relatively soon!


Hello, everyone!

With the release of Alpha testing, we have in this update a retrospective on the test itself, a host of content from August, some lore drop, and word on where we are with Moontail and Leopard!

Let’s begin with some art!

Southern Romanovtsa​

Users in our Discord participated in a community game to see the preproduction designs of our Romanovtsa variants. The Southern olive variant is done!

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Design and illustration by Hydde

We’ve illustrated two more forum crests, Orchard Crest and Spectral Crest!

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Design and illustration by Giulia
Currently, Demonic is being illustrated now!

Regal Set recolors​

Regal set had its recolors done!

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Black, grey, white, red, orange, yellow, green, teal, blue, purple, pink, and brown, recolors by Emma (@missbluefrost)

New Accessory: Gilded Crest​

Next, preview of the design for the Gilded Crest, the sponsored accessory item from the individual who won our sweepstakes: Emma! (Not the one on our team)

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KS sponsored by Emma, illustrated by Azarel

Harvest Logo​

As promised, the Harvest logo was updated to better reflect the difference in the thematic stone and incense items.

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This visual will slowly be updated in all our content.

Wheatley and Crowley​

Take a peak at the newest progress on Whealtey and Crowley!

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Leopard and Moontails Check In​

As promised, we want to release these two things together. So where are we?

Moontails have all patterns but Leopard done.

Moontail wing colors, a mighty feat, are good to go, but we are currently working on perfecting the tail and whisker glow colors. Moontails will be utilizing the accent 1 colorfor their glow tint, much like the previous cat creator, and we’ve had to start from the ground up on accommodating all of our colors in a way that flatters the glow.

In addition, doing this work now will help benefit any glowing mystic breeds in the future... 😉

Here is an example of in-progress glow designs:

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Thistle, Wisteria, River
Overall this breed is very robust in comparison to our other breeds, and it will be extremely rewarding to release all 3 wing types at once. With all the effort gone in, Moontails have certainly earned their place as a legacy breed.

Leopard​

Leopard is all done! Sans Moontails, but they’re currently being worked on. Here is an in-progress example:

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WIP by Asp

Though, we are wary of using the designated “tiger” palette for Leopard 100% of the time, as we worry this will create a washed-out look for the pattern in the majority of cases, so while we tool Moontail glows, we’re visiting altering Leopard spot colors.

As far as art goes as a whole, these two things are concurrently working alongside our main production push. A vast majority of our time is going towards icons or continuing accessory illustration. This will limit the amount of new content we can share, as it will just be the same items repeated several times over! However, we’re dedicated to taking the time to not only prepare our starter breeds, but to expand the breed compatibility for each accessory as soon as possible!

New Information on the land of Kotemara​

New information on the continent known as Kotemara, which is the name for the giant landmass that users will be joining when they play PawBorough.

Kotemara is home to 7 Boroughs, which each have a capital, we're here to share the capital names for each!

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Luna: Kotikansa
Sol: Borheim
Upper Abyssal: Tsuribari
Lower Abyssal: Umiya
Zenith: Felkin
Harvest: Hillshire
Cogwheel: New Brassgate
The Metropolis: The Spire

But there's something else...

The Wastes​

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The magic of the geological deposits that Catfolk are currently studying and learning has ran rampant in large areas around Kotemara, influencing the localized flora and fauna. These areas are home to large, powerful, magical beasts roaming the land, colloquially called Wastebeasts. Plant life either dies out, save for hardy, shrubby grasses and sparse foliage, or overgrows and mutates into a magical nightmare.

All Wastebeasts are very dangerous and magically aggressive. Cats who brave the wastes seldom return home, and catfolk settlements bordering the wastes are frequently terrorized by Wastebeast attacks.

The Spire, the head magical academy in The Metropolis, has sworn to make studying and controlling the Wastes its top priority in magical research and modernization. But the latest achievements coming from The Spire have been little more than pithy advancements in magical products...

Independent organizations like Maven's Guild have cropped up around the Boroughs, with trained recruits helping scared cats cross the wastes, helping to fend off Wastebeasts from catfolk villages, and to assist with mundane errands.

As you learn about Maven and her organization, you'll discover more about her connection to the Wastes...

Alpha Retrospective​

At the beginning of this month, we started dedicated Alpha testing. This was a challenging time, as we as a team have never before performed public-facing testing of this nature.

But we are jovial and positive behind the scenes, because we have learned a lot regarding our own application, our development tactics, user feedback tracking, user desires, and community support management. This test-run has given us beginning experience on how the full game will function with an active user base, and has allowed us to foster a more prepared understanding for not only server preparation, but all further development efforts.

In addition, the mass amounts of testing and QA reporting has truly helped to improve our development, as we can knock out and identify bugs much easier. We are thriving with this, able to swiftly chop and iterate upon any flaws found in the functionality. The flow of tickets means there’s always something to improve on, and we have burgeoned with this setup.

The warm and positive attitude from our testers has also helped to lift our spirits. We’re very open to the criticism and feedback we have received on the application thus far! In fact, we’re duly grateful that so many users have put in their valuable time and energy to both constructively and bluntly critique what we have. Earnestly, with no aggression nor sarcasm: It is stellar that we have users who care. It means that we have something which people love, and want to see improve, and we could not ask for better!

That being said, we were expecting more aggression and user vitriol than we actually received thus far, and it’s uplifted the spirits of our team in such a way that we’re real fired up!

Our biggest aspects we want to improve on going forward is:

  • Better user-side communication. This will come as we grow and can expand our team. Right now, only two individuals handle user tickets, and with one of them being myself, who also handles a great brunt of not only user-side updates, but also all development management, and it can cause swift and detailed user-side communication to suffer. This is certainly a problem!
    The infallible solution will be to hire more help once we have the resources, and for now we’ll do our best to structure the responsibility in a way which prioritizes communication morefavorably for users in the coming future. We truly owe you all better! And we are very grateful that you are all so patient while we’re working this hard.
  • Better code management. In general, we’d like to see things come out the gate a little less breakable, and this is on us to improve. We’ve tightened our form, including running more tests before releasing updates or iterating, and we’re only seeing the application get stronger from here.
  • Staying vague on promising deadlines. Unfortunately, we did fall a month behind, and taking that into consideration, we're just not in a place to make sweeping promises on the timeline. We admit fault, and will learn from this. From here, we're going to err on the side of caution and simply take the time we need. It smarts that we have had so many roadbumps and delays, but what's important is that we are consistently making progress, and that the final product is robust and surpasses user expectation for fun and enjoyment. We're keeping our heads down and grinding on.
And here’s a summary of what we liked:

  • Even without a gameplay loop, users have frequently reported having funinteracting with the mechanics. This implies that there’s an inherent enjoyment to the setup, and is one of the best omens for longevity as a game that we could receive. It means that, at our core, we have an enjoyable game. That’s huge! We can only improve!
  • We’ve knocked out bugs fast. Users have been happy to see new iterations frequently released for testing.
  • Users are very eager to test, giving us detailed reports that improve our development.
In conclusion, this has been a hugely positive experience, and we’re excited to keep building and improving.

We’re hoping to run this test for a few more weeks while we do the following:

  • Nail down intended functionality of all working mechanics.
  • Iterate a few key functionalities: metamorphics, cross-team play, and potentially combat.
We’ll then close the test, with an announcement of such a week before closing, and take some time to rest, reflect, iterate on any important aspects of the game that we’re missing, and polish what we have with the most pertinent user feedback. After which, we’ll prepare for the opening of Closed Beta!

Here is an updated timeline to reflect how things are shaking out:

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This will be cross-posted to our socials as we focus on updating them!

If I can provide a small update from myself, the project lead:
Overall it’s been great, though I am personally working a lot. Between everything I do, I have been working myself to sleep most days of the week. Right now, I eat, I sleep, and I wake up to work on PawBorough, and many times I forgo the sleep part. So I have been extremely grateful for the positivity and patience from the user base, and I have to pre-emptively request a bit of grace and patience if I disappear for a time to get some rest.

But saying this, I stress that you all do not worry about me! I am completely alright! In fact I am very happy to be working, and I love it. I simply want to communicate the amount of dedication I have right now, ask for a bit of grace if I'm slow to reply to questions or tickets, and to give a big THANK YOUfor the opportunity you all have given me to be doing this. I really could not be more in love with PawBorough, and so far I see a bright path for it to grow its wings and flourish as it improves. I hope all of our supporters and users feel this with me!

And from here, I am going to be taking this upcoming weekend away to rest. But we'll be back bright and squirrelly on Monday!

To summarize: We shared the Southern Romanovtsa, Regal set recoloring, 2 new crests, the Gilded Crest accessory, the updated Harvest logo, an NPC wip, a lore drop for longterm conflict, and our Alpha retrospective.

What to expect next update: Further asset and development updates. Check-ins for how Alpha is going, updated Borough descriptions to put on the site, and any further plans we'll have to share.
 
What really excited me is the community-driven storytelling aspect. It makes it so engaging and also immersive.