_CASSETTE BEASTS_____________
Cassette Beasts is an RPG made by Bytten Studio, that feels like a love letter to adults who grew up in the 80's and 90's, while still appealing to a modern audience. It's in the monster collecting genre, with a small twist that you actually transform into the monsters you collect, rather than physically capturing them. The game takes aspects from popular games like Pokemon, and Stardew Valley, while still putting their own unique touches into the formula.
The game was an instant obsession for me; I remember when I got it I would disappear into my room for hours, and only come out to eat or go to the bathroom. Healthy? No. But with its plethora of fun characters, whimsical creatures, amazing music, and extremely flexible lore, the game is basically begging you to get swept up in its allure.
_ORIGINAL CHARACTER__________
For all the reasons mentioned above, and more, the Cassette Beasts universe is a perfect playground for artists and writers to create their own original characters, figuring out ways to creatively insert them into the world. The game gave me an insane creative boost when I got into it, and from it came one of my most loved and cherished original characters to date.
This is Roadrunnerdrift. It may be apparent to those familiar with the Warrior Cats fandom, but to those who are not, the reason his name is so odd is because he is actually one of my Warrior Cats OCs. When I decided to make a Cassette Beasts character, I wasn't sure what to do as I generally struggle with creating human characters. But then I thought about all of the different ways that the residents of New Wirral ended up there; different timelines, alternate universes, fictional characters from written plays materializing as sentient beings, artworks come to life, etc. So, what was to stop me from having a character I'd already created ending up in New Wirral but as an anthropomorphic cat?
_CUSTOM BEASTS______________
MONSTERS CREATED TO DATE: 45
The following are all Cassette Beasts of my own creation; the Cassette Beasts universe is absolutely perfect for making your own monsters, and these are some of the most fun experiences I've ever had with character creation, and design. Click on a monster's photo to go to its Toyhouse page if you'd like to see any extra art!
If you're interested in making your own Cassette Beasts as well, I have a few tips to share:
1. Use the game's official color pallet when choosing how you want to color in your designs; Cassette Beasts uses a small color pallet for every creature in the game, and if you also do this, it really helps sell that the monster also belongs in the world.
2. Observe and note common design traits of the existing roster; one thing I try to make sure I do when making my designs, is to not give them overly expressive/detailed eyes! Some monsters in the game have a colored sclera and pupil, but most of them have simple single color eyes, or sometimes no eyes at all. Following this pattern will make your designs feel like they belong in Cassette Beasts specifically, instead of a franchise like Pokemon or Digimon.
3. Don't overthink what 'makes sense'; As mentioned above, Cassette Beasts is a very open ended world. You can do just about anything and still make it feel like it fits in the universe.
| MASCOTANGLE |
Mascotangle is one of the first fan beasts I ever created, and is meant to be a second remaster of Mascotoy.
Following the game's design direction for Macotorn, it's even more ripped, with tons more stuffing spilling out. It drags itself along the ground with its remaining limbs.
I find it unsettling, as it reminds me of a children's poem called "The Thing and I" that I read from a collection called "Scary Poems for Rotten Kids" (1991).
| CONTAMINKNIGHT |
Another early concept I thought up, this time for Jellyton; I was really frustrated that it didn't have a remaster during my first playthrough, so, by using the lore and themes it shares with the Pawndead line, I concocted a remaster based on the Knight chess piece.
As Jellyton are created from trapped Pawndead's in the swamp, a Contaminknight is the result of a Jellyton absorbing a Kinggrave, Queenyx, or Skelevangelist, in order to regain some semblance of its original line.
| CARRIVINE |
I. Love. Jumpkin. So unsurprisingly, I found its remasters to be a little lackluster; Beanstalker is okay, but Draculeaf felt so random to me?
One of the more obvious - and one could argue low hanging - design directions, was to go for that classic Cinderella tie in. It was too perfect to not explore the concept, so I just rolled with it. So, here is Carrivine; a take on a timeless fairy tale.
| TORMENOMICON |
This is the last of my Cassette Beast designs that branches from a canonical monster. I think Hauntome is a really neat design, and I'm honestly shocked it didn't get a remaster on release. It definitely gives your that whimsical feeling of a piece of fiction where inanimate objects come to life.
The spookier theme, and name, were inspired by the Necronomicon from The Evil Dead... Which is significantly darker in tone than this video game.
| EXCOWVATOR |
Meet Excowvater! My very first, fully original, Cassette Beasts creation.
The idea for this one came about while watching an excavator dig up, and pull a tree out of the ground at a family member's house, after a hurricane that had left the tree at a dangerous angle. I couldn't stop thinking about how the excavator looked like a big long-necked creature, tearing at the ground.
| ELOAFANT & MAMMOFFLE |
Eloafant is probably my favorite of the Cassette Beasts fan designs that I've made; it's simple, but effective in its execution, and sometimes that's all you need. I imagine it shoots its toasted ears at its enemies!
When coming up with a remaster for it, it was kind of hard to think of a way to make a toaster anything more than... A toaster. But. Since I have free will. I decided not to overthink it, going for another appliance that's used to make breakfast food... A waffle iron! I love the waffle batter forming the trunk...
| MAÏSGUY & BOPCORN |
Bopcorn was inspired and is based on the little cartoons you'd see before a movie at the drive-in, to advertise snacks. It's pre-remaster, Maïsguys, are popcorn kernerls, which get protected by the treat weilding Bopcorn.
When enough Maïsguys band together without a Bopcorn present, they remaster into a Bopcorn themselves; showing they were willing to stand up for others, and thus the cycle continues
I haven't explained any names yet, but this one's a little trickier; "Maïs" is the french word for "corn", and the pronunciation is similar to the english word "nice".
| CLUNICORN |
Clunicorn was a design that came from the idea of a name first - which I actually do fairly often. In french, the pronunciation of the word "clown" sounds like "cloon", which was very easy to merge with the beginning of the word "unicorn".
Clunicorn always walks on its "hands", and can easily balance on just one. I also imagine that the costume may appear different for each individual.
| NEIGHPLE & BANEIGHNEIGH |
These two are based on the childrens song "Apples and Bananas", which switches up the way the two words sound, by swapping out the vowels.
Neighple is so cute, and while Baneighneigh's name is one of my favorite things, I do feel like it could do with a slight redesign, as the head is just kind of slapped on. I'd like to revisit it sometime, and maybe try to encorporate the end of the banana as the head.
| SLISCES & PANTARAY |
The idea for Pantaray came about after asking friends for random items/animals I could possibly smash together (This is something I did a lot when making these), and as a lover of pizza, I was pretty excited to dive into the concept.
When it came to Slisces, I was like "What's less than a pizza... A pizza slice!" And then had to make it look like a fish... One was too simple looking, so I added another, and the pose reminded me of Pisces. So here we are.
| GIRAFFAN & GIRAGALE |
I started with Giragale's design for this one, and it's based on an old fan we had in our house in the 90s - and obviously... A Giraffe. Originally the color pallet more closely resembled that fan, but after designing Giraffan, I decided to change the colors to better unify the designs. If you click through to their Toyhouse page, you can see the original pallet for Giragale.
Giraffan is based on those little handheld fans you totally stuck your fingers in as a kid because the blades were soft... I see you.
| GATEAU & CHATEAU |
Okay... These two were born completely of word play. Explaining their names will more or less give context behind the designs themselves; The french word for "cake" is "gâteau", which sounds similar to the spanish word for "cat" which is "gato". Unfortunately, when you mix the words together, it is still just... "gâteau". So I removed the accent. It's not my best name? But I think design concept of a cat cake is adorable.
Following pretty much th exact same line of thought; "chat" is the french word for "cat", and "château" is the french word for castle. So it's a cat... cake... castle.
| BOOMBOTTER |
Boombotter is another design I'm very proud of; I asked friends for random things to merge, and someone said an otter and a radio, which turned into an otter and a boombox.
The boombox elements are heavily based off of a boombox my mom had when we were kids that was heavy duty and used to play music at gymnastics. It was red with black accents, and had a handle at the top, so I worked that into Boombotter's design.
| PAWPY & PAWTHORN |
I'm not sure what sparked the initial idea for these two, but knowing me, it was probably just word play again. I do remember struggling with the color pallet though, as I felt with the mane of petals, its original red color was too similar to Blossomaw. It also originally only had one head, but upon revisiting it recently, I decided the three heads were more fun.
If you click on its artwork, you can check out the other iterations for it on its Toyhouse page.
| HELIDUCKTOR & SWANURSAIR |
Okay, these two are very extra... Very saturday morning cartoons silly. I flip flop between whether I think that's genius or too much, but honestly I think they still fit the vibe of the game.
These ones are both a mash-up of three things instead of the usual two; Heliducktor is a helicopter/rubber duck/doctor, and Swanursair is an airplane, swan, nurse. Fairly straight forward all things considered.
| PARAPOD & CEPHALASOL |
Originally, Cephalasol was going to be the first stage, with Vambrella (see below) acting as the remaster. But. The mosre I thought about it, I didn't like the idea of an octopus becoming a squid because it made no sense (I say as if I didn't have a toaster remaster into a waffle iron, haha). Anyway, I decided to make these two a split remaster, with both of them originating from Parapod, who is a little more ambiguous.
| PARAPOD & VAMBRELLA |
It's not really hard to tell that Vambrella is based on a Vampire Squid; I've always found them super crazy looking, and I liked the idea of the spike/teeth reveal with a form change; both Cephalasol and Vambrella can change between an open and closed form. Originally I was thinking it could be tied to their remaining HP? But I may workshop that going forward.
| BARKINGBREAD |
I believe a friend suggested "Dog" and "Knife" and while the obvious direction was to make a spikey wolf thing, instead I thought about a dog with a butter knife. I never finalized the concept, but when trying to come up with a previous form for it, I came up with these guys.
Both are the same monster; one perfectly baked and happy, and the other burned and bitter.
| FLARVA & INCINERANT |
Most of the following designs are more recent, so at the time, this was the first Cassette Beast I'd designed for a while.
The proposed prompt was "campfire, ant, lion"; I dropped the lion part and took "Fireant" literally. Originally, Incinerant had smoke stacks on its head and looked more like a machine, but I reworked it to feel more like a campfire come to life.
Flarva is simple, but the Tantrum Form allows for some additional intrigue.
| MUSHMOON & SPOREBIT |
Both Mushmoon and Sporebit's names directed the nature of their designs; Sometimes I'll pick a word, and try to brainstorm another word that's easy to say when combined, while also providing an interesting design opportunity. The theme of the moon and space, ended up meshing really well for these two in name, and design.
Mushmoon and Sporebit are docile, and feel like a residents of an enchanted wood.
| RACCOKNOT & BANDKNIT |
My boyfriend loves raccoons, so I did a design based on one. Raccoons are often depicted as wearing a mask, or described as bandits, so I decided to play into that. Raccooknit's mask also resembles a VR headset, which is a passtime my boyfriend enjoys.
For Raccooknot, I super-simplified Raccooknit's themes, shrinking the body to not but a head, making the tail a single knot, and using a darning needle instead of knitting needles.
| CAPPLE & APPLION |
When I asked for more subjects to merge for Cassette Beasts, I was given "Apple" and "Cat". When I asked why, it was explained that those two things are some of the most common/basic examples anyone could suggest; when you say A for _____, or C for ___, 9 times out of 10 you'll probably hear "Apple" & "Cat".
I didn't exactly reinvent the wheel by remastering a cat into a lion, and the color pallet is way too similar to Blossomaw. Even so, I wouldn't change a thing! The two are simple, and cute to boot.
| CACTOOTH & CACTEETH |
It's been a while so, if I'm totally honest, I don't recall what sparked the initial creation of Cacteeth. But if I had to guess I'd say Togemon from Digimon was an inspiration.
Cactooth was simply a case of working backwards again, so I chose to model it after one of those miniature cacti that people keep in their homes alongside succulents.
| PUPPITT & FELOUND |
Looking at this, it will probably come as no surprise to you that I grew up watching CatDog. I really wanted to do something funky like that, but with enough of a difference that it didn't feel like a direct reimagining. Other inspirations include Lilo & Stitch, and Kid vs Kat.
As the trope usually goes, I imagine the dog side of Puppitt and Felound is very dopey and carefree, while the cat side is easily agitated and calculating.
| MUNKEY & GORILLOCK |
I'm pretty proud of Munkey's design, and had a lot of fun making the ornate gold key flourishes resemble the characteristics of a monkey. Looking back on it, plunking furry arms on both of these looks a little odd, but honestly, that kind of wonky logic is right at home in the world of Cassette Beasts.
Speaking of those arms, it's hard to see here because Gorillock's are covering up its torso, but Gorillock is based on padlocks and combination locks.
| ERASAUR |
I just like dinosaurs, pencils, and silly creatures that don't have faces.
Something about a basic, 2HB pencil, brings me back to my childhood. A simpler time where I'd stab erasers over and over again with pencils, or draw faces on them and pretend they were characters.
I was on the fence about making it a "legendary" Cassette Beast, but recently I thought of a previous form for it that I may add here!
| SOCH-NESSIE |
Loch-nessie on the other hand, is absolutely a "legendary" Cassette Beasts!
When caught, Soch-Nessie would grant the player the ability to dive underwater, instead of just floating on the surface. This would give the game a whole other level of expansion, as there could be another section beneath the existing map. This could also make it possible to resurface through caves that are already in use, so the underwater sections can be accessed from other places besides the shores.
| PENGLOBE |
Sigh.
So, Penglobe is actually one of the first monsters I did, and the concept of a penguin merged with a snow globe was suggested by a friend. But. I don't really like how it came out or how I executed the idea, and I'd like to rework it sometime in the future.
For now, it will remain at the bottom of the list so it's the least likely to be seen haha.
