Cassette Beasts is a turn-based, open-world creature-collecting RPG where players explore the island of New Wirral, record monsters onto cassette tapes, and transform into them for strategic battles. The game blends classic monster-taming mechanics with modern twists like a flexible fusion system, visible overworld encounters, and partner dynamics. The core design challenge was to create a familiar yet fresh experience for fans of monster-collector games while expanding exploration and combat depth. The game avoids random encounters by showing enemies in the overworld and rewards strategic planning through elemental interactions, customizable move stickers, and a fusion mechanic that lets any two monsters merge into new forms. Players level up their character rather than individual monsters, which keeps all creatures viable and encourages experimentation. Turn-based combat emphasizes buffs, debuffs, action point management, and tactical positioning. The open world encourages exploration, questing, and collaboration with companions, enhancing narrative engagement and replay value. Critics and players praised the game’s inventive mechanics, retro-inspired art, and soundtrack, noting it as a unique evolution of the genre with generally favorable reviews across platforms.

A REALLY cool feedback form design-engineered by yours truly 🫣

Full keyboard support, a11y compatible, and extremely fluid. Used AI in 15% of the entire code. 75% coded manually by hand. Took ~2 weeks to refine it.

smooth