DST x Miraculous Mod

Developing a Miraculous mod for Don't Starve Together! Want to help the project? Send me a DM!

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Masterpost

DISCLAIMER: Most of the assets shown throughout the blog are placeholders. As a programmer, it’s difficult to display my work when I don’t have the art to go with it. Thank you for your patience.

Who are you?

My name’s Penny (she/her), and I’m a massive fan of both Don’t Starve and Miraculous! I’ve been into DS for more than 10 years and I have a lot of experience modding it, while for Miraculous I got into it between season 4 and 5.

What is this project about?

This project aims to add the various characters from Miraculous (specifically from season 6 onwards) as playable characters into Don’t Starve Together. The first planned character is Marinette/Ladybug, with Adrien/Cat Noir and others planned next if the project goes well!

Who is working on it?

I’m the only person working on this project as the lead designer and programmer. An acquaintance of mine drew Marinette's sprite for me a long while ago, but at this point I'll likely scrap it for a season 6 look.

How can I help?

If you’re interested in helping the project in any way, please do send me a message! I mainly need help with sprites, animations or writing, but if you're good at other things instead we can figure something out :)

How do I learn more about the project?

Below are links to posts explaining the various mechanics of the mod. If you have a more specific question that’s not already covered by a post, feel free to use the ask function!

(If a link is missing, it means the post detailing the mechanic isn't out yet)

General mechanics

Miraculouses

Kwamis

Heroes

Marinette/Ladybug

Fashion

Clumsiness

Yo-yo

Lucky Charm

Miraculous Ladybug

Marinette's Skillset

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Stop, Tikki! Don't eat that galette! You know what happened last time!

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Project Update

Wow! Just when I thought I was going to consistently work on the mod, life got really busy!! But no matter, I'm still working on it here and there.

Sprites: I'm doing a cool quid pro quo thing with an awesome artist (the same person who originally drew Marinette). I'll work on the code for their mod, and they'll make art/animate for mine. We'll focus on finishing their mod first, but they already made a few things I can show, including Tikki herself!

Marinette's character speech: I've started to take a crack at it, I'm at about 600 quotes out of 3500, if that says anything...

Skillset: I've taken a slightly different direction for Ladybug, now her skills have a bigger focus on her Magical Charm, which I think is very fitting!

See if you can recognize all these foods from various episodes of the show!

Expect another update in a few months, if all goes well!

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Project Update

There’s been a long break between posts, but rest assured this project isn't dead! I was just burnt out after being really busy on other projects. I’ve been working on it again for the last few months, and I finally felt consistent enough with my work to give an update.

You might be wondering, what is left to work on for release? Well, a lot! But here's a list to give you an idea:

Literally every sprite in the mod. I'm merely a programmer, I dabble a little bit in art but I'm certainly not good enough to imitate Don't Starve's art style.

Most of Marinette/Ladybug's character speech. DST characters have an unique examination line for every item in the game, which amounts to thousands of them! Not to mention the other DST characters need their own quotes for the new items.

Lucky Charms. There's 20+ bosses in DST and it's a lot of work coming up with a fitting Lucky Charm for each of them. So far I have finished 6 of them and I’m working on 2 more as I speak.

Marinette's clothes. I want to give her access to a good amount of custom clothes. So far I designed 5, but I’m aiming for at least 15.

Skillset. Most of the skills are functional, but I need to finalize a few existing ones and come up with a few more to fully flesh out the skill tree.

Polish, polish, polish! While the features shown on this blog are technically working in-game, they certainly need more work to be ready, whether it’s fixing bugs or making them look better.

As always, I’m looking for people interested in contributing to the project, but ideas or feedback are very welcome as well!

There’s only one mechanic left to make a post about, Marinette’s Clumsiness, but I’m not even sure if or how I want to include it, so don’t expect more big posts explaining mechanics any time soon. I’ll still try to post small updates here and there, but unfortunately it’s difficult to properly show stuff off when I only have placeholder art at best.

If by the time I’m 99% done with programming I haven’t found someone interested in helping with sprites, I will find someone to commission and finish the mod that way. This is a big passion project of mine, so I’ll try all I can to bring it to completion.

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Marinette's Skillset

For the last two years, the developers of DST have been updating all the existing characters by giving them a skillset, a collection of entirely new perks that can be unlocked at the cost of skill points. This allows one to expand upon the design of characters even further, so I’ve taken this opportunity to design a skillset for Marinette as well!

The way I want it to work is for there to be an equal amount of skills that benefit Marinette and skills that benefit Ladybug. This allows the player to lean into the playstyle they enjoy more. When 6 skills of a category are unlocked, the respective Affinity skill becomes accessible, unlocking a particularly powerful skill. This means that if the player balances their 15 points almost perfectly by taking 6 Marinette skills and 6 Ladybug skills, they have access to both of the Affinity skills, amounting to a total of 14 points, allowing for an extra one to be used wherever.

With that being said, here’s the current list of skills planned, but it’s still a work in progress!

Marinette

For Marinette, the obvious choice was to lean into her fashion side more, giving her unique tools and perks relating to clothing. Additionally, she’s shown to know how to bake thanks to her parents, so I included a few skills that lean into that as well.

Sewing Box: A portable container that can hold clothes or fashion tools.

Thread and Needle: Similar to a Sewing Kit, but it's crafted with Beefalo Wool and Stingers instead to make repairing clothes more accessible.

Seam Ripper: A tool to destroy unwanted clothes, to get some resources back.

Sleep Tight: Learn how to repair Bed Rolls and Tents with a Sewing Kit.

Tailor Made: Clothes worn by Marinette lose less durability over time.

Seasonal Fashion: Clothes worn by Marinette provide more insulation for winter or summer.

Baker’s Daughter: Learn how to make Marinette's Oven. It works like a Crock Pot, except it only requires 3 ingredients and can only make a few select baking recipes (e.g. Dragonpie, Butter Muffin, Honey Ham, etc.).

Crème Pâtissière: Specialize in French pastries with Crème Pâtissière, made with dairy, egg and sweetener. It’s used as an ingredient for a set of new recipes: Flan Parisien, Mille-feuille, Crème Brûlée, Éclair and Galette des Rois.

Baker’s Yeast: Specialize in Italian breads with Baker’s Yeast, made with veggies and ice. It’s used as an ingredient for a set of new recipes: Grissini, Focaccia con Cipolle, Pandoro, Colomba and Pizza Marinara.

Ladybug

For Ladybug and other heroes, I’d ideally expand upon their special ability and weapon. Unfortunately, Lucky Charm is too unique and specific to significantly improve it, but it'll get something at least. Since I didn't include Magical Charms as one of her innate abilities, they fit right in as something she "learns" over time, so a part of her tree. Additionally, I leaned a tiny little bit into her being "lucky".

Magical Charm: Defeated shadow/lunar creatures can be purified to obtain Purified Essence, which can be used to create a Magical Charm. The charm when equipped will block a hits from shadow/lunar creatures every few seconds.

Shield of the Guardian: The Magical Charm can become a shield, glowing bright and dealing retaliation damage to shadow/lunar creatures that attack it.

Time to De-evilize: Ladybug's Yo-yo deals more damage to shadow/lunar creatures.

Work like a Charm: Lucky charms last longer

Lady Luck: Mobs that die near Ladybug are more likely to drop rarer loot.

The Great Sweet Tooth: Ladybug can fill her Hunger meter past the max by eating Goodies. When the meter is above the max, she runs faster and works more efficiently, but loses a lot more Hunger over time. This is a reference to when Tikki (and by extension Ladybug when transformed) went berserk for the galette in the episode Dearest Family.

The Magical Charm is obviously inspired by Ladybug’s Magical Charms in the show, and we see that they can become shields in season 5. Just like in the show, they’re used to counter the big bad guy's magic, though in the case of DST the big bad guys are eldritch gods and their minions, so the “lore” of the mod is that Ladybug learned to adapt her abilities to face the new threats.

Affinity

Most characters in DST have Affinity skills, allowing them to side with either the Shadow side or the Lunar side. However, after giving it a lot of thought, I decided that it didn’t feel right for Marinette to side with evil, so I’m taking an unique approach: she and the rest of the Miraculers will have a single unique affinity, the Miraculous affinity. The skills belonging to it will be designed to fight both evil sides at once, though I've yet to finalize the ones for Marinette/Ladybug.

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Fashion

I didn’t want the characters in this mod to only be useful for their ability to transform into their superpowered selves, so I think all of them should have some kind of inherent special ability. That being said, we know that Marinette is an aspiring fashion designer, and that’s exactly the direction I decided to take with her.

In the episode Mr. Pigeon, she finds the inspiration she needed to make an unique derby hat by observing a pigeon. For this mod, I translated this into a mechanic by giving her a set of unique clothes inspired by the various things found in the world of DST. Here’s how it works:

She starts the game out with her Sketchbook, which allows her to attempt to Sketch anything she sees. If the target corresponds to one of her unique pieces of clothing, she will permanently unlock the recipe for it.

She can get a hint on what can be sketched by examining things. If it can be sketched, there will be an extra line of dialogue hinting towards it.

Each piece of clothing works differently. They all generally give sanity, since they’re fashionable, but they could do anything between keeping you warm, cool or dry, like most of DST’s clothing. They also often come with a small little perk, to give them unique functionality!

This mechanic encourages the player to explore the world a lot, since the targets for inspiration are spread out in every corner of the world. My goal is to have at least 1 piece of clothing based on a resident of each distinct place of the Constant. Here’s a few examples that are in the mod right now:

Moon Moth Canotier: Inspired by the Moon Moths on the Lunar Island, it improves your ability to raise sails and anchors.

Shell Cloche: Inspired by the Crabby Hermit living alone on her little island, gifting it to her counts as a friendship task.

Mush Gnome Nightcap: Inspired by the Mush Gnomes in the Lunar Grotto, it helps you get a more refreshing sleep when using Bed Rolls or Tents.

Slurper Roll: Inspired by the Slurpers at the entrance of the Ruins, this Bed Roll is a lot faster at replenishing your stats than its counterparts, though a bit more costly in Hunger.

Dust Moth Cloak: Inspired by the Dust Moths in the Ancient Archives, it helps you keep dry in the rain and cool in the summer, while also acting as camouflage for the Archive Centipedes, so that they won’t attack you at first sight.

So far I only made temporary sprites for the Sketchbook and the Moon Moth Canotier, but I have a good idea of how I want the rest of the clothes to look. Also, a lot more are planned, but it takes time to come up with a good one!

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Been working on a Lucky Charm for the Nightmare Werepig! What a silly guy.

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Miraculous Ladybug

Ladybug throws the Lucky Charm into the air, causing it to transform into a swarm of magic ladybugs that fix all the damage related to the current crisis.

Miraculous Ladybug is a pretty crazy ability! It restores all damage caused by the villain and the parties involved in the fight (I’m looking at you, Cat Noir), even going as far as literally bringing people back to life. But in terms of DST, how do you define what damage was dealt in a fight? How do you even define a “fight”? If a structure is destroyed, would it be recreated by the power? What if someone already built something in its place? Or used its previously dropped materials to craft something else? I think you get the gist of it.

More than a compromise, I think this ability desperately needs to be simplified for this mod, so here’s the current mechanics:

When used, it will get permanently consumed and apply the following effects in a radius around Ladybug:

Allies (players and minions) that aren’t dead will be fully healed and have any negative effect removed (grogginess, freeze, burn, etc.)

Players that are dead will be revived

Structures on fire will be extinguished

I would love the idea of structures or even trees and boulders being recreated, but not only it’d be difficult to accurately determine how and when they should respawn, but it would also open the door for exploits, like intentionally destroying your structures to duplicate valuable resources.

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Lucky Charm

Ladybug uses her yo-yo to summon a random object. Said object always turns out to be the perfect solution to solve the current crisis, but she has to figure out how to use it first. The solutions tend to be pretty complicated and unconventional at times.

When I was presented with the idea of implementing it into the mod I felt the same way Ladybug does after summoning it: What am I supposed to do with this?!

Lucky Charm is a very particular power, but it only really works as a very scripted interaction. But how are you supposed to translate it for a sandbox game, where almost nothing is scripted?

The answer is to compromise, compromise, compromise! It’d be impossible to capture the true essence of the Lucky Charm, but the best I can do is get as close as possible. So, without further ado, let me present my solution:

Every boss in the game each has a Lucky Charm assigned to them. These Lucky Charms affect each boss in unique ways, like changing their behavior, debuffing their moveset or just generally disrupting the fight.

The reason they only work on bosses is because they’re the closest thing to fighting a villain, and bosses have predictable movesets. Limiting it to bosses also balances the secondary effect of the Lucky Charm, which will be covered in another post.

These Lucky Charms are NOT supposed to be an instant win button, they simply make the fight temporarily easier. More importantly, their effects shouldn’t be immediately obvious, often working on a healthy dose of “cartoon logic”. Here’s 3 currently finished ones as examples:

Deerclops: Fountain Pen. It allows you to lob ink into Deerclops’ eye, briefly stunning her. Has multiple uses before running out.

Antlion: Pepper Shaker. When thrown into Antlion’s face, it will break and release a cloud of pepper on its nose, causing it to sometimes sneeze instead of attacking you. It can only be used once and the cloud goes away after a while.

Scrappy Werepig: Massive Sword (yes, THAT one). It's too big and heavy for Ladybug to pick it up, but the Scrappy Werepig will be very interested in it and steal it. He will use it to fight you, but he doesn't realize it's too unwieldy, as it slows down his attack rate and movement speed as long as he holds it.

Overall, I believe this is the best compromise to retain what makes this ability so special. The player will have to figure out how to use it the first time fighting each boss, with the solution not being immediately obvious.

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This mod seems dope as hell and I really like what you’re doing with the miraculouses! I’ll definitely keep an eye on this for the future :]

Wow, first ask! Thank you for the feedback, it means a lot to me :)

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Ladybug's Yo-yo

The Ladybug Miraculous grants the holder with a Yo-yo as a multipurpose tool.

Ladybug, the superhero counterpart to Marinette, comes with a special Yo-yo. This weapon is a very versatile tool in the show, but not all of its abilities would translate well into the type of game DST is. Swinging from building to building doesn’t really work when there’s no buildings and the game is a 2d plane. Either way, that kind of mobility would also be out of place in DST. So let’s get into what it can actually do:

The Yo-yo acts as a weapon, dealing decent damage at a distance similar to the Tail o’ Three Cats or the Alarming Clock. I know its effective distance in the show would be way higher, but long range weapons in this game are difficult to balance and reusing the Alarming Clock animations works surprisingly well.

Don't mind the placeholder catgirl sprite for Ladybug. Or the yo-yo.

It can catch bugs like a Bug Net. Just like how it’s used to catch akumas and amoks in the show, it makes perfect sense for it to be able to catch Butterflies, Bees and the likes in this mod.

Gotcha!

It can be spun in front of Ladybug to parry projectiles (and lasers too, maybe?). This is Ladybug’s classic defensive move in the show, but I don’t want it to work against melee hits, it just doesn’t make sense to me and it would give the ability too much utility.

Finally, it’s used to summon the Lucky Charm. This power is covered in another post, as it’s a very complicated one.

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Heroes

When transformed, a holder obtains superhuman abilities, a unique weapon and access to a special superpower unique to each miraculous. After using their superpower, younger holders can't use it again and will be forced to detransform after 5 minutes.

If I were to be completely faithful to the show, transformed miraculous holders would be near-invincible and would never detransform as long as they don’t use their superpower, while on the other hand using their special power would be punished by a forced detransformation shortly after. I think these “mechanics” are good for the show, but unfortunately they don’t lead to interesting gameplay, so I took creative liberty and tried to make something more interesting:

Heroes have a timer instead of health

Heroes have some inherent protection as part of the suit, but it doesn’t stack with equipped armor

Taking damage doesn’t hurt the holder, but advances the timer based on the amount of damage taken

There’s no way to rewind the timer (healing does nothing)

When the timer runs out, force a detransformation

Using the special power has no effect on the timer, but it can only be used once

Example of the hero timer in action, significantly sped up for display purposes.

My goal was to avoid the transformation making you effectively invincible and to not punish a hero when they choose to use their power. While you don’t take health damage when transformed, you’re still punished for getting hit by having your transformation last less time. Additionally, I didn’t want armor to be too effective, considering a simple Log Suit already makes you take 5 times less damage. By having some inherent protection that doesn’t stack with armor, the jump from not wearing armor to wearing it is a lot smaller and also allows the holder to fight unarmored if they so choose.

Lastly, heroes also come with a tiny speed boost, since they’re supposed to be more agile when transformed.

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Kwamis

Kwamis are small animal-themed creatures, each bound to a miraculous. When a user is transforming, they merge with them. They require sustenance after detransformation and typically have a favorite food.

A kwami follows the player around, periodically making comments and also hiding when other players are in line of sight.

Tikki will always be there to cheer you up!

Just like in the show, kwamis need to be fed if you want to transform. It’s what limits your ability to transform over and over again, and it’s actually what inspired me to start this whole project. I just found it so oddly fitting that in a game about not starving, you’d sacrifice some of your food to gain a powerup.

Unlike in the show, there’s a short cooldown in effect after detransforming that prevents you from transforming again, even if the kwami is fed. I wanted to avoid the player being able to near-permanently stay transformed, given they have enough food to sustain it.

Their hunger meter is displayed on the HUD, letting you transform only when it’s full. It must be noted that it doesn’t drain over time unlike the player’s, I didn’t want to punish the player for feeding their starving kwami but not transforming immediately.

However, kwamis are picky, and they don’t accept just any type of food:

They outright refuse to eat meat-based food. Despite many kwamis being based on carnivorous/omnivorous animals, like Tikki, Plagg, Trixx or Sass, they’re never shown to eat anything meat related. Meat-based dishes in DST tend to be very filling anyway, so I like this restriction.

They have a favorite food that would be especially filling. Ideally it would match with their favorite in the show, but DST doesn’t currently have any kind of cheese for Plagg or grapes for Trixx, so some kind of compromise will have to be made there.

They particularly enjoy Goodies, being extra filling for them. I like to think they all have a sweet tooth like Tikki, and Goodies are a very particular set of foods that tend to be more difficult to get. Some examples are: Taffy, Frozen Banana Daiquiri and Ice Cream.

Everything else, like Veggies, restores the usual amount. They’ll eat it, but they don’t love it.

This system will likely need some tweaking here and there, but I hope I’ll be able to strike a good balance between feeding the kwamis being not too easy but also not too difficult.

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Miraculouses

The Miraculouses are magic jewels that allow the person wearing them to transform to gain superpowers.

There’s not a lot that needs to be explained about how they work in this mod, but I’m establishing two important rules from the get-go: NO using other characters’ miraculouses and NO unifications. I know, it’s sad, but not only would I need an insane amount of sprites to make this work, I also think each character would lose their identity if you could simply share or combine miraculouses.

That aside, the way they work is that each character comes with an extra equipment slot dedicated to their miraculous. There’s no way to unequip it, lose it or get rid of it (not even death!), it’s meant to be there to show the character is wearing it and also so it can be right-clicked to transform or activate its special ability.