Dev blog 12/18/22

Happy weekend!

The next update is taking a while, but I think in about 2 weeks I should be able to get the intro chapters back on for the beta. This was a big pivot for the game, I stripped out all of the featuers that weren't contributing directly to the main theme ("Surviving / freedom in a dystopian, oppressive society on a space colony").

Blowing up spaceships is fun, but I think this was the right decision to get the story across. I'll still have these features archived, if I want to do another spin off or a brand new game later on.

In the new redesign, the gameplay will solely be focused on this theme, and it will largely be story and choices driven. The theme of the game is survival, so it will involve working for money and keeping your social credit high to function in a dystopian society.

There is a day / night cycle, and you will simply manage your stress / health by doing various activities and also illegal activities that have a chance of getting caught (and paying fine & reduced social credit).

This gameplay should give the player a good overall vibe of what the story is about and show a sense of oppression / rigidity that I'm trying to portray. I've also redesigned the UI to be portrait mode, because for story reading I believe this is more comfortable and makes more sense with the story focused design.

Here's the list of all the redesign features going into the game so far.

Player

Player skills (tech, social, physical, luck)

Player stats (stress, fatigue, credits, social credit)

Gameplay loop

Work for credits, Upgrade char skills, Sustain states

Pay daily rent

Each day oppression becomes worse.

Day 100 is game-over.

Day & Night cycle, 2 choices per day

Player options

Work

Illegal work or Illegal Shop (Neuro upgrade)

Risk of caught, pay fine and lose social credit

Places (restaurant, bar, club) - for sustenance

Other places (subway, hangar, garden, etc.)

Rest

VR

Sleep

Random event (for the places)

Game Win conditions

Depends on character trust points + enough skill to clear story

Depends which faction player sided with

Weber -> ?

Resistance -> ?

Hand -> ?

Game over conditions

Day 100 with no clear ending

social credit is 0

any one of the states (i.e. hunger) is 0