Devblog #101

Hey Wizards!
Shady Character One here!

Last week I did a deep-ish dive into the third Trial. On some level things went pretty well. I wrote a decent amount of script, and the code, though not without trouble, did yield before me too. On another level, however, the more I wrote, the more doubtful I became about what I was doing.

There are two major issues with the Trial of Mobility as it is now, at least the way I see it. The first one is - it is pretty linear. Yes, I know, the first two Trials were almost as linear as something can get. In the first one you were literally going forward in a straight line. But there was much more branching, it seems to me. With the Trial of Mobility, I feel that more branching would detract from the feeling of moving forward. You don't really have time to think or try different options. You should move on, and you should move on fast. There will be some variation and decisions along the way, but right now, aside from a few occasions, all of the choices just boil down to your time and stamina management. And I am not sure I am currently okay with that.

On the other hand, maybe that really is the way to go? I do try to make all the Trials feel different. And many players found the Trial of Mind confusing (that's a bit on purpose), so maybe a much more straightforward Trial will be a nice addition. I will have to move on with the writing and see where this current course leads me. Maybe it'll turn out just fine in the end. Or maybe I will redesign the third Trial two more times, just like I did with the second Trial.

The second issue I am kind of facing right now with the Trial of Mobility is its balancing. Aside from the stamina vs. time management side, it is pretty much a straight stat check. Balancing it both for players that are good in the required stats and players who are average is a doozy at this point in the game. So I was pushing the numbers in the checks back and forth, never finding that Goldilocks zone. But then I started thinking. You know, the Trials, as they were first envisioned, were supposed to get easier as the player progressed through the game. So why not let the players that trained the correct stats just breeze through the Trial? That was basically how it went with all the previous ones. Let the players feel their growing proficiency. Maybe I will even add a way for some players to add an extra flex to their performance if they feel confident enough with their skills. Either way, I'll have to think about this aspect too — not 100% sure yet.

Shady Two, still not completely recovered from her injury, returned to doing some of the work on the game. We decided that for now she should probably focus on the backgrounds for a bit. I know that this might not be the thing that many of you are particularly excited about, but that's a part of the game that was pretty much abandoned for a long time. Her first focus will be more rooms for the players, since that is the part of the game you see the most, and then she will move on to some other backgrounds, and maybe even some back art for the Trials.

Hopefully she will not injure her back more and we will see a bit more than sketches very soon.

Until next week,
Shady Character One, out!