Week 45 Update

Rogue Souls is now in its pre-launch Kickstarter phase! Please follow & share!

TL;DR Haven't updated devlog the last couple weeks bc I was huddled weeping under my desk, trying not to freak out too much that my Kickstarter hasn't launched yet. Once I crawled out from under my desk, I went back to work on the UI.

Build & Deployment:

• Started pushing more code to git. Cleaning up as I go along. Trying to document more regularly.

Development:

• Took a couple weeks off from coding (involuntarily) to polish the Kickstarter and do some management.
• I created an interactive Sector Map Scene, which is complicated and took multiple steps. Why do all this? The TL;DR version is that I'm using multiple 3rd party libraries that don't conflict per se, but they don't necessarily work together out of the box. That, and I had a camera control scheme that I liked and wanted to tweak but it didn't come with much in the way of configuration options.
  • I first moved the Sector display code to one UI layer and I created a second UI layer to represent "World Map"-style input.
  • Then I finished porting the code from the libGDX sample First Person camera input controller to a new object, and I merged that with the World Map components.
  • Next I merged the Gamepad components with the Sector and the World Map input and created a "Sector Map" and reconnected the Command Buffer.
  • Once I verified that everything was working as intended, I deprecated ALL the objects I had just made and built a new, fresh "Sector Map Scene" and began refactoring the Layers to create a "Sector Map Layer" (consolidating World Map input & Sector display) and a "Gamepad Layer."
  • Then I verified that the new replacement classes worked as intended.
• The game engine apparently has a memory leak that adds 1 MB to memory every few seconds. I'm going to have to find it through profiling but that is a problem that can wait for Future Tanys.

Design: 

• Magic design! I created pages in my Notion (serving as the design docs for now) to represent the Magic Traditions so that I can begin to link them to their corresponding Cultures, Languages, & Religions! What is this nonsense, you might ask? I'm happy to tell you!
  • Rogue Souls will feature many different languages,and very few of those will be made-up languages! Instead, the game setting will make reference to real-world languages, modern, ancient, and others quite dead! "Language" as a game mechanic, represents a collection of symbols used for communication between different peoples. The more symbols they have in common, the easier it is for them to potentially communicate!
  • Languages, Cultures, and Religions represent interconnected, sometimes overlapping snapshots of a people, a geography, and a set of shared behaviors & values. The vast majority of all magic objects & spells from fantasy RPGs are inspired by real-world supernatural beliefs and many of these can be traced back to their cultural & historical origins! A classic example is of course the legendary Jewish Golem, a creature of clay animated by holy words to protect a community!
  • Like the Languages, Cultures, and Religions that inspired them, Magic Traditions will be able to trace their origins to specific peoples and places and times! Some Traditions will spawn new sub-types and rival traditions that can be traced through the setting's history, and learning a magic tradition often means learning the language of its origination. Some old, old magic traditions will be used by characters speaking Aramaic and Babylonian, while more "modern" spells might be cast in Gaelic, Old French, or Latin.
  • The final version of this magic system will include an intricate & detailed magical research system requiring characters to travel and locate mystical texts across a variety of places and many different languages!
• Spell design! I started by transferring my designs from spreadsheet to a database in Notion for easier manipulation & sorting (and eventual export to the game engine). I updated some spell lists to continue filling out those outlying traditions, and I re-balanced a few traditions to bring them in line with other traditions of similar Nature. Nearly every major tradition (meaning a tradition associated with a character class) has a full complement of spells from 1st-7th level, and many also have 8th- & 9th-level spells.
  • I started working the Ritual magic angle, which is a means by which magic-users can stretch their spellcasting capabilities farther by using the "slow" version of spell-casting. This is of course similar to the 4e/5e D&D means of performing a magical ritual which doesn't expend a spell slot (Charge, in our case).
  • Renamed a bunch of spells to better reflect the theming of their Tradition. Turn Undead is now a 2nd-level spell called Exorcism. The 5th-level Planar Binding spell is now Bind Spirit. The 8th-level Binding spell is now Damnation. Several other spell names in the Abjuration tradition were simply shortened (Banishment is now Banish, Forbiddance is now Forbid, Imprisonment now Imprison).
  • Came up with a stronger direction for the Divination tradition: given the historical basis for oracles interpreting dreams and other things and the compelling force of prophesy, I decided to move over a few former enchantment spells. The classic 1st-level Sleep is now the 2nd-level Slumber spell. Locate Creature is now Find Person and Geas/Quest is now simply Quest. Temporal Stasis is now Oblivion though I considered a few other names like "Hundred-Year Rest," "Heroes' Reward," and "Sleeping King."
  • I also shuffled a few spells around Divine traditions, so Evangelism now has Holy Water (Bless Water), Inquisition (Zone of Truth), Gospel (Good Hope), and Freedom (Freedom of Movement). Invocation is now more expressly about healing, restoration, and support: Blessing, Healing Word (formerly 1st-level), Revive (formerly Revivify), and Nostus (Word of Recall).
  • I rounded out the Illusion tradition by embracing the adjacent themes of fear & confusion: Color Spray, Mirror Image, Displacement, Phantasm (Phantasmal Killer), Nightmare, Simulacrum, Maze, and Weird.
  • I renamed nearly every Malediction spell: Omen (Hex), Rebuke (Infernal Wrath/Hellish Rebuke), Life Drain (Vampiric Touch), Blight, Petrify (Hold Monster), Stone Curse (Flesh to Stone), Death Curse (Finger of Death), Dictum (Power Word Stun), and Vengeance (Storm of Vengeance).
  • I re-balanced the Evocation and Sorcery (formerly Pyromancy) traditions, and I also re-balanced the Asceticism and Shamanism traditions.
• Class design! I made some small progress on a handful of classes. Notably, I figured out some different "archetypes" for the Revenant class, an archetype I designed to represent characters who have expressly returned from the dead.

Influence:

Marketing:

• Kickstarter is now in the pre-launch phase! We're trying to get more people to follow & share so we can raise awareness prior to launch! Please follow & share!