Week 49 Update

Rogue Souls is Kickstarter live! Please share!

TL;DR UI work. Huzzah~

Build & Deployment:

Development:

• Separated grid map layer from the rest of the sector view. Generally dividing the different parts of the map into "map layers" so they can be toggled and accessed individually. Map layers are distinct from UI layers in the sense that the UI only interacts with map layers when a map is being displayed or interacted with. Admittedly not a degree of granularity I anticipated needing.

Design: 

• Worked on cultures, languages, and beliefs (formerly "religions") as well as establishing "historical" connections between different characters (real and legendary). I finally created my first cultural timelines that can be organized by geographical region, namely in Persia & India, and I'm working on filling out the regions around them.
• I found "religions" to be too constraining when it comes to discussing beliefs, schools, and creeds. If you go by "religions" then you have to treat certain elements of history as monolithic which is hardly accurate. I doubt it would have been possible for me to have done it from the bottom-up but now that I have a framework I believe I can start filling in the gaps. Eventually I can start adding secret societies, heretical sects, and monastic orders!
• I did a HUGE reorganization of design documentation last week. The soul component page had gotten too cumbersome to navigate so I split it up into separate pages for each component: soma, prana, heart, karma, mana, and kismet. I then sorted a lot of my other pages into their corresponding soul component e.g. language -> prana, culture -> karma, beliefs -> kismet.
• Did some additional design restructuring based on developments in the last few months:
  • Relationships moved from Karma to Heart, which is probably where they always should have been. It's just that I hadn't developed Cultures, Honor, the Legal system, or Notoriety, or any of the other stuff that makes up Karma.
  • Creature type moved from Kismet to Mana, where it probably belong from the start. "Race" is a complicated concept as it is and I think it will generally be broken across several components: Form is related to Body, Blood is related to Heart, and Type is related to Mana. Generally speaking a "race" will be composed of standard & default selections for each of these, all subject to change!
• I found a fantastic list of 50+ monsters from Chinese mythology and I used it as a jumping-off point for my new Monsters section. I would like to associate as many monsters with their culture of origin as possible, which I know will be difficult given how much they get remixed and recycled throughout the centuries.

Influence:

• Started playing Soul Hackers 2 last week. It looks like another spin-off of the Shin Megami Tensei & Persona franchise. I'm enjoying it so far, it's pretty chill for a jrpg. It has a fairly linear story set within a context of open-ended gameplay.

Marketing:

• Kickstarter is now live! Please share!