v0.3.0 weekly update: progress and codex expansion

Hello cadets!

We're still doing decent progress on the next update. All locations in the city have been implemented with their art, which means there won't be any placeholders.

Our efforts are currently focused on implementing the shops and finishing the story content for this version.

Cosplay outfits

As announced in an earlier post, the winner of the poll was the cosplay outfit option and it was decided to provide a japanese styled outfit you can wear as alternative uniform.

We have finished designing these outfits and they will be available in v0.3.0 at the Castelli store.

A small look at consequences and exploration

One element that all games rely on is the game over screen. Obviously, this is a text-game and mistiming your parry on a boss attack isn't a possible issue here. What is an issue is bad decisions. The consequences of your choices. And the game has been pretty forgiving so far. Now that the "tutorial" is officially over and more content to do your own thing is being designed and added, we're also introducing "Bad Ends" as you might know them from other similar games.

We don't intend for bad ends to punish you for doing things your way and experimenting with choices, but be advised that sometimes there will be a right choice and a wrong choice. Sometimes explosively, sometimes in more... creative ways.

Although we will not highlight them to keep the element of surprise, you will easily be able to rollback to get out of a bad end and carry on with your playthrough.

Codex expansion

Now for something more beneficial and rewarding. Codex Expansion based on exploration. As I've been writing locations, I've found myself either rewriting scenes because I was info/lore dumping, or rewriting them because they assume you, the player, know more about the world than you are told. So, a new task was born.

Extensive codex expansions that cover what your character would know, even if you weren't told them. No more guessing at why did the writer say that, or what did he mean by this. From now on, when you go somewhere, or hear something that would trigger it, your codex will automatically update (much like how it has already) but now with actual lore and information about the universe around you.

That's all for this week, have fun out there!