SheltRPG Devlog 5 - Six Colors of Magic

In Shelter’s world, you have six basic mana types, each corresponding to a different species group and represented by a different color.

Red - Canine

Orange - Feline

Yellow - Avian

Green - Rodent

Purple - Ungulate

Blue - Saurian

This is the very basis for every worldbuilding decision I’ve made for this setting. A setting I wanted to populate with distinct factions of different species, where the presence of those differences feeds into every element of the story, rather than being just an aesthetic.

My inspiration for many things in Shelter was from the feeling of unfulfillment about some elements of others stories and settings I experienced before. If you enjoyed Luke as the protagonist in the VN, that’s exactly because I saw how disappointed people generally were with human protagonists in furry stories...

......and if you ever felt that in some stories a furry’s species serves no real purpose beside their looks, then I hope you noticed how important to me it is to make each species distinctly “them” in Shelter. For example, I want dogs to act like dogs and represent dog-like values associated with them. A strong sense of community and personal loyalty. It’s natural form represented in Shelter’s small and tight community, while the corruption of those virtues builds a medieval-like system of the Crimson Royal Grove.

I attribute a lot of human-like characteristics to those characters, but I ceaselessly look for ways to incorporate their animal nature whenever I can, in comedy or in the subtext of their decisionmaking. If we want a story about a world of animalpeople, then let them be their own animals, I say...

......and if we also want that world to be magic, then why not let them have their own magic too?

Of course, the idea for the magic system came even before the details of the world’s lore. The most important thing was to think out something that could be fun in a game, WHILE at the same time being tightly connected to the story, characters and lore. I always thought that, in games, mixing resources for varied effects was something fun. I have a bunch of ideas for utilizing our mana system in SheltRPG. Some of them are already implemented (mostly in the actual battle section), while many are still to be worked on (mostly in character progression).

I’ll definitely be talking more in depth about all of those mechanics and ideas as we go through the future devlogs, but just to briefly list out some of the more important ones:

- each mana type can be utilized for a different basic effect as one of the three action types. Each hero has a free use of their own innate mana guaranteed once per turn (assuming they don’t suffer from a restraining debuff), and while the availability of other types is never guaranteed, it can still be procured from enemies or by using allies in the front line. Whenever an ally or a foe gets hurt, they release their mana onto the field.

- to use stronger techniques, you need to have charges of specified mana types available to use. The enemies, similarly, have their moves determined by what mana is available in the “field”.

- whenever there’s too many charges of mana released into the field (currently we put the limit at 10), an Overload takes place, where all of the charges of the most numerous mana type get destroyed, and all creatures of that type get a buff while all the others get damaged and/or debuffed.

- Monsters always have multiple types, making it random which mana type you release when you hurt them. All heroes have one type only, making it much more predictable to get more of their mana into the field if you use them in the front line.

 -  After winning a battle, you accumulate various growth resources based on the types of the enemies and the mana types burned during the encounter. You’re able to use those to improve characters, unlock active and passive abilities, craft and recharge consumables, and so on. We’re still yet to reach the out-of-battle parts of the game in our development, so I have less solid details to talk about here, but I want the system of six mana types to feed into those parts just as much as in battle.

In the end, the whole idea about having six elements of magic isn’t anything new. However, it’s been rather rare for me to see those distinctions tied equally tightly into the mechanics, lore, and the characters’ very natures. I think that keeping that at the forefront of everything can make for a very fun gameplay-storytelling experience. Not separated, but together. Knotted into something really cool and engaging. Let’s see how it shapes up as we keep completing more!

Next Devlog:

“Tagging and Bench Abilities”