Let’s get into a little bit of the actual design, yeah?
Take note that some of this is probably going to change all the way through until the end of development. Everything here is still in progress, although it’s finally the nice kind of progress where things feel sort of juicy, not dry (By the way, everything in the below screenshots is fairly unfinished).
Anyway, in UTTER INVERSE there are two main RPG-style systems that you’ll contend with as our protagonist, May, descends through the setting’s labyrinthine “boundary”. For now, we’ll call them Droplets and Qualia.
I won’t get into the details of why the original designs (and their myriad iterations/descendants) were crap, but there was a large amount of gnashing and wailing from me and out of it these two systems have emerged fully formed like a very hot woman appearing out from a sea shell or whatever.
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Droplets are May’s combat actions, crystallized into brittle form. They’re the simpler of the two systems, in a way…
Basically, each represents an ability or spell. You attune to some, and can use them in battle, but if you use them too much they’ll shatter at the worst possible time. As you kill monsters throughout the labyrinth May suffuses with an overflowing, violent energy that she can compress into more Droplets. If they all shatter, you’re f*****.
Droplets generate with modifiers or levels of quality. For example, you might receive two droplets that represent the same ability. How boring. But one is “chaotic”, its strength varying each time it’s evoked, and one is “dark”, draining May’s health in exchange for higher comparative strength. So, do you pick that one, or-
Oh, you got a perfect NIHILATE. What a powerful spell. I hope it doesn’t break.
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Qualia are semi-physical motes of light that grant passive effects. You design the constellation that makes up May’s heart by socketing into it directly.
These Qualia are found outside and throughout the labyrinth, and there are both generic varieties and more unique ones that, potentially, can only be found once. After they’ve been socketed into May’s heart, Qualia can never be taken back out; only removed or replaced. Unlike Droplets, however, May is able to carry a number of Qualia without issue and they never break.
In addition to May’s ability to channel overflow to invoke new Droplets, she can also channel into herself directly. Doing this permanently enhances all current and future socketed Qualia across an exponential scale.
May doesn’t have “levels” in the classical sense, and so some Qualia take the same role as selecting attributes to upgrade in a more standard RPG.
Many Qualia have negative aspects that offset their positive sides. More damage, less health. More speed, less of everything else. Inflict the WASTE status on hit, but you’re always afflicted by WASTE yourself.
May’s heart has 39 sockets, so you have space to nullify those downsides. Or, don’t.
Some Qualia grant an attribute called OMEN, while some drain it. If OMEN ever falls below a certain threshold, all of May’s socketed Qualia become disabled until OMEN is restored. So, yes, there are 39 sockets, but be careful what you place and maybe even where you place them. They say a dead girl’s heart’s a fragile thing.
You’ve got to put in a little effort to hold onto oblivion.
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As of writing there are ~90 Droplet types, not including modifiers, and ~60 Qualia types. These numbers can change in either direction.
There are a handful of Droplets that have to be added, and I expect some might need to be removed. I would also like to add a large number of especially unique Qualia, but those require more intensive scripting to implement.
Anyway, that’s it for now. Next I might be talking about area design, or dialogue threads, or battles, or whatever else. I have to finish scripting these menus. See you then.
– ANWN M.
The golden tinge of the world shines bright below.
