Been a bit lazy on the my task to provide development news, so here’s an update!
I had pretty much reached a point where I could say 90% of the game design was done, I had a somewhat solid idea of how the game would start, go and “end” (actually it never ends).
But I like to keep my mind open, because I felt those missing 10% could be rather special. And so it happened that new ideas appeared out of the blues and those new ideas where somehow incompatible with the old ones. So after pondering for a good while on it, I decided to throw out a few of the old game design ideas and am now in the process of remaking it.
In practical terms, what does it mean and what is actually changing in the game?
Well, the original idea was to have Autumn generate a virtually unlimited number of “worlds”, each of them would have its own scenery and random quests/challenges. While you play each world, you collect prana which can then be spent on acquiring spiritual teachings
Spirituality and learning is the main topic of the game, so I wanted it to be even more present, than just collecting text here and there.
So, let me introduce you the I-Ching(The Book of Changes), one of humanity’s most mysterious, long-lived and most widely used book, from mystics, to psychologists. Some say it is a divination book, others say it has coded the fabric of all possible experiences and outcomes, others yet relate it to quantum physics or string theory. The fact is, this 2500 year old chinese book, has a lot of wisdom in it, and I want to include that in Autumn.
Before the I-Ching is consulted, an intention/question/problem is framed in the mind of the person, and then a certain process is carried out so that one of the 64-hexagrams of the book will be selected. The interpretation of each hexagram will show to the person certain ideas and bring awareness to sides of life which he or she should pay attention to.
I thought this could be a great way to get level generation going. So before pressing “play” you will be asked to also set your intention, upon which the game will be based on one of those 64-hexagrams, and the gameplay will follow its dictates.
This is still a rough sketch of how it will happen as I still need to sort out many details. Keep tuned