(the) Gnorp Apologue · published
Hello friends! It's been a while, so surely it must be time for some gnorp news.
This post will be about Epilogue, an upcoming (free) expansion to the game that will bring new mechanics, an (almost) entirely new set of talents, new buildings, and lots more!
There's been some ups and downs. A few months ago I decided to implement a new system for the expansion. That system was implemented in full, but in testing it was found lacking, which meant I had to re-engineer it. It was supposed to be the final piece of the puzzle but ended up as the final (fingers crossed) headache.
I set out to solve the following problem: Decision making in Gnorp can sometimes feel a little bit front-loaded. You pick your talents, and set sail towards a certain future. At least certain in the sense that you know what you're about to do. A slammer-focused build means buying lots of slammers. I could provide another example, but I am trying to be less wordy in my writing, and in the age of LLMs the last thing I want is to subject you to wordy writing.
So, in order to solve this problem of front-loaded-ness, I came with an unoriginal system I unoriginally call Augments: Randomly chosen modifiers that you could activate or re-roll, and I strapped it to another new system in Epilogue: Space Travel.
Gnorps are exploring the possibility of space travel. Boosters are installed on stacks of housing, and off they go towards (not to) the stars.
Why do they do this? [REDACTED] and recycling.
The cost of housing just keeps going up. In Epilogue, you'll be able to apply recycling as a solution to this problem. Here's how it works:
Step 1: Send some unemployed gnorps on vacation
It's a long vacation, sort of like when Frodo went to visit the elves in the Undying Lands.
Step 2: Treasures from the heaven
Through a process that is not well-understood by down-to-earth gnorps, objects that are particularly useful for constructing housing falls from the sky post-departure.
Step 3: Reconstruction
While we wait for Frodo to return, we can make some new friends. Gnorps collect the materials to make new housing, which, of course, grants new gnorps!
It's not always wise to send gnorps to space. While you'll have more gnorps to spend, you'll have less housing in the world. Why does that matter?
The zookagnorp is a new unit, available from Gun v. Rock.
The ammo used by the zookagnorp is generated by housing. That means the more housing you have in the world, the more ammo you spawn.
As sending gnorps on a merry mission towards space results in lower ammo generation, it then follows that it's not always a great idea. Though there are work-arounds.
Space Travel is fully fledged in its own right, but the version of augments I had in mind would grant an augment on launch. Since Space Travel is important and useful, having augments as an additional factor in your decision-making turned out to be a bad idea. It didn't feel good to be forced to gamble with random modifiers.
"It was a terrible experience, and as a result whatever love was once between us is now gone" - The QA tester (also wife), after having tried the augment system.
To save my marriage, I had to come up with a solution.
Describing the process of ideation is a bit weird though. I thought about things until I found a good solution, and in lieu of a better explanation here is a representative illustration of my physical and emotional state during that time.
I concluded the following:
a) Augments can be interesting and cool
b) Augments shouldn't be mandatory
So, augments need a new home. An optional home. That home is called the Antigravity Machine.
The antigravity machine was already part of the Party Pad, and if you missed the post about that, it's a new building where you pick a party to host. The antigravity machine also looks very much like a lottery draw machine, so it was a perfect fit.
And that was the end of that headache.
I think this post came together quite nicely. I took us on a journey. We had a few laughs, and maybe we learned something new.
Not quite there yet, but we are nearing the point where I might consider the possibility of doing some public playtesting of Epilogue. I'll make another post when the council of consideration has concluded that it is time, but when that moment is will ultimately depend on my ideation, which fundamentally is a process with a highly variable duration and outcome.
This whole thing has been a battle against scope creep and perfectionism, and I lose every time. Well, until now, I hope. The list of tasks remaining is shrinking, and I'll do my best to keep it that way.
I know that gnorp news have been sparse lately, so thank you for your patience, and thanks for reading.