Hi everyone, and welcome to another Dandelion Void dev blog! Today we have some exciting progress to show on an initial version of our character creator.
As a quick update from last post, the VOD from MrAtomicDuck’s playtest of Dandelion Void has now hit over 40k views! A huge thanks to everyone who’s watched the video and told us what you think of the game; we are truly touched by this response!
Spoiler label: this post reveals major worldbuilding details and discusses the gameplay components of our trait system.
Our character builder is currently separated into three steps. The first two are mostly narrative, while the third is mechanical:
Your Upbringing is the human culture you were raised in.
Your Circumstance is the event that stranded you in the perilous Virgo module
Your Traits are a set of perks and debuffs that define your character mechanically!
Explaining the Upbringing requires a bit of a lore drop. Some readers may already know that the starship Pergola is separated into separate modules which spin around in a ring formation. The spinning creates artificial gravity through centrifugal force, and the interchangeability of the modules provides redundancy in case of mechanical failure.
Time has been hard on these modules over the centuries, and in the present day the vast majority of the human population has retreated into just one: Taurus. The other modules (in which our game takes place) have been overtaken by jungle, suffered life support failure, or succumbed to even stranger fates.
Taurus is an isolated, backwater module, intentionally sealed off to protect its inhabitants from the jungle. Life on Taurus is dull and hard, but largely safe from the uproots. Your Upbringing defines which culture you grew up in on the module you left behind:
Developer Note: Our narrative is as much affected by iteration as our game mechanics! These descriptions may not be fully story accurate to the final game
Backgrounds largely exist for role-playing purposes, but they do have some mechanical effects as well. For instance, selecting Hornkeeper starts you with a few special items:
This isn't just any old acorn -- it has a history!
For their own safety, all Tauran cultures maintain a strict taboo against intermodule travel. Despite these efforts, the game begins with the player finding themselves on the jungle-choked Virgo module, with no way back. How exactly? You get to decide by picking a circumstance!
Like your upbringing, your circumstance also has small mechanical implications. If I choose Exile my character will spawn me at low health, while Lost players begin low on food and water.
Character traits are where we get to the real gameplay meat of the character creator! Like many games in this genre, you are given a small budget to spend on positive traits for your character; buffs, skills, and other advantages. You can also increase this budget by choosing negative traits! Developer note: for this first draft, traits use the same layout as the upbringing and circumstance screens. We plan to redesign this screen to show more content at once and have a custom icon for each trait
Character traits are a load-bearing mechanic in Dandelion Void! Here are a few things we think about when designing new traits:
Like classes in an RPG or upgrade paths in a roguelike, the choices you make when creating your character will significantly define your experience. When you roll a new character, this presents an opportunity to try a different playstyle! Experimenting with different character builds is a great way to keep the game feeling fresh.
Truly memorable traits will alter the player’s behavior. Taking “Stress Cleaner” might lead the player into a tidying frenzy, while “Insomnia” will force them into dangerous night expeditions. A well-designed trait should feel almost like a minigame unto itself.
It’s still important to have some simpler, bread-and-butter traits like “10% more health,” but these offer less replay value because they have less of an impact on your playstyle or goals, so you often forget that you picked them. Whenever possible we try to design traits with a strong sense of identity.
As a simulation-driven game, playing Dandelion Void is a form of storytelling – and what's a good story without a good protagonist? The best characters across fiction media are invariably defined by their quirks and imperfections, and picking traits allows you to define your character’s personality.
Developer's note:"received as a gift" refers to a system that has not yet appeared on this blog -- keep your eyes peeled for mysterious structures built in miniature...
Perhaps you will play a cowardly, weak-stomached underdog who must overcome their squeamishness to survive in the wilds. Or maybe your character is strong and resilient, but harbors a secret sentimental attachment to an item from their youth. Downside traits are ideal for this type of gameplay: what's more compelling than a character flaw that must be overcome?
Many of our players are coming from games famous for their difficult and punishing gameplay, while others hail from a more general survival games audience. We intend to tune our base difficulty on the higher end, but the character trait system allows hardcore players to ramp it up even more.
For instance, Prone to Cramps players might have to exclude entire food groups on their runs. Perhaps the bravest of you will even attempt challenges like an “all negative traits” run!
In some ways you can view character traits as built-in "mods." When you feel like you've gotten a good sense of the vanilla gameplay, they allow you to create and enjoy your own customized version of the game!
One topic that we didn’t cover today is the actual appearance of your character. We are starting with the mechanical and narrative side of things because they will require more iteration, but a fully featured visual character creator is certainly on our roadmap.
In the meantime, you can learn a little more about our player character designs in this previous post!
That’s all for today! We will see you all again in mid-December. Take care everyone, and have a great week!
- Robin and the Manzanita Interactive Team