Devlog #9: Designing the Decisions That Shape Your Story

In this devlog, we sat down with Florian S., the Lead Game Designer on 100 Lives. Florian works across multiple areas of the game, balancing big-picture planning with hands-on design of core systems, story events, and player choices.

From building out our turn-based interaction system to developing the new scenario feature, Florian is focused on creating gameplay that’s both strategic and accessible, giving players meaningful ways to shape each life they live in Kingstown.

What did you work on last week, and what’s next?

I set the remaining priorities for the remainder of the milestone, worked on the latest iteration of our turn-based interaction system, and did game design on a bunch of story events, which include setting the stage, defining roleplay choices, and difficulty of choices

What’s a new feature, mechanic, or piece of content you're excited about?

There are a bunch of new things in the works, but the most exciting one for me is the scenario system. Scenarios are short bits of gameplay where you have to decide how you wanna deal with them. They will add an additional gameplay layer to the map and will help smooth out a few of the rough edges we currently still have.

What’s been the most interesting design or technical challenge recently?

As I am working on the turn-based interactions at the moment, they definitely are tricky to get right. We have to find the correct balance of giving players interesting and strategic options without adding too much complexity to overwhelm them. It probably takes a few more iterations to nail the exact balance, but it's a lot of fun figuring out.

Is there anything players might miss if they don’t look closely?

Definitely. 100 Lives is a game with lots of small things to discover everywhere, both in visual details and in defining your life story.

How is your work helping bring the “100 Lives” concept to life?

As Lead Game Designer, I am involved in a lot of processes: I am doing the high-level planning for the project milestones, feature design, and also going over the story events to make sure the RPG elements are set up correctly.

Florian’s work helps tie everything together, from defining how choices play out to ensuring that each system supports the game’s central idea: no two lives should ever feel quite the same.

We’ll be back soon with more insights from the team. In the meantime, wishlist 100 Lives on Steam, and remember, sometimes the smallest decisions end up changing everything.