Since it has been a little over 5 months since the last update (one of, if not the longest period of time this game has gone update-less) and there's no update in sight for the foreseeable future, I've decided to make a devlog going over a few things. Primarily the current plans for beta and a little preview of things to come, but also the general state of affairs, and some insight regarding the development of the game since its roots.

The Beta Layout

The first thing I want to talk about is the main bulk of this update, the primary reason it's been taking so long, and the ins and outs of the design behind what I've chosen as the Beta layout.

The primary goal of moving from Alpha to Beta (beyond the mostly definitive rules) is to improve clarity. Not only clarity of writing, but readability and a cleaner presentation than the current presentation of Night and Day palettes, both of which feature high contrast google docs exports that have had their fair share of issues regarding contrast and readability. I've been toying around with the idea of using a cream and brown palette with dashes of color for a long while.

After quite a few variations and experiments with it, I decided to go with this particular palette and general layout idea, with the warmest palette yet, and ditching some of the flashier elements I had come up with for a more "flat" look:

Following these guidelines, and after some further tweaks, I've settled on this look:

All things considered, I'm quite happy with how the layout turned out in the end. One thing to note is that red will not be the only accent color throughout the book! The game's main sections (labelled in the Beta as "Books") each have their own accent color, which applies to the ribbons on the sidebars and chapter titles as well as the other headers throughout their respective chapters:

With the layout out of the way, let's move onto the contents.

New Rules & Writing

Not all of the game is being rewritten, because I'm not a masochist. But the process of "porting over" the rules from alpha to beta is quite slow, as I'm editing it for both aesthetic and clarity, and having a certain level of scrutiny and filter when moving things around. There's a lot of text that may be left behind entirely in favor of a more visual approach.

As the rules themselves are undergoing an editing process, it's given me the chance to really think some stuff through, outside of the document, and put it to the test on my own. One of the major changes that happened in the last alpha update was to reduce stats and skills into a couple of categories for the sake of clearer utility, from 9 binary attributes to 6 attributes ranked 1-3. While this was definitely an improvement, I've further reduced the Attribute list from 6 to 4 - ironically enough, the same 4 that I started with before moving onto a longer list of binary attributes.

Intuition worked as an "Awareness 2" that created some problems throughout various actions, and it was the first to go in favor of Awareness and Resolve inheriting its utilities. But then, Awareness itself wasn't quite hitting the mark. Perception in games like Vagrant are important stats that end up getting picked no matter what, and I didn't want a power vacuum stat to be in the way. As such, Awareness itself has been absorbed by Wisdom. This leaves the game with four core stats that encompass all actions, tentatively named Strength, Finesse, Focus, and Spirit.

Since I've been mainly focusing on character creation, there's not much to be said about the rest of the rules, at least for now (something I'll touch on the next part of this devlog). The Core Mechanic remains the same, though after having playtested prior iterations of the rules I'm considering removing the concept of Close Hits, and lowering the Hit threshold to 6 instead. Combat remains the same, save for the tentative addition of the "Take Cover" Defensive Action, and measuring altitude through extra Zones.

The Art... What to do with the art?

I've been making some doodles and art tests here and there on my own, not necessarily related to the game itself, and mostly for me as an artist.

The thing about the art is that I hadn't originally planned to do the art myself on top of the layout and the writing. I even got in touch with some lovely folks that have been publishing their own labor of love and planned to organize a crowdfunding campaign to pay a really cool artist whose work I really like to do the art in my stead. But as luck would have it, the pandemic and some other things surrounding the development have largely shelved that possibility.

So meanwhile, I've been trying to un-burn myself from artwork, and getting to work on both freehand and vector illustrations. Traditional digital works fit the general sketchy vibe I envisioned, but Vector artwork is much cleaner and detailed, although sacrificing that "rough" look that accompanies most of the game's layout. Then there's the "me" issue at hand - I'm not a very good artist. We'll see how having me as the one man band of this operation works out in the long run, I just hope I can work on this in peace.

In the meantime, though, as it would mean extra work and time investment, the Beta version will not feature any art, mine or otherwise, except for the cover art that I've been using on the Alpha documents. Assuming the theme remains the same, of course...

An Array of Issues

Aside from the obvious situation of the global pandemic that has everyone stressed, I've been going through a few personal issues regarding the current state of the game. I'll try my best to talk them through.

Issue #1: Identity

The narrative and "aesthetic" presentation of the game is incredibly important to me. I've been trying to convey it through smaller sections of lore over the years, but to be perfectly honest, something about it doesn't quite click with me. From the setting, to the tone, to the aesthetic and the title, something about this whole "Trail of the Vagrant Star" thing, nothing seems to be part of a well thought-out creative endeavour, and more of a mixture of things I've idealized over its development. The game as a whole doesn't have a very strong identity of its own.

As such, now that I have complete rules and I can take the time to choose the presentation, I've been going through various iterations of the game's world. Some of them try to play out in the same concepts, but others lean more towards its fantasy or its sci-fi roots to try and find a driving force behind it all. Until I find it, I feel like I'll be stuck in a sort of creative slump that won't allow me to move forwards. The rules will easily adapt to whatever I end up writing as the game's main identity, so I'm not too bothered by the prospect of changing rules to accomodate a different narrative. But then... I'm still having a hard time coming up with concepts that I truly love and that can shine through the game in its final state. I don't aim for something perfect, but I definitely want it to be something that I can truly cherish.

Also, as some of you know, I've been searching for a title for about 5 years now, way before this iteration of the rules came to be.

Issue #2: Playtesting, or lack thereof

I don't play online. I've been stuck in quarantine for 7.5 months as of the writing of this devlog. Do the math.

While I'm wholly confident in the changes I've done in the last alpha version, I haven't been able to playtest any of it in its final stage. I've playtested smaller bits and pieces of it with playtesters, and thoroughly playtested things internally on my own, but without a real playtest, I don't have a 100% guarantee that things work out as I intended them to. Nothing I can do about this one, just wait for the plague to be over.

Issue #3: Work+Quarantine Burnout

Despite having all the time in the world in my hands because I've been working from home, being stuck at home working 9 to 5 has taken quite a toll on both my motivation and my energy to work on the game. I still work on it bit by bit every day, but very little of which I can really showcase, and most of the advancements have been made in short bursts over the quarantine. The last update, for example, was made in a full month of free evenings solely because I had all the notes already written and largely tested, and required minimal effort to be pieced together.

I'll get it together, in time, but it's been quite a slow process so far.

The Future

What's next? I'm wondering the same thing myself. I've decided to stop setting up unrealistic expectations for myself and just work on this thing until I can finish, at least, this first beta version. Then I'll see what happens. Hopefully, I'll be able to playtest the last alpha changes as well as whatever changes I've introduced to Beta after the pandemic. And if not, well, expect more devlogs every few months.

Stay tuned!