Ahoy, everyone!
It's the end of summer, so, between enjoying the fact that all 6 chapters of The Spirit are now completely playable from start to finish and getting challenged by one nasty bug after another, I figured it was time for a short update.
Over the last few weeks, I've added some more content to all the chapters, added new exciting Traits, and continued polishing the existing story.
Currently, I'm hard at work making sure four things are happening:
1. The story's tone feels different every time you play
It should depend on the characters you have in your party. You can have a bunch of sillies in your team, but you might also have a band of fearless mercenaries or a group of honourable knights. These parties need to have very different perspectives on what's happening around them.
I have a checklist of all kinds of different playstyle and tone combinations that I want to test the game against over the coming weeks.
2. All skills have a use
There are many, many skills in the game. I've changed some and added others, but I'm working hard to make sure that if you pick a certain skill, your characters'll have an opportunity to use it.
It's a challenging task, but I'm doing my best to make sure it matters which skills you invest your points into.
3. The ending
I've said before that the end of Chapter 6 won't be the end of the story. I have lots and lots in store for what comes next, but Chapter 6 should still provide some closure for the characters' arcs, meaning they need to land somewhere by the end of the chapter.
A lot can happen to them during their journey, changing who they are and their relationships with their party members, so it's super important to me to track everything properly and design the game in a way that responds to both their choices and yours.
4. Consistency
I'm finalizing the lore and trying to make sure all societies in the world of the Spirit have a consistent tone and purpose that is reflected throughout the story. People should be discussing topics related to them, books should be available to read about them and learn more, etc.
Terminology and names have also been replaced in several places, so I'm doing some extra checks to make sure everything is consistent across all descriptions and lore texts.
Beyond all of the above, I'm still polishing the combat system, whose foundation code was overhauled earlier this year (based on player feedback!). I'm also still drawing the story pictures for the later chapters and creating icons for some of the new Traits. Oh, and from time to time I add some minor UI improvements. I'm definitely not bored.
So overall, progress is steady!
I'm still aiming to release at least a playtest version at the very end of this year. The next few weeks will bring me closer to knowing exactly when that can happen.
And now... wait... what's this noise?
Oops, there's a crack in the glass and the void is pulling me through, forcing me to continue working on the game...
Thanks for following along! The next update should be up once I'm in the endgame of testing and bug fixing, ready to talk more about the release plan.
Until then!
Dice