Once the technical groundwork was in place, the next step was less about raw setup and more about identity.

This was the phase where the project started getting its first proper in-game language: UI templates, some textures, widgets, node framework, and the first structured passes on authors, works and related data.

That mattered a lot more than it may sound. This project carries quite a lot of historical information, so presentation was never going to be a minor issue. The interface had to start finding a balance between readability and aesthetic, between structured yet not lifeless.

This was also one of the first moments when the project’s visual direction began to feel coherent. The Enlightenment-inspired paper look, the more print-like interface elements, the general sense of “ink, notes, manuscripts, diagrams, layered thought” - all of that started entering the game here, even if still in early, unfinished form.

At the same time, we were laying in the first real gameplay-facing content structures: nodes, authors, works, and the systems needed to support them. So while this stage still involved a lot of framework work, it was also the point where the game began to feel less generic and more like itself.

(December 2025)