So we have touched on nearly all the major mechanics in Mewgenics, but there is one huge one we haven't fully covered yet: "Events."
In Mew, events are what break up combat as your adventure unfolds. A lot can happen in them that totally changes the game, and these are some examples:
Random Happenings
You have no control over these events; they just happen, and you accept them. That's life!
Blessings: Blessings can range from finding a rusty razor blade to adding a whole new cat to your party.
Tragedy: Tragedies can range from a cat falling down the stairs to experiencing existential dread.
Weather Event: Weather events are global effects that will linger through that chapter of your adventure. There are TONS of weather events, most of them totally changing core aspects of the game, like a rainstorm that constantly douses any flames and causes flooding that slows ground characters, to Garbage Day, where bags of trash appear all over the map filled with possible treasures!
Choose Your Fate Events
These events, usually given by the game's many NPCs, give the player a choice between multiple options that aid the player... or not.
Many of these events will allow you to gain the aid of an NPC, allowing them to ambush their next combat or strike fear in them using intimidation! (The choice is up to you!)
Some of these events have two choices, but the outcomes are unknown, like: Do I press this button or push the lever? One may heal your whole team, but one may stun you for the next combat.
Skill Events
The meat and potatoes of the event system! There are TONS of Skill Events in Mewgenics, each one with 2-3 ways to solve them. Here is an example of one.
Skill events are solved using your cats' stats. Here's an example:
As you can see, our Hunter is investigating a cat corpse. If you look at his stats, you can clearly see that dexterity is his best stat, so looting the body will yield the best odds of success. Let's go with that...
We rolled the dice (literally, behind the scenes) and succeeded! Gaining a Disco Biscuit! (That cat partied hard). But what if we were lucky enough to have critically succeeded? Well, I'm not going to spoil those results, but it's totally possible. See, each choice you make in every skill event has 4+ possible outcomes: Success, Failure, Critical Success, and Critical Failure.
Now don't worry, events won't kill your cats... well, maybe one or two, but Mew will feature well over 100 events, each with multiple outcomes. So the chances are low, unless you meet Death in an event. But even then, you can always make a deal with her.
Initially, when we started development, I was worried about events and mostly wanted to use them to paint a better picture of the world you were adventuring through. But once we added them, they quickly became one of the most interesting aspects of the game.
It's hard to explain without experiencing it yourself, but in Mew, sometimes failing your charisma check against a lost spirit wandering the sewers and losing your soul in the process is just as fun as cracking the combo to a safe full of cash. I mean, there are some advantages to not having a soul, right?
Oh, did I mention some events are "legacy events"? Events where the outcome will totally change your game? Well, we have those too.
Overcoming adversity in Mew feels magical in ways I've never experienced before, and I can't wait for you all to feel it first-hand next year!
Don't forget to wishlist Mewgenics! It helps!
See you next time!
-Edmund