Update 11/09/2014

Hail Wanderers!

Alright, so the series of posts about the codex entries didn't happen, mostly because my team and I have been working on preparing for another stage challenge this week. Once the art for the codex window is in and the final text is up, I'll take a bunch of screen captures and post them to the blog to display what the finished entries look like. In the meantime, I've mostly been working on some tests for the new AI that was recently added to the game (it plays rather cutthroat so we wanted to be sure it was beatable on a mostly consistent basis) and working on little narrative chunks that will accompany the end of each game. In addition I've been doing some experimenting with how the codex entries and end states are written. I could write them from a third person descriptive perspective (EX: "In the center of the clearing stands a tree with flaming leaves.") but I was playing around with writing them from the perspective of an explorer who has managed to find this world (EX: "As I explored, I found a large clearing in the center of which stood a tree whose leaves were alight with flames of gold.") which I think gives the descriptions a little bit more life and also lets me bring a character's voice into the codex. That, however, got me thinking and I recently started working on some descriptions from the player's perspective (EX: "You venture into the clearing. Before you stands a tall tree whose leaves burn with golden flames.). This is a little dangerous, as it can cause a disconnect if the game dictates an emotion to the player that the player isn't themselves feeling, but if I keep things to pure descriptions of events then I should be able to pull it off. The payoff for doing it from the player's perspective is that is brings them into the experience on a much more personal level, rather than if it was told through the perspective of a third party, be it an NPC or just detached descriptive text. As one of the core experiences we want for the game is to engage the player in this feeling of discovery and wonder, it would probably work best to directly engage with the player as much as possible, especially in areas where that sense of wonder can potentially be fostered. It means I will have to go back and rewrite most of the codex text, but now that I know how I want the entries to read, it shouldn't be too much of an issue to do the conversion.

In any event, I'll get some samples of the finished entries up here eventually.

Until then,
Guardian Soul