Greetings, Worthy Travelers and Valiant Homunculi!

In this month’s newsletter, we invite you to join us on an emotional rollercoaster ride. Don't worry, there's no need for tissues—we are solely talking about our emotion gameplay mechanic!

As an unfinished servant born into a life without purpose, understanding feelings can be challenging for a Homunculus. One might argue that their emotional world is as dry as desert sand. However, our unique twist reveals that certain situations can trigger mood swings unknown to Vorlund’s creatures. These swings can leave them in a state of rage, awe, despair, sadness, or calmness.

Each emotion comes with its own set of advantages and disadvantages. For instance, an emotion might make you more persistent but less cautious, or more mindful but weaker. Mastering the balance between these pros and cons is a key strategic element of our gameplay. We are eager to see how you navigate this emotional landscape.

A Roguelike Unlike Rogue

Creating a video game requires designing mechanics based on simple rules that synergize to create an engaging experience. Developers, whether indie or AAA, often draw inspiration from classic games, modifying and blending existing concepts to forge something new. These modern interpretations shape genres, and our game sits somewhere between Roguelike and Text Adventure.

Rogue, a PC game from the 1980s, is renowned for its procedurally generated maps, permadeath, and challenging gameplay. Like Rogue, Tales features random maps and permadeath, offering a familiar yet fresh experience. But what sets our game apart? And how do we contribute to the evolution of the genre?

Weaving deep lore into a procedurally generated world is a challenge we eagerly embraced. Unsatisfied with superficial fetch quests and stereotypical NPCs, our narrative designer Mo crafted an eerie yet captivating backstory. Breaking conventional rules, he developed our world's lively inhabitants with a unique approach. Inspired by the storytelling of the Souls series, he outlined characters early in the development process. This allowed us to create a world that evolves around its story, rather than squeezing a story into a preexisting world.

YOUTUBE Pixel Art Sprite Design w/ Commentary!

A Bewildered Note

"As long as I wander through this wilderness, it refuses to become familiar to me. The silence here is deafening; scarcely a sound is heard in the deep forests, and when the wind sneaks through the leaves, their rustling seems only a suppressed whisper; the mountains drone mute, only falling scree cracks like the bones of giants breaking; no word in the ruins; the swamps stink silently; the wastelands where I pitch my camp roar with emptiness.

There is no hint of the master's whereabouts or which direction he took. Everything seems lifeless; no animal or creature crosses my path, rarely a rustle in the underbrush or faded tracks in the dirt.

The wilderness is abandoned, as if no one has touched these places for millennia, and yet everything is subject to constant change.

Mist turned the forest where I sought firewood into a rotting swamp, and I grasped rotten wood where dry branches had just lain. That same mist greeted me in the morning, and as soon as I left it behind, I could see bent house ruins where before there was only a barren land, as if they had crept up on me during the night. Mountains I used for orientation vanished and suddenly reappeared elsewhere, stubbornly, as if they had always been there; and it seems some forests wander with the storm.

I struggle with my orientation since I can no longer see the tower – but I can still feel him, as if his long shadow touches me within."

Our story segment has received a lot of love this month and will continue to grow steadily with development – but what are good stories without conflicts, especially armed conflicts? We hope to tell you more about the combat system in the upcoming editions. Until then, never be shy with feedback or questions!