[33] L'lasons de Aether ver Beinags #15

I had a few appointments this week, but I tried to get as much done as I reasonably could.

The work that was actually done involves detailing more (if not most) events and mechanics in the demo, though there are some things I won't know of until they pose a real problem.

While I say "demo" here, I'd like it structured to where I can recycle it for the rest of the game, with minimal modifications. This way, I won't need to do the same work twice.

(Some paragraphs might be written a bit more tersely than others.)

The idea is that there are 1-2 main puzzles, with the player starting out in a cave, for Kommiagana's route. There are a few ways to solve the problem of limiting the scope of player movement, without adding those invisible walls that nobody likes. This could be in the form of rubble that blocks off the entrance (supposedly after you entered that same way.) Or, a rope with a hole in the ceiling that would lead to either the surface or a higher area of the cave system (without the addition of a mechanic for actually climbing it.)

Sometimes, I back myself into a corner by thinking up some complicated implementation when it's not necessary. But at the same time, I need to come up with something, regardless if the complicated solution is the only one I could find. This is probably the best excuse I can make for 'the machine,' specifically a drill that makes up the first main puzzle. Of course, this drill needs to be powered somehow, and I didn't want that source to be in the form of something like a hand crank. At some point I decided on a crystal that generates timed pulses of energy. Not of light, as that doesn't explicitly exist in Aether's lore, but for the sake of the game, it's the closest practical analogue.

As I (think I) stated in a previous post, the energy of this source would likely be 'aligned' or 'focused' with mirrors, and the puzzle would revolve around calibrating the machine to utilize this crystal properly, as well as some other measurements. To do this in the way I'm imagining would require ray optics. A solution for displaying these rays might come in the form of stretching a 1d gradient into the 2nd dimension to fit the distance between the two points involved in the ray reflection.

Otherwise, the other puzzle elements could be in the form of simpler logic-type puzzles, as well as visual aids for calibration and whatnot

To communicate the idea on how to not only to operate the machine on a basic level, but to inform the player of what they're dong in the first place, there could be pre-written entries in the journal, as well as Yolle speaking to you.

The journal might need widgets that aid in translating Yolle's speech, but whether that's necessary or not might be dependent on things that don't matter at this time.

I would likely need to expand eprish a bit more for Yolle to accurately monologue to the player, as the acuity of linguistic expression is limited by the language itself.

Base exprish might be hard to write journal entries with on a keyboard, so there could be type of stamp feature that would allow for embedding glyphs in between normal text.

The drill is supposed to be the last thing standing in your way before you reach Aether's liquid core, and once you get there, Menngana could try stopping you in various ways, like controlling the creatures inside the core like puppets to come attack you. Some of the puzzle down there might involve finding small airpockets with manuscripts for the code to certain door. Air bubbles might be used for restoring oxygen supply (there isn't supposed to be oxygen, but I haven't come up with anything more lore-friendly.)

That's it for this week.

(No one actually reads these except me partially when presenting, do they?)