Studio Ganzheit

I finally lost to the placeholder boss. Even though the remaining work is simple, I just couldn’t push through, so I took a break and worked on some game feature updates.

• Kay visibility: I made Kay’s scarf much longer and gave it a color that really pops. I went back and forth on what color to use, but thinking about Kay’s personality, disposition, and role, white felt right. Some users suggested jiggle bones or kawaii physics, which I interpreted as wanting physics-driven objects to stand out more — it’s a little ironic that it’s harder to understand what users mean when they use dev terminology than when they just describe how they feel. Anyway, I also increased the emissive value on the scarf material when the camera pulls back, so it reads better at a distance. Cranking emissive up close looks unnatural.

• Attune: I added a feature to read information from the environment, like reading signs. I thought it might help emphasize the game’s mood, and more importantly, I needed another way to deliver story in the threshold — the existing methods weren’t enough for various reasons. It’s a secondary feature though, completely optional for progression.

• Photo mode: while Kay looks at photos of her daughter, the player can take screenshots from a distance.

I also finished some of the gameplay for the boss’s final phase, but I think I need to swap out the placeholders for proper models before doing any more polish.

For full assembly, I’ll probably need to rewrite most of the story-related text from scratch. A lot of the dialogue was written while the story was still being built, so there are gaps and parts that no longer match. This is exhausting — I need to figure something out. I think I’ve been going at full throttle for too long. I need to start managing my energy better going forward.