Meaty Monday (August 2021 Update)

[h2]Kanon is flying into your heart![/h2]

Our animator, Khei (@kheillustration on Twitter!), has done some absolutely incredible work updating Kanon’s animation over the past weeks! We’re really excited by the details she’s been able to capture, between the flow of the wings, the soft glances around, the hands holding the apple…special shoutout to our sprite artist, Sam, for the wing upgrade!



[h2]Lemme tell you a story…[/h2]

We’ve gotten a few questions on our Discord about how the narrative of Spirit Swap will work! So, this month, we wanted to dive into it some more.

Basically, the narrative creative process often looks like this interaction between one of our writers and the creative director:



Haha… just kidding… unless……. ahem

But back to the game side of narrative!

Let’s start with a simple overview of how story mode works (and you get to peek at our messy inVision board…)



NOTE: Just keep in mind that as we build the game and test and iterate on it, things WILL definitely change.


If you squint, you’ll see the basic framework of the game in the upper left. An initial start screen gives you access to a menu with these choices, currently: story mode, playlist, how to play, multiplayer and options.

Let’s focus on Story Mode for now.

Choosing Story Mode gives you access to three Save Slots to choose from. If you pick one and start a new game, you’ll find yourself on an isometric map of the city of Demashq and its immediate outskirts. This is your world map of sorts. The first location accessible will be Samar’s (your) home. This will be your hub: where you decorate your room, change your outfits, tweak your settings, chat with your friends on your personal computer (narrative device right there!), and change your spell loadout before going out for the day.



Typically, Spirit Swap’s story plays in “runs” which in game translate as days. Don’t worry, there’s no real in-game calendar or limit on the time you have to complete aspects of the story, this is just meant to mark the rhythm of the game and punctuate its loop. Additionally, story progress is persistent and doesn’t reset every new day/”run”.

A day always starts in your room: let’s say you pick an outfit and then a notification on your computer prompts you to check your messages. Talking to a character on your computer will sometimes allow you to “summon” them out that day. What does that mean? Every time you go out, there will be about three active locations on your map. An active location shows you that a character is present there currently. You can visit any location you like, but if no one is present there won’t be anything to do. IF someone is there, you’ll be able to either advance the overall story and “swap battle” them in 2P Versus OR advance their character specific arc and further your relationship with them.



Theoretically, you could just keep battling the same three characters and not realize you've run out of things to do...You could even accrue way too many rewards, room items or spells in one go, and it could get overwhelming to learn everything as you go if you don't decide to stop and return to your room hub where you can use them!

So, we're testing out an "event flag system", where every time you trip three of those flags (this could be three significant story interactions, or three items received, or a new spell), the game will let you know the day is over and the events on your map will disappear, prompting you to go home and check your spoils, relax, reset and go back out the next day.

Again, a day ending doesn't lock you out of any events and none of them are time-gated in any way: it's just a way to keep you engaged in what the game throws at you without getting too overwhelmed.

The game’s minimum path to completion, or “Golden Path” involves talking to each character once and winning 9 total VS battles against each one. However, this is merely the tip of the iceberg if you’re here to date, explore and figure out the mysteries of your town!



You can choose to deviate from the Golden Path at any moment and dedicate your time to getting to know one, two or every character - as long as you’ve met and battled them for the first time already.

The narrative remains linear, but the amount of side stories and content you can unlock and a ~Secret “True” Ending~ you can reach should keep you occupied for hours. Sometimes you hit a wall in your relationship with a character and you have to seek the help of other friends to figure things out, but getting to know one character better will never lock you out of romancing or befriending the others no matter how close you get. That will be interesting to write for!

We don’t want to talk too much about the ~Secret Ending~ because we want that to be a nice surprise for when the game ships… but in the right bottom corner of the image above you can see a hint to what it’ll revolve around… the concert date.

That’s all for how the game will work in terms of narrative progression! We’d love to hear your thoughts.

[h2]Game Devs of Color Expo[/h2]

The BEST game convention is coming soon, and we’re proud to say Spirit Swap is going to be a part of the showcase! Game Devs of Color Expo 2021 is happening September 23-27th, and not only will you be able to learn about the industry: you’ll be able to play some fantastic demos (including Spirit Swap)!
Learn all about what you can expect (and pick up tickets) at https://www.gamedevsofcolorexpo.com/.



[h2]Talk soon![/h2]

There are LOTS of events on the horizon (in addition to GDoC!) where you’ll see our team talking about Spirit Swap and game dev in general!

Be sure to follow us on Twitter for all the latest updates, wishlist our game if you haven't yet, and we’ll see you soon.

Until next time!

Love, The Spirit Swap Team