Aberration Analyst News

[h3]Gameplay Loop is (more or less) Complete[/h3]
I've completed the core gameplay loop. Now instead of picking a general or specialized team, you will have to go to the rolodex and select 5 team members from a list. This is where you can choose to include a specialist or not.



[h3]Training[/h3]
In the current, standard game, you will start with one of each specialist type in your roster of team members. However, it's possible through carelessness, to lose one of these people during a mission, and you will have to train a new specialist to take their place. In the rolodex interface, you will see a training button that will allow you to do this. However, you have to think strategically, as it can take up to 3 days to train someone in a new specialty.



[h3]Colors[/h3]
I am working on tweaking the colors. It is no longer black and green only, but a light green and a darker green to make things a little less stark to look at.

[h3]More Work[/h3]
There is still a lot to do. I have to make sure all the menus are scaling and being positioned correctly (they are not right now), some of the text really needs updating to match the new gameplay, and I want to include a wider cast of team members (I already have graphics ready for these) as well as more complex behavior for the aberrations themselves.



The send team and report screens will also get even more of an update, giving more information on what transpired on a particular mission. In addition to training periods, team members will also become unavailable to work after a certain number of missions ... they need a break! This will become an important part of the gameplay, causing players to have to think more strategically about who they are sending and when. In addition to death, team members may also experience injuries, requiring recovery time as well. There is a lot that can potentially be done here that I've only started thinking about.



I also envision just expanding the variety of things like newspaper headlines, police reports, city names, maybe even aberration types, to make each play through a more unique and memorable experience.

[h3]Early Access[/h3]
I am hoping for an Early Access release soon. I have a couple more dramatic ideas that I really want some specific feedback on, and I am unsure whether to incorporate them at all. More on that later...

I finally figured out (thanks to some fantastic player feedback) how to utilize the Rolodex in a meaningful way. I have added names and information about each team member. You now have to choose which team members to send. The specialists will also appear hear, and they will be limited to one per type of aberration per day. So if you send a vampire specialist and he gets killed by a Wendigo, you will have to wait until the next day to send another one...



Currently using the mouse wheel to scroll up and down through the cards ... I will also probably add navigation buttons of some kind.

[h3]GREEN[/h3]
If you notice, the green color has been modified from the previous build (see in the store page screenshots) and it is a bit softer to look at and hopefully easier on people's eyes. I'm not 100% settled on the color, but I think it is getting closer.

[h3]CYCLOPEAN[/h3]
I made a small dungeon crawler for the Dungeon Crawler Jam 2024. In it I tried to go for the same visual aesthetic, to see the reactions.

Overall, feedback has been positive, but having the stark green against black was troubling some players. This prompted me to adopt the softer light green against darker green approach. You can watch a video of that game here: https://youtu.be/c9U9Z6Y0BNA?si=B3wbM6Y8LazrXxh8

I had put this game on hold for two reasons. First, I was inspired to make my Middle Eastern themed Dungeon Crawler "Islands of the Caliph" which was released in September of last year. Second, because I could not think of any interesting ways to finish this game.

Well after finishing Islands, I started thinking about Aberration Analyst a bit. It occurred to me that most of what I wanted the game to do was already there and working. It just needed to be rounded out with some additional features, and polished up a bit.

So I made a list of things to add or improve upon and I am making good progress on it.

[h3]Tabloids:[/h3]
So far I have made some major changes to how the tabloids operate. They still fulfill the same basic purpose. However, instead of getting a list of headlines on one page, I have a different "newspaper" for each headline that the player will have to sort through. They will still be able to mark the headline on their map for reference.

Additionally, when you click on a city in the map view, the appropriate headline for that city will show up in the notes at the bottom of the screen, so you will not have to go back and forth between the tabloid view to remember which headline was about which city.

The headlines themselves have changed too. They no longer all follow the same sentence structure. I now have two basic sentence structures, but plan to add more before I am done. It is really an aesthetic change, but I think that aesthetics are an important part of the atmosphere of this game, so it was crucial to include this.

Other aesthetic improvements include different formats and titles for the various tabloid magazines. It's no longer just "The Brobdingnagian Gazette" but there are over twenty different periodicals to look through.

Here's an example:


[h3]Other Stuff:[/h3]
I have other plans for how the game functions. The rolodex will provide a list of hunters that you can call on, instead of just selecting "aberration specialist" when sending a team. The general team will also not be capturing or destroying aberrations, but collecting physical evidence and interviewing witnesses.

Successful captures/destruction of aberrations will also give you lore, which will appear in the books. This will be a kind of meta progression, and allow you to benefit on your next play-through.

I have added the game's demo to the store page. Somehow I thought that would happen automatically, but apparently not.

The game is still on hold for now. But please feel free to share any thoughts or feedback based on the demo.

The demo actually represents the whole game idea. I took it as far as I could, but don't believe it really feels like a complete game at this time. I may come back to it some day, but I am having trouble seeing how to build on what's here...

Unfortunately, not a lot has been happening with Aberration Analyst recently. The game essentially does what I had set out for it to do, but it did not evoke the kind of response I had hoped, and has not really found much of an audience. As a solo developer this is the first time I have allowed a game of mine to linger for so long. I've heard about this happening, but I am surprised it has happened here. I have been pretty good in the past about finishing my projects. But without any good ideas on how to improve it, and very little time to work on it currently, I have to face the reality that it will not be finished any time soon. I have thought of a few possible options for what to do with it.

1. Release it as-is for free. This would be the easiest option for me. I do not think of it as a finished game though, and I would hate to just allow it to remain in an incomplete state.

2. Remove it from Steam and pretend it never existed.

3. Wait until I find the time and motivation to give it some more love. I do revisit old/incomplete games once in a while. It's entirely possible that I may get inspired to have another go at this in the future. Right now I am just really uncertain of what to do with it.

Anyway, I do apologize for being so fickle about this game. If you have any great ideas as to it's possible direction, I am always available to discuss further.