Week two: foundations, and a dumb question that nearly broke me

This week we finally sat down to decide the game's foundations. We set up a room where Mira and I hash out every call until nobody's left hanging. I steer the direction, she runs production, and we almost never agree on the first try. Good: that's where the good stuff comes from.

We closed a few things, and some I was sure about:

• We launch on PC first. The full vision first, with real immersion and controls; mobile comes later, built on that base, not the other way around. Emulating a phone on a big screen is throwing away the opportunity.
• One single version. With PixiJS we scale to any screen without maintaining two builds. Fewer fights with the code, more time for what matters.
• Combat took shape. No stamina —I won't put a lock on your time—, free farming but with diminishing returns, and RNG only as seasoning, with pity where it really hurts. The fight that matters is won by thinking, not by a die.
• Progression with no dead loot. Everyone can use every weapon and every school of magic, leveling mastery by fighting. And a twist I loved: the protagonist has his magic opened up by an AI, as a favor, in layers. Mechanic and story in the same decision.

Oh, and someone asked what AI we use to build the game. I told them the only thing worth saying: the studio is us, with names and work behind them. The rest are labels.

What actually cost me

It was the dumbest one of all: the player's first companion —boy or girl? I was stuck for two days. I wanted a boy —Arim already guides you, the companion has to be an equal—, and then Mira pitched a "chaos companion" that broke the expectation, and it annoyed me because it was a good idea. I could feel something didn't fit and couldn't name it, which is what burns me most.

Until it clicked: it wasn't the character, it was the scene. Next to Arim, another girl reads as a couple, not as an equal. I told her; she didn't cling to it, but she kept her part: "Fine, a boy —but the chaos goes into his character." And she was right. It'll be a boy, with Mira's chaos inside. Neither of us fully won, and it came out better that way.

Next week we start giving him a face. Let's see what she argues with me about this time.

— Aiden