KOTCL Dev Diaries - The Talks. New format

Knock, knock, travelers! Please introduce yourself.

Since the main work on the game has already been done, we are expecting a sharp shortage of news, and the developers' diaries will naturally mutate into something resembling an author's column, and I will be the one entertaining you.

I am not a new person in the company, but rather one of the oldest employees, who co-authored all the texts for Kotcl with the narrative game designer. By the way, how do you like them? I can entertain you in various ways, and suggestions/proposals/questions in the comments are welcome. My tone will be as relaxed and friendly as possible, because we are here to play games, not to discuss stock market quotes, right?

But first, a bit of news

The main work is currently focused on rebalancing. Yes, again. The game is so large-scale that we barely managed to handle it by the release, and now we have the opportunity to approach the balance issue more thoughtfully. If you didn't like the previous version of the balance, don't go far, we have another chance to please you. The main direction of the rebalance is a more thoughtful and mathematical gameplay. If before it was pure fun, now we want you to think more. But we'll keep the fun. The update will be released when it’s done.

We are also actively improving compatibility with the Steam Deck. The main focus is to enlarge the interface elements so that everything can be easily read and played on the small screen. Overall, we aim to achieve full and seamless compatibility with the Steam Deck. The update will be released (guess when) when it’s done.

And you won't believe it, our artists and animators are still polishing the visuals and refining the visual features without which we cannot show you all the content. So don't be surprised if, during a new playthrough, you encounter an event continuation that wasn't there before. However, these are very targeted changes, nothing globally new, but still.

And now let's talk

And now let's move on to the essence of the new format. Do you know Batu? A joke for those who completed the add-on with one of the NON-canonical endings. And do you know how many endings there are in total?

I won't tell you which one is canonical, because if you see it, you'll immediately understand that it's the one. And you know, we set ourselves the task that no player would ever be able to uncover all the content? It sounds very ambitious and a bit mocking towards the players, but the goal was noble: we wanted you to find something new in the game even after 100, 200, or 1000 hours of gameplay. We overextended ourselves a bit, and still didn't implement all the ideas. But we achieved the goal. In any case, I, while playing Kotcl, sometimes encounter situations that I myself came up with and forgot, because it's impossible to keep such a volume of information in mind. And it turns out it was implemented, wow! It's like accidentally meeting an old friend on the street whom you haven't seen in a long time.

When we invented Knock, I first came up with an entire universe in which the game would exist. We didn't aim to tell you everything about this universe; the game simply exists within it, following its rules. It's more convenient to create content when you start from a solid foundation.

Do you want to know where the Divine Mite came from? I can tell you. Seriously, it has a backstory. Or maybe leave it as mysterious and enigmatic as it is? Do you know who the Shoots are? I'm itching to write to you about them, but very little is mentioned about them in the game texts.

Do you know what the basic idea of Kotcl is? It lies in the interaction between the strong and the weak of this world: the former possess knowledge, power, and authority, while the latter possess free will. And if we talk about the former, which are obviously Mortis and Millenis, there are even more powerful beings above them, for whom these two are initially just pawns. The main characters try to play by their own rules, and in this, they are no different from Mortis and Millenis, who try to play by theirs.

In general, we will be discussing such things in the coming days or so. The plan is roughly like this, but as we know, a conversation is a mutual affair, and our conversation with you may not go exactly as planned. Or not at all as planned. And that's good. We'll see how it goes.

Thank you for your support and feedback—it means the world to us. See you in the next dev diary!