KOTCL Dev Diaries – Partial Recall

Announcement

Knock, knock! We need help! How often do you encounter the problem of a runaway cursor with the mouse? You know, when it moves on its own, card selections disappear, and so on. We suspect this happens when you use a gamepad with stick drift. Please try disconnecting it and let us know if that helps. We need to know how relevant this issue is.

Steam post image(We need a contest for the best automaton. There will be 20 in total.)

My Opinion

Judging by the comments to the previous diary log, some of our players came to the conclusion that we’d used AI when developing Knock on the Coffin Lid.

I can assure you that this is not the case. KOTCL is a handmade project, similar to a Japanese garden. I’m not 100% sure that it’s a good thing, but it’s true. We could’ve made our game much faster had we tested all our ideas with AI before eventually engraving them in granite by hand.

Steam post image (Spoiler-spoiler)

But in 2019, when the game had already taken clear form, neural networks weren’t even heard of, so since then we’ve been working in the old-fashioned way from start to finish. During development we regrettably had to scrap heaps of already implemented ideas that worked perfectly in theory, but proved useless, boring or simply not fun enough in reality.

Let’s Get Back On Track

Now let’s return to our beloved, handmade Knock on the Coffin Lid. Today I’ll try to remember features that were completed but didn’t make it to the game. Chances are, I won’t be able to recall everything, but what I can recall should be enough.

Partial Recall

The ENTIRE bulk of first-generation quests was deemed a failure and removed. Although we tried to use some elements from the discarded content while creating the second generation, in the end we put together a completely new ecosystem, which went into the release. I’m afraid to tell you how much time that took.

The Conjunction of the Moons event was fully rewritten. The first version was much more quest-centered and it included several characters and battles that were not destined to appear in the game. The same happened to Zaratosh’s event. Dozens of other events suffered non-fatal injuries, but the total volume of removed dialogs is about 12,000 words.

Vanadis’ battle mechanics were fully remade once, Bjorn’s twice. Persival avoided major transformations, but kept changing in small ways, so in the end there was little left of his original concept.

Elite battles were constructed in such a way that:

1. if a battle couldn’t be avoided, it was possible to win with any effective build;

2. if a battle could be skipped, and you agreed to it, the build had to be just right, otherwise you’d be doomed.

We had to give up this idea altogether and redo everything after a couple of years of development.

Battles with Millenis were remade from scratch several times.

The number of fully working cards that we had to axe is beyond calculation. Fortunately, not all of them even had their artwork done yet.

To keep our diary from getting too sad, I’ll stop here and tell you something more amusing.

Sunny City News

We all would like to visit the Sunny City, but it’s impossible for now—the elves wouldn’t let Persival or Vanadis enter and would kill Bjorn on the spot. However, we can at least read the Sunny City news printed in The Echo of the Northern Gate newspaper. Want to know what’s happening there right now?

Here’s what our special correspondent reports:

Renegade Expelled From The Sunny City

News from the Sunny City: the Supreme Druid Council caught their colleague red-handed (both figuratively and literally) practicing blood magic. A crimson equipment set was confiscated and appended as evidence to the case. The sentence is a standard one—exile. We remind our elven readers that blood magic is prohibited by the 12th Druid Council. Renegades will not be tolerated within the boundaries of the Sunny City.

Lunar Druid Expelled From The Sunny City

News from the Sunny City: the Supreme Druid Council caught their colleague red-handed making unauthorized contacts with the Star Spirits. A set of Lunar Druid equipment was confiscated and appended as evidence to the case. The sentence is a standard one—exile. We remind our elven readers that worshipping the Star Spirits is prohibited by the 6th Druid Council. Renegades will not be tolerated within the boundaries of the Sunny City.

Lycan Expelled From The Sunny City

News from the Sunny City: the Supreme Druid Council regrets to state that one of the young druids failed the Lycan test and succumbed to his bestial second nature. According to the rules established in the Sunny City, lycans are prohibited from appearing there. We remind our elven readers that the rank of Druid is not given for nothing, it is achieved by continuous self-perfection and subduing of one's spirit.

Philosophers' Stagecoach Departed From The Sunny City

Free-thinking elves, who did not agree with the strict rules of the Sunny City, decided to leave it as a sign of protest. Considering the fact that forced deportation was the maximum punishment they could face for not complying with the rules, such a decision is difficult to understand. Be that as it may, the transport on which the freethinkers left the city has already been dubbed a philosophical stagecoach.

Correspondent Expelled From The Sunny City

Our correspondent regrets to report that he was exiled from the Sunny City. At the last meeting of the Supreme Council of Druids, it was decided to expel all humans from the city until the end of hostilities in the Frontier. The elven news column bids farewell to its readers until better times.

As for us, we are not saying goodbye just yet. Stay tuned!