What Do Books & Blades Have in Common?

Before the development update, I wanted to take a second to say thank you to everyone who has followed along since the announcement.

The response to my reveal was honestly more than I expected, and seeing people get excited about my work is what keeps me going during these turbulent and unprecedented times and getting Morbid Mailroom into your hands has been the light at the end of the tunnel for me.

This is the first of many development updates, where I'll ramble about features in Morbid Mailroom. Kinda like instruction manual pages. I'll be aiming for one of these a month. Can’t wait to show you what’s coming next.

Why do most video game books feel like painted bricks? You "interact" with them, a UI window pops up, and that’s it. For a horror game where you'll be stuck in a dark mailroom searching for contraband and clues, that felt like a missed opportunity for immersion.

The "Floppy Book" Breakthrough

I spent the better part of a few days making sure that if you grab a book, it actually feels like it has a spine. You can grab one half, let the other side dangle, flop it around, open it, close it...

Since the last update, I’ve expanded the system so it’s not just one book. I’ve got:

• Procedural Sizes: Tiny journals to occult tomes.

• Varying Weights: Small paperbacks feel different than heavy encyclopedias (encyclopediae?).

• Color Variety: And soon pattern and texture variety, too

A lot of the work done on the book can also be used for other interactables with multiple physics bodies (like ragdolls, floppy cloth, severed limp wrists, etc.)

The Accidental Fidget Toy

Then came the switchblade...

The switchblade started as a simple piece of contraband for the player to spot, but I’ve tweaked the physics so you can flip it, spin it, and just generally fidget with it. It’s reached a point where I find myself just clicking the blade open and shut while I’m testing other bugs. strangely therapeutic.

Why bother with all this?

Is it overkill? Probably. Will most players notice? I hope so.

But it's my belief these granular interactions are what make a world feel physical. When the objects in your hands react how you expect them to, the "game" layer evaporates, and you’re just there.

Plus, it’s just fun to make stuff flop around.

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