Developer Log: Game Variability

Today, we would like to share our development progress and give you a glimpse of the current scope of work. Some time ago, we mentioned that we were already working on the final chapter and, later, on the endings and epilogues. Now, we think it is time to lift the curtain a little and show the true scale of the game while avoiding major spoilers.

Right now, we are facing an incredibly large task of testing all this content. We did our best to account for every possible event already at the stage of designing the endings, and we filtered out part of the issues during the build process. Now all that remains is to polish everything through testing.

To help you imagine the kind of hell the poor testers will have to go through, let us share a few numbers and facts from the internal development documents.

The image below shows the structure of the game’s endings. There are at least 17 of them in our game. These are not just different outcomes for individual characters, but fundamentally different conclusions for both Jerian’s story and the Empire, with the characters’ fates and the state of the game world forming only part of each ending.

If the converging lines on the diagram look worrying, do not be alarmed. This is simply a technical process used to conclude the game after any of the endings is reached. Of course, the game does not boil down to one shared final scene. 🙂

In the next image, you will see a screenshot from an internal table used by our narrative game designers, where they work with the scene texts and the localization of those texts.

The screenshot lists the endings and epilogues. We have partially hidden the names to avoid obvious spoilers. Under the “plus” signs, numerous variations are grouped together, branching out into even more possible outcomes. For example, the scene “Epi.ImportantCharacters.010” concerns 6 characters, and the fate of each of them can unfold in at least 4 different ways. As a result, this single epilogue scene alone has more than 25 possible variations.

To give you a better sense of what awaits the player closer to the game’s climax, we would also like to show the structure of Chapter Five. Of the 117 scenes that may be included in it, only 10 are mandatory. The player will see those no matter what once they reach this chapter. Depending on the chosen path and the decisions made, the remaining scenes may either appear or remain inaccessible.

At the same time, a full playthrough that leads to a proper ending does not necessarily include Chapter Five at all. The player may reach an ending earlier. And that is not even counting the defeat scenarios, which are also built into the game.

It is also worth mentioning the Conditional Triggers shown in the screenshot. These are special events that are not tied to any specific moment in the game. They can trigger at any time, provided certain conditions are met: choices made, stats reached, and other requirements.

So yes, the number of possible outcomes is truly enormous, and every player will have a unique path and experience.

Testing all possible branching paths is an extremely challenging task. For example, during one complete playthrough, an average player will be able to see no more than 8% of the texts related to the endings alone. In most cases, this percentage is even lower. Altogether, the game contains around 526,000 words in English, and that number may still grow by the time the game is released.

Based on all of the above, you can imagine the scale and length of testing required for a project of this size.

Thank you for taking the time to read this blog! We would also like to give special thanks to everyone who is eagerly waiting for our game. We truly hope to live up to your expectations at release! 💚

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