Hi Nicolas.
Like other titles built on ChoiceScript, combat would be woven through text. The scrapping of the JRPG system seems highly necessary for the proper development of the title to continue, as unfortunately, not every idea on paper works in execution.
I can easily believe that Choicescript and turn-based team combat systems work extremely poorly together. (Ditto for inventory systems beyond the super-simple.) I donāt think anyone would tell you to keep trying to use this particular screwdriver to hammer in nails. 
Go for the narrative meat.
Evening, everyone!
Itās official: I have severed the combat code from the game. Much of the word count increase for the update was under the combat system, equipment, etc. Update 1 will still remain a full-throated update with a vast rework of the original Character Creator Demo, but will be half the original planned size as a result.
However, Iāve made some fun decisions. Spells remain, including abilities. I am working out how the XP curve will tie itself to questing and other pieces of content, but I thought itād be quite fun to keep unique options open for how you approach certain situations.
Iāve got some content to finalize for the overhaul, and a new traits system to still implementā¦ Once thatās done, Update 1 should be ready to fire on all cylinders.
Thanks for the support.
Howdy, Heroes!
Time for another weekly update.
This week, weāre delving into my cancellation of the combat system.
It wasnāt an easy decision.
When building out the combat code, equipment code, and I was contending against quite a few obstacles and hazards. These varied from design issues (rectifiable), implementation issues (rectifiable), and ChoiceScript Issues (something I couldnāt rectify).
Combat worked. To give an ideaā¦
Furthermore, I had fully playable Combat Tutorials for each of the three classes. They were deployed on the Private Testing Build (Dev). So the question could become where everything went wrong.
The answer is - the party system. See, the turn order worked with everyone, yes. But it was realistically the most straightforward system to implement. Combat in isolation also worked, if you were the only one in the party.
Once I began expanding the equipment code to multiple party members, I ran into a slew of roadblocks. Dynamically appending code to cover every party memberās unique variables was a royal PITA and required copy-pasting code blocks due to the way I had to implement inventory. This caused files to balloon out of control quite rapidly. Secondly, it became a strewn mess to connect to the primary combat sequences.
Couple this together with the significant implementation headaches I had ahead of me, that every time I patched an issue, two more popped up, and that balancing as the lone developer wouldāve been a headache on its own - and I realized how detrimental maintaining the system was becoming to the project. 80% of the development on Update 1 had gone to these systems, which caused a multi-month delay in producing Update 1. It required extensive documentation, creating keyword tags to ctrl-f (find) my way down the document as it grew, and much more.
By the time I coupled together the pollā¦ I had pretty much made the decision to sever it. However, I donāt like to make decisions this major (given that everyone had been patiently waiting) without providing a proper explanation as to why. While I know Iām not required to, Iād like to apologize to those who were excited and waited patiently. In a perfect world, Iād have been able to produce the system to my specifications.
As Iāve learned quite well in game development by now, not every idea that hits the paper dolls itself out in execution.
Combat will still existā¦ in narrative format.
Iām going to create unique, multifaceted combat sequences that are baked into the narrative of each encounter. Each will take time to craft, as theyāll offer multiple routes of progression based on levels, stats, classes, etc. Smaller encounters will take far less time to craft, while larger set-pieces will forge a more blockbuster kind-of style. Nonetheless, expect plenty of narrative meat.
Second, Iāve got plenty whipped up. Hereās whatās left on the dev cycle for Update 1, as I know I promised much and gutting the combat system will take away from it.
Once thoseāre done, weāll call it a day. Iāll do some QA passes, and drop Update 1 into the wild. Separately, Iāve begun some side work again for Update 2, mainly to ensure it aligns with where Iāve placed Update 1 on the narrative spectrum.
To give an idea of where weāre at. This is the only teaser Iāll provide of direct content nestled within the Prologue beyond the first-page teaser Iāve provided. Letās do a bit of a before and after, shall we? (As a note: the before contains the entirety of content that a single race selection preview provided, meanwhile there is much more narrative meat and several more pages of content left out of the Update 1 teaser.) (Second Note: Update 1 is still undergoing editing, so bear with me!)
Itās an ongoing process, but weāre getting there. I know some may wonder why Iāve chosen to drop a small teaser for each update, thereās tons of new content, so these merely offer a glance at whatās coming. Separately, this also provides a show of goodwill that development is ongoing and not stalled out.
Lastly, I provided a glimpse at the new Discord and Social Media logo for A Realm Divided last week. Itās my pleasure to unveil the new and final standalone logo for the title, moving forward. Given the darker and more formal tones the game and story will take on, Iāve opted for a logo that reflects that. Despite that, I havenāt forgotten that weāre in a fantasy world, after all. I hope you enjoy it.
The phenomenal artist behind this is known as Talia. While Iām unsure if it would run afoul of forum rules (so Iām omitting her links from this post, but will put them on my Discord), you may DM me should you wish to inquire about her services. Sheās quite reasonable and excellent when it comes to feedback and the creative process. Itās been a delight to work with her and I canāt wait to do so in the future.
This update was pretty big, so Iāll skip next weekās. Iāll see you all properly again on September 1st for State of the Realm.
~Zach
Back for a quick post of sorts with a poll at the end because this is heavily in development.
Iām currently developing the trait system and looking into a ārealignmentā of sorts, with each main statistic having tiers.
An example would be strength:
To clarify, you hold the bonus of the tier youāre on. Itās not that you gain +50 lbs of Carry Weight at tier 2 on top of the +25 you had from tier 1. I would ensure that I clarify that in the game specifically so players arenāt confused.
It would gradually evolve and stylize to still provide unique builds, despite having scrapped my original combat system. Itās a mish-mash of a few games Iāve grown up and loved, with my own twists.
However, I want to see based on the example how others feel about it, as I myself am not confident in its design yet.
POLL: How do you feel about the proposed realignment for main statistics and their bonuses against a traditional pen and paper system?
Thanks, everyone!
Hey, everyone!
Stopping by for a quick poll today. Iām looking into formalizing fonts and getting the remainder of proper structure for UI (within my means) together. I personally adore the new logo and the font it accompanies, but Iād love to hear thoughts from you.
The logo will be attached below, the polls underneath it after.
POLL: How do you feel about the new logo?
Separately, how do you feel about the font in particular? Same style of poll.
Thanks, everyone!
Howdy, Heroes!
Stopping by for some feedback. Iām currently working to upgrade my narrative capabilities in regards to combat for second person. Iāve got a snippet of a scene from Update 1 here, and wanted to know how you all felt about it. NOTE: This is unedited as of this time.
Dropping a small poll, thank you a ton!
POLL: How do you feel about the above teaser?
Thanks, as always.
~Zach
Hello, Heroes!
Itās that time again for a State of the Realm monthly update - a tad early. I have some events to attend to in the coming days, so I wonāt get it out then if I delay.
Update 1 is heavily under development. Given that I cut plenty of content by removing combat, Iāve instead chosen to make several key prologue upgrades. This includes the Trait System, a large-scale overhaul to picking individual races, and more.
Today, weāre going to delve into a bit of where weāre at, whatās left to go, and a bit of a recap since I cut Combat.
Letās delve in, shall we?
I lost quite a bit of the word count and general size of Update 1 when Combat was removed. As a result, Iāve taken time to provide much more in the prologue, as I donāt wish to revisit the section should I not have to. In turn, this is the planned content of Update 1: Rebirth -
Itās quite a bit, which is why the Update isnāt out yet. In truth, this Update could easily push A Realm Dividedās non-code word count well over 40 to 50,000.
Thereās still a good bit, as part of the upgrade from the loss of Combat.
However, weāre making tons of progress. While there are quite a few traits, hereās a sneak peek at some youāll have access to.
As you can see, each system will be pretty packed. Iāve got plenty in the oven, and plenty in the content roadmap/pipeline.
Iām not confident that I can get all of this done in September alone, but Iām working on it. At the end of the day, I learned a valuable lesson. I built a system the engine wasnāt really meant for. It consumed quite a bit of time, and I lost at the end. However, I learned so much in terms of what I can do with ChoiceScript and how best to implement certain systems that it overall improved the quality of the project.
While the original Update 0.5 wasnāt planned to be anything full-throated, Update 1 will be. You can consider the Prologue to be quite a significant chunk of content, and much more immersive than the original Character Creator Demo was.
Now that I have a full vision in place for the project, development has accelerated. Iām eager to get Update 1 out in the wild, and look forward to each of you enjoying it.
Anyways, til next time Heroes.
~Zach
The character creation has been very well done. Even without the combat system , many different branching paths itself make this a very ambitious project. All the best to the author on writing the story. Cant wait to see what you have in store for us.
Howdy, Heroes!
Eventually, the Estheria WorldAnvil will open, serving as a Master Wiki that details the content of everything kept within the Realm of Harmony.
With the Custom CSS fully completed and operational, I will occasionally provide teasers from the ongoing work. Please note, this work is largely unedited and does not reflect an ongoing timeline cleanup effort. Any words marked in bold or italics are being tagged for later hyperlink previews, a feature of WorldAnvil that allows you to hover over those words and see snippets of the documents they contain - or sub-boxes of lore.
Enjoy.
Howdy, Heroes!
Dropping by today with some converted lore thatās being worked on in the Master-Wiki. Development of Update 1 continues apace, after a small break tending to IRL.
Enjoy!
Howdy, Heroes!
Iām posting my final teaser of overhauled content in Update 1.
When choosing a race, you can go back to the choices. Iāve chosen to overhaul that text as well, providing lavish detail and compare/contrast moments. Itās a large chunk, roughly 500 words on its own.
Enjoy!
How do you feel about the upgrade?
Have a great Tuesday!
~Zach
I donāt personally like it. In the first one, it comes across as your memories of who you are coming back. But in the second one, with how the keeper describes each one, it feels like heās asking you which one you want to be. And in the meta sense, you are. But in the story, you donāt actually have a choice in the matter
Hey Anna!
Thatās a fair point. Through the conversation, the goal is to elicit memories that return the form. Iāll probably tweak the dialogue as itās unedited to indicate shards of the soul over explicit choices. Hence the orbs. Each holds a shard of the soul tied to a specific race, with the intent being to settle upon a single one.
Hello, Heroes!
Given Iāve missed a few weekly updates, I wanted to catch up on the status of Update 1.
I began a new job this month after two years at my prior company. As Iāve taken an expanded role and moved from second to first shift, Iāve had to several adjustments in my lifestyle. Further, my new role will be much more involved and hands-on than the prior one. This leaves less optimal time for development. Iām going to talk a good bit about where that leaves us below.
Letās delve in, shall we?
Thereās been quite a lot thatās happened in my life, to say the least. Iāve moved my best friend of 12 years to my State at the beginning of the month, started a new job last week in a higher-level position, swapped shifts from years of second shifting to first, returned to having only weekends off which meant adjusting appointment schedules to accommodate, and more.
Itās been a doozy.
During that time, Iāve taken a short hiatus to work a little bit on a side project, while also realigning some other muted parts of Estheria. These are more under the hood than over it, but nonetheless keep the oiled machine running. Speaking bluntly, Iāve made maybe only another 2,000 words in actual progress on the Updateās content, but the full production schedule should resume today.
Update 1 is quite large in size, with many moving parts as you all know. During my work on the Update, Iāve focused on a general upgrade in narrative style, the introduction of both new content and retooled existing content, and a major goal to finish the prologue, once and for all. Unless I have to, Iāve no plans to revisit it throughout development. Consider it a polished experience.
This has taken quite a bit of time, as the writing is quite extensive. Each āMini-Storyā through race selection has multiple moving choices and parts and tells its own glimpse of a tale. Despite being brief, my hope is to show how Iāll approach handling the contrast between intense, action-packed set-pieces and more low-key segments meant to breach gaps and serve as a breather.
Separately, Iāve tackled my codebase. When I began work on the project, I was still relatively new to ChoiceScript and most of my experience previously had been on the design and narrative side instead of programming. While ChoiceScript isnāt intensive by any means, I made plenty of mistakes in variable naming, over-extending, and more.
As such, Iāve spent a good bit of time the last few weeks cutting away filler code, severing any pieces left over from Combat that I mightāve missed, and retooling a bit of whatās left so it will function better with more advanced systems such as Crafting/Gathering, Questing, dynamic branching, and more.
Thereās some other Quality-of-Life changes I want to get out of the way, but other than that Iād say Update 1 is coming along into a pretty stead form at this point. Enough that Iām getting closer to comfort on the release date.
Now that Iām back on track, my goal is to keep you appraise of the continuing development on Update 1. Once the Update is released, Iāll dive headfirst into Update 2ās full-throated development, which will largely consist of direct content. There are some systems to implement properly still, but they shouldnāt be like Combat where it both took ages and then ended up not working in the first place.
Once again, thanks everyone for the support. Iāll have something more to show soon.
Til next time Heroes.
~Zach
Hello, Heroes!
Itās time for a long overdue status update. I apologize for the radio silence, Iāve had a metric ton going on, much of which has stopped my writing capabilities for the project.
Nonetheless, letās talk about where weāre going with Update 1, now that Iām returning to steady development work.
Update 1 is extremely late, that much is true.
I wrote out the planned scope expansion of the update. Cleaned up code, locked in new systems, fixed multiple major bugs that wouldāve stopped gameplay flow, and worked towards tidying up the general writing style.
Nonetheless, there are still the following bullets remaining to Update 1:
All in all. If I can optimize my schedule slightly, this could be done within a week at most. Thatās not a promise, haha.
Either way, Update 1 is nearing completion. Update 2 has also received preliminary planning and development, including both of the major romance party characters (Male/Female) of which youāll gain the choice of one to accompany your journey.
Separately, Iāve made two critical updates to the code that provide for detailed mechanics regarding Crafting and Township ā where youāll be able to develop your own Base of Operations in the form of a town. This mechanic is still under heavy planning, but the code integration allows for key functionality. Iāve also ensured it is completely severed from the Stats screen, this way we donāt have to worry about any tricky complications popping up.
Above everything. Estheria is a passion project. A Realm Divided is a dream that began long ago, and has matured through my knowledge and growth of ChoiceScript.
Alongside development, my own writing style and improvisation grew. Iāve learned new tricks of the trade, and Iāve traded out some bad habits.
Nonetheless, development will significantly accelerate as my schedule acclimates to my new position, and as the completion of code for key systems locks into place. Most of the work Iāve done in the last month has been code-related, including a refactoring of a few areas.
A Realm Divided has many font-images that are used to create a sense of UI. Iām trying to optimize elsewhere so that in areas where these images and code for systems collide, thereās not much of a slowdown on any device.
Nonetheless, evolution continues, and I did promise something in my last update. The snippet is small, but enjoy. 
Til next time Heroes.
~Zach
Hey, Heroes!
Deciding to try to reignite random bits of community engagement. I love polls, so weāll have one!
QUESTION: What are you most excited for in Update 1?
Have a great weekend!
Hello, Heroes!
My State of the Realm last week was paltry, and weāre going to fix it. I was gone long enough that those waiting deserved something better than that.
I wanted to take a little time to provide an update on the past week, and \whatās really been going on.
Letās delve in, shall we?
In the past week:
The bottom line is a mixture of health issues, job integration (new position), and code-cleanups/overhauls delayed work on Update 1. Now that those are resolved, weāre back on track, and I am fully committed to a release no later than December. Especially given how much is now intact.
Weāre going to talk about a few things I shouldāve covered in the State of the Realm a week ago. Letās do so now.
A large component of the Prologue and CC Demo 2.0 overhaul was the inclusion of Racial Mini-Stories. Each of these tells a condensed tale, providing a compare and contrast of the race youāre viewing. This provides not only a small snippet of content to indulge in, but further informs your choice - given the planned size and scope of the game.
As long-known, each race has its own variant of Act 1. This will be large and will provide plenty of backstory on the race at hand. The first version of Act 1 will be known as The Shadowed Veil, which allows players to experience the story through the view of a Shadow Elf.
Each Racial Mini-Story ranges from 5,000 to 7,500 words. This has expanded as Iāve added the first view of branching content. I did this for 3 reasons:
Thereās five mini-stories, but Iām going to provide a spoiler preview of the content here through the humans branch. Note: This content is unedited as of this time and may contain grammatical/spelling errors.
Now, youāve seen a snippet of a pathway. However, in Image #3, thereās a choice to be made. Menacingly tearing the blade, or providing mercy. Youāve seen what happens should you choose to tear the blade out. Howeverā¦ something different occurs if you show mercy.
As youāre able to see. Thereās a consequence for every choice you make in A Realm Divided. Now, this could be minor. It could be nothing, really - some small quirk or change. But it could change the way others view you. It could impact markets and their costs, it could destroy villages, those you hold dear could perish.
Choose wisely.
If we flash back to the previous postās pollā¦ An unannounced feature (???).
Iāve long teased a form of township system, of running your own headquarters, your own people.
Itās Wartime, Commander.
The Base of Operations system will provide a singular focus point over skirmishes, major battles, raids, throughout the story. You will execute key Adventures and Stories from this location. Youāll distribute your Tessetts (currency) to provide upgrades that further your battle readiness. You may review your progress in the ongoing conflict, change strategies and tact, and work to order supplies and take care of your people.
This feature will first debut in a separate areaā¦ in Update 1.
Update 1 will provide the first glimpse at the Base of Operations feature, taking the place of the original code foundations I resurrected from the Arena. Whilst you wonāt deal with turn-based combat, youāll see a flash into the future management that youāll indulge in. Further, by hammering these systems out, youāll be ready for Update 2 - The Shadowed Veil, where this feature is expanded upon.
Iāll have more in the coming weeks to showcase on the Base of Operations, but Iām unbelievably excited to bring it to fruition. Itās ignited a further passion throughout the project and will showcase my improved understanding of ChoiceScript.
As some of you may know, Dan and CoG announced an incoming update to ChoiceScript in the form of Checkpoints (a take on saves).
Iām incredibly excited to see this coming proper, and not to be reliant on Donās save system present in Moody, as when A Realm Divided launchesā¦ it wouldnāt have it.
I planned on properly integrating my own take on a save system, but this eases things along. Whilst the checkpoint code is not in CSIDE nor Moody (and may never be in Moody), I am creating and structuring a special set of checkpoints and mechanics. These will remain commented out until launch, when Iāll go through the game files (or if Moody updates), and activate them. Youāll see more of what I intend to do with these at a later date.
Alright. Weāve done things right this time.
Iām going to get back to work on hammering these systems out. My excitement as I finally approach the finish line of Update 1 continues to build, and I genuinely hope you enjoy what Iām cooking up.
Til next time Heroes.
~Zach
The running a township and people sounds awesome! Looking forward too your hard work
