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kenomacreature · 3 months ago

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A META-HISTORY OF ELYSIUM CORONA MUNDI

Chronicling (almost) everything we know about the development of Robert Kurvitz's quasi-sacral object complex

This post represents an attempt to gather (almost) all the reliable public info we have about the broader worldbuilding of Elysium Corona Mundi (the series to which Disco Elysium and Sacred and Terrible Air belong) and how it developed over time into one place, presented more or less chronologically and in a way accessible to fans unacquainted with the, shall we say, more arcane lore of Elysium. In the original incarnation of this post, basically every sentence was scrupulously referenced; however, referencing is a major pain in the ass on tumblr, so instead I just have a broad list of sources at the bottom and if you want to inquire any further into a specific claim you can just message me.

I'll also warn readers that the sections discussing the Torson & McLaine campaign and the (currently cancelled) sequel to Disco Elysium contain potential (albeit relatively minor) spoilers for the planned plot of that game. The creators still hope to make that game one day, so if you want to go in totally blind, you know what to avoid.

Evermier

The first serious worldbuilding project that Robert Kurvitz embarked on dates back to at least the year 1997. It was developed with his childhood friends in Estonia, including later Elysium worldbuilders Martin Luiga, Argo Tuulik and Kaspar Kalvet, and went by the name Evermier. This was a medieval fantasy setting formed around a tabletop roleplaying system that Robert Kurvitz and Martin Luiga have referred to as “bootleg Finnish Dungeons and Dragons,” but which Argo Tuulik suspects was actually a Powered by the Apocalypse framework. The vast majority of the boys’ time with Evermier was not spent actually playing any campaigns, but rather formulating the setting and mechanics (both Argo and Luiga ended up never participating in a roleplaying session of Evermier). Argo splits the time spent conceiving Evermier into two broad periods – one he dubs “Evermier 1.0,” which stuck close to traditional Dungeons and Dragons – and one dubbed “Evermier 2.0,” where no tabletop campaigns were ever actually played and all the time was spent system-building. Argo estimates this latter period lasted some 2-3 years.

Scope creep quickly hit the project, with character sheets evolving into whole character books. Luiga alleges that that “the wizard book” was supposed to have 350 spells altogether, each with at least a half-page story about the spell, in prose, and that “about a healthy third of the book got done in the end.” Argo gives a different number, stating that early estimates for it had more like 900 spells, but agrees that two-thirds of each page would’ve been reserved for “juicy literary stuff” about the spell in question while the rest of the page was dedicated to stats, and says that Luiga and Kaspar wrote a lot of excellent stuff for these spells.

Argo says there were about twenty different schools of technology (such as “metallurgy” and “optics”), at least twelve classes of mages, and “so many” subclasses of elves. There was also a subclass of dwarf that, instead of being stocky, chubby and bearded like traditional dwarves, were veiny and more like “Russian miners.” When implementing necromancers, Robert “zoned in on this soul aspect,” which later became the basis for Elysium’s pale. Argo describes these necromancers as “hobbits, but with these little lanterns that guide spirits or souls from this massive fog.” Luiga places the invention of this “fog of death with whom some could communicate” as happening late in Evermier’s development and likewise considers it a primitive precursor to what would become the pale.

The worldbuilders spent a lot of time gearing up for an ultimate roleplaying session that never ended up materializing, but their artist friend Jüri Saks drew illustrations in anticipation of it, including character portraits. Luiga’s character was a “sickle-elf” whose class was called “saint.” This saint character was a handsome elf with small pointy ears and a neat little beard, who wielded two “light swords” (possibly katanas), and a crossbow called Crucifix on his back. The character was from a “grim northern land” and was a “religious lunatic type” who believed in a “grim, monotheistic God.” Argo alleges that Luiga related to this character so much that it almost became a part of his persona; he “developed this mode that sometimes when we were drinking he happened to slip in, where he would start judging people. I would like to say that it still remained within the boundaries of normalcy, but uh, unfortunately it didn’t.”

Kaspar Kalvet at some point played an archer character named Minor Mortifer (“Small Death-bringer”), and there was also a dwarf king named Fuirum Thundergate.

According to Luiga, the name “Elysium” was suggested by someone on the dragon.ee forums, but it took half a year for Robert to start seriously considering it. This was back when the setting was still a medieval fantasy world. Luiga and Argo both agree that the historicized Elysium as we know it now was born around the time when Robert decided to get rid of fantasy races, because – as Argo puts it – “they were kind of stupid.” With this decision, Evermier underwent a modernization process of sorts, an attempt to bring the setting closer to real life, where many other fantasy elements were stripped away in favor of more realistic representations of cultures, mostly in the form of nations. Argo says that many of the fantasy races transformed over the course of this process into the nations of Elysium – the dwarves became the nations of Graad, the elves became the great desert isola of Iilmaraa (formerly Armaghast, a nod to Dan Simmons’ Hyperion, still referenced to this day with Iilmaraa’s Erg desert), the night-elves or star-elves eventually became Seol, and the snow-elves became Katla (which apparently has not changed too much since the Evermier days, and whose namesake is the dragon in Astrid Lindgren’s novel The Brothers Lionheart). Among the first innovations of the new modernized setting was the concept of floating magnet trains, later described in Sacred and Terrible Air.

After the Evermier setting had been discarded, many of its ideas ended up being repurposed into historical periods within the new historicized Elysium setting.

The Elysium tabletop campaigns

Between the years 2003 – 2007, three tabletop campaigns were played in the then newly formed Elysium setting. These all took place in Revachol during the Current Century and featured Robert as dungeon master. The first campaign seems to have been called Soul Milton’s World Autumn, the second one Riget and the final one known simply as Torson & McLaine, or alternatively the RCM campaign. The first two were played at Robert’s old apartment in the concrete block project at Mustamäe, while the third one was played in the house of Luiga's dad, which the three later lived together in following his death.

Soul Milton’s World Autumn

Of the three campaigns, Soul Milton’s is arguably the one most shrouded in mystery as it stands. It took place in Revachol and Martin Luiga played the titular character Soul Milton. The character has been described as “one of the cornerstones of the Elysium mythos” and an “aspiring world-historical person.” By the time of the campaign, Milton seems to have become an amnesiac as a result of “suppressing his own mind to protect himself from his enemies,” and in this process apparently also adopted a disguise by “putting another skin on himself” (what precisely that means, we don't know). He was “very rich” and came from a well-off family, had a complicated and possibly romantic relationship with his sister and was a “politician slash businessman” who “wanted to be the innocence of consumerism.” As it turns out, the enemies who were chasing him were the Therriers of Elysium’s final innocence, Ambrosius Saint-Miro (a major figure in both Sacred and Terrible Air and Full-Core State Nihilist, to be discussed later), who Soul Milton met at one point. Saint-Miro apparently told him that “there has never been an innocence who is also not an innocence.” This encounter places the Soul Milton campaign firmly after the events of Disco Elysium, possibly in the late Fifties or Sixties. During this campaign, Argo played Soul Milton’s horse carriage driver, a man by the name of Elroy Quint Duval.

Also associated with Soul Milton are two other characters. Before Sacred and Terrible Air was conceived, Robert had planned to tell the story of Elysium in three books; one starring Soul Milton, another starring a character named Dister, and the third a character named Dallasz.

Dister, or Marius Dijsters, was an extraphysicist and published author hailing from Oranje. He was a son of diplomats, one of them the grand ambassador of Oranje on Iilmaraa. He seems to have been a significant enough figure to have an entire strand of thought – Disterism – named after him (mentioned in the inside covers of Sacred and Terrible Air), and like Soul Milton, he had an antagonistic relationship with Ambrosius (as made apparent by an incident where he was threatened by the innocence’s Therriers at age 25). He is also apparently involved in some way with Theo Van Kok (of Sacred and Terrible Air fame), along with a Paul Messier (presumably the husband of Disco Elysium's Joyce Messier), apparently the beneficiary of such prestigious titles as "Enemy of the Press '67" and "Worst Person of the Year '67."

Information is rather scant on Dallasz, but during the making of Disco Elysium, there were plans to repurpose him into another project, a comic book named Mercurio Dallasz and the Twelve Kojkos which was going to be illustrated by Aleksander Rostov. This project unfortunately fell through, but we know the premise: a band of kojkos under Dallasz’s leadership attempt to assassinate innocence Saint-Miro. This was presumably an Inglourious Basterds type affair.

Riget

“It’s better to die in the Kingdom than live in a shithole.”

This was the tagline of Elysium’s second tabletop campaign, Riget, whose name is Danish for “kingdom” and was taken from Lars von Trier’s mini-series of the same name. Once more, the setting was Revachol, but this time it was limited to a peculiar part of it: Le Royaume (French for, again, “the Kingdom”) a vast network of dungeons and burial chambers two kilometers beneath the city, housing ancient ruins and remnants (quite possibly of the Seraseolitic civilization mentioned in Disco Elysium), along with treasures such as bioluminescent plants which have adapted to living in total darkness. The stars of this campaign were three impoverished children, all between the ages of 10-12 and members of a gang named “Earthworms,” who decided to venture down into the catacombs in search of valuable artifacts to sell. At some point, these kids somehow found themselves unable to get out of Le Royaume, supposedly trapped underground by demons who sought to use the children as vessels to escape back to the surface. When this campaign was being played, demons were still a part of the setting and haunted the halls of the underground network, along with monsters – such as the armakhaan beast, also known as Lelo Lelo, a terrifying blind and flightless hunter killer bird which was a mix between the xenomorph and cassowary. As for whether demons are still part of the setting in any way; both Argo and Luiga's statements are too ambiguous to reach any firm conclusion. Argo does note that the concept of 'demons' connotes something subtly different in Estonian than the scary red guys in popular Western culture, and are more like a primordial evil.

In the campaign, Argo played a boy named Miron, whose nickname was ‘Sneaker’, while Luiga played Joschka, a crippled boy with a bad leg. During the campaign, individual roleplaying sessions with Robert were held where the players’ stories evolved in parallel without them being kept on the same page. Each of them would get info the others were not privy to: Argo’s was that Joschka is unaware of the fact that he’s not considered a true member of the gang; in reality, he’s an outcast generally considered a weird, creepy weakling, and was only brought on for his lockpicking and mechanical skills.

Eventually, the Riget campaign got quite far into “Lord of the Flies territory.” Near the end, Sneaker and the third boy (played by another friend) conspired to kill Joschka deep underground.

Torson & McLaine

The worldbuilders continued to refine the roleplaying mechanics they were working with for the campaigns. By the time of Riget, the basics of the Metric system had been introduced, with the now familiar INT, PSY, FYS, and MOT. But according to Argo it was the RCM campaign, known principally as the Torson and McLaine campaign, which was “the first mature cycle of Elysium storytelling.” It took place, once more, in Revachol – this time in a ghetto called Jamrock, named after a Damian Marley song, and was focused on the goings on in Station 51 (renamed Precinct 41 by the time of Disco Elysium), the RCM’s lone precinct in Jamrock. The campaign took large amounts of inspiration from the TV series The Shield and its depiction of corrupt police officers and the intermingling of gang warfare and state-sanctioned violence. A central concept was: the cops are a gang, and the gangs are cops.

The RCM campaign began on a sort of prologue session, wherein Argo and Luiga played characters named Antwone Novak and Trinidad Tranquile respectively, two junior officers newly recruited into the RCM. Antwone was a “petit bourgeois type,” whereas Trinidad was a young communist who had recently been given time off work due to excessive violence. Luiga describes him:

He worked at a meat shop that belonged to Carson Torsson, Mack Torson’s dad, and had a system of stealing from work in order to ‘adequately compensate for his labour’. He also liked to practice a crude type of critical theory in the vein of ‘this building has been made that large to humiliate me, to show off with a power greater than me, to scare me into submission’. And he had a system of smoking no more than five cigarettes per day to cut down on smoking costs — Kim’s single cigarette habit might be a distant echo of that. He had, I think, a 7 in PSY (at least 5) and 2 in INT and mediocre physical stats, the core system was pretty much set by then.

At the end of this prologue session, Station 51 became the target of a terrorist attack. We don’t know much about the perpetrators beyond them being “Church of Evil type guys” in Luiga’s words, but the dice was rolled badly and Antwone and Trini both ended up dying in a “horsebombing” attack, falling onto the bridge outside the station.

Map of Station 51, located in a repurposed steel mill.

Going forward, Argo and Luiga had to find new characters to play, and they ended up going with ones they had earlier conceptualized, half-jokingly, on one of their many walks around Tallinn from parties and other events, since public transportation was notoriously unreliable. These characters were Chester McLaine, played by Luiga, and Mack “the Torso” Torson, played by Argo. Torson was derived in half from Vic Mackey, the protagonist of the Shield, and half from Argo’s own personality. Argo says that Luiga put his own personality into Chester as well, but isn’t sure where the other half of that character came from.

The main plot of the campaign centered on a revenge operation against those who perpetrated the attack on Station 51. In the second session of the campaign, Torson and McLaine are involved in a church raid; though Argo takes care to mention that he doesn’t think this is the church raid mentioned in Disco Elysium, and that it’s not a Dolorian Church but rather the “Armed Church of Saint-Michelle.” Among the tasks of Torson and McLaine were gathering “guns and drugs” for the “big revenge operation.”

Mack Torson was an idiotic body builder, an admirer of Lieutenant John “the Archetype” McCoy, the Station’s resident mass murderer, and altogether “way too stupid to concentrate on the main plot and politics of the police station,” focusing his attention instead on matters like “how to get it on with the captain’s secretary and tattooing the word ‘Jamrock’ on his body hundreds of times over.” Chester McLaine was a little more perceptive, wondering about things such as “what the hell is going on with the armour maker or Nix Gottlieb,” but was still an all-around uncritical person who put a lot of stock into “loving the captain” and “being a communist memebot.” McLaine was also “a sword guy,” since at this point in the worldbuilding swords were still viable weapons, with guns being slow to reload. Torson and McLaine lived together, along with two other cops, Sundance Fischer and Elfboy Williams. “Elfboy’s thing was being the dexterity bro, in which he continually lost to McLaine, and Sundance’s thing was having a fat ass and cleaning his guns all the time.” Torson had a wife named Tessa Torson, and later in life both Chester and Mack would apparently raise adopted daughters, Tessa and Triss (whether these Tessas are separate characters or represent the same character at different stages of development is unclear; Argo and Luiga seem to contradict each other, unless there's something very weird going on).

Torson and McLaine both regularly abused their powers, as RCM officers in general were prone to do, and in their heads they were justified in doing so. A highlight of the RCM campaign had been sessions dubbed “the Ballad of Chad Tilbrooks and Émile Mollins,” centering on two junior officers who were ritually abused and exploited by the older members of their station, including Torson and McLaine. At one point, Torson and McLaine were also involved in an interrogation of a local religious figurehead which devolved into mutilation torture, which only the “bullet-lobotomized” officer Damien “44” Latrec called out for what it was (enthusiastically). The interrogation ended up being ineffective as the religious leader simply “retreated into a happy place inside his head.”

The Captain of Station 51, Ptolemaios Pryce, was immensely respected and glorified by its officers, whereas the station’s lazareth Nix Gottlieb, while also respected, was generally resented and found hard to tolerate for being “an absolute horrible cunt.” In spite of this, Nix Gottlieb was known to have a curious friendship with Pryce, talking alone with him in the Captain’s office long into the night. This fact regularly perplexed the officers of Station 51.

Eventually, at some point in the campaign, Torson and McLaine would come to the focal point of the story, when they make a shocking discovery: the reason for Pryce and Gottlieb’s strange friendship is that they are both members of the top-secret underground anarchist organization the Ultra, and not only are plans underway for a national liberation movement freeing Revachol from Coalition control, known as THE RETURN, but the two have set their sights on a much larger goal: world revolution.

The novel cycle

No more campaigns were played in the Elysium world after 2007, when the boys stopped playing the RCM campaign (with the story unfinished). Robert Kurvitz instead shifted his attention to writing a book in the Elysium universe. Eventually the plan became for it to be the opening to a cycle of novels, totaling eight altogether. We have the English titles of each book and their epigraphs, along with the order of the series, from a post by Kurvitz on the dragon.ee forums.

They are as follows:

#0 A SACRED AND TERRIBLE AIR My heart will not rest until it rests in you. - St. Augustine

#1 THE COUNTERMEASURES What am I searching for in your dreams? I am not searching. I am merely cleaning up. - Christian Emmerich

#2 NO TRUCE WITH THE FURIES Man-kind, be vigilant! We loved you. - Julius Fučik

#3 MADRUGADA It must be lit as dreams, by lightning flashes only. - Witold Gombrowicz

#4 TWO HUNDRED AND TWENTY NINE DAYS REMAINING Evening brings the child back to the arms of the mother. - Sappho

#5 COALITION WARSHIP I don’t want to be in no indie shit. I want to be in the big ones. I want to be in the ones that matter. - Mickey Rourke

#6 WE ARE THE WAITING What remains, is longing for something completely different. - Luis Althusser

#7 INDIFFERENCE A great silence, some low pressure front is forming. - Arvi Siig

Sacred and Terrible Air was eventually released in Estonian back in 2013, and after the success of Disco Elysium plans were made to translate the book into English. Rumor goes that this translation was very far along or even finished, but unfortunately all plans for releasing this translation to the public have been halted with the ongoing legal dispute.

Fortunately, dedicated fans have taken it upon themselves to translate the book into English for those particularly interested. The most successful translation by far is the one by Group Ibex, which still receives updates to this day.

Read it here.

Full-Core State Nihilist

Many don’t know that Sacred and Terrible Air is actually not the only written work predating Disco Elysium. Before even Sacred and Terrible Air was released, Martin Luiga wrote a short story later given the English title Full-Core State Nihilist, which was uploaded to the old ZA/UM blog. While obviously not as meaty a text as Sacred and Terrible Air, it deals with some overlapping themes and gives us our first proper window into the nation of Mesque, so important to the broader narrative of Elysium.

Full-Core State Nihilist was later heavily edited and uploaded to nihilist.fm, another blog site which many of the ZA/UM members were active on.

Finally, in 2022, Martin Luiga translated the Estonian story, basing his English version on the original ZA/UM blog version, and uploaded it to Medium. This translation itself could be seen as a third edit of the story, featuring new references to Disco Elysium.

(As it happens, I have also arrogantly taken it upon myself to create my own translation of this brilliant story, which combines elements from all three versions, and is an attempt to render the prose in slightly less idiosyncratic English, closer to the “house style” of Disco Elysium, while remaining heavily informed by Luiga’s own translation.)

You can find Luiga’s translation here and my version here.

THE RETURN

In 2014, Robert Kurvitz pitched an idea to his friend and associate, novelist and businessman Kaur Kender, to turn the Torson & McLaine roleplaying campaign into a full-fledged video game for PC. The pitch proposed a 3000 EUR investment to produce a vision document, with design and artwork handled by Aleksander Rostov and Juri Saks, detailing the setting, plot, game mechanics and art style. In 2015, this document was finished, and by this time a provisional name for the project seems to have been settled on: THE RETURN.

This vision document reveals that the game was once planned to feature turn-based tactical combat. The plan was also for the player to create their own character from certain “archetypes,” each with different personalities, talents and appearances. Over time it became clear that these plans were too ambitious; by 2016 the archetypes had been narrowed down into a single character – the “disgrace to the uniform” Harry du Bois – and the prologue chapter of his story, set in Martinaise, was split off into its own game. This smaller project received the title that originally was given to the third novel in the planned cycle (which was almost certainly anticipated to center around the story of Precinct 41 in the year ’51) – NO TRUCE WITH THE FURIES.

No Truce became Disco Elysium and the rest, as they say, is history. But unlike many fans who view Disco as a singular statement that needs no further comment, the developers were far from done with the world they had created. The dominant internal view, especially among the original worldbuilders, was that Disco Elysium was merely a minor project to get ZA/UM’s foot through the proverbial gate. Work on the true game – the one they had wanted to create all along – could finally begin now.

As far as we know, the plot of the game would’ve stuck fairly closely to the events of the Torson & McLaine roleplaying campaign. The game was to open with an attack on Precinct 41, and the rest of the game would’ve been a revenge story of sorts. Players would assume control of Harry again, and this time his primary partner would be Jean Vicquemare, although there would be an assortment of other potential party members. The map would be at least four times bigger and set in Jamrock.

Plot points which would be explored in the sequel had already been set up in Disco Elysium – among these are Pryce and Gottlieb’s revolution, Le Royaume, Edgar Claire, and La Puta Madre. Cuno and Cunoesse would’ve featured as returning characters; not much is known about how Cuno and Kim would’ve been integrated into the game given how variable their endings in Disco Elysium are, but Argo says that he would’ve insisted on Cuno returning. X7 – the now-cancelled DLC project which Argo worked on for the remainder of his time at ZA/UM after Robert, Rostov and Helen were ousted from the company, would’ve featured Cuno as the protagonist. Meanwhile, Cunoesse was planned to reappear in THE RETURN as a leader of a gang of kids in Le Royaume, according to Martin Luiga.

Obviously, the characters of Precinct 41 would've featured heavily, and we'd be introduced to many familiar names which we were already given glimpses of in Esprit de Corps checks in Disco Elysium. One of these would be Lt. Berdyayeva, a superior of Harry’s, whose daughter is Jean Vicquemare’s ex. A character we know nearly nothing about except for the fact that he was conceptualized back in the tabletop days as a sort of joke character, but survived all the way into the planning stage for THE RETURN, is “Marivald the Merry Butcher” – what his role might've been, your guess is as good as mine.

Pryce and Gottlieb’s goals in the game might've involved an attempt to unite several diverse groups with a common interest in an independent Revachol; this would’ve included the besmerties, the West Revacholian crime syndicates mentioned in Disco Elysium. Prominent among them would’ve been La Puta Madre, a Mesque gang leader and drug manufacturer, a man of such immense power that he has RCM officers tending his poppy fields in terror (his influence also seems to survive past the events of the game; he gets a mention in Sacred and Terrible Air). The Madre would’ve apparently been an attractive feminine-presenting man, impeccably dressed and wearing beautiful makeup; his gender-nonconformity a way of projecting power over the traditionally macho culture of Villalobos. The rival gang, Ahura Mazda, led by a gangster known as the Mazda, would’ve presumably also featured prominently – Rostov recently released old concept art depicting one of their gang members.

There were more plans for the sequel that only came along after the development of Disco Elysium itself. Robert has talked about wanting to double down on events like the Mercenary Tribunal, handling big action scenes within the more closed literary format of the FELD dialogue system, hopefully allowing for even more variation than was possible in Disco's big confrontation. Another infamous idea was the inclusion of a second protagonist – a pregnant woman, about 5 months along. Kurvitz has mentioned this idea in interviews, saying that it would be "an incredible writing challenge" within Disco Elysium's internalized skill system: "It would be unbelievable to use our skill system to speak about the bodily sensations of having another organism inside of you, while you're in the setting and talking to another person." That said, the addition of an entire new protagonist is very ambitious indeed – it's not clear whether the idea would involve alternating perspectives of some sort, or a choice in the character creator of which one to go with, but Kurvitz made it clear that these would be entirely different characters, unlike many games which offer only a superficial choice between male and female playable characters. Kurvitz expressed some doubt about being able to include this in the game, but at least expected it to be integrated via an expansion post-release if not.

Miscellaneous info

Argo and Robert have both hinted that there is a metatextual element to the overarching Elysium narrative. Whenever presented with readings or theories that contextualize the game as some sort of story-within-a-story, they act coy and refuse to give any clear answers. Argo outright offered an interpretation of the pale which presents it as what happens as the narrative starts “leaking out” of the head of a reader or audience member no longer actively absorbed in the world and said that “Elysium is a fictional world that is aware that it’s fictional.”

Apparently related to this aspect of the narrative, according to Argo, are the three satellites in orbit above the world of Elysium – Iikon, Zenith and Shakermaker – which have been there since “before the 8,000 years of recorded history” and before “the Polycarpeum event.” The satellites have only been mentioned in niche corners of the currently published materials, and the innocence Polycarp has only been mentioned in secondary materials, such as the artbook and the inside covers of Sacred and Terrible Air, leading to speculation about him being involved with the pale and the memory of his reign being wiped from history.

Also related to the metatext, again according to Argo, is a character known as “the Man Behind the Black Sun” – he gets one mention by the Paledriver in Disco Elysium, but curiously she seems to refer to it as the title of a movie that was released in Mesque during the revolutionary era, potentially a boiadeiro picture starring the actor Gabriel Buenguerro.

The magical elements of the pre-Elysium fantasy world morphed over time into what is called “extraphysics” in Elysium. The innocences, the pale, and “plasm” all testify to this supernatural aspect of the setting.

At some point, Ambrosius Saint-Miro apparently constructs nihilist death camps, which Triss and Tessa (the adopted daughters of Torson and McLaine) end up in and eventually escape.

"Magpies" are not a real thing and were never a part of the original plan for the Elysium narrative. The concept artist who made the image from which the term was popularized has gone on record saying that he invented this idea himself and that it was taken from his own worldbuilding ideas. There is nothing to suggest that this was integrated into the game; Argo and Luiga reacted with confusion at the mention of this concept.

Kurvitz had an insanely ambitious list of projects he wanted to make in the Elysium universe before he was ousted from ZA/UM; "The last one I want to make, when I'm 50 or 60, that I want to absolutely go crazy on and throw out all commercial considerations and get this as conceptual as possible, is the tabletop setting. The working title for the tabletop setting is You Are Vapor. It will be a really, really, crazy pen-and-paper game."

List of sources:

All parts of Argo Tuulik's Human Can Opener Podcast episode.

Martin Luiga's Human Can Opener episode.

Martin Luiga's Medium account and other blog posts: Interview, 8 years ago..., Hello Fellow Worldbuilders, Correction, A Policeman In Revachol, Fuirum Thundergate (Substack)

Tweets by Martin Luiga: 1, 2, 3, 4

Tweets by Argo Tuulik: 1

The dragon.ee post about the novel cycle

"Welcome to Revachol" on the devblog

"Outro" by Robert Kurvitz, featured in the official Disco Elysium artbook.

Disco Elysium, Sacred and Terrible Air, and Full-Core State Nihilist. Obviously.

Possibly more that I'm forgetting. Feel free to ask.

#elysium corona mundi

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makingfanfictionstosleep · 4 days ago

Text

the cure to his curse

sylus x non mc || angst & hurt || happy ending || mc is kinda pick me || drabble out of boredom that spiraled into a series while listening to linkin park's song - heavy || could be triggering for others so read at your own risk || this is not smut || story masterlist : love and deepspace

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THREE

The hum of the Onychinus mainframe was a constant, familiar drone in Sylus’s ears, but lately, it seemed to be punctuated by a dissonant note he couldn't quite place.

It was you.

You were still there, a steadfast presence at his side, moving through the intricate dance of Onychinus operations with the same precise grace as ever.

As an elite officer, your reports were still meticulous, your strategies flawless, your combat assessments brutally accurate.

As his lover, you still brewed his morning coffee just the way he liked it, still offered a soft touch to his arm when he was lost in thought, still shared that knowing glance across a crowded meeting room.

He’d try to convince himself.

‘She’s fine. We’re fine.’

The words were a mantra, whispered internally, a shield against the creeping unease that settled in his gut. But the shield was starting to crack.

He’d catch it in fleeting moments.

The way your laughter, once so vibrant, now had a faint echo of hollowness. The almost imperceptible slump of your shoulders when you thought no one was looking.

And then there were your eyes.

He’d seen them, more than once, swollen and red-rimmed, like you’d been crying in the dead of night. Sometimes, he’d find you staring blankly at a data screen, a profound sadness etched on your face.

"Are you alright?" he’d asked once, his voice uncharacteristically soft, a tenderness he usually reserved for very few.

You'd simply blinked, your gaze distant, before forcing a brittle smile. "Just tired, Sylus. Long hours, you know how it is." A dismissive wave of your hand, and you were back to work.

He cornered you in the quiet of his lab one evening, the low glow of holographic projections painting your face in shifting colors.

"Something is bothering you," he stated, his tone firm, cutting through your usual evasions. "I've noticed. You're… different."

He frowned. "That's not what I mean. Your usual drive, your fire… it feels muted." He stepped closer, reaching for your hand, but you subtly shifted, placing the data chips down with exaggerated care.

You turned, avoiding his direct gaze, busying yourself with organizing a stack of data chips.

"Difference is inherent to growth, Sylus," you said, your voice almost a whisper. "Are we not always evolving?"

Holding on To so much more than I can carry

The thought would prick him, a brief, unwelcome sting. He'd find himself thinking about your relationship, the way it had blossomed from chance encounters into something deeply personal, something he valued, something that offered a rare solace in his demanding world. He thought of your unwavering support, your sharp wit, the quiet strength that had drawn him to you in the first place.

Your words were riddles, veiled statements that left him feeling like he was grasping at smoke. He was known for his sharp intellect, his ability to dissect complex problems, but you, it seemed, were a puzzle he couldn’t solve.

He’d spend hours replaying your conversations, trying to decipher the hidden meaning in your vague responses. Was it the pressure of Onychinus?

Was it… him?

But then, a notification would chime on his terminal. An urgent alert from MC, or a request for a one-on-one meeting to discuss an emergent anomaly.

And just like that, his focus would fracture, his thoughts shifting to the immediate, pressing concerns surrounding her unique abilities.

These meetings with MC became increasingly frequent, private, and exclusive. Even you, his trusted second-in-command, were not privy to their full scope, adding another layer of frustration to the growing distance between you.

But even as he dismissed the gnawing unease, a part of him wondered: how long could he truly hold onto the illusion that everything was fine, before the silence finally became deafening?

He saw the flicker of hurt in your eyes when he'd announce another departure with MC, another solo mission to assist her.

He saw the way you’d clench your jaw, almost subtly, before nodding and calmly resuming your duties, managing the intricate web of Onychinus operations in his absence.

You were always there, holding the fort, a silent, uncomplaining anchor while he was constantly pulled into MC’s orbit.

He knew something was off.

His gut screamed it. But the sheer volume of critical issues surrounding MC, the unparalleled nature of her evol, the ever-present threats, demanded his undivided attention.

He told himself it was just a phase, a temporary imbalance. He told himself you were strong, capable, resilient.

He told himself you would be fine, that you would understand.

#love and deepspace #lads #love and deepspace sylus #lads sylus #sylus #sylus lads #sylus love and deepspace #sylus x you #sylus x non mc #lads x non mc #love and deepspace fanfiction

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beastinthecave · 2 months ago

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Just finished updating my WIP about superheroes and cosmic horror ^_^

The game currently contains the first Episode and the first Interlude.

While working on the game I shifted through the COG documentation, watched GDC talks on branching narratives, read postmortems and played a lot of IFs.

I haven't been able to apply everything I learned to the first chapter of my IF, but I'll keep them in mind for the next one :)

So here is what I learned:

-shocker, people play IFs for the choices (appearantly data shows that one choice or interaction every 250-500words is preferred)

-games which focus on story tend to do better

-major branching should be done towards the end of a game not the beginning

-scope creep is a thing

-false endings, dead ends and fail states should be avoided, since they make for an unsatisfying story

-most games which claim to be 100k words on their first chapter actually have way less if one excludes repeated passages. Often (but not always) it's just a sign of bad coding rather than actual content.

-the majority of WIPs would really benefit from being short focused stories instead of stretching out a 10k word plotline to be 100k

-the vast majority of people only play through an IF once, meaning that if one has to choose between focusing on a good story with flavor choices and extensive branching, the former is preferable. (Although this highly depends on the type of project you are making)

-worldbuilding is cool, but it should not hurt the story's pacing. If the plot stops and an NPC just lore dumps 20 pages of history, players tend to get mad

-most coding questions can be solved by reading the relevant documentation (sometimes you will find what you are searching for in HTML5 documentations/tutorials; not sugarcube/twine)

-new vegas style stat checks (stats unlock optional branches) instead of automatic failure and success based on a number seems to be better for telling a narrative

-aggressively merging branches is the way to go

Some of the stuff here are guidelines at best, but I think that I am still going to try to follow them as best as I can.

#indie game dev #indie dev #twine interactive fiction #interactive fiction #choice of games #devlog #game development #cyoa #cyoa game

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a-confused-dragon · 6 months ago

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Your art is beautiful! Do you have any advice for a first year college student who's looking to get into gamedev as a hobby?

Have you ever done a game jam, and do you recommend the experience?

Thank you! <3

Yes I've done two game jams [ 1 ][ 2 ] and highly recommend them! I would probably start off with a game jam that has a longer timeline (~ week) unless you have a large team. However, the short crunch of working together really helps to stop the project from stagnating and lowers the commitment barrier - which raises the probability of there being a finished product :)

I actually started my gamedev journey with a very small game that I made by cobbling unity tutorials together over two weeks. The code is not good but having a finished project is a great motivator and helped me get a job in gamedev. (personally I would avoid doing gamedev as a full time job if you want to keep it as a hobby, it's very hard to do both)

There are tonnnns of tutorials out there now, and I would recommend Godot as a good starting engine (and unreal engine if you are thinking of getting into the industry). Half of gamedev is googling and figuring out things by yourself so try not to give up if you can't find an 'all in one tutorial'. And start super small!!! Scope creep is a huge issue that is sooo easy to fall victim to.

Good luck!

#gamedev #hope this helps :> I work in gamedev (programming) so I'm always down to answer questions!

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8manage · 6 months ago

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Avoiding scope creep: How to precisely define project scope and objectives

In modern enterprise project management, scope creep is a challenge that cannot be ignored. Whether dealing with small projects or large-scale enterprise initiatives, scope creep often affects timelines, budgets, and quality. Defining the scope and objectives of a project accurately is a critical issue that project managers must address during the initiation phase. This article explores the root causes of scope creep and provides solutions, using the 8Manage PM project management tool as a reference, to help project managers effectively prevent scope creep and ensure projects are completed on time and within budget.

What is Scope Creep?

Scope creep refers to uncontrolled changes or continuous expansion of a project’s scope during its execution. These changes often bypass formal evaluation, approval, and resource allocation processes, which can adversely impact project goals, budgets, timelines, and quality standards. Common manifestations of scope creep include frequent requirement changes, task additions, and unclear objectives.

In project management, scope creep is not just a “change in requirements” problem; it often leads to deeper management challenges. For instance, project teams may lack the resources to accommodate changes, or the project’s original intent may deviate due to the new requirements, ultimately leading to ambiguous goals and unmet expectations.

Major Causes of Scope Creep

To prevent scope creep, it is crucial to understand its common causes. These include:

1.Unclear Project Scope

Scope creep often occurs when the project scope is not well-defined during the initiation phase. Poor communication between project managers and stakeholders can result in unclear goals and expectations, leading to unnecessary changes during project execution.

2.Inadequate Requirement Analysis

Thorough requirement analysis is essential in project management. If requirements are not fully investigated or understood, ambiguities or omissions may arise, causing the project scope to expand due to later additions.

3.Frequent Stakeholder Interventions

Frequent requests for new requirements or modifications by stakeholders (clients, team members, suppliers, etc.) can also lead to scope creep if project managers fail to control or assess the impact of these changes effectively.

4.Lack of Change Management Processes

Without an effective change management process, project scope can spiral out of control. A robust process helps assess the feasibility, cost, and impact of changes to ensure they align with project objectives.

5.Time Pressure and Team Capacity

Sometimes, under tight deadlines or heavy workloads, teams may concede to unnecessary requirements to meet delivery schedules, causing deviations from the original project goals.

How to Precisely Define Project Scope and Objectives

To avoid scope creep, project managers must plan thoroughly during the initiation phase and maintain strict scope control throughout the project lifecycle. Key measures include:

1.Clearly Define Project Objectives and Scope

Collaborate with stakeholders to establish clear, measurable objectives and define the project scope comprehensively. Using tools like 8Manage PM, project managers can document and communicate objectives effectively, ensuring consistency among team members.

2.Develop Detailed Requirement Documents

Compile detailed requirement documents that include functional and non-functional requirements, timelines, and resource needs. Use platforms like 8Manage PM to track and approve all requirement changes systematically.

3.Establish Change Control Processes

Implement strict change control processes to evaluate the impact of every modification. Tools like 8Manage PM provide automated workflows to manage and approve changes, preventing unauthorized scope expansion.

4.Deliver and Assess in Phases

Divide projects into phases with specific deliverables for each stage. Use milestone reviews to identify potential issues early and prevent scope expansion.

5.Strengthen Communication and Stakeholder Management

Maintain regular communication with stakeholders to ensure alignment on project goals, scope, and progress. Tools like 8Manage PM offer collaborative features to promote transparency and reduce misunderstandings.

6.Manage Team Expectations

Align team expectations with project goals, avoiding deviations caused by overambitious or irrelevant ideas. Assign tasks clearly to ensure focus.

7.Monitor and Control Project Progress

Use project management tools to monitor progress and detect any deviations. Regular reviews can help identify signs of scope creep early.

Strategies to Mitigate Scope Creep Risks

1.Risk Identification and Assessment: Identify potential risks of scope creep during project initiation and prepare mitigation strategies. 2.Communication and Negotiation: Collaborate effectively with stakeholders to avoid frequent changes. 3.Training and Guidance: Educate the project team on scope management practices to prevent unnecessary additions.

Conclusion

Scope creep is a significant challenge in project execution that, if uncontrolled, can lead to budget overruns, delays, and unmet objectives. Project managers can mitigate this risk by defining clear goals, conducting thorough analyses, implementing effective change management processes, and leveraging tools like 8Manage PM to ensure project objectives remain on track.

By integrating intelligent project management tools and sound methodologies, project managers can achieve project success while minimizing the risks of scope creep.

#project management tools #project management #Scope Creep

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graphypixllc · 7 months ago

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Project Proposal Template

A project proposal guarantees that all stakeholders are aware of the project’s scope and advantages by offering a road map for its goals, objectives, schedule, and expenses.

Why Is a Project Proposal Important?

Clarifies the Project Vision: A proposal helps define the project’s purpose and goals, aligning stakeholders on the vision and the steps needed to achieve it.

Secures Funding and Resources: Whether you are pitching to investors, government agencies, or internal leadership, a well-crafted proposal is key to securing the financial and human resources needed to carry out the project.

Guides the Execution: Once approved, the proposal acts as a blueprint that guides the execution phase, helping ensure the project stays on track.

Sets Expectations: A project proposal sets realistic expectations for timelines, costs, and deliverables. This helps avoid misunderstandings and scope creep during execution.

Final Thoughts

A well-written project proposal aids in obtaining funds and approval in addition to offering clarity. You can make sure that every important detail is covered and presented in a polished way by adhering to an organized template. Never forget to tailor the proposal to the audience’s particular requirements, whether they are internal stakeholders, clients, or investors. A strong, well-structured proposal can make the difference between a project that succeeds and one that fails.

#project proposal #business proposal #business startups #proposal template #brochure template #brochure design #print template #template design #graphypix #agency

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ajcgames · 1 year ago

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Of charts and changes

When I was a couple of weeks into this project and had a decent working prototype, I spent a while pondering where the game was headed. How many machines will it have? How many different items can the player make? Will I get sucked into the horrid black hole of scope creep?

All valid and easy questions to pose with any project, but good forward planning is great way to remove some of these concerns.

Measure twice, cut once

I made some early tactical decisions about the mechanics of the game that may seem restrictive, but actually help to narrow the scope of work in the long term.

These things might include steps such as:

Limiting machines to only accept items from belts, rather than other machines (so no butting-up of machines to other machines). This helps to remove complexities later on when I may decide to change or add slot types to machines, and don't want to have to rework all of that hand-off code.

Putting a hard-cap on machine placement size (1x1 or 2x2 only). This helps me understand layout ratios much easier, and allows me to make some assumptions about placement and input/output slot placements that simplifies the code.

Only allowing one item per belt segment. Reverting back to this was done to simplify the save-game state, input/output belt code, and actually to help de-clutter the visual noise in the factory, along with saving a few additional frames of GPU rendering.

There are numerous others, but sometimes imposing limits early on helps to avoid later problems.

Please wait, processing

One of the other big-ticket decisions was nailing down exactly what machines will be in the game, and exactly what items they produce. This is a little harder, because you have to plan both at the same time and it can get a little... messy.

Factory games are great in that they get you to think both spatially and strategically. Making layouts in a factory is fun, placing machines and laying down belts is satisfying. But so is coming up with that super-optimised layout that shrinks your setup by 25%.

I'm not sure how much of the latter this game is aiming for, but there will be factory obstacles and things you need to work your factory around, so it could provide for some interesting layouts.

I came up with a definitive 'machines' list a while back, but didn't back-fill it with the items I needed them to produce. So it took some re-working to get everything decided.

To that end, this horrendous diagram was born:

It's a chart of all of the machines that actually process items (some aren't shown that just move or change item positions). It's a kind of tech-tree, if you will, showing all the ways items get processed, and at what process 'stage' each one sits at (i.e. how many machines it has been processed by at that stage).

This diagram, although maybe a little confusing, is the precise map I need to fill out the rest of the game's content. It tells me what machines need to be made, and what items I need to create. Also, crucially, what machines do what with which items.

Try saying that a few times quickly.

This kind of forward planning helps me to stay on track, gives me concrete development objectives to work towards, and also gives me a good roadmap of how to get to the next major milestone - all game machines created, and all items made. A pretty hefty milestone, to be sure.

I'll be working the above up into my prototype project before porting it over to the main game. I want to test the flow and make sure that the complex, sometimes 8-deep processing stages work flawlessly and don't get wacky in the save game file for some reason. I think I've built a decent foundation, so I'm not especially worried about this.

We're done for now!

Anyway, that's about it for today. Sorry for the long rambling post, but it's still important (to me) to catalogue my journey on this project so that I have something to look back on to understand my thought processes, and what challenges or difficulties I had to tackle during development.

But as always I really appreciate everybody who's swung by, left a comment or a heart, and hopefully I may see you again in the next one.

Keep being awesome! Much love ❤️

#indie games #game development #game dev blog #gamedev #automation #factory game

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theradicalscrivener · 1 year ago

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I’m an aspiring writer who really wants to improve how much finished work they actually write, but I struggle so much with either my ideas being too large to write (too much planning ahead, too much time spent on it, too much preliminary research before I get to writing, general scope creep) and with not feeling able to return to a WIP if I don’t finish it in one go. Do you have any tips for dealing with those?

And do you do any regular writing exercises to keep yourself limber and avoid feeling “blocked up”?

Any advice is appreciated! And thanks for sharing so much of your great work for us to read 🙏

Everyone has a different process so it's not like I can just give a blanket set of advice for anyone who wants to write, but I do have some things that I have found helps me.

First off, writing is very much a mental thing. It's a mix between imagination and the actual physical process of writing. As such, I have found that I need to take steps to keep my brain happy or else I cannot write. Sometimes, if I go through a dry spell and can't write, I take a step back and do like a checklist. Often times, if I can't write it's because I am stressed about something (often stressed by my inability to write which makes a feedback loop of even more stress). I've had times where I realized that a lot of my problems were I hadn't been sleeping much, so I'll like take something to help me sleep and then pass out for 12+ hrs. (really shouldn't have let myself get that bad in the first place, but sometimes I have to do a hard reset for my brain.) Sleep deprivation is definitely one of the biggest issues I face on the reg.

As far as your first question about how to get into larger projects. Honestly, just start writing something. It doesn't have to be the beginning. It could just be a specific scene that you wanted to try. It sounds like you're getting so overwhelmed with your own prep that you're getting paralyzed. When you actually start to write a bit, you might realize that things don't go the way you originally expected. Like, some of the world building you created doesn't quite jive with what you are trying to write or things to that effect. This is not a bad thing. I don't think I've ever had a situation where the story I write ends up exactly like what I had planned in the outline phase. The more you write, the more you get a feel for how much prep works for you. Some people do really well having lots of intense prep and then when they get to the writing phase, they can just burn through it. Some people do better with a loose framework and then just feel it out as they go. I kind of shift a bit each time. I definitely do a bit more fast and loose on short stories and one-shots, but on longer projects like novels, I will try to keep things close to the original idea.

Again, however, it's hard to predict exactly how things will play out. I used to get really upset when the scenes wouldn't work like I had hoped or I couldn't get the characters to play by the rules I had laid out for them, but I've kind of eased off the reins. Part of why I like longer form serials is because once I get a feel for who a character is, I can kind of just turn them loose and see how they react to Situations. Like, with Troy and the twins, I have written them enough that I can just set them loose. On the opposite end of the spectrum, I have characters like Devon and Ashton who I try to put in situations and then they refuse. Like, what was supposed to be a short interaction spiraled into it's own full-length novel nestled within short stories featuring other characters in the series.

It's definitely different doing a short story (even ones that are directly linked) vs a novel. Like, when I am writing a short story or a standalone chapter, I rarely know what I want to do for the next chapter. Just using Trevor and Acorn since they have been the two main projects these past few months. The end of each Trevor chapter is technically an ending. The current scene is over, and there's room for more afterwards, but if the whole story ended there, things are more or less in a position that I could leave it and be satisfied.

Acorn, however, I have plot beats already laid out. I know how I want it to end, and I have ideas for the finale that I want to do. The end of each chapter is a bit of a cliffhanger. Not in a doom and gloom and there's no telling if everyone is OK sense, but there's just enough of a hook at the end to sort of tease what comes next since I already know what the main plot beats are. Although, it's more of a loose framework and not a rigid outline. There's still plenty of room to explore the space. Like, the original story I thought would be four or so chapters. It was a novella at best, and a lot of the extra substance came from characters not behaving like I had envisioned when I had the rough framework down. The original base story was just Travis gets a new job and it's him adjusting. Curtis wasn't a major player. He was just the guy that Travis kind of knew that gave him a job req. You might notice if you read the earlier chapters, it's kind of vague if Curtis and Travis are really good friends or just classmates which was kind of retconned/explained as Travis being such a skittish anxiety case that he couldn't realize/accept that a hot guy was hitting on him.

This is just a recent example to give you an idea of what I was saying when I mentioned to start writing and don't worry if things start to veer in a different direction. It's great to have larger plot points and like world meta-lore, but also accept that all that stuff is malleable. I'm in a bit of an odd position since I post everything (mostly) as I go, but I do A Lot of writing that I never post. I've got some sfw stories kicking around that maybe someday I'll get published, but that will require me to spend less time on my normal stuff, so we'll see when that happens.

Some other tips and tricks. As mentioned, a lot of it is learning what works for you. I sometimes find that I get frustrated and am hitting a wall. Sometimes, I need to power through. Sometimes, I need to work on a different story. Sometimes, I need to do something else entirely.

I like video games. Depending on how I am feeling, I'll do different styles. Puzzles, soulslikes, JRPGs, etc. There's different degrees of mentally engaging. Sometimes I need something mellow to just turn my brain off. Sometimes I need something with a story to engage with on a mental level. Sometimes I need something with a bit more of a blank slate to let my mind fill in the gaps. If done in healthy doses, hobbies outside of writing can actually help.

Imagination doesn't just exist in a vaccuum. Everything you think is derived from something else. It's hard to say what or where you will get inspiration, and trying to constantly drum up new ideas when the well has run dry will just lead to burnout. TV shows, movies, games, book. I find that when I read something, I'll often sort of play out the scenes in my mind, and then when I take a break, I will replay the scenes and start to fill in some of the blanks. It could be stuff like imagining these characters during the downtime or putting other characters in similar scenarios. It's all using your imagination, and that's a skill that you can play around with. Imagination/brainstorming/plotting/outlining are all different facets of the same skillset.

Again, this is all just me rambling on about various things that I have discovered work for me. Everyone's process is different. Everyone's needs are different. The main advice I can give is just try to write. Like, I've shown screenshots in the past of my open WIPs. I'll often have 5-10 open word documents of different stories that I am bouncing around. I'll try to do a little bit every day or so. If I don't have a specific story in mind, I'll open one of my WIPs and reread the last page or so and try to add another paragraph or two. Sometimes I spend an hour or two and only have a few lines to show for it. Sometimes, I manage to break through the part that is giving me trouble and smash through it.

The source of the writer's block itself is often difficult to pin down. Sometimes, I feel like I am fighting my characters, and I have forced a character too far out of there own personality. In that case, I'll often realize this when rereading what I wrote. It's a "he wouldn't do that" scenario, but often I can find out under what circumstances would he do that? In those cases, adding a few lines leading up to that moment will make the rest flow smoother because suddenly, the character is in a situation that makes sense for them. Sometimes, the scene gets scrapped completely. Sometimes, I have to put it on hold and add a lot of stuff to get the character into a position where they are ready to do that scene.

Sometimes, I just needed a breather. Taking a break helps a lot. Sometimes, I just needed to think on it more. So like, I'll lay in bed and scroll twitter or something and let my mind wander. I also let my mind wander a bit when working out or doing other low mental impact tasks.

I feel like I've kind of danced around your main questions without addresssing them directly, but a lot of that is because it's hard to give specific advice for how someone should handle these situations because it's different for everyone. The best I can do is sort of give examples of what I would do in that scenario. The only real actionable advice I can give is just to write some. Don't think of it as making a finished product. I don't really think of any of the stuff I do as "finished" because it will never be 100% what I think it's capable of being, but I do reach a point where I have to tell myself that this is a good stopping point.

But yeah. Just have fun with it. Play in the space. Even if you don't end up showing off the finished project, just having some fun with it will help you understand what works for you. If you're not ready to commit to your big novel/if you don't think that your pre-prep is done enough for you to actually work on the big project that you want to do, treat it like fanfiction of your own world. Just write something to see how it feels to be in that space.

#ask ziel

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manonamora-if · 2 years ago

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What's a classic mistake to avoid when someone starts writing their story or coding their game?

Starting with a large project. The larger (and variation heavy) the project, the longer and more complicated it gets... and fast. Past a few choices and divergent paths will make things hard to control. It easily can make things excruciating to code and track.

Especially if you never used a coding language before, starting with something small to test the water (like basic links/commands, maybe a variable or two, not more than a dozen passage/room) will help with knowing if making game is something actually fun, interactive fiction is a medium you like to use, the programming language is comfortable and logical for you.

Any idea can go from one line to hours of gameplay, because of scope creep. I've had to hack ideas to the bare bone (eh, like the game jam) and still it ended up too large to finish/complete the way I wanted it to (waves at all the completed/non-remastered games).

So yea. Do something small that you spend maybe 2-3 weeks to 1 month on. Maybe a silly idea to tinker with the engine and the medium. Or use the constrains of a game jam to limit yourself.

#ask box #AMA #the large project don't have to go away #but starting with something small even if you don't publish it will help #not everyone can do IF (but maybe they're great at making platformers)#not everyone vibes with Twine (but Inform is their jam)

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lodeemmanuelpalle · 2 years ago

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Importance of Project Managers For a Web Development - Lodi Palle

Project managers like Lodi Palle play a crucial role in the success of web development projects. Their responsibilities extend beyond technical expertise, as they are responsible for coordinating various aspects of the project to ensure it's completed on time, within budget, and meets the desired quality standards. Here's why project managers are important for web development:

Scope Management: Project managers define and clarify project requirements, scope, and objectives. They ensure that all stakeholders have a clear understanding of what the project entails, helping to prevent scope creep and unnecessary changes that could delay the project.

Resource Allocation: Project managers allocate resources, including human resources, time, and budget, in an efficient and effective manner. They balance the workload among team members and manage project risks to avoid resource shortages.

Time Management: Web development projects have multiple tasks that need to be completed in a specific sequence. Project managers create project schedules, set milestones, and monitor progress to ensure tasks are completed on time.

Budget Management: Managing project budgets is essential to avoid overspending. Project managers track expenses, control costs, and make adjustments as needed to stay within the allocated budget.

Communication Facilitation: Project managers act as a bridge between different stakeholders, including clients, developers, designers, and other team members. They facilitate effective communication to ensure everyone is aligned and informed about project status, changes, and decisions.

Risk Management: Web development projects can encounter unexpected challenges and risks. Project managers identify potential risks, develop mitigation strategies, and take proactive measures to minimize their impact.

Quality Assurance: Project managers ensure that the final product meets quality standards and client expectations. They implement quality control processes, conduct testing, and oversee bug fixes to deliver a high-quality end product.

Problem Solving: When issues or roadblocks arise during development, project managers step in to find solutions and keep the project moving forward. Their problem-solving skills are essential in maintaining project momentum.

Stakeholder Management: Managing client expectations and keeping them informed about project progress is vital. Project managers provide regular updates, gather feedback, and manage any changes in requirements or priorities.

Team Motivation and Coordination: Project managers keep the development team motivated and focused on their tasks. They foster a collaborative environment, resolve conflicts, and ensure that team members are working cohesively toward project goals.

Adaptability and Flexibility: Web development projects often require adjustments and changes based on client feedback or evolving market conditions. Project managers are skilled at adapting to these changes while keeping the project on track.

Documentation and Reporting: Project managers maintain accurate documentation of project plans, decisions, and progress. They generate reports for stakeholders, providing insights into project status, risks, and achievements.

According to Lodi Palle, project managers bring structure, organization, and leadership to web development projects. They streamline processes, manage risks, foster collaboration, and ensure that the final product aligns with the client's vision and requirements. Their expertise contributes to successful project delivery and client satisfaction.

#lode palle #lodi emmanuel palle #emmanuel palle #lode emmanuelle palle #emmanuelpalle

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hybious · 2 years ago

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I feel a desire to overcome my fear of oversharing. I made my socials just to share my stories and adventures so why shouldn't I?

In my life, I have a tendency to jump from hobby to hobby. Last month, I learned how to play the flute; I'm still mediocre at it. Now, I've gotten back into crocheting. That's not what I want to share though.

For the past month, I've been thinking of a visual novel, inspired by a friend who'd been coding in RenPy. I've used RenPy before for an unfinished project, but the scrope of it kept creeping, and I was eventually overwhelmed.

For my new project, I want to avoid that scope creep, and focus on simplicity.

The title of my project is called

Phantasmagorical Love

It would centre around a woman named Rose Spectrelle as she begins to romance and acquire the abilities of different eldritch entities.

At first, it was set in the Victorian era and Rose is a blonde woman who desires power from unnatural forces.

The knife on her head was a tool, a way for the entities to possess her and give her abilities. The art style of the story was mainly weirdcore and dreamcore inspired. I also had experience drawing these silhouetted characters from Homestuck (the Ancestors), so I thought it would come in handy.

The setting was discontinued but the idea persisted.

The story is still a work-in-progress and I don't want to spoil too much. But nevertheless, I still want to share what I've done so far.

This is Rose Spectrelle. She lives in a godless land, full of monsters and creatures, where the Garden of Eden became a forest that was unkind to humans.

I now have a specific style to work with. I'm not sure what it's called but I have a very specific vision on it. I still want to keep the genre as Dark/Gothic Romantic.

Anyways, thank you for reading :)

I want to turn this rant into maybe a youtube video one day.

#artists on tumblr #eldrichcore #oc stuff #digital art #eldrich horror #visual novel #renpy #analog horror #weirdcore #dreamcore #current wip

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floppybun · 2 years ago

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Got bored, decided to start working on programming a quite rudimentary text based roguelike in Commodore BASIC 2.0 like it's 1983, working pretty much purely off of text, so if I ever finish this project, and somehow still have motivation, it'd theoretically be pretty easy to port to anything else running a variant of Microsoft basic.

Only problem is I'm not a programmer or an artist, or a musician for that matter, so if this little project ever does get finished don't expect anything mind-blowing, this is purely a passion project, but I'd love to do a physical release on cassette one day, again, assuming I get it finished. I kept the game to a specific scope to maximise the chance of it actually getting finished and to try and avoid feature creep.

#commodore #retro computing #retrocomputing #c64 #basic programming #indie games

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logicielsolutions-offshore · 3 hours ago

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Top 5 Hidden Costs in Offshore Software Projects (And How to Avoid Them)

When you’re under pressure to scale your product fast, outsourcing development often feels like the obvious move. You get access to a larger talent pool, reduce overhead, and accelerate delivery timelines. But what many product leaders and CTOs don’t anticipate are the hidden costs of offshore development that quietly build up, often surfacing too late to fix without painful trade-offs.

These aren’t just budgeting oversights. They’re operational blind spots that impact velocity, quality, and outcomes. And if you’re not watching for them early on, they can undo the very efficiency you were aiming for with offshore development.

So, what are these hidden costs?

The most common hidden costs of offshore development include communication barriers, time zone mismatches, low code quality, scope creep, and inadequate project planning. Together, these issues cause delays, rework, trust problems, and misalignment that can snowball into major disruptions.

Let’s unpack each of these hidden costs and how you can avoid them before they derail your roadmap.

1. Communication Barriers and Time Zone Gaps

Poor communication is one of the most expensive silent failures in offshore projects. Language barriers and lack of contextual clarity often lead to misunderstood requirements, inconsistent expectations, and delivery gaps.

When paired with delayed feedback cycles caused by time zone differences, these issues create offshore contract risks that many teams underestimate at the outset, leading to rework, frustration, and misalignment down the road.

Why it matters:

Even small breakdowns in communication compound quickly delaying development, increasing bug counts, and causing unnecessary rework.

What to do instead:

Align work hours where possible for real-time collaboration windows

Use structured documentation, not just chat threads, to ensure clarity

Set up regular syncs with well-prepared agendas, not just informal check-ins

Work with a team that’s experienced in cross-border collaboration, not just code delivery

2. Poor Code Quality Hidden Behind Low Rates

Low hourly rates can be misleading. What often gets overlooked is how much time poor-quality code consumes later during QA, bug fixes, performance tuning, or feature extensions.

In many offshore contracts, there’s no strong quality gate until things break, leading to cost overruns in outsourcing that weren’t accounted for at the start.

Why it matters:

Buggy code doesn’t just slow you down, it erodes user trust, causes scalability issues, and adds future costs you didn’t budget for.

What to do instead:

Ask for the partner’s QA methodology and how testing is built into their process

Make code reviews non-negotiable, especially by senior engineers

Demand well-commented, documented code as part of the deliverables

Consider value-per-feature shipped, not just hours billed

3. Scope Creep from Vague or Rushed Planning

Without strong project scoping, change requests become the norm. A lack of upfront alignment on features, edge cases, and priorities turns a three-month engagement into a six-month budget burn.

This is one of the most common offshore contract risks.

Why it matters:

Scope creep derails your timeline and inflates your budget and worse, it’s rarely visible until you’re already deep into development.

What to do instead:

Invest in a detailed discovery phase to map out user journeys, flows, and must-haves

Document deliverables with clear non-negotiables and boundaries

Include buffer time and cost for scoped flexibility, but gate it with approval workflows

Choose partners who proactively manage scope and alert you when risk rises

4. Ineffective Planning and Project Management

Many offshore projects suffer from a lack of structured oversight. Without proper planning, defined roles, or sprint discipline, things fall through the cracks, leading to missed dependencies, poor task prioritization, deadline slippage, and ultimately, disruption to software project budgeting.

Why it matters:

Even with great developers, poor management creates chaos. The cost of constant firefighting is real and avoidable.

What to do instead:

Require project leads or delivery managers who run Agile or structured frameworks

Set expectations for sprint cadences, release schedules, and retrospective feedback

Use centralized tools for task tracking, status sharing, and roadmap alignment

Look for partners who integrate into your workflows, not just manage theirs

5. Post-Delivery Chaos Due to Weak Handover

One of the most overlooked hidden costs of offshore development comes after the project wraps. If documentation is missing, the codebase lacks clarity, or your team doesn’t get a proper handoff, you’re left dealing with confusion, dependency on external teams, or worse, tech debt.

Why it matters:

What should be a clean finish often turns into weeks of back-and-forth, slow onboarding for new developers, or broken continuity.

What to do instead:

Build transition planning into the contract from day one

Ask for final architecture diagrams, deployment documentation, and environment setup notes

Include a knowledge transfer phase where your team is walked through the deliverables

Avoid teams that disappear after the last milestone is submitted

Final Thoughts and What to Do Next

Offshore development is undoubtedly one of the smartest ways to scale, but only if the hidden costs are anticipated, planned for, and actively mitigated.

To avoid the hidden costs of offshore development, make sure you:

Invest in upfront planning and detailed project scoping

Define clear communication rhythms and tools early on

Prioritize quality assurance and continuous code review

Choose partners who understand your business, not just your backlog

Track delivery outcomes, not just logged hours

The difference between a successful offshore engagement and one that derails your goals often comes down to the partner you choose.

At Logiciel, we’ve helped fast-moving product teams scale efficiently without compromising on quality, speed, or control. Our teams don’t just execute; they collaborate, adapt, and deliver with your business goals in mind.

See how we’ve done it for others, explore our success stories, and discover what makes us a trusted offshore software partner.

Know more at https://logiciel.io/blog/hidden-costs-offshore-software-development

#marketing #programming

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