DEVLOG - Common Route Mechanical Madness + All Routes Preview

Welcome gamers it's been three months since my last narrative devlog and I'm ripping out of the gates like a bat out of hell with this one

Today I'm unleashing a SPOILER-FREE sneak preview of the common route in Catalyst: Blind Faith~

"How will you talk about a game without actually talking about the game, Alaric," you may ask, bewildered 

well brave reader,

over the last several weeks I have concocted a magnificently silly analogy that is essentially a school AU of the full game of Catalyst: Blind Faith.

that's right

I went hard with some goofy pics, mock character art (courtesy of this very cute Picrew) and my classic flowchart spaghetti.

This is going to be a bit of a roller coaster and still a long devlog, so strap in!

And if you're not familiar with branching mechanics in choice-based games at all, for your reading enjoyment, the first devlog in this narrative series is about just that! You can find Branching in Games 101 here! It's a crash-course on choices in narrative games, with a little info on Catalyst: Blind Faith's specific narrative design considerations too.

There are only two parts! Many images makes this very long! It may take a moment for your browser to load them all! Let's goooo!🎉

PART 1: THE STUPIDEST (BRILLIANT) ANALOGY I HAVE EVER CONCOCTED

You genuinely do not need to have any familiarity with Catalyst: Blind Faith for this part of the devlog (though it may be much funnier if you do).

The analogy we will be using today:

Today we will use an analogy of a visual novel set in a college campus, following a socially awkward and sports-obsessed nerd, Richard.

You play as Richard, who has the ability to potentially excel at ANY sport. It's a good thing, because you are just starting at CORCAEA UNIVERSITY and have fourteen days(!) to choose which sports club to join.

There are eight clubs in all. (There will not be a test.)

It's an unusual college, to say the least.

Because I do not ever design mechanics in a vacuum, the mechanics in Catalyst: Blind Faith CORCAEA UNIVERSITY are always designed with each story moment in mind.

Like for something as cool as getting a ✨new pair of sneakers✨ at the start of the semester, we track that narratively significant item in the game with a variable. This is as mechanically simple as checking if you do✔️ or do not❌ have those sneakers.

Simple mechanics do not mean that choice is any less meaningful, however. Getting a special scene where the cheerleading captain notices you, getting an advantage in dodgeball practice, or any number of times where Richard's day is a little brighter because you got him something nice can feel great!

Making the cheerleading captain happy means a lot more than the variables under the hood, yeah? ;)

There are many choices you can make that will leave lasting effects on Richard. Even more than a scene with the cute cheerleading captain!

Say for example, there's a dodgeball game coming up, and you know there's going to be a brutal bully playing against you.

It's pretty much guaranteed that if you face this bully head-on, you're going to get hurt, and Richard knows this. (He's already probably racked up at least one injury on day 3 of the first semester, thanks to being so overenthusiastic about sports.)

Our antihero is also not one to take a match lying down. Richard is more than happy to go into a losing fight to make a point! He has 😉😉😉faith😉😉😉 in himself, after all!

So say you go into the match, and take a dive early on to help a friend..

We will check throughout the game for a long while which injury you have, if any. 🩹👍

Maybe you go on the offensive, and we're going to check to see if you have any other advantages we can bring up in the dodgeball game too! 👟👟

Even if this bully seems like an opponent you can't take down, putting up a good fight and seeing your previous decisions matter feels great. It's YOUR CHOICE how you lose, and maybe you can even find a way out of this mess!

These are very simple mechanics, and we are not reinventing the wheel. It boils down to quality writing and game design at the end of the day. 👍🔀💖

There's no shame in reaching an ending early in the game either. These are meant to reward your decisions.

Maybe taking a dive in the dodgeball game for your friend and focusing on your studies is a safer course of action for this semester. The credits roll, and those choices are honored just as much as if you chose to press on in a dark moment and continue the game! 

Richard might not have thought about shifting trajectories and trying synchronized swimming for awhile when he first started this day. Who even knows what crazy stuff they get up to, right?

The player might have also not realized that going to chess practice instead, and avoiding this ugly encounter altogether would have been a whole lot easier.

Maybe they did, and wanted to see how far they could push our action hero!

Not knowing exactly how the story will unfold, but making informed decisions anyways is largely the fun of the game.

but wait

we're just getting started

Richard is a lonely guy and socializing for him can be an Olympic event.

that might seem a little harsh but do not worry, there is immense hope for him, despite the struggles he faces! Not only can he make friends and find love (on and off the sports fields), but there are other students at Corcaea University who you can meet along the way.

Ofelia (the stagehand on the left) and Celegwen (the actress on the right) are two theater nerds who fucking HATE sports, but since you all are trying to get through this semester, they will tolerate your obsessions if you help them out too.

They absolutely will try to convince you to leave sports behind, so it's valid to not trust them and ditch them immediately!

After all there are so many other cool clubs to check out. Richard is very happy going to chess practice or playing dodgeball instead. :) Or go fishing or talk about anything else on earth. :)

The arguments he tells himself to not make friends can seem very compelling! There's a lot of truth to his inner narrative.

This means that yes, almost every choice you're making might piss off the theater nerds, but will still carry favor with another sports club. Likewise, choices might be favorable for multiple clubs, but at the same time not so great for one or two others. There are no wrong choices. Only what choices the player cares about engaging with!

We do use point values for every choice in Catalyst: Blind Faith CORCAEA UNIVERSITY, not only for things like hard dodgeball fights, but for all your relationships as well.

Even if you fight a tidal wave of impulses to leave the theater nerds immediately, Richard's aforementioned mental gymnastics can make befriending them just as tricky as cheerleading practice! And that's okay! Sometimes having lunch with new people is hard, and we love this little guy because he's fighting those good fights we want to see him win.

Truly, it is an achievement to get people close to you in this game, but seeing all the other ways the story can go is all the fun.

Permanent changes to the narrative, such as making near and dear friends who accompany you to every class they can, create big divides in the story. Even in the common route!

There are also a number of hectic encounters with back-to-back choices, and early endings that are easy to return from.

New players might choose to only have auto-save enabled, so that they feel like every choice they make is the one they must commit to. But it would suck to be on day 3...

realize that not getting any sleep the night before a chess tournament was a terrible idea...

and then discover that trying to flirt with your opponent (the cheerleading captain) or propose a frisbee match mid-game would lead to a catastrophic ending...

It's a learning experience.

The idea is you, the player, have the fun of engaging with these wacky scenarios as they come about.

So with some endings, where you may truly wished to see if fucking around and finding out would end the game, boy do we let you. 🙂

You get a special screen in the event of those abrupt endings, where you can choose from the prior choice menu to get right back into the game. No need to start the whole story over again!

The demo alone for 🔥Catalyst: Blind Faith🔥 contains dozens of choices and the common route has many, many more. You should have a pretty solid idea of how this allows the player to get a clear and firm understanding of how the game respects their decisions, that those decisions have lasting consequences, and that everything from Richard's characterization to every other facet of the game can differ greatly based on how you choose to play.

Hope you enjoyed the very goofy analogy. I really did lol

You do need context for what's below!

I hotly debated omitting any info from this devlog about this final choice menu at the end of the common route, but because it is built on the mechanics of the entire rest of the common route I thought it was well worth including!

PART 2: THE END OF THE COMMON ROUTE

The teaser below of the ten "hard branches" in Catalyst: Blind Faith may be perceived as a minor spoiler by some. If you would like to check out the game totally blind (heh) then feel free to close the devlog here! I will be continuing this narrative devlog series next month with a closer look at the hard branch for the Goddess of Mercy. Feel free to let me know here in the comments or on our Discord what you liked, if you laughed, your favorite sports team, or what you would like to see in future devlogs lol.

Thank you for your support and for reading!

If you would like to see the spice, here's the 10 hard branches that will be in the full game of Catalyst: Blind Faith, their themes, a few notes on their structure, and some special mechanical considerations!

🔥🔥🔥 OBLIGATORY GAME BLURB FOR CONTEXT 🔥🔥🔥

Catalyst: Blind Faith is a dark fantasy and horror visual novel, set in an apocalyptic world where humanity is on the brink of extinction. You shape the fate of a young and troubled priest who is obsessed with finding a cure for the strange phenomenon turning mankind into demons: the Catalyst.

While you dive deep into the ruins that cover the land, you can channel the power of any God in the pantheon through your weakened and fractured body. Every choice you make carries favor with different aspects of reality and influences the nature of your journey, for better or for worse.

Control unrivaled power—at a cost.

Be true to yourself.

Conquer your demons, inside and out.

Sports = Gods

Theater nerds = Heathens

Got it? Great! lmfao

🔥🔥🔥 CONTENT THAT COULD BE VIEWED AS MINOR SPOILERS BELOOOOW 🔥🔥🔥

At the end of the common route in Catalyst: Blind Faith, the player has massive context after fourteen chapters of gameplay, with MANY choices made along the way. They decide at a turning point in our anti-hero's life which pressing relationship they want to further most.

The choices they made up until then will follow them through the rest of the game, for better or worse.

The ten, detailed choices presented to the player are for which of the eight deities in the pantheon they want to pursue a relationship with more deeply, or one of the two allies in their party. (Yes, it is Celegwen and Ofelia.)

The presentation of this screen is an ongoing task during development to best present its information visually and concisely. I have it as bullet points here for ease of reading on many devices! I hope you enjoy the sneak peek.

Format:

HARD BRANCH | Themes in that hard branch.

• Brief description of the type of structure (many choices, linear gameplay, etc.)
• Number of endings the player can expect.
• Any other special mechanical considerations.

🙏RECOMMENDED FOR NEW PLAYERS🙏

AGRICULTURE | Toxic relationships, sacrifice, grief, disordered eating, growth.

•  Linear structure with continuous character growth.
•  One ending.

DREAM | Nightmares, avoidance, escapism, rest and recovery.

• Linear structure.
• Interaction with nightmarish content is at the behest of the player.
• Two endings.

FLESH | Aggression, toxic masculinity, body dysmorphia and body positivity, physical health and wellness.

• Linear. Simplicity is the appeal!
• Player choices are for personal expression.
• One ending.

MERCY | Compassion, forgiveness, self-love, the FULL spectrum of emotion, pain and pleasure, obsession.

• Obscene quantity of choice and endlessly forgiving.
• Almost every hard branch can connect to Mercy's content at some point, and will continue to respect prior characterization.
• The player can make almost ANY choice and reach a good or neutral ending until their final decision—though whether death would have been a Mercy is a matter of great debate.
• 5+ endings. Many are abrupt or lead to a terrible fate. Some epilogues imply a fate worse than death.
• Due to its complexity as the "trunk" of this branching game, our next narrative devlog will focus entirely on this hard branch!

SPIRIT | The pursuit of knowledge, critical thinking, wisdom, spirituality.

• "Correct" choices continue this hard branch, up to a point where this hard branch is locked in.
• All other choices before then lead into the Mercy hard branch or death.
• One ending.

OFELIA "EAGLE-EYE" BANKS | Family, subterfuge, corruption, forgiveness, redemption.

• Multiple platonic and romantic options permit the player to explore their relationship with Ofelia before committing to a platonic or romantic path.
• Two endings (one platonic and one romantic).

CELEGWEN | Magic, memory, politics, forbidden knowledge.

• Multiple platonic and romantic options permit the player to explore their relationship with Celegwen before committing to a platonic or romantic path.
• Two endings (one platonic and one romantic).

🔥NOT RECOMMENDED FOR NEW PLAYERS🔥

STORM | Chaos, destruction, freedom, independence, power.

• Choose your bad ending! Intentionally furthering your relationship with a deity of chaos cannot end well, but it's up to you how far you try to ride the lightning.
• At any time you can die horrifically.
• Many violent endings. One goes much farther than the rest!

VENGEANCE | Honor, vindication, incarceration, justice, righteousness, punishment, piety, and sin.

• Vengeance's path is far and away the most difficult to follow. Every choice is brutally unforgiving, encapsulating temptation, violent impulses, or other serious moral quandaries for our antihero.
• One path leads to salvation.
• Indulging in revenge or worse proclivities can and will lead to fates worse than death, which is valid too.
• These choices are transparent—whether you want to walk a righteous path is ultimately up to you.

⌛INACCESSIBLE TO NEW PLAYERS⌛

TIME | Free will. Past, present, future, and the fabric of reality.

• Before Time's hard branch becomes available to play, at least one continuity must be experienced in each hard branch.
• The exact conditions are explicitly conveyed in-game, with an easy tracker for players to see how much more they need to experience.
• This content is intended only for extremely die-hard players with meta knowledge of the game, and its timelines separately and as a whole.

This image is scrunched and compressed to fit on itch.io. It has an itty bitty tiny file size limit! If you would like to see high-res versions of the images in this devlog, feel free to check out the same post on my Patreon. I post plenty of art there, sneak previews for all patrons, and plenty of other spicy stuff too as big thanks for the support!

This flowchart above shows a hyper-simplified version of the narrative structure for each hard branch, with my current progress writing and editing the script for each. We're making HUGE strides with script writing and editing, art, programming, and a whole lot more!

I'm VERY excited to share more updates with you all soon!

Thank you so much for reading! I hope to hear what you enjoyed from this devlog and what you're looking forward to seeing in store. Feel free to leave a comment below, like this post, or check out the early development demo page for Catalyst: Blind Faith!

Looking forward to the monstrosity that is the Mercy hard branch deep dive next month. Thank you for reading! ❤️🧡💛💚💙💜