Devlog 1 - 09.07.2025
I mentioned the other day that I'm working on a game with LiteMechanist. I've worked on a game or
two before, in the capacity of a writer at least, but this'll be the first time I was called upon to
pretty much direct the whole experience. But with Lite's programming expertise, and something of a
knack for resource allocation, I think I can pull it off. Still - this log will try to document that
experience.
We're working on a game we're calling "Project LitKit." The actual release title is pretty much decided, but I'm gonna build up a bit of momentum before I drop that in public. This is what I've written into my design document for what LitKit is conceptually:
---
LitKit is envisioned as a narrative-heavy game about a revolution against an exploitative coalition of space colonies with two separate, but tightly interwoven gameplay loops:
The “Life Sim” component of LitKit will allow the player to control their chosen protagonist directly, engaging in daily life, pursuing relationships with their squadmates, and interacting with the narrative on a personal level. The goal is to facilitate more personal engagement with the characters and the narrative, and promote the understanding that these characters are still functioning as people (or at least trying their best) outside of the violence and chaos of urban and space warfare.
This portion of the game will be illustrated through an isometric viewpoint, coupled with Visual Novel-esque dialogue and choice systems. The player can move freely throughout various environments they may be stationed at in between combat - be it a field encampment, an occupied city, a vessel they serve aboard, or a space station. Management of personal free time and mental health should be key points to touch on, but more important is a Persona-esque “Social Links” mechanic. These “links” are a gamified representation of the player character’s interpersonal relationships with their fellow pilots and various other characters throughout their campaign. They can progress in different ways, and in turn, can affect the overarching narrative of the character’s personal campaign. In addition, pursuing certain Social Links will grant the character access to appropriate equipment, skills, and abilities related to the Link in question. As such, they serve to drive the player’s progression in...
Tactical Mecha RPG segments.
This component of LitKit will be the driving action of the game. Each of the campaigns centers on a mecha pilot fighting in the rebellion of Earth against the Empyrean Coalition, and this portion of the game will depict that warfare in detail.
Players will command a small squad of mecha during skirmishes in this conflict. An isometric, “drone camera” viewpoint will be the default perspective, during which the game controls in a turn based fashion, a la XCOM or Fire Emblem. However, rather than commanding units to move and fire from afar, players will select an individual character to control for a brief segment of semi-realtime combat. They will be able to move their unit freely, using up a limited meter of Action Points to do so, and aim their shots from an over-the-shoulder camera viewpoint. During this time, the enemy units may also fire freely on the controlled character, forcing the player to consider their approaches carefully, and make their moves quickly and decisively, lest they be cut down. Likewise, the enemy force can be badly hampered or even destroyed by proper positioning and concentration of firepower.
The player will have a limited number of commands they can give to units per turn, allowing for some level of tactical flexibility. They may spread their Commands over the squad to have them move and fight as a unit, or command a single unit multiple times to make a focused push, at the risk of overextending or straining their pilot.
Environments will vary. Urban warfare will be typical on the ruined Earth, but as the conflict progresses, battles may occur in space, or within the depths of the ocean. Enemies will likewise have some variety - enemy mechs will not be uncommon, but nor will enemy infantry, tanks, airborne drones, and titanic spacecraft that must be taken apart piecemeal.
---
I do want to mention we're technically ~3 months into development already. On my end of things, that's time I've largely spent on determining what this vision of mine actually is, in terms that I can clearly communicate to, say, a programmer, or an artist. I've done a little bit of writing for a demo, but that much is still WIP, and how much of it I plan to use in the final product isn't exactly set in stone yet. I should probably piece together an outline soon, but for now I'm just gonna see if we can get this ball rolling in the first place.
I've also been drumming up some pixel art and character designs. They're meant to be placeholders, in all honesty, but I'm actually pretty happy with how they've turned out, considering my general lack of experience.
Lite, meanwhile, has been doing a ton of work in Godot to make this thing happen. He managed to build up the systems we needed for the "Slice of Life" portion of the game practically overnight, so that's excellent. Definitely need to commission some tile sets or something though. We've pretty much been testing the cutscenes and other basics in a flat field of bricks. But I guess that's placeholders for you.
The thing that's taking a lot more doing is the TRPG section. Which is about what we expected. Lite has been excellent enough to get some of the major bones kinda working - teaching the game the concept of "taking turns," unit and camera movement, aiming/shooting, and the concept of limited actions/movement. It's a lot of fun to play around in, even if we're still stuck using Godot's default assets to represent our giant robots fighting over the city.
Enemy AI is...well beyond my abilities, though. We took a few stabs at it, but it turns out programming even the most basic of tactical behaviors is a pretty complex endeavor. Ah, well - I'm kinda letting Lite puzzle that one out as best he can on his own time.
So where does that leave us? Well, increasingly we're running into problems that we need money to solve. Either to hire people to take care of the issue, or pay rent until we figure out how to solve it ourselves. So, for example, we do have a modeler who's onboard to do our mecha models and design, [[FeDeath Arts]]. But in order to commission him (and therefore have that early PS2 era vibe I'm pining so desperately for) I need to have the cash on hand to pay him fairly for his work.
My intention had been to develop a full vertical slice demo before I start any crowdfunding campaigns, but increasingly it looks like I might have to scale that back to something like a trailer instead. Assets ain't cheap. I think once I manage to put together that money, though, we should be in a somewhat better position to get that campaign rolling.
Speaking of financials - I've also settled on a studio name. Now, I didn't really mention it before, but Litkit is an intensely yuri oriented experience. I sorta developed most of my writing skills and sensibilities in old fanfiction message boards and tumblr throughout the 2010s. So I'm sure you can guess, I take the notion of shipping with deadly seriousness. The player characters are all girls, and so are most of their potential romance characters. Call it author appeal.
So with that in mind, I wanted something that evoked the same vibes as a couple of scruffy girls in street clothes, flipping some cops the bird, lighting a molotov, and kissing one another with breathtaking passion.
Team Lilypunk.
We're working on a game we're calling "Project LitKit." The actual release title is pretty much decided, but I'm gonna build up a bit of momentum before I drop that in public. This is what I've written into my design document for what LitKit is conceptually:
---
LitKit is envisioned as a narrative-heavy game about a revolution against an exploitative coalition of space colonies with two separate, but tightly interwoven gameplay loops:
The “Life Sim” component of LitKit will allow the player to control their chosen protagonist directly, engaging in daily life, pursuing relationships with their squadmates, and interacting with the narrative on a personal level. The goal is to facilitate more personal engagement with the characters and the narrative, and promote the understanding that these characters are still functioning as people (or at least trying their best) outside of the violence and chaos of urban and space warfare.
This portion of the game will be illustrated through an isometric viewpoint, coupled with Visual Novel-esque dialogue and choice systems. The player can move freely throughout various environments they may be stationed at in between combat - be it a field encampment, an occupied city, a vessel they serve aboard, or a space station. Management of personal free time and mental health should be key points to touch on, but more important is a Persona-esque “Social Links” mechanic. These “links” are a gamified representation of the player character’s interpersonal relationships with their fellow pilots and various other characters throughout their campaign. They can progress in different ways, and in turn, can affect the overarching narrative of the character’s personal campaign. In addition, pursuing certain Social Links will grant the character access to appropriate equipment, skills, and abilities related to the Link in question. As such, they serve to drive the player’s progression in...
Tactical Mecha RPG segments.
This component of LitKit will be the driving action of the game. Each of the campaigns centers on a mecha pilot fighting in the rebellion of Earth against the Empyrean Coalition, and this portion of the game will depict that warfare in detail.
Players will command a small squad of mecha during skirmishes in this conflict. An isometric, “drone camera” viewpoint will be the default perspective, during which the game controls in a turn based fashion, a la XCOM or Fire Emblem. However, rather than commanding units to move and fire from afar, players will select an individual character to control for a brief segment of semi-realtime combat. They will be able to move their unit freely, using up a limited meter of Action Points to do so, and aim their shots from an over-the-shoulder camera viewpoint. During this time, the enemy units may also fire freely on the controlled character, forcing the player to consider their approaches carefully, and make their moves quickly and decisively, lest they be cut down. Likewise, the enemy force can be badly hampered or even destroyed by proper positioning and concentration of firepower.
The player will have a limited number of commands they can give to units per turn, allowing for some level of tactical flexibility. They may spread their Commands over the squad to have them move and fight as a unit, or command a single unit multiple times to make a focused push, at the risk of overextending or straining their pilot.
Environments will vary. Urban warfare will be typical on the ruined Earth, but as the conflict progresses, battles may occur in space, or within the depths of the ocean. Enemies will likewise have some variety - enemy mechs will not be uncommon, but nor will enemy infantry, tanks, airborne drones, and titanic spacecraft that must be taken apart piecemeal.
---
I do want to mention we're technically ~3 months into development already. On my end of things, that's time I've largely spent on determining what this vision of mine actually is, in terms that I can clearly communicate to, say, a programmer, or an artist. I've done a little bit of writing for a demo, but that much is still WIP, and how much of it I plan to use in the final product isn't exactly set in stone yet. I should probably piece together an outline soon, but for now I'm just gonna see if we can get this ball rolling in the first place.
I've also been drumming up some pixel art and character designs. They're meant to be placeholders, in all honesty, but I'm actually pretty happy with how they've turned out, considering my general lack of experience.
Lite, meanwhile, has been doing a ton of work in Godot to make this thing happen. He managed to build up the systems we needed for the "Slice of Life" portion of the game practically overnight, so that's excellent. Definitely need to commission some tile sets or something though. We've pretty much been testing the cutscenes and other basics in a flat field of bricks. But I guess that's placeholders for you.
The thing that's taking a lot more doing is the TRPG section. Which is about what we expected. Lite has been excellent enough to get some of the major bones kinda working - teaching the game the concept of "taking turns," unit and camera movement, aiming/shooting, and the concept of limited actions/movement. It's a lot of fun to play around in, even if we're still stuck using Godot's default assets to represent our giant robots fighting over the city.
Enemy AI is...well beyond my abilities, though. We took a few stabs at it, but it turns out programming even the most basic of tactical behaviors is a pretty complex endeavor. Ah, well - I'm kinda letting Lite puzzle that one out as best he can on his own time.
So where does that leave us? Well, increasingly we're running into problems that we need money to solve. Either to hire people to take care of the issue, or pay rent until we figure out how to solve it ourselves. So, for example, we do have a modeler who's onboard to do our mecha models and design, [[FeDeath Arts]]. But in order to commission him (and therefore have that early PS2 era vibe I'm pining so desperately for) I need to have the cash on hand to pay him fairly for his work.
My intention had been to develop a full vertical slice demo before I start any crowdfunding campaigns, but increasingly it looks like I might have to scale that back to something like a trailer instead. Assets ain't cheap. I think once I manage to put together that money, though, we should be in a somewhat better position to get that campaign rolling.
Speaking of financials - I've also settled on a studio name. Now, I didn't really mention it before, but Litkit is an intensely yuri oriented experience. I sorta developed most of my writing skills and sensibilities in old fanfiction message boards and tumblr throughout the 2010s. So I'm sure you can guess, I take the notion of shipping with deadly seriousness. The player characters are all girls, and so are most of their potential romance characters. Call it author appeal.
So with that in mind, I wanted something that evoked the same vibes as a couple of scruffy girls in street clothes, flipping some cops the bird, lighting a molotov, and kissing one another with breathtaking passion.
Team Lilypunk.