Design Update 01/15/2023

Heyo! It's Avan!  
Today I wanted to give you all a bit of an update about a new feature that is going to change how you approach the game in a lot of ways you please! I know it's a lot of text and therefore rough to read but I promise it's cool...
Also be aware that this is all subject to change and more of what our current plans with the system are! We are confident in our ability to provide this though!  

As you are well aware our Detective is fully committed to finding out what happened in this city. That includes taking a closer look at his surroundings, enemies or allies! We call this process "Profiling" and it is our version of an equipment/accessory system.

What is Profiling?
Profiling is a technique that our Detective uses to get more insight into the happenings of the city. By making it through difficult ordeals and gathering Clues he will be able to understand specific parts like enemies and with his newly found knowledge use powers that were not available to him before. To put it in simpler words: Gather enough Clues and unlock newly found power and abilities!

What are Clues?
Clues are comparable to accessories or equipment in other games. Once you stumble upon them, you can equip them in your Profiling and gain their stats! You can improve your attack, defensive values or try out some special builds with the Clues you find! Maybe you want to have an attack speed build or maybe you'd like to be an absolute tank instead! You can also level these equipment pieces so that they do not completely become useless in case you want to use them throughout the whole game. We want you to play the way you would like to play. But this is not where it stops. You can equip different Clues by themselves and they'll work just fine for your stats. But if you make it so all your Clues belong to the same set, you will unlock a special ability for the Detective to use while it is equipped! We call this "Eureka!".  

Eureka!-Abilities
Once you have 4 Clues of the same set gathered and equipped, you gain the Eureka!-Ability. To make this simple, let me give you an example! There is a set based on profiling the Fairy in the game. Once you have gathered all of the 4 Fairy Clues, you can equip them to activate the Fairies Eureka!-Ability. In this case it would be a little butterfly familiar that floats around the detective and periodically shoots a projectile at nearby enemies. Every enemy in the game will have their own set and there are even sets based on the general area and allies! So there will be a lot of things to try out for you! But this is where I hit you with another "This is not where it stops!"

Finding Connections
Some of the Clues seem to intertwine with others. Did you know that the fairy and the vampire used to hang out? Or that the shopkeeper thinks sales in one particular area of the city have been especially great? Clues that may seem unrelated at first might reveal a hidden connection, that gives the detective an even better understanding and with that new abilities. What this means that certain Clues will be combinable with some other Clues to create absolutely new ones! You can even transfer some of the stats of the previous Clues to make it easier to pivot. So let's say we combine the Fairy with the Vampire. The new set will hint at a few things in their friendship but most importantly it will create a new Eureka!-Ability. The fairy has her butterfly familiar and the vampire has a lifesteal ability! One of the ideas we have is that you can now send out bats to target nearby enemies, deal damage to them and then return to you to heal you for the damage dealt! Lifesteal and familiars combined.  

What's the goal?
My overall goal with this system is to make the gameplay more unique and enjoyable for any kind of player. Our game is supposed to be a good game first and foremost and we feel like this system not only allows us to put a lot more fun and replayability in it but also lays a good groundwork to build other ideas from.  For example, when thinking about how to gather these Clues we had multiple ideas. One of those was simple drops from enemies. That is certainly the easiest way to implement them but also the least interesting or exciting one. So we brainstormed other ideas of how they could be gathered that wouldn't cause an extreme overload of work. We came up with challenge rooms! Rooms based around the Clues you are gathering that challenge you in either combat, movement or other ways (A fairy challenge room for example)! Environmental puzzles are also an option we are considering on top of that! Of course our bosses will also have their very own and unique Clue sets and Eureka!-Abilities. But what if those do not have the stats you were looking for? Maybe there will be a way to challenge those bosses again...  Either way, that is enough talk for now! I hope you enjoyed this little insight into our plans for the near future.