On Shiny Underdogs

The new stuff for 18 out of 28 renascents is done, which means just over half of what's already been done is left to do.

I'm focusing exclusively on this now, so there isn't much else to report. It might be just a matter of time before I'm busy again, so I'd really like to have this whole thing at least close to finished by then.

Still, I kind of established this one rule to myself that I'd share a few lines over here every now and then at least vaguely related to the game and its development, so this time, in order to better explain the why of this whole inefficient mood and phases thing, I'm going to share with you one of my most shameful secrets. Something so wrong entire friendships have been destroyed over it, something very few would dare to proclaim online given the social rejection inherent of its utterance.

My favourite Dragon Ball character was Yamcha, and I'll explain myself if you just lower your pitchforks for a second.

Childhood me wasn't a especially bright creature so at first the choice was probably just based on something silly, I honestly don't remember at this point. With today's hindsight however, we all know this was not a great choice for a favourite character, and I eventually found myself grasping at straws in any little filler in the original animated series, which aired here at the time, going all like "See?! He held off for like 3 whole seconds against that bad guy! He helped!"

I remained loyal and held on to my choice even when faced with an increasing pile of disappointments. All these awesome new saiyans kept showing up, each one cooler than the last and  being all the rage among other kids but I was still cheering for Yamcha, which incidentally lets you know that I was far from being a popular kid at school.


Which brings me to the point I wanted to make. Yamcha is just the first among a long list of underdogs I've found myself cheering for as long as I can remember. I believe this one fact more than anything is at the root of the ongoing design choice to always put equal effort on content for all renascents and give them the same chance to show up in any given game cycle, encouraging players to get to know a wider range of them.

I have grown to enjoy the challenge of coming up with such diverse content, but having my childhood's favourite character so badly battered and neglected was a big influence for Anamnesis to shape up the way it did and give all renascents an equal chance to be expressed and bonded despite all the extra work, so that at least my underdogs can get to shine somewhere in someone's game.