We'd said update 1.2.5 would be the finalizing touch of the demo as it currently stands, with the project awaiting its publishing greenlight to carry forward at all. As the year comes to an end, I've felt there is some closure the current prologue demo hasn't received yet, and one that I want to cement for the months of 2022 regardless of what will come of them.

As such, I'm presenting update 1.3.0 as a culmination of our rebuilding efforts for the past six months, on all fronts, and to the greatest degree possible. This is why the demo can now call itself "One Spirit: To Die a Stranger", the name the prologue was meant to receive, the demo covering its first segment as an introduction to everything that is to come.

There are no other news on the project's 2022 roadmap, as we are still working towards securing the options we need to carry on forward. The notes to update 1.2.5 still hold true, except the bit where they said there'd be no 1.3.0.

Enjoy, you guys.

[h2]MAJOR UPDATE 1.3.0 NOTES[/h2]

While the 1.2.5 series of updates were meant to be, essentially, the end all be all of minor corrections and concrete improvements, the past few weeks have meant enough rethinking that it's worth to push one last revision for the demo. Unless the current build requires any hotfixing, its current state can now stay put until the coming of a future release, should it happen at all.

FIXES:

• Fixed a partial, leftover glitch from 1.2.5+ that caused the chatbox to flicker between at end of a dialogue branch.
  
• Tweaked the hard pauses during dinner to better coordinate with the scene's cinematic setup.
  
• Tweaked a couple of sprite emotions in specific scenes and moments.
  
• Too many minor style corrections to count.
  

• The prologue now carries its proper name: To Die a Stranger, the demo being only the first segment of its plotline.
  
• The date intro has been polished and updated to reflect this.
  
• Most lore entries, specifically radio-dependent ones, have been overhauled with additional information reflecting the current state and detail of the One Spirit timeline's (OSPTL)'s lore.
  
• In specific points of the game, minor instances of branching dialogue have been added to allow better control of pacing, allowing you to cut some conversations short or drag them out. This is part of our design shift towards heightening player interaction, customization and also retention during longer gameplay periods.
  
• A few subtle dialogue triggers have also been added to reflect choices like these.
  
• Certain parts have had their textual length culled.
  
• Following the example of 1.2.0+, we have continued fusing previously standalone lines for consistency and pacing. One Spirit's interface and literary design requires these adaptations.
  
• The narration's font size has been reduced to allow for this approach.
  
• The epilogue has been entirely overhauled to set the true tone of the full game's grit and character.
  

[h2]A note by Svadoch[/h2]

Attention, narod:

I've led the effort to produce one last patch for One Spirit's demo, four months after our crowdfunding shortcoming. Throughout all these weeks, we've gathered the feedback where we've found it, and have brought to the demo, update after update, every change we've designed to heighten it. I'd already mentioned, all the way back when patch 1.2.0 rolled out, that a 1.3.0 update would be unlikely. We've held the line firmly, but this doesn't blind us to the realities of economic management and life affairs. We know our limits, and we know our conviction to uphold One Spirit is also our responsibility to moderate it within reason.

If possible, I would like to overhaul the structure of the demo. Its content may have been polished through time, but its form, its very design, needs a facelift attainable only through hard reworking and major rebooting, all of which is costly on the level of time, energy and money. The first, we've made sure to pour for over a year, with no fear of pouring twice as much if that is what it truly takes. The second, we've derived from a faith that is visceral, and a will to continue that I do not justify to anyone, possibly not even myself. The third, money and capital, cannot appear from thin air. We recognize the limitations of building One Spirit without that support.

And yet, despite that material need, none of what I've built so far truly pivots around it. Every last person that has smiled our way has kept the flame alive - well more than capital, publicity and even critical acclaim ever could. We don't despise these. I simply do not owe to them the happiness One Spirit has brought me in every instance a player has told me their thoughts.

The search for those aspects, however, continues. We will try our hand at means of capital and propagation, and will keep our ears sharply readied for the input of the critics and reviewers we'll aim to find. There are still moves to make before sunset comes.

One Spirit has been a blend of joy and desperation, as all pure struggles are. When choosing a hill to die on, I looked for one where the upwards journey would be vital, dynamic and deeply personal. I've found what I've wanted, and whether it's victory or defeat that comes to us at last, it'll find us on our feet. It is in this type of moment that the spirit is honed. It is the type of moment I value above all.

Whatever will be, will be - and the line will hold until then.


[h2]Patch 1.2.5 Notes[/h2]

Patch 1.2.5 tops off the work of previous patches, but more importantly integrates it. This includes the most comprehensive overhaul released for this reason, and can be understood as a major, finalizing update especially for pre-1.1.0 players. Besides packaging this work all at once, it also adds a few last refining touches.

Do not use older saves!

FIXES:

• The transition screen to the mural/notes screen has been reduced to under a second, for lesser wait time.
  
• The rare cases where the text box somehow remains on display during hard pauses or transitions have been fixed.
  
• That one info tip has been updated to the format the others were given in patch 1.2.0. Sorry, we forgot about that one.
  
• Leftover typos from 1.2.0/1.2.2 editing have been corrected. Man, I hate residual shit.
  
• Audio corrections have been applied throughout all tracks. These are a wide variety of very minor fixes relating to volume normalization, especially.
  
• Yuri no longer says "God. Even the air hasn't changed" after the first time he enters the kitchen, even though he'd in fact be capable of being annoying enough to do so, really.
  

• The mural will now let you know which notes are unread from the outside. This is a feature that was delayed during the first phases of the mural's development, but there's no reason to hold it back any longer. Remember that if you let your notes pile up to the point all five areas have the unread notification, you'll be pretty lost still!
  
• Dialogues branch out more, giving you greater interaction and exploration possibilities in all conversations. After receiving positive feedback on our extension of player choice (1.1.0/1.2.0), we plan to keep it up. In the end, One Spirit always had lively, interactive conversations in mind; the demo, mixing different strategies, has helped us see which perform better to this end.
  
• Certain parts have had their textual length culled.
  
• The intro scene's date display has been updated with smoother, lighter text.
  
• "The Happy Tour" lore entry has been revised for style and detail, and also contains more Germany now.
  

On popular request, we've decided to release the demo's current OST as a token to the community that keeps asking for it. Have at it, guys.

[previewyoutube=SEUcGT7qzWY;full][/previewyoutube]

IMMER WIEDER, WIDERSTAND

SVADOCH

Creator, Director, Writer

Attention, narod:

We presented patch 1.2.0 to you over a month ago, and with it we've toured Steam NEXT and Indie Dev Day 2021, where we were awarded Best Story. Version 1.2.2 served as a bit of a preparation. With patch 1.2.5, we plan to bring in some cool improvements, quality of life features and some editing over the demo's narrative structure.

Somewhere else, probably all over the devlogs, I've said the demo inherits an older, phased out narrative structure that needs an overhaul should the project begin to take off. This is not on the level of the text, but the conception of what, when, how and why events and themes are presented all around. While we've brought it to the best state it can be, and have received very positive feedback on it (especially lately), I am confident the next major improvement will have to be a strong rebuild. The costs of this are plenty, and not only financial or purely economic. It's only reasonable to do this when stronger support has been cemented.

For now, however, I'm bringing to the table another minor update to help the current hit the mark better. We expect 1.2.5 to be our final or close to final version of the current demo.

[h2]Patch 1.2.5 Notice[/h2]

The following features come from community feedback and critical response.

FIXES:

• The transition screen to the mural/notes screen will be reduced to under a second, for lesser wait time.
  
• The rare cases where the text box somehow remains on display during hard pauses or transitions will be fixed.
  
• That one info tip will be updated to the format the others were given in patch 1.2.0. Sorry, we forgot about that one.
  
• Leftover typos from 1.2.0/1.2.2 editing will be corrected. Just a couple, but hell if they trigger me.
  
• Audio corrections will be applied throughout all tracks. These are a wide variety of very minor fixes relating to volume normalization, especially.
  

• The mural will now let you know which notes are unread from the outside. This is a feature that was delayed during the first phases of the mural's development, but there's no reason to hold it back any longer. Remember that if you let your notes pile up to the point all five areas have the unread notification, you'll be pretty lost still!
  
• Dialogues will branch out more, giving you greater interaction and exploration possibilities in all conversations. After receiving positive feedback on our extension of player choice (1.1.0/1.2.0), we plan to keep it up. In the end, One Spirit always had lively, interactive conversations in mind; the demo, mixing different strategies, has helped us see which perform better to this end.
  
• A light reduction in text content will be applied, for brevity, and building on patch 1.2.0.
  
• The intro scene will simulate vehicle suspension, because why not, honestly?
  
• The intro scene's date display will be updated with smoother, lighter text. The previous one was alright, but the feature deserves a more stylish alternative now that it's proven to work.
  
• We'll be releasing this towards the end of the month. Remember to manually download here on itch.io, or allow an automatic update on Steam.
  

Over here!

According to Steamworks, we've accumulated in one day the amount of wishlists we would only ever have over the course of weeks, at least normally. That's neat as fuck, and we're here to remind you that, after giving the demo a run (or not), you're welcome to come meet us on Discord or Twitter, where we're always keeping an ear out for our people. Don't be a stranger!

After all, this project is an encampment in the middle of nowhere - community does matter.

Attention, narod:

Patch 1.2.0 is possibly one of our last pushes. Two months of feedback have taught us to rethink, rebuild and reform. The process has been severe, but straightforward: where we have counted our losses, we have chosen to remain and carry on. What you see here is the closest we've come to a proper, final demo with all the components we can wish for, at least in its present state. Some of these features were already hinted in the past devlog, but you will find other additions here in this release.

Voyvod is a small team, a fact that has made endurance our primary virtue and our longest struggle. We have poured into the OSP demo, from version 0.5.0 to 1.2.0, everything our hands have been able to handle: corrections have been applied, features have been added, entire aspects have been left behind like shed skin. Without a radical restructuring of the demo itself, and possibly the whole project, we say firmly that we have done as much as we could without risking our financial, career or social security. This is not to say we back down: we will continue to work on whatever requires our effort, and maintain the promise that One Spirit is not a trivial matter. However, as a team with limitations, and one that has to be reasonably cautious about sunk costs and investments, we force ourselves to be sensible and know when there are lines to draw. A 1.3.0 patch is unlikely, then, but not minor corrective patches, events or promotion plans.

We hope to offer version 1.2.0 in the upcoming Steam NEXT Fest, a massive showcase of demos where One Spirit will land as well. We are also confirmed to be attending IndieDevDay 2021 in Barcelona, Spain on October 9th and 10th, next month.

As we release our last major patch, we are ready to accept whatever result we get in the following months. Like Spenglers image of the Roman legionnaire by the Vesuvius, we die in our posts knowing duty to our role is what holds truest.

For the patch, we have:

FIXES:

• Overhauled narration throughout the entire demo, as part of our effort to develop One Spirit's format. Sentences have been arranged to be longer and more continuous, making the text more condensed and concise, and allowing the reader to follow longer segments more easily.
  
• Applied minor polish to wrap up the script's editing: punctuation, phrasing and style have been covered.
  
• Fixed the timing of a few hard pauses.
  
• Tweaked the behaviour of a few transitions and visual effects.
  
• Readjusted the mural's colour setup, increasing contrast and saturation again.
  
• Updated the background of several screens that were still using the old main menu image.
  
• Updated the entirety of the script with proper apostrophes (' replaced with , the correct typographic choice). If you can't tell the difference, we envy you.
  
• Updated notification boxes with the game's new style rules for them.
  
• Improved clarity where needed throughout the demo's lore entries.
  

• Overhauled the intro scene entirely, bringing shorter length, less exposition, smoother flow and a quicker trip to the game's first dialogues and plot elements.
  
• Overhauled the new game sequence, including a date-place mark corresponding to the demo's place in the timeline. This mechanic was planned for the full release and the demo can use it as well without issue.
  
• Overhauled the dinner scene, rehashing its contents entirely to focus on those that would come later in the demo's plot. As a reminder, the demo is a fragment of a larger prologue, one that has a relatively self-contained plot. The dinner scene now brings that content to attention by showcasing the beginning of Yuri and Lada's uncertain future together: a few odd sounds six feet under the living room.
  
• Overhauled the demo's epilogue, cutting down on the monologue's size and reducing its scope to the themes that matter the most to its goal. The epilogue now contains a better hook at the end, with stronger hints of the full game's content.
  
• Added a renovated text box, replacing a few buttons (auto, skip, save/load) with proper icons. Though they used to work fine when they were simply semi-transparent text (likely due to our UI design), we've made use of the occasion to integrate all interface elements in the text box.
  
• Added a subplots screen, a content showcase of what would be a fully fledged game mechanic in a complete release. In the context of the demo, this bit of interface allows all players to know more about the narrative structure of the game the demo hints at, and also the premise of its content. The demo is unlikely to have subplots, however.
  
• Added visual cues to interactions that have a sense of tension or strangeness. Interacting with the balcony on the first day will no longer trigger a black screen, but a darkening effect on the background image.
  
• Added various sound effects to complement the demo's new content.
  
• Added a new track "A Needle Over an Eye" to fit into the demo's newer scenes, now with a touch of eeriness.
  
• Added new dialogue options at the beginning of the demo.
  
• Added a new lore entry replacing "The Glass Crown". This entry can only trigger if the player gets Lada to mention Gregor Belansky on her way up the staircase.
  

Attention, narod:

It has now been one month, roughly, since the demo was released. Daily, we've been tracking the statistics, reading your comments, talking to you wherever you've reached out and keeping up the work we've chosen to make our duty. Previous patch 1.1.0 (which included 1.0.5) can be considered the first half of the effort we undertook after our Kickstarter's shortcoming and our will to rethink, rebuild and reform.

Patch 1.2.0 is the latter and final half of this effort. While we don't discard further patches, especially if further feedback keeps our hands tinkering, it is likely this will be our last push towards bringing the demo to where it deserves to be. Being the director behind it, I would likely change it profusely if I could turn back time, on more levels and details than I can hardly count. The demo itself comes from the original story prototypes of mid 2020, primitive compared to what we have now, and less embracing of the newer themes and mechanics the full game is meant to include. While it's unfortunate the finished demo cannot rebuild itself from scratch to hold these closer, much can be done still to make it more representative, engaging and, after all, promising.

[h2]Patch 1.2.0 Notice[/h2]

We will concentrate all the feedback we have received from the community in this patch. The update will, in terms of...

FIXES:

• Fix the intro scene's narrative heaviness, reducing its size in up to 50%.
  
• Overhaul the intro to accommodate for this rewriting, with lighter exposition load and clearer, straightforward text.
  
• Revise the ordinary dialogues of the plot to include more momentum. and conciseness. While casual, spontaneous conversation is a key detail of One Spirit's characterization process, the demo's format requires these interactions to already hint at the proper drama and plot earlier. This is an issue that affects roughly the middle of the demo only, and will be addressed especially in this area.
  
• Fix a few very minor format issues with lore entries, regarding spacing and paragraph separation.
  
• Fix the intro's landscape scrolling speed, as added itself in 1.1.0. The bus will now appear to not be breaking Sysican all-territorial speed limits.
  
• Fix the last scene's text weight, which can be excessive for its pace.
  
• Fix the last scene's final lines to properly orient them to the prologue and the full game's body.
  
• Fix the brightness/contrast setup of the mural.
  

• The middle section of the demo will be revisited. As said above, the demo's content and planning has evolved much throughout a whole year, from 2020 to this 2021 of ours. When it comes to the script itself, it responds to schematics for the game that come as well from mid 2020, and which had different themes, mechanics, commercialization and release formats in mind. In other words, it has a dated structure which was rather correct for its original aims and scope, but falls short considering our current status and plans. For starters, the demo itself comes from the prologue, which was meant to be longer, and containing in itself more plot-oriented, dramatically relevant elements.
  
  When the prologue idea was phased out, the demo was left with a middle section that doesn't contain that drama, that break from the more ordinary and "aimless" narrative drive that works ideally between plot points and in the casual day-to-day loop of the main game, but not in a demo whose intent is to be as demonstrative as possible. For this reason, we will add or replace scenes into this section, reducing the length and scope of certain conversations and situations, and keeping them on par with the game's proper momentum.
  
  This is, again, a fix that has been long postponed, and one that has its origin in structural changes and long-term project direction. In this patch, we tackle it frontally.
  
  
• The intro will now have a little date/place annotation as the animation begins to run, which is cool.
  
• The intro's animation will also have the front layer shake slightly horizontally and vertically, simulating vehicle suspension, which is also cool.
  
• The last scene will contain a more cinematic setup to finalize it.
  
• A few more minor choices in conversations will be available, to distribute content where needed, fill "emptier" dialogue branches and provide a greater sense of control, more in line with the full game's style (again, different from the demo's 2020 status).
  

Over a month ago, we dropped the first link to the community's hub on Discord. For all those who have tagged along later, be reminded you can join anytime. It will likely be some time until activity grows, but we've steadily kept updates rolling and conversations going. If you've been following us for a while, we'd love to see you drop by as long as you don't request we make a NSFW channel, because anyone who does is shot on sight.

Attention, narod:

Over here we had prepared some of the notes you will see down below, and which are now expanded according to our latest work. There is no update planned past 1.1.0 beyond hotfixes and adjustments relating to minor tweaks and issues. We hope you can enjoy the demo at the fullest it has been, and the highest it will remain so for a long time. We are posting this patch as major due to its fundamental changing of the experience and content, especially in the early demo.
Patch 1.1.0 Notes

For the patch, we have:

FIXES:

• Revised orthography and grammar in specific points of the game.
  
• Corrected the expression of many lore entries for clarity, detail and consistency.
  
• Fixed a few transition issues in optional or secondary scenes.
  
• Fixed the delimiting area of various P&C objects, though some may still overlap a bit around the edges. This is not a hindrance in any case, however.
  
• Revised the animations for several UI elements.
  
• Tweaked parallax sensitivity in various scenes.
  
• Fixed the volume of certain SFX.
  
• Corrected certain implied dates and timestamps in dialogue to best match up the timeline of the game and its characters, patching ambiguities or unclear references.
  
• Corrected the behaviour of certain hard pauses.
  
• Following from 1.0.5, 1.1.0 is a unitary version equal on Steam and Itch.io.
  
• Cut minor unnecessary, redundant or residual content in the build.
  

• Overhauled the script of the initial sequences to include a new body of text with a lighter and more straightforward approach to the game's presentation. Players who have played pre-1.1.0 One Spirit will find that much has changed to the point of novelty, and means an important reorganizing of a major part of the current game.
  
• Overhauled the main menu with new visuals, including an animated landscape in three layers to simulate movement, and respective variants to reference the shifting of the Eastern Sysican landscape as Yuri gets closer to home.
  
• Added a new soundtrack for the main menu, pitching its tone in a notably different way than the original main menu track.
  
• Added further details to lore entries.
  
• Added new sprite versions with better integration for environments with high light intensity or denser darkness.
  
• Extended and revised minor points of conversation between characters. Players are encouraged to play through certain dialogues again.
  
• Added a few SFX to specific moments of the game for cinematic effect.
  
• The Note to the Player window has been updated with relevant links.
  
• Autosave before the demo's last choice has been added to make an alternative playthrough faster to dive into.
  
• Autosave is itself an experimental feature, but one that is ready to see deployment throughout the demo and the full game.
  
  We hope you enjoy what we've made so far. Drop by the Discord server to join the conversation or give us your thoughts, we're around!
  

Attention, narod:

We've patched a few things here and there in preparation for version 1.1.0, whose notice you can find here. For 1.0.5, the following is now live:

[h2]Patch 1.0.5 Notes[/h2]

This patch is more accurately about ironing out basic issues and testing a couple of basic features for version 1.1.0.

FIXES:

• Fixed a few orthographic and grammar mistakes in the main script, resulting from the editing process.
  
• Fixed a few expression issues in a few lore entries. The major update to this is meant to come with version 1.1.0.
  
• The current version is now identical both on Steam and itch.io (unlike 1.0.0, which had an -S and -I variant due to ToS matters).
  

• Implemented the newer, base version of the introduction scene. It will serve as the basis for 1.1.0 when new content rolls in.
  
• Added a Discord link in the Note to the Player section for all to use.
  
• The sprite sets for Yuri and Lada now have basic shading underneath to blend better into environments with high light intensity or dense darkness. This will be revised and worked on before their proper release in version 1.1.0.
  

Attention, narod:

It is essential that we address the state of the project's crowdfunding, in tandem with the future work it intends to bring about throughout the following weeks. Our small bastion here on itch.io, as well as on Steam, has been growing steadily for the past days, from which we have extracted lessons here, and found new horizons there.

[h2]State of Crowdfunding[/h2]

The launch of the Kickstarter was premeditated, in terms of timing and context. For a long time since the project's foundation, we had intended to fund the development of the greater game through a popular, backer-based platform, and so we settled on Kickstarter with the intention of progressively escalating our promotional efforts to the point of a 30-day campaign. At Voyvod, we've done our best to understand the reasons behind the lacklustre performance in the July 6th launch, and continue to derive from its truth the lessons we'll need tomorrow to carry this project into greener grass.

We realize, first and foremost, that the exposure we had received in the past weeks was large, but undefined and uprooted enough that it would not guarantee the immediate, committed support needed in a Kickstarter campaign; secondly, we realize the time window we allowed for that sentiment to grow was too small, culling the possibility of forming a solid community pre-campaign, which is essential in crowdfunding; thirdly, we realize there has to be a better means and method of communicating our product, securing our audience, and building One Spirit the way it is meant to be built: from the roots it must grow.

Our intent is to shut down the Kickstarter no later than July 15th. Along with it, we'll be refocusing efforts to outreach, maintenance and minor development and polish. While we acknowledge the failures of our first assault on crowdfunding, we too consider the grounded, meaningful efforts we have led, and which begin to bear fruit in these rather quiet days, when we see the timid, steady growth of our work. We are convinced we have produced a project with potential if not actuality, reason to be and sufficient creative power to both stand its ground as is and overcome its state; in a word, we believe One Spirit is right: right to nurture, right to defend, and right to continue furthering its essence and ends.

For this reason, our attitude is to build on what is left of what is right, to find reason to change in the errors we've made, and reason to believe in the virtues we've attained; because we are convinced there is something grander than a setback in this project of ours, and because we believe all good things teach hope, we refuse to depart and dissolve, and will continue to produce One Spirit for long and for all. Because it is right to.

[h2]Patch 1.1.0 Notice[/h2]

As part of this unyielding will, we plan to bring about a minor update to the current prologue, to coincide with our efforts in promotion and traffic. The update will, in terms of...

FIXES:

• Fix transition errors where they may be found, as minor and scattered as they are.
  
• Correct the format and phrasing of various lore entries, making their expression simpler or lighter.
  
• Research various minor bugs detected in a small minority of playthroughs, especially in terms of user interface.
  
• Carry out a few minor modifications to point-and-click item selection areas, where one or two seem to overlap excessively.
  
• Adapt the "Note to Player" screen to reflect our current outlook on the project's future.
  

• Add more dynamic visuals to the introduction scene in the bus (scene0), including a looping animation for the background to simulate movement, and various different backgrounds to change up the scene, give tone and image to the landscapes of Eastern Sysica, give more reference to the actual text and also adapt better to its breaks and rhythm. This is likely to solve the issue of the introduction's monotony, as called out by many reviewers.
  
• Build in a few more brief, minor interactions with items and characters.
  
• Introduce more sound effects for select scenes and ambience occasions.
  

Now or never!

One Spirit's Kickstarter is up and running. We've come far, and further we shall go if this campaign can be ours to take.

We hope to see you there!

It has been a few months, perhaps more than what we had liked, perhaps less than what we had expected, of development for One Spirit's demo, set to release as version D1.0.0.

This devlog will be particularly brief in summing up what you may expect:

• Around 60 min of playtime to introduce you to the setting, characters and starting plot points of the game.
  
  
• About 15.000 words, complete with lore entries and choice-dependent dialogue branches.
  
• Up to 10 different environments and CGs, many with full interaction.
  
  
• A complete sample of the basic OST, including 6 music tracks and 4 ambience pieces.
  
  
• A showcase of basic mechanics for dialogue, lore and navigation.
  
  
• An "average 1200 WPM enjoyer" option for your fast reader needs.
  

Originally, in the game's earliest plans, the setting for One Spirit was meant to be a fictional (or fictionalized if real) soviet socialist republic (SSR) integral to the Soviet Union. A trace of these ideas are preserved in Yuri and Lada, who inherit from their father, a Soviet emigr, the patronymic component of their name: thus Yuri Arkadyevich Danilin or Lada Arkadyeva Danilina, despite the fact Sysican naming customs do not allow for patronymics, following instead a more Latin convention for names.

Further, Sysican utilizes a unique variant of Cyrillic, which is historically grounded on the early evolution of Cyrillic in Europe throughout the Middle Ages, from its inception in Bulgarian scholarship and its evangelizing spread to its major institutional reforms. And yet, many of Sysican's stems, verbal norms, syntax... could be more Western, less related to languages like Russian, which the world would quickly associate them to. Because Sysica's history is built from the ground up, it plays, distorts and simulates these bases, and creates something unique for the game's world and feel.

[h2]Neither here nor there[/h2]

These "ambiguities" and "originalities" occur often with Sysica and Sysican. Because both the country and its language contain references, materials and themes that belong to the generality of Slavic tongues and cultures, it has a specific and deliberate sense of "neither here nor there". As a reminder for readers who may be unaware, Slavic languages are usually divided into three categories: Meridional (Serbo-Croatian, Slovenian, Bulgarian, Macedonian...), Western (Czech-Slovak, Sorbian, Polish..) and Eastern (Russian, Rusyn, Ukrainian...). Because one of the main driving principles of Slavistics is, in fact, language, Slavic peoples as a whole are categorized nearly following this exact division.

Sysica's location is undisclosable; not only because there's a certain fun in guessing and speculating, but also due to the fact a specific placement would break geographic consistency. We leave it to the players, especially speakers of Slavic languages to read into its language, and imagine where on a map it could lie. It is designed to allow for rather accurate pinpointing, actually, and those with knowledge of the evolution of Slavic languages past Common Slavic may see right through it. Other hints are also elsewhere in the lore and culture, of course.

For this reason, we won't be disclosing too much information on stems, grammar, orthography pronunciation... Don't worry, though, there's other info to know!



[h2]Sysican and its close neighbours[/h2]

Sysican is itself a Slavic language, much like the ethnicity often labeled "Sysican" is seen as Slavic as well. See the general region of Greater Sysica, not to be confused with the state modernly called Sysica:



Once upon a time, all these territories were simply called "Sysica". The only states where Sysican is recognized as an official language besides the Republic of Sysica are CSR Zatsela and the Republic of the Vyr. In the former, "Zatselan" is a common name for their dialect, though social debate has often surrounded this question; while philology leans towards affirming Zatselan and Sysican are contextual names for the same language, popular attitudes can differ, especially in the scope of Zatsela's regionalist and secessionist troubles. The Republic of the Vyr (named so purely after the river Vyr) has never had a concrete national identity so to speak, and was splintered from Sysica during the Territorial Commission for the Sysican Lands of 1946 - 1948. Behind Western interests here, the Vyr was to be a neutral outpost: a "watcher state". In terms of national sentiment, they feel the closest to Sysican language and culture.

The Kuralin Autonomy, a territory that has an ethnic majority of Sysicans, does not have the legal power to declare official languages, and Sysican has been historically repressed in the territories of urak. Worth noting is that uraki is the only widely-spoken, non-Sysican, non-Slavic language in the region. Other Slavic languages include Votsny, spoken in Votsgorod, and Dereg-Kodmian, spoken in Dereginsk. These diverge more strongly from modern Sysican, and take a greater resemblance to Eastern Slavic languages.

[h2]Sysican and its far neighbours[/h2]

Russian, Ukrainian or Belarusian speakers will be quick to realize Sysican is not a funny mistyping of their languages. We actually had someone fall for it anyway:



One could scratch their head figuring out why it says "produktn".

The I//N/H matter actually has a historical aspect worth mentioning: during the early-to-mid stages of Medieval Cyrillic, various Slavic languages (of which Russian is an example) has orthographic ambiguities about how to represent the sounds we largely associate them with today. In the case of Russian, this was resolved by assigning H to N, but this is in fact rather curious considering H itself comes from Greek eta (/) and was by then beginning to be associated with an /i/-like sound (itacism). This means Sysican actually evolved closer to the Greek alphabet by maintaining H as an "ee" kind of sound. As for , it was consistently used in many variants for a while [centuries], but was by the late 19th century phased out by the first orthographic reforms, which sought to synthesize Latin and Graeco-Cyrillic characters. Thus, "N" came to be, though the little diagonal line isn't perfectly diagonal (this is indeed the legacy of Cyrillic, though Sysican people, when writing by hand, will often write a Latin N.)

itself does not exist in the Sysican alphabet, and the closest thing available is H', which I can't quite type here. The sound represents in Russian doesn't exist in all dialects of Sysican, either. H' is what a Russian would kind of understand as or . H', unlike H, is quite ambiguous in Sysican and dialects often make it what they will.

Many reforms in Sysican language have tried to actually guide the language _away_ from Russian. Sysica is, for various historical reasons, largely hesitant to Russian influence and what's not.

... on this note, it was indeed during the Levitov Government in Sysica (1964 - 1985) that Russian was phased out of schools in favour of English and French. This was done despite the fact the USSR was the main place to emigrate for jobs or education in 60s and 70s Sysica.

[h2] What's the most offensive thing I can say in Sysican? [/h2]

Reciting virtually any Sysican nationalist slogan anywhere beyond Sysica will be perceived as a far, far greater offense than any instance of dzivkot ever could.

One Spirit's demo, or its extended version to be released after a potential successful Kickstarter, are relatively linear in that they allow for detours, minor choices and, of course, the classic mechanic of unlocking new dialogue/narrative options through interacting with the world or having relevant conversations. While this is effective at preventing OSP from becoming a kinetic novel, it does not allow the level of choice we'd like for a more complete game, where dozens of environments, plenty of characters and a far larger story unfold. Soon enough, we'll be backing all these ideas with prototype visuals, especially so for our crowdfunding campaign.

[h2]Subplots, not Routes[/h2]

For One Spirit's full release, the backbone of the game will itself be the main plot, labelled in-game THE SECRET SYSICA, about the disappearance of local activist Nicodemus Litvin and Yuri's role in a tightening game of secrets.

Running parallel to it, there are a series of storylines one can freely engage with, triggering optional content that more often than not will radically affect the course of the main storyline. In this sense, it takes more shape through the subplots than it does "by itself", meaning the player can and will be encouraged to go for optional events and push for certain developments., and the influence of these events (even if attempted to be left "untouched") will be palpable. There is no escape from leaving a mark on the world.

However, subplots are not exactly "routes" as we often call them: that is, branching paths that reach from A to B, which eventually lead up to a concrete ending, which present themselves as roughly equal, interestng options, and which usually remain contained within themselves (or, at most, excluding one another). While it's true subplots do begin and end, and that their endings are colossal (see below), the actual meat of the main plot, and also that of whatever subplot, is the progressive and simultaneous effects of all other on-going subplots, meaning the actual playthrough is not about taking a stance on a few affairs and wrapping them up; everything is influenced during that process as small events from different areas and situations shape each other, and also grow on the characters, morphing their personalities and behaviours. In other words, we do not present "routes" as distinct paths to take towards an end; we present subplots as areas to move in more freely, less on rails, which can combine in more complex ways, and give you greater feedback of your actions on all fronts.

To put it visually: a traditional "route" takes the shape of a line, no matter how many intersections or deviations it may have. A subplot, in One Spirit, is more of a circle, an area: the player moves inside of it. The collision of all these areas determine their shape and the combination of consequences that deliver the final result.

This final result of your game could be summarized as what conclusions you have reached; this points out a subplot, in the end, is only a brother or cousin design to a traditional route. However, the truth is one such playthrough has been individuated far more throughout many, many minor triggers. To avoid having the game be riddled with even the smallest flags, however, subplots only interact with each other in mostly noticeable, player-affirmative ways: i.e. by letting the player further their goals, see the positive results of their action, and keep tailoring Yuri's journey to their personal liking within the limits of the game's logic and setting.

In any case, all these reasons are why the main plot is not a subplot. "The Secret Sysica" is the general movement of the events in Yuri and his country's life, the backbone, but not the whole body. The main plot's ability to brand out actually relies, almost entirely, on the other subplots. This essentially means there is no main plot without subplots, and that the main plot is, if anything, the driving force that brings all subplots together and gives them cohesion and connection. To put it visually: if you thought of subplots as areas, think of the main plot as the regions where they all touch, anchored. The main plot is simply the storyline that sets everything in motion and makes One Spirit have a defined, clear direction.

[h2]Subplot Paths[/h2]

Subplots do have, as we said, beginnings and endings. All subplots involve a certain dynamic, a certain habit or behaviour to keep them up. Sometimes they're complex, sometimes they're simple: a subplot may require nothing more than taking care of a few isolated matters, while another may ask for careful handling of information or social relationships. Some may even affect millions of people.

Subplots take different structures as well. One of them could be unary, only allowing the player to move forward in it in a fairly straightforward way. Another could be binary, prompting them to choose to lean towards one side or towards another, whatever these sides may represent or imply. Others can have different, smaller possibilities not limited to a scale or an axis: one of the subplots, for instance, consists in exploring the inner world of singular characters. Some can last only part of the game, others can drag on to the very end.

All SPs have several "stages" towards each goal. Each stage unlocks these types of events, choices and, sometimes, inevitable consequences. To progress through SP stages, all that's necessary is to actively engage in the subplot and make significant decisions. Each stage has especially bold effects on the course of the game, eliminating or creating entirely new options, and permanently upsetting the balance of other subplots if needed.

Subplots are far from being purely interpersonal (e.g. friendships, romance). Some are about sentiments and philosophies, some are about the fate of the Sysican state.

[h2]Subplot Conclusions[/h2]

Subplot paths can already be very influential in the outcome of the game itself, but it is their Conclusions by far which are the most powerful. When reaching the last stage of any subplot path, a certain chain of events will set in stone the player's choices and leave a permanent mark in the course of the narrative. Conclusions will replace any previous modifiers and triggers within their subplot, bringing about an entirely different set of possibilities and consequences - for better or worse.

It was always up to you to decide.

As we'd said in Devlog 2, we are rather skeptical about conceiving characters as static, perfectly planned models of imagination. While it is us authors, artists who are in ultimate control of them as they're delivered to an audience, the process they're created through can be far more chaotic, far less calculated.

Devlog 2 already explained we don't believe naturalist visuals are a necessary condition for realism. For this reason, we've considered it acceptable and as we'll see now, also desirable to use a style somewhere between Western and Eastern aesthetics to pay tribute to our own brand of realism.

[h2]The value of the casual and the banal[/h2]

Our first condition, then, was to design our characters' visuals in a way that would retain an interesting, novel look while being closely tied to real expectations and body images; it was important to us that "stylization" did not imply detachment from the real world we intend to approach. We experimented quite a bit with many ideas, but eventually settled on this middle ground insofar as it provided the best balance for our vision and, also, our complementary assets (in all visual novels, sprites must be consonant with backgrounds).

Secondly, we wanted to distance ourselves from the Oriental conventions that we feel have impoverished the VN genre for far too long. There's no doubt there's power to make animanga aesthetics deeply interesting; and, even if there wasn't, they could at least support a meaningful theme. In this sense, that's the very reason we find works with great (visual) aesthetics and poor thematic or narrative architecture, and other works with shockingly novel stories with a rather generic art input. Visual novels have been moving away from the Oriental tradition both in theme and aesthetics, but one still sees them stumbling: despite unprecedented power to innovate, the genre we live in takes comfort in repeating the same creative tropes, conventions, means and ends, no matter whether they can be labelled "Eastern" or "Western" in any sense.



We chose to follow the type of Western aesthetic that does pay tribute to Eastern looks to, at least superficially, step out of line a bit: after all, to think unique stories can't lurk behind generic visual direction is prejudice, but that won't stop it from being frequently true. To create that middle ground between (conventional) West and East was to signal our intent to diverge far beyond that point as well. We were especially playful about it: the sprites were, in fact, produced by an artist who largely works animanga.

Characters are presented, at all times, in casual wear, with sober, tranquil expressions; exaggerated poses, as much as exaggerated actions or comments altogether, are thrown out in favour of more relaxed, banal ways of presenting themselves. No vivid colours, in line with the world's decadent feel; no extravagant clothing, in line with its popular, banal environments. No ideal body proportions, no overly elaborate looks: everyday genetics are more chaotic, and everyday lives hardly touch make-up. Peculiarities, yes; eccentricities, no. People, yes; tokens, no.

We were once told that one of them looked "non-different enough that you could see them in the street". It is exactly what we enjoy. Surely there's something to say about adding unique elements, ranging from actual objects (clothes, wear) and expressions (emotional profile) to more indirect queues of character (colour palette). We don't forget characters aren't meant to be "casual" to the point of "bland". But, retaining the idea that they're "just people being people" is central. It is the root of everything this game is.



Therefore, our driving principle has been to assimilate how characters are presented on the screen to how real people are met in real life: often through a casual, indistinct introduction, that is completed after slowly learning about their habits, attitudes and ways of life. The visuals of our characters are, in more ways than one, an introduction to their psychology, one that is both apparent (see the examples we listed above) and at the same time hidden (their complexity cannot boil down to their looks). If visual novels, considerably indie Western ones as well, have taken a liking to "saying everything about a character" through their clothing and immediate appearance, we recuperate the value of making characters translucent, not transparent when it comes to their looks and aesthetics.

[h2]Summing up[/h2]

We value the banal, the casual, everyday uniqueness, the sober, the ordinary, that which suggests, not that which simply tells. We are a particular form of social realists and this shows in every character, both visually and psychologically.

Picture yourself directing a play - your characters appear to be puppets, trains on rails. You lead them on like an orchestra is led by the moves of a baton. They actors are only actors because of their role. Once they're off the stage, with their face relaxed and tone regained, they're just people. Suddenly, you have a bunch of randoms storm in; and, while seemingly regular people, they still claim to be actors. "Characters", they say.

You're a director, after all. You write and direct that kind of thing. You think them mad, but those characters go on and on about their story, and you feel you're somehow beginning to explore it. By the end of it, you're asked to finish it - to wrap up their characterization. How does a director relate to their characters? Oftentimes we think them some form of engineering gods, creating and then manipulating their making. What's the reality of a story and a cast, then? Are they merely artificial? How do we connect with them, then? What can they represent to us?

A brief literary introduction

The 20th Century is, perhaps, one of the periods of time where narrative avant-garde has been the most explosive. Especially so after the Great War, deviant art found a special place in literature, fine arts and also new forms of creative expression, as brought by cinema and photography. Especifically, Luigi Pirandello, a Sicilian playwright and dramatist, produced a piece that is relevant to us here: Six Characters in Search of an Author (1921). Contemporary to him, Spanish author Miguel de Unamuno would produce The Life of Don Quixote and Sancho (1905) and Niebla (1914), two key texts we'll tie here.

Critics have often forgotten a certain link between Pirandello and Unamuno. The content of that link is what inspires us to make One Spirit as we're making it.

In both authors, characters speak to authors. In Niebla, the writer sits down to talk to his own cast to figure out what to next make them do; and even receives criticism from one of them for that one ending in his last novel. In Pirandello, in the work we mentioned, they abruptly walk into the theatre to ask for directions, too. The relation between the author and their cast is renewed and turned inside out. Both seem to be on equal standing. No longer is the cast just a product, like ceramics from a pottery. They stand in dialogue. And in dialogue they find each other.

For Unamuno and Pirandello, characters are not just comparable to the real lives of men the existential and psychological themes in their works already tell us as much. They're more real than them in ways most would be skeptical about. At times, our actual life feels like a mask - and the stage the place where it's taken off, where human situations are liberated and extended, stoked like fire. Alternatively, think of Aristotle's account of Greek tragedy: a play that points to actual, real vices and truths, but has immense provocative power due to its inventive way to go about it, to be distant and near at once. Regardless of the take we admit, there's the intuition that characters can represent feelings and struggles purer than the ones we ourselves feel because they're fully imaginative, fully fiction. Fiction is freedom, and freedom brings so much more to say.

Why this matters for our characters

One Spirit deals with being human. The pain, the hopes, the joys and the struggles. We understand no one can truly assimilate to a character - no one is the character. But, if their fiction is strong enough, it can prove evocative, almost reminiscent. It can remind us about ourselves, about those around us, and about what it means to be alive as we today are. That's what we understand as charisma. Not its regular meaning: we don't mean to make them attractive or endearing in a conventional sense, though we need them to be somewhat for other reasons. Charisma for us is that bridge built between a fictional face and the lives we know first-hand. In this sense, One Spirit has a cast working as a very clear, but somehow flawed mirror to the player.

Realism, then, doesn't necessitate a setting and cast in the style of Zola, Balzac or Dostoevsky. It is the evocation of real life, embodied in a strong, persuasive fiction, that connects us to a story's inner realm. Whether the story is "realistic" as we often like to say seems rather accessory then.

For our characters, you can begin to see what this means bit by bit. As One Spirit is heavy on character interactions, both one-on-one and group, and also strongly relates each of them to their context and contemporary world, the intent is to make them multi-faceted. They have to be. The way they represent the issues we know too well, from disorders to vices, attitudes and opinions, ways of life and ways to change and overcome. Fiction doesn't obscure the reality of these matters - we use it to make them more real to our audiencie than not.

Why this matters for the way they're made

When I sit down to create the type of character One Spirit has, I feel like I learn about them after they move; that is, I realize what I've done with them only after I've already written more and more. I'm a few steps behind. When writing One Spirit, every scene "nudges" them in a certain direction, but never accurately. As the script is written, every line of text is a leap into nothingness. The cast is built through these successive leaps, these pushes that sometimes, for me, succeed or fail in following the game's vision. But, despite all that vision, the process is still chaotic, erratic. In this sense, a writer feels less an engineer and more an explorer; a vibe I had picked up long ago in Deleuze's writings, if anyone begins to see the parallel.

The author's ignorance to how their characters could morph with every word written is what allows for that margin of freedom: it's what allows for both reader and author to discover the story. In that very margin, characters acquire the individuality that is greater than the author's designs and the reader's interpretations, and confers the cast the condition of not remaining under our reality. For Pirandello and Unamuno, as we said, this could mean they're now above it, empowered by fiction and imagination. More real than our real, more human than our human because they're unconstricted, but profoundly meaningful. Anything can be said now: with greater volume and power. Experiences we consider "real", from politics to psychology, can be presented like this. Our realism doesn't just consist in sober tones and themes. Rather, it consists in using fiction's power to exceed our reality to say more about it, to best impact it.

It's obvious then that characters aren't sentient or free in any material sense of the term. Otherwise, we'd have the actual issue the Director in Pirandello's play had: having to confront them all of a sudden; or, worse, the case Unamuno wrote: having to justify the shit you've done to them. That doesn't mean, and never has, that characters can't be conceived exploratively, tentatively. With a sense of wonder. Building a character like an architect plans a tenement seems rather deprived, creatively. Realizing characters have a reality of their kind, often (aesthetically) higher than our own, goes a long way in helping us build a special type of characterization, be it for realism or not. In the case of One Spirit, we exploit these notions to bring about a cast that, we think, makes use of their fiction to represent known or unknown forms of life alike. All, of course, with the purpose of drawing that connection between them and the viewer - between them and you, me, and us all. A game like One Spirit, with its themes and aesthetics, needs this type of way to be.

Welcome to our first true devlog! If you haven't yet, we suggest reading the first one to grasp what we're going for as we post these; plus, knowing the fundamentals of this odd thing we're making goes a long way in tracking us.

As for the structure of devlogs, we'll be dividing them in two essential areas: PRODUCTION and COMMUNITY AND PROMOTION. As our development nears release and new affairs need attention, we'll let our devlogs grow longer and more specific in their structure.

[h2]PRODUCTION[/h2]

• Environment assets are now 75% done, and most are already being integrated into our current build. The production of all assets is likely to be complete, if uninterrupted, in early May.
  
• The first UI elements are now being animated and are undergoing responsiveness testing. As we overhauled our UI throughout the process, we had to allow for a certain delay. That said, we are confident they will be able to perform as intended with a higher standard of quality as well.
  
• All sprite sets for the demo are done, concluding production in that department. We'll be focusing on producing promotional content for the prologue and the full game.
  
• The OST is in its final polish rounds. We are very eager to release a short demo video for you all, too!
  
• All screenwriting has long been completed for the demo and prologue. All efforts are being directed towards the full game. Full attention will be given to this once we are funded.
  
• The demo will be released as build D1.0.0.
  

• Our Twitter account has doubled in followers in the past month. We have you to thank for that! Especially fellow devs who took the time to give us the shoutout.
  
• Our Steam wishlists have grown by the dozens in the past few weeks, despite the very early stage of our storefront. We are very glad to see a positive graphing of everyone's interest.
  
• Our Reddit is still undergoing construction. A CSS style will be added soon, and we'll begin promoting it soon after. Devlogs will also be hosted there!
  
• We are likely to consolidate a Discord nearing the Kickstarter's release, during or immediately after. There is currently no need for it.
  
• The finer details of our Kickstarter are also being set in stone. We're soon to have definitive news on its scope, structure and rewards.
  

In this brief introduction, well be explaining the basic principles and goals of our project: both creative and commercial. Im Svadoch, lead developer behind One Spirit and director of Voyvod Arts, and these are the key points of our project:

[h2]WHO?[/h2]
[h3]We are a modest, independent team of international artists with a vision for a genre.[/h3]

Were part of a generation that understands the height of creative media, where medium and message are hardly apart. We believe narrative games are one of the most exciting promises of gaming, and want to be part of the effort to heighten their means and ends. Especially for visual novels, we look to introduce themes, aesthetics, styles and mechanics hardly seen in the current market, which can nevertheless spearhead a sense of variety, novelty and originality. We believe in not only pushing for a solid game but a solid contribution to its genre and its historical moment as well. We are convinced we live in a time that deserves this aspiration.

[h2]WHAT?[/h2]
[h3]We are producing an alternate-history, coming-of-age visual novel.[/h3]

One Spirit is, above all, a visual novel about being human. While it has certain thriller and dramatic elements, it remains a slice of life perspective into the troubled lives of everyday characters and their society. It mixes realist and literary tones for many issues: identity, self-image, social relations, family life, mental health all the way up to nationalism, war, ideology, extremism We blend the events of a lore-rich world with the psychology of the characters, presenting them as products of their environment: a lost generation.

By using an alternate-history setup, we mix fact and fiction, creating ambiguous, subjective, and oftentimes transgressive evocations. Our goal, at all times, is to speak to the player, but never with a clear message. If we succeed in any of this, no two people should have the same feelings and conclusions after their playthrough.

[h2]HOW?[/h2]
[h3]We intend to make a game with ample accessibility, content and style.[/h3]

Heavy-handed can be a troublesome thing to be. Thats why One Spirit doesnt present long-winded exposition, large over-arching plots or a dense, serious tone at all times. At the surface, where we want most people to stay and play, the game is rather casual: a grimmer, bleaker slice of life perhaps, but never hard on the player or their attention. We believe depth is best kept beneath the surface: we want those who prefer a simpler, smaller drama to enjoy us without boredom.

One Spirit aims to:

• Be about 200.000 words long, amounting to 15 20 hours of gameplay. This could likely be upped or cut, but never excessively. 5 chapters will make up the plot. They will all be released with the full game.
  
  
• Create a lore-rich, fictional world: including a unique Slavic setting and constructed language, all set in a largely realistic alternate-history scenario where the Cold War drags on into the early 2000s.
  
  
• Have over 30 high-quality BGs and CGs (backgrounds and scenes), to create an immersive, tightly explorable world and captivating scripted sequences. Roam freely! Secondary events can trigger and details will be hidden all over.
  
  
• Have 13+ total characters, reliant on crowdfunding expansion budget. While some secondary characters will be mainly plot elements, many of them will allow you to engage in optional paths and routes with them parallel to the main storyline. In fact, we want to
  
  
• Have 6 subplots running parallel to the main storyline. We dont believe One Spirit would work with singular, branching paths leading to wildly different endings. However, neither is it linear. Certain subplots are incompatible with one another, or will influence each other depending on your choices throughout them or the main plot. These choices open up unique events, dialogue and perspectives. Different endings will be generated from their combination.