Devlog #3: Making Syloria remember what you do

When I started building Syloria, I knew I didn’t want progression to stop at earning XP and watching numbers go up. If you go to the gym, read a book or head out for a walk, I want it to feel like those things actually matter to the world you’re returning to.

Over the last few days, I’ve been working on making Syloria respond more meaningfully to the things you do in real life.

One of the first choices you make when entering Syloria is who you want to become: stronger, wiser or more adventurous. The game now remembers that choice.

If you choose to become stronger and later complete your first real workout, Lumen will remember what you told her when you first arrived:

“When you arrived here, you said you wanted to become stronger. Today, you did something about it.”

Starlit Grove responds too. It’s a fairly small interaction, but I think it’s becoming an important part of what I want Syloria to feel like. I don’t just want the player to see that they’ve earned XP. I want it to feel like the world noticed what they actually did.

Making Discoveries something you earn

I’ve also completely changed how Discoveries work. Previously, logging reading or steps gave you a random chance of uncovering something new about Syloria, and I wasn’t really happy with how that felt.

You could read, log your progress and get nothing simply because you were unlucky. Someone else could do exactly the same thing and uncover two Discoveries in quick succession.

Now every page you read and every step you log moves you visibly closer to your next Discovery. You might open Wisdom and see that you’re 34 Wisdom XP away from uncovering something new. You know there’s something waiting for you, but you don’t know what it is yet.

When you reach the threshold, another piece of Syloria is revealed. The first Discovery is deliberately very quick, so your first genuine reading or Adventure log is enough to uncover something. After that, they gradually become harder to reach as you progress.

I much prefer the balance this creates. You know that the things you’re doing are definitely leading somewhere, while what you’re actually going to find remains a mystery.

Once you’ve uncovered a Discovery that day, Syloria lets you know and you’ll need to return another day to uncover the next one. You can still keep reading, walking and progressing in the meantime.

Giving the numbers a reason to matter

Working on this has changed how I’m thinking about progression in Syloria a little bit. XP, levels and progress bars aren’t going anywhere because I like having a clear way of seeing how far you’ve progressed, but I don’t want earning another number to be the main reason someone comes back.

I’d rather someone be getting closer to their next level while also wondering what Lumen is starting to remember, what happened to Syloria, what’s behind the next Frontier or what their next Discovery might reveal.

The numbers tell you that you’re getting closer to something. Hopefully the world gives you a reason to want to find out what that something is.

That’s the direction I’m continuing to build Syloria around as it gets closer to its first beta.