All good things.
## Hey friends! π
It's been a damn long while! More than four months, to be precise!
I know! Sometimes it feels as if the world accelerates. Today, for example, we're about to kiss goodbye another year. 2023 is on the verge of becoming history β turning moments into memories.
Nostalgia
Truth be told, it's making me tear up a little bit. TRACHI was in a weird spot, back in January. The first post-AUTONOMY year passed β and I frankly wasn't too content with the things I had to show.
Being neck deep into Unreal Engine, the mountain kept growing no matter how hard I tried. It took me not one, but three steps back until I learned to check my expectations. Five months later, ANARCHY was born.
Return to Form
For the first time in a year, I was making things again. What started out as a run-of-the-mill JRPG quickly transformed into a Tactical RPG. As you can imagine, these things don't just simply fall out of the sky. Especially considering that little nory here never made a game like this before.
I took it one step at a time, which is the reason why ExcommunicAtion exists. Above all, I wanted to present a combat prototype in the shape of multi-stage battle infused with story elements.
PresentAtion
For the first time in history, I put the game above its people. That's not to say TRACHI is no longer a franchise about curious idiots and their tendency for unprovoked violence. In fact, it's exactly that formula that led to ANARCHY in the first place.
However, I wouldn't be myself if I wasn't trying to be 100% honest with you. The last two years saw me spend thousands of hours into learning a lot of different things. Whether it's engines, frameworks, RPG systems and/or combat elements β everything has a price.
Sacrifice
Undoubtedly, something got lost on the way. For the sake of clarity, let's call that something AUTONOMY 2. It's a little novel made in RPG Maker, continuing the story after August 28th, 1923. Given the amount of hours funnelled into TRACHI over the past 24 months, we'd already be back in the city again.
At this point, you're probably asking: Why aren't we, then? It's a perfectly justified question β one that I ask myself every single day. With the year coming to a close, I think both of us deserve an answer. Which is β coincidentally β exactly what I'll be trying to provide.
Truth
About a month after releasing AUTONOMY, I was already gone. Partially because I'm a person who always chases the next shiny thing. However, I also had the numbers backing me up. Playtime statistics on Steam clearly indicated something went wrong.
In total, 1200 people launched the game through Steam. However, only seventy-two got to see the end. A story that took more than two-thousand hours to create fell flat in the face of more than 90% of its playerbase.
Cause and Effect
You can imagine how curious I was to find out why. AUTONOMY undoubtedly had flaws β but that never stopped a game from being good. Add to that the fact that tons of people reached out just to tell me how much they enjoyed the story.
All of that isn't worth much if people drop it fifteen minutes in. Like many other passion-driven works published throughout humanity's history, the problem wasn't quality, but a combination of discoverability and presentation.
TRAdition
You know I love writing dialogue. There's nothing I enjoy more than unravelling decades of history by rubbing two people against each other. This particular aspect β henceforth called TRAdition β is the engine that drives most narrative movements in TRACHI.
If you'd remove this particular aspect, the entire structure would collapse in on itself. There is β in other words β no version of TRACHI in which there isn't some sort of dialogue. On the other hand, AUTONOMY undeniably proved that TRAdition by itself wasn't enough.
Battle
In August 2021, someone brought up a lack of interactivity. That particular line of feedback hit me in a very special way, since I grew up with video games prioritizing gameplay over cinematic experiences. Speaking as someone who β mildly put β wants to be the best at everything, I didn't think twice about whether I could.
Instead, I immediately went to work trying to refactor pieces of dialogue into dynamic, choice-based conversations. That went on for a about a week, before I admitted that these kind of interactions aren't compatible with the way I write.
Composition
The problem with conversations driven by dialogue options is that individual lines turn into an item on a laundry list. The overwhelming majority of sequences don't change the world, whereas TRAdition dictates to never waste a single word.
As a result of that unsolvable conflict, I set my eyes on other playing fields. Thankfully, there's another (often overlooked) core element to AUTONOMY.
TRAvel
One of the lovely reviewers pointed out that moving between places didn't add too much to the game. I'm not one to judge whether that's true or not, but I do understand the message. Most of the time, travelling in AUTONOMY is relatively uneventful.
That's not to say that exploration segments aren't incredibly important to me. TRACHI's world was there before its people β and building maps you can explore is one of the things I love most about development. Regardless, I wanted to see how big of a factor it really was.
Purity in Unity
As you know, InvAsion only contains a single exploration segment confined to a single map. Beyond that, InvAsion is unadulterated TRAdition. In other words: If AUTONOMY was a burger, InvAsion was twice the meat without the bun.
Looking back at it almost one and a half years later, I'm still proud. Although it's not for everyone, TRACHI has to this day never been more perfect. However, it's also never been more wrong.
Fusion
The first half of still holds up, I think. Conversations flow better than ever, lines are short and the pacing is just the way I want it to be. Most of the scenes would fit into AUTONOMY without a problem. In fact, there were times when I wished I would've made them in RPGMaker instead.
The same goes for the second half. It's home to the most emotional scene I've ever written by far. You can practically feel the enthusiasm and excitement of someone who's finished their first work being eager for more.
Ambition
Towards the end of InvAsion, there is a behemoth of a scene that goes on for fifteen minutes. In a place called ATOPIA, we're left to witness nothing but two people and bits of the UI. If there's one scene screaming TRAdition, it's this one.
For good reason, too! Because all good things must come to an end. Especially if they're about to be replaced by better things. Maybe that's what I thought when the 2D people and their homes were indiscriminately erased.
Evolution
If I was a politician, I'd say: "I stand behind the principle". TRACHI's people and its world had to go because words and maps weren't enough. Whatever followed AUTONOMY would be more interactive by throwing combat in to the mix.
At that point, the 2Ds were missing animations β barring the odd redraw here and there. Ganymede as a 3D model offered a lot more in that regard. He proved that point and completed TRACHI's second transformation.
Reality
Turns out working a new engine whilst adding combat and RPG systems is a tall order in itself β let alone adding an entire dimension. Although I'd gotten hold of most intermediate stuff, there would be no game coming out anytime soon.
Being stuck between a rock and a hard place, I took a step back. In the meantime, I embarrassed myself on Twitch learning to talk about TRACHI. At some point, we got to restore a bunch of AUTONOMY scenes β and it wasn't long until I started writing again.
Missing Link
All the while, the 2D's character builder had been updated with animated side-view sprites. The moment I saw that, I thought of InvAsion and how it ran on an RPG framework at some point.
Maybe I could introduce combat and elevate InvAsion from an experiment to an actual game. Both TRAdition and rudimentary TRAvel were already there β I just had to round out the formula with the final core element.
TRACHI 2.0
Three months later, we released a little game in early access. On August 28th 2023, InvAsion reemerged as ANARCHY. AUTONOMY's successor appeared in the shape of a full blown tactical top-down RPG.
It's work in progress powered by monthly updates, accompanied by weekly devlogs and biweekly announcements. I've gotten used to talk about things I've been working on. Most importantly, fleshing out combat and the RPG framework.
TRAnce
There's stats and status effects, consumables, equipment, challenges and quests, monster catalogues and β of course β roaming enemies, neutrals and friends. All of that running on a map that makes AUTONOMY's Anderson Park blush with gentle embarrassment.
Everything you know (and hopefully love) is right there. You'll get to walk places and listen to people talking smack. In addition, you'll also see your personal private army β gathered around Lorna in Act 1 β grow and evolve as you cut your way through an increasingly ruthless world.
Again and Again
I know it's a lot to take in. AUTONOMY put a big emphasis on authenticity β and yet we're running around killing slimes. One might point out that there's a bit of a discontinuity there. Others might roll their eyes and straight-up accuse me of going isekai.
I'd be in one of those camps too, if I didn't know any better! Bringing 2Ds back might maybe raise even more eyebrows than originally killing them did. But I swear to whatever you think is holy β I can explain everything! π
Full Circle
ANARCHY will cover that explanation in four acts. Everything from 1924 to Daphne paying a visit to Ganymede in 1926. Unrolling it all means showing the full picture, including InvAsion.
In concrete terms: InvAsion has to become part of ANARCHY. In fact, the process has already started. At the time of this writing, several scenes are already implemented into what experts on YouTube call a "gameplay-loop".
Souvenir
Scenes such as Lorna losing her service card (1918 Edition) are triggered through interactable objects placed all over the world. Some of these, but all of them are tied to their own ingame rewards.
Long story short, TRACHI's people get to revisit their past β and you get to know a little more about the way things used to be. It's a perfect opportunity to write TRAditional scenes, with an extra potential to gently nudge people towards AUTONOMY.
Consequence
Remember when I said everything has a price? The thing is, InvAsion becoming part of ANARCHY makes it a bit awkward for AUTONOMY's DLC. Not that it's harming anyone as is, but there's also very little reason to keep it around.
In other words: InvAsion gets the chop on February 28th 2024. If it's already it in your library, you'll get to keep it β of course! For everyone else, it'll be as if it never was. Kinda ironic, given the theme of it all.
Symbiosis
Going forth, there'll be two core products: AUTONOMY and ANARCHY. The former is a kinetic novel that also acts as a narrative background to ANARCHY. Over the last four months, AUTONOMY already received a couple of big boosts, both in terms of downloads and playtime.
Not so coincidentally, these always occur shortly after the release of an ANARCHY update. In other words: We're already making a lot of new friends!
Bottom Line
ANARCHY caters to a bigger audience than AUTONOMY did. I'll try to make the best version of a sequel that I possibly can. A game that satisfies a lot of people, including those that don't want to wait 45 minutes for it to get good.
However, I'd be a fool if I didn't make use of the things we already have. It should be clear by now that I take feedback very, very seriously. And if there's one thing I'd like you to know β it's that I'm listening twice as eagerly to you!
Seventy-two
You're the reason I'm still going. Whenever I'm neck deep into systems, I'm thinking of you. It reminds me that I'm not only doing this because I get off on learning things, but also because I have to hold up my end of the deal.
In return for your attention, you deserve a game. Above everything else, I have a lifelong responsibility to fuel a flame that has been burning since 2019.
Thank you for that, for playing AUTONOMY β and for reading it all. I wish you the best for 2024 and hope that you'll be surrounded by people as lovable and awesome as you.
Big love n' hugs from an even bigger fan! π
much love
nory
Initially, Lorna's little adventure was conceived as a prologue β and in many ways it still is! There's lots of exposition including a whole bunch of question marks. In regards to ANARCHY, ParAdise carries a special responsibility to establish ground-rules from which we can extrapolate the rest of the game.
At the moment, ImmigrAtion is just a Fragment with a little snapshot from Lorna's past. Those of you accustomed to TRACHI however already know: Things are rarely as they seem. At some point between tomorrow and February 28th, we'll rip away the tapestry and expose the world for what it is.
TRACHI itself is full of people who love nothing more than to lend a helping hand. Whether it's a battle to the death or any other forms of social interaction, Lorna can count on the fact that everybody involved wants to leave their mark β including you.
AUTONOMY's interaction boiled down to triggering dialogue and/or changing scenes. In ANARCHY, we'll also be interacting a lot. However, there is now a whole range of interactable objects eagerly waiting to be used.
TRACHI has always been about personal growth. What's new in ANARCHY is the ability to quantify this kind of progress via stats, equipment, consumables or quests. For that matter, a major chunk of development time was spent on establishing pipelines that not only facilitate changes to these systems, but also present them to you.
Quests by itself operate on a meta level. They don't do much on their own, but they're often the main indicator of where you currently are within a game. Starting from which quest is available where and when and how β all the way to what they want you to do. Which doesn't count for much if the game keeps that information from you.
For all the breadcrumbs and leitmotifs I'm trying to implement, I constantly remind myself that these things don't necessarily mean much to everyone. If you prefer to run around and kill things for fun, that's okay! In fact, you're actively being catered to.
Shortly after the release of 0.1.3 (Marche), I set my mind on transferring combat from dedicated battle maps to the field map itself. Even though fights in ParAdise were already heavily impacted by things you brought along, there was always a potential for more.
In effect, groups of enemy combatants are now placed directly on the field. Walking up to one of these then triggers a battle. Every combatant in range is placed on a map-wide grid where you then also get to deploy your friends.
No matter how the battle turns, the overall rules of the world stay the same. Things die if they're killed β and stay dead until something triggers a Monolith. This means you're largely in control of respawn cycles, barring those that happen when you're defeated and/or flee a battle.
From ANARCHY's (conceptual) birth in February 2023, I was eager to solve two things. First and foremost, I wanted to give you the ability to customize the appearance of TRACHI's people. Like every other type of interaction I mentioned, the primary goal here is to give you more control.
It's been a big effort building this bridge, but the good news is: We got it built. Integrating Steam into the pipeline enables variations to be driven directly by your Steam account.
As with everything else I've mentioned so far, the monetisation model also tries to leave you as much freedom as it possibly can. I believe everyone should have a chance to interact with the game, which is why there's no up-front price tag on any of the TRACHI games. 
In my mind, TRACHI deserves to be big. On the other hand, good things take time. That's why I set aside two full years to graduate from RPGMaker to a big boy engine the same way I started as a writer and became a person making video games.