LiberAtion
Heyho, long-time friends! π
I hope you had a fantastic start into the year!
Curiously enough, we're back after just a month. There's a lot of reasons for it β one of them being that it's 2024! This year, both AUTONOMY and TRACHI turn five! π
What a great opportunity to make our stints more of a regular thing! Last time, we took a peek at TRACHI's recent history. In this post right here, I'd like to put our eyes towards the future instead.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2169000/TRACHI__ANARCHY/
Obviously, there's ANARCHY. It's regularly tended through monthly updates β and set to remain a major part of my life for the next four years. However, a lot of you already made your way over there. So I'll leave it at dropping the link above for everybody else.
Big A
That being settled, let's talk AUTONOMY! Our end-of-the-year debrief had me complain about the game's ability to retain players. I think I mentioned the number seventy-two. Just a week after the announcement dropped, we've gone up to 85. That's an 18% increase over the span of seven days for a game that's been on Steam for more than two years!
In other words: You people are awesome in ways I lack the words to describe! π³ I'd love to write you an entire hymn β and mark my words: one day I shall! π€π Until then, please know that you've got both my attention and unending gratitude!
Enthusiasm
It's your presence that makes the world go round. TRACHI is likely the only project I'll ever do. Whatever happens, I'll keep trying to push it to greater heights! AUTONOMY was a flag planted into the ground. AUTHORITY was a lesson that I can't do everything myself.
ANARCHY is a call for help. I've long dreamed of extending the brand to involve other people. Not only because it helps all of us grow, but also because I'm a gamer at heart. Given the recent development in the industry, I think it's time to ramp up the TRAnsparency.
Imbalance
In the last couple of months, over 30000 people making games for a living lost their job. It's heartbreaking to see passionate individuals forced to upend their lives. As I'm typing these words, a considerate portion of them are struggling to feed themselves and β in many cases β their families too.
It's a terrible result of mismanagement hitting people who have been doing their best. So above all else, I'd like to offer my deepest sympathies. My heart goes out to them, without shedding a single tear for their former companies. Many of them continue to engage in predatory business practices and as such not only failed their employees β but their players, too.
Tide
You deserve better. Whatever reason you have for immersing yourself in fictional worlds, there's a common ground. Reality might be an anchor, but it's also not enough. We know there's so much more to life. That β in a nutshell β is why we're here.
Video games emerged from a desire to provide entertainment for people who want to be somewhere else. A virtual space we share with ourselves. An odd forty years later, it's turned into a competition to not only seduce, but to put chains on the people they are supposed to serve.
Dawn
I've always been reluctant to make this point. For one, I felt it's unfair for me to judge products I had no experience making myself. Secondly, I prefer to have a solution before I call things out. Criticism is important β no doubt! However, I don't want to put the entire burden on someone else.
I want to be part of the change. As a developer, it's not only my privilege but my responsibility. This industry and everyone working in it owe everything to you. I believe it's high time they remembered that.
Ergo
TRACHI takes pride in being a product not only for the people β but outspoken against exploitation too. We've seen what happens if you push human beings to the brink. So instead of joining in or pretending to be apolitical β we'll step up and offer a helping hand.
Independence
We're in a position to scrutinise and to get things done. We can present an alternative, a counter-narrative β a direct and straight-forward way to make a change. An ecosystem that treats involved parties not as consumers or employees, but as living, breathing people instead.
In concrete terms: For the next two years, I'll provide the means, the tools and β if needed β direction, too. For all of that to matter, I need you. One person doing good is called philanthropy. A group of people doing the same is a world trying to fix itself.
AUTONOMY
Since you're reading this, you're already familiar with his work. RacoonButler has gone above and beyond to produce something that makes all of us proud. It's a perfect expression of TRACHI, elevated towards a level it always wanted to be.
What's more, he took a leap of faith by posting the art on his own account. I'm incredibly touched to see him put so much trust into our little game. So I'd love nothing more in the world if we could channel our first collective expression of solidarity right here.
If you have an account on twitter, please give him your support. For one, because he deserves it. Secondly, it hammers home a very important point: We're a small crowd, but that doesn't mean we can't be loud!
TRACHI
Little efforts can produce big waves. Especially if they're carried out by people trying to understand the world. The 85 friends I mentioned proved that to me. What used to be a point of frustration has now turned into the game's greatest strength.
AUTONOMY is not for everyone β and that's exactly the way it should be! It's a diamond in the rough whose qualities share a common trait with you: Being incredibly special to me! π₯°
Thank you for reading all of that and your continued support! I'll try to get back to you sometime in March, where we might have a look at some of AUTONOMY's potential birthday gifts.
Until then, please give yourself a heartfelt peck on the cheek! π
much love
nory
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.
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.
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.
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.
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. 
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.
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. 
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.
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.
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.
As you know, 
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. 
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.
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.
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.
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. 
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.
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.
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.
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. 
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.
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. 
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. 
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. 
I certainly do! I also recall that TRACHI got another game to its name. A cute little interactive novel, widely known and feared as InvAsion. Primed and ready to bring AUTONOMY vibes from RPGMaker straight to Unity.
