This month’s update will be shorter than the [url=https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1196230/view/2869345661238833674]previous one[/url]. Book of Aliens pre-production is progressing on two fronts - design and graphics. In terms of design, we have completed the first draft of the full design which ties together all of the elements making up the game, most notably the meta-game (campaign) and the inner run (mission) structure. Book of Aliens is fairly complex as the player makes decisions on many different levels - global, mission, and battlefield - and there is a web of dependencies between them that must be carefully managed. Our job (as you may remember from our [url=https://thingtrunk.com/return-2-games-manifesto/]R2G manifesto[/url]) is to make sure that these decisions never overwhelm the player, and that they don’t require remembering a lot of facts from the game. Furthermore, Book of Aliens will employ the Flexiscope time engine, so players will be able to divide the game into sessions of any size. This means that the whole design process is vastly complicated and we really don’t want to make any mistakes at this point. Currently, the first draft of the complete design is being reviewed by all Thing Trunk members with design experience, so that we can pinpoint any possible holes and fix them at an early stage.  In terms of graphics, it’s much easier to show the progress. Remember the armor concepts from the previous month? They are still evolving and we’re experimenting with color schemes. Below is one of the most colorful sets our artist has produced ;) [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/36304269/8c13160b0e4360a94e2b33b12c922c0b5157fe3e.png[/img] We’re also planning to add a lot of agent customizations in the graphics with random hairstyles, facial expressions, and even voices. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/36304269/f1301cdc51233fae0c7e6137db942460bf2bd985.png[/img] By the way, these all images are "work in progress" and not final graphics by any means. If you wonder how many concept iterations do we make for each item in the game - it’s a lot. Below is just a part of the concepts for the Stick Alien Family. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/36304269/49dde80ff0557d195c2a1b2fd57712c6ed503308.png[/img] Take care and till next month! Maciek