Welcome to the first devlog of Codex Aetherium (or CA for short). In CA the player uncovers the mysteries of an ancient codex by solving various strategy puzzles. These puzzles are in the form of minimalistic turn-based battles, where the player is free to approach them in various ways. In general, I like to imagine it as a more puzzley and card gamey version of Into The Breach, coupled with some of the puzzle mystery found in The Witness. Of course this prototype still has a long road ahead to even hope to be compared to the likes of those games. In the next couple of posts I would like to talk about some of the current core mechanics of the game.

Be aware that the game is still a prototype: pretty much all visuals are subject to change in the future.

Iconography

In this first post we'll take a look at some of the iconography present in CA. The iconography serves two main purposes: it creates a layer of mystery as first-time players uncover what the symbols mean, and it serves as a concise description of ability effects. This first purpose might be somewhat unconventional, since we would expect the iconography to aid players rather than hinder them. However, I thought it was fitting to the theme that players will discover what the symbols mean by experimenting in the first tutorial battles. I still have to experiment and see to what extent this is an enjoyable mechanic. But, I find the iconography still thematic and useful as a description of abilities.

Two Basic Resources

As a starter, let's look at the basic resources of the units: notice the  and  icons under the unit in the picture below. Does this remind you of something?

It is meant to evoke health and mana, the former is the resource which attacks will typically decrease and the latter is the resource typically used to activate abilities. Though in CA, the lines between these concepts are blurred more than usual. For example, a unit also dies when it runs out of .

Both  and  are two of the three basic resources. The third one is , is slightly more complicated since it is a resource which is tracked per enemy for each friendly unit. It is essentially an aggro meter, because it often determines which friendly unit will be the target of an enemy attack.

Combining Icons

Certain icons combine to form new icons. For example  combined with - (the minus symbol) gives , which represents an action which decreases (in other words, a damage ability). The reason I choose this icon over using something like '- X ' is because of status effects. Status effects are one of the more complex aspects of CA, which will be covered in future posts. In short, status effects need to represent on which actions they will trigger. So an armor status can state that it reacts to a  effect, rather than having to state that it reacts on 'an action which decreases '. If this is all is a bit unclear, don't worry, status effects will be covered in future posts.

Sneak Peek

Hopefully, this post is able to help you deciper what is going on in the sneak peek below!