Collectems - Death and Genes, a Primer

written by lbunclejoe

Hello there, and welcome to week 2 of our Collectems development diary!

We’ve mentioned elsewhere that we’re doing a lot of different things to incentivize player choice. While we’re not quite ready to discuss the full extent of these choices, we would like to take a moment and get into something that goes hand-in-hand with the kind of decision-making we’ll be expecting from the player: permanent death.

When a Collectem dies in battle, it’s gone for good. Regardless of how they went out, regardless of how much or how little they were able to accomplish before the end, you won’t be getting them back. It’s important to us that the player remain adaptable, and so even with the cruelty of permanent death we want to provide a number of ways for you to deal with these unfortunate losses. Since Collectems are inherently expendable, our level cap is going to be much lower than most other RPGs. Right now our target number is 30, though it could easily change as development continues. With a lower cap like this, training up a new team after a major loss wouldn’t be as much of a time sink.

There’s also more to a Collectem’s potential than their level, which brings us to the topic of gene therapy. The world of Collectems is one that has made its creatures into mundane commodities, toys to be played with and tools to be used, and like real world objects that have lost their usefulness, they can be taken apart and recycled. When a Collectem dies, it will leave behind a random array of stats, moves, traits, and/or abilities in the form of gene clusters. Gene clusters are items that can be used on your other Collectems, effectively passing on the attributes of the deceased to a new generation. Every Collectem also has a Gene Quality, which can be increased in a handful of different ways. The better the Gene Quality the dying Collectem has, the more (and better) gene clusters you’ll get. Even at the highest level, though, you won’t be able to salvage everything from your fallen friends.

You can also pay people to “junk” your Collectems, sacrificing it on purpose to convert specific attributes into gene clusters. Would this Collectem species’ innate ability work way better with your party leader’s type and movepool? Just junk it and pass it on! Have a Collectem with a great moveset that you never plan to use? Take it to the junker and give those attacks to your heavy hitters. The only things you can’t pass on are a creature’s type(s), gender, and species. Smart use of gene clusters will allow you to craft Collectems far better than the originals ever could have been. Sure, it might be a bit morbid, but genetic modification will be an undeniably useful asset on your adventure because of this. If you've ever played Parasite Eve, you can think of this as a more robust version of that game’s weapon modding system.



We’re hoping that the threat of death and the bittersweet acquisition of gene clusters help the encounters in Collectems elicit a wider range of emotions than they might otherwise be able to, and we can’t wait to see what sorts of highs and lows people go through through as a result.



Until next time, everyone!