{"id":156,"date":"2025-06-11T15:18:35","date_gmt":"2025-06-11T20:18:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.player42games.com\/?p=156"},"modified":"2025-06-12T14:19:48","modified_gmt":"2025-06-12T19:19:48","slug":"back-from-the-dead-catching-aura-inc-up-to-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.player42games.com\/?p=156","title":{"rendered":"Back from the Dead (Catching AURA Inc. Up to 2025)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">My last development post went up in late\u202f2023, right as I was assembling the first physical prototype. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1210\" height=\"681\" src=\"https:\/\/www.player42games.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/image-edited.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-158\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.player42games.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/image-edited.png 1210w, https:\/\/www.player42games.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/image-edited-300x169.png 300w, https:\/\/www.player42games.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/image-edited-1024x576.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.player42games.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/image-edited-768x432.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1210px) 100vw, 1210px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Since then life has been one long boss\u2011level encounter:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>We packed up and moved.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>A full\u2011scale house renovation swallowed evenings and weekends.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>I married Katy and, plot twist, became a dad to little Charlotte this March.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>And work never eased off the throttle.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">AURA\u202fInc. never stopped lurking in the background. I kept a running Google\u202fKeep list of half\u2011baked mechanics, creepy event ideas, and the occasional \u201cwhat if the ghost did this?\u201d brainstorm session. Forward momentum, though, was basically zero.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Haunt Intensifies<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Honestly, things haven&#8217;t slowed down that much but life has more of a rhythm than it has in a long time. It feels like I could carve out dev time for the game so I&#8217;m getting back at it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One thing I have had time to do is think. While Charlotte is feeding or napping, I can think. And that&#8217;s led me to question many fundamentals of AURA Inc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Map Format<\/strong>?<br>&#8211; <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Point-to-point<\/span> like <em>Stop Thief!<\/em> &#8211; This is the movement style I&#8217;ve used up to this point for the game map. Players move 3 places per action between points that are connected with little footstep symbols.<br>&#8211; <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Hex grid<\/span> like <em>Gloomhaven<\/em> &#8211; I&#8217;ve considered a map made up of hexagons to allow players a little more freedom than point-to-point but still structured.<br>&#8211; <span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Modular tiles<\/span> like <em>Mansions of Madness<\/em> &#8211; The house could be made of modular tiles so that each game is different but movement paths would be more limited.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Co-op or 1-versus-Many?<\/strong><br>I&#8217;ve put a lot of thought and effort into making the house and ghost feel active and reactive against a team of ghost hunting players. However, could the game be more interesting if one player gets to play as the ghost? I have some ideas.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>&#8220;Lite&#8221; version first?<\/strong><br>Perhaps I should build a stripped\u2011down, 30\u2011minute version focused on evidence hunting. I&#8217;d be able to stress\u2011test the core of the game without having to develop campaign stories and full banishment rituals.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What&#8217;s Next?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The next step: <strong>app-assisted prototypes<\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I know, I know. I said in 2023 that I don&#8217;t want the game to be app-assisted, and I&#8217;m sticking to that for the final version. However, I can more rapidly prototype if some of the heavy lifting is done with a web app during the development phase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I can relatively quickly spin up HTML\/JS web apps that can handle things like the various cards, evidence checks, house events, etc. Changing the content on the cards is as easy as changing JSON entries. I don&#8217;t have to keep writing out new cards when I want to make a change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">So that&#8217;s what I&#8217;m working on. A web app that will handle the backend of the game while we play with a minimal amount of physical pieces on the table.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>My last development post went up in late\u202f2023, right as I was assembling the first physical prototype. Since then life has been one long boss\u2011level encounter: AURA\u202fInc. never stopped lurking in the background. I kept a running Google\u202fKeep list of half\u2011baked mechanics, creepy event ideas, and the occasional \u201cwhat if the ghost did this?\u201d brainstorm [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":158,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.player42games.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.player42games.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.player42games.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.player42games.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.player42games.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=156"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.player42games.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":159,"href":"https:\/\/www.player42games.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/156\/revisions\/159"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.player42games.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.player42games.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.player42games.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.player42games.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}