Greetings and salutations,

A few updates and ramblings this time around.

First, I've mostly completed my editor script updates. Below you can see what this looks like. Although it is probably anticlimactic, this means a much more efficient workflow. The blessings and the abilities that they grant are subassets of the succubus queens now, which means I only have one place to check if there is an error regarding one of them. I've done the same for the abilities that are built in to the succubi, as well as those granted by the weapons.

Second, I've been doing different thought experiments regarding how perks should work. Perks would be like the upgrades you get from the Mirror of Night in Hades, or the mutations in Dead Cells, or the crown upgrades in Cult of the Lamb. My original idea was to have them be selected from a menu, but this is quite...vanilla. My second idea was to use the Qabbalah (or Kabbalah) Tree of Life. The Tree of Life is made of ten sefirot linked by different paths. Each sefirot has obscure and poorly articulated meanings, which makes it perfect for a game system designer to impose his/her own interpretation on.

This has been referenced countless times in many different movies and games (for example, Cyberpunk 2077, Neon Genesis Evangelion, and many others), but I don't recall seeing it used essentially as a skill tree. There are two ways one could go about this. The first is just by assigning each sefirot a different perk, and having them unlock in sequence from Malkhut (at the bottom) to Keter (at the top). Each path between the sefirot would indicate a requirement. So, buying the perk associated with Malkhut would unlock Yesod, Netzach and Hod, for example. The second is by having the player build a unique tree of life themselves. You see, the Tree of Life is roughly based on a hexagonal tiling pattern, which means it can fill space. Once you get going, you could expand in many different directions infinitely. From what I understand, in some mystical traditions, this supposedly matches the infinite nature of God. There would be restrictions, however, on what sefirot match to which others. So if you rotate Malkhut (and by extension the tree of life that would come out of it) clockwise by 60 degree, Malkhut could match to itself, Netzach, Chesed, or Chokmah. By rotating it 60 degrees counterclockwise, it could match with itself, Hod, Geburah, and Binah.

My other idea regarding the Tree of Life was that blessings should actually use this system. Since it is randomly decided what blessings the player will get, it makes more sense to have the player build a unique Tree of Life each time.

I really like the idea of using Kabbalah, as it has not been used in this way (to my knowledge), and it resonates with the rest of the game, drawing from Jewish sources and mysticism.

Lastly, I do have one negative announcement. I'll be teaming up with some other developers who I've done  game jam projects with in the past for the next 3 weeks, so my focus will be on that project. I'll be returning to Battle Succubi after March 15th.