Down in the basement
This is the first post in our devlog. We’ll write here as Unaccounted comes along.
Our work starts in the basement of Habitation Block 17. It’s the only level so far, and it’s playable now: a corridor, the laundry, the boiler room, a maintenance room and the archive.
Six of the twelve residents wait in the corridor. You can’t talk to them yet, but they already have habits of their own. One taps his cane, one has the hiccups, and one rocks on her toes. When you come near, they turn to look at you.
Time moves only when you act. Each day runs from seven in the morning to midnight, and the clock moves on only when something costs you time, such as opening a door. Nothing is timed, so you can stop and think for as long as you like.
Your report takes shape in the census register. You sit at the custodian’s desk, open the Resident Directory and fill in a form for each apartment: whether anyone lives there, who they are and what they do. The game never tells you whether a single answer is right. Only when three addresses are right do they lock in together.
We’re building accessibility in from the start. Almost every control can be remapped, and crouch, sprint and scan can be toggles instead of holds. You can play with a keyboard alone, a controller alone or a mouse alone, and with the mouse nothing has to be held down. Sound captions show what you hear and where it comes from. There are three text sizes, a high-contrast mode, colorblind filters and screen reader support. We haven’t tested the screen reader support with NVDA or Narrator yet, so that comes next.
You can save at any time, in ten slots, with quick saves and autosaves alongside them.
We’ll post here as the rest of the building opens up.