Plan of Works
The line below has three parts: solid is what's done, dashes are what's ahead, and today I'm somewhere in between.
At workOpening cutscene at the cave
Station I — Complete
Foundations
The valley, the troll, and the core systems
21 of 21 works complete
Narrative & Text
- Tone doctrine, IP strategy, and naming
- Story bible: protagonist, dragon, raven, and the Act 2 chain
- Scene-by-scene structure of the prologue
Player Mechanics
- Troll movement: weight, stamina, blocking, combos
- Grabbing and throwing enemies and objects
- Breakable crates and barrels
AI & NPCs
- NPC architecture: base enemy, event bus, components
- Bandit daily routines
- NPC builds: bandits, wolves, farmer, leader, daughter
- Cross-skeleton animation and blueprint hierarchy
Dialogue, Quests & Investigation
- Dialogue system integration
- Quest system: story manager, quest data, tracker UI
- Interaction prompt
Audio & Facial Animation
- First sounds, music tests, troll voice test
Level Art & Scenes
- Mesh terrain, terrain material, and painting the map
- Procedural grass across the map
- Roads with runtime virtual texture blending
- Water
- Wheat fields with interactive vegetation
- Bandit camp — level art
- The farm — level art
Station II — Underway
Skeleton
The prologue plays start to finish
5 of 29 works complete
Narrative & Text
- The people of the valley: names and characters
- Revising the texts
- Lore and the valley's economy
Player Mechanics
- Boulder throwing — first pass
AI & NPCs
- Goblins
- mesh
- animation
- pest AI
- grab and drop reactions
- The alpha wolf as a character
- Wolf pack: group behaviour and reinforcements
- The trapped wolf: scene, interaction, animation
- Dragon boss
- flight
- attacks
- damage — first pass
Dialogue, Quests & Investigation
- Raven dialogue graph — draft
- Farmer and daughter dialogue graphs — draft
- Bandit leader dialogue graph — draft
- Alpha wolf dialogue graph — draft
- Ambient interaction lines — placeholders
- Investigation mode
- clue highlighting
- deductions
- progress
- Quest data assets for every scene
- World flags and choice memory
- End-to-end playthrough of all four routes
Cutscenes
- Cutscene system: sequencer pipeline, entry and exit, skipping
- Cutscene placeholders across the full playthrough
Level Art & Scenes
- Wolf den — traversable blockout
- The caravan wreck site
- The troll's cave — interior blockout
- The bridge in four states
- Boss arena at the bridge
- Time-of-day and weather presets
Station III — Ahead
Flesh
Combat feel, effects, and the valley polished
0 of 28 works complete
Player Mechanics
- New combat moves — design
- New combat moves — animation
- New combat moves — implementation and tuning
- Impact feel
- hitstop
- camera shake
- hit VFX
- audio hooks
- Boulder throwing: arc, weight, and tuning
- Camera polish: combat, tight spaces, cutscene handoffs
AI & NPCs
- Combat AI depth
- flanking
- retreat
- blocking
- fighting in groups
- Bandit versus leader: movesets, timings, attack telegraphs
- Dragon boss: phases, telegraphs, polish
- Non-combat NPC reactions to the troll
Dialogue, Quests & Investigation
- Persistent story state and saving
Cutscenes
- Opening cutscene at the cave
- Storm night cutscene
- Bandit camp cutscene
- Parting with the pack
- Act 3 aftermath cutscene
- Final cutscene and credits
Level Art & Scenes
- The farm — finishing pass and chickens
- Wolf den — level art
- Trees across the map
- Rocks, branches, bushes, small detail
- The troll's cave — the interior
- Lighting design per scene
Station IV — Ahead
Voice
Full voice-over, music, and sound
0 of 22 works complete
Narrative & Text
- Act 0 script
- Act 1 script — the investigation
- Act 2 script — the shared path
- Act 2 script — the branches
- Act 3 script
- Quest text: titles, descriptions, and objectives
- Editorial pass: one voice across every line
- Assembling the full story bible
Dialogue, Quests & Investigation
- Raven dialogue graph — final lines
- Farmer and daughter dialogue graphs — final lines
- Bandit leader dialogue graph — final lines
- Alpha wolf dialogue graph — final lines
- Ambient interaction lines — final
Audio & Facial Animation
- Voice-over pipeline: casting, naming convention, import
- Recording and proofing every line
- Line timings and subtitle sync
- Facial animation for the human cast
- Jaw-bone lip sync for the animals
- Combat and physics sound design
- Ambience and nature sound
- The dragon and its wrong fire
- Music: main theme, combat, finale
Station V — Ahead
On Its Feet
Menus, saves, and the release build
0 of 12 works complete
Narrative & Text
- Ukrainian and Russian subtitle translation
Dialogue, Quests & Investigation
- Final pass across all four routes
Level Art & Scenes
- Performance and optimisation
Release Wrap
- Main menu
- Settings: graphics, audio, controls, language
- Save system
- Final UI pass: HUD, journal, dialogue, prompts
- Localisation: EN/UA/RU string system
- Build packaging and testing on other hardware
- Steam page, capsules, screenshots, and store build
- Playtest with five or more people, then fix
- Positioning, wishlists, and what comes after