Behind the Liminal Pt. 8: Lost Souls - The Cutting Room Floor

Adjusting my scope and cutting down on extra content was pretty much necessary for Stuck in the Liminal to be completed. My tighter-than-usual schedule gave me very little time to work on the game earlier on, and even if I was able to finish to my vision it took many sacrifices to get there.

Reid Shadow Legends

That’s what the game was going to be called before I committed to Stuck in the Liminal. Was hoping someone else would use the name for this jam but it didn’t happen. Maybe next year.

How Many Colors?!

Stuck in the Liminal, albeit my comfiest conclusion to a Harold Jam, was still an insane deadline rush. This factors in only including four colors and four floors for the main dungeon.

So yeah, there were going to be seven at first.

It was simple. The Colors of Life uses seven colors, six of which affect the usual RPG stats and a Regeneration stat which affects healing moves. SITL is a TCOL prototype. Why not mirror that system? A day before jam time started, I was really planning to move forward with this.

Symbolically enough, this revelation came around when I was trying to draw an icon for a chosen color using a hexagon instead of a triangle. This had to be a 10x10 graphic upscaled to 30x30, yet even at 16x16 it was unbelievably frustrating to get right and looked squished. I threw it in the TCOL Discord for peer review, and almost immediately Mooglerampage suggested potentially scoping down to four colors counting white. Even if only Attack, Defense, and Speed were factored in, the overall point of the battle system would come across. On top of this, learning seven colors and balancing six stats would have been impossible to memorize for a jam game that had to be less than an hour long. I grew attached to this idea far quicker than I feel like I should’ve, and even if it meant turning into a second Omori it was definitely for the better. Common Moogle W.

First Battle, Worst Battle

I originally had the Technicolor Slime set up as the first battle in the entire game, but every single tester had problems fighting it. While my idea was to mimic the Stuck in the Past Big Slime fight, it turns out throwing the most specialized battle in the game which requires you to be the right color at the right moment isn’t an ideal first battle. The Technicolor Slime also exploded into the three slimes on the first floor instead of simply spawning them and running away. I feel having the Technicolor Slime as the first guardian rather than the first battle works better in every way; you get to learn the battle system from the first few Slimes and it adds tension to the story. In retrospect, this is how I plan to handle a similar battle in TCOL so I don’t know what I was thinking.

Actions And Abilities?!

While each party member has a unique moveset as is, I also wanted them to be able to use their overworld abilities in combat! Reid’s was Aspect changing, but Kasey’s would have been recoloring enemies to buff one stat and nerf another. This would have meant changing the enemy into a colored variation for each skill, stats and all. No thanks. I even considered just doing the stat buffs and nerfs before scrapping it entirely.

The reason abilities in combat went down the toilet was because it was impeding progress as I struggled to think about what abilities Alex and Ralph could have. In a fast-paced jam environment, you have to let go of those ambitious ideas if they take up too much time and don’t contribute to the core of the game. At the end of the day, a finished game is far more important than a cool mechanic in an unfinished entry that could have been a standout.

The White Enemies That Weren’t

I actually created a White Slime and a White Soul that didn’t make it into the game! I didn’t really pre-plan each encounter before creating enemy variations, and since most encounters emphasized more specialized colors they just didn’t make it in. Doesn’t really make a difference in the end, but it serves as a reminder to know what will be included in a game and plan accordingly.

Camouflage Cooldown

One of my takeways from the prototype that came before SITL was to implement an efficient cooldown system for camouflaging. This did not happen at all due to time constraints, although I doubt anyone would want to play the entire game in camouflage anyway.

Bonus Boss

I planned to have an extra room that would be accessed from the white room in the tower. It would have a boulder guarding it, requiring you to backtrack from the final floor and use Ralph’s overworld ability to push it out of the way. This would lead to a pitch-black puzzle which would have either utilized every party member’s skills or simply been a game of Sokoban. Clearing the path would lead to a single red enemy, and I damn well knew who it would be.

Who else but SITP fan favorite Unga Bunga? I even had a battler in the database for him before I nuked this whole room due to scope. He would have the same as he was in SITP but with more HP and colors for each of his moves. I was extremely excited for this, but I remembered to put my time into the parts of the game the player would see first and foremost from last year’s Harold Jam. Unga Bunga did get a shoutout during the final battle, so he’s there in spirit.

Theme6-Channels

I wanted to re-arrange Theme6-bit from Stuck in the Past to match the expanded chiptune sound I used in SITL. Didn’t happen. I had no time at that point and it would’ve been super annoying and time-consuming. Additionally, Theme6-bit worked out because it’s literally SITP Harold. He immediately starts talking about his menu and stuff, like come on. It’s that Harold. It could be argued that Theme6-Channels would have represented his growth and stuff but no.

Reid Vs. Harold

My original plan for the final battle was a repeat duel with Harold! I didn’t even intend to have a full party at first; just Reid going at it solo. He would have found out he didn’t have enough Facets to get home but Harold would have had the remaining facets on hand. Harold would have been superpowered by Reid’s sword during the fight, but I struggled to figure out how to have Harold play off the color-based battle system. I think at one point I considered him putting on a differently colored jacket because it was cold in the Liminal. Funnily enough, this would have inadvertently been a reference to an old idea for a TCOL prototype involving a boy with a technicolor dreamcoat.

When Violet Spinel took control of SITL the one day I was completely unable to work on it, he came up with the ending that made it into the game. The whole party realizes the only way to make it out is to use Reid’s crystal, and Harold appears at the nick of time to give Reid his sword back and get caught up in the fight. I loved this not only as a plot point but as a fitting final battle, even if I don’t think I executed it well story-wise. Reid changes his Aspects and fights alongside Harold, a neutral battler who can use moves of any color, against three powerful enemies of each color. Violet also crapped out the final battler sprites immediately in like two seconds because he’s a chad, and that’s when it was set in stone.

Where Are They Now?

If you’ve played SITL in full, you’ll know the game ends once everyone who can teleport away does, leaving the Liminal mostly empty. If you haven’t, then sorry for the spoiler. However, my original plan was to show Reid, Kasey, and whoever else came along arriving in Emvi and heading off! This was supposed to make SITL a definitive conclusion to the SITP series since this was also Human’s last Harold Jam.

Additionally, my original plan was to have the player choose who makes it out! The options were to leave Harold or Kasey behind, along with the true ending if you got all the Facets. If you chose Kasey, both would arrive in Emvi, Reid would once again tell Kasey they’d never leave each other’s sides, and they’d head off to defeat Balthazar once and for all. If you chose Harold, Reid would arrive back in Emvi and Harold would follow him and practically drag him to Balthazar’s castle! If you got the true ending, then Alex and Ralph would also join Reid, Kasey, and Harold in Emvi. Someone would make a quip about having too many people for a RPG party as they all head off.

Obviously time was the biggest reason this branching ending route got cut. Emvi was planned to be a RTP map, so setting everything up and changing the window skins, fonts, and especially portraits would have been a massive time sink and a real pain at that. It could have even been a repeat of SITP where I got hung up over changing the transparency of the windows for days on end. Additionally, I felt having Reid suddenly turn his back on Kasey would be a garbage ending and I felt lack of time was a good excuse to nix it altogether.

Tonight, voting for Harold Jam 2023 ends and the results will be announced. As results are finalized, let's do an in-depth Analysis of the results of the Stuck in the Liminal Completion Form!