Crew, Wagons, and Making Bad Decisions Hurt
If the first dev log was about the vibe, this one's about the systems that make Void Merchant work.
A lot of these ideas came from me asking one question over and over:
"How do I make loss matter without making the game miserable?"
Crew Are People, Not Numbers
Your crew isn't just HP bars.
Each crew member has health states:
- Healthy
- Injured
- Critical
- Dead
When someone drops to zero HP, they don't magically bounce back. They get injured. That injury comes with real consequences.
An injured crew member might lose access to one of the cards or actions they normally provide. A scout might stop helping you avoid ambushes. A guard might no longer be reliable in a fight.
When someone hits Critical, things get scary. Death is always on the table. And when it happens, it's permanent.
No resurrection. No reload to undo it.
Replacing skilled crew is hard, and usually worse than limping forward with someone barely holding on.
Damage Changes How You Play
I really like games where getting hurt doesn't just mean "numbers go down."
In Void Merchant, damage reshapes your options.
Lose the wrong crew member and suddenly your whole strategy shifts. Routes that were safe aren't anymore. Fights you could handle become terrifying. You start making different choices, not because the game told you to, but because you have to.
That's the kind of pressure I want the systems to create.
Your Wagon Is Your Lifeline
The wagon isn't just inventory space. It's basically your character sheet.
It has:
- Health and damage states
- Modular slots
- Synergies based on the wagon type and upgrades
You can install modules like cargo holds, medical bays, crystal amplifiers, defensive plating, and more. Different wagons support different playstyles. Some are slow and tanky. Some are fast and fragile. None are perfect.
Damage to the wagon matters. A busted module might knock out a core part of your build until you can repair it, if you survive long enough to try.
Trade Has Consequences
Cities aren't neutral vending machines.
Each one has its own needs, politics, laws, and grudges. What's profitable in one place might get you hunted in another.
Selling weapons. Smuggling supplies. Choosing who you help and who you don't. Reputation follows you, sometimes faster than your wagon.
There's no universal "good" path. Just trade-offs that stack up over time.
Runs End, Knowledge Doesn't
Void Merchant uses roguelike structure, but I don't want it to feel disposable.
When a run ends, the world doesn't reset like nothing mattered. You carry knowledge forward. Systems unlock. Factions change. You get better, even when things go badly.
Failure isn't a waste. It's part of learning how this world works.
Still Early, But the Direction Feels Right
This project is very much still in progress, but the core pillars feel solid:
- The road is dangerous
- Loss changes how you play
- Survival is about adaptation, not perfection
Future dev logs will go deeper into combat, encounters, factions, and progression. This is just laying the groundwork.
If you like games about making hard calls under pressure and living with the fallout, you'll probably like where this is going.
More soon.