🛣️ THE SHATTERED LOST SOUL — DEVELOPMENT ROADMAP

🧩 Phase 1 – Story Intro & Prologue Integration

🎯 Goal:

Create the true beginning of the game before the current demo content.

✅ Tasks:

• Add a playable Story Intro / Prologue:

  • Playable scenes in Bellona’s parents’ house.

  • Escape event from the house during a traumatic or horror sequence.

  • Travel through the forest (with light gameplay or horror tension).

  • Arrival at Grandmother’s house.

  • Receive apartment + first Gas Station job.

• Seamlessly transition into the current Week 1 Demo.

🌆 Phase 2 – Expanding Week 1

🎯 Goal:

Deepen the emotional and mechanical content of the already existing demo.

✅ Tasks:

• Add new story events, dialogue, and scenes.

• Develop Bellona's psychological state further (e.g., dreams, subtle trauma effects).

• Add minor choices with consequences, even if delayed.

• Possibly introduce one or two new characters as foreshadowing or background.

🧪 [Possible Demo Release – Experimental Add-On to Concept Demo]

A soft/demo build showcasing the new intro + expanded Week 1, without major system changes.
Purpose: Player feedback, tone testing, and narrative clarity check.

🤝 Phase 3 – More Characters & Relationship System Setup

🎯 Goal:

Build out the cast and lay the groundwork for relationship-based branching.

✅ Tasks:

• Introduce more characters (coworkers, neighbors, mystery figures).

• Add basic relationship tracking (Friendship, Trust, Attraction, Suspicion).

• Include small scenes tied to relationship levels to hint at upcoming paths.

📅 Phase 4 – The Second Week & Route Divergence

🎯 Goal:

Deliver Week 2 with meaningful branching into 3 main narrative routes.

✅ Tasks:

• Write and implement full Week 2 gameplay.

• Branch the narrative into 3 unique routes (A, B, C), each with:

  • Multiple endings

  • Major narrative decisions

• First Side Switch Event: player controls a different character.

• Route selection is influenced by stats, choices, and relationships.

📊 Phase 5 – Activate the Stat System (Core Gameplay Feature)

🎯 Goal:

Begin tying stat levels to gameplay consequences.

✅ Tasks:

• Implement consequences/events triggered by:

  • Depression

  • Stress

  • Hygiene

  • Job Skill, etc.

• Add scene variants based on Action Points, Mood, or Motivation.

• Ensure Stats are reactive and visible to the player.

🎯 THE FIRST MAJOR DEMO RELEASE

✅ Includes:

• Full Story Intro + Prologue

• Expanded Week 1

• Full Week 2 with Route Setup

• New Characters + Relationships

• Active Stat Consequences
  🎯 Purpose: This is the primary vertical slice that defines tone, mechanics, and story pathing.

📆 Phase 6 – Full Month of Gameplay

🎯 Goal:

Deliver a complete 4-week narrative loop, with deep route exploration.

✅ Tasks:

• Add Weeks 3 & 4 for each of the 3 narrative routes.

• Introduce side characters, subplots, and major choice-based branches.

• Include Route Endings:

  • Some routes loop into Prologue scenes.

  • Others diverge into entirely unique fates.

• Reinforce psychological and emotional themes with visual and mechanical feedback.

🌠 [Possible Demo Release – Full Route Demo]

✅ Includes:

• Month-long progression

• Multiple endings

• Route recap or journal system
  🎯 Purpose: Allow testers to explore complete narratives and see the scope of the game's design.

🌾 Phase 7 – After Stories & Epilogues

🎯 Goal:

Provide closure and expanded gameplay for players who reach a route ending.

✅ Tasks:

• Add After Stories for 2 of the main routes:

  • 🧺 Farming & Married Life

  • 🏙️ American “Dream” Survival Life (job, childcare, survival, etc.)

• Offer long-term consequence scenes, new mechanics like:

  • Raising a child

  • Budgeting and planning

  • Maintaining mental health

• Explore legacy choices from the main game influencing post-end life.

🏁 FULL GAME RELEASE

✅ Includes everything:

• Prologue + Gas Station

• Full month of branching gameplay

• Reactive systems

• 3 major narrative routes

• After Stories
  🎯 Goal: Deliver a cohesive, haunting, and emotionally immersive psychological life simulation game.