Reaching Apoapsis - Developing the Angeoforms

 What are the Angeoforms and why are they important to the gameplay of Reaching Apoapsis?

Aside from building and managing your crew, another big mechanic within the game is communication and friendship building. In Project Hail Mary, I really enjoyed the concept of having to bridge a large communication gap with another species, and then from there learning more about each other's culture, behaviour, biology and planets. It's really sweet how Grace and Rocky's bond is shared over both of them having to do a seemingly impossible task, and despite their major differences, they share a tight friendship and have each other's backs. 

In our other games that include alien species such as Pioneers and Desoter, the aliens within those games fit into two categories:

- Many diverse species of aliens that all live together in harmony, their differences are understood and communication is easy between them due to their advanced technology and almost utopia like society.

- A handful of diverse species that HATE each other. there is little attempt to understand each other's perspectives and languages and theres a general sense of disharmony amongst the residents.

I want Reaching Apoapsis to lean more on the dynamic between Rocky and Grace, Hence the creation of the Angeoforms, a peaceful species relying on magnetism based communication. They're just as technologically advanced as humans, but due to their unique biology, understanding how their technology works and how to communicate with them is a hurdle the Apoapsis crew will need to overcome. There isn't any fighting in Reaching Apoapsis too, as that's not the point of the game. It's more about forging friendships and reaching a shared goal than brute forcing your way to your own victory. In that sense, it makes it a little more like Slip: Repainted in the sense its all about community.

Throughout the game, players will have to cobble together unique ways to communicate with the Angeoforms [also referred to as Stilts], building up trust with them to eventually add them to your crew. This kind of also plays into my love of making open ended problems, which mostly stems from how one of my friend's plays any roleplaying game we run for him. If there's a problem, by god he'll find a unique way to solve it, and that's what I love so much. Not having a strict way to overcome an issue makes for some really fun gameplay especially if you have a group of friends that really lean into the wackiness. Which in turn brings us back to one of my main inspirations, The Martian.

I recently just finished reading The Martian and what I really liked about it was how pretty much everything Mark Watney did was held together with duct tape and a dream. My god that Hab tarp must be the strongest thing in the world. Its both really funny and also genius with his workarounds to the problems he faced, and I certainly want that to be a mechanic within Apoapsis. You ran out of water? why not set fire to your rocket fuel to make some, hope you don't blow yourself up in the process! Ah, communications are down with NASA? that's ok, you remembered the location of an abandoned rover that hasnt been seen since the 90's, sure it barely works and you only get answers through the camera looking at signs you put up but dammit you're sure happy you have at least something that works! This is exactly the kind of thing I'm hoping to implement in Reaching Apoapsis, and I'm ever grateful to my good friend for helping us come up with stupid solutions that I would have never thought of.

Angeoform Lore -

Heres some concept art and info about Stilts/Angeoforms. As you can see I went for a very non human design, somewhat animalistic but also vaguely artificial/robotic looking. I wanted them to be very visually different and have that same lack of facial features that Rocky has to give even further of a communication gap. Humans are very good at understanding micro movements in facial features, its an unspoken form of communication, and so removing that from a creature design distances them even further from humans.

I do think that the Angeoforms feel a lot less alien in comparison to rocky, I think that's just because they have a more quadrupedal looking form [despite having 5 legs too], which allows us to kind of build a connection between them and some 4 legged creatures on earth. They sort of give the vibe of either a big cat, deer or giraffe, however are very similar to humans in the way that they live, understand the world, and their overall intelligence [in some way surpassing us]. I think this would give you the impression they would be very animalistic, and yet when you interact with them there's this strange feeling of being surprised they're not that different from us at all. I think for that reason it's ok that they're not as alien looking as the Eridians, after all I wasn't trying to make a 1:1 recreation of Project Hail Mary, theyre just a bit inspired by the same sort of purpose that rocky plays within the story.

Another really important aspect of making the Angeoforms different to humans, was considering the habitat they live in and how that affects their anatomy both internally and externally. Doing a bit of research on Trappist 1, their home planet, its very cold. Like, REALLY cold. And it's atmosphere mostly consists of a high concentration of Carbon Monoxide. Obviously, I'm no biologist, but i do know the basics of how the body works. To survive within this harsh environment of low gravity, CO rich atmosphere, cold temperatures and sparse food, the Angeoforms developed a wacky set of biological traits.

Here are my additional notes about their biology:

- Monotremes with small, squat young that they carry round in their fifth arm until they are ready to walk

- Ferrofluid is an iron rich mucus held firmly in the crest via internal magnetic field, they can eject small spurts of it when mad

- Fur protects internal organs, legs possess tough skin to stride over rocky terrain

- Mountain/tundra inhabiting

- Two major components of their diet, microbes and small airborne fauna, and iron rich minerals to support their magnetism

- No visible sexual dimorphism between males and females, this is in regards to stature, fur, or other identifiable features

- Angeoforms have several "Mouth" orifices lined with baleen and linking to the digestive and respiratory tract, They survive in a carbon monoxide rich environment, their lung tissue is also lined with platinum deposits, catalyzing the carbon monoxide into breathable oxygen.

- Living in lower gravity, the Angeoforms possess lightweight bones and long limbs that may experience fatigue in higher gravities. In space, stilts use their internal magnetism to cling to their ship's ground through their metallic feet, bypassing the need for centrifuges. 

- Stilts are extremely sensitive to radiation, having a much lower resistance to it than humans. They grow sick very quickly and can develop cancers at an accelerated rate.

There's also the matter of cultural differences between Angeoforms and Human civilisation, which builds another gap in communication and practices between the two species. On a similar level to humanity, possessing cities, complex economies surrounding precious metals, and space programs. They have no natural predators, but possess a deep instinctual prey mentality that causes them to be very cowardly in nature. Their cowardice is not to be interpreted as selfishness, they willingly fight their natural instincts if they fear their kind are at threat.

- They are deeply communal creatures, forming strong bonds with other Angeoforms for life. Polyamory is common amongst their kind, and although biologically having 3 separate sexes, they choose to identify as they wish. Many Angeoforms are raised by a community of elders rather than just 2 parental figures.

- Emotionally, they are very complex beings, though there are some overlaps with human emotions such as happiness, sadness, fear, anger, pride, intrigue, love, and compassion. Despite their docile nature, Angeoforms have been known to hold grudges with their enemies, much like humans.

- They often adorn clothing and decorations for special occasions, they are sentimental creatures that will often gift loved ones talismans that they wear underneath their more practical clothing. Talismans are especially important to astronauts, symbolizing their family's well wishes for their safety and success in their missions. They are also used as gravity indicators.

- Stilts live for a long time, 150 years on average, and so birthdays are not so much of a celebrated tradition among their culture.

- Religion is not commonly practiced amongst stilt culture, there are a few smaller organized beliefs surrounding worship of astral bodies and space frequencies, but most have not entertained the idea of a god, and are more science focused.

Reviewing this, Angeoforms may look at a lot of human concepts and practices and not quite understand why we do the things that we do, that's why it is important to communicate with these beings as it helps understand why each species does things a certain way. Both biology and cultural differences are also important when understanding each other's technology, as things that might seem obvious to us, may not be so for a species with an entirely different physiology, and vice versa.

I'll certainly be making more concept work of these guys soon! I definitely want to explore how the Angeoforms might construct buildings and also how they might wear clothing, as that is something a lot of them do.