The Eldritch Codex – Dev Blog 92
The lore of Fringe Planet is vast. It’s a world I’ve been developing for years now, filling it with stories and details. What happened to the Brizo? If the Aspects are so powerful, why don’t they just kill the peons? Why is there a dimension hopping cat?
There are many different stories to explore in the game – but how do you keep track of it all? The answer is simple – the Eldritch Codex. The Eldritch Codex is a persistent book that can be accessed via the main menu (and potentially the pause menu once I get around to it). It contains a database of all the lore you have discovered through the game.
Codex fragments can be discovered in varies ways as you play Fringe Planet – doing certain things or encountering creatures for the first time will give you a Codex Fragment about the activity/creature. Certain rituals will also unlock Codex Fragments. Finally, you can discover Codex Fragments in mounds.
Once a Codex Fragment has been unlocked, it will be revealed in the Eldritch Codex, meaning you can read the lore at any point. It’s important to state that you won’t unlock all the Codex Fragments in one play through of the game. But Eldritch Codex unlocks remain persistent over all games. Meaning every time you discover a new Codex Fragment, you are working towards unlocking the entire Eldritch Codex. The UI for the Eldritch Codex is pretty bare bones at the moment, it’s something I’ll be working on in the future.
There is currently no reward for completely filling the Eldritch Codex, but most likely there will be a Steam achievement associated with it. Once you have all the Codex Fragments, you’ll start to understand a lot more about the universe Fringe Planet is set in, and it should help you answer any questions about what exactly is going on.
Finally, I know not everyone enjoys lore in games. Which is fine – the lore itself isn’t essential to play the game. But in case you really hate lore – there is an option to disable Codex Fragments from dropping when setting up the game.
There is a lot more to read about Fringe Planet… why not try: