SPIRIT Devlog 3: Meet the gang

In this devlog I'll talk about the game's main characters, both inside and outside your head –you have the three main characters that make up your flatshare and five so-called Primary Skills, which are various aspects of your personality that will make up your inner monologue and help you overcome challenges related to them. For example, reading between the lines when someone talks to you might require you to pass a Heart check. To veterans from Disco Elysium, this concept will be familiar to you. Note that in addition to the primary skills, there's also attributes like fitness and awareness, but they will be shaped by ingame actions rather than skill points, and they will not directly talk to you. 

H&M + Nora: The flatshare

Hanna Sofie
The game's chaotic hero –or antihero, depending on your approach, Hanna is a Sogndal expat* who is retaking the first uni year. At this point in development she's a bit of a blank slate, and since she's the main character, maybe to some degree she will stay that way. I will probably end up giving her a lot more characterization, though.

Maja
Your childhood friend from Sogndal, Maja is a 'busy bee' with lots of balls in the air, and the most 'grown-up' member of the trio. You moved to Bergen together to study geography, but since she didn't spend all of her first year drinking and partying, she's now a year ahead of you. She seems to have her whole life in order and starts every day with a morning run, and in the afternoons she can often be found on the couch with her Macbook and a mug of tea. You and Maja go way back, and she'll be your biggest supporter throughout the game.

Nora
Nora is your second flatmate and your closest geography classmate. A true nature lover who frequently goes on hikes and camping trips, and takes responsibility for buying and tending to the apartment's many plants and flowers. I can't quite decide if she's going to be an old friend or someone Hanna and/or Maja got to know and grew close with during their first year. Maybe she studied something else last year and got to know the others through some student organization?  Either way, given she's the one who will have to endure your antics during lectures and group work sessions, she has plenty reason to be frustrated with you, and you will have to work to earn her respect.

Primary skills
These are your primary skills, as presented in the game when you assign skill points. I might add more skills if I see the need, but I really doubt I'll remove any of them as I'm increasingly growing attached to them.

Butterfly
Get out in the world. Chase those endorphins.
GOOD FOR: Happy-go-lucky party girls, university students who still want a social life, drunken wildcats

Butterfly is that all-important part of your brain that is there to remind you to put your textbook down, let those dirty dishes wait, and get out in the world and live a little. High Butterfly is your drive for unforgettable nights with friends, late-evening university events (often with free pizza), and those all-important treks up rainy mountains. You'll constantly be chasing another dose of endorphins and those elusive Memories For Life. On low Butterfly, it will be easier to be a focused, mature student on top of your studies (and an actually valuable member of group projects), but you might just find yourself reading the same paragraph over and over in study hall, having just passed up a trip to the park that would probably have cleared your head. Is that really the university life you want to remember?

Heart
Tune in to unspoken language. Be a people person.
GOOD FOR: Valued friends, good listeners, social animals.

Heart is your ability to read and empathize with your fellow human beings, and to quickly process what's thrown at you in conversations. On high Heart, you'll notice that subtle body language and those slight shifts in tone of voice. You'll be able to read between the lines and realize when your friend is trying to tell you something, or that the person explaining themselves to you is lying. On low Heart, you will tend to take things at face value. Social cues and subtle hints will fly high over your head, and you may miss those all-important red flags that indicate someone doesn't have your best interests at heart.

Hippocampus
Understand nature and society. Be an academic weapon
GOOD FOR: Book worms, walking encyclopaedias, ambitious university students

Hippocampus is your accumulated knowledge from textbooks, nature documentaries, and the lectures you actually went to last year. On high Hippocampus, you'll come prepared, able to chase those As and Bs and be a valuable member of group projects rather than a constant source of irritation. On Low Hippocampus, you'll have to work harder to find information when you need it, and you will have to work harder to put two and two together.

(I'm not sure how well it comes across, but it's meant to be a girl looking at her younger self in the mirror.)

Reflection
Retrace your footsteps. Look at the big picture.
GOOD FOR: Thoughtful girls, wise friends, young adults stuck in the past.
Also (inversely) determines Awareness.

Recollections and wisdom, ever-churning thought processes. With high Reflection, you'll be constantly going through old memories in your mind. Everything will take you back, and you'll constantly be reflecting on those old experiences. You will be able to analyze your past and learn from it, but you may find yourself easily distracted, endlessly mulling over that party, those rejections, and what you said to that poor woman on the bus that day. On low Reflection, you'll be living in the moment. You won't as easily connect the dots and relate to your past, but you will notice things around you that may be missed by those with their heads in the clouds.

Spirit
Pick yourself up. Stay on top of life.
GOOD FOR: Strong girls, fighters, survivors.
Also determines maximum Sanity.

Spirit's got your back. She's your life experience, coping skills, ever-present guardian, and loyal buddy, always there with life advice and a pat on the shoulder. More than anything, however, Spirit is your rationality and self-restraint, always there to keep you safe. On high Spirit, you'll brush off setbacks and embarrassments that would reduce lesser people to tears and weather storms with flying colours, but you'll also be constantly second-guessing yourself. Should you think things over one more time before you chat up that cute student after the seminar? Are you sure your resume is good enough, or should you go over it again? On low Spirit, you'll be throwing yourself at life like a drunken wildcat, but there will be no one to hold your hand when things get bad. And then how will you make it through the day?

*Bergen has such a multicultural heritage from when it was a Hansa League city that its inhabitants still boast today that 'they're not from Norway, they're from Bergen'.