Development on Profane continues and there’s a new update in the form of a Twitter thread from the Insane team regarding the last of the Primordial Elements that underlie the game’s mysterious world. This time around, the focus is on Mind.
Mind represents thought, future sight, and imagination, including idea generation as well as intelligence. With player abilities and world lore needing to come from somewhere, come the five ruling elements of the universe. In typical sandbox fashion, they aren’t inherently good or evil, so player choice remains wide open. It’s up to you how to approach your characters’ journeys and decide what they’re going to be like, what motivates them, and how they’ll use such powerful forces. These elements, Life, Shadow, Light, Instinct, and yes, Mind, influence all.
Essentially, Mind can be helpful to use to foresee terrible events to come in a way that you can warn and prepare for them. On the opposite side, you can also use it for harm by doing things like manipulating others and using powers like psychokinesis against them. It’s all in how you want to move through the world of Semisus.
In terms of the design thoughts as to the look and feel of each element, those are guided by what each of them represents and how it might be used. Mind is going to look or be driven by a sense of flow. In the Twitter thread describing Mind, the creative process from Profane’s VFX designer, Victor Natan, is described as Mind having a focus on “fluidity and connection” and he decided that that liquid would be the symbol that inspired what the visual sense of this Element and its subsequent power theming should be like.
More on the elements and the roles that they’ll play in Profane is still in development, but the use of Mind alongside the others broadens player possibilities.
