Devblog Record

2018/04/03 - Words from the producer
[1]

Hello fellow players, I'm the producer of Sdorica.

Long time no see, everyone. After overcoming countless obstacles, the launch date of the global version is finally confirmed to be on April 19th. To prepare for the marketing of the upcoming global launch, I was busy contacting and communicating with our marketing partners in the past almost two months. This is why this column went on a mysterious hiatus last month :P. In today's column, I will explain some adjustments that are expected to go live before the global launch, and the post-launch content update plans.

**New Battle UI**

As an attempt to better combine the control area visuals with the setting of the game, we plan to adjust the visuals of the battle UI. The UI will go from the current "Blocks" to "Orbs" in terms of appearance. We will also enhance the special effects when the orbs are combined to cast skills.

**Adjustment to IAP items**

After the Royal Gift hit the market, we were able to gradually receive feedback from the players. From the feedback, we understand that some players only want to purchase the "50 Crystals per day" part of the item. They don't need the Treasure Map and Crystal Mining Pass tie-in. To satisfy this need, we plan to introduce a new item: "Trading Permission" to replace the Royal Gift. The new item will be valid for 7 days and will give players 50 Crystals per day. (For still ongoing Royal Gifts, the remaining days will be transferred to Trading Permission.)

**About Glitter Dust**

After we introduced the guaranteed mechanic to the limited time Infuses, in order to balance the value between the limited Infuses and Million Infuse, we've added a new mechanic to Million Infuse: "Will now receive Glitter Dust after using Crystals to Infuse". After the next update, players will be able to use Glitter Dust to craft any character they don’t own yet (including SP characters). Since this mechanic offers players the free choice of which character to craft, we need to carefully consider how much Glitter Dust is required. The team is still figuring out a sufficient number, and we will also take other games' numbers into consideration. We also welcome players to give us some advice on this topic.

**New servers and launch events**

Currently, the only server available is the "Origin Library" server. We plan to add more Libraries on April 19th when the game launches globally. At the same time, we also planned a series of events to help new players level up. Players in the Origin Library server can participate in these events as well.

**Content update and future plans**

To ensure that players who joined after April 19th can also experience the character storyline of Theodore, Dylan, and Jahan, we've extended the time of these three events. Starting in May, the Main Storyline will continue to move forward. We will switch between Main Storyline chapters and a set of Character Storyline events for the updates.

For example, in the first week of May, we'll have Chapter 10 of the Main Storyline, followed by Nigel's (2nd Week), Yamitsuki's (3rd Week) and Aosta's (4th week) Character Storyline event, then followed by Chapter 11…etc. We plan to maintain an update schedule of having either Main Storyline, Character Storyline or holiday event each week.

In terms of designing the Collab game mode quests, we are leaning towards making them boss fights that feature only one wave of enemies but take many turns and have multiple stages. There will be two types of quest rewards: the "Personal Reward" that can only be collected once per day, and the "Team Reward" that can be collected repeatedly. The Team Rewards will require multiple players clearing the quests together. This means that in order to collect more scoring items, players will need to help other players and clear the quests together. We intend to find a weekend in May to launch a 3-day Collab game mode event to test the waters, then make further improvements based on the players' feedback.

**Conclusion**

After six months of closed beta and another six months of soft launch, Sdorica is finally ready for its global launch. Thank you to all the players who have been with the game and see its growth in the past year. We've prepared new stories, new characters and new gameplay that players will see very soon. The production team also has great confidence that Sdorica is ready for the world and that it can become Rayark's next classic. We hope everyone can continue to support and give us encouragement. See you next time.

2018/02/12 - Words from the producer
[2]

Hello fellow players, I'm the producer of Sdorica.

Another month has passed, and the global launch date of spring is creeping closer. In this letter, I would like to address the one thing most players care about: The Infuses. I will summarize what we learned in the past four months when it comes to the limited Infuses, and the direction we want to improve them in the future. Then, I will talk about the upcoming plans of the production team.

**About the Infuse events**

Sdorica is Rayark's first card-based RPG game. We pay great attention to the consumer experience of the players and will try our best to satisfy players with different spending habit. At the same time, we want to find the proper balance between cost and profit.

Since last September, we held many Infuse events. This included increasing the drop rate of existing characters, releasing new characters, doing limited Infuses for SP characters…etc. During each Infuse event, we meticulously collect feedback from player communities, analyze the numbers we got and improve based on what we learned.

With the experience obtained during last year's Sharice, Fredrica and Frost Festival Infuses, we made an adjustment to Million Infuse and the "guaranteed" mechanic on 1/31. Judging from the feedback of the recent Sione SP, the combination of "Guaranteed SR" and "1% chance for SP character" did not produce the results we were looking for.

With a 1% chance, this means that even after spending Crystals on 150 rolls, there's still a (0.99150) = 22% chance where the player couldn't obtain the target character. A guaranteed Tier SR character and an improved drop rate on the original Sione are not reasonable compensations for players who were already emotionally stressed on not getting the character they want.

There are plenty of people in the production team who are also players of other similar "gacha" based games. We understand the pain and salt when the god of RNG decides to punch you in the face. That's not something we want our players to experience. Therefore, in future Infuse events, we will be trying to improve on this particular issue. For popular roll targets like SP characters, we will adjust the algorithms to avoid situations where a large number of rolls produced nothing of worth.

**About Wonderland Trial**

Recently, we performed a pretty major adjustment regarding the Wonderland Trial. We removed the randomness of the Lv.60 quests. This is done because after putting player feedback into consideration, we felt that putting players who "Doesn't have the best team strength-wise but are willing to spend time to try again and again" together with players who "Want to prove their team's strength in the Wonderland Trial" on the same competitive field is not the best idea.

In the future, when designing Wonderland Trial quests, we will be leaning towards "letting player prove the strength of their team." We will also be updating the quest as players levels up. For players of the first type aka those who are willing to spend time and replay the game again and again, we will be designing a different playstyle that is less competitive but more self-fulfilling to satisfy the players' needs.

In addition, when it comes to the weekly rewards, we made an adjustment based on the number of active players. After the global version is online, in order to maintain a reasonable level of competitiveness and ensure a competitive balance between new and veteran players, we plan to rearrange the players into several virtual servers. Each server will have its own separate ranking when it comes to the Wonderland Trial.

We decided to rearrange the players due to several considerations: A competitive PvP game mode needs to maintain a reasonable level of competitiveness. To do so, we need to use servers so new and veteran players are ranked separately. However, for game modes that require teamwork, ex. the real-time team building (Collab) quests, they will be cross-server events. By using virtual servers, we can fulfill the design requirements for both competitive and interactive gameplay.

**About content updates**

To help us adjust to the operation rhythm of the global version, we've been increasing the regularity of storyline and holiday events. In order to improve our content production efficiency, the production team has also welcome many new members to the team. Our goal is that after the global version is released, there will be new content every week.

In terms of new characters and SP characters, they'll be updated at a reasonable pace and ratio. After putting our experience on past Infuse events into consideration, new, regular characters will be added to the Million Infuse upon release, while the SP characters will not be added to the Million Infuse. However, that doesn’t mean that they will be gone forever. They will be available again in future major events.

Besides the "Million Pioneer" achievement icons, which are designed specifically for the pioneer players, we don't have any one-time content planned as of now. Most past contents will return someday in the future.

**About the Collab game mode**

The core concept of the Collab mode is that three players will mix their characters together to create three powerful teams. By "mix", we mean that the character pool consists of the characters/skill sets owned by the three players. If a character is owned by multiple players, the character's level will be set to the highest among the multiples. Here's how it will work:

Player A will decide the white characters for all three teams, and the two advisors of the first team. Player B will decide the black characters for all three teams, and the two advisors of the second team. Player C will decide the Gold characters for all three teams, and the two advisors of the third team.

When building the teams, the players must build it in a way so that all three teams have enough strength to clear the quests. In quests with higher difficulties, there will be a level penalty for picking the same characters multiple times. For example, there's a Lv.58 Tica in the character pool. If player A decides to put Tica as the white character for two teams, Tica will receive a 5-level penalty that knocks her down to Lv.53.

The previously mentioned numbers are just an example. The level penalty will adjust according to the difficulty of the quest. Since low-level players have fewer characters, the low-level quests will feature a less severe level penalty.

More details on quest design, rewards and others will be gradually revealed. We also welcome players to leave their thoughts on a Collab system like this.

**Global version**

Regarding the release date of the global version, we plan for it to be in spring, around late March to early April. The marketing team is making plans with this date in mind. They've been visiting many of our partners and discussing a collaboration plan.

As mentioned above, we'll be using virtual servers to rearrange the players. Both the Chinese version and the global version will introduce multiple new virtual servers. The current player data will all be in server no.0. To ensure the balance of the rankings, player data can't be transferred between different servers. However, collaboration via connection is possible. The character comment section will also be cross-server, categorized by the selected language of the player.

The Chinese version and global version have completely separate server frameworks. Therefore, they are not connected to each other. However, we will try our best to ensure that the contents in both versions are updated with the same pace.

**Conclusion**

The next two weeks are the lunar new year holidays. I wish all players a happy new year. When the holidays are over, in addition to the already planned Dylan Storyline event, we will also be doing the pre-release marketing and pre-registration for the global version. Thank you again to all the players for your passion and support of Sdorica.

2018/01/15 - Words from the producer
[3]

Hello fellow players, I am the producer of Sdorica

Plenty of things happened in the past month. In fact, it's probably the most exciting and "fulfilling" month the team has had since the game launched. In early December, we announced at RayarkCon that Sdorica is scheduled to have its global launch in Spring of 2018. In this letter, I'll briefly introduce the things we will be working on before the global launch. I'll also share some of the experience we learned during this time.

First of all, after the release of Chapter 8, 9 of the main storyline, we're about halfway through the story of Season 1. The story has also reached a critical turning point. The story for the second half of Season 1 will be available a while after the global version is released. Of course, that doesn't mean there will be no new stories. We plan to update Character Storylines at a faster pace. The planned characters are Angelia and two other characters. (allow us to keep them secret for now :p)

**About the Character Storyline event**

During Naya's Storyline launch, we tried a new entry condition for the quests. We changed it from the previous "one daily reward per quest" to the attempt system of regular events. This change was applied based on the feedback from players. We hope to reduce the repetitiveness of grinding the quests daily after completing the story while allowing players who missed a few days to have an opportunity to collect all the rewards.

When designing the storyline events, we were hoping that most players can obtain all the rewards by simply playing the game. However, the design of using Crystals to purchase extra attempts prove to do the exact opposite, as it gave players a very negative impression that you must pay to get all the rewards. This is not what we want, so on the very day the event launched, we changed the attempts to cost Curren instead. This experience taught us that when designing event rewards and requirements, we must live up to the expectations of our target audience.

All in all, during the Naya Storyline event, we decided to try something different compared to the three previous Storyline events (Dagger. Crushfang, Golemwalt). We tried different entry conditions and different rewards design. We received plenty of precious feedback from the players. In the future, when designing Storyline events, we will be leaning towards how we did it in the Naya event.

**About the Wonderland Trial**

First, I would like to offer my sincerest apology for the emergency shutdown of the Wonderland Trial. After investigation, the issues occurred due to a logic error in the programming. When accessing the database, the program logic dealing with time zones had an error, leading to residuals between the recorded daily scores and the players' actual daily scores. Even though the first launch only lasted three days before the shutdown, we were able to collect a lot of player feedback on the quests. In the relaunch, we adjusted the difficulty and content of the quests.

When designing Wonderland Trial's rewards, we hope to provide a clear objective for players with sufficient time. However, we also hope that the gap between "hardcore players" and "casual players" is reasonable in terms of resource gain. We don't want players to be forced into spending large amounts of time playing the game. Due to the extremely brief launch time, we didn't collect enough data to perform any meaningful statistical analysis regarding this issue. This will be one of our observation focuses during the event's relaunch.

**About the Christmas Event**

For the "one daily reward per quest" events, we will try to limit them to holiday events that last a shorter time and have fewer quests. We expect a short, less quest-heavy design to reduce the repetitiveness during the latter part of the events. This also makes the events more accessible to all players in terms of difficulty. At the same time, we added Christmas Chests to the Market so players with an abundant amount of Crystallines can trade them in for Crystals.

As a first attempt at a holiday event, the Christmas event was meet with very positive feedback from the player community. In the future, we will be releasing similar events for other holidays as well. The next two upcoming holidays are Valentine's Day and the Lunar New Year (2/14 ~ 2/21), and the development team is working hard on those events.

**Ongoing adjustments and future plans**

As the first step to improve the Guild system, we added a function where Mission rewards can directly increase the Guild's Curren and Crystalline storage. We hope a function like this can make contributing to the Guild easier for players with fewer resources since you are no longer "donating" your hard-earned resources. Instead, you contribute by completing Missions. Since we now have this function, we'll be adjusting the Guild Missions lineup soon. We'll be adding Missions either "Cost time, but can directly contribute to the Guild" or "Cost resources, but receive extra Guild Medals as reward" while reducing the percentage of previous Missions that "Give Guild Medals by clearing quests". We hope to achieve a balance where the two types of players (those with resources but no time, and those with time but no resources) can truly benefit each other. We hope players can receive a proper amount of rewards while spending a reasonable amount of time or resources.

The core module for the "real-time team building' system is now finished. In our assumptions, this system can enhance player interactions. The system requires three players to work together to build three teams. During the building process, players can discuss how to balance the power among the three teams and exchange tips on how to use each team. We hope a process like this can allow players to understand the character skills even more and enjoy the player interaction.

Due to the scale and complexity of the real-time connection system, it will take a longer time to develop and test. Despite that, we are working very hard in hopes that we can finish this system before the global version releases. While doing that, we will try our best to optimize the stability and device compatibility of the current system.

**Conclusion**

Due to the length, I will not go into detail on the more minute changes we made. Thank you for reading this. For the official launch, the marketing team is also preparing all kinds of promotional events. When the schedule is finalized, we hope everyone can help us promote Sdorica to your friends and family and make this game even better. See you next month.

2017/12/26 - Introducing- Wonderland Trial
[4]

Wonderland Trial is coming in tomorrow's update!

In the previous letter from Sdorica producer-Holymars, we have introduced the Wonderland Trial. We have noticed that some watchers still have concerns after reading the letter. Well, today we're here to answer the questions!

**Q**: In the letter, it says "a player must own at least 9 different characters to challenge the 3 quests", does that mean we can't use advisors in Wonderland Trial?

**A**: You can bring your own advisor. However, you can't bring a guild advisor in the Wonderland Trial quests since it is meant to challenge the players for setting up the best team comp between the 3 levels, practicing the controls and owning a deeper, wider character pool.

**Q**: How does the score be determined?

**A**: The score is determined according to the "clear wave counts" and "turn counts". Players get +100 point after defeating a wave of enemies, and get -1 point for using a turn. Thus, the more enemy waves a player clear, and the less turns a player use, will he get a higher score in Wonderland Trial.

**Q**: What does it mean when you stated that "players can challenge multiple times"?

**A**: Players can reset the quests in Wonderland Trial without spending any resources. The characters who were used in the quest will be unlocked (i.e. usable again), and the score of the quest will be reset to 0 for the player to challenge again.

**Q**: What happens when players get the same score in Wonderland Trial?

**A**: When players get same scores in Wonderland Trial, the ranking will be determined by the "damage dealt" in the quests. The one with higher damage dealt will have a higher ranking among players with same scores.

**Q**: About the rewards, anything else to expect beside the Crystalline?

**A**: Wonderland Trial is a new stable source for players to get Crystalline. Players with higher rankings can also gain crystals from the Daily Event in Wonderland Trial. Besides, there is also a Weekly Event in Wonderland Trial for players to get Time Bookmarks!

Please look forward to Wonderland Trial and the update on Dec. 27! Also, Sdorica v1.0.8 is now available on App Store and Google Play Store. This patch is all about fixing bugs in v1.0.7, so hurry up and update the game to the latest version!

Rayark Sdorica Team

2017/12/20 - Fredrica Character Insight
[5]

Hello fellow Watchers,

It's time for another Character Insight! Everyone must be curious about the latest addition to the Sdorica roster: Kingdom Rune Sorcerer, **Fredrica**. Today, Clock Yang joins us once again to tell us some little secrets about Fredrica <3.

**KlausKoffing:** What's the thought process behind the creation of Fredrica?

**Clock Yang:** As the story develops, we realized that there seems to be a lack of characters who are on Theodore's side. Therefore, we decided to add some characters to aid him. In the early stages of Fredrica's design, she was supposed to be a character with an "Evil Lady" image, like the cruel/merciless kind of evil. However, as we planned the outline of the plot, her character gradually developed. In the end, we ended up with a character who, despite being a powerhouse, has a lazy, nonchalant and slightly amusing personality. We also fitted her with a sexy dressing style.

**KlausKoffing:** After Fredrica's reveal at RayarkCon 2017, many players seem to take notice of her "unique" dressing style!

**Clock Yang:** Yes, we did notice that it is a hot topic among player discussions (chuckles). We would like to give credit to the art team. It is their artwork that caught people's attention.

**KlausKoffing:** That begs the question, Sdorica already has a character in Lisa, whom dresses in a similarly bold and revealing manner. What's the biggest difference between the character designs of Lisa and Fredrica?

**Clock Yang:** Lisa appears to be bold and revealing with her fashion and mannerisms, but she's in fact quite shy, especially when she's with the person she is affectionate with. Fredrica, on the other hand, is someone who talks AND acts fearlessly. Lisa has more of a "Bold on the outside, shy on the inside" feel, while Fredrica is bold in every sense of the word, both inside and out.

**KlausKoffing:** On her Info page, it’s stated that she was banished to the borders by Theodore due to her lazy nature and nonchalant/rebellious personality. Wouldn't she be mad, or even bear a grudge against Theodore?

**Clock Yang:** Nope. The banishment was more of a “transfer” and her pay didn’t change so Fredrica was quite happy that she got banished to the borders. To her, the army is nothing more than a job. Being stationed at the borders probably meant less work. Doing less work while being paid the same amount of money, she doesn't mind at all.

**KlausKoffing:** With such a special personality, wouldn't it be hard for her to get along with other characters in Sdorica?

**Clock Yang:** If it's about being friends, I think Lisa should get along with Fredrica. Fredrica probably envies Lisa a little, since Lisa found her one true love. At the same time, she will also try to understand (with her own methods) why Lisa is willing to devote so much to love. Let's end at that because I might accidentally spoil Fredrica's storyline if I continue!

**KlausKoffing:** Then, how about a little hint at Fredrica's role in the main storyline?

**Clock Yang:** Fredrica is a lazy general who only does what her salary pays her to do. However, that doesn't mean she can be overlooked. In fact, she is very powerful and very hard to deal with. In later stories, she becomes the toughest opponent Angelia faces…

**KlausKoffing:** Hmm! Wait a second, Angelia's opponent?

**Clock Yang:** Haha, looks like I revealed a bit too much. All in all, Fredrica will play a major role in future stories. Please look forward to seeing more appearances from Fredrica!

That marks the end of the Fredrica Character Insight. Hope everyone gets the lazy but powerful Fredrica in the Suductress's Infuse! If you have any thoughts, or you want to see the insight of another character, please comment down below and tell us!

2017/12/11 - On the dawn of v1.0.7 – a letter from Sdorica's producer
[6]

Hello fellow players, I am the producer of Sdorica, Holymars.

Version 1.0.7 is entering its final adjustments and players should expect to see it soon. The focus of the next two versions, 1.0.7 and 1.0.8, will be on new gameplay mechanics, new skill sets, testing new characters, improving the system and general optimizations.

In this post, I will introduce v1.0.7's new systems and updated contents, review the changes in v1.0.6 and talk about future development directions.

### **v1.0.7 Update News**

To start, 1.0.7 will have a new Endgame system called "Wonderland Trial".

The design objective for this system is that players with a multitude of characters can have a place to train their team-building abilities and prove the power of their team.

During the initial period, there will be 3 different quests every day. A character can not participate in more than one quest. In other words, you must own at least 9 different characters to challenge the 3 quests. After you cleared each quest, you will receive a score based on your team's overall performance in the quest. Add up the 3 scores from the 3 quests, you get your final Wonderland Trial score of the day. Every day, you will receive a varying amount of Crystalline based on where your final score ranked in the previous day.

Players can challenge the quests multiple times with different team comps to try and achieve a higher score. Setting up the best team comp between the 3 levels, practicing the controls and owning a deeper, wider character pool are all methods that can help you earn a higher score.

The second new system is implemented to improve the interactions between the players. We put in a message board for each character in the game.

Players can now leave comments for each character. You can talk about your opinions, how he/she performs in battle or just show your love for said character. Comments that are acknowledged by everyone, AKA the ones with the most upvotes, will be pinned at the top of the message board. So, think carefully and post your most thoughtful comments.

### **v1.0.6 Review**

In version 1.0.6, we added "Dagger" and "Crushfang" 's storyline to their respective Roster pages so players who missed the launch events can experience their story as well. However, we did not put in any rewards or limitations. We decided to improve this system, so it can combine with the leveling up of the characters. Starting in v1.0.7, the character storyline quests will unlock gradually as the character's Tier levels up. At the same time, we will also be handing out Character Minerals as rewards when clearing each storyline quest for the first time.

We noticed players' complaint toward the repetitiveness of grinding daily Missions/daily quests. Therefore in 1.0.7, we changed how daily Missions work. We basically combined half the daily Missions with the daily quests, so players will now have more time to explore the new systems.

On top of that, we will gradually be adding more variety to the Missions' conditions. For example, there may be a Mission with multiple conditions, like " Cleared quest using Armor Penetration 5+ times and within 40 turns". To correspond with these complicated conditions, we will be putting in a more detailed UI so players can know in-battle whether or not they meet the Missions' conditions.

On top of the updates on the system side of things, we also plan to add in more story and events in version 1.0.7. There's the first wave of **Wonderland Trial** levels (12/27), **Naya's character storyline** (12/13), **the Christmas event** (12/20) and **Chapter 8/9 of the main storyline** (2018/1/3).

In 1.0.6 we added one new character and six extra Skill Sets. The strategy changes brought by the new Skill Sets matched our design expectations. We will continue adding new characters and extra Skill Sets as we collect feedback for the already released ones. Regarding the players' suggestions on the forums (Reddit/ TapTap) about Skill Set designs, we have taken a good look at them and they will be considered when designing future Skills.

At the same time, we also noticed that some players are unsatisfied with the pricing of the Skill Sets. As of now, we incline not to lower the prices and we will adjust the amount of Crystalline you can get per day. Players should have more options on how to spend them. As new quests are released, the amount of Crystalline you can obtain per day should continue to increase.

### **Future Plans**

That's the review for 1.0.6 and the preview for 1.0.7. Now, I will talk about some of our plans for the game's future directions.

First is the revamp of the Guild rewards and Missions. We realized that the current Guild system did not meet our original design concept when it comes to motivation and common goals. The original concept was "those with resources give resources, while those with time give time ". However, right now the double burden of "Donating resources to keep the Guild function" and "Spending time to clear Guild Missions" has caused most players to feel very tiresome.

We are planning adjustments for the Guild Market and Guild Missions. The goal is to balance the rewards between "Donating" and "Clearing Guild Missions" better, so the two types of players (those with resources but no time and those with time but no resources) can truly benefit one another. Also, right now there is no clear difference between each Guild. We hope to add in some customizable Guild rewards. For example, when the Guild builds a special architecture or earns a certain level of affinity with a race, the Guild can unlock unique items/Advisors… something like that. The design process for this is still in its Alpha stage, so we welcome players to give us some interesting designs we can use as reference.

Second is the development of a "combined team" system. Through real-time connection, the characters of three different players can all come together and form one team. Players may get a chance to use a character they don't have; new players can get help from experienced players… etc. We hope a system like this can encourage more interactions between the players.

Finally, there are some programming issues we plan to fix. Right now, some devices can't play Main Storyline 2-15 normally. Another major issue is that right now, every update is abnormally large in data size. All these are in the program department's list. These issues might affect the basis of the game engine; therefore, it will take a while for us to deal with them. We have identified some possible solutions and we will fix these issues as soon as possible.

Thank you again for playing Sdorica. It has been three months since the game's soft launch. Many improvements we made to the game were based on great feedback from the players. The development team will continue to listen to the players' voices and work hard to make Sdorica as perfect as it can be.

2017/12/01 - Sharice Character Insight
[7]

Hello fellow Watchers,

Do you ever wonder how the characters of Sdorica came to be? Well, today's your lucky day! We've invited the Rayark writing team to share the stories behind the creation of Sdorica's charming characters. The character we are focusing on today is the newest addition to the roster: Sharice.

**KlausKoffing:** Sharice is the first new character added to the roster since the Sdorica Open Beta. What's the thought process behind her creation?

**Clock Yang:** When we were planning the outline of the plot, we discovered that the second half of the plot was focused entirely on one specific storyline. The Maple Lake storyline, on the other hand, played a relatively minor role. On top of that, the plot for the upcoming storylines is shaping up to be more serious. After some consideration, we felt the need to add in a more casual, lighthearted storyline to the plot. Hence, we designed a new character to visit Maple Lake and interact with its residents. That's how Sharice was born.

**KlausKoffing:** After reading Sharice's in-game introduction, I find her personality to be very interesting. Why this approach in terms of personality?

**Clock Yang:** Since Sharice is created to interact with the Maple Lake characters, her personality must be one that can spark some conversations with them. For example, if it's Dylan or Theodore that visits Maple Lake instead, it's unlikely that we'll get any "interesting" interactions between them and the characters. After some discussion, we felt like Sharice's slightly self-centered personality, coupled with her contradicting/harmless appearance, should be able to create some sparks with the Maple Lake Residents. At least Puggi should have a fun time teasing people like her. As the plot develops, some random ideas just popped into my mind. I started fiddling with the different elements of Sharice's personality. The result is the insincere, tsundere personality everyone sees now.

**KlausKoffing:** Hmm, a slightly immature, child-like personality. Doesn't this overlap with Hestia's character?

**Clock Yang:** Actually, that was indeed one of our concerns during the design process. That's why we decided to purposely enhance the "insincere" and "tsundere" elements in Sharice's personality. Hestia is the type that just speaks whatever is on her mind. If she likes you, she'll tell you she does; and if she hates you, she also won't hide it. Quite the opposite of Sharice. Therefore, there's still a difference between their personalities.

**KlausKoffing:** Then what about the design of Sharice being very short?

**Clock Yang:** To be honest with you, the trait of "being very short" is added to Sharice's character at pretty much the end of the design process. In the first few drafts, we didn't discuss her appearance too much. Only until later, when we are deciding Sharice's birthday and height, did a colleague proclaim," She looks like a complete midget in the character portrait!" After looking at the portrait, I feel like Sharice is indeed a midget, which is why I put that number (149cm) as her height. That's also the reason why one of her skills was named "Don't Call Me Short".

**KlausKoffing:** Right now, Sharice is not part of the Sdorica story yet. Can you give us a hint on her role?

**Clock Yang:** Haha, Sharice's story is, in some ways, a small experiment of mine. Other characters deal with issues like "Save a kingdom", "Vengeance", "Discrimination" and the emotional roller-coasters that come with these kinds of big issues. Compare to them, the problems I placed on Sharice are much more down to earth and can be seen in everyday lives. I did this because I felt that compare to "serious" issues, like the world is ending or what not, small hardships like the ones Sharice are experiencing are the ones that truly affect our lives the most. I hope that players who had been through similar hardships can get some courage through Sharice's journey. That's what I want to experiment with. And of course, everything I just mentioned will be in the game for players to experience themselves in the future.

That marks the end of the Sharice Character Insight. If you have any thoughts, or you want to see the insight of another character, please comment down below and tell us!

**Rayark Sdorica Team**