Welcome back everyone for our last regular devlog. Yes, yes, we’ll miss you too, but we feel like we said everything we wanted to on the development process so far, and we don’t want to spoil too much. Not to worry, we may make more devlogs if we end up having more to say, and for the truly impatient, you can actually join our team right now.
This fortnight’s devlog is not presented in interview form, just to throw you one last curveball, but this presentation of the Trashologies system was written in conjunction with Project Apparatchik Tina (read: she did most of the work).
Trashologies: What Kind of Bum Are You?
In Disco Elysium, certain responses add points to various Copotypes. Rack up enough points and Harry might become Art Cop, Boring Cop, or, our favorite, Hobocop. Trashology is Don’t Call Abigail’s version of the Copotype system.
Unlike Copotypes for Harry, Trashologies don’t describe who DCA is but what coping strategy he’s committing to.
In Don’t Call Abigail, there are six Trashologies. Four are visible within the game menu, in the same area where we find Harry’s Copotype stats. Two are secret, but one of those two secret Trashologies could lead to a separate, very secret Trashology. Today, we’re revealing the four visible Trashologies.
No Trashology is the “correct” one. They are all recognizable human responses to impossible situations.
UNBUM
“I’m not really a bum.”
Things will turn around any day now, you just need to get your act together, which you’re totally capable of, by the way. Yes, you *do* technically live in a dilapidated shack, and sure, maybe you *do* spend most of your waking hours lying inside a cement pipe, so piss-drunk that the days (years) race past in pastel smears, but you ARE NOT a bum! These are just the circumstances you find yourself in at the present moment.
Art does not accompany the Trashologies, so today, our visual offerings relate to Archetypes, pre-built characters players can choose from instead of building their own. These concept images were created by Rune Hansen, Sketch Goblin.
INVISIBUM
“Don’t call.”
Absence is your gift. Stay hidden, stay safe. The less impactful your existence, the better for everyone really, most of all you. Live on the margins. Be unreachable. Fade into the mist and escape discomfort, conflict, accountability, and responsibility entirely.
SAVIORBUM
“I can fix this.”
You can help, should help…in fact, you have an obligation to help. You have your own problems, just like everyone else, but those can wait, because if not you, then who? What kind of man walks away from people in need? You wouldn’t know. You are not that kind of man.
ALPHABUM
“Lions don’t concern themselves with the bleating of lambs.”
You’re a winner who is currently losing, but not for long. Martinaise is your realm and you are a mover, a shaker, a king with a list of objectives. Get leverage. Make money moves. Demand the respect you’re owed. Those bootstraps aren’t going to pull themselves.
MISCELLANEOUS UPDATES
We’ve checked the metrics on these pages, and we know they’re being read by thousands (if not dozens) of real people each month, but we’re going to pretend we don’t know you exist and write as if you’re not here anyway.
Summer has been a long and boring season for the project (so far). Most people are on break, visiting family, traipsing around the world, doing summer internships, or starting their first *actual* career job after graduating from college this spring. In short—some of us are partying in meatspace a lot while the weather is temperate and the beaches are thawed, and the rest are straight-up melting.
There we go, the last devlog for a while! Our next one will likely be to announce finalized archetypes and/or introduce the voice actors we’re bringing on, so check the RSS feed if you want to be notified when we recover from our hangovers and sun poisoning, or go to the opportunities page to plunge in with us.
Heatwavingly,
Skullhead McShay
Professional Goobster, Amateur Serious Person™.