A lot of work on the system was concept and roleplay first, and strict mechanics second; I'm a big fan of narrative TTRPGs in the vein of World of Darkness or other rules-as-suggestions systems, and i like to make things geared toward telling stories as opposed to mechanically complicated systems.
Playtesting more or less involved keeping a deck of cards with me at my dayjob/during breaks so i could run simple numbers that felt similar(?) to Deltarune's combat- though like Undertale, it and UT kind of disincentivize combat as a direct solution (in the no-mercy route, non-boss combat required for progression is intentionally made to be banal and painfully rote), so i went into this knowing lateral thinking/solutions would be more or less the focus.
The hard part was/is always stat balancing, which I'm never good at and kind of just have to accept that's the case (especially for the example denizens, it varies wildly). Even in home games I err on the side of easier encounters/etc isms for players because I'm interested in seeing stories escalate, or giving players problems that can't be solved directly or simply.
Thanks for the response, I'll keep it in mind to make this less combat-based and more puzzle like. I thought that having it all be peaceful encounters would quickly get boring. Stats aren't my strong suit either, so maybe I'll track fights where you actually have to FIGHT with "Progression" markers. Like phases or something.
That's one way to go about it- this isn't to say combat isn't on the table, but more a suggestion that the emphasis be on the nature of conflict rather than the cards drawn/damage done.
A good example I referenced in the pdf is the fan webcomic Paper Trail, by Lynxgriffin; it's a full story focused on the bare fragments of stuff we got during Deltarune's first chapter, and a lot of personal interpretation/expansion from the author- this includes a lot of what amounts to pacifist only encounters that require weird solutions, or otherwise engaging with the denizens and cast of npcs on their level/engaging with the overall drama of things.
At least for me/the ttrpgs I've played over time, I've quickly gotten to really enjoy the underlying tension of plots and conflicts rather than solely getting to roll dice, even as a big fan of fist-to-fist combat. Like... getting into the spirit of the conflict as opposed to only the mechanics, if that makes sense- being thrilled as hell to roleplay out how my cyborg in one game handles a fight against someone who is the absolute antithesis of everything she believes, to the point of seeing blood red and nothing else, or playing up the desperation in another character's futile attempts to even bruise another in what's effectively a very tense """""friendly"""" spar mid road trip. imo there's no such thing as boring if you're willing to get into it or silly with it, especially if the rest of the table is too- i can only say that if you're dead-set on combat, then it may be a good idea to whip up denizen stats on your own to see what works. If something feels too hard for your players, don't be afraid to dial it back mid-game or ease the encounter to your discretion uwub
Nah you don't gotta apologize, I'm not as active on reddit- Thus far this's been where people usually ask game related questions, so I keep a closer eye on it. That and reddit's not really been good for me in the past/it's been impossibly hard to get my art to go anywhere, so I've more or less given up trying xwx;
It's all themes at the end of the day! Each hue touches on a particular sort of broad category of persona, or dynamic, which influences their boon/blessing/bane. Beacons being fonts of hope and try-again determination, but ultimately being ESPECIALLY effective only a few times while others try to snuff them- Heartbreaker's taking the first and most direct routes to come to mind, and being very inflexible in diverting from indulging that impulsiveness. Soul-Possessed having access to an almost uncanny perceptiveness and knowledge, but ultimately being forced to live through a very real depersonalization/derealization at the hands of an entity who is ultimately alien to them, etc.
Boons are often a smaller, lesser benefit- whether passive or paid in guts, or single use, that players can draw on freely; blessings are more overt/potent, representing the core of the hue's themes as well as offering considerable influence or power. Banes are, on the other hand, the crux of those same themes- like flipping a tarot card upside down, and mirroring a hue's flaws in distinct clarity.
If you'd like examples from other TTRPGs that influenced this kind of thinking and approach, i highly highly recommend both Changeling: The Lost and it's predecessor Changeling: The Dreaming; both are games about the fae in the modern day, where player archetypes/fae-kith come with their own birthrights and frailties in similar manner to what i've written in Heartbreaker.
It depends on how you mean- my approach to dialtone's soulless was a bit different than UT/the bits of deltarune we've seen up through chapter 2, in that the lack of a soul doesn't deny someone their personhood or MAKE them into an unfeeling monster. The tagline i wanted to highlight most was "Is this how you are? Maybe- but it doesn't mean you have to be. It doesn't mean you can't try."
A lot of the hues-writing was made to pave way for character hooks one could use as a guideline if they didn't have anything else- in the case of the soulless, perhaps making it a long-term goal to regain their soul or question what it means to lack one/still have agency in their lives. That being said, even as the writer/designer for the game, i'm always going to defer to players and encourage them to approach or adjust mechanics as they see fit; if the boon/blessing/bane for the soulless is a lot to handle, you can adjust as you see fit.
If it helps you any, my intent was to kind of emphasize the weight of consequence with them- the boon and blessing are radically potent in combat... but by and large just combat. TTRPGs by and large often aren't just combat, and have a lot of interpersonal relationships or dynamics going on between party members and npcs- thus the bane literally makes it harder to wear your heart on your sleeve, and to be known by others in an emotional capacity.