What is reading in A Township Tale all about? Well, it's not quite reading since there are no words. It's more like a cryptic picture book, that takes a bit of connecting two and two. And that's the best part.

Players can find books throughout town, all of which are missing pages at first. As you explore the world, you'll find some that you can collect and return to these books. Each page belongs to a particular book, so it's also about knowing where the book is. Meaning, pages may lead you to seek out a book you didn't know existed. Returning pages is as easy as popping them in at the seams.

This will keep them permanently, allowing their insightful knowledge and record of the world to be shared with others. Currently, you store them in your inventory, but we are going to be adding a personal journal that can store pages for, with their own interaction to get them in and out.

For a while, we had been considering what would make a good collection mechanic for A Township Tale, on top of many other questions we've been asked. And like all things in A Township Tale, this is a communal feature. Players can work together to collect books that the whole town can use.

And since we don't want this to ever get lost, despite being an item, we introduced the ability for books to 'return' to their lecterns. This means you can't steal the book and run. But it also opens up some new opportunities, as we're starting to define 'rules' behind some key items. I'll let you imagine what that can do, and in a later blog post I'll give you a more grounded execution of the feature.

I could write all day about these books. They aren't bound by language barriers, or literacy, they offer some mystery to how the world operates, and one day we'll be able to drop some lore on the players. They will offer hubs of knowledge, and let a 'world' show its experience. It gives new players whom enter an advanced, but perhaps quiet time server, and learn from the discovery of others despite their absence.

At some point when the world needs it, we'll see if we can let players make their own pages. Leaving behind their own stories amidst that of others. That's why it's called 'A' Township Tale.