Devlog 8 - Community Question

Hey everyone, welcome to Dev Log 8.

I want to try something a little different moving forward. Instead of me always picking the topic, I’d like to start pulling a question from the community and taking the time to answer it properly. Sometimes those questions will be specific. Sometimes they’ll be broad and cover the project as a whole, whether that’s the models, the lore, or the game.

Today’s question comes from PrideMinis over on the Discord. They asked:

“I’d be really curious to hear about your creative process for creating the lore. I guess you ask the same question for how you design the game too.”

When I first read that, I realized pretty quickly it’s actually two different questions. Lore and game design overlap, but the way I approach them comes from two completely different places, and I don’t think it would be fair to cram both into one dev log and pretend I gave either one the attention it deserves.

So for this entry, I’m focusing on the first half: how I approach the creative process for building the lore of Beyond Space. The game design side is something I’d like to tackle in a future community question dev log.

This question also caught me off guard in a good way, because I don’t think I’ve ever publicly sat down and explained what I’m actually trying to do with the lore. The vibe I’m aiming for. The boundaries I’m trying to hold. The kinds of things I’m deliberately avoiding. Beyond Space started very small and slowly evolved into what it is today over the course of several years. A lot of the decisions that shaped the universe happened through trial, error, and iteration, not because I started with a perfectly clear vision on day one.

Because of that, I had to take a few days to really sit with this question and unpack it. And in doing so, I realized there are a handful of core principles I keep coming back to whenever I’m working on the lore, even if I hadn’t consciously labeled them. At this point I think of them as four major design pillars that guide how the lore of Beyond Space gets built and refined.

Before getting into those pillars, though, I want to give a little context for new readers. Not a full setting recap, and not a repeat of Dev Log 5, but enough to make it clear what kind of universe I’m building and what the lore is trying to accomplish at a high level.

What Beyond Space Is (At a High Level)

Beyond Space is a fantasy science-fiction universe that blends medieval themes with a far-future setting. The important thing is that those elements are not treated like separate layers. The world wasn’t built by taking traditional fantasy ideas and stacking conventional sci-fi on top. Everything in the setting is meant to come from the same underlying logic. The technology, the weapons, the ships, the magic, the rituals, all of it exists within one cohesive framework.

Because of that, things like starships and advanced weaponry do exist, but they aren’t built around clean, modern sci-fi assumptions. They’re shaped by the same forces that shape the rest of the universe. Faith, ritual, sacrifice, and power are not decoration. They are part of how the world functions. The goal has always been for this universe to feel like it grew into its current state over an extremely long and turbulent history.

That cohesion feeds directly into tone. Beyond Space is meant to feel mature and grounded, even when the concepts themselves are large or extreme. It’s a dark universe, but it isn’t driven by shock value or cynicism. I’m not interested in edge for the sake of being edgy, and I’m not interested in flattening everything into moral nihilism. I want the universe to take itself seriously, be presented with restraint, and trust the reader to engage with it without everything needing to be exaggerated or undercut.

Once tone is established, internal logic becomes non-negotiable. Nothing in this universe exists arbitrarily. Even when something looks strange, fantastical, or unfamiliar on the surface, there is reasoning underneath it. That logic isn’t always visible right away, and in many cases it’s intentionally kept in the background. Some explanations may come much later, and some may never be made explicit at all. But the world is built as an interconnected system, not a collection of isolated ideas.

That structure naturally leads into the central theme of Beyond Space: sacrifice. Power is never free. Progress always comes with cost. Every major force, belief system, and civilization is shaped by what it is willing to give up in order to survive, expand, or enforce its vision of the future. This is not just a narrative idea layered onto the setting. It is part of the framework the universe operates on.

From there, the moral landscape takes shape. Beyond Space is not a universe where everything is gray and nothing matters. There are genuine forces of good, genuine forces of evil, and a lot of space in between. At the same time, there isn’t a single, simple villain or a clean answer to every conflict. Different kinds of evil exist for different reasons, and those layers are meant to reveal themselves gradually over time.

Beyond Space also exists as a tabletop game, and the game is one way readers interact with this universe. The lore informs the game, but it isn’t delivered all at once or explained upfront. Some things are meant to unfold slowly through faction books, future expansions, and long-term storytelling. The focus is on building a world that continues to feel coherent and intentional as more of it comes into view.

With that context in place, I can get into the pillars themselves, because these are the principles that shape how I make decisions and why certain ideas survive while others get cut.

The Design Pillars Behind the Lore

After sitting with Pride’s question for a few days, I realized that I don’t have a clean, step-by-step “process” for writing lore. I don’t sit down with a checklist or a formula. What I do have is a set of principles I keep coming back to whenever I’m creating, revising, or cutting ideas. Every time something felt wrong in the lore, it was almost always because it violated one of these principles.

I didn’t start the project by writing these down. For a long time I wouldn’t have been able to articulate them at all. They emerged slowly, through rewrites, false starts, and entire versions of the universe that didn’t survive. Looking back now, I can see that they were always there, shaping decisions quietly in the background.

Eventually, I was able to step back and recognize them as four major design pillars. They aren’t rigid rules. They’re the lens I use to evaluate whether something belongs in Beyond Space.

Pillar One: Tone Discipline

Tone is the first filter everything passes through.

Beyond Space is written for adults. Not in a sensational way, but in the sense that it’s written for people who don’t need constant escalation, exaggerated edge, or shock value to stay interested. When I’m working on lore, I’m not thinking about what would impress the widest possible audience. I’m thinking about what I would want to read, now, at this point in my life.

That means I’m not aiming this universe at children, and I’m not really aiming it at teenagers either. I’m writing for people who are comfortable with weight, consequence, and restraint. That doesn’t mean the universe is quiet or tame. It means I’m careful about what I emphasize and why.

There’s very little interest in leaning on sexualized content, gratuitous spectacle, or shock-driven themes as a shortcut to maturity. For me, those things usually cheapen a setting rather than deepen it. Beyond Space is focused on conflict, belief, violence, duty, survival, and the cost of power. Those ideas already carry enough weight on their own.

A lot of tone discipline comes down to subtraction. Asking whether something feels serious or whether it feels like it’s drifting toward self-parody. With a setting like this, that line is easy to cross. Tone discipline is what keeps the universe from collapsing into something that might look impressive at a glance, but wouldn’t hold up over time or feel honest.

Pillar Two: Foundational Logic

The second pillar is logic, and this one is non-negotiable.

I have a strong dislike for lore that relies on “it just works” explanations. Mystery is fine. Ambiguity is fine. Hand-waving is not. If something exists in Beyond Space, there needs to be a reason for it, even if that reason never becomes visible to the reader.

That doesn’t mean everything needs to be explained immediately, or even explained at all. A lot of the logic in this universe exists entirely behind the scenes. Some of it may not be revealed for years. Some of it may never be revealed. But it exists, and it informs how the world behaves.

The universe is built as an interconnected web. Systems don’t exist in isolation. Beliefs shape behavior. Resources shape conflict. Conflict reshapes culture. When something feels out of place, the question isn’t whether it sounds cool, but whether it makes sense within the structure that already exists.

This pillar is what allows the universe to scale without falling apart. It’s also what led directly to the next pillar, even though I didn’t realize it at the time.

Pillar Three: Sacrifice as Structure

Sacrifice is the central theme of Beyond Space, but it’s important to understand that I didn’t start the project with that theme in mind.

I didn’t sit down and decide, “This universe will be about sacrifice.” I built a universe that was fragmented, hostile, resource-limited, and constantly at war. I built a setting where survival was never guaranteed, where stability was fragile, and where every major force was fighting to hold onto something in a universe that actively resists permanence.

Once that framework was in place, sacrifice became unavoidable.

In a universe like this, no one survives without giving something up. Power always demands a cost. Stability requires loss. Expansion requires blood, resources, or belief. Sacrifice isn’t a moral choice so much as a condition of existence. If a faction refuses to sacrifice, it doesn’t remain pure or noble. It simply doesn’t survive.

That realization came later, looking back at what I had already built. I started noticing that every system, every culture, and every major power was defined by what it was willing to trade away in order to keep going. Sacrifice wasn’t something I layered on top of the lore. It was a byproduct of the logic.

This applies at every level. Armies sacrifice lives for territory. Leaders sacrifice people for stability. Citizens sacrifice freedom, safety, or comfort in exchange for protection. Even forces that are genuinely trying to do good are still demanding something in return.

This is where factions stop being surface-level aesthetics and start feeling grounded. A knightly order built on honor and duty doesn’t just ask its warriors to lay down their lives. It also demands sacrifice from the society that supports them. Belief systems that promise salvation demand obedience. Empires that promise order demand conformity.

If something doesn’t meaningfully interact with cost, trade-off, or loss, it usually doesn’t belong in this universe.

Pillar Four: Moral Clarity Without Simplicity

The final pillar is how morality functions within that framework.

Beyond Space is not built on the idea that everyone is secretly awful or that nothing truly matters. Good exists. Evil exists. Choice matters. At the same time, morality isn’t flattened into a single villain or a simple binary.

There are multiple forms of evil in the universe, driven by different beliefs, fears, and goals. There are also forces that are genuinely trying to preserve, protect, or improve something, even when the methods they use are questionable. Those layers are intentional, and they’re meant to unfold over time rather than being resolved immediately.

This pillar matters because sacrifice creates conflict. When everyone is forced to give something up in order to survive, values collide. People draw lines in different places. What one faction sees as necessary, another sees as unforgivable. That tension is where the universe gets its weight.

Together, these four pillars are how I actually answer Pride’s question. They’re the framework I use to evaluate ideas, refine systems, and decide what survives and what gets cut. They didn’t make the process clean or easy, but they gave it direction. And for a universe this large, direction matters more than perfection.

Closing Thoughts

At the end of the day, Beyond Space is a massive universe, and it’s still very much in motion. There are years of ideas behind it and years of work still ahead. I don’t expect it to ever feel finished in the traditional sense, and I don’t think that’s a bad thing. The universe has grown through iteration, failure, rewrites, and course correction, and that process hasn’t stopped.

The four pillars I talked about here aren’t a promise that the lore will always be perfect. They’re a commitment to how I approach it. They’re the standards I use to keep the universe grounded, coherent, and honest as it continues to expand. When something changes, it won’t be random. When something evolves, it will do so for a reason.

More than anything, this dev log was about answering a question honestly. Not with a polished formula or a neat creative method, but with the reality of how this universe was built and how it continues to take shape. A lot of what defines Beyond Space wasn’t planned from day one. It emerged over time by following the logic of the world and being willing to tear things down when they didn’t hold up.

That’s how I’ll keep approaching the lore going forward. Slowly, deliberately, and with a clear sense of what this universe is meant to be, even as the details continue to change. There’s a lot more to explore, and plenty that hasn’t been revealed yet, but it will all be built on the same foundation.

To Pride, and everyone else who takes the time to ask thoughtful questions like this, thank you. Questions like these don’t just make for good dev logs, they help sharpen the project itself.

What’s Next

If this dev log sparked questions of your own, or if there’s something you’d like to see explored in a future community question, feel free to jump into the Discord and let me know. I read everything, and questions like this genuinely help sharpen the direction of the project.

I really appreciate everyone who takes the time to read these longer dev logs and engage with the process. This kind of back-and-forth is a big part of why I enjoy building Beyond Space in the open.

I’m planning to put out one more dev log later this month, where I’ll be talking about unit stat sheets and the unit tracker, how they’re structured, and why they’re designed the way they are. That’s another system that’s gone through a lot of iteration, and I think it’s worth digging into.

Until the next dev log, thanks for reading.