The Shape of Hangoutitude - Steele

04 Feb, 2026

The Shape of Hangoutitude

As my first official dev log post, I thought I would both outline the shape of Hangoutitude and where I think it is found as well as outline my post process. To start with the latter, I think these posts will take the form of my overarching, high concept thoughts of the week and then get more granular into my specific work of the week to exemplify how it ties back to my main ruminations.

So what is Hangoutitude? How does it form? How does it congeal? Is there a simple recipe to follow or a step-by-step guide to make sure my JRPG has max amount of Hangoutitude capabilities? To start, let’s go with everyone’s least favorite word emphasizing the tactic of breaking down the word's etymology. Merriam Webster’s dictionary defines ‘Hangoutitude’ as…nothing! For it is not a real word; a word that I have come to use in my everyday vocabulary as created in concept by Patrick Trinh and Alex Tang. I simply am an absorber of said word. But it is so clearly Hangout mashed with Attitude–so let’s start with the former this time (I like to switch it up, what can I say?”)

The term “hang out”—mashed into one for our purposes “hangout”—has a definition that colloquially we are taking from the late 1800s use of the word. A hangout spot for our purposes was described as such as the term is used to describe business that would hangout signs to attract different patrons to their establishment; thus, hanging out is a term rooted in capitalistic way, who knew??

Attitude is much simpler and the lesser of the two that “Hangoutitude” is. Let’s call “attitude” the ugly step-child of the term Hangoutitude, yet it is still important for you to have an ugly step-sister to have a pretty…sister. So attitude is derived from the Latin “aptus” meaning fitting and suitable. Like aptitude, attitude is our natural ability for our game to express the hangout feature we so desperately are striving for.

So what does this matter…honestly not much except for the fact that our goal has been to strive to create a game with Hangoutitude. A game that will have commerce and sign posting of the business that make the town feel alive—a town that if alive will make the characters come to life. Hangoutitude as a discussion topic is something that Alex and I think of in terms of scarcity. Is it possible to experience hangoutitude without the idea that it can be taken away? A current thinking on the shape of the game is that it starts with as much hangoutitude as you can get—everyone’s business door is open and you are overwhelmed by choice! But as the game goes on, the town decays, business shuts down, and you soon start to realize how the town shapes the way you interact with the characters and world around you. The lack of places to hangout can funnel you into a sad and heart broken state, yet is this an interesting subversion of the genre or torture for torture sake and we should reward player behavior instead…much to think about.

The Inventory Story

Those previous paragraphs were a bit more rambly than I plan in the future. The inventory story is a short one. There is now a saveable and loadable inventory! Hurray. Is it pretty? No. But its functional. And now players can receive things from NPCs and pick them off of the ground. A system that will allow for commerce to be added into our game; thus, opening the gateway towards having shops in the town and other businesses where players can hangout! It all comes back to how the goods and services we trade bring us together in spots of congestion. Like an MMORPG where players must bottleneck themselves to get from one point to another; thus, converging and conversing with each other on the way!

Expeditions…Send Your Friends to Die?

Expeditions are now the next system I must tackle in order to have a good read on the shape that Hangoutitude will take. Now that Alex has implemented a party recruitment system (thank you Alex) I can get to work using that list to account for player choice in who they are recruiting. From picking them up in town, you will then venture off with them to complete a battle (for now) that is simulated and afterwards rewards you based on a set of benchmarks and values you achieve. I want to strike a balance between players feeling rewarded and excited for their choices while also masking the veil a bit so that they don’t realize how crunchy the system truly is.