The gameplay is extremely simple and encourages exploration and experimentation, both of which change from seed to seed.
Basically you have to activate a certain number of color-coded Seals. Not sure how many -- 10 maybe? So long as they're distinct.
Seals are activated by feeding the right item type into a fixture marked by that seal.
Not all fixture types have seals, they have to be individually examined and there are a heck of a lot of them. They are however regional -- each area chooses from a palette.
Additionally, fixtures will more likely have a seal but not an active one. These can largely be ignored, but there's also a way of activating them as a product from a crafting recipe.
The items that can be fed into a seal aren't known beforehand -- it requires experimentation (or Knowledge) and unfortunately uses up the item in the process. Thankfully you can have as many of each item as you want.
Items are scattered around in likely furniture-type fixtures. They're also palletized by region, but there's a lot more variety than fixure types and again there's a heck of a lot of them. They're also scattered around areas in plausible ways.
Altars are scattered around. They allow you to place two items on them and if they match a crafting recipe, they'll form a new product -- either an item type or a means of activating an inactive seal of one of the types. This whole thing is highly randomized and doesn't make a whole lot of sense.
If they don't match a crafting recipe (which is more likely -- there's a limited amount that are generated) nothing will happen other than the destruction of the items.
Books are scattered around rarely, and offer valuable Hints:
Which fixtures contain Seals.
Which items pair to which colored Seals.
Crafting recipes.
Unfortunately, the hints are obscured by a couple of different mechanics:
They have false positives, as per the CD way of managing hints.
They're told in stories that involve mystical beasts, battles, etc in some format. Nothing compelling here, and a lot of randomization, just something to add flavor.
The overall purpose of the game is exploration of a big twisty skein and experimentation to a lesser extent. The gameplay reinforces this and gives a sense of game progression and direction, but it isn't the primary goal of this project, which is crafting an elaborate procgen skein.
