Devlog 001 - The meaning of the name

"A rose by any other name would smell as sweet"

This project began with a name before it began with mechanics.

By Any Other Name is a phrase that suggests something simple on the surface: that a thing remains itself regardless of what we call it. But grief complicates that idea. When someone we love is gone, the love does not disappear, it changes form. It becomes something heavier, quieter, and harder to place.

This game is built around that transformation.

Grief, in this project, is not treated as something to be "overcome" or erased. It is treated as evidence: proof that love existed, and still exists, even when it no longer has anywhere to go. The name reflects that belief.

That idea has started to shape how I think about the game mechanically as well. Rather than hiding emotions or resolving them outright, the narrative I'm experimenting with is about perception: How emotions are felt, how we choose to define them, and how those definitions shape the way we move through the world.

At this stage, the project is still forming. Mechanics are uncertain, visuals are provisional, and many ideas will be discarded before anything feels final. That uncertainty is intentional. This is not a game being executed from a fixed blueprint; it's a game being discovered through iteration, reflection, and experimentation.

These devlogs are part of that process.

They aren't progress reports in the traditional sense. They're a record of questions, decisions, and moments where something almost worked… or didn't. As the game grows, so will this space. The website is not separate from the project; it's another layer of it.

For now, this first entry exists to anchor the intent.

By Any Other Name is a game about grief as love that remains, when there's no one left to receive it. Everything else will be built outward from that idea.