HOW TO GOD

My principal feature contribution was the NPC naming system. During team discussions, I proposed giving characters more coherent family identities, with surnames and the possibility of tribal associations. To bring that idea into the production conversation, I developed it as part of the broader naming design.

The system needed to reflect the different conventions used across the game's settings: some regions use single names, while others use first names and surnames. I worked on region-specific name lists, naming formats, and rules to make names varied without losing a sense of continuity between characters.

I also addressed duplicate full names and explored how shared surnames could make groups of NPCs feel related, rather than simply generated at random. The exact rules and probabilities are intentionally not included here.

Another problem I worked on was village population growth. In the earlier design, an underpopulated village could receive new NPCs as long as its City Hall was functioning. The result felt disconnected from the rest of village building, giving players little opportunity to influence how the population recovered.

I proposed making houses part of the NPC replenishment system. My design connected population recovery to available housing, making additional houses a meaningful investment and giving players a clearer relationship between what they built and how their village developed. Internal spawn thresholds and balancing parameters are omitted.