Greetings Pioneers!
To break up our blog format a little, aka ‘keepin it fresh’ while we continue to work out the kinks prior to our new updates, we’re running a second feature on our encounter locations progress which will hopefully give you all some better insight into our current direction.
Now that we’re happy with the gameplay besides minor tweaks, we’ve moved onto the arty stages of production with the interior of our Dam and Transmitter getting a more thorough treatment.
As you may of already read in the previous Friday blogs, Alex and Tom are managing the design of the large set pieces. The layout designs are practically in their final stages and artwork has begin to take the place of the less desirable looking but functional blockouts.
The importance of the Dam as a visual draw is evident, and it’s this section that will harbour one of the Pioneers first encounters with those love-able splintermite critters. The introduction of locations like this now allow us to introduce a bit of extra dramatism to encounters and the lead up to them.
We’ve been playing around with the principal of hearing what’s around a corner before you first see it… a touch of horror, adding hints like this to some of the darker locations should help keep things informative for players that are about to land upon a hidden threat.
The layouts themselves have begun to have their lighting planned out properly. Doorways and stairs added, with ventilation and piping to make the interior feel functional. This is always the exciting part as we get to experiment with the mood.
Some of the basic encounter rooms will involve a basic interaction, whether it happens to be turning on a generator to get through locked down doors the other side, or closing an entrance way to stop a pursuer in their tracks. This is being kept simple in the form of panels/buttons, things that you can’t help but look at and say ‘ohh what does this button do?’.
The overall experience is one that we feel should be dynamic as well, there is no ‘you must do’ to any of these pre-existing locations. However if you find yourself persuaded to enter one, be prepared to work to get out the other side.
If any Pioneer decides to go off the standard ‘base building survival track’ they will be able to discover some really interesting and meaningful things, maybe even components to craft an item that otherwise you wouldn’t have access to till much later in the game.
It’s always exciting to be able to share the steps we’re going through to get this up to an enjoyable high quality standard. If you would like to keep a closer eye on progress you can view our public Trello boards here. More coming soon…
See you in the fray!
-Team Flix