26th September Dev Blog

Here’s a few small peaks at some of the work we’ve been doing.



What’s this? Well, I’m not telling you.



You can build a lot of stuff with tar. It is very versatile. Try making some armor!

We’ve been working hard coming up with new content to help fill out the tiers. These are some simple examples. Expect to find better fleshed out biomes and sub-biomes with more biome-specific rewards.

That’s all! Bye!

29th September - Using protection

Today I’ve been implementing a block protection system, so that we can have special dungeons and missions where you can’t place blocks or break through walls until deactivating a Shield Generator somewhere inside. The way this works is: each tile in the world has a ‘dungeon ID,’ which is a bit of a misnomer since it’s also used to specify tiles that have no dungeon, tiles modified by the player, and a couple of other things. Specific dungeon IDs will be protected for a given world, in a list that can be modified from server side Lua scripts or by using an admin command. I’m sure people will find interesting uses for the system beyond its original purpose, like building a planet with tests of skill and then enabling protection to make them a challenge for other players to overcome. I look forward to seeing what you come up with!

30th September - Make it work!

So you may have noticed over the last few days our artists have been slamming out new content, all in the name of fleshing out the biomes and giving players some interesting incentives and rewards for exploring them. Presently, a heavy focus has been placed on each biome having its own unique resources and loot in the form of costumes, tools, and weapons. Its all in the name of variety!

The task of making most of these new items actually function has fallen to me. I’ve been going through all of them, ensuring they behave the way you’d expect, making sure hitboxes on the projectiles are all appropriately sized, that sort of thing. There’s also a bunch of new recipes being thrown into the mix, so a number of items that you previously could only acquire through drops are becoming craftable. If you’re lucky enough to find some of the consumable weapons (throwing daggers and axes, for instance), you’ll be rewarded with blueprints that will enable you craft them anytime you want, so long as you’ve got the resources necessary to do so.

Some of the new weapons the artists have slung my way have been challenging, but fun to make. One of the new weapons George teased in his tar biome post is a spear that lobs balls of tar when you attack. The tar itself doesn’t do much damage, but it can slow down your enemies, making it easier to keep them at bay while ducking in and out for your melee hits. Having spent so much of my time lately working with our weapon and projectile systems, I’ve learnt a great deal, and its always encouraging when you manage to get things working the way you intended.

Taking advantage of the liquid collection that the upgraded matter manipulator brings with it, you can now bottle your own water, among other things. Once a liquid is bottled you can consume it to receive the effects. For example, some liquids have curative powers when ingested. If you fashion yourself a bottle out of glass, you can collect the liquid with your matter manipulator, bottle it at a cooking table, then use it when you find yourself in a pinch.

As an aside, you actually drink your beverages now! I can’t tell you how many times I winced when listening to my character “consuming” a bottle of whiskey with a distinct crunch. That stuff makes my teeth hurt just thinking about it.

This whole process of configuring everything has been difficult at times, but it’s rewarding when it goes well. I expect to continue with this kind of work over the coming weeks, but in my position I can be made to change gear at any time. Ahhh, the joys of game development!

Good night everybody!