This is our first dev-log. Why does it have the number zero? Because it will be somehow special. This article will explain to you what these dev logs are.
These article dev-logs will mainly contain a summary of the game development progress. The news, what we have added, what we have changed, what we have removed, and what we have fixed. In the end, we will shortly tell you what we will do within the next sprint (you are unaware of these sprints? – read this).
Let’s start our first dev log now!
We are pretty sure you want to know more about the game! Right? So let’s talk about things we want and can share at this point.
The name of the game?
The name is not the final one, and to be honest, it has two representations now. One is the internal name, which we will not share because it is not essential, but the current term (which can be changed till the final product) is:
SURVIVAL MASTER
The Best Survival Game Ever Made
Why Survival Master? It is pretty obvious. We love the survival type of the games, and we want to create a survival game where your goal is … to be a master it. The sub-title is just for fun, and we are pretty sure it will be changed in the final product.
Technology Used
There are some technical details. First, we are programming the game in the Unity engine. We currently use the HDRP render pipeline, but we would like to use also the DOTS! So we look forward to that.
(AN: The DOTS allows rendering thousands of objects without losing the FPS).
Q: Do you use some high-end technologies, like RTX, DLSS…?
A: We would like to use these technologies as we begin developing. It is much easier to start with them than implement these technologies at the end of the process. There are cons, like the testing can be a little bit difficult because we need to test the game with RTX ON, RTX OFF, and DLSS on and OFF. Some libraries are too buggy because they are experimental, but we want them!
So yes, we want to have these techs in the final product! This will be a bit tricky related to AMD technologies, as we do not have any AMD GPU for now, but we would like to have it too (the tech, not the GPU).
Little remark: DLSS is supported by HDRP 12.0.0 (which is, by the way, backed by Unity Editor 2021 and higher) …so most probably, we will try to use 2021 because of that fact… problem is that Unity Editor 2021 does not support DOTS yet... So we will try to use 2021 and will wait for DOTS support. On top of that, UnityEditor 2021 keeps C#9.0 (e.g., new instances can be instantiated with new(); only!)
Q: Which platform you are targeting?
A: We are going to release the game for PC only.
Game Information
At this point, we will provide only precise info – to tease you, but you can be sure we will share more and more and more.
Q: What type of game it will be?
A: It will be a top-down view game (similar to Factorio), but it will be more 3D. To be honest, we are now considering combining the flat game terrain design with keeping the 3D in there. For example, we like how Timberborn solved that, but we don’t want to have cubes in the terrain like Minecraft.
There will be automation (a lot of automation) and survival. Yes, there will be a tech tree, which you can unlock during the gameplay.
Q: Will be there a story, side-quests, and some RPG elements?
A: Yes, there will be the story, but this story is one of the elements which we want to reveal in release 1.0, not sooner (you know, we need to have something to show to you in the end).
For sure, there will be side-quests related to RPG elements we are not sure about for now, but yes, we like that idea, but we are not sure if it fits the automation/survival genre.
Q: Will be there multiplayer
A: We don’t know at this moment. We would like to, but the solid single-player campaign is much more essential than multiplayer. So more likely, the multiplayer will be delivered after 1.0.
Q: Will it be the game type of “tower defense”?
A: NO WAY! We hate these games – we can say that this feature will never be ever in the game.
What feature we will implement first?
We will start implementing basic things, like a player, camera controller, and mouse cursors. Then, when this is implemented and in place, we will continue with the procedurally generated terrain – yes! It will generate a random 3D map!
Q: Why procedurally generated terrain?
A: This type of terrain can offer a different gameplay feeling when you play the games more times, and we definitely want that. There are basically two game elements (related to the gameplay) that we don’t like:
- Endless matches, where you play the game and don’t see the end…
- Short games, which you play once, and after you finish them, you don’t have a reason to start again
On top of that, we spent a lot of time studying how 3D-generated terrain is made. Yes, it is difficult, but the result will be excellent! You can look forward to it. We will share a lot of screenshots from our terrain builds – some of them are really old and will be not used, but we are far from them now, and we look forward to showing you the latest results on the twitch stream!
Dev Log Summary
I would say we have shared a lot for the first time! Now let’s wait till the next Dev Log with the number 1 will be shared!
