Hello everyone.
This post will be on the longer side, so we’ll preface the TL:DR version upfront.
- The game is still in active development, but our resources and the time we can commit to it are severely limited at the moment. Expect this to take a while. Sorry.
- We are reworking large sections of the game because we didn’t like where we had ended up with it.
- Levels and characters will no longer be procedurally generated, we will instead focus on bringing compelling, handcrafted gameplay and characters to the forefront.
- We’re currently testing the new systems while building the early story levels.
With that out of the way, let’s get into some specifics.
First question, why the change? If we’re so diminished in our capacity to work on the project, why restructure it at all instead of just finishing what we had?
A valid question for sure. But we came to agree that our focus on finishing what we had instead of changing what didn’t work early on ended up driving us into a corner. The cumulative effect of which was a product that we were not very satisfied with, but felt stuck with at the same time.
So, when our current time troubles began we sat down and made the hard call to overhaul the games systems from the ground up instead of devoting what little resources we could spare into trying to patch up a sinking ship.
That’s just how these things go sometimes… we should have made the decision earlier, but better late than never.
Onto the topics of what we’re changing and why. And instead of talking about every change, we’ll just go over what the new direction will be, because otherwise this will drag out far too long.
The Fifth Expedition will deal with a crew of pre-defined characters, each with their own strengths, weaknesses, personality, backstory, dialog and gameplay function, as they delve into the ancient machinery below their home. Their task will be to secure their colony as well as figure out why the first four expeditions never came back after their attempts to do the same. Along the way they will have to scavenge for supplies and avoid countless dangers and treacherous terrain to survive, as well as manage interpersonal strife and struggles as the journey takes a toll on them both physically and mentally.
As a player you will manage the crew, guide them through the hand crafted encounters as you explore and uncover the mysteries and dangers of the ancient factory and the abandoned ruins deep below.
Gameplay is split between exploring the areas in real time, dealing with dangerous encounters in a turn based system, with periodic returns to the crews camp site to fill up on supplies, manage personal and plan your next approach.
We’re looking to making the experience more compact and focused, which will likely result in shorter but more complex and interesting levels and a more story and character driven campaign.
In terms of development, we are building and testing the new systems like turn based encounters while also outlining and tightening up the story progression, character writing and design as well as testing and iterating on the level design for the first few encounters.
We want these new areas to feel challenging and rewarding of clever thinking, without devolving into an endless list of pure combat encounters. Problems to be overcome with limited resources and ingenuity, not brute force and repetition.
Now, all of this will sadly take time. So don’t expect these things to happen in the next couple months.
We will try to be better about our communication in the future, an aspect of our tasks that has fallen off the wayside and into a deep pit of nothingness over the last year as real life issues and scheduling conflicts have slowed our progress to a crawl.
If you’re still following this little project, thank you for your time and patience. Know that our hearts are still in this.
And thank you.
The Snapjaw Games Team
