Howdy! Welcome to The Great Circle! This will be the first TGC dev blog posted to Steam. I'll do these as often as I can to keep everyone informed on how TGC development is going. I'm thrilled to have come this far with development and there is still such a long way to go. Since development started in May 2020, I've basically been working on TGC full-time at all hours. It has been one of the most enjoyable things I've ever done.
DIRECTION
So far things are looking great for TGC 2022. The free demo has successfully be deployed to steam. Thanks to the familiarity a lot of players have with Steam, it will be easier now for many of the new players to download, play, and update as opposed to the previous process. The next step is the release the Early Access version of TGC which will be paid, and will offer more playable animals, humans, and game modes than the demo. The demo will shadow the Early Access version, maintaining its demo limits but receiving many of the same environment, mechanics, and performance updates. So the demo should not be inferior in terms of quality or performance, it should only limit how much of the game can be accessed for free. I like the idea of offering 1 carnivore, 1 herbivore, and 1 human in the demo.
The scope of TGC began as strictly animal survival, but at the moment I think TGC is Survival, Adventure, and 'African Survival' might be the most correct subgenre. You can call it a walking simulator too, and some people enjoy that, but I have something much more engaging in mind.
THE QUESTION OF GROWTH TIMES
Could growing an elephant for a month actually be fun? I believe it could be, though, the formula to achieve that is a mystery. Thing is, I love solving mysteries & difficult problems. And what if it works? What then is the limit? Could could raising animals for 1 full year be possible? It sounds ridiculous but how could anyone in my position not want to find out for sure? However that pursuit concludes, the process of trying to figure it seems too fun to pass up. If Long-term growth turns out not to be viable, I won't force it, but pushing boundaries is what I find interesting, and if I can manage to figure it out I think it'll be quite the achievement for TGC.
LORE
The use of lore has been a major interest of mine since early on. Coming from a filming background anyone could have guessed that lore and narrative storytelling would become integral parts of TGC. Story Mode, Cinematic view mechanic, & situational music are easy indications that a film nerd is designing this game.
MAP & ENVIRONMENT
The current scale of the map is intended to achieve a certain level of realism, by adding the experience of Traveling within the game's massive crater location. I don't want the player to get bored by seeing too much of the same type of landscape for too long, so I'm working on bringing out more variety and detail within the existing territories. Also it can't just be walking, through any of the map, there need to be vaults, climbing, hazards, and actual challenges associated with Travel to make it engaging. I'm on top of it.
MUSIC & SCORING
Situation-driven music is the main focus at the moment. Combat, growth, and region locations are some factors that influence the selection of music.
DEV STREAMS
I am itching to return to regular dev streams. The main reason I've been away from the stream is my computer is is occupied with upgrading the game and running iterations to verify file integrity. Its a painfully slow process with my older PCs but once I wont have to do it again for a long while. So soon I'll be back demoing new animals, map regions, game modes, and mechanics. Let me know below any specifics you'd like to see me cover.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLF-4x7d3YRvF54TdOwpW0A
ANIMALS
TGC's animal roster now stands at 87 species as of this blog. The Hyena was recently upgraded(See past 2 dev streams), and will now appear throughout the map during daylight as well as night. I believe we will see the Hyenas play an important role as one of the more common predatory threats in Savanna regions. Players will have to choose between traveling through territory controlled by Lions vs Hyenas. Buffalo skins have been upgraded and should no longer appear shiny. I'm going to begin working more with a new antelope in the dryer regions of the map. Also a major focus is improving the gameplay loop, and I'd like to incorporate a visual indicator for playable animals to indicate what your animal wants to do. I think we may get one of our primates into the game this month, stay tuned. For player input I'm curious which animal is your favorite and what activities you feel should be in the gameplay loop for your fav animal.
HUMAN GAMEPLAY
A lot of energy is going into introducing the first playable human in Survival mode. I'm excited about humanity, because humans play so many different roles in the environment: poachers, villagers, tourists, politicians, miners, scientists, and so many others. The simple introduction of one or two human characters literally double's the scope and depth of the game.
I'm currently working on a kind of quest system which will guide the player through a narrative experience in Story Mode. In Survival Mode, the human player will still pursue tasks and endeavors that are more focused on improving human quality of life and are not consequential to the central narrative in Story Mode. Crafting and building will eventually come into play.
ANIMAL GAMEPLAY
I want to further immerse the player in the animal survival part of TGC by making it easier to understand their animal's needs. This in essence is the point of hunger and thirst in most games but TGC was always meant to be much more robust. So I'm creating a new 'Animal Instincts' indicator that will give players a better sense of what their animal needs at different moments. This will also help angst-ridden player who get confused by a lack of direction in open-world survival situations.
RELEASE OF EARLY ACCESS (Stream)
I think it will be this month. Some important new mechanics
CONCLUSION
Thanks for reading! The process of developing TGC has been and continues to be a pure pleasure. Let me know if you have any questions!
TJ