Yes, we know - in our last post we actually promised to talk more about our destruction engine and show off impressive explosions, but I guess we blew it (pun fully intended). So while we look forward to sharing fancy detonations in our next post, this week we focus on another elemental part of Dawn Apart - building huge, vertical factory compounds and terraforming the surface of the planet Aurora.
Before we, well, hammer out this building-related post, we want to shout out all the base building and automation fans who have wishlisted Dawn Apart and joined our Discord server - we really appreciate your support and don’t take you for granite (apologies - we promise that was the last bad construction pun:).
Raising the roof
While Dawn Apart features over 100 unique machines including various drills, smelters, and reactors that can be put on the world map as single entities, the game encourages players to construct large, customizable factory compounds and floor halls by placing individual walls as well as floor and roof tiles. Aside from materials each act of building comes with a cost - Lucrum 115, Aurora’s most precious resource, which you must amass to extend your ‘sphere of influence’ (an intricate system of in-game currency that we will explain in more detail in an upcoming post).
As you can see in the (very compressed) Gif above the process includes laying a foundation by removing trees, rocks and other objects, placing relevant machines (in this case smelting ovens and punch presses) over multiple floors and connecting everything through conveyor belts and stair cases.
Enclosing your production facilities in actual factory halls has the advantage of protecting them from environmental decay (the weather on Aurora can be a bit, let’s say, unpleasant at times) and outside attacks (after all the It’ak, the indigenous population that has lived on Aurora for millennia, are not huge fans of you digging up their home). It also makes it convenient for the engineers among your colonists to maintain your machinery and guarantee a smooth production process - even though horrific work accidents will be a thing.
(Terra)form follows function
While Aurora, thanks to its Earth-like atmosphere, is already pretty habitable for our human pioneers, you’ll need to engage in some form of planetary landscaping to transform it into an industrial hub.
Because we want the whole planet to be very interactive (not just directly from player input, but from objects that are on its surface) we are working on a grid-based real-time terraforming system, a sneak-peak of which you can see above. If you have deep enough Lucrum pockets, you can change the terrain at your will: from flattening hills to depositioning or extending land masses. Overall, with our building and Aurora-forming systems we really want players to think about the architecture and sustainability of your automated production facilities.
We can’t wait to let you try out these very sandbox-y systems and are working hard to give you a playable demo in the upcoming months. Actually, we have so much stuff in our pipeline that we have decided to switch from biweekly to weekly posts so you can learn more about the progression of the development. If you want to get even more updates, participate in fun surveys, and look at exclusive clips, make sure to join our Discord server. See you next week!