Hello, Deminers!
It's been a while since the last Dev Update and since the project is undergoing some major structural changes - its time.
The less fun news:
I've been developing this game and pumping out updates over the last 1.5 years to get as far through the backlog as possible before running out of resources.. And regretfully..
..That time has sadly come, and I gotta to do a job on the side to be able to sustain development costs and all else as only doing this is completely unsustainable.
However..! Everything has secretly been going exactly according to plan as I've managed to get so much in place during this crucial period that I'm confident that this wont impact the full-release date for the game (Q2 2026) at all. Updates will be coming it more slowly, but be more substantial leading up to the full release.
What's next: Graphical Overhaul
In the next update, a complete graphical overhaul I've been cooking for up for a good while will be deployed. This overhaul completely changes the feel of the game (in the good way). You will have:
- Increased view distances
- Higher texture resolutions
- High quality shadows
- More colors
- More details.. At the cost of... 15% LESS!? computing power than before.
Not only that... But with this tech, the game will also finally be able to support full day-time which not only looks awesome, but will make the transition into nights feel much more tangible/serious.
A little sneak peak of the environment during daytime using the new pipeline:
Gameplay Loop Re-Design
With all the new features in place, the original vision for the game loop doesn't really hold up anymore or feel obvious at all.
I'm not super hyped about there being so much in the game but so little incentive or direction for actually doing these things. I can't say for sure exactly how the game loop is going to change just yet, but there will be much more incentive for taking risks and doing different activities around the world so that making the most out of every day is back to being a clear central part of the game.
Custom Game Settings
The final thing being added in the upcoming update is a way for the host to customize game settings in the lobby. Most aspects of the game will be tweakable this way like:
- In-Game time speed
- Amount of hours until dusk/nightfall happens
- Mine difficulty scaling
- Player statuses
- Buff durations and values
- Amount of ruins that can spawn individually for each sector
- Maximum ruins depth individually for each sector
- Material costs
- Item costs
- Spawn rates for every enemy
- Etc.. Etc..
Tweaking anything with this feature disables certain achievements in the game from being attained on that save file, but the replayability it adds to the game is priceless.
That's all i got for now. I thank you all who have been supporting and believing in my game during these somewhat messy early-access times. ːsteamhappyː