A common question we are asked is "will there be objectives/story", and we see this pop up quite a bit when players are discussing just about any crafty-buildy, survival type game (which are inherently sandbox in nature).
As gamers ourselves, we do love sandbox games, but we also love progression and having goals to work towards. It's one thing to set your own goals, but having core objectives and a story arc can add a lot to the game experience and was always something we wanted to have.
(By the way, in case you missed it, we are starting playtests soon which you can sign up for!)
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/3052510/view/505069374726471759
For Oceaneers, the big question from a design standpoint was:
What is a compelling way to have a story gel into what is ultimately a sandbox genre, without getting in the way of the things players love about survival crafting and colony sims?
We took inspiration from some our of favorite games such as Subnautica and No Mans Sky - which are both sandbox survival games, yet incorporate a story and objectives. We are also avid fans of old adventure games like Monkey Island and Space Quest so there are concepts from that genre that we are experimenting with as well (while taking care that they only add to the colony sim formula).
Players are going to be pleasantly surprised with some of the unexpected features we are adding for story & lore (this is all new stuff that hasn't been in any trailers/screenshots yet).
We are experimenting with a range of features and techniques to get story & objectives into the game.
- A core story arc/main objective.
- Sub-story arcs, with multiple outcomes,
- Optional lore to be discovered.
- Mini-random events that require player choice and effect your survivors (or your whole colony).
- Dialog between your characters for some parts of the story.
Being a sandbox game, replayability is also important. Here are some things we are experimenting with on top of key story arcs and objectives:
- Starting condition choices.
- Starting survivor group choices.
- Random events.
- Procedural generation.
- Creative mode / Story-off mode.
We are having a lot of fun testing this out, and based on feedback from initial playtests with external testers. they are loving how story and objectives are being integrated so far.
That's it for this dev diary. We would love to hear how you feel about story and objectives in games that are sandbox in nature! Do you like setting your own goals, or having a story to play through?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
⚡ Be sure to Wishlist Oceaneers, and stay tuned for the next dev diary and more announcements. ❤️
Join Us!
Join our discord to discuss the game and share your ideas!
Join discord here
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Some recent Dev Diaries in case you missed them:
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/3052510/view/538843836072330185