Hey everyone!
Max here, gameplay programmer at Pugstorm 👋 Today I’ll be sharing my insights on how KYORA approaches giving you the right tools and a sense of progression, and how we try to make that loop engaging. If you missed our previous posts, you can catch our deep dives on World Generation, Environment Design and Character Design here!
PIXELS AND PICKAXES
I’ve always liked sandbox games that drop you into a world with almost nothing and let you figure things out at your own pace. The goal is learning how the environment works, understanding what different materials can do, and gradually becoming more confident as you go. In KYORA, we follow that same spirit, but add the ability to pixel terraform right from the start.
We’re big fans of how these games encourage exploration and experimentation, and we’re hoping that giving players this level of control adds an interesting twist to that experience and opens up a lot of creative possibilities!
We’re always thinking about how to balance that sense of freedom with a bit of gentle guidance through the story and overall progression. The game should support your discovery of new materials for crafting, building and being creative, while gradually moving you forward towards a larger goal, without taking away from the feeling that you’re finding your own path.
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AT IT’S CORE (KEEPER)
Core Keeper was our first step into this genre, which some describe as a ‘sandbox boss rush’. Rather than leaving everything entirely open, we tried to give a bit of a direction through boss encounters and materials tied to them.
With KYORA we’re taking a similar approach. We want players to feel free to explore and adventure, while also making sure the world is filled with enough materials to get creative with the pixel terraforming. At the same time, there should always be a sense of an overarching goal, something gently guiding you forwards without getting in the way of that freedom!
CRAFTY SOLUTIONS
Whilst taking down the next boss might be the biggest task on your list, there’s always smaller bite-sized goals along the way to help make this achievable. Are your weapons up to scratch? Do you have enough ingredients to prepare a stat-boosting meal? Have you gathered the right resources for your next set of armour, or will you go in search of some instead? Have you built a small pixel-formed cottage to keep yourself safe from what comes out at night? Exploring the world, getting a lay of the land and gathering resources from the biomes you inhabit is all part of the gameplay loop.
A crucial element is finding the right balance where discovering a rare item or finally having enough materials for an upgrade feels like a big reward. Within the Pugstorm team, we sometimes refer to this as ‘juice’ - when the game feels really good to play. It shows up in a lot of small ways, from visuals and sound to timing and feedback.
A big part of that is the buildup - something we touched on briefly in our world generation blog. We try to make it clear why something matters, whether that’s through how rare it is, the effort it took to gather, or what it allows you to do next. When these pieces come together it can feel really satisfying!
CRAFTING MODULES
Our crafting system is built around unlocking different modules as your progress. The idea is to gradually open up new options as you explore and interact with the world, rather than giving you everything upfront and letting you go wild.
This approach encourages early tree punching and rock breaking, and makes the upgrades feel more meaningful when they finally become available. We’re still working through the balance and details, and will share more as things take shape, but so far it feels like a solid foundation for how crafting works in KYORA.
GEARS OF WAR
You can progress using mostly your own crafted gear, but loot is where we get to introduce some additional flavour. Items can reflect the enemy who dropped it or the biome it was claimed in, in a way that crafted gear doesn’t. For example, in Core Keeper, overcoming a lava-themed boss nets you magma themed armour and weapons that makes you immune to burning and cause your own burn damage to enemies. This is something we’re currently experimenting with for KYORA.
Meanwhile, crafting offers a sense of control over your progression, while loot adds some variety and the occasional surprise when you come across something unexpected.
BOSSES, BIOMES, AND BEYOND
Gathering resources, exploring, and improving equipment should gradually prepare you for more challenging scenarios. When you reach a new boss or unlock a new biome, it feels like there’s payoff instead of a sudden shift in gameplay.
Beyond the larger goal, we’re currently working on making the nighttime feel just that liiiittle bit more risky 💀 The idea is to create a natural rhythm where daytime encourages exploration and discovery, while nighttime becomes more dangerous and pushes you to prepare, defend yourself, or focus on survival. This also helps with onboarding, as it initially gives you a safe time window to explore and learn the basics of the game… at least until nightfall!
To summarize, a lot of what we’ve been focusing on lately includes adding more challenging enemies, environmental hazards, night-time threats, improving how terraforming feels, refining progression systems, and much, much more. Until next time, if you have questions, ideas or just want to let us know what you think, drop a comment or join our X, Insta, Reddit, our lovely community newsletter or our official Discord channel - we always love to hear from you.
Keep it breezy! 🍃
- Pugstorm & Chucklefish