This week, we released the last two 0.7.2.x updates and started working on 0.7.3. The updates contain some minor fixes (check #small-patch-changelog on Discord) and an overhaul of the personal torch. It now uses the same system as stationary torches, significantly improving the visuals. When you’re playing with others and they activate their own personal torches, this will actually be visible in your world! And that includes the colored effects of the lanterns. An example of this can be seen in the screenshot above.
For 0.7.3, Zun has started working on statistics! They should give you a lot more insight into the long term trends of your colony. Which resources are increasing, which items are depleting? The image below is very primitive work-in-progress after only one day of work; the end product will look very different.
Last week’s blog was a long complicated rant about some of the weirder aspects of game design. It got quite a lot of comments - thanks for all the feedback and encouragement! :D So by popular demand, I’ll try to write Into Weirdness II. It’s a complex and fuzzy subject, so be warned: this might get vague.
Zun and I haven’t done any formal study related to game design or development. But that didn’t mean we were completely unprepared. We did have lots of experience with computers and games, including messing around with videos, websites and audio. I had quite a bit of experience with photography and Photoshop, which proved highly useful for making textures. I studied history and have always been interested in the general development of civilization - focusing on long term trends instead of specific kings and generals. We think that definitely shows in Colony Survival.
What this means is that we found useful information and inspiration in all kinds of random and unintended ways. One clear example: Fort Bourtange. It’s a star fort located close to our birthplace and we’ve visited it often. Here’s a photo:
I don’t think I was conscious of the link between Colony Survival and Fort Bourtange until literally five minutes ago. But now that I notice the link, it seems extremely relevant. We’ve spent plenty of time exploring a small historical village surrounded by multiple layers of walls, moats, gates and bridges when we were young. And then we decided to spend years working on a game that’s focused on building a village-fortress with walls and moats. I don’t think these two things are unrelated!
So obviously, inspiration like this is extremely valuable. But you can’t just order a manual that contains pure concentrated 100% Extremely Valuable Game Design Inspiration. You’ve got to go looking for it in all kinds of random directions.
In the past, I was inspired by random places, hobbies, games and TV/movies. In 2017/2018, I’ve barely played any games that weren’t Colony Survival. But in the past twelve months, I’ve played a lot of new games. Not just for entertainment (although that was certainly part of it), but with a deliberate aim to study and learn from them.
One could do this in a very careful and systematic fashion. Make a list of games, make a timetable, play each of them for 25 hours and write a detailed report on UI / gameplay / graphics / sound. But that can get boring and because I did this in my free time, I didn’t want to make it too much of a burden.
So I played randomly and erratically. Ragequitting one game and binging another. So perhaps it became more a study of me than of the games. Why do I want to keep playing game X? Why am I bored of Y? What’s frustrating me in Z? Giving detailed, realistic and accurate answers to these questions is harder than you think! A majority of human decisions and preferences are unconscious, and fully explaining them verbally/consciously is very difficult.
Of course, this mindset can be applied anywhere. We’ve got a lot of options in the way we run our company. How do we communicate, how do we use marketing, how do we build a community, what’s an interesting story, what is a beautiful building, what is great music, what’s a good trailer - all of these questions have relevant answers that would be useful to us. I notice that nowadays, I’m constantly deconstructing a lot of what I see ánd my own reactions to that, and seeing what I can learn from that.
A while ago, I watched a video that I still regularly think about and that seems highly relevant. It’s a one hour talk by Jeff Vogel at the GDC. I didn’t know him or his games, but he’s been an indie dev since 1994 - and has kept his small company afloat that entire period. Instead of promising some Quick Tips to Instant Fame and Wealth, Vogel just talks about his experiences and lets you do the concluding. In some ways, he’s extremely different from us. He gets really demotivated from online criticism, so he barely has any interaction with his community. He releases a game, checks bug reports, fixes that, and goes on to the next game. We work in a completely different way - we read pretty much everything that is directed towards us and even scour the internet for discussions about Colony Survival. But if it works for him - it works! There doesn’t seem to be one perfect way to approach this, with all others paths being invalid. Here's a link to the video:
https://youtu.be/stxVBJem3Rs
So, let’s act like all these things are related and write a nice summary for this. In 2017/2018, the sudden success of Colony Survival was a bit of an “emergency”, and we worked hard to pick all the low-hanging fruit, all the simple improvements that could ASAP boost the fun of the game. Since then, things have started to shift more towards “long term mode”. The emergency is over so we’re establishing a routine. Simultaneously, the low-hanging fruit is gone so we’ve got to build a ladder, allowing us to reach higher than before. Making this transition requires us to go “Into Weirdness” into some areas. Does that make sense? :)
Bedankt voor het lezen!