Hello Miners,
We got an announcement to make. On the last road map, we stated that the two new biomes we would add to update 33 would be Azure Weald and Caustic Mire. When we made the decision for those two biomes we were actually experimenting with multiple different types of biomes and after a couple of weeks of prototyping, we fell in love with a different biome than Caustic Mire. Say hello to Hollow Bough!
Biome Description
Hollow Bough is a biological oddity that has the Science Department scratching their heads - this entire region of the planet is dominated by colossal, organic conglomerations resembling the inside of hollow trees. However, these structures are under attack by an invasive species of voracious vine-like plants, as much a threat to us as the planet itself. We recommend traversing these environs with extreme caution. The deep, dark folds of wood and bark house much more than a first glance let on.
[Hollow Bough Teaser]
The Reasoning Behind the Change
So why this change? Well, in our prototype Caustic Mire felt a bit like a cheap mix of Crystalline Cavern and Magma Core. And Hollow Bough immediately stood out in our first prototype as very original and interesting. We felt it looked both better and was more distinct from the other biomes. Furthermore, we simply had more original ideas for Hollow Bough and we really wanted to explore the spline tech we used for building pipelines in On-Sight Refining to do creepy thorny vines.
Changes like this in our production planning is simply a consequence of two things. First, we try to share information with you guys as early as possible (and we can only share what we know at that point), and secondly, we are very agile and change plans on the spot if we think it is the right thing to do. This will most likely not be the last time this happens, but, as always, we will share any changes with you as soon as possible and when we are confident that the change is the right thing to do.
So what about Caustic Mire you may ask? The short answer is that we are not doing that now or in the foreseeable future. And when we decide to add more biomes at some point there is no guarantee that we are gonna create that biome.
We are passionate game developers and we always prioritize features that we think will be the coolest for the game at any given point, but we also make decisions based on what we think will be more fun to work on. Luckily these two things align most of the time :-)
Update 33 release date
Next week we will reveal more info on Update 33 including a release date. Until then, here are a few teasers (and no, sorry, Azure Weald is not actually under water even though it has an under-water-feel to its looks).
[Azure Weald teaser 1]
[Azure Weald teaser 2]
with love
- The Ghost Ship Crew