Colony 37 - Sneak Peak & Upcoming Plans

Hi everyone!

First of all huge sorry for not writing anything for a month. I tried to develop this project at my own pace, and I really have to work more on "Sneak Peaks" and "Progress Report" type of things. But there is something I would like to show. I'm working hard on the 0.5 version of the game and decided to share some sort of preview of the upcoming features and changes.

Tasks Panel

Pretty much all of the quests heavily relied on the current dialogue system. User had to read through tons and tons of text in order to figure out what to do and where to go, because of that, the majority of new players had a huge problem with finding underground structures (Or just didn't bother at all). So, I've decided to rewrite the whole "Quests" system and implement the "Tasks Panel".

With this new "Tasks Panel" user can immediately check what quests are currently available and which rewards you can get as well as quest's progress and the ability to claim the rewards in a single panel.

Additionally, I've implemented a "Track" button that allows you to track specific quest.

This small panel will be visible at all times in the top-left corner of the screen. It'll either show the quest's progress or the distance from the object (updating in real time). Hopefully this will help in finding specific places/items underground.

Experience System

Next thing on the line is a brand-new experience system. I felt like the current progression didn't give enough interesting moments in terms of variation, and everything always came down to pretty much the same equipment (ahm, dynamite), so I've decided to add more things to do. You destroy blocks — you get the experience.

Each level up will give you experience points, which you can use to upgrade your perks.

Yes, every single perk is now upgradable (maximum level cap varies between perks for balancing reasons), and you can "develop" your build with a bit more depth. Levels and experience are permanent and do not disappear if the main character dies.

Outside World Rework

I've completely reworked how Colony looks from the outside. This one is on the "visual" side of things, although it will have a couple of additional things to do (more on that later).

Laboratories Rework

One of the most important (and hardest) things I need to accomplish in the 0.5 update is a full rework of laboratories. In the previous versions they felt really just like a "dull couple of rooms with a thing you need to get at the end." Even though I'm planning to keep them simple, I'm working on making them more fun to explore. The main thing that I cut from the game was the random generation of laboratories. Although random generation felt nice, it restricted creativity more than it helped, so I opted to eliminate it and keep rooms constant while still generating loot.

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Additionally, laboratories will include oxygen emitters that will replenish a portion of player's oxygen. This should help with constant oxygen constraint while exploring the underground structures.

Other Additions

Some of the other desired things will also come into play. Some of them are:

• Additional items.

• Slight economy rework (for later stages of the game).

• More biomes.

• Brighter underground across the board (even though it doesn't make sense, constant pitch black is really not enjoyable for a playthrough).

Release date for 0.5

I'm working hard to release the 0.5 build as fast as I possibly can, but it still needs time in order to get everything I want. I'll do my best to release the update in two weeks, but I'll try hard enough to release it sooner.

Huge thanks for the support. I'll be releasing this kind of "Sneak Peaks" at least once a week in order to keep a tight development schedule; hopefully this would make the development of Colony 37 more efficient :)