Friday Blog 223 - The Principles of the Farming Outpost

Three weeks ago, in the last Friday Blog, we were at 0.9.0.6v2. We’re still delivering frequent updates, and we made it all the way to 0.9.0.13! An example of the fixes contained in these updates is pictured below. The testers are finding numerous small problems and rough spots, and we’re dedicated to polishing 0.9.0 to a high standard. If you want to test 0.9.0 in a less polished state, feel free to join the beta following the instructions here.

Most of these updates contain a bunch of small tweaks and fixes, but no major changes to the content of the game. But last week, we released 0.9.0.10, which contained a lot of new building blocks.

0.9.0 was rebuilt from pretty much zero, and at first we were completely focused on testing new gameplay features. Tools; outposts; traps; the “glider-launcher”; elevators; currency & the merchant; the new world generation. All of the colonies we built were highly functional and not ‘decorative’. The testers rightfully complained that 0.9.0 lacked a varied selection of building materials.

So, I’ve spent some time developing a bunch of new textures and building blocks. Some are completely new, some are new textures for old blocks. Some of the textures we replaced were quickly made 5+ years ago, and we believe the new textures have a significantly higher quality.

The Principles of the Farming Outpost

After releasing 0.9.0.10, I did a full playthrough of the beta, in preparation for adding the last new content before publicly releasing 0.9.0. I really enjoyed myself, and one thing really stood out to me. It’s now guiding my plans for the final batch of content, and I’d like to share it with you.

For my main colony, I had chosen a spot right in between a tall mountain, a swamp and a heath. I later started outposts in all these areas. My network of little towns was growing smoothly, but I was consuming quite a lot of food. I had of course regularly expanded my food supply, but it seems I needed a big expansion - and I didn’t have a lot of convenient space for that.

Standing on top of my 100-block-tall gliderlauncher-tower, I surveyed the surroundings. I quickly noticed a large, flat spot of fertile land nearby. I filled my inventory with building materials, bought an Outpost Banner and glided to the new area. My other outposts were relatively small, but I wanted to build this one big. I started building an extensive castle with complex defenses, specifically designed to conveniently incorporate traps, and spaces for colonists to reload those traps. It was a lot stronger than necessary for the small number of farmers living there, but I used Threat Statues to lure more monsters that way.

The entire project of building my Farming Outpost felt engaging and rewarding. But it didn’t directly access any new content. Indirectly, it did support the expansion of my network of colonies, which was working towards new parts of the tech tree.

When did I quit my test? When I reached the end of the tech tree. I was still enjoying the process of growing my network of towns, but there was nothing left to grow for. And when that happens, the game quickly comes to an end.

And these were the forces I was wrestling with. How do we… 1.) Extend the tech tree in a way that keeps players engaged as long as possible 2.) Do that in a way which