What to expect in Farlanders comparing to Prologue

I want to talk with you in a bit more detail about what is planned for the main Farlanders game in comparison to the Farlanders: Prologue. Usually, when designing a game, I’m not adding mechanics just for the sake of it. Instead, I’m trying to create an emotion or the feel that the player will get. So in this article, I will not simply describe mechanics, I’ll try to explain why I’m adding them and what is their purpose.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1318740/Farlanders/

📖 Story

Writing a story for the Prologue was one of my first-ever writing attempts. With that said, it’s not perfect and I can’t say that I’m fully satisfied with the result. However, I learned a lot from the experience. The main thing is that there should be less text and dialogues. After all, Farlanders is less about narrative and more about the strategy of building colonies.

The purpose of any story, or narrative is to give you space for a fantasy to imagine something beyond a group of 32×32 pixel sprites 🙂. And, if done properly, it could be better achieved with illustration and cutscenes rather than with text.

In the main game, the campaign will consist of multiple scenarios. You will have the continuation of a story with Nicole, scenarios with brand new characters, and even a secret scenario with another character from the Prologue.

🏗️ Colony Specialization

To add more depth to the game, I want to make it possible to build a successful colony in different ways. For example, if you have a lot of open space and water – focus on growing crops, and then purchase resources that you are missing. For this to work, we need a trading system.

And to make specialization even more clear I’m adding a technology tree. Through this tree, you can unlock new buildings and upgrades. For example, if your current focus is to make your people happy, you can research public spaces or unlock an upgrade for a factory, which reduces the factory noise.

One thing that was unclear to me for some time was how to create a monetary income (for mechanics like trade to work). Because any Martian colony, at least in the early stage, is unprofitable. I found a solution in another mechanic that I was considering for a while – making Mars green! To justify an expensive and difficult process of growing plants on Mars, you will receive a monetary subsidy from the government, which will make your colony’s main income.

🏠 Colony Aesthetics

It is important to be able to enjoy your creations in any building game, which is why we are working on visual improvements. There will be multiple visual versions of most of the buildings (not counting Kickstarter exclusive skins), and we will be adding visual effects to make the game feel more alive.

But, more importantly, the beauty of your colony depends on how you build it. And we, as developers, can affect it, with game design! In the Prologue, most of the buildings are immediately upgraded when there is a building of the same type nearby. This system will be expanded in the main game. The building will slowly develop – depending on the environment – until it reaches a certain threshold to level up.

For example, if we take a living house, it will receive a growing bonus from other houses (as it does in the Prologue) but also from parks, restaurants, greens, etc. But there may be negative effects from certain