DevLog #2 - We need more game

During the last development log of Red Dust Colony we were still knee deep in trailer footage, ideas, and a rush to make things as presentable as we could. A few features like the meteor strike weren't ready so we still had to do some work before moving on. We've since released it; If you haven't watched it yet, we encourage you to do so here, and let us know what you think.

With the trailer out of the way, first we had to fix a number of issues that we found while recording it but which were either not visible, or not of a high enough priority. It was important to make sure everything is fixed because our next milestone is having a demo that shows what Red Dust Colony is about.

What should a demo even contain?

With other types of games, figuring out the answer to this question would be easier, but in the case of a colony simulator, there's a lot of open ended-ness to what a player can do once the game starts. Sure, there's going to be some things that are fairly clear, like setting up the oxygen flow, getting food, placing beds and toilets, and setting up power, but the ordering is not something that is predefined and there's a number of other things that could/should be done near the start of the game. Since we'd like to give you a chance to experience the game as it's going to be, we feel like the choices here should not be limited. In the same time, going through all content that the game should provide at the start would likely also be a significant portion of the game and would also provide considerably more playtime than a demo should. So, with that in mind we've decided that we'll allow all the research (which acts as a content unlocker) up to a certain depth but also limit the play time on any map to a specific number of in-game days. We have not decided on the exact numbers yet but this is the plan.

Analyzing the amount of content

Looking at the number of things that can be constructed in game, it's at around 50, if some variations are excluded. This may sound like a decent amount but looking at it in practice, it does fall short of what we want to achieve. We would like to end up with content that is comparable, if not exceeding the size of other popular games in our genre. Looking at the reality however, we've had a few parts that were not yet fleshed out and some parts that were downright missing. Some of the content was also in the form of "the same building but bigger" or just visual variations which is meaningless. While buildings like this can exist, they should definitely not be considered fundamental content.

It's a bit embarrassing to show, but this is how one part of the research tree used to look like

So what should the player gain by doing research anyway?

Well, looking at existing games in this genre and doing a bit of thinking it becomes apparent that research should not only unlock a bit of content, but that the unlocked content should tie into other content raising the complexity of the game. One thing that struck me when analyzing what makes other games work well, is that games that keep the player engaged for longer provide multiple mechanics and buildings per unlocked research entry. This was not really the case in our game and it had a significant impact on the feel of the game, especially in some parts. This was something that needed to be addressed now.

Back to the drawing board

Over time we've had a lot of ideas of things to add to the game at some point but we were always busy with other things. We were either reworking artwork to better match the style or implementing mechanics and expanding the system to support all the features we need. All that iteration was necessary but I believe we've reached the end of the cycle.

We've spent some time reworking the whole flow of the game, from item production chains, to buildings, extra mechanics of all sorts and the research tree. Once this was done, we carefully analyzed all of it and still found some issues. So once again, back to the drawing board. Another week later, iteration number 2 is done, fixing all of the design issues.

Looking at the new content plan, we've added around 40 new things that can be built, each tying into the others in various ways. We've also removed a few buildings which were just bigger version of other buildings. These might be added back later but currently it just doesn't feel like they're needed.

Nothing is set in stone so far, and we'll likely rework and tweak parts of it to make the game as engaging as possible but it's nice to have the entire game plan written down. The great part here is that since the base systems are flexible enough (logistics, building, colonist needs and behavior, power, lights, planting, etc) the amount of work needed on the implementation side of things can sometimes be minimal. With the tools that we've developed, integrating some of the new content in the game will be mostly data entry.

This doesn't apply to everything as some of the new mechanics will require more code but nothing too complex in terms of implementation. One notable example here is the piping system which was initially planned to not be in the first early access build and now will even be included in the demo. At the time of writing this, it's still in development and a few problems need to be hashed out before it's going to be ready but we're confident everything can be solved in a reasonable time frame.

Where does this leave the demo?

A significant number of the changes planned are to be included in the demo so this means we still have a fair bit of work before we're ready to publish something. Until Cristina finishes the new models I'll be implementing the needed content, using simple boxes to test it out and see how it feels. As things stand on the art side of things though, progress is being made quite fast

If you're interested in checking out the demo as soon as it becomes available, consider joining our Discord server as we'll use it to recruit willing play testers. We also sometimes post other behind the scenes footage.

Thank you for reading and we'll see you next time!