Year 2025 In Unnatural Worlds

Year 2025

It was an exciting year for Unnatural Worlds. Demo released, a lot of development progress, several small-scale tournaments, and more.

Demo launched

The Demo was launched in January, during the Steam RTS Fest, and approximately 400 people have played it. Median play time was 12 minutes, which is approximately the time it took the AI opponent to first attack. Turns out, players cannot defend, if they don't know how to make military units. I have received bunch more feedback, most of which should be addressed by now.

Gameplay and content

Shooting in arcs

One of the defining features of Unnatural Worlds are the crazy-shaped planets. It would be shame, if it had little impact on the gameplay. Therefore, some units were updated to shoot in an arc, over horizon or behind a corner.

Second playable race

UW now has two playable asymmetric races:

• Technocracy - some descendants of the original humans, mostly replaced with AI, it is a living machine now. Their focus is on progressing towards higher-tier units.

• Biomass - evolution gone wrong - this race is driven by photosynthesis, mutation, acid, and claws. Their focus is on overwhelming opponents with large numbers of units.

Research and upgrades

Upgrades open many new possibilities (and build variety) in RTS games. UW adds a little twist to it, as usual. They are used to improve specific units or buildings, at the cost of continued supply of goods for the research. The upgrades have a ramp-up phase, and a wind-down phase when the supply stops. Therefore it is possible to repeatedly switch army compositions during a single match. And it greatly rewards good planning.

Additional gameplay features

These are your typical features that you would expect in every RTS, but were still missing in UW.

• splash damage

• suicidal units

• life regeneration

• pings

• diplomacy

• fog of war

• stealthy units

• detectors

• healthbars

User interface and controls

Improved GUI

Designing user interfaces is surprisingly difficult. I have spent over 4 years on continuously improving it, and there will always be opportunities for more. Thanks to observing newcomers, and some feedback from the demo, I have made many changes to the layout and visibility of some elements in the GUI. Further reinforcements come in the form of voice-lines and messages. One feature in UW that stands out is that you can open tooltips from within tooltips. This makes it easier to learn on how to train a specific unit, or what are the uses for a resource, etc. However, the most visible change from this year is visual reskin of the GUI. It is not perfect yet, but I think it is much better.

Minimap

Minimap is another of the features that you expect in every RTS. Unfortunately, it is a bit more challenging to make it work with the unhinged planets that exist in UW. Eventually, I have settled on a version that uses slight color gradients and changing orientation, to help with depth perception. The orientation is synchronized with the primary camera. I believe that this is the best option to provide players the best awareness of the events happening on the whole map.

Controls

Support for fully customizable keybinds have been added. And you can store several presets for quick switching. A lot of bugs have been squashed (both in code and in game), so units behavior is now much more correct, respecting user input, and behaving more reasonably when left alone.

Pause

Pause was also added. And it is allowed to place constructions or change units commands while paused.

Units movement and picking

For technical reasons, units in UW move more like chess pieces on an (irregular) grid, rather than smoothly moving on a plane. This is mostly hidden from the player, but it was occasionally causing some undesirable effects. This year, several improvements have been implemented to make units able to switch direction even when in-between two tiles. This especially improves responsiveness to user inputs, or unforeseen obstacles in the path. Very fast movement is more fair than before too. Finally, precision for picking units with mouse has also been improved.

Audiovisual improvements

Sound effects

Thanks to a new contributor dedicated to just sounds, many effects have been added to the game, and many more are coming. Sound latency has been reduced, the annoying cracking that was present during the Demo has been fixed, and several more improvements.

Shooting effects

Previously, all shots were just colored lasers. Much more varied effects are used now: machinegun, heavy cannon, lightning, flamethrower, antimatter. Some particle effects were sprinkled in too. More work is needed here, especially for the splash effects and big explosions, but it is a start.

Shadows

Both quality and performance for shadows and ambient occlusion were significantly improved. Also additional configurations for tweaking quality and performance to your liking were added.

Maps / planets

Tilesets have improved transitions. Some tilesets were removed (no more wooden boards). Mountain ranges and lakes are now designed to form in a way that makes games more interesting. Also roads now form between bases. And additional planet-shapes were added too. There is close to 40 generated maps in total now.

Modding

Added scripting capabilities (currently uses c++ compiled to webassembly). Initial support for cutscenes. Preliminary implementation of map editor. And more preparations for campaigns, modding, and Steam Workshop. Note, that modding is not yet officially available.

API bots tournament

Second tournament in programming custom bots for the game has happened this year. The api has significantly matured, allowing to write bots in c# and python. It also allows automated match governance, both for bots or for real players.

Year 2026

The upcoming year is shaping to be even greater. All of gameplay mechanics planned for the start of Early Access are complete now. The primary focus of development will be on finishing animations, sounds, AI bots for skirmishes, and initial campaign.

Campaign

I want to make a compelling story, with memorable characters, and great missions. But I cannot do that on my own, in the time I have before I run dry of my savings. So I have made the decision to focus on just great missions, and only few of them. The rest will have to be made during Early Access. The bright side is that you will get the game sooner, and will have the opportunity to shape its further development, together.

Ranked

I plan to have two ladders available at the start of EA: 1v1, and coop 2vAI. The game is designed with cheat resistance in mind, however, I do not have funds to run dedicated servers, so the ladders will be on "best effort" basis only, using Steam infrastructure for matchmaking. I hope it will bring more utility than contention.

Release date

I am pleased to announce, that the start of Early Access has been scheduled for Q4 2026. Mind you, it is a plan, not a promise.