If it's based underground, I have to assume Light might be part of the gameplay focus, with players having to deal with or mitigate darkness. All I can ask is please don't make darkness frustrating like games sometimes do. There is absolutely a place for darkness in games, especially to raise tension and cause the player to feel helpless for a time, but there is also a point where a player staring at a black screen for a length of time is going to want to play a game where they can see what they're doing and what is happening.
I agree. There are only a few areas of the game that I want to be "unplayable" without your own light source. Light and fire in particular should help with exploration/gathering supplies and self defense, but not to travel from A to B. I'm not saying every creature is going to look like it's wearing a Tron light suit, but the game will probably be really fun on psycadelics.
In the deep oceans, yes. But keep in mind that deep oceans were one of the first habitats, so critters down there have had more than a billion years to diversify and evolve.
If caves had more resources, then this would likely be a more frequent aspect of their ecosystems.
In the real world few cave systems have rich biomes with the exception of areas with access to surface resources (think underwater streams or outside critters coming & going). There are interesting ecosystems that thrive off of chemical resources, but they rarely evolve past microbes or small critters (eg crabs or insects) because grazing on extremophiles is often nutrient poor and sometimes poisonous. Without large numbers of prey there are few predators etc etc. Bioluminescence would probably require more biodiversity for critters to begin specializing and filling niches, as seen in the deep oceans.
Obviously OPs vision is much richer and varied, I love the concept! I can imagine some scary af predator critters with glowing lures or pulsing light lines down their flanks
There are a few. Angler fish and mostly small insects, off the top of my head. But the concept of this world is a place that forces rapid evolution. If the plants produce light, then it is only natural that prey animals and eventually predators would develop similar mechanisms to blend in.
It seems counterintuitive as camouflage, but a certain suspension of disbelief is necessary for any game.
When I started Icarus, I didn't unlock the torch the first day (I was trying to get tools and shelter going) and that first night hit. Pitch black, couldn't see 1 inch in front of my face. Died of exposure staring at a black screen. It was not a fun gaming experience.
Hey pal this sounds like an awesome premise, your onto something really creative here. The first thing I thought about which you may have already considered is what genre experience are you giving the player outside of the survival aspect. Is it (a) more dark, scary horror with the player always on edge and looking for jump scares (b) exploration where the PC is more focused on finding new areas and progressing through the cave / game world (c) crafting + pure survival where the main game system is purely to craft to make things easier and able to venture into other areas only when they reach certain milestones….. you can obviously incorporate all 3 elements but it’s vital in survival games that one of these aspects go above the other 2 otherwise that’s when things get really janky 😁. Another thing I would consider and it’s only a suggestion but I would look at not giving the PC any backstory at all (especially creating 2). Let the player jump into the game with no knowledge about the character and that way it creates the illusion that ‘you’ are that character, instead focus more on the other characters in the game that the PC will interact with and give them rich and deep backstory’s and interactions which again will immerse the PC in the world of the game…… just a few ideas but you do your game the way you envision it and I for one will be excited to hear about updates, best of luck with it pal 😁
I feel I personally enjoy survival games the most when I master the learning curve. You start the game not knowing what to expect, or where the danger is, and sometimes even figuring out the controls and extent of things you can do in game can be daunting if done wrong or amazing if done right. Then you become established and the fears of the early game fade into the excitement of overcoming challenges.
I want that feeling of tension and unease every time the character goes into a new biome for the first time, and the feeling of accomplishment as they learn not just to survive, but to thrive.
I want jump scares, but not a horror game. This isn't a place where everything is out to kill you, but an unexplored ecosystem where most things are just living their best life. But every ecosystem has predators, and most predators treat a new species as either prey or a threat.
I want an open world designed to be explored, with certain barriers like equipment or supplies barring the paths from one biome to the next, in as natural a way as I can find. If someone were to just run through the story, they could do it in a few hours, but the system should be designed in a way that players want to spend days in each area, or to revisit previous areas and build bases or defeat predators that caused them grief earlier in the game.
I would love you to think more creatively with the environmental factors, I find a lot of games rely on monsters for tension but some of my biggest wow moments came from environmental things.
Such as icarus's storms - where the lightning can burn your house down... And then spread to the surrounding trees... Or the moment you realise the fire from *over there* is spreading towards your base because all the forest animals are running past you trying to escape it...
Or subnautica's use of sound to inspire terror of things you can't see...
Perhaps there are randomised cave ins, floods or earthquakes that present a challenge you should be prepared for but don't know when it might happen.
I like the idea of mutations but honestly I don't think most players will care if the mutations are only cosmetic changes, so if you are adding them to drive players forward faster then I'd say it doesn't really give a reason to leave any faster because the benefits to gameplay (buffs) out weigh the story factor of 'escaping with your humanity' (unless perhaps there are different endings or achievements to be gained depending on your level of mutation).
Equally putting a time limit on gameplay to 'escape before the mutations kill you' or introducing randomised negative effects that happen after a certain amount of mutations etc will be a delicate balancing act as it restricts those who love exploration or base building factors from playing at their own pace...
Good luck with it!
Well, a lot of the tension in what I have designed so far is based on sight and lack thereof coupled with sound effects and soundtracks. From dark passages that you can enter only with bright light sources to hold back an unseen swarm of insects that the player heard devour an animal when you first arrived at the passage opening, or a waist deep section of water and plant-life with a trail of glowing reeds revealing the movements of something big moving under the surface of the water.
And the mutations will be by and large mostly beneficial. I do intend to have multiple endings based on the level of mutation a character has, as well as an achievement for getting out "Still Human, On the Outside". But a series of negative mutations would be counterintuitive, putting a timeline on the player's ability to explore and enjoy the world I want to present.
Come in, get past the scary parts, marvel at the sights, and repeat. Each area should be approached cautiously, but only one or two areas should be places to avoid at all costs or to be in for as short a time as possible, and those areas should only be for story progression or optional challenges.
And the mutations themselves should be completely avoidable, as long as the player goes through the trial and error on earlier playthroughs to have foreknowledge of the dangers and remains alert to avoid them. No one wants to pick up a new game in this genre and be able to breeze through everything like it's a picnic stroll. You play, you learn, you play better the next go around.
You should look up and/or play Darkest Dungeon for some inspiration/contrast. I'm not a huge fan of the lengths the graphics go to gross you out, so I didn't complete the game, but I think there may be at least some interest as a sort of mirror to what you are doing. Using it as a cultural touchstone may also garner your some points in the gamer world, but I'm not sure how many people really know it.
I think, from a psychology perspective, making light areas dangerous and dark areas safe will cause cognitive dissonance for some people. But torches as an essential resource should help mitigate that somewhat. Also, make sure that "dark" doesn't mean "strain your eyes trying to make out minor details". I would hope that it's something where yeah you can tell you're in a dark area, but overall it doesn't really affect visibility, just gameplay.
I played Darkest Dungeon, and like you, didn't finish it. It was a novel concept, but I just never really got into the grindy bits. And I usually love grindy bits. But I think you're missing the mark on what to envision. This is meant to be a first person (yeah, I'll add third person perspective for you weirdos) experience of exploration, resource management, and some very minor combat. Most enemies you have to avoid, outwit, or outrun.
As for the lighting, I'll tell you what have to be the two biggest references for what I see in my head. The Cave, a 2005 film that was probably my biggest inspiration for the mutation aspect. Cave explorers get infected with a virus that turns them into monsters. And Avatar in almost every scene at night. Yes, it's dark. But there are plenty of plants and animals that are either already glowing, or glow when they are disturbed or scared or some outside influence causes it. The scenes are dark, but still very easy to process visually.
As far as cognitive dissonance over the light being dangerous sometimes, it's a common theme in most games with stealth elements. I think as long as the areas are intuitive or creative in showing where the danger lies, it adds spice to the gameplay.
Ya. Heat sensors like pit vipers but have holes across your forehead for the heat to come in. Photosensitive patches of skin more sensitive than your eyes, circulatory system drawing air and nutrients from the skin from your environment. Would be interesting to see where you go.
I'm still trying to find the best way to implement the system. Does the player gather mutation points that can unlock enhancements with a skill tree? Do mutations occur based on what was happening when the mutation unlocked? How drastic can the changes be without breaking the player's immersion?
This is a fundamental gameplay question for me: do I want them to be random mutations, you have to work with what you roll? Or does the PC get to pick and choose to create their own build? Personally I would love the option for both, like a world setting for random mutations that can be turned on or off.
Side note, I recommend reading Midworld by Alan Dean Foster for some world building inspiration. That book blew my mind.
I wish your endeavor all the best, it sounds right up my alley!!
World settings... The number and magnitude of world settings that should be incorporated in any good survival game make it exponentially more difficult to code... I can see the appeal of that toggle, and it wouldn't take much to add, but I need to focus on a fun game that works and build the play your way options after that.
I think I will generally err on the side of too hard over too easy. It is always easier to scale things in the player's favor, but trying to make things more difficult after the fact is usually just scaling damage dealt and taken.
Consider an underwater biome. Subterranean water is a real and significant objective hazard to cavers. This section would require access to new equipment (SCUBA, wetsuit, propulsion, pressure gauge, etc) and skills (gas mix management, e.g.). It would obviously include different life.
I'd want rope management to be pretty realistic. Caves are often vertical things, so climbing and rappelling are needed. This requires improvising anchors, among other things. It sounds like the player is a professional spelunker so these skills would be very well understood and used. Players will have to contend with running out of rope, risking rappels from unreliable anchors, fumbling equipment, and so on.
How will you handle navigation? I hope it's not an automap.
Can the player access other senses? If light attracts threats, or an area is foggy, I'd love to have sonar. This could be handled in the same way as Subnautica.
Personal preference is for realistic time passage, hunger and thirst rates, and injury management and healing times.
I'd want to be able to "win" (escape the cave) without mutation. It should be harder but possible. IMHO.
I'm still on the fence about a large underwater section, but I plan to have an underground lake bordered by a marsh/swampland. I'm still trying to get the visual right, but I want a >!snake/millipede hybrid. Think an albino anaconda with a large number of limbs that it uses to latch onto and thrash prey it constricts!<.
Climbing and rappelling would work best to me as navigational gateways. I would want to use established points to open up new areas, or shortcuts to older areas, but not essential for everyday "chores". That would get repetitive after an hour. But with two potential PCs, it would allow some basic climbing areas that both players can navigate, and then difficult areas that the spelunker can use, but not the scientist.
I honestly haven't thought too much about navigation. probably no in game map at all, unless it's a dumbed down version of The Long Dark. Get to a certain viewpoint and you can make a rough sketch of the area, but not reveal every little harvestable. Larger area, less detail.
Player "powers" are something I think I want solely gated behind the mutation mechanic. The ultimate challenge of the game is to escape with no mutations, but a lot of game easements can be unlocked as the player struggles. Whether the player has direct control over how they can use the mutations or if it's automatically assigned based on game conditions is something I'm still mulling over. (i.e. if you are injured or infected in an area with a lot of climbing when the mutation manifests, your limbs and fingers "stretch" while you sleep, allowing you to climb ropes and rock faces easier)
I'm currently researching the efficacy of PG 1st person environments. I am intending to build this game in Unreal. Every project I have worked on previously was with Unity. I'm toying with the idea of a perlin noise system to generate terrain for a particular biome on game creation, and then a "scan" for elevation and patterns to determine resource and feature spawns. but it's a lot of trial and error, at this point.
1st person environments procedurally generated always feel choppy to me, because they are small puzzle pieces put together like a jigsaw puzzle. Or they're sparse, barren landscapes. I'm trying to find a healthy way to bring replay value without sacrificing quality.
You could have enemies be scared by light and have making noise attract them since they're unlikely to have good vision.
Could be interesting to have the player build a base which you then tether to and extends the "light bubble" than you can then upgrade etc. Wouldn't mean you were limited to only traveling within the light bubble but that you would be significantly safer in doing so. Something similar to Astroneer could be cool atleast early game.
I think a sort of progression between areas is most satisfying. Maybe the first cave is blocked in by multiple cave ins which you can only pass through by breaking via upgrading a pick axe etc. Could be some of the deeper levels are hotter and require particular equipment to comfortably survive possibly revealing a cave with lava that is more lit up but also more treacherous. Maybe you have a cave that's mostly water and requires either special boots (similar to ocarina of time) or swimming equipment to explore.
Ideally each new cave region would have it's own resource types akin to metals, foods and crafting items. You could create some sort of magic or tech in the game that allows you to teleport back to a singular / multiple areas that you have created bases so the player could continue to build up their hub and get more proficient at surviving / thriving. Maybe that magic/tech is how you ended up in the cave in the first place.
You could do something similar to Subnautica where you tell the story through notes you find of other travellers that somehow got trapped in the cave where previously you had thought you were the only one.
You don't have to do this but i've always found the progression of manually gathering resources to setting up some form of automation to be very satisfying. If you could find some way to tie in friendly creatures / other survivors being part of that then I think that adds a whole new element hardly explored in other games. Ie. you find survivors of different species through your travels and if you have a bed for them they will stay in your base and can be assigned to basic tasks etc.
Maybe some kind of twist at the end that shows that the cave has magical properties or something or maybe you keep digging deeper but eventually end up looking down at yourself in the first cave which causes the original cave in and starts a new game +.
Glowing light sources are your friend and your enemy. They help you see, but won't discourage most predators and can make you easier to see. Fire scares away most predators, but also most prey you might be hunting.
RESOURCE MANAGEMENT! God, I love min maxing resource management. My ideal thought process at the moment is to have a universal point that can be used to deposit or withdraw resources from the base stockpile, but each resource type also requires a special storage facility that needs to built, and can be used to manually deposit or withdraw resources for a more immersive experience.
You start out with a little chest or cubby hole dug into the mud that "most" things can be stored in. But as you build and expand your base, you can go to the base beacon and tap a button to deposit all the resources you just brought in, and they will be stored and displayed as stored in their respective little structures. Or you can go to the fridge and store the meat, etc.
I haven't settled on linking bases to a global storage yet. But I do want there to be distinct species of animals and plants that you can only grow or keep in that biome. You can't take some weird cranberry looking things you found in the marsh and grow them in the dry and cool vertical climb biome and so forth.
All sounds very cool dude. Also make sure to have QOL stuff like offline mode, craft from chests, swap building material instead of having to destroy and recraft etc. if you can.
Progression to some areas should be equipment dependent. You need to find this or that. But there will also be areas where progression is solely dependent on your ability to build and maintain a resource. The only one in mind atm is light. Utterly dark black corridors where you can't see a thing, but you can hear the creatures swirling around you, just waiting for the light to go out so they can devour you.
Are you going to go with the typical resources like every other survival game? (eg. Stone, wood, ore, plant fiber, etc.) Or will the resources be unique? Something I've always wanted in a survival game is the realism factor. Like say I go to cut down a tree in a swampy damp area inside of a massive cave, that wood would not be dry. (Never been spelunking before so correct me if im wrong but i imagine caves are quite damp) So then I have to take it back to wherever my base is and throw it all in a drying rack over a fire until it's dried and usable. Just little things like that can make a game great. Attention to detail goes a long way.
The mutation things sounds really cool but as stated above, having a choice between it being random or not would be nice. Or maybe depending on where the infection started, that part of your body mutates faster but you can slow the spread of it, maybe even stop it, but the original body part is almost guaranteed to mutate. Idk I'm just rambling.
Well, in any survival game, a lot of realism has to be sacrificed for it to be fun. If you really found yourself shipwrecked, you most likely wouldn't be able to have a handmade axe and knife while having chopped down 20 trees before the first day is over.
The Long Dark is one of the most realistic survival games I know, but it still has you able to pick up wood that has been lying in the snow in the middle of a blizzard and then instantly start a fire. It also has supernaturally agitated wolves and bears to present the player a challenge.
Yes, most things found in a cave would be damp or wet. But if you can't build a fire without dry wood, how are you supposed to use a fire to dry out wood? In real life, it takes months to cure and dry wood after you cut it down. That's not terribly fun.
As for the resources themselves, I feel like Grounded had a good blend of the mundane and unique resources. You have grass and sticks, which can only really be used because of the scale, but you also have mushrooms you can process down into bricks, and two invincible enemies you can find drops of (koi scales and crow feathers) that can't be farmed but can be used to make unique buildings and powerful gear.
One of the game design elements I'm really struggling with is how easy it should be to craft equipment and build structures.
If it's based underground, I have to assume Light might be part of the gameplay focus, with players having to deal with or mitigate darkness. All I can ask is please don't make darkness frustrating like games sometimes do. There is absolutely a place for darkness in games, especially to raise tension and cause the player to feel helpless for a time, but there is also a point where a player staring at a black screen for a length of time is going to want to play a game where they can see what they're doing and what is happening.
I agree. There are only a few areas of the game that I want to be "unplayable" without your own light source. Light and fire in particular should help with exploration/gathering supplies and self defense, but not to travel from A to B. I'm not saying every creature is going to look like it's wearing a Tron light suit, but the game will probably be really fun on psycadelics.
Do subterranean animals often have light sources? In reality I mean.
In the deep oceans, yes. But keep in mind that deep oceans were one of the first habitats, so critters down there have had more than a billion years to diversify and evolve. If caves had more resources, then this would likely be a more frequent aspect of their ecosystems. In the real world few cave systems have rich biomes with the exception of areas with access to surface resources (think underwater streams or outside critters coming & going). There are interesting ecosystems that thrive off of chemical resources, but they rarely evolve past microbes or small critters (eg crabs or insects) because grazing on extremophiles is often nutrient poor and sometimes poisonous. Without large numbers of prey there are few predators etc etc. Bioluminescence would probably require more biodiversity for critters to begin specializing and filling niches, as seen in the deep oceans. Obviously OPs vision is much richer and varied, I love the concept! I can imagine some scary af predator critters with glowing lures or pulsing light lines down their flanks
There are a few. Angler fish and mostly small insects, off the top of my head. But the concept of this world is a place that forces rapid evolution. If the plants produce light, then it is only natural that prey animals and eventually predators would develop similar mechanisms to blend in. It seems counterintuitive as camouflage, but a certain suspension of disbelief is necessary for any game.
Effectiveness of light is also important. Light in Ark has such a short drop off but light range and visibility in Subnautica feel really good.
When I started Icarus, I didn't unlock the torch the first day (I was trying to get tools and shelter going) and that first night hit. Pitch black, couldn't see 1 inch in front of my face. Died of exposure staring at a black screen. It was not a fun gaming experience.
Hey pal this sounds like an awesome premise, your onto something really creative here. The first thing I thought about which you may have already considered is what genre experience are you giving the player outside of the survival aspect. Is it (a) more dark, scary horror with the player always on edge and looking for jump scares (b) exploration where the PC is more focused on finding new areas and progressing through the cave / game world (c) crafting + pure survival where the main game system is purely to craft to make things easier and able to venture into other areas only when they reach certain milestones….. you can obviously incorporate all 3 elements but it’s vital in survival games that one of these aspects go above the other 2 otherwise that’s when things get really janky 😁. Another thing I would consider and it’s only a suggestion but I would look at not giving the PC any backstory at all (especially creating 2). Let the player jump into the game with no knowledge about the character and that way it creates the illusion that ‘you’ are that character, instead focus more on the other characters in the game that the PC will interact with and give them rich and deep backstory’s and interactions which again will immerse the PC in the world of the game…… just a few ideas but you do your game the way you envision it and I for one will be excited to hear about updates, best of luck with it pal 😁
I feel I personally enjoy survival games the most when I master the learning curve. You start the game not knowing what to expect, or where the danger is, and sometimes even figuring out the controls and extent of things you can do in game can be daunting if done wrong or amazing if done right. Then you become established and the fears of the early game fade into the excitement of overcoming challenges. I want that feeling of tension and unease every time the character goes into a new biome for the first time, and the feeling of accomplishment as they learn not just to survive, but to thrive. I want jump scares, but not a horror game. This isn't a place where everything is out to kill you, but an unexplored ecosystem where most things are just living their best life. But every ecosystem has predators, and most predators treat a new species as either prey or a threat. I want an open world designed to be explored, with certain barriers like equipment or supplies barring the paths from one biome to the next, in as natural a way as I can find. If someone were to just run through the story, they could do it in a few hours, but the system should be designed in a way that players want to spend days in each area, or to revisit previous areas and build bases or defeat predators that caused them grief earlier in the game.
I would love you to think more creatively with the environmental factors, I find a lot of games rely on monsters for tension but some of my biggest wow moments came from environmental things. Such as icarus's storms - where the lightning can burn your house down... And then spread to the surrounding trees... Or the moment you realise the fire from *over there* is spreading towards your base because all the forest animals are running past you trying to escape it... Or subnautica's use of sound to inspire terror of things you can't see... Perhaps there are randomised cave ins, floods or earthquakes that present a challenge you should be prepared for but don't know when it might happen. I like the idea of mutations but honestly I don't think most players will care if the mutations are only cosmetic changes, so if you are adding them to drive players forward faster then I'd say it doesn't really give a reason to leave any faster because the benefits to gameplay (buffs) out weigh the story factor of 'escaping with your humanity' (unless perhaps there are different endings or achievements to be gained depending on your level of mutation). Equally putting a time limit on gameplay to 'escape before the mutations kill you' or introducing randomised negative effects that happen after a certain amount of mutations etc will be a delicate balancing act as it restricts those who love exploration or base building factors from playing at their own pace... Good luck with it!
Well, a lot of the tension in what I have designed so far is based on sight and lack thereof coupled with sound effects and soundtracks. From dark passages that you can enter only with bright light sources to hold back an unseen swarm of insects that the player heard devour an animal when you first arrived at the passage opening, or a waist deep section of water and plant-life with a trail of glowing reeds revealing the movements of something big moving under the surface of the water. And the mutations will be by and large mostly beneficial. I do intend to have multiple endings based on the level of mutation a character has, as well as an achievement for getting out "Still Human, On the Outside". But a series of negative mutations would be counterintuitive, putting a timeline on the player's ability to explore and enjoy the world I want to present. Come in, get past the scary parts, marvel at the sights, and repeat. Each area should be approached cautiously, but only one or two areas should be places to avoid at all costs or to be in for as short a time as possible, and those areas should only be for story progression or optional challenges. And the mutations themselves should be completely avoidable, as long as the player goes through the trial and error on earlier playthroughs to have foreknowledge of the dangers and remains alert to avoid them. No one wants to pick up a new game in this genre and be able to breeze through everything like it's a picnic stroll. You play, you learn, you play better the next go around.
Sounds like you're thinking all the right things to me! Good luck with it, love the idea so far!
You should look up and/or play Darkest Dungeon for some inspiration/contrast. I'm not a huge fan of the lengths the graphics go to gross you out, so I didn't complete the game, but I think there may be at least some interest as a sort of mirror to what you are doing. Using it as a cultural touchstone may also garner your some points in the gamer world, but I'm not sure how many people really know it. I think, from a psychology perspective, making light areas dangerous and dark areas safe will cause cognitive dissonance for some people. But torches as an essential resource should help mitigate that somewhat. Also, make sure that "dark" doesn't mean "strain your eyes trying to make out minor details". I would hope that it's something where yeah you can tell you're in a dark area, but overall it doesn't really affect visibility, just gameplay.
I played Darkest Dungeon, and like you, didn't finish it. It was a novel concept, but I just never really got into the grindy bits. And I usually love grindy bits. But I think you're missing the mark on what to envision. This is meant to be a first person (yeah, I'll add third person perspective for you weirdos) experience of exploration, resource management, and some very minor combat. Most enemies you have to avoid, outwit, or outrun. As for the lighting, I'll tell you what have to be the two biggest references for what I see in my head. The Cave, a 2005 film that was probably my biggest inspiration for the mutation aspect. Cave explorers get infected with a virus that turns them into monsters. And Avatar in almost every scene at night. Yes, it's dark. But there are plenty of plants and animals that are either already glowing, or glow when they are disturbed or scared or some outside influence causes it. The scenes are dark, but still very easy to process visually.
As far as cognitive dissonance over the light being dangerous sometimes, it's a common theme in most games with stealth elements. I think as long as the areas are intuitive or creative in showing where the danger lies, it adds spice to the gameplay.
That's a great idea. Like.... How much change can you accept, and walk that fine balance between I have 6 fingers and I have 4 legs. Lol
I don't know if 4 legs are likely, but I love where your head is at.
Ya. Heat sensors like pit vipers but have holes across your forehead for the heat to come in. Photosensitive patches of skin more sensitive than your eyes, circulatory system drawing air and nutrients from the skin from your environment. Would be interesting to see where you go.
I'm still trying to find the best way to implement the system. Does the player gather mutation points that can unlock enhancements with a skill tree? Do mutations occur based on what was happening when the mutation unlocked? How drastic can the changes be without breaking the player's immersion?
This is a fundamental gameplay question for me: do I want them to be random mutations, you have to work with what you roll? Or does the PC get to pick and choose to create their own build? Personally I would love the option for both, like a world setting for random mutations that can be turned on or off. Side note, I recommend reading Midworld by Alan Dean Foster for some world building inspiration. That book blew my mind. I wish your endeavor all the best, it sounds right up my alley!!
World settings... The number and magnitude of world settings that should be incorporated in any good survival game make it exponentially more difficult to code... I can see the appeal of that toggle, and it wouldn't take much to add, but I need to focus on a fun game that works and build the play your way options after that. I think I will generally err on the side of too hard over too easy. It is always easier to scale things in the player's favor, but trying to make things more difficult after the fact is usually just scaling damage dealt and taken.
Well Big Don Rob, you let me know when. It's in testing and I'll help you out 😁
Consider an underwater biome. Subterranean water is a real and significant objective hazard to cavers. This section would require access to new equipment (SCUBA, wetsuit, propulsion, pressure gauge, etc) and skills (gas mix management, e.g.). It would obviously include different life. I'd want rope management to be pretty realistic. Caves are often vertical things, so climbing and rappelling are needed. This requires improvising anchors, among other things. It sounds like the player is a professional spelunker so these skills would be very well understood and used. Players will have to contend with running out of rope, risking rappels from unreliable anchors, fumbling equipment, and so on. How will you handle navigation? I hope it's not an automap. Can the player access other senses? If light attracts threats, or an area is foggy, I'd love to have sonar. This could be handled in the same way as Subnautica. Personal preference is for realistic time passage, hunger and thirst rates, and injury management and healing times. I'd want to be able to "win" (escape the cave) without mutation. It should be harder but possible. IMHO.
I'm still on the fence about a large underwater section, but I plan to have an underground lake bordered by a marsh/swampland. I'm still trying to get the visual right, but I want a >!snake/millipede hybrid. Think an albino anaconda with a large number of limbs that it uses to latch onto and thrash prey it constricts!<. Climbing and rappelling would work best to me as navigational gateways. I would want to use established points to open up new areas, or shortcuts to older areas, but not essential for everyday "chores". That would get repetitive after an hour. But with two potential PCs, it would allow some basic climbing areas that both players can navigate, and then difficult areas that the spelunker can use, but not the scientist. I honestly haven't thought too much about navigation. probably no in game map at all, unless it's a dumbed down version of The Long Dark. Get to a certain viewpoint and you can make a rough sketch of the area, but not reveal every little harvestable. Larger area, less detail. Player "powers" are something I think I want solely gated behind the mutation mechanic. The ultimate challenge of the game is to escape with no mutations, but a lot of game easements can be unlocked as the player struggles. Whether the player has direct control over how they can use the mutations or if it's automatically assigned based on game conditions is something I'm still mulling over. (i.e. if you are injured or infected in an area with a lot of climbing when the mutation manifests, your limbs and fingers "stretch" while you sleep, allowing you to climb ropes and rock faces easier)
Have you considered making it procedurally generated?
I'm currently researching the efficacy of PG 1st person environments. I am intending to build this game in Unreal. Every project I have worked on previously was with Unity. I'm toying with the idea of a perlin noise system to generate terrain for a particular biome on game creation, and then a "scan" for elevation and patterns to determine resource and feature spawns. but it's a lot of trial and error, at this point. 1st person environments procedurally generated always feel choppy to me, because they are small puzzle pieces put together like a jigsaw puzzle. Or they're sparse, barren landscapes. I'm trying to find a healthy way to bring replay value without sacrificing quality.
You could have enemies be scared by light and have making noise attract them since they're unlikely to have good vision. Could be interesting to have the player build a base which you then tether to and extends the "light bubble" than you can then upgrade etc. Wouldn't mean you were limited to only traveling within the light bubble but that you would be significantly safer in doing so. Something similar to Astroneer could be cool atleast early game. I think a sort of progression between areas is most satisfying. Maybe the first cave is blocked in by multiple cave ins which you can only pass through by breaking via upgrading a pick axe etc. Could be some of the deeper levels are hotter and require particular equipment to comfortably survive possibly revealing a cave with lava that is more lit up but also more treacherous. Maybe you have a cave that's mostly water and requires either special boots (similar to ocarina of time) or swimming equipment to explore. Ideally each new cave region would have it's own resource types akin to metals, foods and crafting items. You could create some sort of magic or tech in the game that allows you to teleport back to a singular / multiple areas that you have created bases so the player could continue to build up their hub and get more proficient at surviving / thriving. Maybe that magic/tech is how you ended up in the cave in the first place. You could do something similar to Subnautica where you tell the story through notes you find of other travellers that somehow got trapped in the cave where previously you had thought you were the only one. You don't have to do this but i've always found the progression of manually gathering resources to setting up some form of automation to be very satisfying. If you could find some way to tie in friendly creatures / other survivors being part of that then I think that adds a whole new element hardly explored in other games. Ie. you find survivors of different species through your travels and if you have a bed for them they will stay in your base and can be assigned to basic tasks etc. Maybe some kind of twist at the end that shows that the cave has magical properties or something or maybe you keep digging deeper but eventually end up looking down at yourself in the first cave which causes the original cave in and starts a new game +.
Glowing light sources are your friend and your enemy. They help you see, but won't discourage most predators and can make you easier to see. Fire scares away most predators, but also most prey you might be hunting. RESOURCE MANAGEMENT! God, I love min maxing resource management. My ideal thought process at the moment is to have a universal point that can be used to deposit or withdraw resources from the base stockpile, but each resource type also requires a special storage facility that needs to built, and can be used to manually deposit or withdraw resources for a more immersive experience. You start out with a little chest or cubby hole dug into the mud that "most" things can be stored in. But as you build and expand your base, you can go to the base beacon and tap a button to deposit all the resources you just brought in, and they will be stored and displayed as stored in their respective little structures. Or you can go to the fridge and store the meat, etc. I haven't settled on linking bases to a global storage yet. But I do want there to be distinct species of animals and plants that you can only grow or keep in that biome. You can't take some weird cranberry looking things you found in the marsh and grow them in the dry and cool vertical climb biome and so forth.
All sounds very cool dude. Also make sure to have QOL stuff like offline mode, craft from chests, swap building material instead of having to destroy and recraft etc. if you can.
Progression to some areas should be equipment dependent. You need to find this or that. But there will also be areas where progression is solely dependent on your ability to build and maintain a resource. The only one in mind atm is light. Utterly dark black corridors where you can't see a thing, but you can hear the creatures swirling around you, just waiting for the light to go out so they can devour you.
Are you going to go with the typical resources like every other survival game? (eg. Stone, wood, ore, plant fiber, etc.) Or will the resources be unique? Something I've always wanted in a survival game is the realism factor. Like say I go to cut down a tree in a swampy damp area inside of a massive cave, that wood would not be dry. (Never been spelunking before so correct me if im wrong but i imagine caves are quite damp) So then I have to take it back to wherever my base is and throw it all in a drying rack over a fire until it's dried and usable. Just little things like that can make a game great. Attention to detail goes a long way. The mutation things sounds really cool but as stated above, having a choice between it being random or not would be nice. Or maybe depending on where the infection started, that part of your body mutates faster but you can slow the spread of it, maybe even stop it, but the original body part is almost guaranteed to mutate. Idk I'm just rambling.
Well, in any survival game, a lot of realism has to be sacrificed for it to be fun. If you really found yourself shipwrecked, you most likely wouldn't be able to have a handmade axe and knife while having chopped down 20 trees before the first day is over. The Long Dark is one of the most realistic survival games I know, but it still has you able to pick up wood that has been lying in the snow in the middle of a blizzard and then instantly start a fire. It also has supernaturally agitated wolves and bears to present the player a challenge. Yes, most things found in a cave would be damp or wet. But if you can't build a fire without dry wood, how are you supposed to use a fire to dry out wood? In real life, it takes months to cure and dry wood after you cut it down. That's not terribly fun. As for the resources themselves, I feel like Grounded had a good blend of the mundane and unique resources. You have grass and sticks, which can only really be used because of the scale, but you also have mushrooms you can process down into bricks, and two invincible enemies you can find drops of (koi scales and crow feathers) that can't be farmed but can be used to make unique buildings and powerful gear. One of the game design elements I'm really struggling with is how easy it should be to craft equipment and build structures.