Progress!

So we thought it was about time we update the page a bit 🙂

Where to start.. wow! A lot of progress has been made in pretty much every area of the game.
The environment is nearing completion, which means we’ve been able to start focusing and concentrating our efforts on the gameplay aspects. I’ll go into that more a bit later, but here’s a quick run-down on some of the current environmental aspects you’ll enjoy while you’re marooned 😉

• The world is infinite, being procedurally generated so no two games will be the same!
• The environment contains a variety of ‘biomes’ filled with different fauna and flora,
• There’s a plethora of environmental effects including volumetric fog, crepuscular rays, volumetric clouds, atmospheric scattering, blah blah,
• The water features real-time deep water wave simulations, real-time reflections and refractions, caustics, foam and whitecaps, etc.

I’m sure I’m forgetting more..
I think it’s safe to say that one of the biggest challenges with this game is the scale! Attempting to cram so much high-quality world into one game at a playable frame-rate is a big challenge. Obviously there’s a few compromises to be had here and there, but we’re both very happy with how it’s coming along!

Ok, so back to it:
Re the gameplay, currently we’re working hard on the animal biomes and crafting system.
We’re trying to make the gameplay experience as unique as possible, not wanting to recreate Minecraft on an island 😛 So hopefully the crafting mechanics will be refreshingly different. A core focus has been making the UI (all the gameplay really) as mimetic as practically possible. Non-intrusive and only what you need. We’ve always wanted this experience to be just that, an experience, not having a UI in you’re face pulling you back to reality all the time. Obviously theres going to be compromises, as it’s just not possible to accomplish some aspects, but it’s a good objective. The system is up and running pretty slick now so should have a video up soon. Funny thing is that Ben and I are both such big damn perfectionists that we hate making videos of our work if it’s not ‘perfect’ haha. Only problem with that is a few games are coming out with similar themes now since Stranded Deeps inception, so we’ll do our best to keep progress updated on our site here and also over at the Unity forums 🙂
Stay tuned!

:: Sam
P.S: Here’s a nice dawn shot to keep you going 😛