Far: Changing Tides
FAR: Changing Tides Demo - Developer Playthrough! #NextFest
Watch along as Steve (Frontier Community Manager) chats with Don Schmocker (Creative Lead) and Phil Stern (Game Design Lead) from Okomotive about the demo and development of the game.
Get a small taste of the journey to come and then head here to download the demo for yourself!
FAR: Changing Tides sets sail on 1st March 2022!
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Expanding on the setting of FAR: Lone Sails, FAR: Changing Tides swaps sun-scorched, dusty plains for stormy skies and high seas. Face new challenges and new mechanics with an exciting new experience for both fans of this beloved series and newcomers alike. Experience the thrill of captaining a distinctive, seafaring vessel. Together you'll brave high seas, navigate storms and delve into new depths to explore and uncover what happened to this world, in search of a new beginning.
Pre-order now to prepare for your journey.
If you want to keep up to date with all the FAR news, then head to www.farchangingtides.com and sign up for our Newsletter, and follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/FARtheGame, Facebook https://www.facebook.com/FARtheGame, and Instagram https://www.instagram.com/FARtheGame/.
Developer Deep Dive VI - Art Direction
Our last Deep Dive focussed on game direction, you can catch up here.
For our sixth installment, we're asking Don Schmocker questions about the art direction of the FAR titles.
What is the biggest influence on your art style in video games?
I’m usually more influenced by media other than games, I find a lot of inspiration in places I see in photography or visit, but I would say that the Bioshock series and Dishonored had a lasting impression with their environmental storytelling and the recent Control, and Death Stranding with their atmosphere and environment design. This question is probably more difficult to answer for me than it should. If I play a game where I particularly like the art style I often think that they already did it very well so it wouldn’t make sense to recreate it, except maybe some smaller elements and designs that I find really interesting.
Can you tell us how you worked together to finalise the art direction for the FAR games?
The process was very different for both games. For FAR: Lone Sails, the art direction was independent of the level design and storytelling. For FAR: Changing Tides, we planned the art alongside the game design, storytelling, and world-building. It should be more coherent, believable, and also have a progression throughout the game.
During development we had two artists join our team who also influenced the art style a lot and worked well within what was planned at the start, while also adding cool new ideas. I think it’s important to have some space for improvisation and to add new elements during development, as the journey for the player should be unpredictable and surprising at times.
How much of the concept art have you ended up using in the games?
Most of them. I recently looked at the old concept art again and was surprised by how much of it we have recreated in the game. Of course, there are some assets that went through a lot of iterations, like the ship or Toe, but in general, we have more assets and environments than we made concept art for. This probably has to do with our team size and that I did most of the concept art and assets at the beginning of both projects. This meant that it didn’t go through a large selection process and I only made concept art when I had trouble coming up with a design, or if it was a more complex asset. That approach has its pros and cons. It’s definitely quite fast but it could also be very useful to make even a rough concept artwork first, which could save time later in the process.
What is the process of going from 2D concept art to 3D game art?
In our case, it’s not that big of a step because the game is played mostly from one viewpoint. So assets and environments could have an optimal view angle, which was the one we made concept art for. Most assets are used at several locations in the game but from a different angle or in a different combination. In those cases, we could show the less attractive, less eye-catching sides of the assets, as they should better blend in with the background. One thing that certainly was difficult is to adapt the painterly art style of the concept art in the 3D assets. On one side we had to hand paint the textures but also had to fit the assets well into the game scene, so they don’t look too detailed when they’re far in the background.
After FAR: Lone Sails, how have the different environments affected the art in FAR: Changing Tides?
The water played a huge role when designing the environments, even though it doesn’t look that way at first glance. We wanted to have a variety of landscapes and also environmental storytelling which meant that the ship had to drive close to land or some swimming objects most of the time. We also wanted to give the background more importance and depth, so the environments are designed to depict more natural landscapes that work in three dimensions.
The underwater environments were another entirely different world that had to be designed as well. We had to focus our work on some specific underwater areas the player will likely see but we also couldn’t neglect the vast space in between those, in case the player wants to dive.
When designing the environments in FAR: Lone Sails and FAR: changing Tides, what was your process in adding elements into the design?
In FAR: Changing Tides, the player is driving with the ship, slowly but steadily, and is mostly focused on the ship and maintaining it. This was a big factor when designing the environments other than just the visual appeal. There are interesting scenes or structures in the background in regular intervals, they can tell a bit about the world, tease the next area or lead the player below water. Those things had to be sparse enough so the player has time to notice them but frequent enough that the background still stays important. Also, objects further away are visible for a longer time but are less obvious. The rest of the environment should support the focus areas and not overpower them.
Another new challenge was to lead the player below water when there’s something of interest. To achieve this we put objects on the water gradually closer to the ship until there’s a buoy with a chain or something vertical the player can follow downwards.
With FAR: Changing Tides being a companion title, how did you continue on the world-building elements of the game?
I really enjoy working on world-building, maybe more than I have to. For both titles, the world-building and the environmental storytelling are very connected. We ask ourselves what information can be visually communicated well and can also help develop the story further. This information could be for example in what kind of world the player is travelling, how old the buildings are or how devastating an event was. Because it’s important to learn about all this from the start and have enough chances to pick up on the story thread, we wanted to tell a new story in FAR: Changing Tides which required its own world-building. Not only that but there are several threads that start at different points in the game and continue to develop throughout the playthrough.
If you want to keep up to date with all the FAR news, then head to www.farchangingtides.com and sign up for our Newsletter, and follow us on Twitter, Facebookand Instagram.
Developer Deep Dive V - Game Design
Our last Deep Dive focussed on animation and modelling, you can catch up here.
For our fifth installment, we're asking Level designer Philipp Stern questions about Game Design
Let us know in the comments if you have any other questions for Philipp!
What got you into Game Design?
I was a kid with a vivid imagination. I would create stories and whole worlds while playing with my LEGO or reenact them in person. I remember one time I wanted to go rock climbing so I grabbed a hammer and nails from my dad's toolbox, climbed up the furniture in my room, and peppered them with nails to the disdain of my parents.
Sometime in the early 90s, my dad got a computer and I'd spend hours drawing up maps in MS Paint. I've always felt the need to create, which was probably why I decided to become a graphic designer later on, but after a few years in that job, I realized that working for clients didn't give me enough room for self-expression. So when I saw the opportunity to study game design I did not hesitate and applied.
What are some of your favourite designs in other games that have helped you on both FAR titles?
The basic concept of FAR was created by Don (Schmocker) who drew some inspiration from Little Big Planet. But recently we talked about the similarities of timings in FAR and the sequences you press keys when playing World of Warcraft. We took the buttons from the physical to the virtual space. Another inspiration is the machines you encounter in the different obstacles, we always try to find that sweet spot between fantastical and realism to make it believable. Lots of the mechanics are then derived from these locations or machines we wanted to create. We think about how they would work and try to recreate this with the tools available.
Puzzle elements are a major part of the game, can you talk us through some of the processes when designing a puzzle?
We set some guidelines that we tried to follow when we designed the puzzles in Changing Tides. Each puzzle needs to have an emotional or visual payoff when completed as well as teach the player a new mechanic or tell them something new about the world.
In the first half of the game, the player unlocks the different upgrades of the ship. Each puzzle to get these upgrades teaches the player step by step about the new functionalities they're going to encounter in the ship afterwards. So when they return to the ship the player already knows what to do.
In the second half of the game the puzzles are more about the world-building and the creation of emotional moments or stunning vistas, so the puzzles focus more on telling a story or reusing existing mechanics in a new and interesting way.
How did you find adding new ship mechanics to FAR: Changing Tides? Were there any challenges, concerns, or fixes from the first game?
The ship in Changing Tides is much bigger than the Okomotive from Lone Sails, around double in size, and we wanted the player to feel that from the very first moment they encounter the ship. So we decided to change from attaching things to the vehicle, to unlocking existing compartments within the ship. This made the actual process less complex for us to implement.
One concern we had was: Would the ship feel as much your own as the Okomotive did because you were "building" it yourself, which we feel creates a stronger bond. So we decided to let the player change the appearance of the ship themselves at least once in Changing Tides as well so a similar connection can be forged. One thing we improved much upon from Lone Sails to Changing Tides is the sails. Whereas in Lone Sails you’re just able to raise or lower the sails in Changing Tides you have to adjust them to the wind direction which makes the ship feel more connected to the world.
I think that a general change from Lone Sails to Changing Tides is that everything is bigger, not just the vehicle, but also the world and locations. We needed to add more depth to the different mechanics without being overwhelming. One way we did that was to have a basic mechanic, one would quickly understand and then add an element that was less crucial, but would improve the outcome when the player picked up on it. The engine for example: if the player fuels the oven and starts a fire the engine starts and makes the ship go forwards, so far so simple. But if the player pushes the oven to its limit, the engine will start to heat up and eventually, the heat valve will pop out – completely stopping the ship. Now the player can just push the valve back in and start going again or they can start to cool the engine using the hose, which is much more efficient than having the ship stop each time the valve pops out. This depth allows the player to learn about the ship at their own pace, which further builds up a connection to the ship.
Both games have an ongoing story in the background, what was your process in making the story mix without being intrusive to the gameplay?
We've always had more of a symbiotic relationship between the world and the gameplay. Almost all of the puzzles are story-motivated. We usually start with the story we wanted to tell which defines what locations the player would encounter. For example, the fallen civilization wanted to protect themselves from the flood their scientists foretold. So they decided to build a big wall to hold off the flood from their capital. But they still needed to get out through that wall until the flood came, so they built a huge gate.
From this point on we were asking ourselves what would make a good experience opening that gate and how could we involve the ship? How could that gate have worked mechanically? And what do we need to teach the player at this stage of the game? Opening such a huge gate would need a lot of force so we decided that it would be a good location to introduce the boost of the ship. Most of the decisions we make are based on the story in some way. They’re often logical consequences of the different elements we established during the concept, world-building, or story writing phase. So by growing the gameplay and the world-building in parallel we can ensure they work with each other.
Neither game has a player tutorial, can you explain how you were able to teach the players the controls without being obvious with a text box?
We do have some button prompts to tell the player the basic inputs, but the more in-depth mechanics we wanted the player to discover themselves. It gives people a great sense of pleasure to feel they’ve figured something out for themselves. But to make sure the player is not walking up to a huge puzzle being completely overwhelmed by it, we try to isolate each part of the puzzle into a separate section. It's way easier to solve one small task because the options to do something wrong are limited. Then when the player understands this small part we put something on top of the first element to slowly add more complexity.
FAR: Lone Sails & FAR: Changing Tides both unlock mechanics over time, could you tell us how you manage that progression to make the experience enjoyable?
Unlocking new things is always fun, it presents the player with a new way to interact with the ship and keeps the interest of the player, asking themselves "I wonder what the next upgrade will be?". It’s the equivalent of a birthday present: Unpacking something new and fun. The upgrades in FAR always try to make the player's life piloting the vessel easier or more interesting in some way. The sails help to save fuel, the engine helps to progress when there's no wind. It's about giving the player more options to handle different situations. We slowly increase the knowledge required to keep the ship going in different situations.
In Changing Tides, we expanded on this concept. When the player first gets a new upgrade, the oven, for example, they’ve already been taught how the basics of it work in a puzzle. But the oven in the ship behaves differently if it has been damaged. Also, there’s more depth to the interaction, since the bellows can get stuck if the player doesn’t pay attention. So over time the player gains more knowledge about the vehicle and the more the player knows about it, the more attached they get to it. It’s like getting to know a person, the more you know about the person the closer you feel to them.
If you want to keep up to date with all the FAR news, then head to www.farchangingtides.com and sign up for our Newsletter, and follow us on Twitter, Facebookand Instagram.