I hope you had some happy holidays around halloween. This week it's going to be another quick update because most team members had 2 holidays and also one of our programmers got sick unfortunately.
What we did manage to do in the remaining time:
Andreas did a bunch of playtesting with the new terrain and found some bugs that are now on our list
After Ben has finished making the new maps playable, he's now working on making save/load work
We redesigned the save implementation for rocks and environment object to integrate the new terrain generation with the new laser feature
We have gone over the laser code and found some improvements we'd like to do before we release it in the update. Shouldn't take long.
While the programmers are working on the update itself, our artist Lasse has taken to improving the game look in general. He has started with more building variations for the habitats, so residential districts don't look as repetitive. Work in progress screenshot below
I'm hoping we can do more substantial progress for the update in the next week without holidays, but stuff like the save/load system just takes time even and there are no cool screenshots to show, that's just how it is :)
Happy playing!
Friday Dev News #95
Hello everyone,
last week we asked you if we should split the environment update so we can get new bigger map with biomes out the door and released early. The overwhelming majority was for splitting the update, so we're focusing on finishing the new map features.
Terrain Programming
The most important piece of work was making the game actually playble in the new map. For now, we have been doing a lot of world generation work, but to make the game playable, we needed to look at lot of integration work: The new terrain shader needed to work with the decals and the visualizations, we needed to adapt the road + car rendering system, the game scene load order had to change a little, the space scene needed to be fixed, and so on. Basically many of the small features that use the map in some way needed to be made to work.
Our programmer Sepehr on the other hand was caught up in handling visa documents, but saving/loading is probably almost done for the laser feature.
Grass
Finally we ran into some grass rendering issues: It was difficult to achieve the density we wanted without making the grass huge in comparison to the buildings.
We tried a couple of differnet approaches, like making grass with horizontal planes:
This approach yielded very dense grass and was good for performance, but didn't look as good. Since players can control grass performance anyway, we opted for a different technique, seen here:
(The difference to grass screenshots in previous posts: The previous ones were art tests, here we make sure they also work with many of the technical requirements.)
Happy playing
Friday Dev News #89 - Modding Tutorials Released
Hello everyone!
Modding Tutorials released
In preparation for the next big update, which includes modding, we created a series of modding tutorials for you to get started:
How to get started by downloading and running the example mods
How to change simple game values and upload your own mods
How to add new models, textures, and buildings
How to use the in-game developer tools to learn about the game, test your mods, and cheat
How to decompile InfraSpace and have a look at its code (allowed for modding and educational purposes!)
How to make your own script mods and change gameplay in a bigger way
Sensor Tower Graphics done
Last week I introduced you to the sensor tower which is going to unlock the next parts of the map. Back then it was just a concept, now we also have the finished model:
Implementation to be done.
River Procedural Generation
After randomly generating rocks and plants in the desert and crater biomes, we have now turned to the river, which is a lot harder. It's shape poses more constraints on how the environment assets can fit without looking weird or clipping badly. We should be able to show you pics of it next week!
Update Timeline
Since a part of the team has been working on the Founders' Fortune update for Sept 30th, the InfraSpace update will be some time after that. We try to be quick, but with modding, new environment, 4x bigger map, and terraforming, it's the largest update we've done so far. Appreciate the patience!
Friday Dev News #88 - Sensor Tower + Announcement
Hello everyone!
Sensor Tower
Now that we're increasing the map size, it's not going to all be accessible right from the start. Instead, you'll have to spend some time exploring the next tiles in order to unlock them - and that's what the new sensor tower is for!
Terrain Generation Progress
Now that the biome distribution and terrain shape is done, we're finally filling up the environment with procedurally generated details, check out the progress pics:
This is the art concept we're using to build the generated terrain, for reference:
There are still some things missing like grass, small rocks, adjusting the terrain and light colors, the river biome, terraforming, etc. etc., but we're getting closer :)
FF Announcement
Our company's first game is a colony simulator called Founders' Fortune. It's been finished for a while, but the community has been yearning for new content as well as polishing some small things here and there, so we're releasing a big update Friday, Sept 30th, 1pm CET.
This is the InfraSpace dev news section, so the important things for InfraSpace players are:
We have spent some of our dev time taking care of our FF community, but InfraSpace is and stays the main focus of course
Once the update is released, one more programmer will be free to work on InfraSpace
If you're interested in Founders' Fortune yourself, check out the official post
As always, happy playing!
Friday Dev News #87 - FAQ
Hello everyone!
Today I'm going to be answering some frequently asked questions. Currently, 3 out of 6 people are on vacation and the rest is working on a secret project, so the progress on InfraSpace wasn't that exciting in the last few days. The good news is that we're planning to announce the secret project next week and its completion will free up another programmer for InfraSpace! :smiley:
Mac Support
I think we already got somewhere between 50 and 100 requests to add Mac support for InfraSpace. It is coming, just not during Early Access! The reason is that we still want to focus on the main game, its features, performance, and bugs instead of spending that time playtesting and supporting different platforms.
This will change when we hit 1.0. At that point, we won't change the core of the game that much anymore (like adding a full new map and terraforming). And with fewer changes it becomes easier to support more platforms.
However, some people have got it working with Mac already using virutal machines and I have reason to suspect that after the environment update it will already be a lot more compatible.
"Smarter" Traffic
A lot of people ask us if we can improve the traffic AI. This is a double edged sword: Sure, lane changing could be improved.
But if cars start avoiding traffic jams on their route, we run into a different issue: If a player has designed a terrible intersection and it starts jamming up, cars would take different routes putting much more load on intersections that typically would be fine. Suddenly, more and more intersections clog up, the city becomes gridlocked and the player doesn't know where the problem actually started.
We may test a pathfinding variant like this to be configurable in the options, but currently I believe the time is better invested in traffic tutorials and letting player turn down the traffic difficulty if they don't want to deal with it.
Distribution Center
Players have been asking for some kind of tool that gives you more control over the routes cars take and have been wondering if that's something we want to add. I just wanted to confirm, yes we're very interested in that even though it's not on the roadmap. Distribution centers are probably going to be part of the solution, we just need to figure out a design that's interesting, understandable, and not immediately overpowered. Players already have some control with the districts tool, but it takes some learning to be able to use it effectively.
Future of InfraSpace
With traffic lights, trains, and terraforming as the big endgame goal we're quickly reaching all the promised roadmap items and with pipes, mod support, and gondolas we're going to have a bunch of the optional roadmap items done as well. Naturally, some players are wondering what will happen with InfraSpace once we have fulfilled all the Early Access promises and how long development will continue. This is the answer to our best knowledge at the moment:
Of course finish all promised EA roadmap goals
Also finish most of the optional roadmap goals (or replace them with other features players like instead, like maybe add distribution centers instead of natural disasters)
Of course do a lot of polishing, bugfixing etc. for version 1.0
Besides from that it depends a little bit on how well InfraSpace continues to sell and how much it's played, but I'm pretty sure we have the resources for 3-4 major feature updates before 1.0
Probably we'll have at least 1 major update after 1.0 and then we'll see how it goes.
I hope this satisfies your curiosity to some degree. If you have thoughts on future features or what InfraSpace needs the most besides the environment update and polishing, let us know!
Happy playing!
Friday Dev News #83 - Magnetic Field Generator
Hello everyone,
today we're introducing the largest building you need to construct in order to terraform your environment after the terraforming update: The Magnetic Field Generator.
On earth, our magnetic field protects us from solar radiation, but on this planet, there is no natural magnetic field across the whole planet, just small localized fields. In order to make the environment more suitable for life as well as safer for humans, you will be able to construct a large building that consumes tons of electricity and converts it into a large field to keep your city safe.
We only have some art concepts for now, but since you enjoyed voting on the drone, I thought it'd be a good idea to show it to you early and let your feedback influence the design process. Let us know what you think!
On another note, the drones you saw in the last posts have made their way into the game - behold your new autonomous fertilizer distribution system!
Disclaimer: the movement is not programmed yet, but I thought I'd share the art screenshots anyways ;)
Happy playing!
Friday Dev News #82 - Ammonia Extraction
Hello everyone and welcome to another round of progress news on the terraforming update!
First of all, I'd like to show you some progress on the buildings that have already been introduced in a previous post and are now getting integrated into the game.
The ground acidity regulator is a large building that slowly extracts acid from the soil by digging down deep to the subterranean water.
On the left side you can see the drone hub for the fertilizer drones and on the right side you can see the new dust particle filter.
Speaking of drones, thanks for all the feedback to our last post! There have been a lot of different opinions so we decided to combine a bunch of well liked ideas from the previous concepts:
As far as the buildings go, I'd like to introduce you to one more terraforming building: The air purifier extracts ammonia from the atmosphere and releases nitrogen in an effort to make the air on this planet breathable.
The air purifier reaches up high into the atmosphere and covers a big radius.
Also, a small update on the world generation: Our programmer is back on his feet and has been working on the river & highlands shapes, let me show you a visualization:
So, obviously this is just a programming concept with all the art missing, so let me explain what you're seeing: The dried river shape is already pretty nice and cutting into the terrain properly and we can dynamically add more or less curvature to it. The blue outlines show a pattern of voronoi cells which is going to be used to generate interesting looking highland shapes. Basically we select a couple of nearby cells to form a plateau and the resulting shape is more natural looking than other methods.
Finally, I wanted to provide a first guess at when this update is going to be released. The terraforming update is a big one and in my head I'm thinking it could be another month or so of work. *But* multiple team members have planned vacation in August and it's good to have some buffer time, so to be on the safe side, let's expect September. I hope you can stomach the wait and keep letting us know your opinions in the comments!
Happy playing!
Friday Dev News #81 - Terraformed Landscape
Hello everyone!
After announcing the new terraforming feature last week and introducing you to the first couple of terraforming buildings, it's time to introduce you to the new terrain concepts.
These are 3D art concepts of the different biomes and the final version is still open to change.
Don't worry about the height of the grass: we will cut it around buildings and roads to give the city some space.
The fertilzer required for terraforming will be distributed via autonomous drones. Let us know which one you think looks the best!
On another note Ben, the programmer working on the new procedural terrain generation, got sick for most of the week, so we don't have much news there. We wish him a good recovery!
As always, happy playing!
Friday Dev News #80 - Terraforming
Hello everyone!
Today we're announcing the major feature of the next update besides the new terrain and mod support: Terraforming!
You'll be able to turn the planet's surface into a livable biosphere by changing the plant's environment step by step.
One of these steps is reducing the acidity in the soil. We went through a couple of ideas for this building...
... and in the end focused on a futuristic looking building that combines some of the concepts from before. It processes the and filters soil in a close range next to the building:
We also need to fertilize larger areas and this is where the drone port comes in to spread fertilizer and tend to some of the more inaccessible areas of the map:
Once you've made the planet liveable, there is going to be a variety of different new plants scattered on the surface (don't worry, they will not impede building building placement):
We are still working terraformed map itself as well as more buildings for the terraforming production chain, so stay tuned :)
In other news, it's not enough to just make 3D concepts of the terrain, so we have started work on procedural generation. The dried river is one of the most defining features of the map because of it's size, so that's what we started with:
Our procedural generator allows a variety of different shapes to make the random maps look more natural. It's work in progress, so only representative of the current state we have now not the final look.
And finally I want to thank everyone for the comments and suggestions you leave on these posts and on the forum. We also have bugfixes and performance on our mind of course as well as new features.
As always, Happy playing!
Note: Steam's News post feature was acting up yesterday, so I was only able to post the Friday Dev News on Saturday here. You can also find Friday Dev News on the InfraSpace forum.
Friday Dev News #79 - Mod Support!
Hello everyone!
Today I'm stoked to announce a feature for the next major update that has been requested *a lot* in the community: Mod Support!
You will be able to:
change all kinds of gameplay settings by editing json config files
change the consumption and production rates and resources of buildings
edit all texts and add your own custom translations for fun
add new models and textures to the game. Specifically, this lets you create new buildings and entire new production chains
add new resources to the game
change the speeds and settings for roads and rails
decompile InfraSpace and look through the code yourself
write script mods by implementing Mod classes that we pre-made for you
use the well known Harmony library to hook into our functions and change the game in deeper ways
Modding is available in different tiers of difficulty and possibilities:
Editing configuration files is so simple that anyone can do it. This includes changing building settings, production rates, etc.
Adding new models and textures to the game requires you to install Unity and Blender. You need to import your models into the InfraSpace ModKit project and export them to be used by the game.
Script mods require you to have some programming knowledge. Depending on the complexity of the mod, your goal can be reached in a few lines or it requires you digging deeper into the InfraSpace code.
In order to make things easier for you, we will provide 3 things:
A tutorial series that covers all the different kinds of mods.
An InfraSpace ModKit Unity project that contains all the resources you need to get started
Three small example mods that are available on the workshop and can be downloaded to check them out and see how they work.
The Cryo Chambers example mod adds another spaceship module and shows you how to edit configuration files and change simple values.
The salt mine example mod shows you how to create new buildings, add some animations, add them to the game and configure their new production chains.
With the new world and the mod support, the next update is going to be packed with big new features - and we haven't even announced the biggest news yet ;)
While we're working on it, I wish you as always, happy playing!
