Outpost
Last Update
My wife and I learned recently that my she is pregnant. That caused a lot of being busy for me, but also prompted me to think deeply on what I'm doing with this project. Obviously it's a big change in priorities for me. I'm used to making big ambitious games, but with a baby on the way I don't know whether I can continue to do that.
I've decided that instead of breaking out into a new project and spending all my savings there I'm instead going to switch to making smaller projects, those that I can complete in a short amount of time without requiring large teams or outlays of my savings.
I still believe in the vision for Outpost and maybe I'll return to it in a few years. I really want this game to exist, but it's not in the cards for the time being.
Thanks to everyone who followed along development, and thanks especially to those who made cool builds for other players to find in the world. They were really cool and I appreciate that you took the time to do that.
Outpost April Update Released
* Improved loading and rendering performance. Both rendering and loading of a large number of blocks has been greatly improved.
* The player can rotate blocks before placement with Q/E or the Left/Right arrows.
* Pressing X places the player in block remove mode without having to go into the menu.
* The player can fly down by pressing Ctrl.
* Newly generated planets will now have more consistent terrain sizes everywhere on the planet. Previously terrain features were larger in some areas in the planet than others.
* Mouse look sensitivity can now be changed in the settings menu.
* The settings menu is now available in game when pressing escape.
* Changes to the settings menu are now saved between games.
* Mouse look has been improved and should be smoother especially at low framerates.
* A number of minor crashes have been fixed.
Also a few new features including new blocks have been added for builders:
* Added short blocks. Short blocks are available for wood, petrite, and stone, and are half the height of regular blocks.
* Added a natural mossy wood block. It only comes in whole-block variety.
I previously outlined Outpost's two pillars:
https://steamcommunity.com/ogg/1813730/announcements/detail/3620362751713321282
I've been focusing on the 'homebuilding' gameplay pillar and allowing the player to build and decorate areas that feel like a home. With the new renderer this month it is now possible to create very large builds, and also includes some other building quality of life improvements. As a reminder, the actual game design (things like UX, player progression, and other mechanics) have been moved to the back burner. For example, the new block types are currently only available to builders via cheats, and there's no way to obtain them in the normal game for now. The next few updates will continue to be focused on the homebuilding pillar, with the goal of fleshing out a full loop that players can enjoy at a basic level.
Outpost March Update Released
New since the mid-cycle update:
* The sun now casts dynamic shadows. You can turn this off via the settings menu.
* The camera will no longer clip into blocks and buildings behind the player.
* Adjusted the color of unwalkable terrain.
* Adjusted lighting at dawn and dusk to be more gradual and not blow out.
From the mid-cycle update:
* The game is auto-saved more often to avoid loss of progress.
* When the player starts flying the model displays wings.
* Show the names of objects you're collecting.
* Players can no longer walk on steep surfaces. Steep terrain is marked brown.
* Fixed a bug where the player was not level or was facing an odd direction at the start of a new game.
* The player and codex will now always start on a level surface.
* Fixed a lot of irregular movement around blocks.
* Player can now remove blocks via the Construction tab in the inventory.
* Building an outpost if there are hex blocks obstructing is no longer allowed.
* Fixed incorrect vertical positioning of outposts placed on another outpost's grid.
* No longer allow placement of blocks diagonally up or down from an existing block.
* Fixed the game creating invisible blocks that can't be removed.
* Improve the visibility of the preview placement block at night.
* You can point at the ground directly underneath a block to place a block there, even if you're outside of an outpost's radius.
* Fix resources being clustered in some areas of the planet and spread out in others.
* Fix the codex being invisible sometimes on load.
* Players now start with an outpost and do not have to solve the codex to get it. This is a temporary measure until another system makes it in.
* The Outpost application now has an icon.
* Fixed some rare crashes.
* Fixed some crashes on Radeon graphics cards.
* Fixed occasional crashing after reloading saved data from games that previously crashed.
* Some performance improvements, for example reduced hitching because of loading and saving entities while walking around, and improved performance while walking near blocks.
I've also added a bunch of features especially for builders, including a ton of new block types and an editor that lets you save your work. Thanks to those who are building things!
As I mentioned before (here https://steamcommunity.com/ogg/1813730/announcements/detail/3620362751713321282 ) I've been focusing on the 'homebuilding' gameplay pillar and allowing the player to build and decorate areas that feel like a home. This update has focused on the experience of building hex blocks structures, specifically from the point of view of professional builders. As a result, the actual game design (things like UX, player progression, and other mechanics) have been moved to the back burner. For example, the new block types are currently only available to builders via cheats, and there's no way to obtain them in the normal game for now. But it's been very exciting to see what people have built! These creations will eventually be spawned in the actual game as the player explores the planet, for an incidental win on the 'exploration' gameplay pillar. In any case, the next few updates will continue to be focused on the homebuilding pillar, with the goal of fleshing out a full loop that players can enjoy at a basic level.
Thanks again for playing Outpost!
Outpost February Beta Released
* The game is auto-saved more often to avoid loss of progress.
* When the player starts flying the model displays wings.
* Show the names of objects you're collecting.
* Players can no longer walk on steep surfaces. Steep terrain is marked brown.
* Fixed a bug where the player was not level or was facing an odd direction at the start of a new game.
* The player and codex will now always start on a level surface.
* Fixed a lot of irregular movement around blocks.
* Player can now remove blocks via the Construction tab in the inventory.
* Building an outpost if there are hex blocks obstructing is no longer allowed.
* Fixed incorrect vertical positioning of outposts placed on another outpost's grid.
* No longer allow placement of blocks diagonally up or down from an existing block.
* Fixed the game creating invisible blocks that can't be removed.
* Improve the visibility of the preview placement block at night.
* You can point at the ground directly underneath a block to place a block there, even if you're outside of an outpost's radius.
* Fix resources being clustered in some areas of the planet and spread out in others.
* Fix the codex being invisible sometimes on load.
* Players now start with an outpost and do not have to solve the codex to get it. This is a temporary measure until another system makes it in.
* The Outpost application now has an icon.
* Fixed some rare crashes.
* Fixed some crashes on Radeon graphics cards.
* Fixed occasional crashing after reloading saved data from games that previously crashed.
* Some performance improvements, for example reduced hitching because of loading and saving entities while walking around, and improved performance while walking near blocks.
With these changes I've been working on making the home building and hex block placing experience good, with an eye towards eventually being able to support an art contest. As a part of that I've also been trying to improve the game's new player experience a bit. Next I'll be looking at creating new hex block types for the player to use to create more interesting structures.
Hope you enjoy it, and thanks for playing Outpost.
Hotfix!
* Fixed a crash when placing brushes.
* Fixed jerky collision and unable to place blocks sometimes after reloading a level.
* Fixed hex blocks disappearing from certain viewing angles sometimes.
The hex blocks disappearing will only take effect on new games, so you may continue to see hex blocks disappearing until you restart the world.
Happy building!
Outpost February Update Released
(Please note as usual that all graphics are still placeholder and will eventually be completely replaced.)
* Place blocks near an outpost by going into the inventory (tab) and picking "Petrite".
* Added a menu that allows the player to choose between starting a new planet or continuing an old one.
* Petrite and flux are now twice as frequent. Collecting a petrite now awards 20 petrite. (This is so that players can more easily test out hexblock building.)
* Slight adjustments to the camera when opening the inventory screen.
* Creation of domes have been disabled for now, so we can focus on the hex blocks feature.
* Significant improvements to performance.
* Fixed a few uncommon crashes.
Please note that there is no way to delete blocks right now, so be careful.
Also please note that as of this version, previous versions can't be loaded. Many changes were made to accommodate the hex blocks, and it wasn't worth maintaining the upgrade path given how few people play the game right now. I expect to have a number of resets for as long as the game is in Early Access, and fewer after.
As I mentioned before (here https://discord.com/channels/912184949090697216/912185382991458324/1047780944645459978 ) I've been focusing on the 'homebuilding' gameplay pillar and allowing the player to build and decorate areas that feel like a home. This update represents a transition from building domes to building hex blocks. The domes were succeeding in some areas, but didn't feel extensible, modular, and buildable. The hex blocks that we have been exploring lately are much better in these regards. We may return to the domes in the future, or they may be cut entirely depending on player feedback and whether we need them for a particular purpose. The next few updates will continue to be focused on the homebuilding pillar, with the goal of fleshing out a full loop that players can enjoy at a basic level.
Thanks again for playing Outpost!
- Jorge
Hex Block Beta Test Now Available
I'm not committing to having this be a mainstream feature of the game, but that said having played it I really like it. Please give it a shot and let me know what you think. Some things to know about it:
* Place blocks by going into the inventory (tab) and picking "Petrite".
* To make it easy to try out the feature and place plenty of blocks, I have changed each ball of Petrite that you pick up to award you 20 Petrite.
* I have disabled the creation of domes for this branch, because they're basically broken now that there are hex blocks.
* This will save to a different directory than before, so you'll be starting from scratch. Make sure to visit the Codex.
* There's no way to delete blocks right now, so be careful.
You can drop your thoughts in the Steam Community forums, or you can join our Discord.
Outpost January Beta Released
In case you haven't noticed I've been falling into a biweekly release cadence, where at the beginning of each month there's a major regular release and in the middle of the month we get an update to the "upcoming" Steam beta branch. Well, today we have an "upcoming" release with these features:
* If players place two domes that intersect with one hex then they will automatically be connected
* Note: Domes built before this version not supported, see below
* Petrite and Flux spawns are now twice as frequent
* Added a menu that allows the player to choose between starting a new planet or continuing an old one
* Significant improvements to performance
* Fixed a few uncommon crashes
Domes built before today's version don't have the necessary data set up correctly to support connecting to other domes and if you try they may behave incorrectly. Since we're in early access I decided the amount of work to do to make sure old domes could connect to new ones wasn't worth it, and it's better to spend my time working on new features. For that reason and because resources are now twice as plentiful in this version, I recommend you create a new planet when you load the game, rather than continuing your old one.
Outpost January Update Released
(Please note as usual that all graphics are still placeholder and will eventually be completely replaced.)
- Players can now build a dome near outposts. Each of the six walls of the dome can be modified to be a closed wall, a doorway, or completely open.
- The game is now saved when the player quits and will be reloaded again when the player opens the game.
- Build costs have all been reduced to 1 so that players can try out building.
- Players can now place any brushes in the world via their inventory.
- The game now uses a third-person camera.
- Completing the Codex will no longer cause it to be interactible and then disappear. Rather it will automatically award the player the ability to build an outpost and dome and then ignore the player.
- Rendering engine improvements, including lighting and atmospheric fog.
- Extensive performance improvements, especially in rendering distant terrain.
- Fixed the inventory screen being too bright at night.
- Fixed a bug where the inventory screen would sometimes close again just after it is opened.
- Fixed a bug where some resources in the world were not able to be picked up.
Note: Currently there is no functionality in the game to delete saved games. To do so, run a "File Explorer" from the start menu and paste this into the address bar:
%localappdata%\outpost\saves\default
then delete the contents of that folder.
A note about development priorities
Since last month I decided to re-evaluate my plan for Outpost. I want to work first on the features that are most core to the vision of the game and try to get the core loops up and running. There are two major areas that I have planned for Outpost: Homebuilding and Exploration. I'd like to explain my goals with each of those two areas, so consider the following to be a bit like a miniature design document.
Homebuilding means using resources the player has gathered to build a home for themselves in the world. Homes should first and foremost feel like a home, they should feel like they're a natural part of the world they are built in, they should be extensible and modular and 'buildable' by the player, and they should follow the circles and spheres theme that the rest of the game has established so far. The domes that the player can now build as part of this update represent the first step in fleshing out these ideas.
Exploration means going out into the world and finding and participating in experiences. Exploration should require preparation, be novel and interesting each time you visit, and result in finding new resources that you can use to extend your home. Which experiences are available should change depending on which part of the world you go to and at which time of day.
I want to focus on these two areas, so I've decided to put a pin in the Snurtles feature from the previous update and focus on Homebuilding for now. Snurtles are part of the eventual exploration feature set, but not core to the experience, so I'm putting them on the back burner. I didn't waste any time building the Snurtle because I'll be using the technology I used to build him as I build out the Exploration features. I haven't changed Outpost's design, just which features I'm building first.
Again, thanks for playing Outpost and for following along in Outpost's development! I hope this refocus helps me get the core loops stood up faster. Keep an eye here, I'll be continuing to post developments as I have them.
New Construction Options
- Players can now build a 'dome' near any Outpost. This will server as a small living space for the player.
- The game will now save itself on shutdown and load again when the game boots.
- The game has been moved to third-person.
- The interaction method with the inventory has been reworked. The player now uses the mouse instead of aiming at items.
- The player can now replace any brushes they have picked up. Click on your brushes in the inventory panel.
- The player can now modify a part of a dome they have built to create another door opening.
- The renderer has been updated. Better model and terrain shading, and lights (eg the Egg light) affect all models rather than just terrain. Models are no longer extremely bright at night.
- The inventory screen has been fixed so that it is no longer too bright at night time.
- When the player completes the codex it will no longer become interactible and then disappear when interacted with. Instead it will automatically grant the resources immediately upon completion and then ignore the player from then on.
- Fixed an occasional bug where the inventory screen would close on its own.
- Fixed some bugs where the player could not pick up some resources sometimes.
- A few other crash fixes.
I often talk about my development priorities on Discord, so that's a good place to keep abreast of developments. Click here to visit the Outpost Discord server. I'll also be summarizing my thoughts in a new post along with the January update.
Thanks for playing Outpost!