NEP Dev Update #4: Explore mode
This post is part of a development update series about my upcoming indie game, Non-Essential Personnel. I'm going to challenge myself to regularly post one of these every Friday. We'll see how that goes. =P
It's been a while since the last update... I got distracted. =P
I took a few days off to whip up a quick website for Minecraft players I thought would be useful. It's called Mod Friend and it's essentially a search engine for Minecraft mods.
I've noticed lots of Minecraft players lately asking for other players to post lists of mods they play. Or mods they think are fun. Or just suggest random mods so they can try something new. It seemed to me that players were looking for new mods to play, but didn't have a good way of finding them.
Making a search engine seemed like the natural solution to this problem. =P
Initial responses to the website were overwhelmingly positive. Enthusiasm has died down now though and the website doesn't get too much regular traffic. I should probably look into search engine optimization techniques (ironically) to get the website better placement in search results. Everyone I've talked to said they loved the idea, so I'm thinking if I can reach more people, they'd like it too.
And then I spent some time in Mexico City to attend a good friend's wedding. =)
The food in Mexico is amazing! And that was the most insane wedding I've ever been to! In a good way. I'm pretty sure I'll never see anything like it again. Fun (and lots of tequila) was had by all!
Ok, back to the game...
I've been hard at work on a new game mode for NEP called Explore.
Build or Explore.
Choose wisely.
It will be an open-ended game mode that allows you to play the game without any hand-holding.
It's also a good place to playtest my ideas for game mechanics. Like the main block mining mechanic.
All the art is
placeholders for now. Eventually, I'll get art that doesn't look it was drawn by a
three-year-old.Using crayons.
You can see some of the new tools in the screenshots, like a very basic pickaxe to break up blocks, and a basic shovel to scoop up the rubble. Mining will be messy. Breaking up stone blocks sends bits of rock flying around and leaves piles of rubble around. If you're not careful with your mining technique, the resulting piles of rubble can really get in the way.
Mining will take up space too. This game won't have a magic player inventory capable of holding a near-infinite amount of physical material. You'll actually have to plan for how to deal with the waste material from mining and how to efficiently transport large volumes of stuff.
Better tools in the future will make these problems easier to solve, of course. But for now, all we have is a simple pickaxe and a shovel. A big part of the game will be building contraptions and machines to automate these tasks for you and make your life as a space miner much easier.
Automation is going to be a big big part of the game! Perhaps this should come as no suprise considering the name of the game is Non-Essential Personnel. =P
I'll leave you with one last early screenshot showing off the new explore mode GUI with the player equipment and inventory.
Still a work in
progress. There are fun animations too, but I didn't have time to make an animated GIF.
As more and more of the custom engine pieces fall into place, I get to spend more time working on actual gameplay mechanics! That means pretty screenshots instead of just lots of behind-the-scenes plumbing and janitorial coding. Things are starting to get exciting now!
