Happy New Year! In 2019s last blog, we looked back at the history of Colony Survival. Here, in 2020s first blog, well discuss our plans for the future. They havent changed too much since this blog we posted a couple of months ago, but wed love to talk more about the underlying reasons, and we think we can properly visualize them in a single image now. Imagine a graph that plots both complexity and time played for a game. In a lot of games, more complex features are introduced only after youve played the game for a while. Think of a shooter which starts with some simple missions with simple weapons and targets, and introduces a stealth mission or guided missiles later on. A guided missile is obviously more complex than a basic pistol, but how complex it appears to players also depends on the interface. Does the game explain how to operate this new weapon? Or are you expected to press all kinds of hidden buttons and navigate complex menus? The complexity measured in the graph is a combination of the actual depth of the mechanics nd how difficult it is to figure out for players.
Now imagine plotting Colony Survival 0.1.0, the version we released on Steam in June 2017, on this graph. After one or two hours, you could have seen all the content. There was no science system. But the UI wasnt very advanced either. If you werent experienced in FPS and RTS games, you had a pretty hard time learning the ropes. So Id visualize 0.1.0 on the graph like this:
We got quite a lot of complaints about the lack of content, and we could see why. The next updates all focused on adding more items and features.
0.7.0 was a big overhaul of the game. It wasnt merely adding things on top of the pile, the early game was overhauled as well. New features like happiness, co-op and trading have given the game more functionality and depth, but theyve also added extra menus and buttons that arent always explained that well and can confuse new players. This is the result in the graph:
Obviously, our intention is not to make the game more difficult and confusing for new players. A couple of months ago, I watched someone who wasnt really experienced with first person games try the game, and it was heart-wrenching. It suddenly became very obvious how complex Colony Survival is for people who havent extensively played first person and strategy games. Our goal is to make CS accessible for persons like that as well. Were not going to dumb stuff down and were not going to hand-hold experienced players - no worries about that! Our three main strategies are:

• Make existing interfaces clearer. For example, the Colony-menu, the one right next to the Happiness menu, is a mess and truly work-in-progress.
• Make game mechanics more easily visible. A statistics menu that allows you to track your stockpile, workers and guards. A happiness menu that displays relevant info way better. A top-down menu that allows you to click on job-blocks, colonists and monsters for extra info.
• A mission system that gives players a framework for setting up a colony and developing it to its maximum potential. For new players, there would be basic missions like plant a banner, recruit a colonist and recruit a berry farmer, and each would have a description with detailed explanations on how to do that. For more experienced players, there could be missions like start a colony in the New World and recruit 1000 colonists.

We dont want to do all of this in one update, we dont want to make you wait that long again. So expect 0.7.3, 0.7.4, 0.7.5 and maybe more 0.7.X updates with interface updates. All these changes should have a big impact in regards to reducing complexity for new players!
End complexity in the graph is slightly lower for 0.7.X than it is for 0.7.0. The sole reason for that should be more intuitive interfaces, were not removing features or mechanics! When the current content is in optimal form, wed like to start adding new content again. The theme will probably be the industrial era. It should add to the depth of the game with new mechanics like electricity, pipes and multiple-block/multiple-colonist jobs. Heres what 0.8.0 should look like on the graph:
We think this is the best strategy for the future of Colony Survival. It should make the game accessible for a bigger group of gamers, while simultaneously giving veterans more tools to play with and expanding how long the game can be played for. But of course, were imperfect and we might be making a big mistake. So let us know your opinion about these plans!

This Week

It was a bit of a weird week, stretched over two decades. We did take some time off, but Zun still managed some very productive days. He's still working on the lighting. For now, only light sources like torches, lanterns and furnaces have changed. I can't wait to see what happens when the sun and moon get floodfill lighting!
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[ 2020-01-03 11:00:52 CET ] [ Original post ]