Good day, fellow Meeps! The Early Access release of World Turtles is now thundering ahead like a starving World Turtle eyeing a juicy Space Cucumber! I may not reveal the exact release date yet, but I can say that there will be only one more update like this (after this one) before release! The biggest updates since the release of the January demo are discussed below. The current build runs smoother with fewer little niggles and bugs than the demo, since weve received some good feedback and identification of issues via our Closed Beta and internal testing rounds. Quality of Life improvements have also been added and some more are planned. Join our Discord server for more frequent updates and previews! De Chelonian Mobile! Gideon Discord

Tectonic Plates and the Map Builder!

I have completely reworked the way the landmasses (before erosion and climate) are determined it now uses a system based on Plate Tectonics to determine the layout of land and water. This leads to greater control over the characteristics of the created maps and much more natural looking worlds. The factors available in the revamped Map Builder each have a clear, focused impact on how the randomly generated world looks and plays. You can preview a map with a specific seed and then play on that exact map!
As an example, note how much more natural the continents and beaches (Ive also added a more sandy look) appear when the water level drops, revealing more land next to the beach but not in the deeper seas, like before:
This also makes water a mechanic that actually influences gameplay, where water was previously very random and erratic. Finally, starting locations are a lot more dependable to be playable.

Demolition and Repairs

Buildings can now be canceled or demolished at any stage of construction, as long as they have not yet been upgraded or are special buildings that would lead to problems if demolished. Demolishing a building returns some of the resources and repairing a building now also costs resources. Repairs and Demolition are also progressive, with the building models updating a few times in the cycle. In addition, damaged buildings lose some of their functionality until they are repaired (for example Water Towers not providing water and having to be refilled from scratch).

Minimap and Meep Cam Control

The minimap can now be panned and zoomed, allowing you to focus on specific areas. The resources are also displayed more clearly now. The space minimap can also be zoomed, while the Meep Cam can now zoom and orbit around the Meep being followed.

Message Vault

All previous important messages are now saved in a Message Vault and are also available after loading a game. Note that we now also keep track of the day, not only time of day.

Space Resources

In addition to the basic resources, I have started adding Space Resources. The first two are crystals that are deposited by the Gas Pollution (Octavium) and Snow Comets crashing down (Niveum). These crystals dissolve/dissipate over time, so Meeps need to gather them before theyre gone after one of the natural disasters have deposited them on the terrain! This makes the Snow Comets and Gas Pollution more interactive, as they also bring opportunity with their damage, and the player needs to act fast to gather the resources before they disappear. Theres space for 4 more kinds of Space Resources, possibly with more than one tier each. Uses for Space Resources still have to be implemented, but I can reveal that they will have scientific and cultural / artistic uses.

Three New Shorter Tutorials

Ive added the following three shorter tutorials, focusing on specific mechanics in more detail:

• Resource tutorial, for gathering Wood and Stone and expanding borders.
• Farming tutorial, for getting the most out of your Farms and Fishmongers.
• Research tutorial, for understanding building-specific and realm-wide research. Some Research items now also cause Breakthroughs in other, related lines of study. These Breakthrough connections are randomized, so will play differently on different playthroughs.

These tutorials will also receive voice overs this month!

UI Additions

Among the UI additions are:

• Icons that allow you to find damaged buildings and buildings that can be upgraded.
• The option of switching off On-map Hints after becoming familiar with them. They will still be available in the Message Vault.

[ 2023-03-01 20:54:14 CET ] [ Original post ]

Please … help us save our Turtle … it means the World to us!

Gather Some Meeps and Develop a Realm

Is there anything more exhilarating than your first move on a fresh map? A small band of Meeps have gathered together with enough supplies to construct a basic resource gathering outpost. Expand their skills, improve their efficiency and guide them towards guilds, societies and more advanced structures. They, and their children, are going to need these to have a fighting chance of saving their Turtle.

Explore, Examine and Cooperate

Find and cooperate with other bands of Meeps scattered on the map. Work with the environment to improve negative situations and affect progress without destruction. Learn about your world and push back the boundaries of physics in order to advance.

Save Your Turtle, Save Your World

Space can be a harsh and unforgiving place, especially to an enormous Turtle. Like the Meeps, their World Turtle also needs your guidance to stay safe and nurtured. And while you’re at it, maybe you can save some others as well…

Background and Vision

I am a solo Indie developer. I joined the Game Dev party quite late in life, and got my first glimpse of Unity almost exactly 2 years before making the first demo of World Turtles, my very first game, available. I'm amazed at the progress I’d been able to make during these two years and owe a great deal of gratitude to various tutorial channels, plug-ins and artists whom I leaned on during the development. None more than Catlike Coding, whose brilliant Hex Map tutorial series kickstarted this entire endeavour.

I have spent a lot of time polishing the task queueing and progressive construction systems, utilising different threads, UI and more and I feel the basic foundation and technical mechanics of the game is ripe for branching off into various promising directions. The free demo is a small vertical slice designed to exhibit the commitment I have to developing a good-quality game and hopefully pique some interest.

I have a good idea of the general direction I want World Turtles to head in, but there’s a myriad of possibilities available for the execution. For now, I’m focusing on a single-player sandbox-type environment. This will hopefully be followed by a small campaign and a map editor. Having some sort of multiplayer capability would also be wonderful, but there’s a lot to be done before then.

I would love developing World Turtles further alongside a group of enthusiastic real-world Meeps. Please, join me and be a part of the journey!