Introduction and start of the game

One of questions I've been asking myself for a long time: what exactly happens when the game starts for the first time?

Over time different ideas popped up how to introduce a new player to the game, you might remember me talking about some of them from the previous posts about this subject. All decent on their own, but none just felt "right". Thus I keep thinking and designing - I never rejected any of the previous ideas, instead they all just keep morphing and evolving, simplifying and improving.

The ideas I'm going to present in this and following posts are also not final, as there is a lot more details needed to yet be considered, however this time I feel pretty confident that this is the best, by far, way to present our game to new players.

Also, you might wonder, why focus on "new player experience" now while we're working on the new build?

To put it simply, I don't want to have the next build released with yet another test-map that we're going to remove later anyway. I want everyone to see at least a hint of what the game will be like in the future!

As we kept developing and iterating on systems, like movement, abilities (combat) and inventory, we kept changing what they are capable of - all old plans would no longer fit. We've got to carefully design and prototype how to make a satisfying gameplay loop out of them and how to introduce them to the player.

There has also never been any proper work done to present the world/story/setting. Why are you a space lizard? Why are you in this strange place? All very good questions which the player needs to be introduced to just as much.

I realized that what I wrote would be too much for one post, so I split it into 3 chapters that will be posted separately:

1. Introduction and start of the game.
2. The hub world and initial exploration.
3. Gameplay loop and progression.

There is a lot to cover, so it will take some time to write about it all, meanwhile we will make smaller current progress updates in-between those big posts.

Introduction

You are a humble world builder, sent to a distant blank Sphere; just like many other builders, you have a mission to establish a Gateway and make the world habitable for creatures of your home. However upon arrival you quickly realize that this place on is not as empty as you were let to believe...

Something like this is important to have, it provides explanation for the player why they are here, what they need to do, why it is important, it also creates an intrigue for the player to keep coming back to the game and be excited about what it's going to bring next.

What I'm thinking would be a good and affordable way to present an intro is to make it in a 2d-animated webcomic-like style, like a lot of games do it nowadays.

The intro cinematic won't be worked on any time soon, its something to think about for the game's release. That's also why I'm not going to be write a full story here - it can change a dozen times until we reach that moment.

It would also make sense to let the player pick the starting species with appearance presets and gender selection. The full character customization will be available after, because it's something you need to reach a certain point in the game to get to.

Start of the game

After the intro, it cuts straight to the game, with your chosen character/species suspended in a special capsule that will both deliver you to a new world safely, and provide everything you need to get started.

While you can look around the capsule and check your character sleeping in a cute pose, the game expects you to press a button to continue. Upon doing that the capsule cracks like an egg, your character wakes up, the shell explodes and your character safely lands on the ground, giving you full control over your body.

The exploded pieces of that shell automatically reform to create stations for you to investigate and keep using for the rest of the game.

Something to consider: we can make a special guide system, similar to how its done in many games with some sort of an AI-assistant voice. The Aura, the shielding system, what is "responsible" for the HP gauge on the screen, could fulfill that role. It wouldn't be anything new if your space suit talked to you and helped you with tasks, just this time, the "space suit" is taking shape of a mostly invisible skin-tight energy shield. It won't be voice-acted though (nothing probably will), just text, and we have a chat system to use for that already.

The game expects the player to investigate all the 4 stations that sprouted in each direction:

Crafting Station

Introduces crafting in a very simple fashion - you have to make yourself a starting inventory augment and equip it. Without it you wouldn't be able to pick up anything - so its probably the most important step at the start. It also shows how to craft and how to equip augments. The recipe itself is free, so even in case if player loses their inventory entirely, they will always be able to get a free starting one.

The system provides multiple slots to equip many different inventory types, they are like individual backpacks with additional built-in functionality. An inventory for crafting ingredients will offer you a way to craft on the go, and the inventory for the consumables will give you a run-down of current status effects and ways to treat them.

Equipment Station

Gives access to the equipment/loadout system, customize your Aura by adding special dodges, jumps, traversal, and combat-related abilities. It's definitely recommended to equip a combat ability at the start of the game, but if one wishes to make their life harder, it could be skipped as well.

Those abilities, including weapons, are not physical items. They are part of your aura system, can be summoned at will. It requires a special place to swap them, as its an important consideration to make what to prepare for the journey ahead, especially when the player starts venturing into other realities.

Research Station

Provides a way to research found items, be it minerals to learn their composition and utilize them for crafting later, or artifacts from other species and cultures, which can help to get more information to unlock them later.

This station is required for overall progression, done mostly through exploration of the realities and bringing specific items of interest back safely to learn more about them.

I've said about knowledge tree in the past, the tree-like view of the game's progression system. This idea is still strong as I think it will be a great overview of all tasks that player can do, but it still needs more design thought put into it.

Health Station

It's possible to get your HP down to 0 even in the starting reality, we have no intent to make the game too easy... In case of grave danger, the health station is responsible for saving your body.

I'm coming back to the idea to make that your character technically never dies. Simply if the character is about to get a mortal blow that the Aura shield can't deflect because it's depleted, the last remaining bit of energy is spent to teleport the creature to safety. I think it's a much more inclusive and correct way of approaching that aspect, I know many of you (including myself) wouldn't want to see a beloved (sexy) character to die in agony.

This would mean getting rid of the consciousness entity though, but it never felt right to play as that thing anyway - we're here for the beautiful creatures, not floating ghostly balls of energy...

Also If we choose to go with the idea where your character gets persistent damage and diseases, your character could lose a limb in the process! It is still, for the lack of better words, quite an "oof" thing to happen, especially if you're attached to your character, but on the bright side, the health station will always help to re-grow anything missing, provided it has the right materials to do that.

The mission

After familiarizing yourself with all four stations, your first task is to scout out the area of your landing, learn more about what happened with the Sphere, and get resources for the Gateway.

The capsule also acts as a crystallic seed that plants itself upon arrival, quite a simple, yet effective way to spread across the multiverse. It only needs certain materials to grow into the fully operational Gateway of Realities, which is a long natural process, but the player is here to help accelerate that.

While exploring the Hub world, you will find some Reality keys that you can use in the Gateway, progress through new technologies, upgrades, learn about alien cultures, history, acquire new DNA to customize and improve your body.

Doing so will not only help you find answers to what happened, but it will also rebuild the Sphere according to your initial mission and invite new creatures to live there. Perhaps, in the end, you will even meet some ancient Dragon deities to have romance with.

But more about that in the next chapter in this series, where I will go into more detail about the improvements of the Hub world and what I planned for the exploration gameplay.