Devlog Devlog #3: Revisiting Old Systems
Last blog post I discussed rapidly iterating on the initial systems to prove their technical feasibility - but now I'm revisiting them to make them more fun.
As the art side of the game starts to progress, I found myself working on some later game systems like in-game life support, with fun challeneges like "is this room air-tight?". When I finally got it working and saw the red light (air escaping) turn green (sealed!) - it was a great feeling of triumph. When showing this to some peers, they mentioned that I should share the feeling with players. Let these small victories feel good in the game. Everything from building that first room on your ship to discovering something new.
This inspired me to look back at the early systems I had designed for the game. First on the plate was asteroid scanning - a key part of exploration and resource gathering. The early version solved that it could be done, but I wanted to look at how to make it fun. I realized just pointing a scanner at something and getting instant feedback didn't actually tell you what was around you. The sound effect of scanning already reminded me of sonar and I realized I needed to add a visual to that sound and started sketching.
In many games, you have a scanner that radiates out from the player on the ground and pings back results - but for obvious reasons, I expanded to the third dimension. When the player charges their scanner, they release a sphere of search with a nice PING sound - followed by the multitude of pongs as asteroids are found.
As the results come back, you simply hover your reticle over the icon to see the information gather. Especially in a noisy field, it can help you determine how close something is and whether its worth exploring more in that direction.
This relatively simple change created some UI challenges but I believe will change the early gameplay loop for the better and am excited to see others get their hands on it.