Stone Devlog: Introduction
You find yourself plopped down in the middle of a forest with nothing, save for a tasteful loincloth covering your unmentionables. You find some rocks and clack them together to form a point on one. Then you grab a sturdy stick and some vine and strap the rock to the stick. With your pointy rock on a stick in hand, you head off to find a tasty looking critter.
Sound familiar? It basically sums up the high-concept for most survival games. This one included. But here's the twist: instead of the usual "rock + vine + stick = spear" crafting system, all you really have is a rock at the end of a stick. A crafted tool's effectiveness will not be set by innate statistics of the final product, but rather by the properties of the components and how that tool is used. When you jab that spear at something soft and squishy, the point at the end making contact is what causes damage, determined by the point's ability to penetrate the target. Similarly, if the same spear is swung rather than thrust, it won't be nearly as effective. In fact, since the force from the resulting impact is likely transverse to how the stone is attached to the shaft, the lashing could fail and knock the head off the spear.
That all sounds ambitious enough, now let's talk about how it'll work. Obviously, the crafting system is the major selling point of the game. The way I see it playing out is having a sort of 'crafting mode' the player will enter that will transition to a top-down view where the player can manipulate objects from their inventory and on the ground around them. Objects can be picked up to move them or 'used' on other objects for purposes such as knapping. Back to our spear example, a stone would used on another stone to shape it to a point, then the shaped stone would be moved over to the end of a stick, and vine would be used over the stick and stone to lash it. Actions such as knapping and lashing would also have their own sort of minigame-style mechanics that we'll go over later.
After a tool has been crafted, it's time to use it. The player will be able to swing, thrust, and throw basically anything they can fit in their hand. The damaging potential of points and edges on tools will be determined by the actual geometry of the part of the tool that makes contact. This won't necessarily be physics-driven, but rather use the geometry and physical properties to reasonably approximate the result. Something like "A point with an interior angle of X produces Y penetrating force", then we check if that force is enough to overcome the toughness of the target. That's definitely something that will need to be fleshed out, but baby steps for now.
Okay, that's the crafting system in a nutshell, what's next?
...
Well, I'm not too sure. The crafting system is more or less the sum total of the idea here. Everything else, including the setting, visual style, and control scheme are all still up in the air. There's a basic vision of a game and how it'll be played, but there isn't much of a primary loop beyond collecting materials to craft tools, then using the tools to collect more materials. Naturally, survival needs like food, water, and warmth will be a driving factor, but it's going to take more to shape this into a compelling game. For now, I'm alright with that. I've had this idea on the back-burner for several years now and I just want to build what I've got to see how it goes. Once the foundation is laid out, we can start building off it.
So that's my new project. A crafty/survival-y game about Stone Age technology and designing tools that actually work. I'm calling it 'Stone' for now. In the coming weeks I'll be showing my progress, elaborating on my plans, and spitballing new ideas. It might go well, it might go terribly. Should be fun either way. Stay tuned.
Sound familiar? It basically sums up the high-concept for most survival games. This one included. But here's the twist: instead of the usual "rock + vine + stick = spear" crafting system, all you really have is a rock at the end of a stick. A crafted tool's effectiveness will not be set by innate statistics of the final product, but rather by the properties of the components and how that tool is used. When you jab that spear at something soft and squishy, the point at the end making contact is what causes damage, determined by the point's ability to penetrate the target. Similarly, if the same spear is swung rather than thrust, it won't be nearly as effective. In fact, since the force from the resulting impact is likely transverse to how the stone is attached to the shaft, the lashing could fail and knock the head off the spear.
That all sounds ambitious enough, now let's talk about how it'll work. Obviously, the crafting system is the major selling point of the game. The way I see it playing out is having a sort of 'crafting mode' the player will enter that will transition to a top-down view where the player can manipulate objects from their inventory and on the ground around them. Objects can be picked up to move them or 'used' on other objects for purposes such as knapping. Back to our spear example, a stone would used on another stone to shape it to a point, then the shaped stone would be moved over to the end of a stick, and vine would be used over the stick and stone to lash it. Actions such as knapping and lashing would also have their own sort of minigame-style mechanics that we'll go over later.
After a tool has been crafted, it's time to use it. The player will be able to swing, thrust, and throw basically anything they can fit in their hand. The damaging potential of points and edges on tools will be determined by the actual geometry of the part of the tool that makes contact. This won't necessarily be physics-driven, but rather use the geometry and physical properties to reasonably approximate the result. Something like "A point with an interior angle of X produces Y penetrating force", then we check if that force is enough to overcome the toughness of the target. That's definitely something that will need to be fleshed out, but baby steps for now.
Okay, that's the crafting system in a nutshell, what's next?
...
Well, I'm not too sure. The crafting system is more or less the sum total of the idea here. Everything else, including the setting, visual style, and control scheme are all still up in the air. There's a basic vision of a game and how it'll be played, but there isn't much of a primary loop beyond collecting materials to craft tools, then using the tools to collect more materials. Naturally, survival needs like food, water, and warmth will be a driving factor, but it's going to take more to shape this into a compelling game. For now, I'm alright with that. I've had this idea on the back-burner for several years now and I just want to build what I've got to see how it goes. Once the foundation is laid out, we can start building off it.
So that's my new project. A crafty/survival-y game about Stone Age technology and designing tools that actually work. I'm calling it 'Stone' for now. In the coming weeks I'll be showing my progress, elaborating on my plans, and spitballing new ideas. It might go well, it might go terribly. Should be fun either way. Stay tuned.