Stone Devlog: Hunt and Peck

In my last post, I said we'd take a look at the new knapping system using cone subtraction. Unfortunately, I'm not quite ready to show that off yet, so I figured we can have a design-y post about why that is. 

The main thing that is keeping me from recording a video of the new system is that I'm simply not very good with it. I implemented some helpful features like undo/redo functionality and hotkeys for default view angles, yet I still can't seem to get the results I expect. I'm not completely helpless, but I can't seem to produce anything even remotely pointed. This may be partly due to the mesh generation, however, if I'm relying on real-life knapping tutorials and an undo system, that does not bode well for the gameplay experience.

Now it falls on me to design my way out of this problem. Real-life knapping is difficult and one mistake can completely ruin a piece. Furthermore, I've come to learn that the original shape of the stone is largely irrelevant to the final piece. The size certainly matters, but rather than 'sharpening' an ideally shaped stone, knapping focuses on 'extracting' a piece from the stone. A couple good whacks is sufficient to produce a usable hand axe or cutting edge, but to make something like an arrowhead, the original stone is reduced away in every dimension, leaving nothing recognizable. While, I'm not opposed to having a skill-based system, the basics need to be intuitive.

Trying to teach an unforgiving system through copious amounts of text or a "click here, then here" style tutorial is less than ideal. I also don't want to gate the mechanical heart of this crafting game behind a skill ceiling. Luckily, there is a solution. For a while I've been pondering how other types of stone will factor in to the game. In the real world, knappable stone was comparatively uncommon and a sought after trade good. Other stones were needed as hammer stones and whatnot, but those stones themselves could be shaped into usable tools through other means, namely grinding and pecking.

Grinding is a fairly self-explanatory process: abrade a stone against a rough surface to smooth it out. I expected to implement some form of grinding as a refinement process to pretty up knapped stones, but I think it can serve a wider purpose. Plus, it is pretty much just a plane subtraction, and we've already messed around with that a bit. While grinding is a fairly slow process, this will allow players to grab a stone that is vaguely the right shape, put an edge on it, and go to work.

In contrast to kapping and even grinding, pecking is an excruciatingly slow process. It involves numerous, small, precise strikes to a stone to slowly crumble away the surface. It won't produce as sharp of an edge as knapping, but it's a lot less dramatic and allows for concavities that would be impossible to knap, like bowls. As an added benefit, this wouldn't even be a separate system, it would simply be one of the possible results of striking a stone.

So that's pretty much the idea. Proper knapping will be a challenging, but desirable outcome to achieve. Most players may start out shattering a stone with one big strike and using the shards. Maybe they'll try smaller, more controlled strikes next. Or perhaps they'll grind an edge out of a shard or other conveniently shaped stone. Or maybe, just maybe, that one big strike will produce a fine edge and it will give the player some ideas. Primitive humans discovered this all for themselves, so trying to emulate that process in the game could be a unique and empowering experience for players.

I'm certainly putting the cart before the horse considering the knapping system isn't properly finalized, but sometimes I like to indulge in a little creative brainstorming. As I've worked on the knapping system, it has become more apparent to me that it cannot be the player's only option for shaping stone. Real flint knapping is ostensibly predictable, but even experts inadvertently destroy their own work in a single strike. I'll be able to provide a bit more context when we finally look at the current state of the knapping system. I don't believe I'll be able to properly convey everything through a blog post though, so we may have to do something a little different. Stay tuned.