Posted May 25, 2017
Why decide to join games in development on GOG?
As a sandbox game, Planet Nomads is a perfect title for emergent development. We have been working closely with our Alpha Nomads for seven months to bring Planet Nomads to its first public release game-in-development version. (And close to two years on the game's building system.) It is now time to invite the perspective of a broader audience to help shape the game.
The GOG community feels like a special breed of gamers, who seem to be able to bring up in-depth analyses and feedback on the game.
Being completely honest, as an indie developer and a team of thirteen, we could use the continuous funding of having the game available to get more hands on the deck and execute our grand vision for Planet Nomads more quickly and in full.
Approximately how long will this game be in early access?
Speaking directly we want to keep Planet Nomads in development for a year or two.
While we aim to develop a complete simulator of a stranded astronaut scientist who manages to build a spaceship to get back to space to cruise the stars and star systems, possibly managing to find a way home, we don't want to wore out our passion for this project. Four years of pouring our hearts and souls into Planet Nomads sounds about right.
What do you plan to change during development?
A lot! We're at the very beginning of this journey. The game already offers a solid gameplay for several hours minimum (tens of hours if you are into the sandbox genre and hundreds if you are really passionate about creating things), but we aim higher than that.
We'll want to expand modding, introduce flyers and space flight, orbital building, and eventually consider multiplayer with different modes, make the weather more realistic and tied to survival, develop volumetric water, introduce more environment hazards, more creatures and more building options.
What is the current state of your game?
We are procedurally generating actual planets with multiple biomes spreading from pole to pole. The system is ready for seamless interplanetary travel. There's water and underwater biomes.
There's a block-based building system in place with physics with functional blocks that provide plenty of creative opportunities.
We have Survival and Creative Modes ready in the game.
The Survival Mode
Upgradeable particle-manipulating multi-tool
* Upgradeable suit, jetpack and inventory place
* 10+ different types of alien animals to keep you busy (and endangered)
* Player characteristics to take care of: health, food, water and stamina
* Positive and negative conditions based on the characteristics above (and your behavior in the game)
* Progression through a tech-tree
* Plenty of other features and mechanics left for discovering
The Creative Mode
As the name suggests, a slightly less stressful environment for the architects and engineers who don't want to be bothered by hunger and thirst and death while they weld magnificent things into existence.
Also suitable for happy-go-lucky explorers of the unknown worlds.
Will the price change on release day?
The general idea is to keep raising the price as the game grows with features and content, until full release. We're not able to state the exact numbers at this point, nor the timing, but it's safe to say that for the best bang for your buck, it's best to get in early.
How can the community participate in the development process?
There are two main aspects of keeping Planet Nomads under development and available that we want to take full advantage off.
First of all, while we're devoting a lot of our resources to the game's design and "ease of use", we've been proven time and time again by our Alpha Nomads that when you are too close to something for too long, you do suffer from a certain blindness to it. Therefore, we depend on our players to open our eyes.
Secondly, as a small team we need to prioritize a lot, carefully weighing which features are more important than others. We have our assumptions, but it's way better to hear it directly from the community what should be improved and added next.
How often do you expect to release updates?
We’re looking at a monthly schedule for feature and content heavy updates with patches and bug fix updates spread in between.
As a sandbox game, Planet Nomads is a perfect title for emergent development. We have been working closely with our Alpha Nomads for seven months to bring Planet Nomads to its first public release game-in-development version. (And close to two years on the game's building system.) It is now time to invite the perspective of a broader audience to help shape the game.
The GOG community feels like a special breed of gamers, who seem to be able to bring up in-depth analyses and feedback on the game.
Being completely honest, as an indie developer and a team of thirteen, we could use the continuous funding of having the game available to get more hands on the deck and execute our grand vision for Planet Nomads more quickly and in full.
Approximately how long will this game be in early access?
Speaking directly we want to keep Planet Nomads in development for a year or two.
While we aim to develop a complete simulator of a stranded astronaut scientist who manages to build a spaceship to get back to space to cruise the stars and star systems, possibly managing to find a way home, we don't want to wore out our passion for this project. Four years of pouring our hearts and souls into Planet Nomads sounds about right.
What do you plan to change during development?
A lot! We're at the very beginning of this journey. The game already offers a solid gameplay for several hours minimum (tens of hours if you are into the sandbox genre and hundreds if you are really passionate about creating things), but we aim higher than that.
We'll want to expand modding, introduce flyers and space flight, orbital building, and eventually consider multiplayer with different modes, make the weather more realistic and tied to survival, develop volumetric water, introduce more environment hazards, more creatures and more building options.
What is the current state of your game?
We are procedurally generating actual planets with multiple biomes spreading from pole to pole. The system is ready for seamless interplanetary travel. There's water and underwater biomes.
There's a block-based building system in place with physics with functional blocks that provide plenty of creative opportunities.
We have Survival and Creative Modes ready in the game.
The Survival Mode
Upgradeable particle-manipulating multi-tool
* Upgradeable suit, jetpack and inventory place
* 10+ different types of alien animals to keep you busy (and endangered)
* Player characteristics to take care of: health, food, water and stamina
* Positive and negative conditions based on the characteristics above (and your behavior in the game)
* Progression through a tech-tree
* Plenty of other features and mechanics left for discovering
The Creative Mode
As the name suggests, a slightly less stressful environment for the architects and engineers who don't want to be bothered by hunger and thirst and death while they weld magnificent things into existence.
Also suitable for happy-go-lucky explorers of the unknown worlds.
Will the price change on release day?
The general idea is to keep raising the price as the game grows with features and content, until full release. We're not able to state the exact numbers at this point, nor the timing, but it's safe to say that for the best bang for your buck, it's best to get in early.
How can the community participate in the development process?
There are two main aspects of keeping Planet Nomads under development and available that we want to take full advantage off.
First of all, while we're devoting a lot of our resources to the game's design and "ease of use", we've been proven time and time again by our Alpha Nomads that when you are too close to something for too long, you do suffer from a certain blindness to it. Therefore, we depend on our players to open our eyes.
Secondly, as a small team we need to prioritize a lot, carefully weighing which features are more important than others. We have our assumptions, but it's way better to hear it directly from the community what should be improved and added next.
How often do you expect to release updates?
We’re looking at a monthly schedule for feature and content heavy updates with patches and bug fix updates spread in between.
Post edited May 25, 2017 by inox_gog
