For many years, I have wanted to build a voxel-based game. I have played more than a thousand hours of Eco and love games like Vintage Story and Hytale, but have never felt that there was a game that combined the tactile world and crafting of Vintage Story with the society building of Eco, as well as a fun survival gameplay loop.
So when I saw BRUTAL I was immediately excited. A modern framework that allows me the freedom to build the simulation I want in modern C#, without shoe-horning my simplistic asset pipeline into a modern Engine like Unity or Godot? Guess it's time to execute!
It's called Project Copper Shiner, because I have a habit of naming my projects after a metal and a fish.
The idea is to start with a fairly primitive survival experience, gathering resources, making tools, finding shelter and generally trying not to die. But as players progress, I'd like those humble beginnings to grow into functioning settlements with workshops, storage, production chains, trade and eventually persistent citizens who can help keep things running even when players are offline.
I want the world to show the work that went into building it. A primitive shelter should look primitive, and a developed town should reflect the materials, craftsmanship and technology available to its inhabitants.
And did I mention I'm a fan of diegetic UI and logistics gameplay?
One of my first gameplay experiments has been to make inventory a physical part of the world. Instead of having a magical backpack containing several tonnes of materials, you start by carrying a small armful of whatever you find.
If your hands are full and you want to collect something else, you'll have to put your materials down somewhere.
Materials can be stacked into physical piles, with individual pieces rendered procedurally. Different materials stack differently, and the amount you store determines how much space it actually occupies.
Eventually, I'd love for this to extend to carrying frames, wheelbarrows, wagons and warehouses. The idea is that transporting and storing materials becomes part of the gameplay, and that a bustling town actually looks like people are working in it.
I'm also experimenting with construction-aware building pieces, inspired by Eco. Walls should join neatly, roofs should fit together, and materials should look like they were actually made and assembled. Ideally, players should be able to build attractive, believable structures without needing exceptional Minecraft building skills.
There's just one small problem: I'm a solo developer.
I don't have the resources to create thousands of handcrafted assets, so my approach so far has been to generate pretty much everything procedurally in C#: terrain, trees, rocks, buildings, and even the individual stones and sticks in those piles.
There's no traditional 3D asset pipeline at the moment. I'm hoping that reusable geometry, construction rules and material treatments will let me build a visually coherent world without spending all my time in Blender. I'm not opposed to textures or handcrafted assets later, though!
It's still very early days. Most of the larger survival and society systems are ambitions rather than implemented features. Right now I'm building small experiments to figure out what works and, more importantly, what actually feels fun to play.
Anyway, that's Project Copper Shiner! I'm looking forward to seeing where I can take it with BRUTAL. Feedback, ideas and criticism are very welcome!
So when I saw BRUTAL I was immediately excited. A modern framework that allows me the freedom to build the simulation I want in modern C#, without shoe-horning my simplistic asset pipeline into a modern Engine like Unity or Godot? Guess it's time to execute!
It's called Project Copper Shiner, because I have a habit of naming my projects after a metal and a fish.
The idea is to start with a fairly primitive survival experience, gathering resources, making tools, finding shelter and generally trying not to die. But as players progress, I'd like those humble beginnings to grow into functioning settlements with workshops, storage, production chains, trade and eventually persistent citizens who can help keep things running even when players are offline.
I want the world to show the work that went into building it. A primitive shelter should look primitive, and a developed town should reflect the materials, craftsmanship and technology available to its inhabitants.
And did I mention I'm a fan of diegetic UI and logistics gameplay?
One of my first gameplay experiments has been to make inventory a physical part of the world. Instead of having a magical backpack containing several tonnes of materials, you start by carrying a small armful of whatever you find.
If your hands are full and you want to collect something else, you'll have to put your materials down somewhere.
Materials can be stacked into physical piles, with individual pieces rendered procedurally. Different materials stack differently, and the amount you store determines how much space it actually occupies.
Eventually, I'd love for this to extend to carrying frames, wheelbarrows, wagons and warehouses. The idea is that transporting and storing materials becomes part of the gameplay, and that a bustling town actually looks like people are working in it.
I'm also experimenting with construction-aware building pieces, inspired by Eco. Walls should join neatly, roofs should fit together, and materials should look like they were actually made and assembled. Ideally, players should be able to build attractive, believable structures without needing exceptional Minecraft building skills.
There's just one small problem: I'm a solo developer.
I don't have the resources to create thousands of handcrafted assets, so my approach so far has been to generate pretty much everything procedurally in C#: terrain, trees, rocks, buildings, and even the individual stones and sticks in those piles.
There's no traditional 3D asset pipeline at the moment. I'm hoping that reusable geometry, construction rules and material treatments will let me build a visually coherent world without spending all my time in Blender. I'm not opposed to textures or handcrafted assets later, though!
It's still very early days. Most of the larger survival and society systems are ambitions rather than implemented features. Right now I'm building small experiments to figure out what works and, more importantly, what actually feels fun to play.
Anyway, that's Project Copper Shiner! I'm looking forward to seeing where I can take it with BRUTAL. Feedback, ideas and criticism are very welcome!
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