Dev Update: Unique Points of Interest in an Infinite World

11:27 AM willsterling23 8 Comments



Hey everyone!

Today we wanted to talk about how we are approaching exploration content in Salt 2. A major focus of the gameplay revolves around you sailing the infinite ocean and exploring the islands you come across. But of course exploring an empty island isn't very fun, and so we want to make sure there are lots of things for you to discover that make exploration worthwhile. 


Infinite World = Infinite Content? 



If you don't already know, Salt 2 is procedurally generated. This means that you start in the center of an infinite ocean and can pick a direction and explore forever (theoretically.) As you sail across the ocean you come across islands that are procedurally generated for you to explore. One challenge for procedural worlds is how to handle content. A world can be infinite but that doesn't therefore mean there is an infinite amount of content. Some games handle this by offloading the focus from exploration content and into something like crafting, building, or simulation. 

With Salt 2, while we will have deep crafting crafting systems, survival mechanics, and other things that make "living" in the world fun, we also want there to be a ton to explore and do. We want you to come across interesting locations on islands, quests, and mysteries that make you want to explore further towards the horizon. 

But with an infinite world, how do we handle this? 

Repeatable Vs Unique Points of Interest



Across islands you will discover many different points of interests: pirate camps, ancient ruins, merchants, caves, abandoned campsites, villages, and a lot more. We are separating these into two categories: repeatable and unique. It's important to note that each one is actually hand built whether it is a unique point of interest or a repeatable point of interest. This means unlike in Salt 1, the game is not procedurally generating a campsite for example. It will randomly decide where to put the campsite on an island, but the campsite itself is handcrafted to look a certain way. 

Repeatable points of interest (POI's) are what they sound like: content you can discover multiple times. With these types of POI's there are many different variations, but they do have a chance to spawn more than once. For example, there may be 100 different hand crafted abandoned campsites that can spawn. The game will randomly decide which one is placed on an island. So chances are more often than not, you won't see the same one repeated to often. But there is a chance of course. Our goal here is to provide content that most of the time looks different, but can always spawn so you don't run out of things to discover. 



Unique POI's however can only spawn once. These are generally deeper and more interesting than the repeatable POIs. They may have a specific quest tied to them, a unique story to discover, or some kind of puzzle to complete. Since these have so much personality to them, it would be strange for them to appear more than once, and therefore they will only be able to spawn one time. 

We are working on creating a ton of both repeatable and unique POI's so that there is a massive amount of content for you to discover, in addition to all of the other gameplay aspects (hunting, crafting, character progression, fishing, survival, ship customization, etc.). 



This is something we are very excited about and was desperately missing from Salt 1. In the original Salt, points of interest were very plain and didn't have that much to them. Because we are hand crafting them in Salt 2, they not only look way better, but are much more interesting to explore as well. 

As always thanks for reading!


8 comments:

Dev Update: Pirate Models, Buildings, Music, and More!

12:03 PM willsterling23 4 Comments


Ahoy! 

Everything is still moving along with Salt 2 development and we wanted to give you a quick update on some of the things we've been working on over the past month. Every day we feel like we are getting closer and closer to a playable build and we can't wait for you to explore the world! 


Pirate Models


A huge area of focus for us recently has been 3D modeling. We began working on a pirate humanoid model which includes setting up the base model, rigging, making clothing models, and creating animations. This will be an ongoing process of updating, adding new models, and adding new clothing but for now say hello to our first pirate! 

Buildings and Other Assets



In addition to modeling pirates, we've also been working on models for points of interest. We recently implementing a new building model that will be usable for merchants, abandoned shacks, and other points of interest to find throughout the islands. Another area we've been working on in terms of 3D modeling are things like barrels, crates, and treasure chests. These will not only be useful for decorating shops and villages, but also decorating your ship! 

Music and Lore



We're also still making good progress on the Salt 2 soundtrack. One of my goals is to add some new musical themes while still retaining what made the original Salt soundtrack unique. Currently we have 21 tracks recorded including exploration music, combat music, and music meant for things like taverns and markets. 

In addition to that we've also been implementing a lot of lore books and journals for you to find. One thing that was very fun in the original Salt was discovering a journal that might hint at the lore in the game or even just provide an entertaining story or humor to the world. Since our world is infinite and procedural, we want to add little bits of life and personality where we can and journals are a great way to do this. Currently we have over 100 lore books already written and will be continuing to add more. 


Anyways, that's all for now. Thanks for reading and stay tuned for more updates soon!

4 comments:

Dev Update: Points of Interests, Island Generation Work, Music, and More

11:38 AM willsterling23 2 Comments

 

Ahoy Mateys!

I wanted to go over some of the things we've been working on over the past month for Salt 2. We are still somewhat early in development so much of the work we are doing is foundational work to get things like the island generation system implemented effectively and other technical behind the scenes work. However we've also been adding new content, music, lore, and a lot of other goodies. So let's dive in! 


New Weapons and Points of Interests



The first step in developing our island generation systems is making sure the islands spawn assets correctly, can randomly generate in the ocean, and a lot of foundational work to keep them performant and looking unique. One aspect we've been working on recently is the ability for islands to place points of interests on them and it look natural on the island. We've added some campsite assets and ancient ruins assets and many more will follow over the course of development. We've also added a new scimitar weapon model. 


Lore and Journals


One of my favorite things about Salt is reading pirate journals, adventurer's notes, and lore books scattered across the world. It adds a sense of personality and history to the game and gives you something new to find as you explore the infinite a sea. So much like in Salt 1, we've been writing a ton of journals and lore books that you'll be able to find scattered across the world. Some are humorous. Some tell a fun story. And some have useful information. 


Music


Another important aspect of the exploration in Salt is the music. Good music can make sailing at sea feel epic, gathering on an island relaxing, and fighting a pirate boss intense. We've been working hard on composing new music that is memorable and unique to Salt. 


Island Generation System



Even though much of the island generation system has been in, we've been tweaking it and working on new aspects of it. We now have it where it can continuously spawn islands as you explore the ocean and we are working on various island types from small to large that can spawn. We've also added in features to allow for spawning flat areas where we can place all kinds of points of interests including markets, fishing huts, ancient ruins, and more. 


As always thanks for reading and stay tuned for more updates! 


2 comments:

Salt 2 Development Update: The Sea Awaits

9:08 AM willsterling23 4 Comments

 


Ahoy mateys! 

If you haven't heard, we have announced the development of Salt 2! Whether you are a veteran pirate or new to the world of Salt, we are excited to have you on board during this voyage. Starting today we'll be posting development blogs every couple weeks or so letting you know what's going on with the game and keeping you up to date with development progress. So let's jump right in.

What is Salt 2?


If you're new to Salt and wondering what the game is about or how it differs from Salt 1, let me go over a few things. Salt is an open world pirate exploration game with a focus on freedom and discovery. Your character gets plopped in the middle of an infinite procedural ocean and you are free to pick a direction and explore. The main loop of the game is sailing the seas, finding an island to explore, fighting pirates and picking up quest, and progressing your character. This is not a game focused on ship combat but rather focused on life at sea and exploring the world. 

Although Salt 2 shares a lot in common with the first game, a lot is changing as well. For starters, a complete visual overhaul. We are switching to a new rendering pipeline allowing for much better graphical fidelity. This means brand new models, textures, shaders, lighting, animations, UI, and performance improvements. While the game will still have a stylized look to it, we want everything to feel polished and much better than in Salt 1. We are also implementing a new island generation system for more varied and interesting islands.


In addition to visual changes, Salt 2 will have a much greater focus on crafting, ship upgrades, character progression, and survival mechanics. We want the gameplay loop of exploring islands and the sea to fit directly into upgrading your character and your boat. Your ship will be your home at sea, and we want it to really feel that way. In addition to a deeper crafting and upgrade system, we also want progression systems in many aspects of the game, including talents, levels, and things of that nature.And of course Salt 2 will include brand new quests, more elaborate and interesting points of interests, new gear, better combat mechanics, and new music.

Now, on to what we've been working on recently!

Island Generation System


One major area of focus for development recently has been working on our island generation system. Since our world is procedurally generated, we want to make sure our island generation system has a lot of flexibility to create interesting and unique islands to keep exploration fresh. We've been working on setting up systems to populate islands with various foliage, creating different shapes of islands, and even creating islands that allow for water inland. 

This is something we are still working on and will share more in depth details in a future blog post.

Animations


Another area of development we've been focused on are animations. We've been working on combat animations, swimming, jumping, falling, gathering, and idle animations. We want every action you take in the game to have feedback and feel good. 

Sailing Mechanics


We've also been spending some time implementing sailing mechanics and new ocean mechanics. We want sailing to feel epic at times with massive waves and relaxing other times as you sail into the sunset. A lot of work is being done on ship physics and deciding the sweet spot between realism and fun. 


We are so excited about the development of Salt 2 and can't wait to share more progress with you in the coming weeks! If you are interested in getting development updates you can sign up for our newsletter or join our Discord.

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