Salt Development Blog

Warning: screenshots incoming. 

Tarzan is up there...somewhere...lurking...

It's important to note that jungle islands are only going to spawn past the 50 degree mark. So get your sextants out and start heading into the deep seas. Once you get past 50 degrees in any direction, you will be able to find these islands. We thought this would be a good way to encourage and reward players for venturing far into the seas. 

One of our main goals visually with this island was to have really big trees and lush plant life. We wanted you to feel like you were under a canopy of trees where you could barely see the sun. As you can see in the above screenshot, the trees can get pretty big and it really gives the island a much larger feeling than the tropical islands you are used exploring. We've also littered the ground with plant life so that the island really feels lush and thick. In essence, we want you to get lost on these islands. 

Okay now I really could use Tarzan's help. 

Lurking on these jungle islands will be a tiger. These will be quick and dangerous wildlife that will kill you on sight. This is our first introduction of enemy wildlife (excluding the giant spiders at night) and we feel that they will fit quite nicely on the jungle islands. As with most things, there will be quests and rewards for killing these tigers so always be on the lookout!

The Huntsman

Presenting the award for most glorious mustache. 

One new friendly NPC you will encounter on jungle islands is the Huntsman. He will provide you with quests and act as a trader, rewarding you for certain goods you find. Be sure to look for him while you are adventuring on these islands! Just look for the mustache and the hat. 

Bait? Nah. I just whistle and they come swimmin. 

Fishing is a really fun part of Salt and we wanted to give players even more reasons to fish. With this update, we've added new fish and a new NPC called The Fisherman that spawns on jungle islands and offers quests and rewards for catching rare fish. He'll usually be hanging out on the shore with his fishing pole and fishing hat. 

In addition to the content listed above, there will also be a new enemy AI that we are calling poachers. They are dangerous and will be roaming these islands so be on the lookout for them. Also with this update will be more secrets and things to discover on your own. We can't wait for you to set sail for your first jungle island and explore the new content is has to offer! 

Once the Jungle Update is pushed, we are going to start working on replacing the current boat models with the new ones (you can view some of those here .) We are also going to start working on implementing an in-game cartography system. This is something that has been missing from the game for quite a while and so we are real excited to finally get it implemented! Being able to chart and map out your world in the game is going to add a lot more fun to exploration. 

As always, please let us know your thoughts and feedback! 

- Will Sterling (Game Audio and Design)

First and foremost, lore books. I love lore books. They provide a great way to give insight into the world that the player would never have known otherwise. I also like them because they act as a sort of "payoff" for taking the time to read through the book. In Salt, we really wanted lore books to not only be fun little stories for you to read, but to also give you some insight into the backstory of the game. As you read certain books, you will begin to make connections between what you are reading on the page and what is taking place in your world. 

When you discover a piece of backstory, one of two things will happen. You will either realize you are reading about something that's already happened to you (past insight) or you will be reading about something that could happen to you (future revelation). Both of these aspects add an element of intrigue to the world. If you read about something that you've already experienced, it gives you some insight into the meaning and purpose behind that event. This adds a tremendous amount of depth to your experience that you did not have beforehand. However, if you read about something that hasn't happened to you, it gives you something to look for, encouraging you to explore and delve deeper into the lore. 

Though Salt is full of weapons, armor, and various items, we want to ensure that these things have meaning behind them. This is particularly important when it comes to rare items and weapons. For example, have you come across the skeleton key yet? There is a reason that key exists. It has a story in and of itself, but it will be up to you to discover the true meaning of its existence. In addition to this, we also want things to connect. As you read lore books, talk to npc's, and discover the story behind the world, we want you to make connections between these things. In the end, you will be able to tie together a large portion of the lore and have a nice cohesive picture of what the backstory looks like. 

All that said, lore is not something we want to force upon you. You will be able to enjoy Salt completely ignoring the lore if you please. We are working hard to make the gameplay fun and give you plenty to do. However, for those who want to delve deeper, leave no rock unturned. 

- Will Sterling (Game Audio and Design)

With Salt being in early access, we have to take an interesting approach to implementing the main story. Because of this, we've decided to implement the story in segments, or parts. This way you'll be able to complete a decent portion of the story, before coming to a close and waiting for the next update. We'll be sure and pick good stopping points in the story to ensure you progress in the main quest line, uncover some lore, and get nice rewards. 

One of our main goals in Salt is to keep the game open. We want you to be able to play it however you want, and this same design goes for the story. If you wish, you will be completely free to ignore the main story and go about your business exploring. You won't be hindered by the story in any way but you will also benefit from doing the story through uncovering lore and getting particular rewards. 

In addition to adding lore and mystery, the main story will also introduce new content. A large portion of this content will be playable even apart from the main story, so you don't feel like you are missing out by just setting out on your own. Content such as places, NPC's, and items will be in the world like normal for you to find. There will also be exclusive rewards for completing main quests. 

One of our main goals with the story is to give you a sense of direction and to have an objective. Currently in Salt there aren't a lot of objectives apart from merchant quests. However, with the main story you will have this nice mixture of open and linear objectives to progress you farther along the story. As you progress, you will uncover the mysteries of the world and begin to discover the backstory of Salt. 

We are very excited to start implementing the main story and can't wait for players to uncover lore and mystery. These story updates are going to introduce a wide array of new content and depth for you to experience!


- Will Sterling (Game Audio and Design)

To create your own adventure, you need to discover the world on your own. It's no fun if someone is holding your hand the whole way. For this reason, we've tried to implement a very minimal amount of hand holding in Salt. The world isn't explained to you and you are basically just dropped into it to figure it out. Questions such as "where do I go from here" or "what do I do next" are yours to answer and yours to discover. While this may add a little frustration in the beginning, the feeling of reward when figuring something out on your own is far greater. 

Another way we want to leave the world of Salt open is to let you discover the story and lore on your own. As we implement the main quest line and story, we aren't going to force it upon you. The rabbit hole will be there for you to venture down if you please. Should you choose to ignore it, you are free to go along your way. We plan on implementing a lot of story and lore that you will have to intentionally search for to discover. This adds tremendously to the feeling of depth and constantly gives you something to be searching for. 

Because the islands and the world of Salt are procedurally generated, each experience can be very different. You never really know what to expect and this adds to the feeling of openness and unpredictability. We want to ensure that many encounters are dynamic and random, giving you a new experience that you may never have had before. You never know if an island is going to have a Queen Spider on it or an albino deer, and therefore your experience can change from one island to the next. As we add in more island types, wildlife, and enemies, this will become even more apparent. 

We want Salt to always have a feeling of openness and always feel like a new adventure. No matter what kind of content we implement, we want you to have the ability to discover it on your own and experience something new and unexpected. 

If you have any ideas on how you think Salt could be more open or lend to you creating your own adventure, we would love to hear them! 

- Will Sterling (Game Design and Audio)

In Salt we decided to split up items into five rarity categories: common, uncommon, rare, epic, and legendary. These types of rarities will be found in the world of Salt and are indicated by their item name color. This was a concept that we really liked in some RPG's where the moment you saw a different colored text you knew you had found something different and possibly better. It gives that quick and instant feeling of gratification even before you see what the item really is. 

One thing we definitely did not want to do was to arbitrarily give rare items (by rare I mean anything above uncommon level items) stats that really meant nothing. We didn't want to randomize stats on items just to get more into the game. For us, the feeling of awesome comes when you find an item that is static and unique. We have intentionally designed each item as having its own unique stats and effects depending on the rarity type. This means that when you find an epic mace in the game, that is the epic mace. It's not a mace with better randomly generated stats, but rather it is a weapon with a specific set of stats and specific effects unique to that item. 

I'm going to reference Morrowind again as it stands out in my mind when I think about having awesome gear in a game. In Morrowind, if you have a set of really awesome gear, it meant something. It wasn't as if you just bought the gear. Sure, you could steal gear and sometimes get lucky finding something rare, but in general nice gear was hard to come by. This is a game element that we wanted to implement into Salt. If you have an epic or legendary item, it truly means something. We want these items to be difficult to obtain and encourage you to show off your epic loot to other players. 

One very important aspect of our design behind Salt is what we call playstyle focus. In short, playstyle focus is a way for us to let players play Salt the way they want to play. If you want to be a hunter and wear light armor then we will find ways to reward you for doing so. If you want to be an explorer and chart out the seas then we will find ways to reward you. This design aspect was important to mirror in item rewards as well. We don't want to force you into a certain playstyle in order to get good loot. We are constantly trying to evenly distribute item rarities among item types so that there are more epic items out there than just weapons and armor. We want you to be able to show off your awesome pickaxe or awesome compass as well! 

As we continue the development of Salt, we want to constantly be expanding upon and adding depth to the loot system. We plan on having a lot of unique and rare items in the game that can be obtained through various means, some of which are very challenging. 

We would love to hear your thoughts on the loot system and what kind of awesome items you would like to see in Salt! 

- Will Sterling (Game Audio and Design)