Showing posts with label salt. Show all posts

Friday Dev Update: A Closer Look at Graphics

We now live in an era of gaming where graphics are hitting a wall. The huge leaps and bounds that used to exist between generations are shortening and the law of diminishing returns is at work. Now, certainly we are making improvements. There are some pretty amazing looking games out there and we all love to see a graphically intense game. But now the interest in graphics is slowly fading and people are becoming more concerned with gameplay. This is evident with the popularity in games like Minecraft and other independent games that have been hugely successful without top of the line graphics.

With that being said, I think it's time to talk about our graphics direction with Salt and why we chose the route we did.

We are a small team. 


One of the primary reasons we decided to go for a more simplistic graphical style is simply that we don't have the resources or manpower to create a visually top of the line game. We are only three people, each with our own set of skills. We decided instead to focus on our strengths and put time into making the gameplay fun and creating an exciting and adventurous game. However, graphics were still important to us. 

Do players care about graphics? 


With the rise in popularity of indie games, we knew we had some leeway with graphics. With the success of Minecraft, it became evident that a lot of players cared more about content and gameplay than they did the graphics. However, this does not mean that players don't care about graphics all. It means that players are more accepting of different graphical styles. As long as the game is cohesive visually and fits the theme of the world, then players will accept it. 

Why we chose stylized graphics. 


As of right now there are a few different graphic styles that seem to be common in indie games. One of the most popular being 2D pixel art. We knew we wanted to create a 3D open world game and so this was out of the question. The other options were a cube-based world (Minecraft) or a realistic and dark style of game (Day Z) typically used in survival type games. Neither of these seemed to fit our game and we knew there were enough games with these styles out there as it was. 

This is when we decided to go for a colorful and stylized game. We wanted to do something unique though and not have it be completely 'cartoony'. Therefore we decided to do a blend of realism, such as the lighting and some shading, mixed with the colorful stylized visuals you see in the game now. We took a lot of inspiration from Wind Waker and wanted to incorporate that sort of style into our game. It was important that our game stood out graphically, but worked within the confines of our limitations as a small team. We believe we've been mostly successful at this endeavor. 

Will our graphics improve? 


A common question we get about our game is, "Will the graphics improve?" The answer to this is, yes and no. The graphics will improve within the confines of our stylized graphics theme. However, we are quite happy with the way a large portion of the game looks and there will not a be a 'graphical overhaul.' What you will see will be incremental improvements to various aspects of the game, graphically speaking. For instance, we are currently looking into ways to improve the grass and make it fit better visually into the world. 


Overall we hope that our choice in using stylized graphics in Salt creates a more unique experience and helps you to immerse yourself in the world. 



- Will Sterling (Audio and Game Design)

Playstyle Focus


When we began developing Salt we agreed upon an idea we call, "playstyle focus." This concept revolves around the idea of the player being able to play the game the way they want. This means if you want to play the game as a calm exploration game, you can do that. If you want to play the game as an adventure and RPG game, you can do that. If you want to play it as a survival game, you can do that. You get the point.

We've tried to provide multiple ways to progress and move further along in your adventure. We didn't want anyone to be forced into one particular playstyle, but to be able to play the way they want. Let me give you an example. Let's say you need food. One obvious way, and probably one of those most common in Salt, is to hunt deer. However, maybe you don't care to hunt deer and would rather just focus on exploring. Well, in that case you can also find fruit or mushrooms on the ground. You can find food in chests, at merchants, on pirates, in crates, etc.

This theme carries over into a lot of different aspects in Salt. There is almost always more than one way to achieve something and it usually caters to different playstyles. We've been very intentional in this fact and we hope it helps players to have a more enjoyable experience playing the game.

One area we are going to be pushing more hard for in the upcoming updates is the RPG and adventure playstyle. Currently, we've got a good bit of things to craft and find during exploration. Now we want to start adding more adventure and RPG aspects. This means we'll be working on adding goals, quests, and lore throughout the world. Soon you will be able to discover more of the backstory of Salt and achieve goals/quests to earn epic loot.

Until then, we hope you are enjoying sailing across the world and discovering the world that is Salt!


 - Will Sterling (Audio and Game Design)

Salt is on Greenlight!

Salt is now on Greenlight! We're excited to get Salt on Steam and it's something that's been requested a lot. We love Steam as much as everybody else and we know how great it is to have the majority of your gaming collection on one platform.

If you'd like to see Salt get on Steam, give us a greenlight vote here -

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=311763404

Just a Peek: Salt


GentlemanGames recently sat down and played a little bit of Salt for himself. You can watch his experience here!

What Is Salt?


You may be asking, "What is Salt?" Salt is a game we've been working on for over two years. We wanted to create a game about exploration and adventure that would allow you to create your own story. We wanted Salt to be something new and something memorable. It is currently in an in-development game and we are constantly updating and adding new content.
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