Dev Update: Kickstarter, Wildlife, Combat, and More!


Ahoy Mateys! It feels good to finally step into 2021. We're excited for this new year and what it means for the development of Salt 2. We've got some important milestones to hit this year and we're excited to do it with your help and input.


Kickstarter



In the next couple months we'll be launching our Kickstarter Campaign to help us develop Salt 2. We plan on currently releasing Salt 2 onto Steam Early Access either this summer (2021) or fall depending on how development goes. We've been working on the sequel to Salt for around 8 months now and are making great progress, but we still have a ways to go. We'd like to get the game in the best state we can before releasing in Early Access. A Kickstarter Campaign will help us do that and not have to rush the Early Access launch for funding. We'll have more news on that when the campaign launches.

If you're interesting in donating to our Kickstarter, the best thing you can do right now is follow us on Discord or Twitter and spread the word about the game to anyone you think might be interested. And even if you cannot donate, a follow on our accounts helps us tremendously so thank you! 

Wildlife



A big part of what makes Salt fun is the ability to land on a never before discovered island and hunt for your food. We've recently started working on implementing wildlife into Salt 2. We started with the classic deer but we will be adding more animals as well. I can't say what all will make it into the Early Access launch, but right now we are considering bears, wolves, rabbits, birds, and more. This is an area we really want to improve on from the first Salt and are excited about adding islands teeming with wildlife! 

Combat



We've also been working on combat animations and AI behavior. This is a work in progress and will continuously be built upon. We knew however that we wanted to improve combat from Salt 1, and one way to do that was to improve the animations. We've also added features where enemies respond to your attacks, can be stunned, and things of that nature. 

New Places to Discover



We are also still constantly adding new content and places to discover. We can't wait for you to explore the world and uncover all kinds of secret and hidden places. You'll be able to discover caves, campsites, ruins, graveyards, merchants, villages, and more. We're currently hard at work adding a ton of variety to these so you always have something new and interesting to find.


As always thank you for reading and supporting the game! 

Dev Update: Unique Points of Interest in an Infinite World



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!

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


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!

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

 

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! 

Salt 2 Development Update: The Sea Awaits

 


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.

Salt Leaving Early Access Next Week!



Ahoy Mateys!

We are very excited to announce that Salt will be leaving early access next week! We also wanted to let you know that the price will be increasing from $14.99 to $19.99 upon full release.

It has been a crazy journey over the past few years creating this adventure and an honor to have such a dedicated and helpful community. The overall response to the game has been incredibly positive and supportive and for that we are thankful.

If you don't know, we're a small team at Lavaboots of only three members. When we set out to make Salt we knew it would be a big task but we loved the idea of creating a massive world for players to explore. We knew early on that we wanted feedback and help from the community so we chose to release onto Steam Early Access. Since then Salt has changed a lot.

Here's a look at just some of things we've added since early access release:

- Main quest line
- Over 50 side quests
- Multiple quest characters 
- Merchants and mysterious places to discover 
- Hundreds of items, weapons, and armor
- Different island types
- New enemy types and wildlife
- Boss battles
- Secrets
- Multiple new ship types
- Weather 
- Multiplayer

In addition to that and a whole lot of other changes, we also added steam achievements, cloud saving, and a lot of polishing and bug fixes.


Next week we'll also be pushing a small update with some fun new changes including macros for emotes, a new ship, a mountable compass boat upgrade, healing arrows, and some bug fixes. We will also be keeping an eye out for new bugs and issues that arise and fixing those even after release.


Again, we are incredibly thankful for your support and are happy to finally be releasing Salt as a full game! Thank you for reading and thank you for participating in the journey.



- The Lavaboots Team

A Look Back At 2017


Ahoy Mateys!

2018 is here! We are excited for this year as we will be releasing Salt out of early access soon. We've been working on Salt for over three years now and we're pretty proud of where the game has gone. We are a small team (three members) and Salt was a pretty big game for us. It was also our first official game and we are excited to start working on new projects. Over the next few weeks we will be focused on general polishing, bug fixes, adding some additional content, and getting Salt ready for an official release.

Today I just want to go over some of the content we worked on last year. Overall, 2017 was a great year for Salt. Here's a look at some of the content we released this past year:

Multiplayer



Perhaps our favorite update, multiplayer, finally came to Salt. Multiplayer was something that you all had been asking for for a long time and we were happy to finally be able to implement it. While it was challenging and came with a lot of hurdles to overcome, we are happy with how it turned out. Being able to sail the seas with your friends completely changed the way the game felt. There's something really fun about exploring an unknown world with others and sharing in the experience with your friends.

New NPCs and Discoverable places


Over the course of 2017 we added in multiple new NPCs along with a bunch of new quests and items. One of the first major updates included an NPC known as The Composer that allowed you to find or create musical instruments in the world. We also added in the Blacksmith, Sea Treasure Hunter, and the Sea Collector. In addition to the NPCs, we also added in some new places to find such as abandoned campsites and trader villages!

We've tried to put a lot of quests and things to find on islands in Salt so there will always be something else to do over the horizon! 

Weather


Another major update in 2017 was the introduction of weather. In that update we made a lot of new changes including new lighting, clouds, fog, and thunder storms. Weather in Salt really helped the world feel much more dynamic and created a nice sense of atmosphere. 


Additional Changes

In addition to the major updates listed above, we also worked a lot on polishing and adding other miscellaneous content. Here's a list of some other things we implemented in 2017: 

  • Steam cloud saving
  • Steam achievements
  • New music and audio changes
  • Sea Treasure
  • Birds
  • Challenge chests
  • Combat improvements (parrying)
  • Ship cannons
  • Player avatar and armor customization
  • Inventory and UI updates


The feedback of the community has been invaluable in the process of working on Salt. You all have had so many great ideas and have helped us make Salt into a much better game than we could have made alone. So thank you so much for your support! 

Stay tuned in the next few weeks for more updates on Salt's official release. 
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