Future Unfolding #16

Hello,

Here's your monthly update on the development of Future Unfolding.

The map is an important part for communicating your progress in the game. It helps orient yourself in the procedurally generated world and points you towards areas you have not explored yet. In earlier alpha builds we used pretty basic line art for the map. Now we're trying to give it a more painterly look that blends better with the art style. We also want to communicate more information with the map. Below is a draft on how we might display the topography of the world.

Another thing we're working on are special animal encounters that give the game a nice pacing in addition to the explorative parts. As you may know, all animations in Future Unfolding are hand-drawn in 2D. Here's the latest one Marek did.

Quick recap from A MAZE. Berlin last month: If you couldn't make it, 4players has a neat video summary of the event of the event in German. We added slides and audio of our Building a Better Website for your Game presentation to our homepage. And thanks to Julian Dasgupta we have a new team photo, Bitmap Brothers-style.

On our blog we argue why Future Unfolding is different from games like No Man's Sky, where “every atom is procedural”, or The Witness, where every tree is placed by hand.

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Speaking of procedural generation, this Gamasutra feature on Finji's Overland is well worth reading. Especially this paragraph resonated with us, as it reflects one of our own design goals: 

A random situation can easily become the story a player shares when they talk about the game to other people. They won't just be relating the same scripted moments all players would be talking about in a linear game, but rather that unique moment, where all of the generated content comes together in just the right way, that it creates something personal and memorable for the player.

Talk soon,
– Andreas, Marek & Mattias

Future Unfolding is supported by
Indie Fund + Friends,
the MEDIA Programme of the European Union
and Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg