Astroneer
Game
Documents about Astroneer
Game Developers Conference45 min
Mining Your Own Design: Crafting the Crafting System in Astroneer
The crafting system in Astroneer underwent a comprehensive structural overhaul to address declining player engagement caused by a repetitive core loop and a lack of meaningful progression.
- To avoid design paralysis in live games, treat existing systems like an archaeological dig to uncover the core intent behind original features rather than just iterating on surface-level mechanics.
- When team members have conflicting visions, explicitly map out specific subsets of the system to identify if the disagreement stems from different focuses, such as moment-to-moment tactile interaction versus long-term systemic complexity.
- Use the 'What’s This For' (WTF) thought exercise to strip away entrenched assumptions and clarify the ultimate goal of a feature, such as identifying that a module was intended as a resource sink rather than a resource generator.
Game Developers ConferenceSep 2020
Game Developers Conference59 min
GDC plays Astroneer with System Era's Brendan Wilson
The development of Astroneer serves as a case study in the complexities of managing a long-term Early Access project.
- System Era scaled its development team from an initial cap of 10 people to 21 employees to meet the technical and support demands of the game's 1.0 release.
- The game utilizes a voxel-based terrain system powered by the marching cubes algorithm, which allows for real-time deformation by modifying density data within specific chunks rather than rebuilding the entire planet's mesh.
- Managing an Early Access title requires the same rigorous certification, store presence, and publishing infrastructure as a fully released game, while simultaneously balancing community expectations for features.
Game Developers ConferenceFeb 2019