Project Existence - Multiplayer Sandbox News

Hey everyone!

I wanted to give you guys a little insight into what we are planning and how we’re going to do things in the coming weeks.

Last year, we were focused on the breadth of features, mechanics and technology. With Project Existence, we could implement things very quickly and run tests, while focusing on mechanics working correctly, without having a fully realized gameplay loop or a lot of content.

The next few weeks (and months), we want to focus on the depth of the features we are working on next. We have two major features in the works that we want to have fully fleshed out and realized before we move on to the next thing, and this is what you’ll be seeing slowly coming together in Project Existence.

In order to do this effectively, we are removing the manufacturing system from the prototype. Since the features we are working on will introduce some drastic changes to how players interact with the world and its systems, we agreed that keeping manufacturing in would just end up being a distraction for the team.

If we were to keep the factory system in as it is, it would mean we’d be spending a ton more time making sure the new features work with the old systems, fixing bugs and balancing to tie everything together. By putting manufacturing on the shelf, we can fully focus on development of the new features, and spend the time making them even better instead of constantly chasing after bugs.

This doesn’t mean manufacturing is gone forever.

Manufacturing and automation was always a part of the core pillars for our game, so when we feel the time is right, we’ll be going back into those systems and optimizing them to fit the rest, and make it even better.

We just released an update introducing some camera and control changes! With this update, we also switched to a different technology for our databases, so the world has been reset - meaning your bases and inventory is starting from zero. Manufacturing has also been removed, for the reason I mentioned earlier.

We’ll still be updating Project Existence quite regularly, implementing new things and testing out features - and we really appreciate those of you who are interested in trying these out and giving us feedback.

If you want to know more and stay updated on what we're working on, make sure you join us on Discord!

After working at the 50s Diner back in the suburbia, you suddenly find yourself in Snowville! This new world is massive and there seems to be no way back, so settle down and figure out what you want to do with your life.

[h3]To celebrate the winter season and our studio's arctic heritage, Update 0.3 introduces a new map! [/h3]

• The new map is large, cold and makes it easy to get lost - make sure not to wander too far from home!
  
• You start your journey in Snowville, a small town in the middle of (seemingly) nowhere. The mayor should have something to help you get started, so make sure you say hi
  
• The further you get from the town, the worse the weather gets - why is there so much snow?? (Also, it seems like roofs don't have any effect against the snowflakes, they're everywhere!)
  

[h3]Make your own factory and automate everything![/h3]

• You'll be given a control unit so you can start building your own factory. Your control unit lets you build in it's vicinity, and don't worry, other players can't interact with anything that isn't theirs
  
• But before you can start building, you need to find some wood and iron, right?! Look no further than a few meters outside of town!
  
• You have access to different machines you can build, each with their own purpose! By connecting factory units together, you can optimize your own production!
  
• Storage units can be used for two things: storing the outputs of your production, or storing the raw materials you need as input! In order to feed raw materials into your factory, all you need is a Feeder unit to connect the two together
  
• The more units you have in your factory, the more power you need. Your control unit tells you all the information you need, so make sure you have enough wood burners (and wood to fuel it) to keep your production going!
  

[h3]The competition is on! Start a chicken farm and become the biggest egg producer in town[/h3]

• Building a chicken coop on your lot allows you to own hens!
  
• You can buy your hens from the trusty, local chicken merchant - and when you have your eggs, you can sell them to him!
  
• The hens need food in order to lay eggs, so make sure you grow some corn and produce chicken feed to keep your hens happy
  

Finally, we'd love for you all to give back to the community. There's a big Christmas tree in the town square, but there's no electricity to keep the lights running :-( If we work together, we can provide enough power to bring the holiday spirits to all!

If you want to be selfish, you can also buy your own Christmas trees and decorate your factory, but no one likes selfish people.

We've just released a small update addressing some bugs and issues that showed up after yesterday's patch ːsteamhappyː


0.2.10

• Players can now only interact with their own buildings
  
• Added power requirements for factory units (your control unit has a base power)
  
• Added wood burners back to the build menu, right now you don't have to connect them to any of the machines (it just adds to the lot base power)
  
• Added a cancellation option when connecting the routes between factory units
  
• Added a button that disconnects the routes between factory units (in the unit set up screen)
  
• We've removed the mission NPCs for now since these were tied to our Halloween launch, expect some different dialogues in next week's update!
  
• Fixed an issue where storage units weren't persisted (didn't remember who placed it down)
  This means that storage units that were placed in the world before this update can now be accessed and removed by everyone! When you place a new one down, only you will be able to interact with it :-)
  
• We've added recipes back for the items! Sorry, not sorry? You're gonna have to work a little harder now than just grabbing a piece of wood :P
  
• Fixed an issue where no one could interact with trees, mines or trash
  
• Iron and wood can now be found in the sand world!
  

Happy Monday everyone!

We’ve been working on some very exciting things for Project Existence that we had planned to release before Christmas.

There are two important pillars that define our development philosophy - being open about what is happening (and when we mess up) and having an environment where we can quickly respond to issues and make improvements.

Up until now, we have been making small incremental changes to our systems and pushed them out almost daily. This worked great, although we felt that we were shying away from some of the more complex features because they would be difficult to implement without breaking everything.

So, we decided to do a big content update in the middle of December - but what we didn’t plan for was how we’d grown accustomed to being able to deploy fixes to the game, the server and the backend systems so frequently.

This means that while one part of the team was working on new complex features, the other part was working on improvements to our backend and infrastructure, and in order to deploy the (much needed) fixes, some of the features had to be deployed as well.

And that’s what happened!

We just released an update with a TON of fixes and improvements to our systems, which we’re very happy with. However, the gameplay features that went in are very raw and still being worked on.

Running an MMO is complex but running an unfinished MMO is (probably) even more complex. There are always going to be things that are broken, or things that are half-finished.

Our strength comes from being able to react to the problems, fix them and deploy them to our servers. As we adapt and learn how to organize our workflow, things sometimes don’t go as planned.

Our goal now is to get to a point where we can easily push out fixes and improvements without too much disruption to the players or existing game mechanics.

We still have an update planned for next week with a new map, new features and lots of improvements to manufacturing and crafting!

Read the Patch Notes

Come hang out with us on Discord!

Until next time,
Ólöf

The servers will be offline between approx. 15:40 and 16:30 GMT.

Features:

• Players can now walk up stairs made from blocks
  
• Camera is now attached to the mouse, no more holding down the mouse button to move around!
  
• Removed the old build mode - For now, this means you can't place down things unless they are in the new build mode. We're working on adding more items and recipes to the new build mode, but for now you'll have to stick with blocks!
  

Fixes:

• Fixed an issue where blocks would get added / removed when mousebuttons were used anywhere on the map
  
• You now have to be within a certain range to place / remove blocks
  
• Blocks and block structures now return materials (wood) when they are destroyed
  
• Fixed an issue that caused players to spawn inside the ground, roofs, or other items
  
• Fixed an issue where players would connect to a non-existent server