Two explosive new weapons, big camera changes, and bigger plans
The changelist for version 0.225 is listed towards the end of this post. Instead of focusing on the changes, I'm going to skip right into how the campaign plans for Instruments of Destruction have shifted in the past week or two.
MIND-BLOWING PHYSICS?
Recently, Instruments of Destruction was listed as the #2 game with the most mind-blowing physics effects by GameRanx:
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
It was a pleasant surprise to say the least, and wishlist numbers have seen a nice spike because of that video. But I have to admit I don't really want the attention on the game, at least not yet. As I've been working on adding the object destruction, improving explosions, and doing other related tasks, I've been watching a lot of videos about what made Red Faction Guerrilla fun, as well as playing some Blast Corps for the first time (thanks to Rare Replay on GamePass). Both of those games come up time and time again as destruction-centric games that people remember fondly, and I needed to better understand why.
[Note: I worked on RFG for 5 years, but I don't remember everything we did, nor which parts turned out to be fun vs. those that didn't.]
At the same time I've been thinking a lot about how to make Instruments more fun and enjoyable. The game has enormous potential because of the destruction and physics, as well as the vehicle building possibilities. But seeing the footage in the GameRanx video really reinforced one idea that I've been obsessing about: Instruments is not close to realizing its potential. The gameplay they showed looked boring, especially compared to the RFG highlights. And playing Blast Corps, despite there being so much jank in the game, I have to say the fun factor in that game is undeniable.
A CAMPAIGN SHIFT
All this comes to a couple core philosophies for the campaign:
1) Make it as easy as possible for the player to have fun (aka more like Blast Corps).
2) Make the most of what Instruments of Destruction can do (aka more like RFG).
#1 means less friction for the player being able to jump in and have fun. And getting rid of unnecessary elements that don't improve the experience in a meaningful way. #2 means having as much cool/fun stuff to do in the game as possible.
To achieve both of these goals, the campaign will be expanded significantly while streamlining the user experience, and vehicle building will become completely optional. It may sound crazy that vehicle building will become a bonus feature for the campaign, but the main reason is this:
It is *difficult* to design and build fun vehicles. And Instruments has something else that is *very easy* to enjoy: Destruction (and physics). Vehicle building is not just difficult to do because it's hard to teach, but coming up with fun vehicle ideas and executing them is hard even for people who know what they're doing.
There are *SO* many fun vehicles possible in Instruments of Destruction, and there are many that would be fun *in the right circumstances* that are simply not worth building now because the maps and objectives have to be fairly generic in the current campaign structure. By relying on the player to design and build vehicles, and having maps/missions where the problems/solutions can't be too interesting (because they require very specific designs/parts/etc), the game is reduced to a bland version of RFG/Blast Corps/etc. Maybe it could be a more satisfying version of Besiege, but Besiege has cool stuff that Instruments doesn't (sheep, archers, etc) and I'd rather focus on what makes Instruments special.
I think what makes the game special is the *combination* of insane vehicles, destruction, and physics. Every vehicle in the campaign will be designed to be as fun as possible, and every map/mission will be made with a *specific* vehicle in mind. Rather than having 3 missions, maps will have at most 2, with the second mission also designed with a different specific vehicle in mind. [I expect all maps will have 2 missions, but won't force it in cases where it doesn't make sense.]
Vehicle building will not be going away, it will just not be what the campaign focuses on. It will still be the default in Sandbox, and it will unlock in the campaign after you beat a mission (like Challenge mode currently, but with simpler UI). From this point on, any new vehicle-building features will be either part of the big build UI revision, or focused on letting me build/tune vehicles to be as fun as possible. Most of these will be advanced options, and I'll be adding tooltips to many of the advanced options, but there will also be new parts (like today's new rockets/missiles).
I'll go over all the mission types in a future post, because this is getting too long. Just know that the current missions will be streamlined/improved significantly (or removed), combat missions vs. robots/drones will still be coming (but no more roguelike stuff), and racing will be a smaller set of missions. I want to have at least 60 islands in the campaign by late summer.
For vehicles, I'm compiling a list of what kinds will be in the game and which parts need to be featured in multiple vehicles (such as the Hook Launcher, weapons, etc). I'll be looking through past vehicle competitions for inspiration in addition to all the games mentioned above. Fun, unique, and easy to control (in that order) are the primary characteristics I'm looking for. As I said before, I expect the majority of the mission ideas to start with "here's a bad-ass vehicle, how can we show it off in a fun/challenging way?"
Ok, I've rambled on too long, and I haven't even mentioned the camera changes below (follow cam and isometric are the ONLY choices, except Sandbox mode) or the new object destruction system (try shooting up a cargo container). In case you can't tell, I'm super-excited about the shift in focus. I've always said this game has so much potential, and this feels like the best way to make the most of it.
0.225 CHANGELIST:
MIND-BLOWING PHYSICS?
Recently, Instruments of Destruction was listed as the #2 game with the most mind-blowing physics effects by GameRanx:
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
It was a pleasant surprise to say the least, and wishlist numbers have seen a nice spike because of that video. But I have to admit I don't really want the attention on the game, at least not yet. As I've been working on adding the object destruction, improving explosions, and doing other related tasks, I've been watching a lot of videos about what made Red Faction Guerrilla fun, as well as playing some Blast Corps for the first time (thanks to Rare Replay on GamePass). Both of those games come up time and time again as destruction-centric games that people remember fondly, and I needed to better understand why.
[Note: I worked on RFG for 5 years, but I don't remember everything we did, nor which parts turned out to be fun vs. those that didn't.]
At the same time I've been thinking a lot about how to make Instruments more fun and enjoyable. The game has enormous potential because of the destruction and physics, as well as the vehicle building possibilities. But seeing the footage in the GameRanx video really reinforced one idea that I've been obsessing about: Instruments is not close to realizing its potential. The gameplay they showed looked boring, especially compared to the RFG highlights. And playing Blast Corps, despite there being so much jank in the game, I have to say the fun factor in that game is undeniable.
A CAMPAIGN SHIFT
All this comes to a couple core philosophies for the campaign:
1) Make it as easy as possible for the player to have fun (aka more like Blast Corps).
2) Make the most of what Instruments of Destruction can do (aka more like RFG).
#1 means less friction for the player being able to jump in and have fun. And getting rid of unnecessary elements that don't improve the experience in a meaningful way. #2 means having as much cool/fun stuff to do in the game as possible.
To achieve both of these goals, the campaign will be expanded significantly while streamlining the user experience, and vehicle building will become completely optional. It may sound crazy that vehicle building will become a bonus feature for the campaign, but the main reason is this:
It is *difficult* to design and build fun vehicles. And Instruments has something else that is *very easy* to enjoy: Destruction (and physics). Vehicle building is not just difficult to do because it's hard to teach, but coming up with fun vehicle ideas and executing them is hard even for people who know what they're doing.
There are *SO* many fun vehicles possible in Instruments of Destruction, and there are many that would be fun *in the right circumstances* that are simply not worth building now because the maps and objectives have to be fairly generic in the current campaign structure. By relying on the player to design and build vehicles, and having maps/missions where the problems/solutions can't be too interesting (because they require very specific designs/parts/etc), the game is reduced to a bland version of RFG/Blast Corps/etc. Maybe it could be a more satisfying version of Besiege, but Besiege has cool stuff that Instruments doesn't (sheep, archers, etc) and I'd rather focus on what makes Instruments special.
I think what makes the game special is the *combination* of insane vehicles, destruction, and physics. Every vehicle in the campaign will be designed to be as fun as possible, and every map/mission will be made with a *specific* vehicle in mind. Rather than having 3 missions, maps will have at most 2, with the second mission also designed with a different specific vehicle in mind. [I expect all maps will have 2 missions, but won't force it in cases where it doesn't make sense.]
Vehicle building will not be going away, it will just not be what the campaign focuses on. It will still be the default in Sandbox, and it will unlock in the campaign after you beat a mission (like Challenge mode currently, but with simpler UI). From this point on, any new vehicle-building features will be either part of the big build UI revision, or focused on letting me build/tune vehicles to be as fun as possible. Most of these will be advanced options, and I'll be adding tooltips to many of the advanced options, but there will also be new parts (like today's new rockets/missiles).
I'll go over all the mission types in a future post, because this is getting too long. Just know that the current missions will be streamlined/improved significantly (or removed), combat missions vs. robots/drones will still be coming (but no more roguelike stuff), and racing will be a smaller set of missions. I want to have at least 60 islands in the campaign by late summer.
For vehicles, I'm compiling a list of what kinds will be in the game and which parts need to be featured in multiple vehicles (such as the Hook Launcher, weapons, etc). I'll be looking through past vehicle competitions for inspiration in addition to all the games mentioned above. Fun, unique, and easy to control (in that order) are the primary characteristics I'm looking for. As I said before, I expect the majority of the mission ideas to start with "here's a bad-ass vehicle, how can we show it off in a fun/challenging way?"
Ok, I've rambled on too long, and I haven't even mentioned the camera changes below (follow cam and isometric are the ONLY choices, except Sandbox mode) or the new object destruction system (try shooting up a cargo container). In case you can't tell, I'm super-excited about the shift in focus. I've always said this game has so much potential, and this feels like the best way to make the most of it.
0.225 CHANGELIST:
- Added new part: Rocket Launcher - fires medium-sized rockets (intended to use Single Shot)
- Added new part: Missile Pod - fires small missiles (intended to use Automatic)
- Changed Play Mode to only allow Isometric and Follow Camera
- Added optional camera filter to Sandbox mode (makes it act like play mode)
- Improved follow camera behavior in multiple ways
- Added vehicle-specific follow camera tuning options (Cab - advanced mode)
- Added isometric tuning options as well
- Improved how explosions affect certain objects (plants and crystals)
- Added object destruction system (it's on many metal objects, particularly cargo containers, but not cars yet)
- Added "Attach To" option for filtering what the Attacher/Hook Launcher attach to
- Added "Hover Over" option for the Hover Drive
- Added some new AI behavior to help them get unstuck
- Reduced the high speed camera wobble
- Fixed changing part color not working correctly
- Fixed Floppy and Breakable not working
- Fixed Pisces not showing up in Sandbox mode