Developer Blog #8 - Community Moons
Hello, my name is Michael Kirby, and I am one of the Designers on Astronimo.
Today we are gonna explore the making of a Community Moon with the example of Mini Gaia and showcase the process of how I put this World together from sketches to a fully living World. Mini Gaia is available on the Steam Workshop right now and is ready to play as soon as Astronimo hits early access on September 28th!
On the Steam Workshop you will find several examples of Community Moons in the Steam Community Workshop space. Each of these wonderful Worlds were made with the Astronimo’s amazing World Editor tools. Some of the Devs created fun liner obstacle tracks, or Mini Games (Race Course, Mazes, ect…) and others like myself created explorable worlds - not so different from the ones you’ll find in the main game. You can do the same with the tools in the game or go beyond with your creativity!
Mini Gaia Steam Workshop:
Pen and Paper
But, before we get ahead of ourselves. What was the process done to create some of these Community Moons like Mini Gaia? Well like all great things, it started with an idea: some sheets of paper and a range of pens and pencils. Using a grid based notebook, I sketched out a rough idea for what Mini Gaia could look like. Sketching out initial ideas for Challenges, the main route of progression, optional explorable paths and where the starting and end points would be. After the ideas were put down on paper, then came the note taking and reviewing of the initial ideas. For Mini Gaia this was to see what was achievable and a more in depth analysis of ideas and elements that could be used for the challenges.
Mini Gaia Initial Sketches:
At this stage I was not afraid to scrap ideas or go back to the drawing board to think up new areas or challenges.
Blockout Ideas
Now that the ideas were out on paper, the next part was to translate what was written and sketched down into the game’s World Editor. With all great games we start off with blocking out the level’s structure, in Astronimo’s case the World’s structure. Using the tools of the World Editor I was able to build sections of the World bit by bit, using the Terrain Editor.
The building blocks of Mini Gaia:
Once I blocked out a section I was happy with, I moved on to the next section. Here the World was still in a rough state and although I was happy with sections, I made sure to leave room to improve and edit. Which meant no art assets, textures or finishing touches yet. With building the structure of Mini Gaia, the thing to organise was where the start and end points would go, and I used my sketches for reference.
Activities for Players
Once I have a section of the World blocked out, I then could incorporate the challenges and interaction ideas for Players to experience. At this stage in particular you’ll find that what works on paper doesn’t always work in the engine! This doesn’t mean what was sketched up was wasted, but instead an opportunity to iterate and learn.
For this section I am going to look at two of the challenges from Mini Gaia: that of ‘Lumberjack Field’ and ‘Around We Go’.
With Lumberjack Field I had a pretty clear idea of what I wanted. It involved Lava and would require players to build a contraption to get themselves and a battery over to the other side of the area. In the original challenge sketch I had floating platforms with lava and the safe grounded terrain was all on the same level.
When I made this in the World Editor, it led to the challenge being really straight forward and less fun or skill based - plus the floating lava platforms offered no sense of difficulty. I took the results in and came up with the idea to remove the lava platforms and have the safe grounded terrain area be on different levels. In the end this would require players to build a contraption(s) to not just go over the lava but up and over the middle terrain.
Lumberjack Field Challenge:
The other thing that proved to be a challenge to design was ‘Around We Go’. With the area it now sits in on Mini Gaia, I had no idea what I wanted to go here. I went back and forth on ideas, but in the end inspiration hit me when playing the main game during a play-test session.
Me and a few other Devs found going through loops in the worlds to be a lot of fun and cause all kinds of chaos and excitement during game play. That's when I decided to go away and create a challenge about building up speed to go through loops and make daring jumps. I also researched other games that use loops in a similar function.
With a sketch or two I had the skeleton of what I wanted, and then it was all a case of building away and blocking out the space. With this challenge I play-tested it a lot, to make sure it was a challenge to build up speed, fun to loop and jump.
Around We Go Challenge:
Adding the Art
With the main game we have talented artists to dress the World and place assets around that follow the style and look of Astronimo. With their skills and art work, the game is brought to life. Luckily for us their beautiful art assets are ready for us to use in our Community Moons, so using a pool of tailored art assets I was able to populate Mini Gaia; creating a forest area, a damaged deforest place, open fields with loops and many more secret areas. So you’ll have to play Mini Gaia to find and experience everything on offer!
The Art of Mini Gaia:
Then the final touches are added to Mini Gaia. With the use of lights to highlight or add atmosphere to parts of the world. Adding simple characters to bring an extra addition and sense of life for Mini Gaia, showing it is a lived in world. To top it all off, adding VFX to some logs burning in the pools of lava.
Final Touches:
Keep a look out for our next developer blog!
Astronimo is coming to Early Access on September 28th!
Wishlist now:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1808640/Astronimo/
Today we are gonna explore the making of a Community Moon with the example of Mini Gaia and showcase the process of how I put this World together from sketches to a fully living World. Mini Gaia is available on the Steam Workshop right now and is ready to play as soon as Astronimo hits early access on September 28th!
On the Steam Workshop you will find several examples of Community Moons in the Steam Community Workshop space. Each of these wonderful Worlds were made with the Astronimo’s amazing World Editor tools. Some of the Devs created fun liner obstacle tracks, or Mini Games (Race Course, Mazes, ect…) and others like myself created explorable worlds - not so different from the ones you’ll find in the main game. You can do the same with the tools in the game or go beyond with your creativity!
Mini Gaia Steam Workshop:
Pen and PaperBut, before we get ahead of ourselves. What was the process done to create some of these Community Moons like Mini Gaia? Well like all great things, it started with an idea: some sheets of paper and a range of pens and pencils. Using a grid based notebook, I sketched out a rough idea for what Mini Gaia could look like. Sketching out initial ideas for Challenges, the main route of progression, optional explorable paths and where the starting and end points would be. After the ideas were put down on paper, then came the note taking and reviewing of the initial ideas. For Mini Gaia this was to see what was achievable and a more in depth analysis of ideas and elements that could be used for the challenges.
Mini Gaia Initial Sketches:
At this stage I was not afraid to scrap ideas or go back to the drawing board to think up new areas or challenges.
Blockout Ideas
Now that the ideas were out on paper, the next part was to translate what was written and sketched down into the game’s World Editor. With all great games we start off with blocking out the level’s structure, in Astronimo’s case the World’s structure. Using the tools of the World Editor I was able to build sections of the World bit by bit, using the Terrain Editor.
The building blocks of Mini Gaia:
Once I blocked out a section I was happy with, I moved on to the next section. Here the World was still in a rough state and although I was happy with sections, I made sure to leave room to improve and edit. Which meant no art assets, textures or finishing touches yet. With building the structure of Mini Gaia, the thing to organise was where the start and end points would go, and I used my sketches for reference.
Activities for Players
Once I have a section of the World blocked out, I then could incorporate the challenges and interaction ideas for Players to experience. At this stage in particular you’ll find that what works on paper doesn’t always work in the engine! This doesn’t mean what was sketched up was wasted, but instead an opportunity to iterate and learn.
For this section I am going to look at two of the challenges from Mini Gaia: that of ‘Lumberjack Field’ and ‘Around We Go’.
With Lumberjack Field I had a pretty clear idea of what I wanted. It involved Lava and would require players to build a contraption to get themselves and a battery over to the other side of the area. In the original challenge sketch I had floating platforms with lava and the safe grounded terrain was all on the same level.
When I made this in the World Editor, it led to the challenge being really straight forward and less fun or skill based - plus the floating lava platforms offered no sense of difficulty. I took the results in and came up with the idea to remove the lava platforms and have the safe grounded terrain area be on different levels. In the end this would require players to build a contraption(s) to not just go over the lava but up and over the middle terrain.
Lumberjack Field Challenge:
The other thing that proved to be a challenge to design was ‘Around We Go’. With the area it now sits in on Mini Gaia, I had no idea what I wanted to go here. I went back and forth on ideas, but in the end inspiration hit me when playing the main game during a play-test session.
Me and a few other Devs found going through loops in the worlds to be a lot of fun and cause all kinds of chaos and excitement during game play. That's when I decided to go away and create a challenge about building up speed to go through loops and make daring jumps. I also researched other games that use loops in a similar function.
With a sketch or two I had the skeleton of what I wanted, and then it was all a case of building away and blocking out the space. With this challenge I play-tested it a lot, to make sure it was a challenge to build up speed, fun to loop and jump.
Around We Go Challenge:
Adding the ArtWith the main game we have talented artists to dress the World and place assets around that follow the style and look of Astronimo. With their skills and art work, the game is brought to life. Luckily for us their beautiful art assets are ready for us to use in our Community Moons, so using a pool of tailored art assets I was able to populate Mini Gaia; creating a forest area, a damaged deforest place, open fields with loops and many more secret areas. So you’ll have to play Mini Gaia to find and experience everything on offer!
The Art of Mini Gaia:
Then the final touches are added to Mini Gaia. With the use of lights to highlight or add atmosphere to parts of the world. Adding simple characters to bring an extra addition and sense of life for Mini Gaia, showing it is a lived in world. To top it all off, adding VFX to some logs burning in the pools of lava.
Final Touches:
Keep a look out for our next developer blog!
Astronimo is coming to Early Access on September 28th!
Wishlist now:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1808640/Astronimo/