Oceaneers News

A common question we are asked is "will there be objectives/story", and we see this pop up quite a bit when players are discussing just about any crafty-buildy, survival type game (which are inherently sandbox in nature).

As gamers ourselves, we do love sandbox games, but we also love progression and having goals to work towards. It's one thing to set your own goals, but having core objectives and a story arc can add a lot to the game experience and was always something we wanted to have.

(By the way, in case you missed it, we are starting playtests soon which you can sign up for!)
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/3052510/view/505069374726471759

For Oceaneers, the big question from a design standpoint was:
[h3]What is a compelling way to have a story gel into what is ultimately a sandbox genre, without getting in the way of the things players love about survival crafting and colony sims? [/h3]

We took inspiration from some our of favorite games such as Subnautica and No Mans Sky - which are both sandbox survival games, yet incorporate a story and objectives. We are also avid fans of old adventure games like Monkey Island and Space Quest so there are concepts from that genre that we are experimenting with as well (while taking care that they only add to the colony sim formula).

Players are going to be pleasantly surprised with some of the unexpected features we are adding for story & lore (this is all new stuff that hasn't been in any trailers/screenshots yet).

We are experimenting with a range of features and techniques to get story & objectives into the game.

• A core story arc/main objective.
  
• Sub-story arcs, with multiple outcomes,
  
• Optional lore to be discovered.
  
• Mini-random events that require player choice and effect your survivors (or your whole colony).
  
• Dialog between your characters for some parts of the story.
  

Being a sandbox game, replayability is also important. Here are some things we are experimenting with on top of key story arcs and objectives:

• Starting condition choices.
  
• Starting survivor group choices.
  
• Random events.
  
• Procedural generation.
  
• Creative mode / Story-off mode.
  

We are having a lot of fun testing this out, and based on feedback from initial playtests with external testers. they are loving how story and objectives are being integrated so far.

That's it for this dev diary. We would love to hear how you feel about story and objectives in games that are sandbox in nature! Do you like setting your own goals, or having a story to play through?

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[h3]⚡ Be sure to Wishlist Oceaneers, and stay tuned for the next dev diary and more announcements. ❤️[/h3]


[h3]Join Us![/h3]
Join our discord to discuss the game and share your ideas!
Join discord here


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Some recent Dev Diaries in case you missed them:
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/3052510/view/538843836072330185

Playtesting and player feedback is an essential part of our design process.

After plenty of internal testing we are very close to doing some very small public playtests. These will be short and done in waves so we can gather feedback, react to feedback and put up new builds for the next wave of playtesters.

[h2]How to join?[/h2]
Join our Discord and fill out the playtest sign-up form.
Join discord here

Eventually this will be opened up more and there will be a public demo, but for now we are using Discord for discussions and feedback.

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[h3]⚡ Be sure to Wishlist Oceaneers, and stay tuned for the next dev diary and more announcements. ❤️[/h3]


[h3]Join Us![/h3]
Join our discord to discuss the game and share your ideas!
Join discord here

It's finally time to start sharing more detailed ins and outs of the game features and start discussing them with you!

We will be doing this in a dev blog format right here on Steam. Some entries will be general updates, but we will often focus on a specific topic for each one.

[h2]Development[/h2]
We have been working towards a demo and public playtests and will be sharing more regular updates. Internal testing has gone through several rounds and we are keen to get the community involved to gather feedback!

[h2]Features[/h2]
There are a bunch of new features we have been working on that haven’t been revealed yet (and don’t appear in the trailer or screenshots). We are finalizing a few things before we share them, stay tuned, there is some really fun depth that might surprise you!

[h2]Meanwhile... existing features we have been working on[/h2]
Character stats changes.
We have been adjusting the needs, skills and conditions systems. We also have traits planned that work with these as part of the character creator. Here is an in-progress screenshot of the latest character sheet. (We will go into some detail on these systems in one of the next dev diaries).



Island inspection.
We are really excited about how island features will effect your colony and how this will tie into story and objectives. It’s going to be fun to go island hunting to find the best islands for your colony, upgrade them and add modules.



Raft building
We have been working on the raft building UI and it now features a parts list. You place everything on the raft in the dock, then the raft goes into construction and your survivors get to work. Still a work in progress, but we are happy with the direction this is going.



Expeditions.
The cargo system is now implemented, along with travel requirements (food/water). Resources are easy to use in the sector you are in (without inventory tetris), however, progressing to bigger and better rafts is going to be important with the cargo system to get those resources home.




[h2]PLAYTEST[/h2]
We are very close to playtests, if you are interested in early playtesting please join our discord. We will be doing several very small playtests before expanding it, so don’t worry if you miss out on a playtest round you will get a chance to provide feedback.

[h2]More to come![/h2]
Stay tuned, more dev diaries are on the way! We plan to go into more details on the story, character stats and resource systems, along with some other things we have been working on.


That wraps up this dev diary, we would love to hear your thoughts!

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[h3]⚡ Be sure to Wishlist Oceaneers, and stay tuned for the next dev diary and more announcements. ❤️[/h3]


[h3]Join Us![/h3]
Join our discord to discuss the game and share your ideas!
Join discord here

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]


[h3]A thrilling venture into the survival crafting genre set on tiny engineered islands floating in an endless ocean.[/h3]

[h2]Oh yeah.. those islands... they can sink.[/h2]

At it's core this is a shelter-survival game, you scavenge, craft and survive as you manage a small group of survivors. If you have played games like Sheltered or This War of Mine, this should be some famiilar territory for you, however your shelter isn't an underground bunker or a ruined house, it's a collection of small floating islands set on the relentless sea. If your a fan of games like Raft, Don't Starve or even Subnautica, be sure to check our FAQ on the forum which includes some comparisons to some other games where we aim to be clear on exactly what this game is and isn't.

In addition to the survival mechanics you expect, you will be designing and crafting your own rafts to take on expeditions, managing island buoyancy with flotation contraptions, and hauling new islands back to your main colony to expand. You even get to progress through a story plot which revolves around the pre-flood corporation that engineered the floating islands.

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If this sounds like your type of game you can sign up for the Beta program to be notified of playtests.

Sign Up Here

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You might also like to join our Discord server. You can get the latest information about the game here and chat directly with the developers.

Join Discord Here

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We have some seriously interesting features that we are yet to announce, so stay tuned as we post updates throughout development and be sure to wishlist the game.

Cheers,
Barrel Smash Studios

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]


[h3]A thrilling venture into the survival crafting genre set on tiny engineered islands floating in an endless ocean.[/h3]

[h2]Oh yeah.. those islands... they can sink.[/h2]

At it's core this is a shelter-survival game, you scavenge, craft and survive as you manage a small group of survivors. If you have played games like Sheltered or This War of Mine, this should be some famiilar territory for you, however your shelter isn't an underground bunker or a ruined house, it's a collection of small floating islands set on the relentless sea. If your a fan of games like Raft, Don't Starve or even Subnautica, be sure to check our FAQ on the forum which includes some comparisons to some other games where we aim to be clear on exactly what this game is and isn't.

In addition to the survival mechanics you expect, you will be designing and crafting your own rafts to take on expeditions, managing island buoyancy with flotation contraptions, and hauling new islands back to your main colony to expand. You even get to progress through a story plot which revolves around the pre-flood corporation that engineered the floating islands.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If this sounds like your type of game you can sign up for the Beta program to be notified of playtests.

Sign Up Here

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

You might also like to join our Discord server. You can get the latest information about the game here and chat directly with the developers.

Join Discord Here

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We have some seriously interesting features that we are yet to announce, so stay tuned as we post updates throughout development and be sure to wishlist the game.

Cheers,
Barrel Smash Studios