[Devlog] April 2025 - Week 2
Welcome to the 22nd week of development updates for Cosmic Construct.
The last week has been a little rough for me, so I didn't get as much done as I expected to. I also have a few other commitments that I needed to attend to. Regardless there is plenty of new stuff to show off.
As usual, I gotta plug the socials.
Every week we go over development goals that were set at the end of the previous week.
Here are those goals.
---
The structure art for Brewery, Town Hall, Warehouse, and Vertical Farm (priority task)
I didn't get all 4 of the buildings done. Only the Brewery and Town Hall. The Warehouse is easy to draw, but the Vertical Farm isn't.
The Brewery will be used to produce Beer and Grain Spirits, which will be used for both leisure, and as a solvent. The Town Hall will perform a management function for the settlement. Pawns have a relevant profession for this task.
A new biome. (Yes, another one. :P)
This took up the bulk of development time. There are 8 destroyed truck variants for the new Deadwood Tree. As well as new grass type "Urineweed". Which is a in joke from a development community I am apart of. This item will produce Nitrates which function as both a type of fertilizer for high tier plants, as well as a nitrate source for gunpowder; Saltpeter. I still don't know to what extent gunpowder will be used for gameplay. I'll be working on something special, and related; soon.
2 new plants (I'm trying to do at least 2 a week.)
The two planned crops for this week are Corn and Barley.
Corn is going to be mostly for the creation of Grain Spirits using the Brewery. Of course, you will be able to make and include it in a variety of foods once I go and draw all of the icons for them. Food items are very easy to add to the game, as they are simple recipe exchanges.
Barley Grain will also be used by the Brewery to produce Beer, which will be consumed at the Guild Hall to restore leisure, or by Expeditioners to increase their production. Barley Grain will also make staple meals that restore hunger substantially, but damage leisure.
Integrate the new items into the database.
Not much to show here. I've gone ahead and added all of the new items in. Adding items to the database can take time depending on what type they are. Some have tags that I need to test to confirm are working correctly. Like those that are plantable, or that can be consumed by pawns.
(If all of this is finished, I will move onto more plants.)
I did not finish the above entirely, so I did not do additional work on plants.
---
Biome Blending - Omnilands Biome
I added an additional biome to the roster. This is the Omnilands. It doesn't contain anything new, but it does contain most of everything.
I needed a new biome to test the game's biome blending functions which I have been working on in the background since I implemented the second biome. If you look at the terrain tiles, you can see that they are fit together in an interlocking pattern. For example, there are triangle shapes in the space of the shattered ground. Each of the terrain tiles are actually dovetailed shapes. I draw them in a way they can interlock.
The Omnilands is a proof of concept for any biome blending combination. This is 25% of each of the 4 existing biomes. However, I can blend any percentage of any number of biomes. (90% Shatterlands, 10% Grotlands) or (12% Shaterlands, 23% Lunlands, 65% Hinderlands). Any combination can be done at the map generation and update steps. I want to find a way to use this other than for just exploration.
Now that the "4 base colors" are done, I can work on two color schemes with purple, orange, cyan, magenta, and white.
---
For the upcoming week, I'll be working on something nifty.
- Finish new structures. Storehouse and Vertical Farm at least. (more if I have time).
- 2 new crops. There are 8 left.
- Preparations for trailer editing.
- Reworking of an existing feature, which I will explain next week. (priority task)
That's about it for this devlog. See you all next week. (or sooner on bluesky and discord)
The last week has been a little rough for me, so I didn't get as much done as I expected to. I also have a few other commitments that I needed to attend to. Regardless there is plenty of new stuff to show off.
As usual, I gotta plug the socials.
- Follow the bluesky account so that you can get daily updates on game progress.
- Join the Cosmic Construct community discord server. I'd love to see some more people around there.
- Wishlist Cosmic Construct on Steam. This one is important.
- Follow the steam page so that you can get notifications for these devlogs in the future.
Every week we go over development goals that were set at the end of the previous week.
Here are those goals.
---
The structure art for Brewery, Town Hall, Warehouse, and Vertical Farm (priority task)
I didn't get all 4 of the buildings done. Only the Brewery and Town Hall. The Warehouse is easy to draw, but the Vertical Farm isn't.
The Brewery will be used to produce Beer and Grain Spirits, which will be used for both leisure, and as a solvent. The Town Hall will perform a management function for the settlement. Pawns have a relevant profession for this task.
A new biome. (Yes, another one. :P)
This took up the bulk of development time. There are 8 destroyed truck variants for the new Deadwood Tree. As well as new grass type "Urineweed". Which is a in joke from a development community I am apart of. This item will produce Nitrates which function as both a type of fertilizer for high tier plants, as well as a nitrate source for gunpowder; Saltpeter. I still don't know to what extent gunpowder will be used for gameplay. I'll be working on something special, and related; soon.
2 new plants (I'm trying to do at least 2 a week.)
The two planned crops for this week are Corn and Barley.
Corn is going to be mostly for the creation of Grain Spirits using the Brewery. Of course, you will be able to make and include it in a variety of foods once I go and draw all of the icons for them. Food items are very easy to add to the game, as they are simple recipe exchanges.
Barley Grain will also be used by the Brewery to produce Beer, which will be consumed at the Guild Hall to restore leisure, or by Expeditioners to increase their production. Barley Grain will also make staple meals that restore hunger substantially, but damage leisure.
Integrate the new items into the database.
Not much to show here. I've gone ahead and added all of the new items in. Adding items to the database can take time depending on what type they are. Some have tags that I need to test to confirm are working correctly. Like those that are plantable, or that can be consumed by pawns.
(If all of this is finished, I will move onto more plants.)
I did not finish the above entirely, so I did not do additional work on plants.
---
Biome Blending - Omnilands Biome
I added an additional biome to the roster. This is the Omnilands. It doesn't contain anything new, but it does contain most of everything.
I needed a new biome to test the game's biome blending functions which I have been working on in the background since I implemented the second biome. If you look at the terrain tiles, you can see that they are fit together in an interlocking pattern. For example, there are triangle shapes in the space of the shattered ground. Each of the terrain tiles are actually dovetailed shapes. I draw them in a way they can interlock.
The Omnilands is a proof of concept for any biome blending combination. This is 25% of each of the 4 existing biomes. However, I can blend any percentage of any number of biomes. (90% Shatterlands, 10% Grotlands) or (12% Shaterlands, 23% Lunlands, 65% Hinderlands). Any combination can be done at the map generation and update steps. I want to find a way to use this other than for just exploration.
Now that the "4 base colors" are done, I can work on two color schemes with purple, orange, cyan, magenta, and white.
---
For the upcoming week, I'll be working on something nifty.
- Finish new structures. Storehouse and Vertical Farm at least. (more if I have time).
- 2 new crops. There are 8 left.
- Preparations for trailer editing.
- Reworking of an existing feature, which I will explain next week. (priority task)
That's about it for this devlog. See you all next week. (or sooner on bluesky and discord)