Dandelion Void News

[p]Hi everyone, and welcome to another Dandelion Void dev blog. This week we have a special feature – MrAtomicDuck has streamed an early version of Dandelion Void! This is more gameplay footage than we’ve ever shown publicly. Don’t worry if you missed it live -- you can watch the whole stream below.[/p][p]You might know MrAtomicDuck from his regular coverage of Project Zomboid updates, his tutorial videos for other survival games, or his recent ARC Raiders content. He also featured our Project Zomboid mod Save Our Station in one of his mod lineups! We chose to give him this exclusive first look because of his vast knowledge of the genre, and his expertise in showing off work-in-progress content. We greatly appreciate his interest in Dandelion Void![/p][p]Spoiler label: This video shows quite a lot of Dandelion Void gameplay![/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p]As developers, we always have our little theories about what will be fun, but there’s no replacement for observing actual player behavior. Every playtest teaches us something new, and Duck’s stream was no exception. Below we've compiled some of our major takeaways![/p][h2]What worked:[/h2]

• [p]Leap Attacks: Last week we added a new leap attack for our “uproot” plant enemies, and we’re liking the gameplay so far! [/p]
  • [p]Previously the uproots were a bit too easy to kite; players could slowly walk backwards, use knockback to keep them out of striking range, and leave most encounters without taking any damage. [/p]
  • [p]The leap attack breaks this pattern by allowing the creatures to quickly close gaps, forcing the player to either move or take damage. We liked that this added texture to combat encounters and created a feeling of unpredictability.[/p]

[p]An uproot winds up before a leap attack[/p]

• [p]Story Rooms: Over the past month we’ve been varying up our environment with what we call “story rooms” – unique points of interest sprinkled across the map that reward exploration. Right now these are static, but in the future we plan to distribute them dynamically.[/p]
  • [p]The “survivor hovels” are little scenes with bedrolls and improvised furniture where now-perished survivors made their home. In addition to their narrative implications these provide little “starter bases” for players, which worked out perfectly in this test. Duck set up shop in the hovel in the Northwest corner of the map![/p]
  • [p]When Duck entered the “rat room” he was greeted by a half dozen rodents all furiously escaping into a hole. On their way they dropped a number of “rat axes,” tiny rat-sized implements improvised from a toothpick and a razor blade. Keep your eyes out for more rat content in the coming months.[/p]
  • [p]Other story rooms included the mini-library, the room with the “LAND NOW” pamphlets, and the locked computer mainframe area. We hope to continue adding more story rooms to discover![/p]

[p]A little reading nook![/p]

• [p]TwigSnapper: We were really happy with how our new enemy performed! You might remember them from our last blog post[/p]
  • [p]Our intention with the TwigSnapper was to add more tension to the game. The basic uproots are hostile “on sight” and often ambush you by camouflaging against the ponic grass. The TwigSnapper is more dangerous, but it won’t attack you unless you fulfill specific conditions. This created tense moments where Duck was tiptoeing around the creature while trying not to wake it up.[/p]
  • [p]We do think there’s more that we could do to communicate that the TwigSnapper is specifically sensitive to the player stepping on vegetation. Part of the issue is that the TwigSnapper is currently using temporary art (just a recolored uproot body with some little whiskers drawn on top) so there’s not yet a marriage of form and function. We are also interested in being more deliberate about spawning them at locations with just the right amount of vegetation, forcing the player to make tough decisions on how to proceed.[/p]
• [p]Terminals:[/p]
  • [p]We want to make sure there are exciting goodies and interesting systems to interact with via the terminal, but we want to balance that with good tutorialization that teaches players unfamiliar with command line interfaces on how to use them. [/p]
  • [p]While there's more to do in this regard, we were happy that the hints provided by our error messages -- combined with Duck's instincts and hacker skills -- were enough to help him breach the terminal-controlled door[/p]

[p]Typing on the computer like it's 1979[/p][h2]What We Need to Improve:[/h2]

• [p]Bleeding: Bleeding is a recent addition to our demo, and right now it feels a bit too much like a death sentence.[/p]
  • [p]While there are bandages you can find in the world, they are for the most part confined to special medical crates that are hidden behind locked doors. [/p]
  • [p]A big player expectation in this type of game is to be able to tear up clothing to make makeshift bandages, which are less effective but easier to access. We’d like to enable this gameplay.[/p]
  • [p]Bleeding is currently coded to be nonlethal; it chips away at your health over time, but it won’t deal a death blow on its own. We like the gameplay of keeping the player at low health to raise the stakes of every combat encounter while bleeding, but the metaphor is unintuitive. [/p]
    • [p]On one run Duck spent a long time waiting to bleed out so he could reroll the character, and it was confusing that he wasn’t dying. The current way bleeding is tuned would probably make more sense for a poison-based affliction.[/p]

[p][/p][p]Hurt, starving, tired, thirsty, and... bored?[/p]

• [p]Boredom: Our “boredom” mechanic needs some rethinking overall[/p]
  • [p]We like the idea of your character having to navigate a whole “Maslow hierarchy” of desires, where the player must satisfy both bare survival needs as well as entertainment and enrichment. But right now this has some gameplay and balance problems.[/p]
  • [p]Boredom is tuned too aggressively; it comes up almost as frequently as hunger and thirst! There’s some dissonance where your character can be “bored” even during life-or-death combat. A better design might have boredom only come up in between combat encounters[/p]
  • [p]We would also like to improve the user experience for reading books (the text often disappears before the player can finish reading it), as well as adding more ways to relieve boredom outside of books. [/p]
    • [p]There can be a conflict where if we’re making the player read too often, the player’s intrinsic motivation to discover the lore is subsumed by the extrinsic motivation of just trying to get the stat down.[/p]
• [p]Camera: [/p]
  • [p]We recently added in the ability to rotate the camera, but without a smooth transition between the different angles it can be pretty disorienting[/p]
• [p]Terminal:[/p]
  • [p]While we felt the terminal had enough for this playthrough, we’d like to hook more ship systems up to it! We’ve got a few of our own ideas cooking, but we’d love to hear what you would want to access with the Pergola’s terminals.[/p]
  • [p]The locked mainframe area was a bit confusing in that it had one door which was terminal-controlled, and one door that was broken and had to be manually destroyed. The broken door had a cracked texture, but it didn't show up very well in the red lighting. The assumption was that both doors would be terminal-controlled, and this created some confusion.[/p]
• [p]Minor Bugs: While the build was quite stable overall, we did see a few bugs that we want to address![/p]
  • [p]Sometimes the player will get stuck navigating to perform an action (e.g. when the player right clicks to harvest a tuber across the room).[/p]
  • [p]The worker uniform can clip into the pressure flight suit[/p]
  • [p]Uproots chasing you will attack doors in their way, but they won’t abandon the chase if you leave the area. The doors take a while to break, and this leads to some nuisance sound effects playing in the background[/p]
    • [p]This is especially pronounced during the time fast forward while you sleep![/p]

[h2]Overall Next Steps for the Game:[/h2][p][/p][p]Having covered the individual elements that did and didn’t perform well, here are our high-level priorities for development over the next few months:[/p]

1. [p]Authoring more unique environments, story rooms, and rewards for exploration![/p]
2. [p]Adding more enemy types to vary up combat[/p]
3. [p]Designing more “plant-y” and “spaceship-y” mechanics that lean into the unique setting of the game. We want to do more to differentiate Dandelion Void from other games in this genre![/p]
4. [p]Filling out the game with structurally important systems like crafting, character creation, experience gaining, save/load, etc.[/p]
5. [p]A few more surprises that we’re not quite ready to tell you about yet![/p]

[p]Our new survivor hovel area got some nice airtime in the stream, so we wanted to give you all a better view! [/p][p]New models by Manzanita Interactive's Dara Insixiengmay![/p][p]The art direction here was to create the feeling of a cozy space with furniture improvised from materials found elsewhere in the ship. You might notice that the orange cushions on the bedroll came from the couch model, the orange base of the lamp is the wire coil junk item, and the spit roast is composed of various parts from a storage shelf.[/p][p]Combined with our dynamic grime and plant system, these assets tell the story of a place that was once home to somebody. They woke up every morning on this bedroll, but one day they simply never came home. Where are they now?  [/p][p]That’s all for now. Everybody please have a great week, and look forward to our next post at the end of November![/p]

[p]Spoiler label: this post contains a look at a new enemy in Dandelion Void![/p][p][/p][p]Hi everyone, and happy almost Halloween! To channel with the reason for the season, we wanted to give you a sneak peek into a new horticultural horror that you can look forward to (or dread) in Dandelion Void. [/p][p]This is an early mockup, with temp art and just a rough pass at sound, but we’re pretty excited by the gameplay this creature will bring! [/p][p][/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p]
We wish we could show you more, but this footage was all we could recover. If you will, a moment of silence for our brave expedition party.[/p][p][/p][p]We’ve had some questions about  the origin of the name Manzanita Interactive, the studio behind Dandelion Void. A few of us went on a hike last weekend in Angeles National Forest, where we found the perfect opportunity to demonstrate![/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]"Manzanita" refers to the Arctostaphylos genus of small, hardy shrubs endemic to the chaparral biome of the southwest USA and Northwest Mexico. The name literally translates to “small apple” in Spanish, referring to the appearance of a Manzanita fruit. The genus is known for its drought tolerance, upwards-pointing leaves, and beautiful dark red bark (often presented in two-tone, with long streaks of gray).
[/p][p]The name is a nod to our beloved home of Southern California, where our entire team is based. Manzanita is also known for quickly regrowing in the wake of devastating wildfires using special fire-tolerant seeds. As a team that met as union organizers in a time where the entire games industry seems to be on fire, we like the symbolism here.
[/p][p]That’s all for today! Join us again in two weeks on November 11th for more early looks into Dandelion Void. 
[/p][p]Until then, may we all get our chance to rise from the ashes.[/p][p]-- Robin and the Manzanita Interactive team[/p][p]
[/p]

[p]Hi all! Welcome to another weekly devblog. Today we’re giving a peek into some of the fashion options available to you in Dandelion Void![/p][p][/p][p]Before we get started, a quick housekeeping note – we are shifting our devblog schedule from once a week to twice a month. We've started our October doing a lot of longer-term foundation-building on our tech infrastructure and game design. It’s pretty exciting stuff, but it doesn’t lend itself well to flashy screenshots, and some of the plans are too early for the public to see. All that said, we’ll be back here in two weeks on Tuesday October 28th![/p][p][/p][p]Spoiler label: this post shows visuals for 4 outfits and discusses some of their mechanical properties[/p][p]Every outfit we design for Dandelion Void is a new way for the player to express themselves, as well as an opportunity for us to develop the game’s unique setting! As a centuries-old overgrown derelict, the Pergola has quite a bit of history, and the clothing helps tell that story.[/p][p][/p][p]Generally speaking, new clothing we add fits into one of four buckets:[/p][p]Civilian:[/p][p]The Pergola wasn’t just a spaceship; it was also home to generations of crew who lived their entire lives aboard. The Pergola launched in the 70’s, and we want to capture some of the fun of that era's fashion. Strong shapes, flared legs, and relaxed fits are characteristic of the civilian clothing you will find aboard.
[/p][p]Loose linen lounge pants: perfect for a lazy afternoon on the couch, or a terrifying night in the overgrown tomb of your spacefaring ancestors
[/p][p]Vocational:[/p][p]Like Earth workplaces, uniforms were used aboard the Pergola to designate roles and professions. The the Acorn Starship Collective that built the ship was full of utopian-minded artists and scientists. We wanted to capture some of that energy in the vocational clothing with simple-but-beautiful designs and rich pops of color.
[/p][p]Excuse me, do you work here?
[/p][p]Spacesuits:[/p][p]Of course, a ship is still a ship, and where there's space you need spacesuits! In Dandelion Void, these pressure-fit garments will help you traverse areas of the ship that have been exposed to vacuum.
[/p][p][/p][p]Protection against Void and Vine[/p][p]
Our designs are based on the lightweight, silvery jumpsuits of the Mercury program. Note that these are made for tethered EVA operations, not planetary landing, so they lack the bulky backpacks you might see from moonfaring suits.[/p][p][/p][p]Scavenger:[/p][p]All of the aforementioned clothing categories are from the Pergola’s golden era, before mysterious circumstances turned it into an overgrown derelict. Between the bright colors and high-quality materials, the ship’s original people used industrial tools to make beautiful clothing.[/p][p][/p][p]The pergola’s current inhabitants – a hungry band of scavengers, hunter-gatherers, and subsistence farmers – have a much more pragmatic, improvisational approach to fashion:[/p][p][/p][p]This “cloak” is fashioned from an old sleeping bag. It’s not exactly Met Gala material, but it has its own rustic charm – and it keeps you warm.[/p][p]Thanks for joining us today! We hope to have many more outfits to show you as development progresses. Until then, have a great week![/p][p][/p][p]-Robin and the Manzanita Interactive team[/p]

[p]Hello, pergonauts, and welcome back to another Tuesday dev blog. This week we have a couple of unglamorous, but all-the-more important updates for you.[/p][p][/p][p]As you may have heard, a critical security issue was recently exposed that affects all Unity games made with engine versions 2017.1 and after. You may have even noticed games in your steam library being temporarily delisted or requiring an immediate update.[/p][p][/p][p]It goes without saying that this is a major pain for developers who now need to update their live builds ASAP, and it may have some worrying impacts on game preservation. For the Dandelion Void team, though, the silver lining is that this is the excuse we needed to update to the Unity 6 engine![/p][p][/p][p]Up to now we’ve been developing on a "Long Term Stable" version of Unity 2022.3 that was last updated in September of 2023, over two years ago. Like most developers, we’re cautious about when we change our engine versions; there’s always a few things that break here and there, and all the bugfixing can suck time away from gameplay features. [/p][p][/p][p]With that said, it makes a lot of sense for us to invest in a more up to date version. 2022.3 is old now, and it’s only getting older! Being on Unity 6 will give us access to the latest and greatest from Unity, and engine bugs we encounter will have a higher likelihood of being fixed by their team. We’re also interested in some of the new profiling tools they have been working on, as well as the better contrast on the editor UI.[/p][p][/p][p]What else is new with us? Well, speaking of tooling updates, we’ve been giving some TLC to our Sickle level editor! We’re making these tools both for us and for future Dandelion Void modders, so it’s important for us that they feel great to use. Up to now you’ve selected your level editing tool by clicking through tabs in a Unity window, but we’ve migrated these to a series of icons that overlay the scene view! [/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]The old way above, the new way below...[/p][p][/p][p]The yellow icons above represent Sickle's various tools, and will reveal contextual menus as needed[/p][p][/p][p]This reduces the amount you need to jump between the scene and the editor window with your eyes, and brings Sickle more into line with the usability standard set for Unity tools. We also just really like making icons! The yellow is a little nod to the color used by our terminal displays.[/p][p][/p][p]That’s all for today! Take care everyone, and have a great week.[/p]

• [p]Robin and the Manzanita Interactive team[/p]

[p]Hi everyone! Welcome back to another dev blog. Brian and Robin are fresh back from a week off, and we’re excited to get back into talking about the game! Today we’re doing a deep-dive into one of the game’s tentpole visual effects: grime![/p][p][/p][p]Spoiler label: this post describes the grime visual effect and discusses small gameplay interactions.[/p][p]The visual identity for Dandelion Void is “Spaceship Reclaimed by Nature.” Launched hundreds of years ago, the once-gleaming Pergola has fallen into ruin. With this in mind, it’s very important for our environment to look like it has gone to seed.[/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p]When we started Dandelion Void, we were just trying to nail the architecture and design language of the ship as it was built. Our earliest builds looked nice, but the environment more closely resembled the Pergola in its prime than its derelict era. The leafy ponic plants helped a bit, but everything was still too “clean.”[/p][p]Enter: the grime pass![/p][p]From left to right: pre-grime, post-grime, and grime blending under the hood![/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]In combination with the vegetation system, grime helps us sell the age of environments like this computer room[/p][p][/p][p]Our grime technology applies dirty texture overlays over any surface. It works both on flat floors and wall surfaces, as well as three-dimensional pieces of furniture. This is accomplished using a modified version of a triplanar mapping shader.[/p][p][/p][p]In simple terms, triplanar mapping is a graphics technique that automatically wraps textures over arbitrary geometry in a way that looks natural. The "arbitrary geometry" part is important here; on a typical model, 3D artists manually assign which parts of a texture go on which parts of the object using a process called UV mapping. This makes a lot of sense for something like a chair, where you don't want the cushion color on the legs or the wood color on the cushions, but it's pretty inefficient for a homogeneous repeating texture like grime.[/p][p][/p][p]Triplanar mapping works by defining wrapping textures for the top, sides, etc. of a mesh and then elegantly blending between them on the corners. One issue with this approach for us is that Dandelion void uses “crunchy pixel” textures for its world geometry without antialiasing. If we just blended between our top and wall textures, this would create smooth regions that break the pixel grid. [/p][p][/p][p]Our solution is that instead of linearly blending on these corners, we use a noise function to combine the two textures like a tile mosaic; note the regions in the screenshot below where you can see little boxes of the red and the yellow intermingling. This allows for a more seamless transition between the two textures without having to compromise on our precious crunchy pixels. [/p][p][/p][p]Our grime shader is what I call a “garlic salt” effect. It works with any dish, and everything you sprinkle it on tastes better![/p][p]Our grime isn't just a pretty face: It also serves an important gameplay function in our base building system. Using a designated tool, the player can clean grime off of floors and furniture objects![/p][p][/p][p]Cleaning grime is one of the first things you might do when picking a safe room to turn into a temporary or permanent base. In addition to being satisfying and aesthetically pleasing, certain types of furniture will offer extra benefits when they are clear of grime. [/p][p][/p][p]Our grime system is open-ended and supports multiple categories of filth. The green algae is the most visible, but we also have a more subtle gray dust effect, and ideas for future types of grime. In addition to looking different, grime classes also have secondary effects like changing the footstep sound; algae provides a satisfying “squish” while dust will use the standard hard surface sound. We also support infrastructure for requiring different tools to clean different grime classes, creating opportunities for items like scraping knives, sponges, sandpaper, etc.![/p][p]That’s enough about grime! We’ve really enjoyed getting down and dirty about this system. If we're being honest, we also really, really feel like washing our hands.[/p][p][/p][p]Take care everyone, and have a great week![/p][p][/p]