Don't Overreach In Development Just Yet
Jamescell
American Alpine Biome Join Date: 2015-08-18 Member: 207249Members
American Alpine Biome Join Date: 2015-08-18 Member: 207249Members
Hi, I'm Jamescell. This may be my first post on the Subnautica forums, but I come from the Warframe community- a place with a very established forums-community. I am by no means a fledgling when it comes to giving feedback and ideas in terms of game -direction. Sadly however, not everything us forumers write gains traction, hence the pitiful state of a game that I once loved.
Something that becomes fairly apparent after learning about development plans and current features, is the fairly ambitious scope of this game given such a "small" development team. Open-world sandboxes are never easy games to make well- the difficulties of this game type are amplified greatly when the team tasked with developing the project is so small.
In my experience as an analytical and fairly high-brow gamer, the games that do well are those that master their quintessentially iconic features and deliver highly-polished content that pertains to the most enticing aspects of the game. For Subnautica, the most exciting selling-points are aesthetic beauty, a unique and immersive setting and graphics style, convincing and overly-rich yet exotic environments, and the idea of believable survival mechanics.
Now, the cinematic trailers do a pretty great job of selling the strong points of the game as listed above, but in terms of actual gameplay, not everything is quite there yet. The fact that an early development game still requires development is absolutely understandable, but I find it troubling when I hear about the addition of things like arctic and volcanic biomes, or lethal weapons, or home-base decorations.
Lava, ice, lasers and sofas are all cool features, but it's fairly obvious that this game cant afford to over-extend its own scope. Now, there's definitely a time for the former, but not when the core mechanics and features of the game still need intensive development. That being said, lets discuss the extent to which core/vital conceptual features of the game as mentioned above have been flushed out.
In terms of aesthetic beauty- there are certain aspects of the game that absolutely live up to concept art and cinematic rendering. The state of visuals overall, however, looks rather unpolished. Ship interiors and most player equipment looks great, but much of the wildlife doesn't fit the higher-quality style of things like the iconic eye-fish species. The plant life in certain biomes seems a bit messy, and the ocean-floor is anything but well done. (There should be real sand and multi-dimensional surfaces).
Regarding rich and exotic environments: "Exoticness" depends on rich, interactive and immersive environments. Without unique creatures and food-chains and ecosystem interactions and gorgeous lighting and convincing particle effects, an environment that is intended to be exotic will simply be a recolored version of something lifeless, recognizable and generic. If there's anything that this game should tunnel-vision, it's immersion through stunning, rich and interactive environments.
The scarce lore and setting of the game justify the otherwise inexplicable and immersion-breaking mechanics necessary for most constructive survival games. However, the game has thus far failed to deliver a complete survival experience. Currently, the main dynamic of the game seems to be one of "survive until you don't need to anymore" in the sense that, after progressing far enough with gear and technology, players don't really experience survival anymore. This is because of missing mechanics and a lack of danger that envelops all environments.
Currently, the most relevant concern is the oxygen meter (which should be a component) as opposed to the dangers that await a player when they need to gather resources (because there are so few threats). Features like farming, genetic injections, an interactive (and useful) pet, more dangerous species, more nighttime hostility and more significantly stressed food and water requirements would go a long way to polish the current survival experience.
If the game continues to expand with things like artic biomes (which realistically, would be very far away) without nailing the fundamental features that draw people to the game, Subnautica risks losing the traction and apparent potential that it deserves. There are still untextured and un-modeled items that riddle the game. Furthermore, the current density and interactivity of environments is nowhere near what the concept of this game would justify. Focus on the things listed mentioned in this post, and the game will be ensured the success it needs to continue to grow.
Something that becomes fairly apparent after learning about development plans and current features, is the fairly ambitious scope of this game given such a "small" development team. Open-world sandboxes are never easy games to make well- the difficulties of this game type are amplified greatly when the team tasked with developing the project is so small.
In my experience as an analytical and fairly high-brow gamer, the games that do well are those that master their quintessentially iconic features and deliver highly-polished content that pertains to the most enticing aspects of the game. For Subnautica, the most exciting selling-points are aesthetic beauty, a unique and immersive setting and graphics style, convincing and overly-rich yet exotic environments, and the idea of believable survival mechanics.
Now, the cinematic trailers do a pretty great job of selling the strong points of the game as listed above, but in terms of actual gameplay, not everything is quite there yet. The fact that an early development game still requires development is absolutely understandable, but I find it troubling when I hear about the addition of things like arctic and volcanic biomes, or lethal weapons, or home-base decorations.
Lava, ice, lasers and sofas are all cool features, but it's fairly obvious that this game cant afford to over-extend its own scope. Now, there's definitely a time for the former, but not when the core mechanics and features of the game still need intensive development. That being said, lets discuss the extent to which core/vital conceptual features of the game as mentioned above have been flushed out.
In terms of aesthetic beauty- there are certain aspects of the game that absolutely live up to concept art and cinematic rendering. The state of visuals overall, however, looks rather unpolished. Ship interiors and most player equipment looks great, but much of the wildlife doesn't fit the higher-quality style of things like the iconic eye-fish species. The plant life in certain biomes seems a bit messy, and the ocean-floor is anything but well done. (There should be real sand and multi-dimensional surfaces).
Regarding rich and exotic environments: "Exoticness" depends on rich, interactive and immersive environments. Without unique creatures and food-chains and ecosystem interactions and gorgeous lighting and convincing particle effects, an environment that is intended to be exotic will simply be a recolored version of something lifeless, recognizable and generic. If there's anything that this game should tunnel-vision, it's immersion through stunning, rich and interactive environments.
The scarce lore and setting of the game justify the otherwise inexplicable and immersion-breaking mechanics necessary for most constructive survival games. However, the game has thus far failed to deliver a complete survival experience. Currently, the main dynamic of the game seems to be one of "survive until you don't need to anymore" in the sense that, after progressing far enough with gear and technology, players don't really experience survival anymore. This is because of missing mechanics and a lack of danger that envelops all environments.
Currently, the most relevant concern is the oxygen meter (which should be a component) as opposed to the dangers that await a player when they need to gather resources (because there are so few threats). Features like farming, genetic injections, an interactive (and useful) pet, more dangerous species, more nighttime hostility and more significantly stressed food and water requirements would go a long way to polish the current survival experience.
If the game continues to expand with things like artic biomes (which realistically, would be very far away) without nailing the fundamental features that draw people to the game, Subnautica risks losing the traction and apparent potential that it deserves. There are still untextured and un-modeled items that riddle the game. Furthermore, the current density and interactivity of environments is nowhere near what the concept of this game would justify. Focus on the things listed mentioned in this post, and the game will be ensured the success it needs to continue to grow.
Comments
Agreed. I got bored and never finished the OP.
You are not dealing with some first time game developer here. Sure, no-one is perfect, but I think most of your worries are misplaced, but then, I have a lot of confidence in UWE and their abilities. After all, their games have kept me on these forums for over 11 years..
More plant life and aquatic creatures are in development and will continue as the devs already have suggested that they have a few 100s or more creatures and plant life that they would like to bring into this aquatic world. Now as for survival, it is key and it is already more difficult. You have a couple of major predators as well as a couple of minor ones. Oxygen at the beginning is a big ticking clock but just like any progression. Things get easier as one progresses. The appeal to this game doesn't stop, even after you have played with all the content up to date it is still a fun unique game that you continue to come back to because it is enjoyable.
Of course there are many things that we would like to see in this game as well as the devs. Like today I never knew about the Botanical Analysis Machine concept that will probably be making into the game with the research room as well as the Fire Extinguisher concept which also suggest that flooding will not be the only threat in game but also fires.
There is even concepts for LED lights so I am pretty confident that the devs are working on as many things to keep interest and build their way to a final product that we can all enjoy.
As long as people are supportive, giving feedback and having devs that have a good discernment in what to consider into their game. Then I think this game will be a great product once it is done. It is already impressive even with the resolution as it stands now and not having that many aquatic creatures. But first if anything I would like some of the bugs to be taking care of. Like some of my coral, plant life disappears and can look through it like there is nothing there. But games in development, that should be expected. By what you have described I have never seen a successful game ever work on the polish first before game play and concept. You even learn that polished graphics and small details are kept last in game development.
It takes a great deal of work to come up with concepts, story, mechanics, programming, modeling and so on. So in truth we should be just thankful that we have anything to play at this point. Patience is a virtue.