Home-Instance work in progress (Patreon)

Author: Salireths

Last week (a bit more) I've been hard at work conceptualizing player home. 

In our current iteration, player starts the game in their home, and then familiarize themselves with the core game mechanics in a safe environment before they get to start venturing into the world.

Just a disclaimer: anything can change, it's all work in progress ideas, sketches, and rough black and white blockout models. However I'm quite confident that most of those are going to stay. Maybe with some small changes, but I'm finally happy with the overall design. Of course we will need to play-test it to make sure its good, but this is the part where the next build comes in.

And also, since Easter is coming, it's a perfect opportunity to talk about eggs and where they come from!

Hatching

As I mentioned in previous post, player starts the game with a little introduction, where they get to select an approximate species, select the gender and (maybe) a backstory.

After that, they hatch as an adult creature from an egg in their home's Egg Chamber. 

From there, they need to pick up the egg shells and use a materializator to craft themselves an organic device that will help them to collect their creature's essence (DNA, can be saliva or sexual juices) to create a backup clone so they can continue playing even if something happens to their character. 

After that is done, the safety lockdown will be lifted and they will be able to visit another area of their house, the Biodome, which also leads to the exit into the world.

Now let's talk about each area separately and in detail:

Egg Chamber

The sketch might look overwhelming at first, but I annotated the most important parts! 

This is where you hatch and spend the intro sequence in.  With this "disguised" tutorial the game shows off its main mechanics: all the important machines and interactions are nearby, and with limited play-space players should quickly figure out what to do to progress further. 

The "3m" cube is a scale reference, by the way. Eggs are so huge because they are designed so they can hold an adult dragon body in them.

And yes, I'm totally teasing about the tentacle area here. Keep reading :P

When lockdown is lifted (after a new clone is started), the shutters rise and a bridge erects, making it possible to access the Biodome area.

The window outside shows the Khzandithri Sphere from outside "space", revealing a beautiful vista, and hinting on what areas player can visit soon.

Materializator

This is the main crafting station of the game. While I still need to think about some details for it, this particular materializator is definitely a hi-tier one. 

To make a starting, low-tier one, I'm going to simplify its features, with less matter storage and tech. And yes, you will need to upgrade those to craft more stuff.

Control Terminal

A very important multi-functional console from where house management is done. It will also be likely capable of some simple starting-tier research of items, and provide access to the storage/sorting system that can be expanded later.

I'm also thinking that this display in the middle can be done like "Looking Glass" from Prey, or a portal, and used to preview collectible artwork and 3d statues around the game, most of which are going to be the promised patron rewards.

Biodome

This is the main area of the house, which player gets to after tutorial is complete. 

Here player can build custom rooms and add machinery or research labs for all their needs, but for now we're not going to talk about that feature, as it would come into play later anyway (not a part of the next build).

Biodome features a natural landscape with trees, rocks, water, grass, fruits, etc. It contains basic resources, which are essential to gather to learn starting materializator formulas and prepare for venturing outside. 

To craft and research player now needs to go down to the egg chamber where they already have a materializator ready, but later they can build more materializators where they want.

Medical Tentacle Area

Aha, and here is what I teased earlier!

For you to be able to indulge in the game's fantasy right from the start, there are special medical tentacles at the end of the room. 

As you come from your expeditions to Realities, you will be hurt and tired, perhaps even have a disease or parasites. Thankfully, the organic technology that is generously provided to you by the advanced Dragon civilization features an auto-doc. 

Its not free to use, as it still needs substances to heal you, but the slim agile wiggly tentacles are not only good at delivering medicine down your orifices, they can also deliver lots of pleasure if you're into that kind of thing! On request, of course - it's still a machine, it doesn't have its own will. Not this one... Not yet...

Regeneration and Character Customization Zone

If you slide past the medical tentacles, squeeze through an organic hatch/door/sphincter, you will enter this area. 

Here your body can relax, satisfy its needs, regenerate, and alter its appearance and anatomy.

To unlock more character customization, you need to get the "essence" of other creatures, be it blood, saliva or sperm samples, all having different effectiveness. The most effective is when you breed with NPCs, getting the eggs that they or you laid into the Egg-Receptacle will unlock you new bodyparts, traits and colors they possess. 

This is why sexual part of the game is actually going to be important for gameplay and progression, not just a gimmick. However it's not the only way to get customization parts unlocked.

Corridors

And lastly, I wanted to show you some designs of the corridors, particularly because a corridor of some sort will connect Biodome and Egg Chamber together. I've done three different designs so far, and will likely end up using a mish-mash between all those. 

This corridor is very generic sci-fi looking, however if I add voronoi/crystal texture to it, it will turn into something that belongs to The Gateway of Realities world.

This corridor has both organic and crystallic vibe to it, and has planters on the side for some additional flora.

This one is more organic, and can be squished and retracted like a spaceship docking tube. This will likely be the one that makes the bridge that "erects" after the lockdown is lifted.

Conclusion

It would take me much longer to finish all the models before I'd normally allow myself to show them off, so I hope hope you enjoyed this "real-time" overview of the work in progress stuff. 

Next I'll be finishing the designs and putting it all into the game, and Hopfel has already started working on functionality for all those machines.

I'll also do some work for the characters and refine the art style more before I start texturing and lighting this new home level.