So much progress (Patreon)

This has been another really industrious period for me. I don't know if it's because I got that side project idea out of the way, or if it's because I got some ideas that gave this project a more precise direction, or if it's just the natural highs and lows, but it's probably all of those.

1. The ship is fun now

First, I added in security cameras and a button to open and shut the door to the ship. This is the first thing I'm doing to make the ship an epic, fancy and cozy control center for that player who always just wants to be the 'guy at the computer'. 

Next I'm going to add in ways to monitor other players and help them from inside the ship. Having someone on the ship computer will actually be a major help to the team, but it also won't be completely safe. 

2. Enemies outside

Then I finished the first outside enemy type and have been tweaking it a lot since. It made some great moments for me and my friends in early playtesting. It's a big bumbling idiot of an AI, which is perfect. 

I really appreciate you guys and want to give you something so here's this clip that shows a bit of the enemy as it is taking care of a straggler, if you don't mind spoiling what it looks like.

3. The time and planet system

 I added in a new system which has become the game's main way of progression. Basically, you can route the ship's autopilot to different planets with their own environments and fauna. When night falls on your current planet, you'll have to route the ship to another one (as time only passes when you're on the job.) 

As a result of this I also made it so you can land on planets at any time of the day. It's not ideal to land at any time past morning, but it's just fun and gives you a sense of the world being persistent. Each mission doesn't have to feel so utterly self-contained.

The last important piece of this is that some planets cost money to route the autopilot to, but you can earn more from scavenging at those planets. The game's arbitrary "profit quota" (which it would calculate for you at the start of each mission) is useless now since it's built into this risk/reward of paying up front to scavenge at distant planets.

At the start of this project I talked about how I wanted Lethal Company to have risk-vs-reward mechanics similar to a roguelite, where you can cut your losses or risk losing it all--like a hidden difficulty setting that is intrinsic. Now I've circled back to this, but it makes sense now. If you gamble all your money to travel to a faraway planet but bring nothing back, you could end up at square one, forced to return to the cheapest planets--the end of a "run." This accomplishes many of the goals I had with the game's progression system from the very start. 

I could have done a plain level select screen, but then each round would feel like it has no real consequences. There has to be some greater purpose to the moment-to-moment gameplay--usually for me that's a story and plot. But this isn't a single-player game, so the long-term gameplay loop has been elusive to me.