Age of Rust — Dev Update #6
Game Design and Technical World Design
For May, we wanted to highlight some of the development prototyping we’ve been building. We’re working on putting together a demo that we’ll eventually show off at a gaming or blockchain conference in the future. We will also be updating our website soon with more information about the game and how it utilizes Ethereum tokens and other crypto elements such as cryptocurrency rewards. However, for this dev update, we wanted to show off a little bit of the worlds being built.
C:\> open_world.exe
We want to put you into the open game world of Age of Rust and let you explore each of the worlds and locations in as much detail as possible. To do that, we’re using a lot of the same high resolution materials and editing tools that AAA game developers use to build their games. In using the same tools, we can bring a unique experience to our fans by allowing you to journey through each of the worlds. To give you an idea of what that is, one of the locations in the game has the real-world equivalent space of 650,000 square meters to explore. If you’ve played Firewatch or Dear Esther, then you have a good idea of an open world game can offer.
Rock, wind, and fire
In building out the universe for Age of Rust, the environment itself needed to be part of the experience of the game. To truly tell the whole story of the game, each of the places you visit needed to feel alive. So things like trees and grass sway in the gentle breeze. The soft light at sunset casts rays through the towering pine trees near a lonely trail. Bugs gather around lights at night and crickets chirp in the distance. You might wander into a cave where water drips from high above or travel to a planet where fierce winds and rain force you seek shelter. Fire might block your path or a rock slide could send you in a new direction. In order to bring the story to life, we’re adding lots of details like these into the gameplay.
Walking and knowing the path
Some areas of the game get a little extra attention to make objects blend into the terrain. In the video above, you can see some path defining objects being blended into the terrain. Mostly in areas where the lighting is harsh, objects in the game like boulders can seem out of place. While subtle, by blending them in with the terrain, it makes certain areas appear a little more detailed. Building out the game in this way puts players in an environment that adds a richness to the overall experience. High resolution textures are put through shaders that bring out details to make them “pop” out bringing additional detail and defination to the landscape and objects. Blending them together is a manual process, but gives some areas a more polished look.
A dark journey
To explore some of the darker places in the Age of Rust universe, we have to use dynamic lighting in the background. In these dark places, the player is often outfitted with a flashlight. Fog and smoke are frequently added to create an environment that the imagination often conjures up for exploring places like caves. High speed wind, clouds, rain, and lightning are employed to help craft dark planetscapes. For an interior, we take a cue from some great sci-fi films and add smoke, jittering lights, and objects like grates and pipes and other gritty textures to darken the mood.
Overall, we’re focusing on a building game that will hopefully send the player to another place and time. Hopefully by building in a rich experience, you’ll be pulled into the Age of Rust universe and set out to explore some of the unique and fun places we’re building.
See you next month for our next update. In the mean time, follow us on Twitter and join our discord server. Also make sure you check out Neon District, another exciting blockchain gaming project.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/SpacePirate_io
Website: https://www.ageofrust.games/
Discord: https://discord.gg/njjuTGD
Neon District: https://neondistrict.io/
