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Land Above Sea Under is a puzzle sport about increase islands above a rising tide. Gamers must rigorously place varied tiles to maintain their island above water, all whereas steadily constructing a wonderful waterside place that defies the tides that goal to continually drag it down.
Recreation Developer sat down with Péter Takács, co-founder of Glasscannon Studio, to speak about how the putting look of fall by the seaside impressed the sport’s creation, the ideas that went into making a tile system that was putting in addition to helpful for realizing gameplay info, and the way the sport was rigorously designed across the capabilities of the studio to make sure it was one thing they might ship.
Land Above Sea Under is a sport about retaining islands from getting flooded. What impressed you to create a sport round this idea?
The first aim was to develop a chill sport that’s stress-free however has depth and offers a enough problem for individuals who search it. We based mostly this on each visible and audio components and, after all, the gameplay loop.
What drew you to the precise idea of working with a flooding island? Why this specific environmental state of affairs?
I really like nature very a lot, particularly its two extremes. The assembly of the ocean and the mountains has all the time captivated my gaze for some purpose. Just one factor may surpass this: the colour palette of autumn forests. The best way objects submerged within the water stand out within the sea offers a very distinctive and considerably mystical spectacle. These items largely decided the route by which I began creating the visible theme of the sport.
The sport sees gamers putting tiles on an island to maintain it above an ever-rising sea stage. What ideas went into creating this gameplay mechanic?
The rising of the ocean stage establishes the problem within the sport. Moreover, the submerged however nonetheless seen tiles present glorious visible distinction. Within the preliminary variations, this mechanic did not matter a lot, and there was no unfavorable impression on the gameplay if a tile sank. Nevertheless, we seen that the problem rapidly disappeared, so we constructed the opposite sport mechanics round this to handle it.
What ideas went into designing the precise tiles across the island theme? How did you flip pure locations into gameplay tiles that gamers may simply inform aside and know their performance?
The formulation is essentially fairly easy. We used colour coding for the assorted base varieties to make clear to gamers which tiles belong collectively. The extra subtypes (river, particular, and the Tree of Fall) are persistently present in each major kind, and the principles are the identical whatever the major kind. There’s one exception, the fort kind, which may solely be encountered with village-type tiles. In fact, the person interface performs an vital position in serving to gamers perceive what they see on the display screen. The icons and colours related to the tiles make it even clearer what kind of tile or tiles the participant is taking a look at, so after slightly time, only a look is sufficient to know what sort of tile to put and underneath what guidelines.
Tiles have synergies with each other that may have wide-ranging constructive results. What concepts went into this method? Why did you need to create these connections between sure tiles, and what impact did you need them to have on the gameplay?
Synergies make up the puzzle facet of the sport. The extra skillful the participant is, the additional they will progress within the sport or the extra factors they will rating. The aim was for the participant to suppose forward and never essentially all the time place the following tile within the place that yields probably the most factors or the best synergy, however to think about the tiles not but positioned within the present season and discover the most effective technique based mostly on them.
Are you able to inform us in regards to the synergy system and the way it works?
Synergy guidelines are the next:
Place the brand new tile in order that it’s adjoining to not less than three comparable tiles to lift their stage.
If these tiles even have a synergy stage of not less than x3, then in addition they set off a cascading rise of the affected neighbors and so forth. The variety of neighbors of the identical kind calculates the synergy stage of a tile (x0-x6).
Every rise is value a rating level, so the bigger the world affected, the extra factors you get. The upper the synergy of the tile triggering the chain, the upper the multiplier on rating factors.
That will help you establish synergies, the sport highlights all affected land tiles.
A tile can solely be raised as soon as every day (step).
How did you design the rewards that gamers earned from creating good synergies? What types of concepts went into creating issues to encourage the participant to do nicely? And the way did you stability these rewards in order that they did not make issues too simple?
It was vital that we reward the participant for each positioned tile, however by no means ought to the sport instantly penalize the participant if a tile is positioned within the mistaken spot. We iterated loads on the reward system. Maybe probably the most difficult facet was figuring out when the participant ought to obtain additional strikes inside a season. Moreover, it wasn’t clear from the start at what stage of synergy the island ought to begin to rise.
The mini-objectives have been launched comparatively late within the sport, though we knew they’d be obligatory to supply the participant with each short-term and long-term duties. Nevertheless, after we applied this function, it utterly disrupted the stability, and we needed to rethink all different rewards as nicely.
As you needed to rethink your rewards, are you able to inform us how the rewards labored initially, in addition to the way you arrived on the present system within the sport?
The concept and the aim from the beginning have been to reward the participant to some extent for every part. Within the preliminary variations, the reward system was based mostly on the participant incomes factors for the positioned tiles and receiving motion playing cards at sure milestones, which they might use at their discretion. The change got here after we lowered the unique 12 steps in a season to seven and launched the idea that gamers obtain additional steps for synergies of stage 4 or greater and for finishing mini targets. From this level, gamers had the chance to develop methods.
The tiles serve a number of gameplay functions but in addition enable the participant to create stunning island locations as nicely. How did you’re employed on designing this method for magnificence alongside utility?
The event of the visible world got here first. It was vital for us to see what we may obtain visually from the very starting of the event and to make sure that what we have been creating would catch the gamers’ consideration. We continually monitored suggestions to guarantee that gamers and potential clients would understand the sport as we meant: a sport with wealthy autumn colours and a soothing ambiance that gives a nice visible expertise even after a very long time.
What design selections went into the visible fashion? How did you design the tiles for magnificence and gameplay readability in Land Above Sea Under?
The visible fashion was a private choice, however after all, it was essential for us to make the sport stand out ultimately. The muse was to work with low-poly objects, as within the case of bigger islands, quite a lot of belongings seem on the display screen, and our restricted sources directed the event on this route. The tile design was based mostly on utilizing asset packs that matched the bottom colour of every major kind, and every major kind had some thematic components.
Why was it vital so that you can design the visuals first? How did your capabilities in visuals have an effect on the sport you needed to create?
It was most vital for us to have the ability to current a visually charming demo as quickly as doable that we may pitch to publishers. And, after all, we additionally loved engaged on the visuals; maybe that was probably the most thrilling a part of the event.
As you’re a small studio, what ideas went into designing the sport in a method that will work together with your abilities, capabilities, and obtainable time?
I began the event by myself, and from the start, it was vital to plan the sport in such a method that I may deal with each facet of it if I could not discover appropriate collaborators. Throughout the venture planning, I took my competencies under consideration, in addition to the presently trending genres, and chosen those that additionally resonated with me. Then, I set a comparatively quick timeframe of 1 to 1.5 years to finish the sport.
Taking these elements into consideration, I made all the selections at first, and later, even when working with others, these ideas decided whether or not we realized an thought or discarded it as a result of it did not match inside the timeframe or style or we did not have the required competencies for its execution.
How did you make all of those components work with procedurally generated tiles? What drew you to make use of procedural technology, and what do you are feeling it added to the sport?
We’re a really small studio. Now we have one developer, one graphic artist with restricted time primarily specializing in the UI, and one composer. So, it was essential for us to create probably the most various visuals from a small variety of belongings since we did not need to delay the event for a few years.
You have got crafted a sport with a peaceful ambiance however one which has an ever-present “hazard” coming from the rising waters. How do you stability creating rigidity with the tide stage whereas additionally making a sport that feels peaceable?
With out the rise in water stage, Land Above Sea Under can be an infinite sport. We needed to make sure that gamers are compelled to think about when and the place to put the tiles, and if they aren’t expert sufficient, progressively, the water will engulf sure components of their island. As well as, we have been very attentive to making sure that this doesn’t pose a right away menace to the participant. If somebody is already acquainted with the essential mechanics, the hazard of the rising water stage turns into negligible, however, after all, one ought to nonetheless take note of it.
What do you hope gamers take away from this expertise of retaining wild lands secure from flooding? Is there one thing you hope to spark within the participant?
Now we have obtained suggestions from varied sources concerning the sport’s connection to world warming. Though this subject is vital to us as nicely, we don’t need to give the impression that the sport is said to it. We merely needed to ship a light-weight and pleasant gaming expertise to the gamers.
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