MESOLITH
-
A new way of approaching supersurvival market.
Mesolith is an early concept for a singleplayer “supersurvival”. It takes the ideas of iterative, freeform crafting and building as well as hunting, fishing, gathering, art and exploration. Set in early Mesolithic Europe, ca. 9,000 years before present, the game has a strong focus on time investment and constructive efficiency.
There are no:
- Levels, skills, experience points.
- Combat mechanics outside hunting (trapping, bow/sling/spear shooting).
- PvP Mechanics.
- Magic, dragons, etc.
- UI features for simplification purposes (There will be visual cues, in the gamespace rather than on the HUD).
There are:
- Complex physics based building and crafting mechanics.
- Dynamic fauna and flora.
- A very large, geologically and climate accurate open world.
- Hunger, thirst, body-temperature, illness, wound, fatigue parameters.
- Malleable volumes (voxel based, most likely) for clay, soil, sand building mechanics.
- Heat/cold as a calculated gas for tool construction, body temp regulation in huts, caves, constructions.
Players need to think as constructively as possible. This isn’t a game about amassing resources and creating a complex castle for the fun of it, its about surviving. Surviving is a full-time job. Players have to correctly store everything. Food will go bad if left in non-ideal conditions. Firewood won’t dry unless its stacked. Bog-ore won’t smelt into Ironbloom unless the furnace temperature is correct, the player is micromanaging the airflow, stoking and so on.
The game will make no excuses for its difficulty, there are no quick-bars, quick-stacking, one-click crafting, or any of the features which some developers believe adds to the experience.
Above all, it’s about learning. The player has to think laterally. You cannot create complex metal tools without a hard striking surface, an anvil, which takes a massive amount of raw Ironbloom to cast. But will a large rock do? Where can you get one? How can you transport it from a stream-bed, 300 meters away to your hut?
Adding an artistic, expressive or creative aspect to the game is important too. But collecting a palette of pigments is a task, red-ochre can only be found in areas with specific conditions etc.
For the artists, or even the aseptically inclined among you, the visual aspects of the game are possibly the most innovative.
Up until recent years, the traditional 3D pipelines have remained much the same: preproduction → production → implementation. This is the PPI method, from it we get the PPI matrix, a way of tracking production progress and ensuring consistency.
More recently, with titles such as the fantastic “Vanishing of Ethan Carter”, Photogrammetry has been a very plausible alternative to the traditional ‘hand-crafted’ PPI method (which is using tools such as 3DS Max for the 3D modelling process).
Today, “Mesolith” takes this a step further, this new process is if possible, even more painstaking than ever, but the results are completely unparalleled. The first step is research, all things academic and experimental. The real-world ancient methods of toolmaking, fabrication, construction and so forth are intimately understood before the process begins. The artists physically create the tools and objects the game-world character can and does. These objects are made solely with the traditional methods and techniques, flint arrowheads are knapped, stone Adze heads ground and polished, clay pots moulded and fired. Once this is done, the assets are scanned, using the established techniques for a PBR photogrammetry workflow and implemented.
The process yields incredible results, based on preliminary testing. Due to the historically accurate nature of the title, it’s necessary that these methods are adopted, photogrammetry is a technique which “doesn’t lie”, the established ‘tricks’ modern 3D artists use for forcing perspective, form and material don’t work. Therefor using modern tools in the creation of an asset which must practically radiate authenticity is not recommended or desired. If anything looks out of place, for example the grooves left by a modern metal saw blade, the player will notice it.
This new method requires a new matrix, because such a heavy influence on authenticity is placed, quality control and other consistency assurances have to be in place. The matrix itself, along with a template will be added to this post when they are created (asap, hold tight people).
Keeping in mind its not practical to scan everything, i.e. it’s a little difficult to get a live, friendly and compliant Giant Cave Bear (Ursus spelaeus) in 2015, therefore some assets will rely on more traditional methods.
Other aspects, such as environment art, will predominantly be photoscanned. Rocks, groundcover, bark and low flora (mosses, scrub). There currently isn’t a reliable way to scan complete trees or other complex flora, these assets will be made with established techniques.
The roadmap here is a long one. Owing to the highly experimental nature of some new mechanics, things will inevitably be changed and adapted as/if development goes forward.
Some key technical features:
- Heat as a real-time, physics-based, calculated gas. This is key in hut-building and the character vitality aspect, the ability to channel, store, amplify, siphon and distribute hot and cold air. Camp fires, furnaces, primitive radiators and so forth can be used in cooking/baking, smelting, heating etc.
- Voxel-based soil/clay/softs shaping (placing, moving, removing). Used in insulation, construction etc.
- Voxel-based shaping in woodwork. Wooden tools must be whittled and hacked into shape.
- Virtual-Texture implementation. This is vital for a good, across-the-board suspension of disbelief in scanned assets. Amplify’s “AmplifyTexture 2” is being looked into.
- Large, accurate world. Streamed in terrain tiles with VT support. The scale is not as important as the depth yet this is a focus.
- A persistent time, weather and season system. The seasons are certainly a stretch-focus. As prehistoric northern Europe was populated almost entirely by deciduous trees which means their leaf cover is dependant on the season. This presents a huge challenge.
- An ultra-simplistic UI. Ideally, nothing on the HUD with everything the player needs to know should be represented in the gamespace. Some sort of UI/Minigame-type event will need to be devised for some of the more complex hand-crafting mechanics.
I’m well aware this is a hugely ambitious concept. In reality, not everything is achievable. But a lot is.
Consider what modern “survival games” are trying to achieve: an interactive, comparative experience with other players to witness your feats and to interact with. PvP combat. PvE combat. Merit systems (“My player is stronger, faster than yours”). Crafting. Individuality expression. The list goes on and on.
The survival genre has become bogged down with the popular belief that if it isn’t an MMO RPG then it has to have zombies. Quite a shame.
-
Who I am: I’m a 3D and preproduction artist with extensive experience in creative design, planning and management. I’ve had over 6 years of hands-on experience in this industry, in addition I have a background in high finance and conveniently, anthropology.
Previous Projects: Having worked on various titles and projects over the years I’ve learnt a great deal about team management. Notably, for some of you who already know me, I currently work at Remix Games, on our IP “Line of Fire”, which is an upcoming social shooter.
Moving Forward and Employment Opportunities: Development hasn’t started, at this stage I’m looking into gaining a startup sum from a private investor and have and some interest. At this point there isn’t much to show for and I don’t need or expect capital for quite some time yet.
I’m debating weather to stick with U5 or move onto UE4, this is something to be carefully considered under advisement.
If you’re interested in working with me please shoot me a PM. I’m not hiring now but as soon as I start looking into prospect roles, ill be sure to let you know. Please keep in mind you will need extensive experience in your field, with plenty of willingness to learn new techniques. Artists: you’ll need a good working knowledge of PBR workflows, organic modelling, ideally creature animation and (probably) access to an area in which you can build/make things by hand, please see “art” section.
Programmers: You’ll need a broad skillset. There’s not much more than that in terms or requirements, the more experience the better.
Regardless of post you will need a professional attitude and willingness to be creative, active, and ready for a challenge every working day.
Of course you’ll be paid, this isn’t a fly-by-night “you’ll be paid after release” project.
Final disclaimer: This isn’t a WIP, its a discussion about the techniques and design of a truly new-generation survival experience.
All the best,
Chris
Edit: I’ve got a full album of finished photoscanned tools an implements to dump but not here.
I’m killing this thread and starting another in Unity WIP. There isn’t enough traffic here for a conversation however this is certainly the correct topic for this post.
