An Update on Don’t Starve

[Bigfoot]

Hey everyone!

 

As you all know, when we launched Don’t Starve, we dedicated ourselves to having 6 months of constant content updates for the game. Since then, we’ve released content every 3 weeks, and the game has grown considerably -- new characters, new biomes, new creatures, new abilities, new craftables, better mod support... the list goes on.

 

What we’ve also found is that doing constant updates this frequently has its downsides: more needs to be tested, mods break, and quite importantly -- more content isn’t always better. So after some reviewing, we’ve decided to spend the last 4 updates really making what we have into a more cohesive whole.

 

This means instead of adding big new features (Lava or a new season), we’re going to focus on balancing the things we already have (Caves, Ruins, Recipes), and also squashing all the bugs that are always on the bottom of the pile because we need to rush for the next 3 week push. Another huge benefit is that mods won’t constantly break as we’re not shifting the ground beneath them.

 

It’s not as flashy, but we think it makes for a better game, which is always our priority.

 

So what’s to come after the the six months is over? We’re not quite sure yet, but we are excited to figure it out! In terms of updates, the team needs a break from 3 week sprints, that’s for sure. We still have a couple of surprise characters planned. I can’t say more about them right now, because they are supposed to be a surprise.

 

When November rolls around, the majority of the dev team is going to focus on the first Don’t Starve DLC. We haven’t decided what this is going to be yet (not multiplayer!), but I think that we are leaning towards bringing crazy new challenges set in the same world. We want to be able to make big scary changes to the game rules and do strange new things without changing the core, vanilla DS experience.

 

We hope to include the community in the DLC development like we have in the past. We really do believe that the game is better for having an early and constant audience.

 

If you’re curious about the gory details, here is the revised roadmap:

 

The Caves

 

Levels:

We had originally designed the Caves to be a place where Wilson digs deeper and deeper into new areas. However, the result was that each level we created felt anemic, and we quickly understood that it was better to fill out each level rather than create more anemic ones.Thus, we are going to stop at the Ruins, and Instead of adding more levels, we are going to take the next couple of updates to tune what already exists. The sinkhole level has a lot of content in it currently, but it doesn’t quite gel into a coherent gameplay experience yet. We’re going to look at adding some time-based cycles to fix this (the ruins has its own, special cycle that you’ll see soon). Our goal is to do a smaller number of things to a higher degree of polish, rather than spread our efforts too thin.

 

Visibility:

The caves as you have been playing them so far have had walls in place of the above-world oceans. These look cool when when you are standing in front of them, but we’ve been trying to solve the visibility problem when you’re in a tight hallway for a couple of updates now with limited success. Most of the visualization tricks that we have come up with for hiding them have been visually confusing, and there have been bad knock-on bugs and performance issues for low-spec machines.Instead, we’ve replaced them with pits, and the occasional pillar. The end result plays the same, and still looks like a cave, but most importantly it plays way better. Graphics have to follow gameplay, afterall.

 

Death Mechanic:

We haven’t done this yet, but we will put it in place when we finish up the sinkhole level. I’m pretty sure that death is going to just be death, independent of where it happens. This is the most consistent solution that fits best with our established themes. Death in adventure mode has some magical elements to it, but when you die in a cave you’re really just dying in a hole in the ground. This means that if you die in the cave, you’ll need to have a meat effigy somewhere in the world to respawn at.

 

Mod Support:

Modding is something that Bigfooot has been a huge proponent of since the beginning. We believe this is a place where we can explore new mechanics and different playstyles without sacrificing the core concepts of Don’t Starve.

 

Our focus on stability allows modders to build mods without having the ground shift under them every three weeks, which should let them focus their efforts on creating more great content. Given the size and enthusiasm of the mod community, we feel that mods have a huge opportunity to open up great new gamespaces in Don’t Starve.

 

Ipsquiggle has been working on stabilizing the mod API, and it is nearing where we’re happy with it (and we hope you are, too!). Steam workshop support is coming on August 20th, which will increase the audience and ease of use for mods greatly.

 

In addition, before the end of the updates, we want to open up the anim and sound pipelines to modders! There are some semi-large technical hurdles to overcome with these tasks, which are going to eat up a big chunk of dev time.

 

Character Rebalance

Hey, we did this! Yay! Maxwell should get his makeover before the end of the project. I hope that everyone is enjoying playing as Woodie. I expect a lot of really cool characters to come out of the mod community in the long run as well.

 

Platforms, Controls

Kevin is currently knee-deep in getting the controller support properly working. This is key to our upcoming Steam Big Picture support, as well as a requirement for the PS4 launch. The PS4 version is progressing nicely.

 

Merch!

The plan to have Wilson and his ilk invade your home is progressing well. I’ve seen some pretty cool things that we’re not quite ready to reveal yet. You’ll be pleasantly surprised.

 

So that’s where we stand with the roadmap. Our tentative update days for the rest of the project are Aug 20, Sep 10, Oct 1, and finally Oct 22. The Aug 20 update has a lot of content in it (for ruins). The subsequent updates will be smaller, and more and more focused upon fixing and tuning things.

Edited October 6, 2013 by tehMugwump
formatting

[Rabbitfist]

Hey everyone!

As you all know, when we launched Don’t Starve, we dedicated ourselves to having 6 months of constant content updates for the game. Since then, we’ve released content every 3 weeks, and the game has grown considerably -- new characters, new biomes, new creatures, new abilities, new craftables, better mod support... the list goes on.

What we’ve also found is that doing constant updates this frequently has its downsides: more needs to be tested, mods break, and quite importantly -- more content isn’t always better. So after some reviewing, we’ve decided to spend the last 4 updates really making what we have into a more cohesive whole.

This means instead of adding big new features (Lava or a new season), we’re going to focus on balancing the things we already have (Caves, Ruins, Recipes), and also squashing all the bugs that are always on the bottom of the pile because we need to rush for the next 3 week push. Another huge benefit is that mods won’t constantly break as we’re not shifting the ground beneath them.

It’s not as flashy, but we think it makes for a better game, which is always our priority.

So what’s to come after the the six months is over? We’re not quite sure yet, but we are excited to figure it out! In terms of updates, the team needs a break from 3 week sprints, that’s for sure. We still have a couple of surprise characters planned. I can’t say more about them right now, because they are supposed to be a surprise.

When November rolls around, the majority of the dev team is going to focus on the first Don’t Starve DLC. We haven’t decided what this is going to be yet (not multiplayer!), but I think that we are leaning towards bringing crazy new challenges set in the same world. We want to be able to make big scary changes to the game rules and do strange new things without changing the core, vanilla DS experience.

We hope to include the community in the DLC development like we have in the past. We really do believe that the game is better for having an early and constant audience.

If you’re curious about the gory details, here is the revised roadmap:

The Caves

Levels:

We had originally designed the Caves to be a place where Wilson digs deeper and deeper into new areas. However, the result was that each level we created felt anemic, and we quickly understood that it was better to fill out each level rather than create more anemic ones.

Thus, we are going to stop at the Ruins, and Instead of adding more levels, we are going to take the next couple of updates to tune what already exists. The sinkhole level has a lot of content in it currently, but it doesn’t quite gel into a coherent gameplay experience yet. We’re going to look at adding some time-based cycles to fix this (the ruins has its own, special cycle that you’ll see soon). Our goal is to do a smaller number of things to a higher degree of polish, rather than spread our efforts too thin.

Visibility:

The caves as you have been playing them so far have had walls in place of the above-world oceans. These look cool when when you are standing in front of them, but we’ve been trying to solve the visibility problem when you’re in a tight hallway for a couple of updates now with limited success. Most of the visualization tricks that we have come up with for hiding them have been visually confusing, and there have been bad knock-on bugs and performance issues for low-spec machines.

Instead, we’ve replaced them with pits, and the occasional pillar. The end result plays the same, and still looks like a cave, but most importantly it plays way better. Graphics have to follow gameplay, afterall.

Death Mechanic:

We haven’t done this yet, but we will put it in place when we finish up the sinkhole level. I’m pretty sure that death is going to just be death, independent of where it happens. This is the most consistent solution that fits best with our established themes. Death in adventure mode has some magical elements to it, but when you die in a cave you’re really just dying in a hole in the ground. This means that if you die in the cave, you’ll need to have a meat effigy somewhere in the world to respawn at.

Mod Support:

Modding is something that [MENTION=2]Bigfoot[/MENTION] has been a huge proponent of since the beginning. We believe this is a place where we can explore new mechanics and different playstyles without sacrificing the core concepts of Don’t Starve.

Our focus on stability allows modders to build mods without having the ground shift under them every three weeks, which should let them focus their efforts on creating more great content. Given the size and enthusiasm of the mod community, we feel that mods have a huge opportunity to open up great new gamespaces in Don’t Starve.

[MENTION=55]Ipsquiggle[/MENTION] has been working on stabilizing the mod API, and it is nearing where we’re happy with it (and we hope you are, too!). Steam workshop support is coming on August 20th, which will increase the audience and ease of use for mods greatly.

In addition, before the end of the updates, we want to open up the anim and sound pipelines to modders! There are some semi-large technical hurdles to overcome with these tasks, which are going to eat up a big chunk of dev time.

Character Rebalance

Hey, we did this! Yay! Maxwell should get his makeover before the end of the project. I hope that everyone is enjoying playing as Woodie. I expect a lot of really cool characters to come out of the mod community in the long run as well.

Platforms, Controls

[MENTION=8]Kevin[/MENTION] is currently knee-deep in getting the controller support properly working. This is key to our upcoming Steam Big Picture support, as well as a requirement for the PS4 launch. The PS4 version is progressing nicely.

Merch!

The plan to have Wilson and his ilk invade your home is progressing well. I’ve seen some pretty cool things that we’re not quite ready to reveal yet. You’ll be pleasantly surprised.

So that’s where we stand with the roadmap. Our tentative update days for the rest of the project are Aug 20, Sep 10, Oct 1, and finally Oct 22. The Aug 20 update has a lot of content in it (for ruins). The subsequent updates will be smaller, and more and more focused upon fixing and tuning things.

DLCs?!for this i would wait 1 year for a new don't starve update

[jbeetle]

Cool. I support everything I've read.

[Wilbur]

It's a shame we won't see the lava caves or the heat wave, but I agree that it's better that you fix the stuff that already is in the game instead of always adding new stuff, and therefore new bugs and such. We also have or awesome modders, so we will probably get more content from there too Looking forward to DLC's!! And the surprise characters!!

[Battal]

N-no lava caves?NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOBut all the same, I agree with what you guys have here. Bigger definitely is not always better. I hope to stick along for this ride through the final updates.

[jbeetle]

Anyone who doesn't appreciate changes over new content, I believe, will when the DLCs finally come out.

[Rabbitfist]

Anyone who doesn't appreciate changes over new content, I believe, will when the DLCs finally come out.

Dlcs.i didn't expected that we would ever get some.time to store some money

[Yourtime]

When November rolls around, the majority of the dev team is going to focus on the first Don’t Starve DLC

YES YES YES YES YES YES YES!!! That makes me really happy! I am really glad DS will get later something new (like DLC) too. I understand it very well that 3 week updates are really tiring time after time. Specially when you have not so many people to work on it. Of course it is little bit disappointed to hear "less content", but it has a big long time effect and makes more sense. So, I agree! Will buy the DLC instantly as it is out ;P

This means instead of adding big new features (Lava or a new season)

Well for me as greenhorn with just 38h play time and max day 64, It is for sure no problem to wait longer for these things

Steam workshop support is coming on August 20th, which will increase the audience and ease of use for mods greatly.

YEEEAAAH AWESOME! I have already long time a character in mind, so I will put all my work into it x)well well cant wait for them!

[Craig_Perry]

really cool to knowone question why isn't this thread stickied?edit: it has been now

Edited August 13, 2013 by Craig_Perry

[Rabbitfist]

really cool to knowone question why isn't this thread stickied?

maybe the mods stick it now?

[Boar Head]

Wait, let me make sure I've understood this correctly since these posts are kind of confusing me a little bit. Does that mean that the lava caves and heatwave season are completely scratched and aren't going to happen ever OR are they just delayed for the time being so that you can focus on balancing existing features and will be implemented later? Just to be sure that I'm understanding this correctly.

[Rabbitfist]

Wait, let me make sure I've understood this correctly since these posts are kind of confusing me a little bit. Does that mean that the lava caves and heatwave season are completely scratched and aren't going to happen ever OR are they just delayed for the time being so that you can focus on balancing existing features and will be implemented later? Just to be sure that I'm understanding this correctly.

the second one is correct, i think

[ARamblingSpider]

I'm not sure what to feel about DLC..

[Kevin]

We've decided not to do the heatwave and the lava cave. We're going to focus on polish for the last couple updates, and then move on to the DLC when the six months is up.In the end, they just weren't compelling enough to keep the game under active development. We're much more excited by the possibilities that giving the mod community a stable codebase will bring.

[ARamblingSpider]

Wait, let me make sure I've understood this correctly since these posts are kind of confusing me a little bit. Does that mean that the lava caves and heatwave season are completely scratched and aren't going to happen ever OR are they just delayed for the time being so that you can focus on balancing existing features and will be implemented later? Just to be sure that I'm understanding this correctly.

Yep, one of the good chances to make the game more challenging has been scraped.Oh and lava caves aren't going to be made either.

[Bigfoot]

So to be clear, we have no plans on adding lava / new season. The team will be spending the remaining time on making what we have more coherent, then afterward we'll be focusing on the DLC. The team really needs the breathing room to do something different, so I hope you're understanding of this!EDIT: Ninja'd by [MENTION=8]Kevin[/MENTION]

[Rabbitfist]

So to be clear, we have no plans on adding lava / new season. The team will be spending the remaining time on making what we have more coherent, then afterward we'll be focusing on the DLC. The team really needs the breathing room to do something different, so I hope you're understanding of this!EDIT: Ninja'd by [MENTION=8]Kevin[/MENTION]

we do, i mean, better than no content

[ARamblingSpider]

So to be clear, we have no plans on adding lava / new season. The team will be spending the remaining time on making what we have more coherent, then afterward we'll be focusing on the DLC. The team really needs the breathing room to do something different, so I hope you're understanding of this!EDIT: Ninja'd by [MENTION=8]Kevin[/MENTION]

I don't typically like DLC, especially the kind that costs more than the game itself.

[gustavogsl]

I knew I would not have time to finish everything.I'm sad because I always imagined willow in the lava cave.and the new season would be cool because it would give more variety in climate.at least we will have new charactersokay but who knows in the dlc got the lava cave and heat wave only time will tell.

[Wilbur]

In these last updates, will the overspawning ice hounds (from the hunting party) bug be fixed? Because it's still in the game, right?

[johnsnake71]

We've decided not to do the heatwave and the lava cave. .

Edited September 14, 2013 by johnsnake71
Thank you Justus for letting me know of this video existence.

[Bigfoot]

In these last updates, will the overspawning ice hounds (from the hunting party) bug be fixed? Because it's still in the game, right?

That's the kind of stuff we needed the room to fix! They sure do make for hilarious screenshots, though.

[Craig_Perry]

That's the kind of stuff we needed the room to fix! They sure do make for hilarious screenshots, though.

you mean like this one?

[ARamblingSpider]

That's the kind of stuff we needed the room to fix! They sure do make for hilarious screenshots, though.

Seriously, are images ever gonna work again? I'm sorry if I'm being grumpy but they haven't worked for about four weeks now and nothing has been said about why they still don't work.

[Wilbur]

That's the kind of stuff we needed the room to fix! They sure do make for hilarious screenshots, though.

Haha yeah, I have many pictures stored from being chased of 30+ hounds!