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Don't Starve Roadmap


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Hey everyone!

We're now nearing the end of our roadmap, and in this last month or so, we're going to be continually tuning the game. This community has been absolutely invaluable with the feedback, and hearing about your specific experiences are incredibly helpful. While giving feedback, please remember that these forums are only as good as the community, and that we try hard to keep the forums a welcoming, friendly place to be.

While the vision of the game has been clear to us, the path is winding and difficult. I hope our actions have shown that we develop with conviction, and that we do what we believe is right through the lenses of the vision. Sometimes, this will seem like we're flip-flopping in our decisions -- let me assure you it's not. As developers we have learned that it is more effective to tune by being bold, then adjusting to the right values, rather than slowly edging our values up. We then not only test our changes through you, the forum community, but also through a continual process of bringing players into our office, week after week. It's a slow, sometimes painful, but ultimately incredibly satisfying experience of building a meaningful game.

As we've added a lot of new features lately, I'd like to clarify the game modes and what our vision of them are:

Sandbox: As a stranger to an unknown world, Wilson finds this place to be both wondrous and harsh, and he struggles to come to grips on how to survive. Wilson must use his wits to fight the entropy of the land, all the while the world is changing around him.

Adventure: Once players have decided they can undertake the world that Maxwell has presented, they can decide to go on an adventure against Maxwell. Are you able to overcome ever-harsher lands?

In addition to these modes, we give more control over the generation of the land in Sandbox, and in fact we will most likely be unlocking the vast majority of it by default. We will be providing presets for players which they can then fine tune, and although we have a "default" setting, we don't see that as "the way to play". In fact, a big part of Don't Starve is to play the way you want, and that includes the way the worlds are generated.

Finally, there are the mods. This is the place we can all posit "what would Don't Starve feel like if...?" Already some very interesting mods are being created, and I've personally bundled a couple mods to get people started.

I hope that helps clarify where things currently stand! I started Klei to create new, meaningful experiences, and I stand by that this forum can be different. That it can grow and prosper, and continue to be a welcoming place. If you have any questions, I'm hear to answer them.

Edited by Bigfoot
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Excellent. Oh, while I'm here, will we ever get a Mod interface in-game that doesn't involve tampering with the game files. Even after follwing ALL advice / instructions, still get the 'dont_starve.exe has stopped working' error. It's very annoying. :)I got it sorted...(was unzipping wrong :()

Edited by ArcticFox789
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I am very excited to have all of the world generation options, it really captures difficulty modes beyond the simple "hard and easy mode" system. Giving the game more options and allowing players to tailor their own experiences is one of the best things that could've been added to the game.The game is turning out fantastically, and I'm stoked to see what amazing mods people come out with.

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[MENTION=7686]ArcticFox789[/MENTION] I'd like to implement that at some point. Right now, we purposely made it a bit more involved so we don't get slammed with support requests as we iron out and improve the mod system.

Great! Uhhhh... I got mentioned by the Founder of Klei *faints* :)
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Great! Uhhhh... I got mentioned by the Founder of Klei *faints* :)

Calm down, man. If we let his head get too big he won't be able to fit through the door. And then Klei will probably be run by Kevin or JoeW, and none of us want that. They'll run it into the ground!
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Calm down, man. If we let his head get too big he won't be able to fit through the door. And then Klei will probably be run by Kevin or JoeW, and none of us want that. They'll run it into the ground!

Awwww, [MENTION=4449]Sliver[/MENTION], how sweet. :wilsoncj:
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Sandbox: this is the core of the game. As a stranger to an unknown world, Wilson finds this place to be both wondrous and harsh, and he struggles to come to grips on how to survive. Wilson must use his wits to fight the entropy of the land, all the while the world is changing around him.

Adventure: this is Maxwell's challenge to Wilson. Are you able to overcome ever-harsher lands?

Wow, just wow. After ALL the hints, ALL the promises and all whatever story mode was hinted to be your saying NOW 1 month before release that essentially SANDBOX-mode ( Which isn't sandbox at all, it's free-play ) is the MAIN game. NO, just no, it doesn't MAKE ANY SENSE.

Since when was the story NOT the main part of the game? It's not exactly an open world as Elderscrolls. And the fact that you have stated that you will unlock what you define as the MAIN-GAME ( Sandbox Mode ) with the SUB-GAME ( Adventure Mode ), I'd like to call bull****, yes that's harsh but hey guess what this final very discrete mention of that SANDBOX is the main part is just a cheap shot. With sandbox as the main part you don't ( read you as a company ) need to tune or tweak, essentially the players will do that for you. You don't need to make sure content stretches throughout the entire game, because you got mods, the player will develop for you.

If sandbox is the way you like to go, where the player has control over their experience, why have you been so persistent about not implementing difficulties, not implementing multiplayer? Because you want to develop a great single-player experience? A single-player sandbox experience where players defines the tuning? No.

If I was told that it was going to be a sandbox game from the beginning, I would not invest nearly as much time into this game, nor this forum, it was not clear nor was it EVER clear that sandbox was the core of the game, and for that I'm disappointed in Klei, couldn't you included that somewhere in the game information?

Maybe it's the wine that I just quaft or the fact that it's late here in Sweden or that I'm over reacting, but I felt I better write down how my initial raw feelings is towards this announcement was before thinking it over.

tl;dr I'm not pleased with the information you have given us before this announcement.

And I'm sorry if it sounds like a ****storm of bashing but I guess I'm just frustrated with this, and I really hope that you can understand why somehow.

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As part of supporting the mod community, will Klei release tools so we can start working with the more complicated TEX files handling animations or UI? The community's compilation tool existing now, is limited to some simple menu portraits, I think.If I understand correctly these files are made in Flash and then compiled by a custom Python script written by Klei and generally things like these are not shared so freely. But without it, the amount of actual new content that the community can add, remains quite limited.

Edited by Stroomschok
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Hmmmm, I'm not quite sure what to say. I think the Sandbox-Mode is a good thing and should be there to offer every player a game which he can enjoy. But to be honest, I was and will waiting for the Adventure-Mode (aka Story-Mode) more. Cause I like the tiny bits of story we already have and the crushing good video you presented to us.

It sounds like there will be only a skeleton of a story. Maxwells Challenge? Like what we already have. Maxwell talking two sentences and then world hopping till Maxwell states: ''Ok, pal you won...'' I hope not. But I have to sleep over this.

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Yay, more control over Sandbox. :DIf you made a setting for all the features of the game from hunger to sanity, all the terrain generation, which mobs spawn and which don't, which seasons exist and how long they are, day/night length, ect. Everyone would be happy! Elitists could make it as hard as they want without punishing people who can't play at their level, and Newbies could slowly be introduced to harder difficulties without being frustrated and quitting. Everyone wins!

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[MENTION=4538]Moonkis[/MENTION] -- interesting. My feeling is this: that players will eventually graduate from sandbox into adventure. To be clear, adventure mode is not a "side" thing. We're heavily invested in making it the story mode on Wilson's grand adventure, and fully realizing that path. But what I meant by core, and perhaps core is the wrong word, is that players will be placed in sandbox in the beginning of their adventure, and it's where they will cut their teeth on the game and learn how all the systems work. Once players are ready, they can take on Maxwell.So I guess my point is: story mode has not changed! I will continue to think about how best to convey our modes to make sure it makes sense to players.

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[MENTION=4538]Moonkis[/MENTION] -- interesting. My feeling is this: that players will eventually graduate from sandbox into adventure. To be clear, adventure mode is not a "side" thing. We're heavily invested in making it the story mode on Wilson's grand adventure, and fully realizing that path. But what I meant by core, and perhaps core is the wrong word, is that players will be placed in sandbox in the beginning of their adventure, and it's where they will cut their teeth on the game and learn how all the systems work. Once players are ready, they can take on Maxwell.So I guess my point is: story mode has not changed! I will continue to think about how best to convey our modes to make sure it makes sense to players.

Oh, yes, that I can get behind, yes sounds a lot better and more logical.Thank you Bigfoot for being so calm and explaining it to me even though I got all over the place, thank you!EDIT:Also I'm sorry for my behavior!
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As part of supporting the mod community, will Klei release tools so we can start working with the more complicated TEX files handling animations or UI? The community's compilation tool existing now, is limited to some simple menu portraits, I think.If I understand correctly these files are made in Flash and then compiled by a custom Python script written by Klei and generally things like these are not shared so freely. But without it, the amount of actual new content that the community can add, remains quite limited.

We'll be releasing our file formats once we have some time. We've also released our textureconverter here. With that, modders should be able to create their own animations. We'll keep watching the modding community and supporting them in the ways that we can.
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So in one of the Klei devs own words, I would like to see one of you say exactly what kind of game Don't starve is supposed to be, we know what the website says. But I want you to say it, it would clear up at least half of the arguments people have on the forum.

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We'll be releasing our file formats once we have some time. We've also released our textureconverter here. With that, modders should be able to create their own animations. We'll keep watching the modding community and supporting them in the ways that we can.

Ah, yes. I seemed to have missed that thread. :flustered:Considering the extreme moddability of this game, the mod community for this game is likely going to be huge, keeping the game alive and players enthusiast for many future DLCs, long beyond the average life-expectancy for smaller 'indy' games like these.Besides good modding tools, Klei could certainly stimulate this by adding a good mod-manager and integration into Steam Workshop.
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