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Lacuna Passage - Devlog #22 - Survival Assets Preview

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We are making continued progress with art development for Lacuna Passage and this week we would like to share a few new assets related to the survival elements of the game. Every food and water packet you will find in the game is fully rendered and detailed. Your inventory is not just a text list in a menu. You will have control over a very visual inventory consisting of dozens of unique assets. Check out some of the assets we have created so far below.

We are still adding even more items (including canned and boxed foods), but we are very happy with the look of the transparent and foil packets. On the technical side, most packets range between 200 and 400 polygons with a few of the more complex ones up near 1000.

When you are alone on Mars will you save your vacuum sealed dessert packs for last?

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Lacuna Passage - Devlog #21 - Soundtrack Preview #4

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Every once and a while we like to share a bit of the soundtrack as it builds and evolves over time. If you watched our video devlog from last week you might recognize the piece from the loops we used to demonstrate the dynamic soundtrack features of the game. They were originally meant just as test loops while we worked on the system side, but I liked them so much that they may find their way into the finished game. Here they are in their entirety. 

Once again, the music credit goes to the talented Clark Aboud. Here's a playlist of all the tracks we've shared so far.

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"Ask an Astronaut" - Lacuna Passage Contest Winners

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After reading through 30 excellent entries in our "Ask an Astronaut" writing contest we came to six finalists that really impressed us. Of those six we had a difficult time narrowing it down to only three winners, so... we are happy to announce our FOUR winners and two honorable mentions!

Each of our four winners will have their message included in the game as well as responses from the in-game characters they chose to write to. We settled on these particular entries because each of them presented unique ways for us to respond that will allow for great character building opportunities and entertaining side narratives. Join us in congratulating our winners by reading their entries below, but you will have to wait to hear the characters' responses in the final game! Here they are in no particular order:

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Entry by Douglas Bonderud

To: Anton Bolshov
From: Vladimir Bolshov
Subject: была не была

Anton,

One of your friends came by the farmhouse today. It seems you are finally going. What assurances have they made of your return? The fields you seek could be fallow, or burning. What can you know of where God steps alone?

Your mother worries, wondering if they feed you enough and what you will eat on that forsaken rock. I am held captive by memory; your beardless face gray and pallid as I pulled you from the car, battery long dead in the storm. Three miles from the farm, and nearly lost forever—what happens at three million? Who comes for you then?

I would rather disagree with a son than bury him. Return home, and all is forgiven. Leave, and let come what may.

Entry by Barry Neville

To: Devi Chawla-Stuart
From: Louise Godrey
Subject: UK Female Today Reader Questions

Greetings Commander,

Being an award winning UK women's magazine we have taken a keen interest in both your mission and in particular yourself,  the sole UK national and sole female crewmember..

We intend to run an in-depth article hoping to discover more about you, your struggles to balance your UK upbringing with your Indian heritage, the impact your educational and career choices had upon your family and friends and to explore the moment you discovered your hard work and sacrifice had paid off and that you had been chosen to represent the UK and women everywhere on this legendary mission.  

In the lead up to this we have recently run a competition giving one lucky reader the chance to ask you 3 hard-hitting questions!
Our randomly chosen winner is Ms Audrey Neville and her questions are:

1. Do you wear special space bras?
2. How excited are you to be cooped up with 4 fit foreign men for so long?
3. How will you maintain your complexion in such a dry place so far away from the sun?
 
Kind Regards

Louise Godfrey
Editor of UK Female Today

Entry by Mark Biswas

To: Hermes Crew
From: Davis Jamies
Subject: (None)

Dear Hermes crew,

I’m an eighth-grade science teacher. I just wanted to first say thank you. None of you have ever met any of my students, but you have no idea how you motivate them. Just the fact that this mission exists makes science real and exciting to them, in a way that I could never impart. They all have a year-running science project where they track your progress and report on the news, which we do at the end of every week. They always want to talk about it––sometimes making it difficult to transition to other subjects!

I believe science education in the United States and elsewhere is too neglected, and it is important that children are able to be inspired to pursue STEM careers, as each of you were, if we are to solve the coming problems ahead. Unfortunately, we can’t have missions to Mars running all the time to capture students’ imaginations, so I’d like to ask you, what do you think should be done to improve science education and foster science literacy?

Kind Regards,

Davis Jamies
Guy B. Phillips Middle School
Chapel Hill, NC

Entry by Joseph Peterson

To: Hermes Crew
From: Samantha Beiswenger
Subject: "Ask an Astronaut" Question

To the Crew of the Hermes:

My name is Samantha Beiswenger from PS37 in Worthington. I am in the 5th grade. Ms. Bittles our principal assigned the entire school this “Ask an Astronaut” task. Lots of people have really good questions, some people have really stupid ones. Since I was sick the day it was assigned, I had a hard time coming up with a question that someone hadn’t already asked. Mr. Marginess is keeping a log so that way we don’t have copies :)

So, because Jane and Kip both wanted to know, and it seems I’m the only one brave enough to ask:

What do you do with all your poop?

Sincerely,
Samantha Beiswenger

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Entry by Jon Parsons

Entry by Kevin Heyse

Thank you to all who entered. Keep an eye out for other contests we might open in the future!

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"Ask an Astronaut" - Lacuna Passage Writing Contest

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A large part of the storytelling in Lacuna Passage takes place via written or audible journal entries, mission logs, communication between crew members, or communications from Earth. Some of these story fragments are critical to the plot related to the missing crew members of the Hermes and some of them are there to build a world around the characters and who they are.

Today we would like to announce a contest to incorporate your writing in Lacuna Passage. Your challenge is to write an email directed to the Hermes crew astronauts asking them questions about their mission before they arrive on the Red Planet. The top three entries will be selected and included in the game along with a response from one or more of the characters answering your questions. You will also receive the Physical Collector’s Edition of the game, Closed Beta access, and the Limited Edition Poster (all previously only available to Kickstarter backers).

To be eligible your entry needs to follow some basic guidelines:

  1. No more than 200 words.

  2. The text must be “in-fiction”. Do not make references to the game Lacuna Passage. You are communicating with fictional characters in the game, and if your entry is selected they will “communicate” back to you via in-game text.

  3. You may use your real name and details about you in the message, but that must be made clear in an explanation about your entry and you must give us permission to use your name in the game if we select your entry.

  4. You may submit no more than 5 entries.

Some ideas for framing your message:

  1. Write a message from a curious student who wants to know how to become an astronaut.

  2. Write a message from yourself asking specifics about the mission to Mars.

  3. Write a message from someone who knows the astronaut personally. If we like what you come up with we may incorporate the relationship into the astronaut’s backstory.

Your message can be directed at the crew of the Hermes (the 1st mission to Mars) as a group or any particular member of the crew. The following details about the crew should give you a start.

Commander - Anton Bolshov - Russia

Pilot - Elijah Conners - USA

Payload Commander - Devi Chawla-Stuart - UK/India

Flight Engineer - George Carpenter - USA

Science Officer - Dimitri Moroshkin - Russia

To submit your entry email us at info [at] lacunapassage.com. You can include your text as an attachment or in the body of the email. The deadline for entry will be 11:59PM Central Time US on Saturday, November 30th. Entries received after that time will not be eligible. Depending on the number of entries, we should be able to announce the winners by the end of December.

Make sure to spread the word on Twitter and Facebook, and good luck!

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Lacuna Passage - Devlog #19 - The Power of Unity Plugins Round 2

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Back in April we posted about some of the Unity plugins that we are using to create Lacuna Passage. Since then we have started using even more plugins that have further eased our development workflow. Here are some of our favorites.

Terrain Composer - By Nathaniel Doldersum

I wish we had access to this tool from the start. Terrain Composer allows you to do some pretty incredible things to generate and tweak your terrain directly in Unity without the help of external tools. We still utilize a few external tools like World Machine, but Terrain Composer helps in handling some of the more repetitive menial tasks. This is an extremely powerful tool for those who take the time to learn it.

ats Colormap ULTRA Terrain Shader - By forst

We talked about our terrain shader in our previous showcase, but this is much more than just a shader now. The updates made here have drastically improved our terrain creation workflow, especially now that it is fully compatible with Unity 4.X. The new editor interface for setting up your terrain is super intuitive and automates many of the steps that were originally mostly manual. In my honest opinion Unity needs to make these kinds of terrain tools the default. When combined with Terrain Composer you have everything you need to make the most believable worlds possible in Unity.

Highlighting System - By Deep Dream Games

We are using the Highlighting System to help the player identify some objectives and highlight key objects in the environment. The effects are fairly uniform, but you can change colors and overlay/blending methods to suit your needs. There are plenty of provided example scripts to get you started with whatever highlighting functionality you might need.

Mega-Fiers - By Chris West

Mega-Fiers… What can I say about Mega-Fiers that you haven’t heard already (seriously, they do an awesome job marketing and demonstrating this plugin). Well, in case you don’t know, Mega-Fiers is an extremely powerful mesh deformation plugin. If you need a mesh to bend, twist, wave, squish, or anything else, then look no further. I first used Mega-Fiers when working on TIMEframe to create the slow-motion blowing banners in the city. I was able to animate the banners in 3ds Max using physics simulations and export the vertex animation data for use in Unity. The result is a smooth, incredibly detailed cloth-like animation that would not have been possible with the Unity cloth animation tools. We are excited about the possibilities for Mega-Fiers in Lacuna Passage.

NGUI - By Tasharen Entertainment

There is a reason that NGUI has become almost the default for creating user interfaces in Unity. It is undeniably better suited for the task than the built-in Unity GUI tools. We recently began work on converting the datapad GUI over to NGUI and we are very happy with the results. Fewer draw calls, manageable layer depths, texture atlasing, and more. I can’t imagine using anything else. Once you try NGUI you don’t go back.

Shader Forge Alpha - By Acegikmo

In our last plugin showcase we mentioned some great hard surface shaders; however, since that time we have made the plunge into creating shaders of our own. I had used the node-based Strumpy Shader Editor for a few years, but that plugin seems to be defunct now and not supported correctly in Unity 4.X. Luckily Shader Forge appears to have picked up the mantle. They are still in Alpha, but we have been testing the Alpha version to create new shaders for Lacuna Passage and we are blown away with the results. Plugins like Shader Forge go a long way in closing the visual gap between engines like Unreal and Unity. Keep an eye on this one and snatch it up the minute it hits the asset store.

 

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Lacuna Passage - Devlog #18 - More Concept Art, a New Shader, and Terrain

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While we toil away on development of Lacuna Passage we thought we might give you a peek at some more concept art. We have really hit our stride with our art style, due in large part to our concept artist, Brandon Kern. Check out some of his work below.

As we worked on bringing these concepts to life in 3D we realized that our equipment shader just wasn't up to the task. The normal maps were not as pronounced as we would have liked, and it was difficult to define strongly contrasting materials. Our models looked somewhat desaturated and ubiquitous across what should have been different surfaces. We set about creating a shader that would give us greater control over contrast and material definition (things like fresnel lighting, reflectivity, edge highlighting, and specularity). Below you can see the result of our efforts. It is now much easier to see the difference between surfaces like shiny plastic, dull metal, and rough rubber. This improved shader is still in testing since it was created using an alpha version of the upcoming Unity add-on "Shader Forge", but we are excited with the results and hope to utilize the eventual commercial release of Shader Forge.

We've also been hard at work detailing the full-scale terrain that will be featured in the final game. Proper textures will be applied much later, but the massive heightmap is coming together quite nicely and should present the player with a wide variety of real Mars geographic features to explore. Check out a little preview below.

Time-lapse of the (still unfinished) terrain

Time-lapse of the (still unfinished) terrain

Untextured 3D preview of terrain in its current state

Find out more about how we are creating our terrain in our previous devlog.

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Lacuna Passage - Devlog #16 - From The Forums #1

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 This week we are starting a new intermittent devlog feature called "From The Forums" where we will highlight some of our favorite questions posed by fans on our official forums. Check out some of our answers from the previous month.

1. Forum user mcchic45 asked if there will be actual previous or future/planned Mars mission equipment to discover.

Tyler Owen: This is definitely something that we have considered, however, there are two sides to the blade of realism. Mars is very large and our previous rovers are spread out over vast distances on it's surface. If we want to be pedantically realistic then it would be impossible for us to reach those other man-made structures from the region where Lacuna Passage takes place (namely Holden Crater). We will see how we might be able to find a balance here since so many people have expressed a similar desire.

2. Forum user JosephineC asked about system requirements.

Owen: It is still very early, but generally we would like to have the game run well on low settings on a 2012 MacBook Pro. That is the Mac we have for testing so that is our goal. I think if you have a desktop that is less than 5 years old you should be okay, but even older might be reasonable. We really want the game to scale for many different machines.

I don't want to really quote any real system specs and get caught with my foot in my mouth later (but hopefully in the near future we will have more details).

3. Forum user orpheus asked if anyone from Random Seed Games will be attending any gaming shows in the future.

Owen: The first show that we are planning to attend is GDC 2014, but we may hit a few more if the budget and scheduling allows for it (potentially PAX East).

4. Forum user orpheus asked if the game will be exclusively first-person and if you will be able to see your body.

Owen: Our goal is to never cut away from the first-person perspective. I look to games like Half Life for their ability to tell a story entirely through a first-person perspective.

As far as body awareness goes, it will be difficult for us to achieve an animated body with the limited resources we have.

5. Forum user masookerguy asked about the dynamic elements of the game play (weather, survival resources, etc).

Owen: Since the story of the game is almost completely non-linear we have quite a bit of freedom to have lots of randomly generated events and little details. It's more about what we have time for than anything. We would like to make lots of elements unpredictable so that everyone will have different survival experiences and so that the game is more replayable.

6. Forum user orpheus asked how saving will work.

Owen: We are still experimenting with a save method that we think will fit the gameplay best. Our intent right now is to save the game every time you "sleep". This adds a bit of danger to exploration in that you could lose your progress if you don't keep track of your resources. This could change though. It depends on what feels best for gameplay.

7. Forum user synchromesh asked if habitats and stations will be exploreable and if vehicles will be driveable.

Owen: Almost all of the habitats and capsules will be exploreable. We have not confirmed any usable vehicles however. There are some limitations for us to consider.

8. Forum user ItchyVagoo asked what survival elements we are focused on.

Owen: Here are the survival elements that we are currently working with:

  • Starvation

  • Dehydration

  • Exhaustion

  • Stamina

  • Oxygen levels

  • Battery levels

And here are a few things we are considering or currently testing:

  • Body temperature

  • Injuries

  • Illness

9. Forum user orpheus asked if we will be including controller support.

Owen: This is something we plan to support 100%. I also play many PC games with a 360 pad so that's how I plan on playing LP myself.

10. Forum user orpheus asked if Lacuna Passage will contain any mature themes or content.

Owen: That is a very good question. I would personally like to have some of our characters react in ways that I find more realistic (swearing, discussing mature themes, etc), but we may decide to offer a "clean" version as well.

Most of these astronauts would probably be very professional in their conduct, but if you had all communication cut off from Earth with no way to return I think almost anyone would slip a little. We aren't looking to include mature content for shock value. We just want to avoid the "censored for TV" effect, where it's more noticeable when someone reacts inappropriately because they *avoid* swearing/etc.

11. Forum user orpheus asked if Jessica Rainer’s character development will be a primary element of the plot.

Owen: Jessica's character development is a huge part of your journey on Mars. We are going to be focusing a lot of time and attention on her motivations for becoming an astronaut as well as what keeps her going when it seems like all hope is lost.

12. Forum user orpheus (this person is seriously hungry for info about Lacuna Passage) asked what might be included in the Kickstarter Exclusive Bonus Content.

Owen: We haven't finalized anything for the Kickstarter bonus content ($25 level), but here are some ideas we are working with:

  • Blueprints for some of the habitats

  • Playlist of Jessica's favorite music

  • A mini-game playable on the datapad

  • A book/short story/poetry that Jessica brought with her

  • High-resolution maps of the mission area

  • 3D-model viewer of mission equipment and previous Mars rovers

  • Unique in-game HUD colors/reskins

This is NOT a list of what we have planned, just ideas. From that list though I hope you can see that we are trying to stay away from anything that could be consider direct "story" content relevant to Jessica's journey. We still have a year and a half to sort it out and get feedback/suggestions/think of more stuff. There is a thread in the Backers Only board where you can give suggestions and feedback for the exclusive Bonus Content.

13. Forum user synchromesh asked if we are considering releasing a walk-around demo any time soon.

Owen: I would like to at some point in the near future, but we want to pin down a few performance issues so that we put our best foot forward. I'm open to a simple walk-around demonstration though. Any bit of time we spend on extras takes away from development on the final game however. We will try to balance requests with requirements.

We love all the discussion that has been going on in our forums and we thank you all for your great questions. If you want your question to be a part of our next "From The Forums" feature then get on over to the forums now!

 

Lacuna Passage - Devlog #15 - Art Development

 Since the end of our Kickstarter campaign we have been busy with lots of business-related things, but we have also jumped back into art development. In this devlog we thought we might share a bit of the art we have been working on and talk about some of our design sensibilities.

Cargo Transfer Bags

As with everything else in Lacuna Passage we really want to inject a strong realistic foundation for the art. We collect massive amounts of reference images for even the smallest assets and for most assets we create detailed concept art as well. Using elements directly from our references is very important to us in maintaining a level of realism while our concepts allow us to “remix” certain aspects and create our own unique visual style. This visual style is especially important considering that many of the assets we are creating are things that don’t have modern technological analogues.

Digital Microscope

The Hermes and Heracles missions in the game are missions that happen in the future, so we have to project forward what technologies we might have based on the technologies that have already existed and ones proposed for a manned mission to Mars. Our goal is to have elements that feel recognizable and at the same time new.

One simple aspect of these space exploration technologies that we have changed is the color scheme. We have opted to use a blue/grey color scheme which is different than almost any other color palettes for previous NASA missions. It’s an extremely simple change that tends to modernize many designs and make them feel fresh and new. Not only that, but it helps us create a complementary color scheme between the blues of the equipment and the red-oranges of our Martian landscapes.

Pressurized Roving Transport

Over the next few months we plan to really solidify our visual style as we move on to designing some of the most important assets in the game - our landing capsules, habitats, and rovers. We hope that you like the direction we are taking with the visual identity of Lacuna Passage. You will be seeing lots more art in future devlogs.