August 3rd, 2021 Livestream Q&A: What are Hannah's thoughts on players' concerns that the new look is "less alien" ?

August 3rd, 2021 Livestream

Q&A: What are Hannah's thoughts on players' concerns that the new look is "less alien" ?

https://youtu.be/KoEtf42M5_8

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so there's like so you you say that like it should still feel pretty I guess like so some people are afraid that it looks a little less alien because it's a little bit more based on what's already like on on earth even though it's sort of you know based on like a prehistoric version so it's still going to feel pretty unfamiliar but, so like what you know what's what are your thoughts on that is is that, yeah, it was, multiple reasons why this is a thing one of the reasons is that we have this internal rule set, when it comes to the the different biomes and that is that with starting biomes we try to stay pretty familiar and comfortable and the further away you go and like in in more late game areas exploration areas we go more alien the idea behind that is that the player will most likely spend a lot of time in their starting area they will most likely build their main base there and spent the majority of their time there, meaning that we want to make that feel kind of familiar and comfortable make it feel like home, in in some way with just a little bit of alien in there just enough to remind you that this is an, also because if you are in an area that looks extremely alien alienness is often achieved by breaking rules like subconscious rules of like clashing colors like uncomfortable shapes, just strange things that make you feel like it like it's a little bit wrong like it's a little bit uncomfortable and we felt like it was too risky to make an area that was you know for such a long-term base like have that sort of subconscious feeling of wrongness, and and force the player to spend time there so we were just like okay we want to reserve that for the areas where the player can choose to engage more and another reason was that the alienness of the northern forest wasn't necessarily done in a way that we wanted like it came from assets that were clashing and colors that were clashing that weren't designed to be some assets had you know some colors had broken over time it happens in technical projects like this and some assets weren't really on the level of quality that we had set with dune desert and that was kind of like we wanted to go for something better, and we wanted to achieve alienness through something that was under our control and something more intentional rather than an accident exactly yeah yeah yeah exactly so that's why we changed as much as we did yeah so so like so then yeah no it does and and so like, even even if the northern forest does start start to look a little bit more familiar it's not as if everywhere is going to start looking no no it basically it it you know we want to keep certain alien, areas as alien as they are maybe make them more alien that's all up but the future but yeah it's it's really about it being a starting area and us wanting it to feel comfortable and like home to people