Encased Update #38 - One Year Later
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Encased, Dark Crystal Games' Fallout-inspired RPG, is currently going through an Early Access phase, with the full release scheduled for next year. And if you'd like to examine Encased's year-long journey from a simple Kickstarter pitch to a very much playable RPG, you should direct your attention to this recent update. Check it out:
One whole year has passed since our Kickstarter campaign – it is both too much and too little. To us, it still feels like just a couple of months ago. But looking back at these past 12 months, we can’t stop thinking about what Encased looked like when the Kickstarter launched, where we’re at now and, of course, where the game will be in a few short months. What we’ve come to realize is that this year was damn long, and a lot was accomplished.
In today’s update we will show you some old screenshots, boast about new ones, and tell you how Encased has grown and will continue to grow in the near future.
First Demo
The first months of game development involved a *lot* of writing.
We created dozens of documents totaling hundreds of pages, addressing every aspect of civilization under the Dome. Before the first explorer ever traversed the dead barrens, we already knew how many inhabitants the Dome had, what they eat, what kinds of cars they drove, and what kind of community (or rather, communities) was being built upon the ruins of this ancient technological artifact of the distant desert.
The very first version of the game produced in the spring of 2018 was a tech demo, where a human avatar with asset pack animations ran around on grey sand. Sometimes grey sand was replaced with grey caves or grey stones. Other times, as a big exception, the game showed landscapes inspired by Tarkovsky films. However this joy was short-lived, and the faulty camera would inevitably bump up against another relic cobbled together from primitive polygons. At the time, our modelers were struggling with huge and complex tasks, like creating a system for composite characters, and the game was populated by a few crude models created by our main scripter.
Kickstarter Demo
By September 2018, Encased already had a completely different look. It was the summer we were planning for our Kickstarter launch, and we were working around the clock to prepare the game for public display. The demo was still rather empty but was already playable, and the scenery was vastly improved. Our Kickstarter audience got to see the very first version of Magellan Station... Looking back, we’re surprised at how small it seems – all of last year’s Magellan would fit within the storage level today.
Sometimes it seems as if that Kickstarter demo station was scattered around the game world by a powerful explosion. It may appear to have disappeared without a trace, but even now you can find bits of content in Magellan from that first demo: the arrogant Dean Rayhet, the sleeping soldier Keith Boseman with his pretentious attitude, and the love letters between two scientists... It all started in the September 2018 demo.
The Early 2019 Game
But some things from those days remain unchanged. The station was conceived as the starting point of the prologue and remained so ever since.
The prologue itself has been redone many times; half of the original content consisted of text-based vignettes. In the first version (which was never completely finished, and wasn’t included in the game), events unfolded at the Nashville facility from the very beginning.
The fate of the characters accompanying the protagonist was also completely different: you can still meet the engineer Duncan and scientist Sebastian at Magellan, but Sarah from Silver Wing and the Orange Fritz turned into additional portraits for the player. What happened to Bao, a recruit from Black Wing, we ourselves do not know. Perhaps he is still wandering somewhere under the Dome...
Early Access Version
The spring and summer of 2019 remain in our memory as a wild, never ending race. The creative search and seemingly endless series of alterations completed, it was time to polish the old content and actively produce the new.
The studio ceased to joke about the combat system. It was finally online and worked as intended, along with the global map and random events. Like the gas station run by the one-legged old man or the Nashville facility, overrun with psychopaths.
The Early Access release was postponed twice and finally, on September 26, our players received the first EA version of Encased, which included a story prologue and a global map with random events and a variety of hassles. Now everyone who’s gone through Nashville’s hell has had the opportunity to feed lead to giant cockroaches, and encountered the mutated rodents, MOBIOS (better known to the community as “crabs”), aggressive robokids and bandits populating the barrens.
Despite these delays to the release, we had still not defeated all the bugs, so immediately set to work on hotfixes and balance improvements. By the way, another fix is coming out very soon.
Later in 2019
We really want to show you how Encased will evolve over the next couple of months.
We heeded your comments and put a lot of effort into making the game as exciting as possible. We started reworking the prologue once again, removing the text-heavy opening vignette. The passenger capsule and landing pad have instead been turned into full-fledged locations. Game events start there, and the player travels to Nashville immediately afterwards. This will make the prologue more dynamic and less protracted. Don’t worry about Magellan Station though! That location is too well liked by our players to send off into oblivion. We decided to move the station to a later stage of the game, and expand it for deeper exploration without tedious minor tasks like saving humanity.
Jokes aside, Magellan will play a significant role in the storyline, and the station itself will be significantly altered. If you wanted to know how CRONUS has changed since the old world collapsed, Magellan Station, now under control of the New Committee, will provide the answers.
‘Story-driven content’ are the key words to describe the upcoming, large scale update. The open world will be accessible much faster, and feature more random encounters. We’re working to make these more than minor local events. They should act as pieces of a puzzle comprising the atmosphere and setting. It is as important for us to show how the world changed after the Incident as it is to talk about the various factions vying for territory under the apocalyptic Dome.
We’re also working on the party members management system, so companions will definitely appear in the update. The main character’s partners don’t just act as cannon fodder and fire support. Each one has a story and complex personality, and the player will have to spend time and effort to gain the trust of their companions. Companion quest lines will be supplemented throughout the entire Early Access period, and the selection of available companions will be expanded.
The crime system will also be improved – people will become more responsive to theft and hacking attempts.
We’re working on ability trees. The Heavy and High-Tech Weapons branches will be expanded and revised, and Psi Abilities will finally become functional.
We’re making changes to controversial mechanics, such as hunger and thirst. The overall usability of the game and all interfaces will be improved, as well as experience progression, medication effects, and munitions.
Weapons will receive a modular modifications system. We started working on this a long time ago but did not have time to implement it for Early Access. Spare parts and upgrades will be available to replace standard components, increasing weapon stats. Weapons and armor will wear out and break down; maintaining them will require repair kits. You’ll also be able to destroy an enemy’s armor by means of new anomaly types, as well as with mines and traps.
The perks system will be significantly expanded. At the moment, only a few perks are available for reading books, but in Patch 1 your protagonist will be able to adjust his progression by picking a perk every several levels. In addition, reputation perks will be obtainable through quarreling, or becoming best friends, with a whole faction or companion. There will also be passive perks for mastering specific types of weapons, wearing armor, evading enemy attacks, killing various opponents – humanoids, mutants, robots and other foes.
We won’t say what will happen next, but one thing is for sure: the story of Encased has just begun. There’s a long road ahead, and we’re thrilled to be walking it with you.
Then, you might also be interested in the patch notes for the latest Early Access hotfix.
