Filling Out The Toolbox!

Greetings from Outer Wilds Ventures!
May has been a busy month so far here at Outer Wilds Ventures! Our designers have moved on to greyboxing the last two remaining "large" planets and adding some improved functionality to the probe. The tech team has been revising all the ship systems, rewriting the way players lock on to objects in the solar system, and integrating new UI to the player and ship HUDs. The art team is continuing to model characters, redid the ship, and are redesigning the player tools (See below!), while the audio team is working on the player breathing & damage effects. Yeah!

We also managed to take a well deserved Friday evening to Escape the Time Travel Lab in the next-over neighborhood, Little Tokyo. It should be of no surprise that gamemakers of the time loop persuasion managed to best a tricky room that only has a 12% success rate!

HEARTHIAN TOOLS!

​This update we'll be focusing on the player tools, their redesign, and how we teach players how to use them. One of the big focuses of our style reboot earlier in the year was making the Hearthian technology, props, and culture more distinctive visually. In defining a new aesthetic, we focused on our design pillar of "Backpacking in Space" and decided to craft Hearthian gear out of a combination of old school camping gear with Apollo era NASA tech.

​While all the tools will get an extra touch of polish before we ship, we're really excited about the direction these tools are taking! We've nicknamed the probe "Little Buddy" because of its similarity to the player ship and its tendency to look like a pet dog. The probe can be shot from the player's suit or in the ship and can send images of what it sees back to the player, illuminate a dark area, or detect natural warnings. The designers consider the probe the most important tool in the player's arsenal.

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