Terratoon

What is Terratoon?

Terratoon is a work in progress procedurally generated island survival game based on the likes of TUG, Rising World and Ylands.

Who’s making this?

So hi there! I’m squffed, also known as Rhys, a long-time game developer and avid coder. A lot of my projects can be found on my site, https://squffed.com which also references a lot of my other socials such as my Discord server, YouTube, itch.io, GitHub, Twitch and my email. I have made game jam games in the past both solo and as part of a team, as well as developing with my good friend Kimmo Savilampi for the GameMaker version of Aria Disconnect.

Why is Terratoon being developed?

Terratoon was born from taking what TUG tried to accomplish and actually accomplishing that - a lot of the ideas and gameplay will revolve around what the premise of that game was. I feel even though island survival games are pretty popular, I’m trying to fill in niches that those games don’t do. See below for more details.

How are you making this?

I’m using Unity3D as my game engine of choice (as I’m most familiar with C# and have made all my past 2D games in Unity), which surprisingly works well for a game of this nature. Lots of optimisations are needed to make this work, and as such I’ll be using plenty of pre-made assets which are edited to suit the game’s style as well as to streamline production. The last thing I wish is for this to look like a typical indie game, and instead defer it from looking like an average asset flip. I’ve put a lot of work into just the prototypes of this game currently and look forward to continuing development on it.

What will the mechanics be like?

Health, stamina, food and water

You will have your typical survival aspects - health, stamina, food and water. Health will deplete if you get hit, take fall damage, or run out of food or water. Stamina drains as you run, but continuously regenerates. If you completely run out of stamina you cannot run or jump until it is filled again. Stamina refills differently if you are not moving (regenerates the most), walking (regenerates slower than idle) and sprinting (regenerates slower than walking). You will be able to drink water which is found on the inside of the islands (ponds) and if you boil sea water. Replenishable food sources will be found around the island as numerous plants and mobs which will spawn.

Experience points

There will also be XP and levels in the game. Each level you will have a chance to upgrade one of the four stats. Each level you gain will increase the XP you will need to get to reach the next level. XP will be gained from most tasks in the game, such as mining trees and rocks, collecting things, killing mobs and building.

Structures

You will be able to build numerous things in the game. To note this will likely be things like tents, sleeping bags, campfires and other such items. 

Cooking

You’ll be able to cook the food you collect within the world space. It will be similar to that of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild with selecting and dropping each ingredient into the pot to produce a recipe that can replenish different stats.

Crafting

Like cooking, crafting will be done in the world. You can use designated crafting stations (workbenches and anvils) as well as flat ground to produce primitive gear up to end-game gear. The intent is to keep as much gameplay in the world space as possible, while minimising UI elements. This is to try and achieve a niche of in-world crafting that a lot of survival games don’t do.

Island generation

As mentioned previously, island generation is done procedurally through seeding. The same seed will always produce the same island - including the items that spawn on your first life.

For those interested in how this is done, the seed you use in your island generation then produces multiple seeds to be used in the island generation itself and all of its respective elements. These seeds produced are the same each time - hence you receive the same island.

Cave generation

Caves will be an addition in the island generation. Each island will spawn multiple caves embedded in the ground, which will have different elements like ore veins and better loot.

Loot

Loot will be found at all stages of the game. When you first spawn barrels can be broken to give primitive items. The longer you are on the island, the more you will be able to discover to upgrade gear and progress.

Lore

Rune rocks will be generated which will give you recipes, XP and lore into the island.