THE NEXUS: Survive The Sea!

THE NEXUS: Survive The Sea!
Kitchen Module
Ancient artifice of the Artezani.
Character Concept. Characters aboard the NEXUS can be assigned "roles" based on their skills.
Early to Mid-Game Progress Concept
Advanced Game Progress Concept

Build your community by collecting resources, rescuing survivors, and adding modules to your NEXUS!

On the water-covered planet of Arteza, the survival of humans and other land-borne species depends on "Artifice", a series of artificial islands governed by the Artezani, a species native to the planet.

Interspecies relations have been strained. All human permits on your artifice have been denied renewal, causing you and your family to be outcast and left with only a small, aging transport boat. You are forced to navigate the open sea and find…or rather build a new place to live.

It's been over 200 years since The Great Migration. The alliance between Earth and the Guild brought "waves" of humans to the planet along with endless relics from Earth which now float along the sea and line the ocean floor.

This is not good for mankind as the Artezani have long since broken ties with the Guild Alliance. Humans on Artezan are increasingly viewed and treated as an invasive species.

With all interworld stations destroyed in the upheaval, they are now stuck on the planet indefinitely, forced to survive with what relics remain from the great migration...along with their own ingenuity!

Inspiration

I've always been fascinated by stories of the ocean and the water. Few settings lend such a naturally rich array of challenges, enchantment, lore, and wonder. What awaits in the open expanse? What lurks in the deep?

I wanted to create an experience where players can interact with complex lore and resources in a convenient and user-friendly way. Our approach here is to handle the crux of complexity on the backend, allowing players to flow through gameplay with simple motions and screen taps, without getting them caught up in complex interface mechanisms. When a player "collects" resources, only a simple tap is required to achieve this, allowing them to move their story forward quickly or at their own pace.

What it does

Players must survive harsh ocean conditions and manage resources to keep their crew well nourished and their N.E.X.U.S. craft afloat!

Upon entering the game, new players are introduced to basic "tap" mechanics (resource collection) and must create distance from their former artifice with limited time to collect repair materials…

Before the transport-boat springs a leak!

Now the chase begins! Keep your boat afloat while you lay foundations for your new home…

The NEXUS!

Design Pillars - How We Built It

The design for this game revolves entirely around 2 core design pillars:

High-Entropy, Low-Effort
Visually Rich, Thumb-Friendly

We provide players a diverse stats system, keeping gameplay unique and fun, meanwhile managing and in many ways 'automating' the use of these values. Focus is shifted to accenting the player experience with exciting animations and feedback. This is intended to keep players well informed and involved, but without the tedious repetition often associated with handling extensive stats libraries.

Food, as a resource is a great example:

When a player collects a resource bundle of any sort, it may contain a variety of different "food" sub-types which all take their place naturally in the player inventory.

Players may choose which of their crew (NPCs) to assign skills, training, and various important roles, like "Cook"!

Based on the skills the Cook has gained from the library, they will autonomously and regularly prepare the meals they "know" as indicated by the crew's overall "nourishment" and "health" stats. This is also dependent upon food resources available and will automatically consume the appropriate resources as needed.

Thus the system acts all but independently, based on the player's indirect coordination of character skill training and module placement!

Challenges

The "Diver Cache" element has been rehashed a few times over, in refinement. Staying true to our design pillars, simplification won the day;

Whenever divers return with a cache, a simple icon should appear. With a single convenient tap from the player, the entire cache is harvested.

Here again we really lean into the animations and FX to create the enhanced player experience.

Phase 1 creates a natural and seamless tutorial phase for new players which really feels like part of the game, because it actually is!

Players are given a brief chance to become familiar with the 'tap' mechanics, and collect resources before Phase 2 begins where they must now struggle to survive! The challenge here has been to make this a seamless part of the game, as I do hope to present here. We give the player just enough time to get their bearings before introducing the disaster element, meanwhile adding to the sense of urgency (the countdown feeling) with environmental accents and (optimally) NPC dialogue.

Accomplishments that we're proud of

By staying true to these Design Pillars, the proposed game promises a rich and seamless player experience. Keeping players emotionally invested, engaged, and retained is the goal and these pillars are created to accomplish that goal specifically.

There is also a strong case for expanding character development with the array of NPCs that could be added along the way. It really would be an optimal expansion because these characters are what brings life and activity to the build at any stage of growth. I'm also proud of the fact that the overall game concept lends well to future expansion, as both in story and in form the entire creation is conceptually 'modular'.

What we learned

I've learned a lot from both the structure of this challenge, and researching other well known game design docs. It has been a great insight into navigating and managing projects in a way that lends to coherent collaboration.

As these concepts have become more refined, I already envy future players of this game. It's definitely a game I would enjoy playing!