Kicking Off Steel Harvest

1-4 player co-op — Other players are not necessary to have a full game experience, they just enhance the way you play and build your mech.

Complete Customization with Procedurally-Generated Items — I've had a lot of experience with randomized items at this point in a variety of contexts, and I think I've found a pretty good place to really tackle the first iteration of the whole system. Granted, there will be many iterations, but a good foundation is nice. Makes me all warm and fuzzy. Beyond just basic item generation, there are also different factions within the game world that all emphasize different combat styles and, arguably more interesting, completely different visual styles. Making the customization of your unique mech all the more, well, unique.

Systems That Make Sense — This sounds obvious, but it's something a lot of games (often intentionally - for good reason) ignore: the systems in a game should be designed in as flexible, coherent, and consistent a manner as can be done. As of right now, Steel Harvest has a completely physically-accurate world: if it looks like cement, it has the properties of cement. If it looks like grass, it has vegetation properties. If it looks like metal, it has etc. etc. etc. Right now, this most prominently factors into the ballistic simulation, but as more systems are added into the mix (differing effects from exposure to heat/fire, fire propagation, fully physics-enabled scenes, destruction, etc.) it's just opening the doors for a more dynamic gameplay scenario that makes player improvise constantly. But: improvise in ways that have clear causes.

Mech Builds That Feel Right — The main two axes that players will have to balance (there are others, but these are the core ones) are: light vs. heavy & physical vs. energy. There are complications to each of those relationships that I'll explore over time, but the gist of it is this: if you build a biped mech an go easy on the heavy equipment, you should get an immediate and obvious difference in feel just in how it moves, turns, controls, and responds. Similarly, if you pack on every rocket the world has ever created, you should feel like a big, hulking beast of a machine. And - I know I'm going to regret saying this later - both of these builds should feel responsive to players. I'm working out a number of systems right now related to movement given different constraints, but at the end of the day, if even the heaviest mech is just a bore to control, the whole system is off-kilter. Physical vs. energy is another big one, but I'll save that for later as well.

Solid Third-Person Shooter Mechanics/Feel — Anyone that knows me, read Polycat.net when it was still a thing, or knows of the work I did on Starhawk, or any game ever since then knows this: I put a profound and borderline-unhealthy focus on "game feel". I think I tweaked the camera shakes in Starhawk and controller vibrations for two weeks straight in one iteration of the weapon balancing that I did. I'm hoping to setup more solid foundations so such iterations don't take that long in this game, but the same core principles will be upheld: precise aiming (unless you choose more forgiving weapons), predictable ballistic model, tight hitboxes, and an overabundance of visual and aural response.

Steel Harvest as a Service — This is one of those phrases that gets uttered repeatedly to the point where it no longer means something, but my intent with Steel Harvest is to treat it as a platform for further expansion. That's going to be the basis of our financial model as a startup indie studio (micro-expansions, none of which - to the best of my ability - will have interwoven requirements). The base game will likely be $19.99 (or $20 if you're loose with pennies), with micro-expansions that add a faction, or expand on a faction, or add a new set of weapon types, etc. Point being: each expansion adds content or functionality not required by any player in order to get the full play experience. In my dream of dreams, this lets us as a studio work with the community (that we hope is filled with millions) to develop the kind of game that I think the market is in dire need of.