Stranded Deep

I must admit there's not many games I've seen in the WIP section of this forum that got me say "I can't wait for this to come out", but this is definitely one of those. Looks awesome!

 

I like the game concept a lot, favorited it on greenlight!

 

Looking awesome!

 

Oh my the new trailer looks awesomeballz!

 

Any more thought on releasing your ocean into the asset store with early access coming up in January

 

Holy... this looks so good XD cant wait to play

 

I think, if you really want this game to hit with a big audience, you're gonna need a story mode with a definite end, something people can work towards to feel that they really achieved something when they finally get there.
If you don't want it to be a location, use the flare gun I saw in one of the trailers: there will be planes or helicopters avery once in a while, but the player can't signal them, so first the player has to find that flare gun, and when he/she finally does, he has to wait till the next helicopter/plane comes by to shoot it. And if he messes his first try up, he first has to find another flare, prolonging the game.
I also think people would actually dislike it if they didn't have any constant landmarks in the game. You can let the environment generate randomly, but only the first time they visit it, then store it as savedata. This gives players a sense of achievement and safety, something to hold on to: they know what they have visited, slowly exploring new territory in the hope to finally find a way out of their situation.

But I do think the endless cycle also has it's place in the game. It reminds me of one of the extra play modes in Max Payne 2, where you have to hold out as long as you can, killing as many enemies as you can before you get killed yourself. And the random length before rescue could work wonderfully either in that mode, or as yet another mode all on itself.

I realize this will create a lot of extra work for the game, but honestly believe it will need this to be a real finalized, complete A grade game. Otherwise I'm afraid the game will be seen as little more than a novel gameplay gimmick, because it really wouldn't be much else than gameplay. And then someone else is going to take your core idea, and create that game that this should have been.

EDIT: As a multiplayer option, you could even devide between one stranded player and one or more rescuers. The rescuers will naturally have to find the stranded player as fast as possible, while the stranded player has to do everything he/she can to be found a soon as possible. Or something..

 

AGREED

 

This game looks amazing!!! I have always dreamt of such a survival game, and had even considered making one myself. That being said, I'm glad that someone like you, who seems to be very skilled, is developing it. That being said, I have a few ideas of my own.
First, if you want this game to be a huge success, make it multiplayer. Also, don't focus too much on the water gameplay and leave out people like me who prefer land-based gameplay.
Have a singleplayer mode where at first the game is randomly generated then you can save progress, people want progression and achievement. I don't know if you are still considering leaving it out, but don't dare remove the day night cycle, this provides more immersion and allows you to add features that I will add to my list:
Fires!!! Make them happen. I want to be able to gather firewood and somehow light a fire to cook my food.
Along with the day night system add weather which means cold/warm and rain etc. So you build fires for heat after getting soaked from swimming on a cold day, and what you wear affects your protection from the cold as well as from creatures.
Food spoilage is a step in the right direction. I also want, as previously stated, to be able to cook foods. And don't leave out drinks. And keep thirst and hunger seperate. Have customization for the multiplayer so you can create your character. Add non hostile wildlife to add to the immersion. Have destructible/deformable terrain. Have advanced hunting options like skinning an animal or harvesting meat. Add variation to animal types and loot. This is important. Have a durability system for weapons/tools that makes them break down over use but they can be repaired. Have a locational based damage system so that depending on where you hit/get hit damage varies, and headshots are insta-death. Have the option to customize your weapons and upgrade them. Allow voice chat in multiplayer, and if possible lip synch the characters to the mic audio. Add a system where you have to sleep, and if you don't your stats such as stamina go down. Also for multiplayer add a clan/territory option where you and your friends are in a clan and claim territory and rival clans can fight you. For multiplayer make it so all the islands are travelable to so you can fast travel to the waters near an island your friend is on. Have a real first person view where you can see your body if you look down. And that's about it for now, but I have MANY more ideas for this game. I look forward to buying it once it releases.

 

Congrats, on a very successful release mate!!

 

whoa Early Access! Just watching some first video reviews. Looks promising, have to buy it too for inspiration and to support your cause

 

I've had great fun playing this. Crafting is very interesting, Im waiting for more. There are some things I wished dev team could add: - possibility of connecting the raft and the lifeboat with lashing so that the lifeboat serves as storage ; - make the hunger and thirst bar go faster in order to make the game more challenging ; - even more intelligent sharks (since it is the main foe) maybe with randomized attitudes? (curious-aggresive-calm) ; - lashings to build foundation and rafts (and so more yucca plants on each islands) ; - flaming torches?. I haven't seen any major glitches except for one... Raft disappeared whilst I was on it in the middle of the ocean... had to swim back all the way. That is both scary as hell and annoying. But hey! Great game.

 

Just bought this on Steam. Had the same experience with the life raft disappearing on me while paddling to another island. The water is fantastic, would be awesome to have Oculus Rift DK2 support!

 

Purchased also, best alpha I've played on steam to date.
Had the raft disappear also when moving between biomes, belive next patch will resolve it.

 

Ok replayed again, still enjoying this. However noticed some frequent and slightly irritating bugs or just things : Sharks sometimes go under the ground and it seems that they are stuck inside the island, you can hear the shark ambiance music and sometimes you even see theirs fins on the sand. When you climb palm trees to harvest coconuts or look around the surroundings (mostly sunken ships) and you go back down, 1/3 of the times you fall and inevitably break your leg or your ankle, it might just be normal to fall from pushing space but it would be nice if you cold grip it better, also you cant seem to turn around the tree you're climbing without falling. Apparently you can put a support on the raft (foundation) but when you move the raft the sticks stays in the air, (I thought it was a mast for sails). Dropping buckets and filling water bottle before fresh water flows out of the bucket (grrr...). Moar brightness using flares!! And finally I agree that stones are very rare to find and it would be irritating to go to other islands with limited space in your inventory, so why not make them (supposedly) come ashore in the morning (after sleeping) in few numbers with maybe sticks and other items? Also adding high and low tides in the day would be pretty awesome! Still, thanks for making an enjoyable well made survival game!

 

Patch is live.

Fixes
http://steamcommunity.com/app/313120/discussions/0/604941528467441997/

 

Played this game for about 4 hours now, and it is just breathtakingly beautiful.

There are a few things i'd like to mention though.

1. I stabbed a shark 17 times with a crude spear before giving up and letting it swim away. That's a bit much i think.

2. Plant respawn is entirely too fast. I never really have to worry about hunger because i can literally watch potatos grow every few minutes.

3. I don't know if i just never found it, or if there aren't any, but a few land masses larger than the wee islands would be great.

4. Some crude way to map our exploration would make sense, i think. I explored numerous islands, a couple of them more than once because i'm a terrible sailor.

 

Thanks for the well wishes guys! It's been a great launch so far, but lots more left to do!

 

I'm 6 hours into the game and it's awesome, I want to congratulate the developers on bringing such an immersive experience although there is room for improvement.

My proposals:
- A more ferocious weather system; I would like to see huge waves in the sea when there is some kind of storm going on;
- I think it would be cool if it is possible to make walls adjacent to a raft, a roof would be nice aswell. Also being able to put multiple rafts together that way you can have a nice 'ship' or fleet of rafts hence the easy transport of things you found.

 

this game looks like its done REALLY nicely!!!
soo awesome!

really inspiring!

 

Wow i love this game!

 

This is perhaps the prettiest game made with Unity and by far the best Early Access launch that I've seen!

Crafting is really popular in games nowadays, you guys nailed it better than others. I love the way you can drag tree have to cut them in smaller pieces.

What the gamer inside me is wishing for:
-Bigger Islands (I love having a bunch a smaller islands.. but finding an occasional "big" island that is 5 - 10x the size of the current small ones would be cool.
-Wilson!!!!!
-Huge Wave when you get stuck in sudden storm with chances of your raft capsizing depending on wave strength.
-Feel the wind from the storm (Better tie up your raft, if you don't want to see him fly away!)
-Less Sharks and more fish, dolphins too!
-More things to construct and explore. (Caves? Treehouse? Huge raft that is harder to capsize? A Help sign?)
-Multiplayer (I would feel safer in the deep... with a friend!)
-FIX: Plants growing too fast. Sharks are too hard to kill (I gave up after ~15 hits from the spear)
-Somehow make it harder to survive.
-Cut yourself and collect your blood to attract sharks
-A mixer and some Piña coladas!

What the developer inside me is wishing for:
-Make an asset of that ocean... it's just breathtaking!

Keep it up guys. I'm really excited to see this game progress in the next months.
You have restored my faith in Early Access games!

 

+1

I am shopping for an underwater system ...

 

I don't have account in Steam so I am asking here: is it supposed for ESC key to not to work in plane? I tried running on linux with Wine. Only the plane part tested, but it works. However, yeah- the ESC key didn't work. Why?

 

adriansnetlis, yes that's correct, the esc key to open the menu does not work during the intro scene.

 

Yeah... I tested and found that out now By the way, where can I put a reccomendations for this game if I don't have a steam(I have an account, but I forgot password and it requieres steam to recover it, but... )? And, yeah, it is running on Linux Ubuntu 15.04 PlayOnLinux with Win 1.7.40 with my NVIDIA GeForce GT610 with High shadows and High textures, Synces and 2D filters off in 1280x960 on like 25 FPS(a bit less when I am in my item storage) BTW, I would like to have some basic Unity tutorials for some game standarts like this one for Unity 5 character controller and other assets(for example, Health, Hunger... HUDs, cutting trees(so advancedly), crafting and inventory!

 

An idea- mulyiple save slots. It wouldn't be hard to do, but it'd be nice to see them in 0.04!

 

Another fact: It is hard to understand if you hit the shark or you don't, currently. Maybe there should be some blood splashes(very little, but noticeable) or something that makes it easier to know if you missed the hit or not!

 

I bought this game and love it. I love the graphics and mechanics. This is a huge inspiration for me.

 

Does anyone know how they solved the swimming in stranded deep ?

 

Swimming is quite a difficult thing to achieve. For they use a hectic ocean shader and I'd imagine quite a complex engine within their game.That being said, you can always achieve a good swimming pool using trigger volumes and messing around with the physics of your player. A boolean variable to let you know if you are in the water, and maybe another boolean variable if you are swimming on the surface, or swimming underwater,

Don't forget your animation states to go along with it too!

I know it's a very vague answer but I hope it gets you on the right path. I myself have never attempted swimming code myself,But I hope it helps you.

 

Have been playing this game more again recently, one thing i might suggest trialing in a new build sometime, setting small palms/small pines to "grow" into adult trees once 2 main conditions are met (perhaps more), enough light over time (for instance 1hr direct sunlight in game = 1. and 4hrs indirect light = 1. When total light accumilated is 50 the condition is met) and space to grow (can it physically fit one of the big palms or pines in the same space without clipping another object or the scnery at large.
With that, you could also then have grown pines harvestable and add a pine texture variant to the planks and builds.
Grown trees could utilise an AoE wherein they can spawn up to a maximum amount of the saplings, perhaps including conditions for where overlaps occur with other grown trees' AoEs to ensure they spawn still, and to allow for the impossible task of finding wood, which is what players face currently as it is a case of harvest tree, tree is gone, use wood of 4 logs to build 1 floor... small palms shouldnt keep respawning if there are no adult trees around anymore, and no adults means no logs to make into sticks or planks for cooking, crafting and building.
As much as it has been a very long road to this ppint so far, i still dont reegret buying into your idea and hope to see some more info from you soon on whats around the corner.

 

What a nice game you have made. The island, the water, the reality of surviving : it all seems so real, even now better with the storms and lightning.
I felt so sad when SD was cancelled for xbox last year so i could simply not wait for it and quickly bought it on steam. Now i play it with HDMI cable on same TV and specially bought a PC controller for this game.
Only a few things that bother me :
1.there should be an option to make a map from cloth to see islands (and points of intrest) appear as you explore the world/lift the fog
2. to create a second save slot of your own. I saved last time when i was bleeding from the hammershark, quickly build a loom for cloth but kept on dying because i could only find 3 instead of 4 fibrous leaves in time. Having to start all over and losing the nice buildings i made (without modding) is so lame.

What i would love to see :
3. to be able to build a wall torch (of find parts for a lantern) and a big camp fire with logs not sticks on the beach (for someone to spot you or for you to see from afar or at night that you are going / coming back to an island you visited already)
4. What also could be nice is to play with Dolphins (or hang on them or use them to pull your raft with a harnass, having to feed them fish and defend them from sharks also) or breed you own fish/crabs/reef sharks in like 'water farm plots' or make an harnass out of a turtle shell so bites don't affect so much ?
Use ink from an small octopus in flask to evade/escape a shark under water
Or find scuba gear in ships for deep sea hunting/searching or a parachute that you can attach to your raft for parasailing (so that you can spot sharks, islands etc from afar)
to attach a hook on a rope to rappel on or off Cliffs, mountains, buildings.
Build your own water plane or yacht from wood and parts but with small distance as it cannot go far (can be attacked by sharks when taxies on water) at least giving some hope of escaping back to the real world (if you have plane, map, enough fuel, discovered all islands ….). A small sailing yacht rather than a simple raft to build would be nice to equip with sail and motor as well, with cabinets for storage, a table, bed etc., living on the sea instead of on a island....
5. a larger Island with jungle = panther or tiger for teeth/claws and big snakes (whose eggs you can eat) besides leather. It would make more sense why build a hut and bow etc..
And why only get leather from sharks not teeth to improve knive or arrows / cause bleeding on the shark or on other animals as well ?
Just some ideas..…. hope you keep on improving the game so it does not become dull
One thing i found strange : the tires did not float away but my life boat is gone ? Maybe be able to build a flag to see wind direction and recapture boat/raft ?
Keep up the good work anyway and thanks for this lovely game