Gigantic Procedural Caves | Len's Island Dev Diary

[@aarondcmedia9585]

Seeing the hand pat the dog made this video for me - good job with the game and cave system, even better job with the office greyhound.

[@crxd_dystopyr]

What I love is how beautiful and complex the game is and to know It was built with Unity. Because the more I research on game development the more the I see people tryna push unreal as the 1st choice, but this just goes to show that the tool is only as powerful in the hands of a master craftsman. 🙌🏿 Great job with the game guys, its so satisfying to see the progression of the game over time. This is more than a passion project, this game was meant to be 🔥🔥❤‍🔥❤‍🔥. Keep at it please, cant wait

[@alir8zana635]

please do make more devlogs and also it would be great if you speak more of the technical challenges you faced during development. having an update on the new features is nice but we want to see the real behind the scenes of a technical achievement.

[@FlowStudio]

Thanks for the feedback!

[@BraveLittleToad]

I bought the game, because its a survival game and my actual Name is Len. I found that funny and now im into like 40 Hours and it makes so much fun. Really happy about new cave Systems, because I'm more of a fighting than building guy. I hope there will also be new Monsters and Bosses with the next update. Thanks for the good work and keep it up!

[@sweettea5581]

I can't wait to explore new caves new things and new game system! Great job Flow Studio💙

[@alexx7910]

Super happy to see you guys progress so much!

[@TheDooveman]

Looks good. Looking fwd to it all. I enjoyed my last playthrough. One advice I have is to give people options. Drop backpack or not etc. The more customizations the more people can augment to their playstyle. I really enjoyed boating around. I hope the underground doesn't just become a cheat to avoid boating. Boats are fast so you do need to compensate. Maybe the measure should be a play test where both paths should take the same amount of time. The surface world is very beautiful. A dungeon can be as well in its own way. Maybe have hand crafted tiles that are an oasis from the darkness. a tile that has light and color and beauty. A place to build a base. Look at the movie with Brendan Fraser "Journey to the Center of the Earth" for inspiration. In the movie the ceiling of the cave had hot plasma that lit up the cave and make it like an exotic forest. I wouldn't make the whole cave this way. But just the odd oasis. In Mexico I rode an underground river. You could add something like that to add some variety. They act like point A to B Travel networks. For variety.

[@markimoofan1239]

ooh this new update is sounding more and more awseome! i am loving the new caves that sounds super cool, and the storage yes! that soundsl ike it will make it easier i like that

[@Kim-ft6cx]

Wow, incredible news for the game, can't wait!

[@Skullbushi]

the best way to tackle mechanics like loosing items on death is to make it an optional setting, then you can have a lot more freedom designing these more "hardcore" mechanics, the more options for the player the better, and in terms of dropping items on death my favourite setting is losing everything in your inventory except equipment (weapons, tools, armor, etc), as an extra you can have armour lose durability as well, you also must have some kind of indicator showing your death locations (or backpack location)

[@slygamer01]

Great to see the expansion of the game beyond the original.

[@AccountProto5X]

I think this new system will go a long way toward making the world feel more believable as well as the obvious addition of having a larger level with more to do - Really digging these dev logs! Keep it up!

[@rorys433]

shout out to coro drive in the background out of the office window

[@nickzema4200]

I dunno. If you can build a base underground now, I'm ok with losing everything (like before) when you die. Build a little base next to an upcoming big fight and drop everything in there. Don't die!

[@twomur_]

bro really made gigantic procedural caves for lens island

[@PhilipPetrunak]

I don't really like the idea of making it half the size of the world. Seeing how long it takes to walk from location to location really gives you a feel for just how far apart these islands are. Gives you a sense of just how much faster the boat makes you. You could introduce an item makes it faster for you to navigate the caves.

[@baileyanderson2166]

There needs to be a risk to dying! Good stuff

[@derelleball6468]

Awesome

[@WellThereYouGo]

You guys are Brilliant! So So much more skilled and better than many other game developers out there. However, I think you only pull like 6K people per video because you guys are just missing the mark in being engaging the entire time. idk I love watching devlogs and I've found the best ones are constantly showing footage from their game at any given point in time. Nowadays people have short attention spans so this could rlly help lol. Love the content just feel you are doing the hard stuff and with a bit of easy stuff you could make it much better ! some ideas of other people are farewell north, Dani (although he is a bit intense) and blackthorn prod who you have worked with before idk those are my thoughts

[@laytonskilton210]

This is so cool! how does one get to work in a creative team like this? I would work for you for free lol.

[@Thyworm]

really not a fan of the backpack drop, it just doesn't really feel in line with the more laid back approach of the survival and building. I'd say just clearing a cave is already hard enough, with the combat, especially at earlier stages. dropping goods seems overly punishing, and you might not get it back if vital stuff is in there. on the maze. Would be nice if it doesn't generate a maze every time, because navigating mazes isn't really all that fun, right? If the maze is the same as the underground is now, I think it's okay, but have a whole underground dungeon like that, might be a bit much. Not sure, just my 2 cents.

[@FlowStudio]

The important part about the new cave & backpack drop system is that it generally makes the game more laid back and easier in the ways you'd probably appreciate. Dropping the whole backpack in the current caves/dungeons would suck because there's no alternative. However, that's exactly why we are adding the new procedural caves. You'll have a new place to mine, discover new items, build, farm, and explore, that is generally a lot easier and has a lot less combat. The best part being, It will be totally separated from the dungeons. The difficultly in the dungeons will become more of a choice, rather than something you're forced to do in order to progress. The caves won't shuffle every time either. Once generated they will permanently stay in place. Your map will work in the new caves, and you can build anywhere in them as well :)

[@xylvnking]

DOG

[@laflyingspartan3831]

First.

[@StiffAftermath]

Great news, but does anyone actually finish their games anymore? These perpetually on-going, never-ending game development cycles are really getting annoying.

[@FlowStudio]

We're still developing the game right up until Len's Island is no longer in early access and is fully released in around 18 months time. 🙂

[@StiffAftermath]

@@FlowStudio oh, wow! I actually thought it was out of early access. That's why I didn't use that term. It's been a few years already, hadn't it? (Since it's reveal) sorry. I thought it was done.