Imagine you're the last one alive in the Arctic after a nuke | POLYARIS Devlog #1

[@wub9044]

Lack of story is the issue I've always had with survival games. I just couldn't get into them without any purpose. Knowing you're adding a story to yours makes me happy.

[@magicpiegames]

we glad to see a positive feedback on this

[@DK-qp4jf]

gameplay over story

[@captainsewerrat]

Completely agree. You don't want to just survive in a survival game you wanna live. It needs to feel like you're part of a story, your story, and not just feel like you're a repetitive gameplay loop. You get that in real life with a 9 to 5 already.

[@speggeri90]

Agreed. For example Project zomboid is a great game, but the lack of any direction makes me loose interest.

[@johnsysays]

Agreed most indie games have trash story and become forgettable

[@roadtovostok]

Looks awesome, definitely going to follow this dev diary! :)

[@magicpiegames]

likewise :)

[@NotGavinV]

i saw that the snow texture was repeating, maybe try to make the textures more procedural for more emersion

[@magicpiegames]

nice catch

[@enricod.7198]

The never ending problem of texture tiling lol

[@Lucky-GEN2]

Hey on the topic of immersion just wanted to point out the way the rifle is constantly held at ready can be very very tiring irl if there was a way to lower your firearm that would scratch my itch. Loving how this is turning out keep us updated!

[@magicpiegames]

btw it's done thank you

[@D1zzyV]

Good luck to the development, will stay for a lookout!

[@PxlDev]

This game sounds very interesting! The game looks amazing already!, the lighting effects too look amazing. I really should think about trying Unreal engine out sometime, speaking as a Unity user I know this probably isn't going to get implemented, (Its hard to implement such a thing) but this would be so fun and interesting to play with other people, multiplayer co-op. I myself am more attracted to games which I can enjoy with friends, and this seems like an experience which might benefit from a multiplayer aspect. Happy to see the skiing as a good method of transport, respect from a finn

[@magicpiegames]

thank you! Yeah, Unreal Engine is just on another level, visually wise. Speaking cop and multiplayer, it'd be great to have it, but for 2 of us it's gonna be like 5 years in dev..

[@drago_6812]

Looks awesome cant wait to try it out, small suggestion: you could have planes crash somewhere on the world with supplies on them and maybe weapons and be able to find and recover the supplies. maybe even be able to use a radar to know their rough location. maybe the pilot would have a small chance of surviving

[@magicpiegames]

hey, thank you we've got something like this in our backlog :)

[@drago_6812]

@@magicpiegames nice to hear i hope your game succeeds

[@magicpiegames]

@@drago_6812 thank you!

[@Just1Dev]

Looks Great 👍 I love winter environments. I hope to see more in the future :)

[@magicpiegames]

thank you :)

[@SquirrelsLoveAcorns]

Great start! Feel like any infinite world needs build mechanics so that crafting and building is possible.

[@magicpiegames]

thank you! sorry, what do you mean?

[@SquirrelsLoveAcorns]

@@magicpiegames feel like we need the ability to craft gear, upgrade tools, build shelters etc.

[@magicpiegames]

@@SquirrelsLoveAcorns oh, okay, gotcha, it's planned for sure

[@KyryloBudanov157]

Maybe some Soldiers? that patrol the map

[@magicpiegames]

maybe...

[@blackcat1528]

Удачи вам ребята! Надеюсь всё что вы планируете, будет реализовано и вы будете гордый результатом! Ну а мы - простые игроки, будем ждать.

[@magicpiegames]

спасибо!

[@Shirry_R6_Player]

Another mechanic you could add that would fit with the storyline is a daily quota of research you need to complete

[@magicpiegames]

can you elaborate on this one?

[@Shirry_R6_Player]

@@magicpiegames You mentioned that in the story you were sent to the arctic to do research, so I think it would be cool if you made a mechanic where every in game week or something like that, you get a list of things you need to do for research ,for example "collect a biological sample from (a certain location)" then you need to go there and get some leaves or droppings from an animal there or something like that (just a example I don't know what research you have in mind). And you have a certain time you need to send in the research or required items and you could maybe be rewarded for it or punished if not completed. Ps: English is not my first language so let me know if something is unclear or unreadable 😂

[@Shirry_R6_Player]

​@@magicpiegames Nevermind, I just rewatched the video and realized you said that the character lost contact with the outside world so my idea is irrelevant 😂 Anyway really excited for this , it looks very promising

[@magicpiegames]

@@Shirry_R6_Player appreciate it mate Especially for feeding yt algorithms

[@TheFactHen]

I love the UI

[@magicpiegames]

thank you!

[@Monolithian138]

Oh my goodness this game is going to be awesome!! the arctic is such an unused / underutilized setting in games. and ive always wanted a game like this.i love the stalker inspiration as well. good luck!! i will be following this game closely from now on.

[@magicpiegames]

appreciate it :)

[@RogueBeatsARG]

4:20 Yess Plss, dont give into the STALKER:MIsery Crowds, those people like hurting themselves haha

[@placedinbronze2825]

in my opinion it should be harder to get up on mountains so that the travel down with the ski is more rewarding,

[@magicpiegames]

just like in childhood years haha

[@baconkid8891]

dawg i love this

[@magicpiegames]

[@goldmund22]

Looking great ! Stoked to try it out

[@magicpiegames]

join our Discord to be the first who'll touch it

[@AAggggggg]

Haven't been excited about a survival game since the original The Forest! I think that a lot of the animations lack weight behind them, like the polar bear and rifle.

[@magicpiegames]

we'll try to fix them for sure

[@watercat1248]

I'm not like seriver games in general but your game looks great on visuals, And also can say that you done good job. I'm not target audience but I wish you good luck. And as indie developer my self I know how hard it's to make game and i can tell you spend time and effort on this project.

[@magicpiegames]

@@watercat1248 appreciate your warm words ;)

[@triphox8313]

Oh hell yeah

[@imraan_alam]

Unreal loves to crash a lot

[@nicolasguiem7369]

I already like this game. It’s kinda has the subnotica vibe with isolated story

[@magicpiegames]

thank you :)

[@davo6317]

I think it would be great to make the movement look less fps like, and more realistic

[@zwippie92]

Good video. Informative and a good introduktion to both the game and the development team. What other types of games did you work with in Unity? As much as I like the idea of having the game release late this year, I just wanna say that you should take all the time you can and is willing to make the game the best you can with the resources you have.

[@magicpiegames]

You can check our prev game: store.steampowered.com/app/2402450/Zero_Grounds/

[@thegreatfluctus]

Looks promising! Consider me on your wishlist :) The only thing which bothers me and looks completely out of the setting - is 5:19 this scene looks way Taiga to me, definitely not Arctic, and breaks the experience.

[@magicpiegames]

noted! thank you

[@badmonkey2468]

very interessting

[@magicpiegames]

@@badmonkey2468 ty ;)

[@TCrag]

Looks great, I recommend designing the game with absolutely zero HUD elements, using sound design and other visual means to communicate player status, even a wristwatch display is better than floating HUD elements on screen This will add greatly to the immersion and bring a cinematic quality to the game. For example, you don't need text stating ' Temp low' when you have a frost effect on your goggles, the frost effect tells the player all they need and doesn't break immersion. Same for what weapon is selected, it's clearly in your hand so no need to display it in a box on the HUD. I recommend keeping the sounds purely diegetic, do not include any music or soundtrack. Keep sounds to just those generated from in the world to further immerse the player. Good luck with the project, it looks promising.

[@magicpiegames]

appreciate your feedback! We'll this idea to our backlog

[@TCrag]

@@magicpiegames great to hear, hope it goes well.

[@xpenguinxz]

i think Co-op would be cool i know it kinda makes the whole lone survivor story kinda go in the trash but what if there was a separate mode where instead of one scientist it was two so you could play with a friend kinda like the game The Forest in a way also adding penguins, seals, walrus, bunnies, fish and fishing would be cool but this is a lot so idk lol oh and a shotgun every game needs a shotgun

[@magicpiegames]

@@xpenguinxz we thought about it, it just too heavy for us to do at the launch. Thanks you for your input;)

[@xylvnking]

Looks awesome

[@magicpiegames]

you too :)

[@jackflak]

No zombies proper thing .

[@nocommentgamez2571]

I would try and change up some of the textures for buildings and such and make everything a little more cohesive as at the moment its too easy to tell it's just a bunch of unreal marketplace assets mashed together without trying to make it look like it all belongs together. Seems to be an issue with most survival games made in unreal by 1 or 2 devs and it cheapens the whole game. The skiing looks good. They characters stats look good. With a bit of work, could turn out great. Goodluck.

[@magicpiegames]

@@nocommentgamez2571 we'll our best What makes you feel those are the assets

[@flamekillerr5851]

it would be better if it was peer to peer co-op

[@magicpiegames]

yeah, but it's rather a heavy lift for us..

[@thegoodsherman]

A Option in the settings for pathtracing would be cool 🥰😘

[@magicpiegames]

@@thegoodsherman interesting idea

[@TheFactHen]

u shuld add snowshoes

[@magicpiegames]

good idea

[@kaesar5078]

Omg, i want

[@magicpiegames]

we do

[@rlb1968able]

I'm making a third person horror game but personally for the life of me I can't figure out how to get the Light Beam for a flashlight could you perhaps tell me how you did that if it's not too much trouble

[@magicpiegames]

As far as I understand, you need a fog on the level and then increase volumetric scattering on the light source so it will create this 'god's ray' effect. I believe there are plenty of tutorial about this on youtube, you can search something like 'volumetric light in UE5'

[@rlb1968able]

@@magicpiegames thank you I just figured it out the main issue is that tutorials don't really go over this they just say oh this is a flashlight I know how to do stuff on my own is just a flashlight is something so small I've never bothered trying to make it except once

[@LUCIFER-nd3hn]

Indie developer or a team ?

[@magicpiegames]

2 of us

[@LUCIFER-nd3hn]

@@magicpiegames is it possible for a single person to make a good graphics game ?

[@SwangoZone]

Hey great looking game! Signed up on discord and everything. Send me a beta key? 😅😅 I needs onee

[@sainthegamer2451]

Is it coming on consoles too please ? 🥺

[@magicpiegames]

We'd be thrilled to port it to console as well, but it will depend on the game's success and whether we find a publisher who can help us with it