Hey folks,
We hope you're all enjoying the free weekend of Boundless! We thought this would be a good time to let you all know what we're currently working on for the next few updates to the game.
How we develop Boundless
We’re following a development process where we alternate between updating Testing (our Steam branch for beta testing new features) and Live (the full game) every other week. Then Tick-Tock between minor and major feature updates to Live. The aim is to deliver a constant stream of quality, optimisations and features. Every week there should be something new to explore on Testing or play with on Live.
(Unless someone suggests we do a free weekend, then we only have a few weeks of panic where we attempt to polish the new user experience, and all the releases get thrown up in the air!)
We often have many different sized features progressing in parallel. In these roadmap updates we want to make sure you’re aware of the most significant features. So we’re planning to keep it updated as items are released. We recently launched the new Poles, Beams and Letterboxes so it’s time to refresh the coming items on the roadmap.
What’s in development?
Feature development can often take more time that you might expect so we have a few things going on in parallel. These items are in development NOW, so you should expect them to appear in the coming updates.
Special Worlds: Exoworlds will shortly start visiting the Boundless universe. These are worlds that enter the universe temporarily, orbiting around another world, before vanishing never to be seen again. Expect a constant stream of new worlds to explore, filled with resources to harvest, unique colours to snag, and a playground for future features. There’ll be no regen or beacons on these worlds so once they’re exhausted you’ll be ready for another. Exoworlds will also include the first Level 7+ Rift, Darkmatter and Blink worlds. A new challenge awaits, but only until you or they expire…
Gleambow Racing: An event unique to the Boundless universe. Race fellow citizens for the multi coloured prizes waiting at the end of the gleambow. But don’t be too slow or you’ll be left feeling a little grey. Gleambow totems at the ready!
Guild Buffs: Are all the guilds’ perks feeling a little alike? Well not once the next batch of guild buffs land:
- Home Healing Helix provides your guild members with healing whenever they are in a Guild-aligned Beacon.
- Building Safety Helix grants your Guild members reduced fall damage and increased interaction range when within a Guild-aligned Beacon.
- Brew Extension Helix grants your Guild members the ability to extend the length of applied brews by killing creatures.
- Gatherer Healing Helix heals Guild members whenever they harvest a surface resource (Plants and Boulders).
Global Chat: A new set of global and public messaging channels 2. To help everyone connect. They contain rate limits and a big group of players will be given the rank of messaging moderators to help us keep these global channel on target.
- Shops and Trading - A public channel for all players to promote their shops and ask for trades. You’d still need to visit shops and meet in person to trade.
- Looking for Group - A channel to promote builds, hunts, community events and other collective stuff.
- Questions and Help - A channel for players requesting and responding to help.
- Advanced Locks: for giving permissions to individuals and guilds to access storage and machines
Hunter: She’s still coming. Prowling up on you. The Hunter’s AI is in development and she’ll be unlike any of the other creatures already in the game. Tap-tap-tap. Tap-tap-tap. Did I just hear a warp open? She’s been coding, doing technical reviews, joining in with design discussions - we think we’re going to offer her a full time job. Get back to working on your own AI!
… and …
Farming: A new farming system is coming to Boundless with 4 cultivating domains:
- Organic farming - everything you’d expect - irrigated with placeable water.
- In-organic farming - grow yourself a nice bit of Kindling Mass and Combustion Fraction - irrigated with placeable lava.
- Garden Flower farming - to bring some much needed life, colour and prestige to your home.
- Dripstone farming - cultivate your own dyes by farming throughout the known worlds. Each world atmosphere will mutate your crop’s tint and with skill and perseverance you’ll open up the full spectrum of building materials.
- Oh, and did we say that placeable water and lava will be used for irrigation - or whatever else you can find a use for.
When?
Keep an eye out for announcement posts of features going to Testing. These features are already in development and coming soon.
What’s coming next?
Let us know what you’d like to see next.
Our aim is to expand Boundless with new content and new systems for the full spectrum of Boundless players. We’re just as desperate as everyone else in the community to make progress with adventurous and experimental universal persistent sandbox features.
Of course, this is very much another step of our plans for Boundless. We’ve got plenty of features planned for the future, and your feedback will be invaluable as we continue active development of the game. We love talking with our players on the forums and social channels, so don’t be shy about championing the features you want to see in the future of Boundless.
Thanks!!