Hi everyone! Welcome to another weekly Dandelion Void dev blog. This past week we put a bit of spit-shine on our enemy vent spawning behavior, and so today felt like a good opportunity to give you all a rundown of the system!
One of the best tricks a horror game can pull is to create a "promise" of safety, only to break it later. In the first five minutes of Dandelion Void, players will observe that the plant-spider “uproots” dwell in the tall ponics that have overgrown the ship. This makes for a simple rule: vegetated areas are dangerous, clean rooms are safe.
But if players are unwary, the relief of finding or making a plant-free room will be short-lived. As it turns out, the ship is full of convenient little back-door shortcuts for uproots to take: the air ducts! Originally built to circulate breathable atmosphere through the Pergola, these vents are the perfect size for a compact, flexible plant creature to crawl through.
A fun fact about the uproots of Dandelion Void is that there's currently one standing right behind you
These vent ambushes have prompted some the biggest emotional reactions we've seen from playtesters; in an instant their sense of safety is demolished, as bedtime turns into fight-or-flight.
Smart players will only make this mistake once. The simplest way to block a vent is to lug a couch, desk, or other piece of furniture over the vent entrance. Alternatively, you can directly board up the vent using ponic stems from the jungle or wood from destroyed furniture. Note that weaker barriers will atrophy over time, so maintaining your barricades is just as important as constructing them.
Blocking vents with furniture or boarding them up with stems are both valid ways to secure your base
Vent spawning is an ideal game mechanic in that the rules are simple – vents can spawn uproots at night, barriers can block the spawns – but it has a high impact on the game experience. Having a visible source of danger to track contributes to the player’s general sense of unease. Making the vents blockable adds a satisfying little base-building step, and turns furniture and ponic stalks into useful resources.
Most importantly, the vent system emphasizes the setting of Dandelion Void. The core of our game’s identity is the contrast between the human-built spaceship environment and the untamed jungle that’s overtaken it. Wild plant creatures having the run of these man-made airflow corridors embodies this dichotomy both mechanically and aesthetically, giving you an experience that is quintessentially Dandelion Void!
Thanks for reading. Until next time – seal all the entrances, and never let your guard down.