Hello everyone!
Today we’re pleased to share with you the first in a series of development posts covering various aspects of the upcoming Broken Beyond expansion for Besiege.
We’re also excited to say that we’re still on track to release the expansion in Q2 of this year! Wishlist now to get notified.
For this first development post we’re going to start by talking about Space in Besiege, how it works and what you can expect from it.
The scope of playable environments in this new expansion are much greater than any previously in Besiege, helping them feel more like miniature worlds than isolated dioramas in a void. Our goal has been to achieve a good balance between the epic scale of space with fun and interesting miniature worlds that follow Besiege's traditional diorama style.
When it comes to physics our goal with Besiege has always been to create a middle-ground between realistic simulation and quirky physics, a philosophy we’ve taken into this new expansion as well.
The Broken Beyond offers you the closest experience to a true Newtonian simulation, pushing the laws of physics into the realms of mind-bending wackiness!
Large space objects like asteroids, planets, etc, have their own gravitational fields which fall off according to the inverse square law, meaning the force applied to your machine decreases drastically as you move away from its source.
There are a variety of different gravitational fields in The Broken Beyond, which have enabled us to create everything from realistic planets you can land on, to planetary discs you can drive around or fall off to the planet below!
Planets have “Spherical” gravity fields that pull everything towards their center or core which enables you to establish elliptical orbits around them. For more unusually shaped objects like lumpy asteroids, we combine several gravitational fields together with some clever maths to make them feel realistic to drive upon. These fields present odd looking paths for orbiting objects, following the contours of the Asteroid.
Platforms use a cylindrical form of gravity, where objects are pulled toward the faces of a cylindrical shape. This keeps the gravitational forces consistent, rather than strongest at the center of the platform, and causes orbiting objects to follow the cylindrical shape.
Finally we have the “Circular” gravitational field, which pulls objects directly down onto it or up onto its underside, creating an almost two dimensional ring doughnut to drive around with a hole in its center.
The Broken Beyond simulates the gravitational fields of all large objects in levels, enabling you to jump between asteroids or establish complex orbital paths around several celestial objects at once.
Although the expanse between planets in Besiege is a vacuum, it’s far from empty. Space debris litters the star system - countless rocks to collide with your ship, meteoroids to push around or smash into one-another, and even moons that you can send crashing out of orbit!
I’m afraid that’s everything for this week, we hope you’re as excited as we are about The Broken Beyond’s upcoming release! Next week, we’ll continue our “Simulating Space” theme with information about planetary atmospheres and how they affect your machine. We’ll also be showing off a neat little tool to help you navigate across the star system, and maybe we’ll take a look at a miniature singularity…
If you haven’t done so already, please do wishlist The Broken Beyond! It’ll let you know when the expansion releases and it really helps us spread awareness of our new passion project! Until next time, cheers everyone,
Von