Hello and welcome to this installation of Dysplaced Dev Diary. Today, we are going to examine some of the new destruction possibilities available in the game and some other fun stuff we have been cooking up since the last one. But before all that, we will discuss the Early Access release schedule.

Initially, we aimed to release the EA version on Steam at the end of 2024, but that was always an optimistic target. After reviewing our progress, we've adjusted the target to 2025. While we can’t give a hard promise, the first half of the following year looks favorable as a target. We will keep you posted. Thank you for your patience and support!


As fans of Dysmantle know, destroying things is fun, and destroying buildings is even more fun! With the advent of multi-storied buildings and roofs, it became apparent that the old destruction system wasn’t up to snuff and had to be developed further. Earlier, we used a simple “parent-child” system for situations where, for example, you had stuff like plates on a table. This ensured that the plates would be destroyed when you destroyed the table. While the system is still in use today for simple interactions, it is not well suited for structural calculations of a two-story building. We did some tests early on to check for viability, and it took me something like 20 minutes to do the parenting for a small house. It's not the best use of my time, to be honest.

The new system automatically checks for walls, structural supports, and roofs above floor bases. So when you start destroying walls under it, the roof or upper floors will be destroyed piece by piece. Some of these floor bases will be intangible and invisible, working as helper objects to extend the behavior to structures without precise floor levels, such as walls with walkways and other smaller structures.

Do note that in the GIF I have removed the transparency from the roof you would have when inside the houses to better visualize what happens to the structure. I also wield a dev axe that destroys everything in one hit to save your valuable time. Visuals aren't also final so if some particle effects seem weird, that is why.

There are some limitations to destructability, however. When demolishing a multi-story building, you must start from the top floor and work your way down. This includes smashing any furniture left on the upper floors as well. In short, this approach worked the best and had the fewest possible issues downstream.

In this GIF I turned the roof hiding on. It will likely have a slight fade-out time in the final version.

Also, not everything will be destructible in the world. As we did previously, some walkways and pathways necessary for the player to traverse the game world will remain invulnerable. Most likely, houses inhabited by NPC characters will also remain indestructible. You are a hero, supposed to help these people, after all.


It is exceedingly complex to find a good word for light that starts with “D.” Anyhow, I wanted to talk about improvements to our lighting in the engine and all the shots are from night time. Sorry. Previously, we had a hard limit on how many lighting objects could be in a single chunk (the map consists of square-shaped chunks; not all chunks are loaded simultaneously, only those nearest to the player). Typically, our lighting setup had one directional light, simulating sunlight and perhaps some glowing objects every now and then. Now, we can use more lighting objects per chunk, with the only limit being performance. This allows for more varied ambient lighting and enables us to use lighting to create a certain mood for any given place. Some objects of interest will have slight lighting objects to draw your eye, while some areas of nature will have complementary lights. It is all stimulating and, above all, looks fantastic.

We also know that some of our fans use older hardware, so we have categorized lighting objects into essential and non-essential. This means that only strictly necessary lights can be shown if need be for the health of your computer or device.


A common complaint with Dysmantle was the lack of view distance, which made some players feel claustrophobic. We have been tweaking our engine and are experimenting with farther distances. While this example won’t likely be the end result, it should give some idea of what it should look like. Performance issues must be considered, so unfortunately, for some devices, the camera will inevitably end up closer to ground


Last but not least, we added chickens. It always bugged me that although the player found a lot of eggs in Dysmantle, there weren’t any egg-laying animals around besides vultures. You will most likely run into a chicken in villages where they reside by a coop and produce eggs at intervals. Of course, there will be wild chicken as well. White meat can be acquired by slaying chickens, which will allow for meat-based meals other than those made from red meat.

That is that, until next time. I will leave you with some more night time beauty shots.

-Haz

Hello, and welcome to another Dysplaced Dev Diary. It has been some time since the last installation, and in the time between, we’ve been swamped with work. We have a good grasp of what we want (and are able) to include in the Early Access version of the game and are currently working hard on creating the content and adding missing features. We are getting closer, but much work still needs to be done to reach our goal. We envision three islands at the Early Access launch and will expand on that after the initial launch. If you want to have a look at one of the islands, you can check it out in a previous dev diary here:

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2430390/view/3747616710719998441?l=english

Onwards to today's main topic:


As for today, we will look at some of the adversaries you will face in the game. This will not be an exhaustive list but more of a general overview. We will start with the completely natural wild boar (the implication being that there might also be an unnatural boar). In our last title, there weren’t too many animals in the open world, so it was necessary to spice up the wildlife a bit. The wild boar will generally run away from you, but if you manage to wound it enough, it will stand its ground and fight back. Regarding survival and resource mechanics, the boar will at first be a good source of meat. With the correct skill, you are able to use more of the pugnacious pig, gaining access to hides and bones. There have been no sightings of a boar coupled with a meerkat yet.

Next up is a human. While you will undoubtedly meet some friendly folk along the way, these two are baddies. As you might be acutely aware, humans are able to utilize a variety of different weapons in combat. While we originally tried out a system where you could have wildly differing equipment loads on an enemy, we decided to use a “class” based system instead, as the player can recognize different enemy types better with just a glance. These two are Cultist Initiates, which is the lowest rung step on the hierarchy of, well, the Cult! What exactly this organization is up to is a mystery to be revealed. In combat, these initiates will try to get near you to utilize that stone dagger in deadly melee combat. They can dodge out of harm's way if you try to mount a full frontal assault, so keep wits about you lest they catch you off guard. Expect other cultist classes to be more challenging and exhibit ever-deadlier weaponry.

After humans, we will delve into humanoids. These three are part of the Nyghtmare, a faction of sorts. I’m being vague on purpose on the specifics, but they are also on the lower end of the threat level. On the left, we have a few examples of the common shambler. It is very aggressive but also has a one-track mind, so it doesn’t care for its own well-being after seeing something it wants (to chew on). The Guardsman possesses cunning talent with weaponry and a big sword to boot. These fellows do offer a true fight and come in a few different variants, some even sporting shields.

As I mentioned, this was just a tasting to whet the appetite. There will be formidable boss enemies to offer climactic battles and test your mettle as an adventurer. I am not allowed to show these, however, so this is more of a confirmation that there will be some tough fights ahead of you.


While we have had a couple of updates focused mainly on the fighting side of things, we haven’t forgotten about crafting, resource collection, and various side activities. For fans of Dysmantle, getting permanent stat increases from eating food is back, but in a slightly different form. Previously, when you ate something for the first time, you gained a boost in HP or a modifier of some sort, such as dodge roll speed. However, the downside was that you really had no real reason to ever make that dish again, as it didn’t confer anything other than HP, and there were a lot of ways to heal in that game. The dish didn’t exist as an item but was consumed when you did it.

Now, we have “itemized” food dishes so you can have them in your inventory. Even better, they are stackable, so you might have ten pieces of grilled meat that you can freely munch on if you are low on HP. As an earlier dev diary mentioned, they might also confer timed buffs. However, this time around, you are also using these items as a currency in the skill tree. A skill conferring permanent +HP might “cost” three grilled meat. So, in this sense, it is valuable to keep cooking as you get instant benefits from healing, timed benefits from buffs, and permanent benefits from skill increases. We have also reformated the skill tree into different sections and given it more structure overall, but it is still WIP.

Altogether, different resources such as plant matter, ores, and food materials will be used to purchase skills. We tinkered with the idea of using skill points, which you would receive per level up. Still, there were too many cases where the player could accidentally build their character "wrong," locking themselves out of necessary items and then having to grind for those points. The current iteration works like this: you need some stone and wood to learn how to make an axe, and you gain new skills to unlock per level. We are still tinkering with different ideas, but this is how things currently stand. Also, speaking of stone, it is now considered an early material that you can break and gather within a few hours. A welcome change from how it was in Dysmantle.

Half of the office is already on summer vacation, and the rest of us are leaving next week. We’ll be away for July and return refreshed and ready to continue the development process in August. Hopefully, you all have a great summer. See you later.

I will leave you with a collection of screenshots showcasing some areas in the temperate biome type, which we haven't shown much yet. Enjoy.

-Hazamuth