Heyo, it's Matt.

We've been hard at work creating Space Botanist over the past few months as we're getting ready to make our "vertical slice". (If you imagine the game's a cake, the vertical slice is one slice of the cake that's 100% done and decorated - even if the rest of the cake isn't baked yet!) It's not easy to make a vertical slice for a systemic game but we're going to capture as much of the fundamental gameplay as we can.

Here's what we hope to have implemented:

Controls & Camera

It's not much of a game if you can't move or see! You'll be able to use your keyboard, mouse or controller to walk, run, plant, water and otherwise interact with the world. And, of course, the camera smoothly follows you around as you do so!

Plants

You'll be able to buy seeds and grow a variety of plants from seed to flower, then harvest and sell them. Plants will need to be watered, or they won't grow.

Sleeping

You'll be able to timeskip using futuristic "hypersleep pods" so you can take a short nap or sleep until the next day while your plants grow. (Just make sure that you don't sleep in too long and forget to water your plants!)

Buying & Selling Systems

We're introducing the mailbox, the central hub for buying seeds and upgrades, selling your wares and trading with aliens. For now, only the shops for buying and selling plants will be open (the rest still being under construction.)

Models, UI, Menus & Music

We're working hard to get as much of the game world as possible looking and sounding as good as possible for this vertical slice, including the user-interface and the menus! Here's a look at our progress (it's amazing what a bit of post-processing can do):

We've a busy week ahead of us, but we hope that the vertical slice will accurately capture the vibe of Space Botanist and let you see what this game is all about!

Want to know about our music design? Check out our last post by Niamh!

Until next post! (in the very near future)