Worlds Adrift’s alpha 5 has kicked off today with new dev team members in high places. Bossa Studios announced on Friday that it’s picked up a new lead developer and a new systems designer for the title.
“Up till now, Worlds Adrift has had just one very hardworking designer, Luke Williams,” says the new-come systems dev, Jeremy Hogan. “A lot of the game’s systems have been given a ‘first pass’ but now need to be tweaked and rebalanced in preparation for Early Access launch – that is where I come in. We are generating a lot of the game’s content procedurally, which means that no two islands or loot chests or even ship’s wings will be the same. Rather than specifying single values for the myriad stats in the game, I deal in ranges and probabilities. We play the game a lot in the studio so we’re always checking how our changes are impacting gameplay.”
The game is still on track for a Q1 2017 early access launch. This round of the alpha is “the biggest one to date yet,” according to the team, and will see the addition of scannable hidden knowledge, new shipyards, lootable containers, pistols instead of crossbows, a “complete overhaul” for ranged and ship combat, playable male characters, and craftable sails. The new trailer is below.
Fellow @bossastudios new boy @reefbarman and I introduce ourselves in the @WorldsAdrift blog, Alpha 5 starts today! https://t.co/DS6rCC8MmK
— Jeremy Hogan (@jezhogan) December 12, 2016
