Welcome to BaseLine Indusries!
By Finnley Knapp ·
Good day reader,
Today I'm launching the Dev Blog. This will be an area where I will provide a small insight into the development behind BaseLine Industries.
A bit about the dev.
I'm not really a game developer to be honest. My degree is in Ethical Hacking, and my specialization is in drones, however I always find myself bored and wanting to do something creative. Since I was in High school, I have always loved playing around with Blender (still cant get the topology right), but the furthest I seem to get is posting to reddit to get a classic 4 upvotes.
Although I do thoroughly enjoy these thrilling moments of elation, I thought I'd give something proper a go.
I've been working on this game for a while now and I have really felt it come to life in the last few months. It started as a hobby project as I love messing about with new tools and software so it was inevitable that Godot would catch my eye at some point. It seemed like a really interesting concept with a ton of momentum behind it, so I thought "Why not?".
I really love open source software, so seeing a whole ecosystem where a developer can make a game without needing to pay out for expensive, constrictive licences felt exciting to me. It has become possible to do this now with software like Blender aiding the process massively. Shout out to Godot and Blender!
A bit about the game.
Baseline Industries is an automation factory game at its core. I have always loved these kinds of games, so it felt natural to go this direction. Even if the game sells no copies, at least I can still enjoy it!
The concept that I'm running with for now, is that you start off as a small company with limited resources and funds, you'll be given the freedom to decide where on the map you start, and what route you would like to take to grow. Progression wise, the end game is to manufacture advanced industries for you company / country. There will be a contracts system which will allow you to make parts for other firms or national contracts and be rewarded with money or bonuses if you complete them. These contracts will work with other elements of the game, such green policies, weather and market demand. Toward the end game, there will be national projects which will work similarly, but you'll need a big factory to complete them.
So, where are we now?
Currently the game has its core features implemented, such as the building system, pipes, conveyor belts and pathfinding, however it is far from complete. As goes with every project, you add one thing, you need to add 10 more to make it work, so progress is somewhat slow, but quite rewarding.
Time for a Showcase!
The Building system!
I couldn't help but add a defender looking vehicle to the game.
The car will go around and construct buildings, belts and pipes from materials inside the warehouse.
Pipes and cables!
These are fundamentals to a factory game, so it felt right they were given a lot of attention. The cables sway in the wind and follow your cursor, honestly provides no additional functionality at this point, but boy is it satisfying.
The pipes are also quite fun to watch, they're currently WIP, but have come along quite nicely. So far, they can carry different types of liquid, which all have different characteristics. Oil for example travels quite slow though the pipes, whereas water is quite fast.
The Dynamic power system!
When making the power system, I decided to go for a flexible system where there can be multiple grids operating independently. I felt like this gives more flexibility to the end user. I decided that (for now) I wouldn't have a black out system, instead opting for a reduced capacity system for the grid. This means that you can still run your machines even if you don't have full capacity. This works by reducing the speed of the machines on the grid. I'm still on the fence of a blackout system, so would happily hear some feedback! (Say hello on the Discord!).
There are many other things being worked on, but I felt like these were the most fun to show off.
Thanks for your time!
Finnley Knapp - BaseLine Industries