"Need to create" - Builder, accelerationist, and Founder/CEO at KeenSWH.com and GoodAI.com - Working on AI People and LTM, Space Engineers 2, VRAGE3 engine and Resilient Civilization
Thursday, May 15, 2025
Marek's Dev Diary: May 15, 2025
What is this
Every Thursday, I will share a dev diary about what we've been working on over the past few weeks. I'll focus on the interesting challenges and solutions that I encountered. I won't be able to cover everything, but I'll share what caught my interest.
Why am I doing it
I want to bring our community along on this journey, and I simply love writing about things I'm passionate about! This is my unfiltered dev journal, so please keep in mind that what I write here are my thoughts and will be outdated by the time you read this, as so many things change quickly. Any plans I mention aren't set in stone and everything is subject to change. Also, if you don't like spoilers, then don't read this.
Space Engineers 2
The team is almost finished with VS 1.5 Modding (should be completed this week, and then a few weeks of testing will begin). With this milestone approaching, everyone is now shifting focus towards VS 2 - Planets and Survival, which I'm personally very excited about.
Some of the basic loops in the game are already working well during our internal playtests: the ore detector now elegantly displays ore locations on your HUD, you can drill ore, and the inventory screen allows smooth movement of items between inventories and grids. During yesterday's playtest, we focused on refining the grid roll function (Q/E keys) which many of you noticed wasn't fully implemented. I'm pleased to report it's now working as intended.
The art team is polishing voxel materials for planets - cliff materials, grass, soil, sand, and more. I'm genuinely impressed with how planets look from orbit and from 1-2 km distances - the view is breathtaking. However, we still have work to do in the middle distance range (200-2000m), where some material detail patterns don't quite match the scale. This is the kind of subtle polish that will make a huge difference in the final experience.
Turning SE2 into a Game: Core/Meta Loops & Progression
This topic has become my personal priority. Many systems in SE2 are already solid and polished, so now it's time to "turn it into a game" with meaningful, satisfying loops.
Core loops in SE2 encompass exploration, engineering, combat, and various combinations of these activities. A key design principle we're implementing is accessibility - ensuring the first experience with engineering isn't overwhelmingly complex, which might discourage new players. We're designing a progression from simpler engineering tasks to more complex challenges as players gain experience, but importantly, players are free to progress in any direction they want. The game will gradually introduce more complexity and challenges, but you'll never be forced down a specific path.
Let me walk you through a concrete example: Imagine spawning on a planet where your HUD objectives guide you to a ship projection. The interface intelligently directs you to nearby resource locations. You mine ore and then use backpack building (which automatically converts raw ore to components for basic blocks) to weld the projection block by block. Within minutes, you've constructed your first ship, and your HUD guides you to the next objective. Of course, this is just one optional path - you're always free to ignore these suggestions and forge your own way through the universe.
This engineering core loop creates satisfying and rewarding moments every few minutes. It's something players will repeat regularly, so we're meticulously fine-tuning it to ensure it remains engaging. This is just one example - we have numerous core loops designed with the same care.
Meta loops provide longer-term goals. You might accept a mission, travel to a specific location, solve various challenges (exploration, combat, engineering), receive rewards, and then progress to the next mission. Through this journey, you'll unlock new areas and advance your colonization index - a visual map showing which regions of Almagest you've already colonized. This provides intuitive, visual progression feedback without resorting to arbitrary gates.
Progression in SE2 isn't about arbitrary skill trees or artificial restrictions. Our philosophy is to gradually introduce complexity, allowing players to learn the game's systems organically while providing clear visual indicators of progress. We respect player intelligence while ensuring the learning curve doesn't become a learning cliff.
What I've described is just a glimpse into the ongoing design discussions we're having. Another major topic we're currently brainstorming is the combat meta and core loops - examining why players would attack or defend, what challenges they'll face, what rewards they'll receive, optimal combat frequency and distance, and whether combat should be automated or manual. These decisions will fundamentally shape the SE2 experience.
What aspects of SE2's core loops are you most excited to experience? What other topics are you interested in? I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Personal: Safari in Botswana
We recently took a quick three-night extended weekend trip to Botswana (an easy choice when you're staying in Cape Town). I've always wanted to visit, but since we didn't have time for a car journey, we opted for this shorter trip.
Botswana is a vast country with fewer than 3 million citizens. They have quality education, good governance, and generally, people seem content in their country (there's relatively little emigration). Our focus, however, was purely on nature - we stayed at a camp in the Okavango Delta and enjoyed the classic safari experience: morning game drives and evening boat rides to observe wildlife.
We were fortunate on the first day to encounter two lion brothers, whom we followed for almost an hour. We witnessed them attempt two hunts - first on a warthog and then on giraffes. Both were unsuccessful. It was fascinating to observe how lions rely on the element of surprise and abandon pursuit if not successful in the first few seconds. It was quite the experience sitting in an open vehicle just 5 meters from these magnificent predators with nothing between us.
To summarize: Botswana is beautiful, safe, has incredible wildlife, excellent food, lush greenery, and friendly, happy people. We plan to return in the future, but next time as a road trip to experience the country more intimately.
I love the building loop. There are many problems within SE1 that are there where or not we actually recognize it. Similar to what your saying and progression, I find most new players in SE1 loose interest as they don't realize the goal (nature of sandbox games?). The event controller was absolutely the most important block for me, it open building to a next level. I can't wait for "automation" in SE2.
I feel like this is a major core game loop. There are a lot of SE players that enjoy buiding that "does a job" vs "just looking good".
Nice nature shots! I checed the clounds in SE2, they look much better than the first time, but they need more work, more layers, more varied cloud variants. They look too fluffy, and I think some variations of clouds are more sharp, they have more sharp edges, also in high altitude, there are more thin clouds as well, and in some circumstances, they overlap because some cloud layers are above others. The video of the first planet with clouds - I think the scale is off, it looks good, but the clounds shold be 10x smaller (more detailed?) I know it would fit a 150km planet but if you want to showcase planet size scale, the cloud sizes from space should be smaller, I think.
Ahoj, vypadá to skvěle a na survival v SE2 se moc těším, nakonec v SE1 mám skoro 1000h i přes určitou prázdnost planet, ale to se poslední dobou zlepšuje. Také zvýšená rychlost pohybu je super, nicméně chtěl bych se zeptat, zda by se za gear nedal kromě nástrojů považovat i jetpack? Svým způsobem proč stavět malou průzkumnou loď, když pomocí jetpacku mohu letět stejně rychle? Myslím, že by mohlo být fajn vidět nějaký progres i v tomto případě. Jinak skvělá práce a to safari je super :)
No právě, ale proč mít hned od startu dostupný i boost mód? Ale chápu že implementace systému inventáře pro postupné vylepšení jetpacku by mohla být složitá ^^
i have an idea for some basic additions to the gameplay loop!
i have a mod installed for SE1 that adds random various encounters throughout planets and space. they’re old, derelict outposts with some mild defenses still active. i think these (and expanded versions of these) would be fantastic additions to the game! let’s take Minecraft for example. not a whole lot of randomly generating structures, but there’s mods that add a ton more and make you *want* to explore and find old buildings that inspire you. you can either go full scrapper and destroy everything for materials, or rebuild from where the previous inhabitants left off!
a lil scenario i’m envisioning for a fresh start: you spawn in on a planet with your simple buggy rover respawn pod. you have the main introductory sequence as you mentioned, and you can ignore it and do your own thing. traveling through the woods you come across a large clearing where it looks like a sort of abandoned factory complete with roads for vehicles and a large hangar and few abandoned buildings. you drive over there to explore and since there’s no power, no defenses are functioning. you start scrapping, build a turbine or battery, and suddenly the grid gets powered on! however, due to the power being back, the security system notices that there’s someone present who shouldn’t be on the premises, so alarms starts blaring, doors lock, and a few drones start flying and patrolling around the area. you can try to escape, you can beef up your rover with some weapons, you can hunker down and de-power the station, or you can try to find some specific blocks that you can hack and override and since you’re the new owner you can now be good to explore and be on the area as if you were *meant* to be there!
just the idea of random exploration and coming across previous buildings and structures scratches that itch for me, personally. it’s an opportunity to introduce some lore and a few “arrows” pointing towards something bigger! for example, if you were to look through locker rooms within that hangar/factory/airfield thing i just mentioned, you’d probably find some old shipping logs bringing vehicles or cargo to specific coordinates. you come across another old storage facility and they point to the same thing. you travel there and it’s still up and running with various Space Engineer NPCs all flying and docking their ships and communicating with each other in the text chat (or with voice acting if y’all wanna go that deep into it) and it’s like a “player hub” but for single player so the universe doesn’t feel so empty and lifeless. you can dock your ship and walk inside to get some Clang Cola and you’ll see some Space Engineer NPCs just sitting and chatting or waving and they’ll gossip about the Factorum or Space Pirates or whatnot
idk, i just think lil details like that would add *a lot* more life into the game and make it feel way less lifeless and empty.
I’m really holding off on diving into this long awaited sequel, though I have already bought it. Honestly I’m waiting for the mechanical parts! I like making bases and ships with moving parts! Please consider moving them up in the roadmap or at least letting us know what slice they are planned for
Any thoughts on adding visual scripting to SE2? Something kinda like Scratch, just more attuned for the game? I know that something like this is a bit far away, but if implemented correctly, I believe it could serve as both a bridge between and a replacement for much of the logic blocks in SE1. A system like that could allow easy, yet complex control over grids, trivializing tasks such as grouping or delaying commands to certain blocks. Unlike scripts, it would also work on consoles, too. Hell, with strong in-game integration, it could even replace alot of the C# scripts made for the programming block, though I believe most people still want to see that one make it into the game. So, yeah, what do you think?
I love the building loop. There are many problems within SE1 that are there where or not we actually recognize it. Similar to what your saying and progression, I find most new players in SE1 loose interest as they don't realize the goal (nature of sandbox games?). The event controller was absolutely the most important block for me, it open building to a next level. I can't wait for "automation" in SE2.
ReplyDeleteI feel like this is a major core game loop. There are a lot of SE players that enjoy buiding that "does a job" vs "just looking good".
Any SE1 news ?
ReplyDeleteAy these posts are very interesting, keep up the good work!
ReplyDeleteNice nature shots!
ReplyDeleteI checed the clounds in SE2, they look much better than the first time, but they need more work, more layers, more varied cloud variants. They look too fluffy, and I think some variations of clouds are more sharp, they have more sharp edges, also in high altitude, there are more thin clouds as well, and in some circumstances, they overlap because some cloud layers are above others.
The video of the first planet with clouds - I think the scale is off, it looks good, but the clounds shold be 10x smaller (more detailed?) I know it would fit a 150km planet but if you want to showcase planet size scale, the cloud sizes from space should be smaller, I think.
Ahoj, vypadá to skvěle a na survival v SE2 se moc těším, nakonec v SE1 mám skoro 1000h i přes určitou prázdnost planet, ale to se poslední dobou zlepšuje. Také zvýšená rychlost pohybu je super, nicméně chtěl bych se zeptat, zda by se za gear nedal kromě nástrojů považovat i jetpack? Svým způsobem proč stavět malou průzkumnou loď, když pomocí jetpacku mohu letět stejně rychle? Myslím, že by mohlo být fajn vidět nějaký progres i v tomto případě.
ReplyDeleteJinak skvělá práce a to safari je super :)
Thanks! Jetpack in SE2 has the new boost-mode, so you can achieve the same max speed as with ships (300 m/s).
DeleteNo právě, ale proč mít hned od startu dostupný i boost mód? Ale chápu že implementace systému inventáře pro postupné vylepšení jetpacku by mohla být složitá ^^
Deletei have an idea for some basic additions to the gameplay loop!
ReplyDeletei have a mod installed for SE1 that adds random various encounters throughout planets and space. they’re old, derelict outposts with some mild defenses still
active. i think these (and expanded versions of these) would
be fantastic additions to the game! let’s take Minecraft for example. not a whole lot of randomly generating structures, but there’s mods that add a ton more and make you *want* to explore and find old buildings that inspire you. you can either go full scrapper and destroy everything for materials, or rebuild from where the previous inhabitants left off!
a lil scenario i’m envisioning for a fresh start:
you spawn in on a planet with your simple buggy rover respawn pod. you have the main introductory sequence as you mentioned, and you can ignore it and do your own thing. traveling through the woods you come across a large clearing where it looks like a sort of abandoned factory complete with roads for vehicles and a large hangar and few abandoned buildings. you drive over there to explore and since there’s no power, no defenses are functioning. you start scrapping, build a turbine or battery, and suddenly the grid gets powered on! however, due to the power being back, the security system notices that there’s someone present who shouldn’t be on the premises, so alarms starts blaring, doors lock, and a few drones start flying and patrolling around the area. you can try to escape, you can beef up your rover with some weapons, you can hunker down and de-power the station, or you can try to find some specific blocks that you can hack and override and since you’re the new owner you can now be good to explore and be on the area as if you were *meant* to be there!
just the idea of random exploration and coming across previous buildings and structures scratches that itch for me, personally. it’s an opportunity to introduce some lore and a few “arrows” pointing towards something bigger! for example, if you were to look through locker rooms within that hangar/factory/airfield thing i just mentioned, you’d probably find some old shipping logs bringing vehicles or cargo to specific coordinates. you come across another old storage facility and they point to the same thing. you travel there and it’s still up and running with various Space Engineer NPCs all flying and docking their ships and communicating with each other in the text chat (or with voice acting if y’all wanna go that deep into it) and it’s like a “player hub” but for single player so the universe doesn’t feel so empty and lifeless. you can dock your ship and walk inside to get some Clang Cola and you’ll see some Space Engineer NPCs just sitting and chatting or waving and they’ll gossip about the Factorum or Space Pirates or whatnot
idk, i just think lil details like that would add *a lot* more life into the game and make it feel way less lifeless and empty.
I’m really holding off on diving into this long awaited sequel, though I have already bought it. Honestly I’m waiting for the mechanical parts! I like making bases and ships with moving parts! Please consider moving them up in the roadmap or at least letting us know what slice they are planned for
ReplyDeleteAny thoughts on adding visual scripting to SE2? Something kinda like Scratch, just more attuned for the game?
ReplyDeleteI know that something like this is a bit far away, but if implemented correctly, I believe it could serve as both a bridge between and a replacement for much of the logic blocks in SE1.
A system like that could allow easy, yet complex control over grids, trivializing tasks such as grouping or delaying commands to certain blocks.
Unlike scripts, it would also work on consoles, too.
Hell, with strong in-game integration, it could even replace alot of the C# scripts made for the programming block, though I believe most people still want to see that one make it into the game.
So, yeah, what do you think?