Umbral Idle: Last Salvage #4

Hey all,

I've been working hard on Umbral over the last couple of weeks with the Foundry being the fruit of that labour. But how did it come about?

My idle game was too idle. Strange to say, but I'm starting to realise what it was that kept me coming back to my favourite games in this genre, and it was some kind of active mode. Something that would give me a reason to pop back on when I had 5-10 mins but the idle timers were ticking away with nothing for me to do. Umbral felt like it was missing that reason to hop back on when I had some time to spare because a lot of the game could be claimed and re-setup again within 5 mins or so. In a lot of ways, this isn't really a problem per se, but it wasn't doing what I set out for it to do, which was grip me and keep me coming back.

So why the Foundry? I've always enjoyed collecting things and mining in games so I wanted to see how I could combine those with the lore of Umbral. The belt was a perfect place to target as it opens up to players within the first day or so of playing, and it's the one place that is your safe haven from the Collapse. The place you can come back to. So that allowed me to integrate the Foundry as a place that was permanent, didn't reset on Collapses, and could continue to grow and expand when you play it.

My initial attempt at making the Foundry was a bit of a flop. When you design things in your own echo chamber, it's easy to get caught up in how things look, how all the systems and design interlink and working with the wider game, and overlook the most important aspect... is it fun? I managed to get it looking great, playing well and intertwined with the wider game but I hadn't spent enough time playing it. What I had actually created was a game mode that you could essentially just hold down a button and succeed. There wasn't any reason to pick one square over another. So I had to start again. This was a great exercise in realising why I make these game modes. It's not a simple as plugging a hole, it needs to have purpose AND be enjoyable.

I've reworked Foundry now into a game mode with choices, pathing and consequences to where you tap and mine. With a few tweaks and reworks, this fit seamlessly into the rest of the Foundry which made the whole thing more cohesive and, hopefully, more fun!

I hope you enjoy playing it, I'd love to hear what you think and any feedback/suggestions you may have to improve it.

James