Blog #19

Heyoo, it’s that sweet blog time again! We hope you’re all well and excited about the weekend! We’ve got some stuff to talk about, so lets get to it!

Some questions and some answers

It’s almost been two weeks since we announced multiplayer, steam and our co-op with Axolot, and oh my have we felt the love! We have of course been super excited to tell you about all that stuff for a long time and the reception couldn’t have been better! All your excitement and wonderful words has morphed into a major injection of motivation for us! So thanks for that! Since the announcement many of you have been coming with questions to us, so we thought we would answer the most common ones right here in this blog.

1. “Will Raft be free on Steam?”
   No, Raft will not be free. We haven’t decided yet on exactly how much the game will cost. However, once the price is set in stone, we’ll tell you right away!
2. “When in 2018 will Raft release on Steam?”
   We understand you all want to know when you can get back into the survival life with all the juicy new features, and we would like nothing more ourselves to be able to give you an exact date. However, we can’t. The reason behind this is that we want to release a game that works and is as fun as possible. We don’t want you to have to suffer through endless bugs and crashes. If we would set a date at this stage we would have to hold up to that promise and that could lead to things being rushed, resulting in a flawed product. When we get closer to a version of Raft we feel is ready to be shipped, we will be much more confident in setting a release date and promptly tell you when that is. We hope you understand this.
3. “Will I have to rent or run a server to play with my friends?”
   No, there will be no need for a separate server. The player who starts the game will automatically act as server, and then your friends can connect to you. We are aiming for simplicity and we are trying to make sure no hassle will be required in order to allow everyone to easily play with friends.
4. “Will players who have played or donated on Itch.io receive a free copy of Raft on Steam?”
   We very much appreciate all the support and feedback we have gotten from our community, however, playing or donating to the itch prototype will not grant access to the Steam version of Raft.
5. “Will Raft release on Mac and/or Linux?”
   We are first and foremost focusing on Windows. We would like to support more platforms in the future but due to certain parts of the game making porting more difficult we cannot at this time give any promises.
6. “Will Raft release on consoles?”
   This is also still uncertain. Again, we would of course like to have as many people as possible be able to play Raft, but we cannot say if a console release is going to happen yet.
7. “What will the system requirements for Raft be?”
   There is still a lot of work left to be done optimizing the game so we can’t say exactly what the requirements will be yet.
8. “Will there be an open alpha or beta before Steam launch?”
   There are currently no plans to have any open tests before the launch of Early Access.

Rocks, vegetation?

You may have seen a concept picture yesterday containing some vegetation. We asked you what its purpose might be. We’ll show it here again to refresh your memory.

You all came with very interesting ideas and some of you were right in a way! These plants will be found on small islands that you’ll occasionally float past. They also have another purpose that no one has yet to figure out as far as we’ve seen. It will introduce a new feature, one we’re not quite ready to show yet, so we’ll keep it under the lid for a little while longer. We can show you some in progress rock models that we’ll use to build the islands though. Here ya go!

DPS

You might be thinking DPS equals Damage Per Second. It’s a reasonable assumption to make in the world of games. But, in the world of raft survival it actually means something else. Dynamic Placement System or DPS is the latest in raft furnishing. Do you recognize yourself in the situation where you have made a great looking crop plot or campfire, but you don’t want to waste that precious floor space? Maybe you have a bad back, or you simply feel your walls are a bit empty? You can relax, because salvation is here! DPS introduces the ability to place several items on different surfaces, resulting in a different looking model! It not only frees up space on the floor, but also allows for a more diverse raft design! Seen below is the crop plot being placed on the floor, wall AND ceiling! Isn’t that amazing?!

This is just the crop plot. More DPS eligible placeables are under construction and will be added soon!

I believe that’s all for this time! Stay tuned for the next blog! I’m quite positive it’ll contain some pretty cool stuff! Have a good weekend and we’ll talk to you soon!

Written by Redbeet

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