We’re back with another developer blog, in which we will talk more about how we are building our worlds. This time around, we are focusing more on environments that are one of the biggest additions to the world of Aqua: the cave systems.
In the world of Aqua there are many different places to explore: big open areas, canyons, intricate formations of cliffs mixed with flora, etc. and then there are the caves. The underwater caves in a game like Aquanox are very different than those on the surface since we have the freedom of moving in many directions. This poses a variety of challenges for us as the developers but also gives us the possibility of creating cave systems that range from a single-room “hole” to multi-layer branching cave systems (at the team, we jokingly call this “caveception”) where the player could spend hours exploring.
WE DIVIDE CAVES INTO TWO MAJOR CATEGORIES:
The ones inhabited (or once inhabited) by humans in some way. Sometimes these caves house entire colonies, stations, and outposts, while in other cases they are merely digging sites, mining operations or transport routes of various kinds: pipelines, transport routes for goods, militarized defense paths and so on. These caves are much easier to navigate as they often have human-made markers, beacons and artificial lighting built by the inhabitants, making the exploration and passage within the area simpler.
The other category would be everything never inhabited by humans before. Often, these caves are dangerous, full of strange twists and turns and can be very confusing for the novice aquanaut. There have been tales of beginners going into such caves to try and find riches in their depths, never to return to the water lock. For an experienced aquanaut, however, an unexplored cave can mark the dawn of a better life as untapped resources are worth a lot of credits on the market.
Thanks for your continued interest in Aquanox Deep Descent!
Your Aquanox Team
