So far, we’ve looked at things of a galactic scope; namely planets, and how to manage transport & shipping between them. Today we’re going back to our local roots and checking out our quirky little denizens, the Peeps.
????♂️ Peep culture
For those less familiar with the lore of Before We Leave (our first game), Peeps are a curious, human-adjacent spacefaring species with a love of nature and building things. They are handy and industrious, but prone to chaos. Their highly social and communal lifestyle is blissfully free of the modern trappings of things like “fiat currencies” and “private corporations”.
They also really, really like potatoes.
(Scientists estimate that the humble potato may comprise up to 95% of the average Peep’s diet.)
There are further elements to Peep culture that we’re considering representing as potential in-game mechanics. This diary will mostly focus on the basics of what keeps them ticking. We’re constantly iterating on the finer details of how Peeps organise themselves and their society, so some details might be subject to change!
⚡ Happiness
We’ve briefly touched upon Peep Happiness in a previous diary; it’s a mechanic that influences various things from productivity to, uh, reproductivity. Happiness goes up when Peeps are relaxing, eating, drinking, or being near decorative buildings. It goes down while Peeps are working, and dips even further if they pass through a polluted tile (the heavier the pollution, the greater the rate that happiness decreases).
If a Peep is unhappy enough, they will stop working and immediately seek ways to address their poor mood - so basically, keeping your Peeps happy means they’ll work longer.
To help track Peep happiness, we’ve added a graph to show the player what’s caused changes to a particular Peep’s happiness at a given time:
And a new happiness overlay to show the happiness gain & loss from a tile or building:
(Mousing over a tile/building gives a list of factors contributing to happiness.)
In essence: ignoring the happiness of your Peeps risks the slowdown or cessation of work, causing bottlenecks in production. There will be other factors impacting Peep productivity, which we are still working on - you'll find out about these later!
???? Aging
Peeps will age throughout the course of the game. Since players might value a Peep primarily for their capacity to be productive and build up your city (it’s a cruel world, isn’t it?), they can be understood as being of either working age or non-working age.
There are two types of non-working Peeps: Children and Elders. You can tell if a Peep falls into either category from the relevant icons, or from their models, which are unique from regular working peeps: Elders have grey hair, while Children are much smaller.
Children spawn only when there are empty accommodation slots for them to occupy, and spend their days relaxing and going to school. They grow up within several minutes of real-time gameplay. Conversely, Peeps become elderly once they reach the last several minutes of their lifespan, putting down their tools and spending the last of their days (minutes?) relaxing.
???? Food
Peeps can subsist perfectly well on basic foods, like potatoes and other crops - but they sure do appreciate a well-rounded, home-cooked meal.
Recipes
Once you start settling new planets and gaining access to a broader variety of ingredients, you’ll unlock a variety of buildings that let you process them. Let’s take a look at the Kitchen!
Meals supplied by the Kitchen building are an example of a processed, more complex food that gives additional effects once consumed: more happiness and energy, and an impact on temperature (hot meals might help with cold weather, but a cold meal when it’s freezing would negatively impact a Peep).
There are several different meal recipes that can be created through different combinations of ingredients: in the screenshot above, Eggs and Milk combine to make Puddings (and some Food Waste by-product). We don’t tell you what these recipes are, so you’re encouraged to play around with them and find out!
???? Clothing
As you travel through the galaxy, your Peeps (and Kewa too, of course) will experience fluctuations in the temperature of their environment. If things get too hot or too cold, your Peeps will start to find it harder to function.
Luckily, Peeps are perfectly capable weavers and tailors (those pink and blue jumpsuits had to come from somewhere, after all). Exploring other planets leads you to discover resources like Cotton seeds, and Wool can be produced by constructing a Pasture building on a planet that is home to sheep.
These raw materials are then taken to the Weaver building to be converted to fabrics, which the Tailor building can then use to create either Cold Weather or Warm Weather Clothing. These offer some relief to Peeps suffering from the effects of harsh weather, and offer some fun variety to Peep models. No shade to the classic default jumpsuit.
A lot of fun designs were considered for these clothing types! Here’s a glimpse of some:
(WIP and concept art of different clothing types.)
That’s about it for this developer diary! As mentioned above, we’re constantly working on Peep behaviours, so some of the above may be subject to change (and not necessarily exhaustive) - we just wanted to take the chance to get up close and personal.
Also! In case you missed it, check out Tom’s blog post from last month about the visual design of Kewa. It’s a very interesting read, and full of WIPs and concept art showing how our beloved Space Whale has evolved over time.
???? Do you have any burning questions about the Peeps? Want to know more about their lore, how they walk without legs, or how spicy they like their food? Our community's always coming up with the strangest theories over on our Discord - come join the fun!
See you next month!
- Lia
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2295060/Beyond_These_Stars/
