Welcome, Prospectors to the year end edition of Weekly Apart! As we say farewell to an eventful 2023, we wanted to give you one last update on what we've been working on, namely the foundations for our room system. But before we delve into the depths of Aurora's interior spaces, here are some of our personal highlights and favorite additions to Dawn Apart: - [url=https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1866300/view/6263977729551431186]Awesome destruction physics[/url] - [url=https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1866300/view/3631625560058334010]Refining our conveyor belt systems[/url] - Adding [url=https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1866300/view/3631627017359334706]fire[/url] and [url=https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1866300/view/3640634660747003372]water[/url] to our game world - [url=https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1866300/view/3698057539063422611]Debuting our epic soundtrack[/url] - [url=https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1866300/view/3709317272416254722]Our co-founders hitting the GDC circuit[/url] - [url=https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1866300/view/3749869144009972546]Fleshing out the lore and rebranding the game's evil megacorp.[/url] (You can read about all features that we added to game since announcement 13 months ago [url=https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1866300]here[/url]) [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43212903/10f543f65453b898686ae51e7ce6fbb10985c14b.png[/img] [h3]Looking for Enclosure[/h3] In line with our modular DIY approach to building housing and factories in Dawn Apart (no pre-designed living quarters or factory floors that you can simply place on the map) we had to come up with definitions of what actually constitutes a ‘room’. We broadly define a room by its enclosures with floors, walls, doors, and windows (roofs are optional, but highly recommended), with its specification dynamically calculated based on the items, furniture, or machines that are placed within. For example, a room with less than three beds/sleeping spots will simply be a ‘Bedroom’, whereas a room with more than three sleeping spots becomes a ‘Barrack’. A room with a chemlab and chemical reactor is a ‘Laboratory’ as opposed to a ‘Metalworks’ room that has to house at least one punch press, drill, cutter, and crimper. As you can see in the mock-up below we want the process of working with rooms as intuitive as possible. By hovering the room while holding a magic key (it’s Left Alt) you’ll get an outline around the room’s enclosing walls and be able to see more intimate details about the room in question. It’s all very technical and complex, especially because it raises questions on how to interact [url=https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1866300?emclan=103582791472734311&emgid=3672157322342924252]with our Sims-like level/roof view[/url], which lets you see below the roofs of multi-room and multi-floor structures, but that’s for our developers to worry about and you to enjoy. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43212903/6c6423744f5ff3b05e9e2343bf603bb83395bf1b.png[/img] [h3]Room(s) for Improvement[/h3] Knowing which rooms you have at your disposal (via a special tooltip) within a large colony is crucial, as you'll be able to monitor your production capabilities and readjust them by dividing space and fixing enclosures. The base room system is also a requirement for adding more complex gameplay mechanics such as temperature, light density and air quality which will affect the durability of your machines, assembly lines, and the overall quality of life in the colony. Speaking of adding gameplay features - we look forward to further refining the gameplay loop of Dawn Apart in 2024 and finally getting a demo into the hands of our followers (if you want to test the demo before it is published Steam-wide please make sure to[url=https://discord.gg/M7Cagwx7V5] join our Discord server[/url]). [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/43212903/b1fe8f7c6c4530a2116a89cc5fd606a8a4909a25.png[/img] Do you have preferences when it comes to defining rooms in a building game or examples from other games in the genre that you particularly like (or dislike)? Let us know in the comments! Have a great holiday break and see you at the dawn of next year!