For our first dev blog entry we decided to introduce you to the organ-tree which we already described in our design document.
If you haven't read you can find it in the description of our project here.
So about that organ-tree:
This is it: The tool you use during the creature stage to unlock or as it will be called ingame "evolve" your organs/skin types/body parts.
Now, this is still a very rough outline but I think the intention is clear.
One important design decision we made is to split it into three categories: Aquatic, Terrestrial and Both, with you starting off mostly in the aquatic branch, since your life (or lyfe if you will) as a complex creature will start off in the beautiful and mysterious depths of the ocean.
Parts from the aquatic part of the tree might be useless on land or even harm you and vice versa. For example you don't want to leave the water with gills on your creature because you will run out of oxygen very quickly. This doesn't apply to all parts, though. For aquatic hands for example it is more of a design choice (We might add gameplay functionalities later like aquatic hands help with swimming but aren't good for attacking while with some hands developed from the terrestrial branch you can claw at your rivals or prey).
You might have noticed that every set of organs has one base set and four versions deriving from it with numbers at the end. Each new version will be a new model/have a new design and slightly different stats. We are not 100% sure if we can keep the 4 stages of each organ but we will try. Because you know what they say: "Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss you will end in the vacuum of space and die alone."
What's next? The skin types. This is something where we really want to make use of the advanced technology we have compared to that from Spore almost ten years ago. Skin might not have an effect on the gameplay (yet, we're planning something for our nice-to-haves) but will make your creature look fantastic. The plan was keep it a small number of types but make them well differentiated.
Eyes: Withou eyes you won't be able to see anything, pretty straight forward, BUT: How good your eyes are determines how well you see objects at a distance/how far you can see. As a little bonus we also added a branch that grants you nightvision if you plan on making a nocturnal creature.
Finally: The brain. This is an indicator for your prograss in the creature stage. You start off with the first and most basic brain. You have to unlock all three upgrades to be able to enter the next stage which we will undoubtedly discuss at some point in this blog.
Sounds pretty cool, I've always thought someone should have another go at the Spore concept but try to do a bit better and apply some more advanced techniques!