Dubious Design

A rogue planet looms in the far reaches of the solar system. Your expedition mission must dig deep below its surface in search of resources & other secrets. Build complex, multi-level production chains with seamless automation. Play alone or with friends. This is Substructure.

Our new dev diary talks about smaller features we've recently implemented in Substructure: belt converters and variable recipes. These add more variety to how machines and recipes work, and what setups players will need to build. #gamedev #indiedev store.steampowered.com/news/…

When texturing cliffs for Substructure, we wanted to avoid visible tiling. So we opted for a sandstone look. Horizontal banding helps textures flow & inherent surface noise reduces visual repetition. #indiedev #gamedev Full process: store.steampowered.com/news/…

Most texturing in Substructure is done via Substance Designer & Painter. To create cliffs, we produced a basic tiling texture & a heightmap to deform simple meshes into complex ones. Here's the workflow. #indiedev #gamedev store.steampowered.com/news/…

To create cliffs in a 2D game like Substructure, we produce a 3D model & render it out to a set of sprites. Then stack those sprites in-engine, which lights them to create the illusion of 3D. Here's a deep dive into the full process. #gamedev #indiedev store.steampowered.com/news/…

This fully automated fuel farm was created by one of our playtesters for Substructure. This player used underground belts to maximize the amount of land they can farm with each plot. #screenshotsaturday Wishlist Substructure on Steam: store.steampowered.com/app/3…

For a game like Substructure, strong UI design is essential. This has been a big area of focus for our development team. Here's a sneak peek of what the player inventory UI looks like. #screenshotsaturday Wishlist Substructure on Steam: store.steampowered.com/app/3…

Making an automation game involves some complicated code under the hood. Today's dev diary is about writing that code -- how Substructure handles data, how Lua definitions become C++ structures, & how reflection + annotations help things stay sane. store.steampowered.com/news/…

These are concept illustrations for the first two planetary layers of Substructure. They established the creative direction for everything that followed. Bringing them to life was a unique technical challenge. Read more about it in our second dev diary! store.steampowered.com/news/…

In Substructure, the art for the various layers of the planet is constructed like a cake. Distinct 2D components are built atop one another, each with a specific visual and gameplay purpose. Learn more about this process in our latest dev diary! store.steampowered.com/news/…

We've just released the first-ever dev diary for Substructure. Get an introduction to our development team, learn more about our design philosophy, and see how we approached worldbuilding for the game. Read it here: store.steampowered.com/news/…

Wishlist it on Steam: store.steampowered.com/app/3…