DevLog 2 – What about that map? news

Hello there, Dealers!

New week, new devlog. Ready?

Let’s start with Rafal.

Designing the map was an important challenge that would have a significant impact on how the game would be played and progressed. We wanted to make the world of DDS2 much larger but also approachable and manageable by all players from casual to hardcore, as well as single or multi-player parties. That's why we needed to approach it in smart steps and a few phases of prototyping.

The first step was prototyping the gameplay. When we already had most of the basic gameplay mechanics, we first created a temporary testing map, which consisted of three small islands - two villages and one small town. This map was very simple so it could be easily shaped, changed and reworked during the process. (This is the map you saw on the first coop reveal gameplay trailer) We played a lot through the temporary map, made notes and had internal discussions on further changes. It gave us a good understanding of how the mechanics and game progress sit together and how we should approach the final world. How large should it be, how far is far and how close is close, considering both locally traveling by foot as well as using the vehicles.



Next step - general scale and size. After collecting all the knowledge from the first step, we could now design the general idea behind Isla Sombra - choose its size, complexity, and the number of towns and locations available. We first started with a draft on which we could discuss the game quest progression, territory progression, transportation and smuggling routes and the general mechanics of expansion. We adapted that draft to our limitations – time, budget and our abilities. It's easy to overthink stuff like that and blow the project out of proportion, so we needed to put that sometime and thought.

After we were done, we could make the first prototype of the map in the game world. Place the most basic locations, travel points, vehicles and a couple of hideouts. See how it plays out and how the designed scale works in gameplay.

When we finally agreed on the areas and map sizing – we could finally start to make Isla Sombra as it is today.



So, what’s more about the map? The DDS2 map is vastly bigger than the map available in the first game. It is comprised of 9 main territories, and some of those are divided into smaller sections.

On the islands, the player will find many “biomes”, from small coastal villages and small towns, through big colonial cities and slums, to jungle settlements and wilderness. The player will be able to travel around using different methods: by foot, a few options for quick travel, and some land vehicles and boats.



All the “biomes” (different kinds of territories) have their own faults and advantages. All have different shops and loot, varied types and numbers of enemies, and hideouts perfect for some operations but not as great for others.

The variation in available commodities, ingredients, and varying degrees of risk in production and warehousing in specific territories allows the player to use different tactics when organizing the distribution of goods across the island.

So this is what we’ve been working on! Wanna see more? Come back in a week!