A first-person open-world factory building game with a dash of exploration and combat.
Play alone or with friends, explore an alien planet, create multi-story factories, and enter conveyor belt heaven!
Construct
Conquer nature by building massive factories across the land!
Automate
Construct your factories with gracious perfection or build intricate webs of conveyor belts to supply all your needs!
Explore & Exploit
Venture on expeditions to search for new materials and be sure to put everything to good use. Nature is yours to harvest!
MY role
World Designer
My position at Coffee Stain Studios began in late August 2022 as a World Designer for their game project; Satisfactory. I contributed to the content development for Update 8 and the forthcoming 1.0 release as a member of the design team. I undertook the following responsibilities:
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The polish and set dressing of various locations, such as caves and biomes. My focus in working with the foliage and assets at hand was to help create an immersive experience with environmental storytelling.
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Providing polish to transition areas between different biomes in order to help them blend together.
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Replacing and converting old blueprints and assets in order to improve the game's performance.
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Participated in the planning of biome updates, foliage set decisions, and foliage variations.
World & Biomes
Satisfactory is set within a singular world, carefully designed, with no use of procedural generation in its crafting. Every element within the world is thoroughly hand-placed with thoughtful consideration.
The world features diverse biomes, encompassing deserts, forests, lakes, grass fields, mountains, and caves.
My work includes the biomes:
Abyss Cliffs
The Abyss Cliff features a compact and rugged mountainous landscape adorned with a multitude of stone bridges and an assortment of buttes situated at different heights.
The Abyss Cliff biome underwent layout adjustments, focusing on organic foliage placement due to abundant stone.
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Dense foliage clusters were impractical, leading to dispersed foliage, with added roots and rubble for a natural look on the rugged surface.
New assets replaced the old foliage set to better suit the area. The slideshow below illustrates the biome's appearance before and after the rework.
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A gameplay adjustment was implemented by me in the biome, introducing a jump shortcut accessible to players who have unlocked a jetpack.
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Crater lakes
Crater Lakes is a highland characterized by multiple craters and serves as one of the primary pathways leading to Bamboo Fields.
As part of my work in this area, I developed a foliage set that would complement the existing assets in the biome, aiming for a somewhat fantasy appearance with pastel colored foliage.
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Additionally, I smoothed the landscape as necessary, so that the crates do not have jagged edges.
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Below, you'll find a slideshow showcasing key highlights in this region, along with a glimpse of the small transition area that leads to the Rocky Desert
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Desert Canyons
Located between the Spire Coast and Northern Forest and Titan Forest, Desert Canyons is a relatively small area that consists of a long canyon filled with indestructible stone mushrooms.
It was my task to:
Assist with the transition from other biomes as well as re-paint the landscape painting with a clearer pathing.
Update the existing assets by replacing them with more recent versions.
Landscape the hills and the roads to make it more accessible with vehicles.
Modify the material or reconstruct cliffs as required.
Colors indicate areas where the foliage has slowly dried out to fit arid conditions.
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As you approach Desert Canyons from Titan Forest, lush vegetation thins out, replaced by sporadic greenery and dry bushes.
The cliffs changed material, as logically, the sand would not be able to reach that altitude.
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The Northern Forest transition area underwent an overhaul, incorporating replaced foliage and landscape painting. The transition shifts from lush green to dried sand rocks as one approaches the Desert Canyons.
The prominent main road was recoated with a more suitable material. The cracked surface suggests that water once flowed through this area, but has now dried up.
Additionally, the bumps on the road were smoothed out, and more space was created in the tight turn corner to facilitate easier vehicle navigation.
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Several cliffs were replaced in the area with better-suited assets.
During the installation of the new cliffs, I tried to maintain the shape of the previous ones to minimize disruption to structures or factories built by players in the area.
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The bumpy hills were smoothed and spaced out for better vehicle navigation. A new foliage set and landscape repainting were also done to depict the gradual drying out of foliage towards the desert.
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The geyser pools underwent a foliage overhaul, implementing a more suitable foliage set, along with landscape repaint and shaping to address the rough edges.
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Eastern dune forest
A sandy forest located at the East of the world, patches of sand dunes are separated by thin grassy areas.
My primary responsibilities in this domain included:
A basic overhaul of the sub-biome known as Coin Forest. I planned and implemented new pathways, polished the foliage set, and added gameplay adjustments around the cliffs.
Refine the Dune Forest with a pre-planned foliage set, interconnect all dunes, and implement additional pathways through dense forests.
Coin Forest
In the Coin Forest task, I focused on planning new pathways in the sub-biome for improved navigation.
The green areas mark locations where foliage needed to be added or increased in density to create a denser forest.
While working on the paths, I strategically implemented framing elements using foliage and cliffs, to guide players more effectively, providing clearer visibility along the routes leading to the Blue Crater and Abyss Cliffs.
This slideshow briefly presents the redesigned pathways in the sub-biome, highlighting the most significant changes.
I implemented additional pathways around the cliffs, enhancing accessibility to the higher grounds.
Overall slideshow of the Coin forest rework.
Dune Forest
The Dune Forest underwent a less comprehensive transformation compared to the Coin Forest. While a significant portion of the foliage had been tended to, the pivotal task ahead involved:
Enhancing its spaciousness by implementing connecting roads and paths for both pioneers and vehicles.
Refining the foliage with its latest replacement assets.
Complement the landscape by repainting certain parts to achieve a more natural appearance.
Quick sketch of open roads and small paths
Result
Quick sketch of open roads and small paths