In the earliest iterations, it was alone without the complementary hope bar until research into survival stories showed a common element to them: that survival often depended on people having hope.
One evolution that came relatively early in development was the addition of the discontent bar to help measure how people felt about the decisions you were making.
You can see the background is there to help establish the mood, but otherwise, it is a prototype to test the different decisions made and how they all interact with each other.Ī very early in-development Frostpunk shot with potential decisions to make Here's an example of what some early Frostpunk internal tests looked like. While it may return in some form at a later time, the prototypes succeeded in illustrating that the ideas they had then for implementing a snowstorm didn't work and helped them refocus on other ways of making weather test and vex you.
Once or twice, it could be interesting, but it failed to work at all as a core mechanic with the real-time day/night cycle that Frostpunk uses. These storms would disrupt the pattern of the city as they blocked you from doing things, but they failed to create interesting gameplay decisions and moments, becoming essentially an inconvenience. Not all ideas work out either for example, one idea they tried to work in several prototypes was Snowstorms. Here, ideas can be programmed and tested, with many early ideas using things like wireframes to try stuff out while keeping art budgets low. Eventually, you have to take it to the computer. Paper prototypes though, will only take you so far. We are not that concerned if it’s a shooter or a strategy game – these are just tools we use to deliver the experience." –Jakub Stokalski, Lead Designer Frostpunk “What we want to do is deliver a specific type of experience for the players, that we think is worthwhile, is meaningful and fun to play. Though,11 Bit has made a history of jumping genres from the reverse tower-defense of Anomaly Wars, to the survival game of This War of Mine, and now to citybuilding in Frostpunk. This was perhaps especially challenging for a studio that never worked in the genre before. In the end, they had to find their own ways to build the tension they wanted to bring to the genre. Real Time Strategy games also helped with their similar focus on of material gathering and building a central location utilizing those materials. Survival games were a natural fit with the survival elements-games like Don't Starve and Banished provided different ideas and mechanical inspirations for the design of Frostpunk, but those ideas had to be adapted and transformed for a different scale. To help with that, they expanded what genres of games they looked at. On one hand, you have this citybuilding, but when you look at most citybuilders they have a specific way they play.” –Jakub Stokalski, Lead Designer Frostpunk “The concept itself, while I think its really interesting and novel in the way it puts all these different pieces together and against each other, its really difficult from a design standpoint to get into a smooth good gameplay experience. In contrast, one of Frostpunk's punks goals from very early on was delivering a more narrative or story experience, largely through its mechanics. Objectives may challenge you or give you a different focus but still answer to the same goals. There isn't really any losing other than running out of money, and typically supplies are flush in a citybuilder it's all about having fun building and trying out different ideas. Most classic citybuilders are simulators, using more of a model or toy type of design in Simcity or Cities: Skyline. One of the big challenges Frostpunk faced came from its inherent design goals. Whether those are roads or connective things, different buildings surround it and show building what tools the society needs to survive.
We can see the layout of the generator with heat spreading out similar to how it would with the final version of Frostpunk. An early paper prototype of Frostpunk, showing circular layout, temperature, and buildings