Dysmantle's promises of destructible objects is an intriguing one- how much will the play into various facets of the gameplay?
This is an important part of the gameplay. The destruction yields resources which you can use to craft stuff. You can't break all the things at start though - you must build the right tools. The destructible objects may also block your paths in some occasions, so you need to get stronger and get better tools to expand your reach.
With its post-apocalypse setting, can you tell us about Dysmantle's approach to enemy design and variety? Can players expect to come across various different kinds of foes?
There will be an assortment of foes. They will come in different sizes and have different abilities. There will also be some boss fights. Dysmantle is not a fighting game though, so fighting is only one aspect in the game. Most of the organic (meaning non-mechanic) enemies are ex people and ex animals that have been corrupted with the root cause that led to the end of the world. It's not as subtle as in many zombie apocalypse settings, so you will be fighting (and avoiding) all sorts of different creatures. There are also some mechanical threats, which are wielding more traditional arsenal or weapons.
How extensive are Dysmantle's crafting and building mechanics?
There are lots of recipes to craft and upgrade as the destroy-gather-craft loop is one of the core aspects. Some of the recipes are items (tools/weapons, special items, trinkets, headgear, outfits), and some are general feature upgrades such as the sleeping bag, which allows you to sleep at campfires. Sleeping enables you to pass time, but will also give you well-rested bonuses for a few hours.
Building is still somewhat work in progress, but it's roughly divided into two categories: useful machines (like a material refinery) and aesthetic things (like furniture). We're still considering how far we're going to expand this aspect though. For example, we don't have conveyor belts which would be used to transport materials to new locations for further processing like some more building focused games. We haven't yet solved how to make a neat interface for building whole houses (walls, floors, doors) for example, so that feature will not likely be included, and definitely not in the Early Access version. We want it to be simpler to use than the full blown level editor we're using.
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