DEVLOG
Build logs from the wasteland. Follow AfterShock's development from first prototype to Steam Early Access.
Raiders at the Gate: Faction AI Is Live
Big milestone this week — faction raids are now functional. Enemy groups spawn from the world map, path toward your colony, and engage your colonists using the cover system. They'll flank, retreat when injured, and prioritize undefended stockpiles.
The combat AI uses a behavior tree with fallback nodes. Raiders evaluate cover positions, check line of sight, and coordinate loosely as a group. It's not chess-level tactics yet, but they feel dangerous — which is the goal.
Next up: loot drops from raids and a reputation system that scales raid difficulty based on colony wealth. The rich get raided harder.
Crafting, Quality Tiers, and the Production Chain
The crafting system is in and it's deeper than I initially planned. Every recipe requires specific tools and materials, and the output quality scales with colonist skill level plus tool quality. A stone axe and a steel axe both chop wood — but the steel axe does it faster and at higher quality.
Production chains are starting to emerge naturally. You mine iron ore → smelt iron ingots → forge tools → use tools to build better structures. Each step requires a workstation, a skilled colonist, and time. No instant crafting here.
The recipe system is JSON-driven and fully moddable. Want to add a new weapon that requires irradiated crystal? Add a JSON file and a sprite. That's it.
World Generation: One Seed to Build Them All
The world generator is the foundation everything else sits on, so I spent a lot of time getting it right. Every world in AfterShock is built from a single seed value that deterministically generates:
Terrain heightmaps and moisture maps → 16 distinct biomes (from scorched desert to frozen tundra) → river systems that follow terrain → radiation zones from nuclear blast sites → ruined cities with lootable structures → road networks connecting settlements.
The same seed always produces the same world. Share a seed with a friend and you'll get identical maps. This also makes bug reports easier — "seed 42069, northeast corner, the river clips through a ruin" is a reproducible report.
The world map is fully explorable via the expedition system, but your colony only occupies one tile at a time. Think of it like RimWorld's world map but with more terrain variety and radiation as a core mechanic.
Transmission Begins
This is Suthern Studios — a one-person indie operation building AfterShock, a post-apocalyptic colony simulation with pixel art visuals and deeply interconnected survival systems.
This devlog is where I'll document the build process. Wins, losses, technical deep-dives, and the occasional rant about pathfinding algorithms. If you're into colony sims, survival games, or just want to watch someone build a game from scratch — pull up a chair.
First real entry drops next week: how AfterShock's procedural world generation works under the hood.
Stay tuned. Stay alive.