The Worlds of Project Cosmos
As we talked about in our announcement (Link Here), we’re really excited about our take on the genre, which focuses on smaller worlds. They're meant to last a few sessions, or around six hours of total play, though it might average significantly longer if you play with less players, or just take the time to enjoy the scenery. We know this is a pretty big shift. We’ve talked about our love for games like Valheim, where players can spend hundreds of hours in worlds, or even Terraria, where worlds are a little smaller, but a full run with all the bosses and events can still be a few delightful weeks with a dedicated crew.
We specifically wanted to build a game that was easier to get into. We want it to feel like less of a commitment to hop into a new world, given all the choices that follow. Which heroes do you and your friends bring? How will they adapt to different biomes and magical properties of each world? We want every world to have significant differences that will make you consider your approach.
So what makes up a world? The first thing we focus on is the natural attributes of the world, also known as the biome. This covers the sorts of terrain you’ll find, the weather patterns, and quite importantly, all the natural resources and wildlife that you’ll end up running into as you discover the crafting, building, and cooking possibilities unique to each place.
This leads into one of the biggest differences in the experience Project Cosmos promises. With each world hosting a different cast of native creatures, many of which will be hostile - or at least dangerous if provoked - each world asks players to adapt. This is why our smaller worlds offer such different experiences, and ones we think are unique in Survival Crafting games. Each world gives you new combat challenges and new materials to craft with, which means different paths through the tech tree to get a player's favorite piece of gear, or build the protective building that makes the difference when night falls…
The worlds of Project Cosmos have a few more layers, though. The universe of our game is deeply infused with magic, and of course this includes our worlds. Each world has been damaged by a magical cataclysm that tore through every corner of the universe. On some planets, that might be a bit more subtle, where there’s a few creatures that don’t seem quite right, and clearly something is out of balance…
Other worlds will be even more impacted by chaotic magic. Our adventurers will have some very serious problems to solve here.
We’re also building each of these biomes with the ability to rearrange lots of different components, so even when you return to our overgrown ocean wilderness, you still have a totally different world layout and set of quests to complete. For gameplay, we want to make sure our worlds always have something new to share. In our storytelling, this is an effect of the chaotic magic that warps and rebuilds each planet over and over again. Only the brave explorers have the tools to land on these planets, race to unravel the mysteries they hold, and then dash out before the planets tear themselves apart again.
This is just a small snapshot of what we think makes our worlds so different, and how they’ll give you so many new things to discover. If you’d like to learn more, please join us on our discord! https://discord.gg/projectcosmos
Thanks for your attention!
-Jo