Note that this page is outdated. Island Hearts are being redesigned such that they are no longer the primary source of building blocks.

Island Hearts is a mechanic that prevents the player from building outside certain areas. Every island has an island heart. It’s the island heart that keeps the islands afloat. Meaning, that if you try to build outside a certain radius of an island heart, the blocks will fall. An Island heart can be upgraded using jelly dew, increasing the radius in which blocks can be placed. An island heart also produces blocks when given jelly dew.

Feature Summary

Island Hearts is a mechanic that prevents the player from building outside certain areas. Every island has an island heart. It’s the island heart that keeps the islands afloat. Meaning, that if you try to build outside a certain radius of an island heart, the blocks will fall. An Island heart can be upgraded using jelly dew, increasing the radius in which blocks can be placed. An island heart also produces blocks when given jelly dew. An island heart cannot be destroyed.

Goals

• Prevent the player from exploring the entire world immediately
• Work as a method of progression
• Be as simple and easy to understand as possible

Feature Components

Limiting building

Every Island heart has a building radius variable, which determines how far away from the island heart you can build without the blocks falling. You can give an island heart jelly dew from the jellies. Every time you do this, the building radius slightly increases.

Producing blocks

An island can also produce blocks. It does this every time you give it a piece of jelly dew. Each island heart has a block type (grass, wood, etc.). This block type determines what type of block the island heart produces when given jelly dew. There are also different types of jelly dew. If the jelly dew and the island heart type match, more blocks will be produced than normal.

Example Visual

Concept art by Cesar Aguilar

What should be manipulable in the Unity editor

• Initial building radius of each Island Heart
• The block type of each Island Heart
• How much the building radius of an island heart is increased when given a non-matching jelly dew type
• How much the building radius of an island heart is increased when given a matching jelly dew type
• How many blocks are produced when given a non-matching jelly dew type
• How many blocks are produced when given a matching jelly dew type

Considerations and Dependencies

External Documents List