Son of Nature Windows, Mac, Linux game

Vote for Son of Nature on Steam Greenlight!! Steamcommunity.com
Son of Nature is an open-world survival simulator WITHOUT zombies! From crash to rescue! The focus of the game lies on realism and making choices like the following, ‘Should I invest my time in a shelter first, or in a fire?’. Players will find that they have an easier time surviving when they have knowledge of ‘hidden mechanics’ (see below to find out more about hidden mechanics).

Son of Nature is being developed by an enthusiastic one man team consisting of me (15 years old). The engine that’s currently being used is (how original) Unity 3D free. I hope to one day be able to upgrade to Unity Pro (see below).

Did you know that birds fly in a straight line whenever they’re going to water and that they fly from tree to tree when the have drunk? No? Well, the birds in Son of Nature do! This is an example of the type of realism I want to have in SoN, I call these sort of features ‘hidden mechanics’ as mentioned above. Another example of a hidden feature: When you are laying a trap it is a good idea to prepare all your needed resources first, at another spot. This will help you set up your traps faster and so, minimizing the scent that you leave behind and this way catch more game! These hidden mechanics will be discoverable by reading for example survival guides, notes left behind by other (failed) survivors or just by finding out about them in real life (Google!), Although it will not be guaranteed that it’s in-game when using the last method.

The graphics haven’t really had any priority so far, they are improved already since the trailer, but please don’t rate this game by its graphics alone, they will definitely improve!

Here are the most important features in an organized way:

• Gathering & item management:
  Basic resources like stones or branches can be picked up from the ground, but for new logs you’ll have to chop down a tree.
  The player will have 7 different places to store their items/resources in; Your left- and right hand, 4 completely customizable belt slots and of course (If you have one) a backpack.

  - Your hands will be able to both carry one small item. larger items like logs are considered two handed resources, these sort of resources will be carried with two hands and so only one at a time can be carried.

  - You are wearing a belt, you can craft pouches that hang around your belt and can contain multiple items. You can also just use your belt alone and stick for example the handle of your axe under it and in that way make it a tool slot. You have a maximum of 4 places where you can hang a pouch, canteen, tool etc.

  - You backpack is one gigantic pouch that is either placed on the ground or on you back. It is only accessible when it is on the ground.

• Food & water:
  Son of Nature will use a detailed nutrition system, using things like sugars, fat and proteins. This will force the player to look for a variety of nutrition sources, you can’t just survive on berries or rabbits. So no 0 to 100 ‘food units ‘ system. Water can be used to make special food types, like fruit leather. Water can also be used for example for disinfecting pastes. Of course you’ll also need to drink it, and it can be purified by cooking it or by crafting a charcoal purify-tower.
• Crafting:
  The crafting system will be using ‘craft-recipes’, recipes need ingredients, these ingredients can exist from different items. For example you may need a ‘high quality rope’, items that will count as this ingredient will be things like: shoe laches, paracord, drawstrings from your clothes etc. This will stimulate the creativity of the player. Sometimes you’ll need to modify items for example sharpen a stone.
• Medicines:
  Some plants will have medical properties, others may kill you in a brutally painful way. That’s why you need to make sure you have the right plant in front of you before you use it in some way. I want to make a completely dynamic medicine system that uses properties of plants when you combine them into a paste that will have the same properties, such as laxation (when you want to empty your stomach), disinfecting or just poison. You will get sick whenever you’ve eaten something wrong.
• Shelters & buildables:
  You will have to build your own shelters, shelters will have stats like isolation, size (for storing items), strength of the structure and waterproofness. You are able to store items in your shelters, this is for example useful for keeping firewood dry. You are also able to build other items; such as fire pits, purification-towers, water collection systems and resource holders.
• Hunting & wildlife:
  Son of Nature will have advanced AI on animals that’ll keep track of scent patterns and other factors that might reveal the player presence and thus scare the animals away. SoN has a very large and varied trap collection that will be place able. Traps will vary from simple noose traps to large spring traps able to kill both yourself and boars. I plan on adding much wildlife to SoN such as; squirrels, rabbits, lots of fishes, wolfs, boars and maybe even large bears and such.
• The player stats:
  The player will have some stats.
  - Bush crafting experience, this will increase with everything you do; from catching fish to building a simple shelter. The amount of experience that you’ll get depends on your morale. Your experience will affect the quality of your work, your shelters will become for example warmer when you’re getting more experience.

  - Morale, your morale affects your creativity. You will unlock less things when your morale is low. Your morale decreases when you have wet shoes or eating cold food, by simply having it cold or by having severe health problems.

  - Health, your health will be determined by whether you’re sick or not. You can get cut damage (being bitten etc.), this will increase your risk of infection. Your legs can be broken and result in decrease of mobility, which will lead to starvation and death.

  - Bodytemperature, gather or make clothes to keep yourself warm. And don't cross a melt-water river when you don't have dry clothes ;)

  - Some specific things will be upgradeable by doing it often: You have a spear with one tip that you use to catch fish and as you are fishing you think of a spear with multiple tips for a greater chance of hitting the fish.

Son of Nature will take place in an enclosed valley, the landscape will feature: Grass lands, high snow tops, large rivers and mostly large forest. Around the map you will find some very small infrastructure like 2 or 3 small abandoned mining towns (5-6 huts). The theme of these towns will be 1850 gold rush. In these towns you’ll be able to find some loot or documentation of the native plants and other wildlife, this will aid in your survival. The map will be placed in a Nordic setting, think about Norway or south Alaska.

Would you like to see the graphics improve? Well, I certainly do. For that I need some funding in order to purchase Unity 3D Pro and other assets. You can already donate to Son of Nature and

of Son of Nature, for more information see: Sonofnature.weebly.com

Thank you for reading all this! And if you have any questions, please ask them! I would like to thank everybody who has supported Son of Nature either by donating or subscribing to the YT channel and sharing the game!

-Gijs L. Son of Nature developer