Description

Instruments of Destruction is a vehicle-building sandbox featuring advanced physics-based destruction. An intuitive vehicle creation system lets you build and customize your vehicle using a wide array of parts to complete various objectives.

History

Working on Red Faction

After starting his career in games in 1997, Luke Schneider first worked as the lead Red Faction II multiplayer designer while part of Outrage Games in 2002. A couple years later, he joined Volition as a designer on The Punisher, then started to work on Red Faction: Guerrilla in late 2004 (the 4th member of the team at the time). He continued to work on RFG and its DLC for the next 5 years, both as lead tech designer and lead multiplayer designer. About 6 months after last working on RFG, Luke left Volition to form Radiangames, a one-man independent studio.

Post-Speed Demons

Nearly 10 years later, Luke was beginning a big new project and had to choose between a variation of Speed Demons (racing with an overhead viewpoint) or a destruction-based game. He prototyped both for a short while and decided on the destruction game. After getting the initial structure system implemented without too much trouble, the next big decision was what the moment-to-moment gameplay would be.

OR-BE

While messing around with different ideas, using a rolling sphere to smash through the buildings and use a vortex to pull the debris towards the sphere was quite fun, so Luke continued that direction for a few weeks, with the sphere morphing into an Obliteration Robot: Ballistic Edition. OR-BE gained many powers, including a Katamari-like ability to absorb broken pieces into a larger and larger ball of debris. A couple different control types were attempted, and it was pretty fun to smash through walls, jump high in the air and slam down, and use collected debris to take down other buildings.

The Missing Replayability

But something was missing, and Luke was distressed by the lack of replayability outside of the destruction itself being satisfying. The setting itself was also unclear, and the art direction wobbled between cel-shaded-like visuals and a simpler direction. After some hesitation, Luke went in the direction of making OR-BE himself more complex, and using physics-based attachments instead of choosing various upgrades from a grid of possible powers and modifiers. The difficulties in taming the physics system and combining parts into one cohesive unit would be the largest technical challenge the game would face, but slowly the problems were overcome.

Robots vs. Monsters

At this time, Luke was also discussing the game with a potential partner. In one of the calls, the partner mentioned robots weren't particularly appealing to a lot of people and would pose marketing challenges. They asked if monsters or medieval contraptions were be a better fit. Luke's preferred solution came to him while driving a couple days later. Construction vehicles were a perfect fit for the theme and direction of the game, and he'd enjoyed doing the 3D modeling on Speed Demons (another vehicle-heavy game). Throw the destroyable buildings onto an island so there's some danger/tension from falling into the water, and the final direction for Instruments of Destruction seemed obvious in retrospect (the name took a few weeks to decide on).

A Perfect Fit For Early Access

Though the partnership didn't work out, it turned out to be a blessing in disguise because of the platform constraints it would have meant. The obvious target platform for the game was PC and Steam Early Access, and Luke was now able to focus all his efforts on making Instruments of Destruction the best it could be on one platform. Vehicle building games are highly-replayable and have been one of the standout genres in terms of their fit with Early Access, and the addition of an advanced physics-based destruction means there are even more possibilities to explore.

Features

• ADVANCED PHYSICS-BASED DESTRUCTION - You can demolish every structure in the game piece by piece. In addition, every object you see in the game world is part of the physics system. Each element of the world interacts with each other and together they create a physical, visceral world to play with.
• BUILD UNIQUE VEHICLES - Build a vehicle your way, with an ever-expanding array of parts and pieces. Using an intuitive vehicle construction system that also lets you customize your vehicles' appearance and controls, you'll always have fun creating your next awesome invention.
• SINGLEPLAYER CAMPAIGN + PROGRESSION - While most parts are unlocked by default, some more powerful parts will unlock through progression in the game. The exact details may change during Early Access. The initial version of the game ships with 10+ unique islands.
• THREE MODES - Every main island has 3 modes of play: Normal, Challenge, and Expert. Normal objectives are relatively easy to accomplish, though some Bonus Objectives will be a bit trickier. Challenge mode starts you with a Showcase (pre-built) vehicle that you must use to complete the objectives, but once you complete them, you unlock the ability to create your own vehicles for that mode. Expert mode is the most difficult, with many of them having a timed element.
• SANDBOX MODE - Finally, sandbox mode lets you use any unlocked part, and as many parts as you want (up to your current max based on progression), to play as you like on any completed level, or to just build and destroy stuff for fun.
• FUTURE PLANS - Additional features and content will be added during Early Access, with level editing and content-sharing being a top priority. Additional details will be coming as new features are nearing completion.