Our goal is to update Subnautica on as many platforms as we can and include some of these improvements along the way. There are architecture, performance improvements, bug fixes, and quality of life features that Below Zero has benefited from that have not yet made their way back to Subnautica. Everything we already said applies to the original Subnautica, but with the added wrinkle that Subnautica has not been as supported as we would have liked while Below Zero was in development. Our goal is to get Below Zero and Subnautica on unified (no pun intended) versions of Unity, and merge our code base back into a single branch. This makes it difficult to switch contexts and easier to make mistakes, and has created a lot of logistical and production overhead for us. When we shipped Below Zero we had platforms on different versions of Unity and the code base was spread across multiple branches. Eventually, our goal is to refactor and optimize our save system so that it is smaller in size, faster, and, where possible, make the format more uniform between platforms in order to reduce platform-specific bugs.

Our save system is in need of retooling.

Here are a few examples of tech debt we’ve been working to pay off: This is important because the cost of tech debt is also carried on to the player in a number of ways. There are a number of ways the code base is not set up sustainably and that we intend to address with some deep cleaning in the coming months.

The Subnautica code base is approaching eight years old and has been touched by quite a few hands over the years, without much opportunity for refactoring and tidying. Please think of this as a summary of our priorities – as you may already know we do not make many public commitments to specific dates. And in late August, we also brought support to Below Zero in four new languages.īut there’s still a lot more to do, and we have plenty of things planned, so we wanted to let you know what else we’ve been up to and what you can expect from us in the coming months. Since we launched Below Zero 1.0 – and Subnautica on Switch, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series – back in May we’ve been in a non-stop loop of investigating and fixing bugs.

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