Far North: A Quick Chat with Tim on Game Development and What’s Next

With its survival focus, Far North is a natural fit for Hashtag. We recently caught up with Tim, the solo developer behind the game, to hear about how development has progressed since it became a solo project. While it’s still early in this new phase, Tim has already made some exciting strides, and we’re here to give you a quick peek into what’s coming.

Hashtag: So usually, I’d start with HI TIM, HOW ARE YOU, WHO ARE YOU – but we just debuted your POI (person of interest) article, so folks can check that out if they want to dive deep into your life, take a peep at your face, etc. In a nutshell: you’re a developer waist-deep in the professional game world, primarily (only?) working in Unity, who has recently resumed working on Far North– a survival title you’d initially worked on back in 2023. Is that a fair “catch-up”?

Tim: Yep, that is a pretty fair catch-up! I primarily work with Unity; the nature of supply & demand kind of pushed me into Unity as my “niche.” When people hire contractors to do a job, they prefer people with previous experience, so I’ve kind of been stuck in Unity-land primarily, except when I was at Mojang and worked on Minecraft for a brief period, then it was pure Java. That being said, I wouldn’t mind trying out working in Unreal, but since I don’t really have any previous professional experience with it, it’s a tough sell.

Hashtag: So let’s go complete Reverse Elevator Pitch: Give us the full, fast-and-furious rundown—what was Far North all about initially, how did it go from a team project to a solo venture, and what’s the big idea behind the game now that it’s just you steering the ship?

Tim: Far North has morphed several times over the years, but with a few core concepts at the base: Seasons change over time, the feeling of building a/multiple cozy settlements, and the “world” is inspired by where I grew up (northern Sweden). In the beginning, it started much simpler (big surprise). It was dynamic seasons, but I wanted to make smaller levels/regions similar to how The Long Dark handles it. That way, I would focus on a few specific areas and expand over time. It wasn’t multiplayer either, just a single-player experience where you survive through different seasons. Then, over time, I realized I wasn’t a good level designer and had the gloriously stupid idea to generate the world instead procedurally, so the game would have more replayability. I have always been curious about Proc Gen and have loved it in other games. Then, at some point, we felt that we wanted the game to be multiplayer so that you could play and thrive together with friends, so we added that complexity, too! So here we are. If I were to do the elevator pitch now, Far North is, at its heart, a procedural sandbox survival game, where the unique pitch is that seasons change over time. Alone or together with friends, you must survive the elements and wildlife by building and expanding your settlements.

Hashtag: You’ve got a ton of game dev experience. Is that helping (or maybe hurting) as you try to breathe new life into Far North? Does it help more now that it IS just you and it’s not more of a “destination by committee” type deal?
(Speaking of: Do you plan on sticking to the Lone Wolf style this time, or will you onboard a team? )

Tim: Definitely helps, mainly; I know how to navigate game development well, but I try to make sure I don’t hyperfocus on “good code.” In the end, it’s a fun game that matters. A little janky code has its own charm. What mainly shrunk our team down to only me was time and commitment; developing this game for as long as we had in our spare time was really quite taxing. The fact that we were spread out worldwide also didn’t help since we always worked separately due to the time difference. The idea is still the same, but I think that I want to lean more heavily into what I originally loved about the concept: Building settlements to brave the different seasons. Kind of like the farming/building mechanics of Stardew Valley morphed with Valheim and a pinch of The Long Dark. But in the end, we’ll see what works and what doesn’t; I wanna find the fun.

Currently, the game is available as a super early days demo on itch.io, and you mentioned in your Discord announcement that you “would maybe start charging for the game when you feel it’s fun enough to be purchased.” Nowadays, we do have VEIN doing the same thing. (VEIN is a multiplayer open-world zombie survival sandbox.)

To quote the VEIN devs: “We’re trying to get player feedback. We don’t know what works or what doesn’t, but from feedback, we can figure out what’s fun and what’s not, and then fix the parts that aren’t. We’ll charge for it once we need to pay for art and hire more help. The free version of VEIN will always be available.”
Is this a fair approximation of how you intend to treat FN?

Tim: Yeah, haha, in reality it is mainly a means for me to stop focusing on trying to deliver high-quality completed features and allow for a faster iteration process. For now, during the network porting period, I won’t set any private timeframe goals, since it’s hard to know how long it will take to get the new networking solution up to parity. As I progress, I will probably set clearer goals in a Kanban-style, but without a strict deadline. Yeah, it sounds like VEIN has a similar approach to what I have in mind!

Survival Life

Hashtag: We can fight (and you can lose) about whether Minecraft and Valheim qualify as survival games another day. (For now, I’ll call them surv-lite.) Like me, your TRUE survival game love is The Long Dark. Fantastic choice. Where does Far North fall on this surv-lite-to-survival scale in your mind?
How do you want to handle—or will you even include —typical survival mechanics such as health (injury system, illness) or food/water?

Tim: Hahah yeah, I do agree that Minecraft and Valheim are more survival-lite, but unfortunately, there is no such category (maybe there should be, though ). Yeah, The Long Dark is a fantastic game. There will definitely be survival mechanics, such as health, injury, illness, food, and water. How realistic they will be is a different story; I think I’ll need to iterate to find a good balance. The game already has simple status effects on the player, such as “wet,” which can be countered by sitting next to a campfire and being sheltered. But there are no consequences just yet.

Hashtag: Do you plan on adding inventory restrictions or quirks to push it into a “realistic” state? Thinking of Green Hell with bag space or The Long Dark with weight limits, WITH CONSEQUENCES, versus sticking your truck in your pocket a la 7 Days to Die.

Tim: Yes, I have played with the idea of inventory management, and something I like that I haven’t really seen much of is the idea of crafting and upgrading different tiers of backpacks, etc., to increase inventory slots, among other ways to manage items. Not sure yet if I want an encumbered mechanic, but it could tie in nicely with the skill system (you have multiple skills you can improve on your character). But in the end, we’ll see where the fun is!

Hashtag: Let’s talk world. You went with a stylized—and, to my eye, brighter and friendlier —look compared to other titles in the genre. Does that subconsciously skew the tone toward a more upbeat, danger-free environment? Though brightly lit with snow, The Long Dark had a darker, brooding feel to me, setting the stage for the dangers and loneliness. Will your environment affect the player at all? Cold weather, rain making you wet and sick, rain putting out fires, etc?

Tim: Yes, the world will have a significant impact on the character. That is almost the premise- seasons will change, and then so will the world. The weather will affect you very much, and hopefully even the buildings you’ve made. You’ll definitely need to keep warm, dry, and so on, or there will be consequences. I went for the stylized look because (at the time) there were very few games with that style, which I felt was refreshing!

Hashtag: I’ve got plenty more questions, but I’ll wrap it up here since the development is getting back on track! Thanks for taking the time to chat with us—we’re excited to see Far North evolve with the renewed development. Usually, this is where I’d say, ‘We’ll be in touch,’ but, surprise twist—I run your Discord server… so yeah, no escaping me!

Tim: Thanks for reaching out! Yep, there is no space between me and you, haha. Have a good one!