In an interview, one of the Subnautica developers spills the beans. Among other things, he explains what the change to UE5 means for the studio.
The fact that a new Subnautica is in development is no longer a secret. But until now, few details were publicly known about the next project from Unknown Worlds, who once gained industry fame with the Half-Life mod Natural Selection – until now.
In an interview with Subnautica Youtuber The Last Bacon, Unknown Worlds Animation Artist and QA Lead Scott MacDonald – more commonly known on social media by his nickname Obraxis – has now dropped the first hints.
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What’s the latest on Subnautica 3?
Unknown Worlds has switched to the Unreal Engine 5 for the third part of the series. It confirms what was already abundantly clear in job advertisements. However, the switch from Unity to Unreal probably entails quite a bit of extra work.
Because of the differences and other demands, the team started almost everything from scratch. Regardless of whether it’s tools, shaders, materials or technologies that were once developed for Subnautica. The next part builds on new foundations.
For example, the entire water tech will be rewritten. All this takes a lot of time and therefore nothing can be shown at the moment.
However, this effort is worth it. Everyone is very excited about what is possible with the new engine. And thanks to many new faces who are familiar with the technology, there is already a lot of know-how available.
What is the name of the next Subnautica part?
Apparently, the title doesn’t even have a final name internally, as he describes in the interview. So far, it is simply the next part of the series. And the team is determined to make the best possible game for as many people as possible. And even if he can’t give any real details, he is already convinced that what is currently being created will blow the fans away.
Multiplayer in Subnautica 3
Obraxis did not want to reveal more than that a multiplayer mode is currently not ruled out. However, the team enjoyed playing the corresponding mods for the predecessors and is enthusiastic about them.
Buy-out, growth and home-grown
From the job descriptions on relevant industry websites, it is not only clear that the studio is growing strongly, but also how the team is organised: A significant proportion of the developers – including the interviewee – work from their home offices. They are not based at Unknown Worlds’ studio on the west coast of the USA.
Scott MacDonald then also quantifies the superficial impression of the expanding studio: in the past two to three years, the size has roughly doubled. This was also made possible thanks to the purchase of the company by the PUBG makers, Krafton.
Obraxis estimates the consequences of this investment to be extremely positive from the point of view of the minds behind Subnautica. The team could have far more resources at its disposal as a result and thus gain talent to exploit the new possibilities of hardware and software.
Are you excited about the next part of the Subnautica series? What new features would you like to see in the as yet unnamed underwater newcomer? Should it be set exclusively in the wet or would you like to see more land areas, similar to Below Zero? Feel free to write us your views, opinions and wishes in the comments!
