Instruments of Destruction Coming March 2nd on Steam Early Access

Instruments of Destruction, a vehicle-building sandbox featuring physics-based destruction, will be available on Steam as an Early Access game on March 2. The person behind the game, indie developer Luke Schneider, has also published a release trailer.

In Instruments of Destruction you take place as a player in vehicles that you can build and design yourself, such as oversized bulldozers and cranes. The goal is to pulverize abandoned buildings, but players must be careful to keep ancient ruins on the islands intact. It is therefore not always worthwhile to build vehicles that can destroy everything as quickly as possible.

The game will be available on March 2, and it is expected that the title will remain in Early Access for at least a year, but that could go up to several years. Schneider says the full version will likely include more islands, missions, and vehicle parts. The current version, he says, is ready for release and contains more than 70 parts to build vehicles, more than 10 different islands and three different game modes, in addition to a free sandbox mode. The three modes mainly differ in difficulty, whether you get a pre-built vehicle, the complexity of the assignments and whether there is a time limit.

Destruction

According to Schneider, Instruments of Destruction contains an “advanced” physics-based system of destruction. Every object in the world is part of the physics system in some way and can contribute to its destruction. Destroying buildings can be done piece by piece. Schneider emphasizes the dynamic nature of the system: “All structures have a starting group of rectangular blocks. However, how those blocks break down and the parts of blocks that result is dynamic.”

Schneider makes a comparison with Teardown. Destruction is also central in that game, but the system is based on voxels. “In my experience, the destruction in Instruments of Destruction is smoother and more natural than in Teardown, even if it’s not as detailed,” says Schneider. “The way the structures fall apart and the way the debris and particles interact creates a more satisfying sense of movement and physicality. This is because the colliders and rigidbodies are easier to approach and simulate with groups of boxes.” different sizes than with voxels,” explains Schneider.

The developer states that the shapes of rubble and debris are not as randomly shaped as in Teardown, but that the physical shapes are more dynamic than in games like Red Faction: Guerilla of Control. Red Faction: Guerilla from 2009 is widely regarded as one of the most impressive forms of destruction. At the time, Schneider worked as lead technical-multiplayer designer on that game, as part of development studio Volition.