All ideas presented in this document must be compatible with the following statement:

**Blocktest is a sandbox exploration game focusing on in-depth player mechanics.**

## The Exploration-Base Building Loop

Analyzing other sandbox adventure survival games reveals the "Exploration-Base Building Loop", a central gameplay loop that revolves around exploring to collect materials to build a base to make further exploration easier. This is present in Minceraft, in Terraria, in Don't Starve, and even in Starbound, though all differ in the particulars of the implementation and the mechanisms used to encourage shifting phases.

### The Exploration Phase
- Player travels through space to arrive at a destination (a planet or moon or asteroid field or space station, etc.)
- After the player has arrived at destination, they can do things such as mining or exploring the world. Setpieces placed throughout the world offer valuable rewards and unique locales to explore.
- Once the player reaches inventory capacity or finds that they have enough resources, the player returns to a colony to use their resources.

### The Building Phase
- Colonies are settlements in space which have NPCs to talk and trade or otherwise do business with.
- At a colony, they are able to exchange or use their resources to obtain better equipment.
- The player is able to build either a personal base or their own colony.
- At a colony, the player is able to attract tenants to inhabit and work at the colony, providing goods that the player can utilize in their journey. Player-created colonies serve as convenient refueling and trade spots and can be used to reach more distant or difficult destinations at less risk.
- Once the player has expended their resources for better equipment, they must venture out once more.