The team behind Floatlands: artists, programmers, and designers

Floatlands is a low-poly survival exploration FPS developed by Studio Techtrics in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Its procedurally generated islands move between jungle, desert, sea and snow, combining resource gathering, crafting, base building and combat with hostile robot NPCs.

Behind those systems is a multidisciplinary group shaping both the world and the reasons to cross it. The artists, programmers and designers at Studio Techtrics work together to make every expedition varied without losing the practical rules that give survival its tension.

One studio, several disciplines

The artists establish Floatlands’ visual identity through simplified forms, bold silhouettes and biome-specific colour palettes. Their goal is readability as much as atmosphere, allowing players to identify landmarks, resources and threats from a distance in a fast first-person perspective.

Programmers translate that identity into a flexible technical foundation. They build systems for procedural terrain, object placement and environmental rules, while gameplay designers determine how those elements affect a run. The result is a world that feels assembled for discovery rather than copied from a fixed map.

Code that grows an island

Procedural generation gives each journey a different structure, but random placement alone does not create a convincing world. The programming team must balance terrain, resources, points of interest and danger while ensuring that islands remain navigable and stable.

Designers then use those generated spaces to create meaningful detours. A supply cache might reward careful observation, while a dangerous route could provide materials needed for a stronger base. This sense of discovery is central to the reward loop described in exploration rewards, where curiosity turns scenery into practical progress.

Designing survival around choices

The survival loop begins with simple needs and expands through player decisions. Gathering supplies leads to crafting, crafting supports equipment, and equipment improves the chance of surviving an encounter or travelling deeper into an unfamiliar biome.

For Australian players, gathering and crafting can echo familiar bush-camping values: carry what you need, improvise with available materials and build a camp capable of handling the night. A quick arvo construction session after work in Melbourne or Sydney therefore feels culturally familiar, while players in Brisbane can enter the same cycle without arranging a group expedition.

Robots that test every route

Hostile robot NPCs give the islands a consistent source of pressure. Their behaviour must communicate danger clearly enough for players to decide whether to fight, hide, retreat or redirect their journey. That balance allows each encounter to test preparation rather than interrupting exploration at random.

Reward pacing also influences how those confrontations feel. A separate review of a bonus round jackpot illustrates how instantly understandable rewards can guide decisions, although Floatlands needs the opposite of instant gratification. Its rewards must feel earned through scouting, resource management and risk.

Low-poly art built for clarity

Low-poly construction gives Floatlands a distinctive appearance while helping the team build worlds that remain readable across dense jungle, exposed desert, ocean terrain and snow-covered regions. Strong shapes allow important objects to stand out without demanding excessive visual detail.

Procedural generation also creates an art challenge because every asset must work in locations the artists cannot manually compose in advance. Modular structures, reusable vegetation and clear material rules allow the world to feel varied without making every combination confusing. The visual system supports fast movement, long sightlines and the need to recognise useful resources under pressure.

Building and listening across time zones

Development is an ongoing exchange between design intentions and practical testing. The team evaluates expeditions, examines how players use resources and adjusts the balance between exploration, construction and combat. Public development updates give the community a view of those changes as they happen.

Local realities matter for the Australian audience. Steam displays regional purchases in AUD, making prices and release details easier to understand when currency is identified. Players are also spread across Australian time zones, from UTC+8 standard time to UTC+10, with daylight saving affecting parts of the country and requiring reliable update scheduling.

Feedback is equally important to the project’s direction. Players can contribute through community discussions, development posts and direct reports about confusing encounters or biome combinations. Hearing from Australian communities helps Studio Techtrics recognise which systems travel well across cultures and where local expectations reveal opportunities for refinement.

The road ahead and your next expedition

Studio Techtrics is currently concentrating on the single-player survival experience, with multiplayer planned for a future update. That approach gives the team time to strengthen procedural generation, base building and robot encounters before introducing shared servers and new possibilities for cooperative survival.

The roadmap may evolve, but its central ambition remains consistent: create islands that reward curiosity while keeping every decision grounded in preparation, resourcefulness and risk. Follow the developers on the official Floatlands site, bookmark the development updates and share the project with a mate before the next expedition begins.