You can really see a bunch of aspects that they kept in the finished product. The oxygen tanks you collect are like the plant that releases bubbles, the manatee/narwhal creatures kinda resemble either stalkers or gasopods. And some biomes resemble the final ones. It's really amazing and surreal that the subnautica we know and love today started from this.
love that despite subnautica becoming less popular, you still never fail to make amazing videos like this. love your content man. Coming back to this a few months later, jeez I didn’t mean it was dead it just wasn’t getting the traction it used to back in the early days, it’s by no means dead at all! But The Last Bacon still makes the best subnautica content as of now.
I don't think such a novel game should die so soon, despite knowing of the game's existence as early as mid 2015 or 2016, I haven't started playing it until 2021 after remembering it exists and getting a PC 4 months prior. I done my first ultra-modded playthrough in 2022 and recently started my VR playthrough
I got a feeling (when I saw the first three prototypes) that decent might have been more focused on the horror aspect of the game than Subnautica is now. Honestly, I think the devs could realistically make a new game like Subnautica but keep the old name of decent and the play style of decent to make a more horror style ocean game if they wanted to.
@@TheLastBacon these old prototypes (especially the first three) reminds me of horror games that center around submechanophobia (fear of manmade objects in underwater if I remember correctly ) and the fear of large things in deep seas (megalaphobia I think?) Like iron lung. It’s just disturbing to see an extremely large thing fade into view when you think nothing is there due to the lack of vision underwater.
Actually, the lead dev (if I recall correctly), talked about how originally the game was just supposed to be about exploration and discovery and he was kind of unsure about some of the horror elements like the reaper. They quickly realized that players responded well to and wanted more of these horror elements, so they continued down that route.
man i remember watching subnautica back when the kharaa wasn't even added, the lava zone was a set of coordinates you had to warp to, your voice was much younger, and the survival bars were bars, and not circles. Now this is even earlier
I remember watching Markiplier or Jacksepticeye when they played it in Early Access and I think they found where either the Lost River or the Lava Zone was supposed to be and it was just darkness, nothing in it, with rock walls that looked like obsidian. It was more terrifying than the actual game. It was a huge cavern, and the lower you went, the water turned this eerie red like there was blood in the water.
I actually kind of like the idea of living mostly in a base/submarine that you use to get around in, and only leave it in short bursts to gather materials. It's an interesting concept.
I'm a massive fan of software (and hardware) prototypes and I'm always so happy to see people going out of their way to get hold of and test these prototypes because they're still an important part of history. I'm super glad that places such as the Internet Archive exist and I hope you can upload these prototypes there for long-term archival purposes, and for others to try!
DOOD. DOOD. DOOOOOOOOOOD!! I AM FREAKING OUT RIGHT NOW. THIS SORT OF STUFF IS MY JAM. In my opinion, things like this deserve to be archived and made publically avalible, so this video means a lot to me :D (tell Foxy Foxa Girl she's doin' great things over there)
Hey bacon! I’ve just wanted to say, I’ve been watching you for a long time now and your videos and your enthusiasm in your videos just makes everyone so happy!!! Thank you for putting your time and effort into all these well edited videos and thank you being amazing to the community! I have so much respect for you and wish you great luck❤❤😊
It’s actually insane how far the game has come. I never knew this was how it started. It genuinely looked like a Roblox game the movement, textures and everything
omg this is amazing to the early prototype stages of a successful game like subnautica, I wanted to give some insight into what some of these prototypes were probably for that bacon either missed or cut from the video. I will say I'm only a hobbyist unity/game dev and have to go off of just what's shown in the video but it should still be interesting to anyone curious. Prototype 1: This looks like just early prototype that was used to pitch the game to the dev team. You can see all the basic ideas roughed out, underwater survival game format, pilotable vehicle, and basic base building, probably made by 1 or 2 people in a few afternoons just to get their idea across. Prototype 2: Better base building! The main thing I noticed is the new way you build on the sub, new mesh for the exterior, new HUD (you can see the scuba mask on the edges of the screen when diving), and maybe small changes to the map (I didn't notice any but bacon points some out). As you can see in the video the mesh inside the sub changes depending on where you build/remove vs just popping in a brand new room like in the last prototype (meaning they are generating the interior of the sub procedurally vs using a basic prefab-based system if you want to get technical). Prototype 3: Better vehicle implementation! More intuitive controls (still very rough though lol) and scrapped the procedural base building from the last prototype. There are many reasons why they scrapped this, most probable is that it was just too hard to come up with a polished concept of how it would look in the finished game but could just be that they just didn't really like it that much. Not sure if it's just cause we didn't get a good look at the map before this but also seems like they were playing around with biome ideas and layouts, just roughing out the ideas. Bubbles too! It's a minor addition but there are now bubble particles when diving, small thing but something none the less. Also worth pointing out that at this stage they had concept art made that you can see in the loading screen, meaning that the team had started to get an idea of what the finished game will look like. Prototype 4: Creatures and crafting! Both of these things are a pretty big thing. You have large animals with pretty diverse behaviours and the smaller ones that look like they are using an algorithm called boids (gonna have to google that for an explanation, not going into that here lol). Also have the beginnings of a rudimentary crafting system and what I can only assume to be what would eventually become creepvine. Prototype 5: CAVES!!! This is the one that really made me want to comment this breakdown. The caves are a HUGE technical change. Up until this point all the prototypes look like they are using the base unity terrain system, it's characterised by the weird texture blending, abrubt end of the map, and complete lack of overhangs due to how it functions (using a texture called a height map that stores the elevation data of the whole terrain). What they look like they are using now is what's called the marching cubes algorithm (again, not going into that, google is your friend) and is completely custom made. Beyond all that you got what I assume is the beginnings of the life pod and multiple vehicle types along with a more developed inventory system with support for different suits. Quick little note: The textures you can see on the ground at around 15:26 look like normal maps to me, these are normally just used for lighting calculations and you wouldn't see them displayed like this. I can only guess that this was either just an oversight from the devs while testing or is due to some kind of corruption in the game files from being passed around god knows how many times at this point. Prototype 6: This seems like mostly testing out story/world building elements. Lifepod is more developed, has an actual fabricator now and isn't just a floating cube, support for intro credits, even though they are rough the code support is there, and the start of the safe shallows. The effect Bacon points out at 16:54 is called caustics, they are caused by light being reflected by the surface of the water in different directions by the waves, the devs were probably testing an implementation of this effect. I think bacon is also pretty much spot on at 17:33 regarding the weird terrain. Like I said for prototype 5, the terrain is now using a completely custom system, so they would need to make a tool for artists to use in order to edit it and the srainge pillars are probably a result of testing that tool. Or who knows that could be an early concept of the crag fields or something. Prototype 7: ; - ; Prototype 8: This one was really funny to me. The "high quality rocks" in question at 20:20 are actually from a free pack of rocks available on the unity asset store XD. Really funny to see them in here cause I've actually used those exact rocks many times in my own projects, also pretty sure the grass on the pillars is also from the asset store and from a pack that I have also used. Worth noting too that the water level is permanently a few meters above the player, guessing that was used just for testing as it allows you to fly around forever. The strange texture you start seeing around 20:48 looks like the texture that would normally be used for caustics and is being displayed like this either due to possible file corruption, or a half-baked caustics implementation. Last little thing I noticed is there is proper post-processing, I'm guessing they added this now cause the basic systems seem to be more or less in place now so artist would soon start doing their thing. WOW that ended up way longer than I though it would. If you made it this far hopefully you though some of my rambling was interesting and can appreciate these prototypes more :) Now excuse me as I go play my favorite underwater survival game, Descend.
A Subnautica game where you are forced to live in a big submarine the whole time would be so cool and terrifying if creatures came after your ship if you stayed in one place for too long
@@turkeypear8658 If you didn't already, you might want to check out the demo of Full Fathom. Feels like Subnautica x Iron Lung, I found it really promising. :)
It's so weird to think that I started playing Subnautica almost 10 years ago😮 It was honestly such a huge part of my childhood. Me and my friends would draw our own concepts for creatures, and we would send them to Unknown Worlds, and the developers would chat with us on their website! I made a card game that was about Subnautica and sent pictures to them, and when my birthday came about my parents got a friend to make me a custom Subnautica shirt because none existed yet! It's so cool to see how far these guys have come
This is great!! I actually got into Subnautica because of your channel, as I never did get interested in it before. Thank you, as I adore the ocean and officially adore this game! It’s so cool, and I can’t put all my happiness, gratefulness and excitement into words. I give your channel, videos, content and the amount of work you do to make these videos, a humongous 10/10! Also, major shout out to Foxxy Foxa Girl too!!
It's always fun seeing the earlier builds of a game, the first bits almost made me think of a Lego game then we get to the lava test and your mind auto completes the lava zone in the game now I wonder if they would make a Subnautica Retro version where it's in the style of these older builds
It’s super cool that someone found these. I’ve been following the game since extremely early access, and I thought that was as far back as we could see. Amazing video, as always.
I was thinking the whole video, when after 22 minutes, it finally came to me: This is the soundtrack from Beginner's Guide, which atmosphere is pretty creepy by itself at times. I just have to hear it, and the strange maps like these with the prison and the infinite labyrinth etc. come to my mind. Well done selecting it.
Hewwooooo! I'ms Foxa, the girl who originally found these. The story is actually fairly interesting, but I actually was looking through leads of mine and found a random comment on reddit talking about how they had Prototype 1. The comment was from 2014 and I expected when I messaged them that they would no longer have it, but surprisingly, they had all of the lost prototype builds that were released during Earliest Access! I don't know if the redditor specifically wants to be mentioned or not, so I won't say their name just in case, but hope that gives you a little insight! ~Foxa.
Love the video! you have really progressed as a youtuber. You are one of the only youtubers i have seen that still makes videos about subnautica and makes them entertaining at the same time
Idk how, but descend is exactly the kind of game I've been looking for, a creepy experience traveling through a dark ocean with no surface, upgrading the vessel to travel further
I find it kinda interesting that there was a ‘Join Game’ option, giving the idea that there was gonna be multiplayer but it was later scrapped. It definitely takes away from the isolation idea but it is still cool that it was planned, even if it were only to be 2 player.
@@TheLastBacon "b-but the law!! but the law says!" nobody cares. feds won't break down your door for uploading these anonymously to the internet archive or something
As someone who is diving into game development recently this has been pretty insightful and fun to see! someone told me that game development should be approached as a series of small projects aiming to create a big one. And these builds of Subnautica pretty much feel like something similar. What a fascinating development!
It's so cool seeing something like this take shape and seeing when the devs came up with the ideas that would stick to release, like the sub eventually becoming the Cyclops, the boat becoming the lifepod... I guess it also serves as inspiration for any aspiring indie devs; your game will likely go through many iterations and transformations before release. From texture-less blocks with 3 polygons to something as beautiful as Subnautica and Below Zero
Hi The Last Bacon! Thanks for uploading again, i awlays love seeing these kind of SUbnautica videos from you, they really make you think what else we dont know about! I would definitely be keen for a 2nd part covering more details!
This is the thing I love most about Subnautica and your videos Subnautica has a lots of secrets and you uncover most of them keep doing these videos please they're the best
The weird tunnel thing in Pro 8 reminds me so much of the end screen. When you leave the planet and you travel thru a worm hole or whatever it is back home.
I absolutely love exploring old versions of games it so cool seeing how each one of them has evolved and also finding wierd stuff and trying to figure out what their purpose was
Wait, you're a game developer? How have I been watching for tears and not known this? Dude I will play litterally whatever you make if half as much effort is put into it as your Subnautica videos.
Sure, would love to see more of this, especially since 99.99999% of us will never have access to this, ever. Really cool. I'm reminded of my little arduino programs/projects that I would write/build and how every one of them would start with just a couple lines of code and each file save was an expansion on the next to introduce new functions and/or hardware as it approached a finalized state. Bug fixing was constant with each new addition or optimization. It was important to keep the earlier save files so that I could revert or refer to them as-needed. Thank you for the video, this was really interesting.
@@TheLastBacon I don't know if your allowed to do this but maybe share those files so others may enjoy them? If not it's cool, it was still really neat to see them.
The prototype 6 looks like iron lung and thats scares me a bit, imagine if subnautica was like that and just know that I had a chance of encountering the reaper in a map like this I would die😂good vid👍
It's fascinating to see the early development. To watch it go from literal bare bones proof of concept stuff to something super pre-alpha but still familiar to what we know today
I love your videos and I appreciate your dedication. subnautica got me started on my addiction to survival games and seeing where it came from is so interesting. Thank you for helping keep subnautica on the sonar.
Wow thats mighty interesting! So cool to go through these versions I never thought id ever see! One tip: the "ss" "tch" "tss" notes in your microphone are a bit sharp to hear. Other than that a great video!
The guys just standing there in prototype 8 might have been a test for the planned multiplayer, and the random black glowing area might have been the single cell biome if that ever went passed concept art
if you are interested in game development like me, this becomes really helpful and gives a good understanding where a large game could start like and how simplified it should be at the start of it
Fun fact: they were planning to make an ability to customize ur cycl- i mean submarine build but it was WAAAY to buggy and they made it so u can change its color and build with fabricator
ngl I kinda like the approach of those first prototypes. Having a big submarine as moving main base from the start would be an interesting alternative way to play the game. Like, the game we have now focusses more on building bases around the map that you can build as big as you like and customize as you wish. The vehicles are more of a sidedish to get around and to move between your bases. The first prototypes feel like the inverse of this: You have one big main ship that you can customize as you wish. Maybe you'd be able to build small bases around the world mainly as (automated) farms, bulk storage and/ or "mining/ resource gathering outposts".
Early subnautica gives such an uncomfortable feeling. Even though I know there's nothing out there, I sit, listening, thinking of what may be there. It really goes to show how creepypastas form, like the "you are not alone" one. Truly liminal terror.
Oh MAN those are cool. I especially like the weird wiggly black and white zone in prototype 8, it kind of reminds me of those concept sketches of biomes like the Single Cell Landscape and the Pillars of Silence and stuff!
You can really see a bunch of aspects that they kept in the finished product. The oxygen tanks you collect are like the plant that releases bubbles, the manatee/narwhal creatures kinda resemble either stalkers or gasopods. And some biomes resemble the final ones. It's really amazing and surreal that the subnautica we know and love today started from this.
Yep absolutely! So cool to see :)
Amazing
@@TheLastBacon hi again
@@TheLastBacon A couple questions:
A: Did you ever make a follow up to this; and,
B: elbaliava selif seoht ekam uoy naC?
Its really damn interesting to see what Subnautica all went through untill the game we have by now. Really cool to see!
Totally agree :)
mom look my comment is under the last bacon!
@@skootymcbooty3724no
love that despite subnautica becoming less popular, you still never fail to make amazing videos like this. love your content man.
Coming back to this a few months later, jeez I didn’t mean it was dead it just wasn’t getting the traction it used to back in the early days, it’s by no means dead at all! But The Last Bacon still makes the best subnautica content as of now.
Yay thank you :) Keeping it alive!
certified honey bee
Give me honey tokens
*NOW*
I don't think such a novel game should die so soon, despite knowing of the game's existence as early as mid 2015 or 2016, I haven't started playing it until 2021 after remembering it exists and getting a PC 4 months prior. I done my first ultra-modded playthrough in 2022 and recently started my VR playthrough
I mean it's old game w not many changes done to it atm... Tho it's good and still fun
I got a feeling (when I saw the first three prototypes) that decent might have been more focused on the horror aspect of the game than Subnautica is now. Honestly, I think the devs could realistically make a new game like Subnautica but keep the old name of decent and the play style of decent to make a more horror style ocean game if they wanted to.
Fair “Descent” also sounds much more horror-like! :)
@@TheLastBacon these old prototypes (especially the first three) reminds me of horror games that center around submechanophobia (fear of manmade objects in underwater if I remember correctly ) and the fear of large things in deep seas (megalaphobia I think?) Like iron lung. It’s just disturbing to see an extremely large thing fade into view when you think nothing is there due to the lack of vision underwater.
@@plasmasack megalophobia is just feaR of B I G
@@Elitaria lol
Actually, the lead dev (if I recall correctly), talked about how originally the game was just supposed to be about exploration and discovery and he was kind of unsure about some of the horror elements like the reaper. They quickly realized that players responded well to and wanted more of these horror elements, so they continued down that route.
man i remember watching subnautica back when the kharaa wasn't even added, the lava zone was a set of coordinates you had to warp to, your voice was much younger, and the survival bars were bars, and not circles. Now this is even earlier
Really takes you back right? :)
I remember watching Markiplier or Jacksepticeye when they played it in Early Access and I think they found where either the Lost River or the Lava Zone was supposed to be and it was just darkness, nothing in it, with rock walls that looked like obsidian. It was more terrifying than the actual game. It was a huge cavern, and the lower you went, the water turned this eerie red like there was blood in the water.
@@desirosethorne4429same!! omg
LOL I remember Seri playing it back then when the aurora wasn't even a thing and reapers had glowing green eyes
@@_-NatureMations-_REAPERS DON'T HAVE GLOWING GREEN EYES?? I think my subnautica is broken-
I actually kind of like the idea of living mostly in a base/submarine that you use to get around in, and only leave it in short bursts to gather materials. It's an interesting concept.
Yeah same! Imagine doing that "Iron Lung-style" at crushing depths :)
That's basically late game for me in the modern versions lol. The Cyclops basically becomes a mobile primary base for me.
raft but all underwater
Barotrauma, anyone?
@@alexeyeliseev6322 exactly what i was thinking
Goes to show how much work and thought goes into a big game like subnautica pretty crazy
Absolutely :) A ton of effort for sure!
Huge respect for putting so much work and time in your videos! Really appreciate that, don't see that often anymore nowadays ^^
Thank you kindly! Really glad you like the vids :) This one was a ton of work for sure!
All things bad nowadays I agree
Imagining all these locations with modern refined subnautica graphics and textures is terrifying
It is super strange :)
Bacon is such a hardworking youtuber with a large comunity and still he reads and responds to all his comments. We owe Bacon a huge Thank You
I need to thank YOU guys :) There would be no community without you!
@@TheLastBacon Yes but we wouldnt be here without you you are the reason we are here
@@samuelsnowdon2271 GOBBLE THESE FARTS BRO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
it would be very interesting to see a part 2 or even 3 on this one,it's really interesting exploring these old files
Sounds great! :)
I'm a massive fan of software (and hardware) prototypes and I'm always so happy to see people going out of their way to get hold of and test these prototypes because they're still an important part of history.
I'm super glad that places such as the Internet Archive exist and I hope you can upload these prototypes there for long-term archival purposes, and for others to try!
I’d need the devs’ permission to upload them probably :)
@@TheLastBacon Don't worry, there's an anonymous upload method AFAIK
EDIT: Nevermind, they're already on there. Video title is just clickbait now
DOOD. DOOD. DOOOOOOOOOOD!! I AM FREAKING OUT RIGHT NOW. THIS SORT OF STUFF IS MY JAM. In my opinion, things like this deserve to be archived and made publically avalible, so this video means a lot to me :D
(tell Foxy Foxa Girl she's doin' great things over there)
Totally agree :) This stuff is SO cool to explore!
@@TheLastBacon have you actually archived this anywehere, or know of somewhere i can download it?
Honestly I love how many old 2000's and early 2010's vibes are in these prototypes if proto 2 complete I would be it for sure
Absolutely! Really takes me back playing these :)
Hey bacon! I’ve just wanted to say, I’ve been watching you for a long time now and your videos and your enthusiasm in your videos just makes everyone so happy!!! Thank you for putting your time and effort into all these well edited videos and thank you being amazing to the community! I have so much respect for you and wish you great luck❤❤😊
Thank you so much for the kind words :) It’s people like you that make the effort worth it! Means a lot!!
@@TheLastBacon your welcome! Sorry for the low donation, but I’m glad I can support you though UA-cam :)
What first seemed like a mobile game in its first prototype became a masterpiece in the 8th prototype and all version's above
Exactly yeah :)
It’s actually insane how far the game has come. I never knew this was how it started. It genuinely looked like a Roblox game the movement, textures and everything
Yep absolutely! :) Really puts things into perspective!
@@TheLastBaconbruh no likes???
@@thelavaeaterxldoesart3546BRUHH One like??
@@thelavaeaterxldoesart3546been a while but I liked it:)
omg this is amazing to the early prototype stages of a successful game like subnautica, I wanted to give some insight into what some of these prototypes were probably for that bacon either missed or cut from the video. I will say I'm only a hobbyist unity/game dev and have to go off of just what's shown in the video but it should still be interesting to anyone curious.
Prototype 1:
This looks like just early prototype that was used to pitch the game to the dev team. You can see all the basic ideas roughed out, underwater survival game format, pilotable vehicle, and basic base building, probably made by 1 or 2 people in a few afternoons just to get their idea across.
Prototype 2:
Better base building! The main thing I noticed is the new way you build on the sub, new mesh for the exterior, new HUD (you can see the scuba mask on the edges of the screen when diving), and maybe small changes to the map (I didn't notice any but bacon points some out). As you can see in the video the mesh inside the sub changes depending on where you build/remove vs just popping in a brand new room like in the last prototype (meaning they are generating the interior of the sub procedurally vs using a basic prefab-based system if you want to get technical).
Prototype 3:
Better vehicle implementation! More intuitive controls (still very rough though lol) and scrapped the procedural base building from the last prototype. There are many reasons why they scrapped this, most probable is that it was just too hard to come up with a polished concept of how it would look in the finished game but could just be that they just didn't really like it that much. Not sure if it's just cause we didn't get a good look at the map before this but also seems like they were playing around with biome ideas and layouts, just roughing out the ideas. Bubbles too! It's a minor addition but there are now bubble particles when diving, small thing but something none the less. Also worth pointing out that at this stage they had concept art made that you can see in the loading screen, meaning that the team had started to get an idea of what the finished game will look like.
Prototype 4:
Creatures and crafting! Both of these things are a pretty big thing. You have large animals with pretty diverse behaviours and the smaller ones that look like they are using an algorithm called boids (gonna have to google that for an explanation, not going into that here lol). Also have the beginnings of a rudimentary crafting system and what I can only assume to be what would eventually become creepvine.
Prototype 5:
CAVES!!! This is the one that really made me want to comment this breakdown. The caves are a HUGE technical change. Up until this point all the prototypes look like they are using the base unity terrain system, it's characterised by the weird texture blending, abrubt end of the map, and complete lack of overhangs due to how it functions (using a texture called a height map that stores the elevation data of the whole terrain). What they look like they are using now is what's called the marching cubes algorithm (again, not going into that, google is your friend) and is completely custom made. Beyond all that you got what I assume is the beginnings of the life pod and multiple vehicle types along with a more developed inventory system with support for different suits.
Quick little note: The textures you can see on the ground at around 15:26 look like normal maps to me, these are normally just used for lighting calculations and you wouldn't see them displayed like this. I can only guess that this was either just an oversight from the devs while testing or is due to some kind of corruption in the game files from being passed around god knows how many times at this point.
Prototype 6:
This seems like mostly testing out story/world building elements. Lifepod is more developed, has an actual fabricator now and isn't just a floating cube, support for intro credits, even though they are rough the code support is there, and the start of the safe shallows. The effect Bacon points out at 16:54 is called caustics, they are caused by light being reflected by the surface of the water in different directions by the waves, the devs were probably testing an implementation of this effect. I think bacon is also pretty much spot on at 17:33 regarding the weird terrain. Like I said for prototype 5, the terrain is now using a completely custom system, so they would need to make a tool for artists to use in order to edit it and the srainge pillars are probably a result of testing that tool. Or who knows that could be an early concept of the crag fields or something.
Prototype 7:
; - ;
Prototype 8:
This one was really funny to me. The "high quality rocks" in question at 20:20 are actually from a free pack of rocks available on the unity asset store XD. Really funny to see them in here cause I've actually used those exact rocks many times in my own projects, also pretty sure the grass on the pillars is also from the asset store and from a pack that I have also used. Worth noting too that the water level is permanently a few meters above the player, guessing that was used just for testing as it allows you to fly around forever. The strange texture you start seeing around 20:48 looks like the texture that would normally be used for caustics and is being displayed like this either due to possible file corruption, or a half-baked caustics implementation. Last little thing I noticed is there is proper post-processing, I'm guessing they added this now cause the basic systems seem to be more or less in place now so artist would soon start doing their thing.
WOW that ended up way longer than I though it would. If you made it this far hopefully you though some of my rambling was interesting and can appreciate these prototypes more :)
Now excuse me as I go play my favorite underwater survival game, Descend.
Great summary and explanations :) I also think it’s amazing to see how a game like this progressed!
You're doing some fine work digging for these gems. That was a real treat to watch, so amazed at how it transitioned from what it began as
Thank you :) Totally agree! It was super cool to experience!
A Subnautica game where you are forced to live in a big submarine the whole time would be so cool and terrifying if creatures came after your ship if you stayed in one place for too long
Does actually sound really cool :)
Iron lung did that concept
@@group555_ iron lung is a very scripted game, but it would be cool if it got another version with more free roam
@@turkeypear8658 If you didn't already, you might want to check out the demo of Full Fathom. Feels like Subnautica x Iron Lung, I found it really promising. :)
This looks like if one guy played Subnautica and went "I should make this but analog horror." Crazy that it happened the other way around.
Haha you're not wrong :)
It's so weird to think that I started playing Subnautica almost 10 years ago😮
It was honestly such a huge part of my childhood. Me and my friends would draw our own concepts for creatures, and we would send them to Unknown Worlds, and the developers would chat with us on their website! I made a card game that was about Subnautica and sent pictures to them, and when my birthday came about my parents got a friend to make me a custom Subnautica shirt because none existed yet! It's so cool to see how far these guys have come
Yeah this really takes me back too :) Good times!
This is great!! I actually got into Subnautica because of your channel, as I never did get interested in it before. Thank you, as I adore the ocean and officially adore this game! It’s so cool, and I can’t put all my happiness, gratefulness and excitement into words. I give your channel, videos, content and the amount of work you do to make these videos, a humongous 10/10! Also, major shout out to Foxxy Foxa Girl too!!
Yay thank you so much :) So glad I could help you discover the game!
It's always fun seeing the earlier builds of a game, the first bits almost made me think of a Lego game then we get to the lava test and your mind auto completes the lava zone in the game now
I wonder if they would make a Subnautica Retro version where it's in the style of these older builds
True it does totally look like a lego game :)
Not gonna lie some of these builds are pretty scary on their own. Maybe scarier than what we have today.
Absolutely :) They feel very creepy!
its neat that still after 11 years people are discovering older and older versions of the game
Right? :)
IT'S BEEN 11 YEARS?!?!?!
@@jokerjamie8701 yep, it came out in 2014
I wonder where the iron lung devs got the idea!!!! That's all the prototypes remind me of essentially the first few
Maybe it was here yeah :)
Your content never manages to dissapoint. It always makes me feel better after anything happens. Keep up the good work. :)
Yay thank you! Glad I can help :)
This is amazing! Cut content is always a blast to explore!
Totally agree :)
It’s super cool that someone found these. I’ve been following the game since extremely early access, and I thought that was as far back as we could see. Amazing video, as always.
Thank you kindly :)
The submarine on the thumbnail looks like the submarine who use a controler
Haha yep :)
Would love another part to this. Something about the early early versions is extremely interesting.
Couldn’t agree more :)
Nice Keep up good work!
:D
@@TheLastBacon I love your videos Im so scared to play subnautica every time I play ngl you should make a video to play subnautica and dont be scared
Hey love all the thing you do and keep going
Thank you SO much! :) Really appreciate it!!!
I was thinking the whole video, when after 22 minutes, it finally came to me: This is the soundtrack from Beginner's Guide, which atmosphere is pretty creepy by itself at times. I just have to hear it, and the strange maps like these with the prison and the infinite labyrinth etc. come to my mind. Well done selecting it.
Good catch! :) Really love the soundtrack!
"These build are lost media!"
*"NUH UH!"*
Not anymore :)
*Well... except for Prototype 7... :(*
How the hell did you find these?
The lengths you go for your videos is incredible. Keep it up :D
Have a good day Bacon
Hewwooooo! I'ms Foxa, the girl who originally found these. The story is actually fairly interesting, but I actually was looking through leads of mine and found a random comment on reddit talking about how they had Prototype 1. The comment was from 2014 and I expected when I messaged them that they would no longer have it, but surprisingly, they had all of the lost prototype builds that were released during Earliest Access!
I don't know if the redditor specifically wants to be mentioned or not, so I won't say their name just in case, but hope that gives you a little insight! ~Foxa.
@@foxxyfoxagirl1854 Oh yo thats sick! Thanks for the story.
Thanks for sharing!! Amazing Sherlock skills by Foxa :)
Hello they are now available on the internet archive if you want to test it :)
@@darklaser38 Oh sweet
I remember seeing someone play the first prototype several years ago, I never realised it was considered lost media
I suppose they are now :)
*especially Prototype 7. That one could be a Gold Mine of Subnautica's History.*
thanks for linking these prototypes in the description, loved the fact i didn't have to go looking for the downloads myself
Can’t legally do that :)
Neat to see the progression of the game. Can really see how certain areas started out. 14:00 reminds me of the giant coral tube
Yep exactly :) That’s why I find it so fun!
Great video! I would love to see more of these prototypes! Will you provide us a download link for them?
Thank you! Wish I could but it would probably cause legal issues :)
@@TheLastBacon Understandable, no problem 👍
Last Bacon: ''Wow! it looks like a tiny UFO!''
The viewers:''That's what i'm saying!''
:D
Will you make this build public because i really want to try them
Afraid I can't for legal reasons :)
Thanks for responding because im making a video about game prototypes and I wanted to have subnautica
Love the video! you have really progressed as a youtuber. You are one of the only youtubers i have seen that still makes videos about subnautica and makes them entertaining at the same time
Thank you kindly :) That means a lot!
Idk how, but descend is exactly the kind of game I've been looking for, a creepy experience traveling through a dark ocean with no surface, upgrading the vessel to travel further
It is a really cool concept :)
If you could move in iron lung, I feel like it would look like prototype 3
Yep very accurate :)
Bro the thumbnail looks like that submarine that imploded 😂
Haha too soon :D
where is the download
There isn't one :)
@@TheLastBacon if you're going to play "lost media" at least archive it after so it doesn't get lost
@@vektor451seems really counterintuitive
@@TheLastBacon except on the internet archive since early 2023, but go off i guess
You can tell bacon is a great subnuatica youtuber because hes almost single handedly keeping subnautica alive much respect
Thank you so much :)
Everytime I watch one of your videos, it makes me want to play Subnautica again! Loved the video, Bacon!
Yay thank you kindly! :)
I find it kinda interesting that there was a ‘Join Game’ option, giving the idea that there was gonna be multiplayer but it was later scrapped. It definitely takes away from the isolation idea but it is still cool that it was planned, even if it were only to be 2 player.
Yep seems like they wanted to do it at the start :)
so you confirm you have working copies of lost media, but you're not going to make the files public?
Well I can’t legally distribute them without the consent of the devs :)
@@TheLastBacon "b-but the law!! but the law says!" nobody cares. feds won't break down your door for uploading these anonymously to the internet archive or something
8:52 me when I go outside
Haha :D
As someone who is diving into game development recently this has been pretty insightful and fun to see! someone told me that game development should be approached as a series of small projects aiming to create a big one. And these builds of Subnautica pretty much feel like something similar. What a fascinating development!
As a game dev I totally agree :) And going in the form of smaller accomplishments is a great idea!
You should upload them somewhere, lost media is priceless and I think every subnautica fan would appreciate this.
Don’t think I legally can :)
@@TheLastBacon Oh yea you're right, I didn't think about that.
This is gonna be the first comment to not have a reply from the last bacon.
Hope not :)
AUGHHHHH
vpn can’t save you from this guy
Never :D
It's so cool seeing something like this take shape and seeing when the devs came up with the ideas that would stick to release, like the sub eventually becoming the Cyclops, the boat becoming the lifepod... I guess it also serves as inspiration for any aspiring indie devs; your game will likely go through many iterations and transformations before release. From texture-less blocks with 3 polygons to something as beautiful as Subnautica and Below Zero
Absolutely :) So fascinating to look at the process!
Hi The Last Bacon! Thanks for uploading again, i awlays love seeing these kind of SUbnautica videos from you, they really make you think what else we dont know about! I would definitely be keen for a 2nd part covering more details!
Thank you very kindly for watching! Part 2 will definitely come :)
without you, subnautica would die, and no one would ever know about it again.. THANK YOU SIR!
Thank YOU for helping me keep it alive :)
This is the thing I love most about Subnautica and your videos Subnautica has a lots of secrets and you uncover most of them keep doing these videos please they're the best
Thank you so much :)
Tbh Subnautica was one of those games where you rarely got to SEE the game develop. And it's so interesting to see what would've and could've been
Absolutely :) Amazing to look back at the whole process!
The weird tunnel thing in Pro 8 reminds me so much of the end screen. When you leave the planet and you travel thru a worm hole or whatever it is back home.
Ooh that’s an interesting observation actually! :O
This was pretty cool seeing how the game slowly changed and got bigger and better
Absolutely :)
2:18 “oh yeah I have these super rare and old prototype files of subnautica that not many have! Let’s just go ahead and delete these” -those UA-camrs
Well legally we can’t distribute them :)
@@TheLastBacondude it’s been one year no one is forcing you to reply to these 🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏🙏
A lot of people, when changing computers, forget to save files that may be important to them later. This may be the cause of that
1:22 i love how this guy is so dedicated to subnautica that be literally just scrolls through the wiki for fun
I have weird hobbies :D
Happy to see a new upload, have a great day!
You too! :)
I actually like the concept of the first prototype. Having to maintain and expand your ship via maneuvering and gathering resources.
Absolutely! I'd love to see something like that done in a deep-sea setting :)
I absolutely love exploring old versions of games it so cool seeing how each one of them has evolved and also finding wierd stuff and trying to figure out what their purpose was
Same! So fascinating to look at these :)
Bacon: *shows gameplay of lost prototypes and keeps it canny*
Also Bacon: *literally switches back to the released subnautica*
Had to just for some comfort haha :)
Wait, you're a game developer? How have I been watching for tears and not known this? Dude I will play litterally whatever you make if half as much effort is put into it as your Subnautica videos.
Yay thank you :) I’ve worked on quite a few games but haven’t shared because of personal details and stuff…
10:30 IS THAT A ONE PEICE REFERENCE!?
Maaaybe ;)
Sure, would love to see more of this, especially since 99.99999% of us will never have access to this, ever. Really cool. I'm reminded of my little arduino programs/projects that I would write/build and how every one of them would start with just a couple lines of code and each file save was an expansion on the next to introduce new functions and/or hardware as it approached a finalized state. Bug fixing was constant with each new addition or optimization. It was important to keep the earlier save files so that I could revert or refer to them as-needed. Thank you for the video, this was really interesting.
Really glad you enjoyed :) Yeah absolutely - reminds me of small game prototypes I would build at school!
@@TheLastBacon I don't know if your allowed to do this but maybe share those files so others may enjoy them? If not it's cool, it was still really neat to see them.
Wow! I was just listening to your subnautica creepypasta while coding and now you post a new video! What a coincidence!
Yoo perfect timing :) What were you coding?
@@TheLastBacon Actually in Unity too! I am making a horror game now named "The Camp".
Are you going to put the game on steam at some point?
@@charlesgendron42 Maybe :) There is still a lot of work to be done and I don't have that much expreience yet
@@charlesgendron42well it's on Steam now :)
The prototype 6 looks like iron lung and thats scares me a bit, imagine if subnautica was like that and just know that I had a chance of encountering the reaper in a map like this I would die😂good vid👍
I kinda love that idea :)
Theres nothing better than coming home from school and seeing a video from ur favourite youtuber
Yay thank you kindly :)
6:08 As I saw this, I immediately got a Farsky base building flashback. Now I see, why is Subnautica unspokenly related to Farsky.
Yep absolutely!! :)
early versions of subnautica have always fascinated me, its really cool to see you covering these prototype builds!
Same here! Super cool to explore these :)
It's fascinating to see the early development. To watch it go from literal bare bones proof of concept stuff to something super pre-alpha but still familiar to what we know today
Absolutely :)
this is so cool! definitely make more on this!
Will do :)
This is fascinating, thanks for letting us see this!
Thank you for watching! ;)
One thing I love about games is watching the type of videos that shows how it evolved.
Same!! :)
I love your videos and I appreciate your dedication. subnautica got me started on my addiction to survival games and seeing where it came from is so interesting. Thank you for helping keep subnautica on the sonar.
Yay thank you! Really appreciate the kind words :)
Wow thats mighty interesting! So cool to go through these versions I never thought id ever see!
One tip: the "ss" "tch" "tss" notes in your microphone are a bit sharp to hear. Other than that a great video!
Ah thanks for the feedback :) I’ll try to make it sound better!
The guys just standing there in prototype 8 might have been a test for the planned multiplayer, and the random black glowing area might have been the single cell biome if that ever went passed concept art
Maybe! :) So cool to speculate about it!
Huge respect for puting this much work into a video!
Thank you kindly :)
Man, this video really was a breath of fresh air to see on my youtube recommended
Yay thank you :)
Fun fact: the bathysphere is the name of one of the first submersibles that was lowered into the ocean on a cable
Oooh that makes sense! :)
if you are interested in game development like me, this becomes really helpful and gives a good understanding where a large game could start like and how simplified it should be at the start of it
I work as a game dev so this is great for taking references :)
The Last Bacon is actually very good at making good videos, I am entertained a split second after clicking on the video. Nice work done😂👍👍👍
Thank you so much! Glad you think so :)
These games reminded me that the original game came out 6 years ago, time really flies.
Good times :)
Wow it looks exactly like a dream! Everything is so weird and odd looking. Also that spider man xD
Haha random spiderman is random :)
Fun fact: they were planning to make an ability to customize ur cycl- i mean submarine build but it was WAAAY to buggy and they made it so u can change its color and build with fabricator
Yeah it sure seems like it was their plan based on these :)
Im so glad subnatica has been around long enough to be from my childhood and still have people liking it now
Right?! :)
@@TheLastBacon im so happy my fav yt responded :D
ngl I kinda like the approach of those first prototypes. Having a big submarine as moving main base from the start would be an interesting alternative way to play the game.
Like, the game we have now focusses more on building bases around the map that you can build as big as you like and customize as you wish. The vehicles are more of a sidedish to get around and to move between your bases.
The first prototypes feel like the inverse of this: You have one big main ship that you can customize as you wish. Maybe you'd be able to build small bases around the world mainly as (automated) farms, bulk storage and/ or "mining/ resource gathering outposts".
I love that idea too - especially if we were dealing with very deep water :)
neat to see how subnautica came to be! great video!
Thank you! :)
Early subnautica gives such an uncomfortable feeling. Even though I know there's nothing out there, I sit, listening, thinking of what may be there. It really goes to show how creepypastas form, like the "you are not alone" one. Truly liminal terror.
Yeah exactly :)
Oh MAN those are cool. I especially like the weird wiggly black and white zone in prototype 8, it kind of reminds me of those concept sketches of biomes like the Single Cell Landscape and the Pillars of Silence and stuff!
True!! Maybe it was a start to the single-cell biome :O
Props to you for using the beginner's guide's ost in your videos your a legend it fits really well in this one it makes it uneasy
Thank you kindly! I love that game :)
At 11:46, could the dead narwhal with the green (tusk? horn?) be the earliest integration of the Kharaa bacteria affecting the world?
Oh dang maybe! Good catch :)