Subnautica 2 almost went down a much stranger path
Anthony Gallegos said Unknown Worlds spent about eight months testing ideas that ranged from an ecosystem simulator to mobile bases and multi-planet travel.
Subnautica 2 nearly drifted into some very odd territory before Unknown Worlds settled on its current direction. In a chat with MinnMax, game design lead Anthony Gallegos said the studio spent about eight months prototyping ideas for the sequel, including a full ecosystem simulator. The sequel has already had a rough stretch, including Krafton’s confirmation that development continued despite layoffs at Unknown Worlds in an older post.
One early version pushed the simulation angle hard. Gallegos described a build where clams bred every 90 seconds, other creatures fed on them, and the whole kelp forest could fall out of balance if players did not keep an eye on the chain reaction. He said that kind of system would have needed far more UI than Subnautica usually wants to show, since the series is built around staying inside the world instead of staring at a dense readout of population data.
Unknown Worlds also tested ideas that sound closer to a broader survival sandbox. Gallegos said the team kicked around a structure with several planets, each handling titanium differently, plus a version with no land at all where the player built from a mobile base floating on the surface. He also said the studio remains open to spin-off Subnautica games that could go in much stranger directions, adding that there are many versions of the franchise it would like to make someday.
Subnautica 2 may have left those concepts behind, but a few of them sound like they could still work in a side project. Share your thoughts in the comments, and follow us on X, Bluesky, YouTube, and Instagram.
Subnautica 2
Developed by Unknown Worlds Entertainment
