Devlog 018 - The road to Early Access

We have something a little bit different for you today! Our topic for this devlog is the future – more specifically, where we are with the development of shapez 2, what still needs to be done and how we’re looking at the Early Access release. In general, it should give you a better insight of how we work.

You could technically call it a roadmap, though all the information we’d like to be included is a bit too wordy to be put into a single fancy image. You’ll have to do with a 5-page devlog again. Sorry!

Demo reception

To get us started, let’s talk about the demo again. Two weeks ago we shared a survey with everyone. There’s a lot of very useful information here that will help us determine the sentiment on the demo now that it’s over and gives us more to work with when it comes to the eventual release of the game. However, we would like to share the results of one of the questions.

These are the ‘grades’ you all gave the shapez 2 demo. Of course, these results will be biased. We shared the demo within the Discord and the blog, so the people filling out the survey will be big fans of shapez. It’s safe to assume that the grades will be higher than they would be if we were to ask a group of players that have no prior knowledge of shapez.

However, even if we were to subtract a point of every grade for a possibly more accurate score, we’re very happy with the responses. It fills us with confidence that the demo gets such high scores, considering the flaws it had – most of which have been fixed by now.

Shapez 2 today & the road ahead

Shapez 2 and the development thereof is looking very promising. With the demo, we were able to show what we’re capable of, now that we’re more than just a single person working on a game. We want to deliver the same quality for Early Access, but aspire to go beyond.

The biggest challenge we face now is to finalize the newer mechanics. The demo mostly consisted of “proven” mechanics, things from shapez 1 that we know work well. Shapez 2 and its Early Access will of course have a lot of new mechanics as well, which require more iterations and testing to make sure they’re functional and fun.

So, let's start to look ahead. There are three phases: developing the core mechanics, making them work in the game & polishing everything up for publishing. This system is used when it comes to developing mechanics, but it also applies to the game as a whole.

Phase 1: Game Mechanics

The beating heart of any game are the mechanics and core elements. We’re still partly in this phase, developing new mechanics, reworking old mechanics and gathering feedback on everything to make sure it all feels right. It’s a lengthy process, but you can’t really continue when parts of the core game are still missing.

Currently, we’re happy with the following major mechanics:

• Fluids

• Wires

• Crystals

• Research

• Building layers

• Blueprint library

• Pin mechanics

• Space belts & tunnels

• Shape types (including the reworked Windmill shape)

• The majority of buildings

• Colorblind mode (see below!)

• ...and many more smaller features and improvement to tie everything together

This is not to say that we will never change anything about these mechanics ever again, but we’re confident that they are fun and work as intended leading into