Hey guys!
First of all, I apologize for the short break on devlogs. We are super busy working on the reveal trailer right now (which we want to showcase somewhere in August) which is why I simply lacked the time to do those detailed devlogs!
News
Be sure to wishlist & follow Shapez 2 to receive important updates and notifications about playtests!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2162800/shapez_2/
New Team Members
Our team has grown, so that we are now 6 people in full time, and about to become 7!
Currently we are:
Tobias - Producer / Developer / Game Designer
Daniel - Lead Artist
Nils - 3D Artist
Dimitri - Game Designer (part time shapez, part time secret unannounced kiwi project)
Lorenzo - Developer
Stefan - Community support + Quality Assurance
Nicko - Developer (Starting in July)
Alpha 6 Builds
We are currently working on finalizing Alpha 6 which will still take a while, but if you are interested in trying it out and get involved in the development process as early as possible, our Patreon Supporters already have access! Subscribing to Patreon also gives you a few other benefits, like exclusive discord channel access, live Q&As, Steam Keys and more.
Alpha 6 will probably launch as a Steam Playtest, but we will announce that in a later news post!
Devlog #007
Alright, time for a new devlog! In this devlog, I want to go over the changes we've made since the last update:
New HUB effects & indicators
The visuals of the central hub have been reworked! First of all, there are now indicators that show you whether the shape you currently deliver is required for any research. A red "X" means you are definitely delivering a shape that is used nowhere in the game (very useful!).
Also the hub now glows more the more shapes you feed in :)
Progression
Alpha 6, as the first alpha, will have actual progression! We expect around 10-15 hours of gameplay already. We also made a small tool to help us balance the research tree, which you can check out here!
Overview Mode Improvements
The overview mode (when you zoom out far) got a lot of improvements and also visualizes trains & tunnels now properly. However, it is still very much work in progress!
Megafactories
For our trailer we started to build a megafactory already, and here are some impressions!
We still need to add a lot of graphics optimizations (a lot of things are still rendered at the highest lod, regardless of the distance) but the simulation can already simulate factories that big! The factory in the screenshot consists of around 360,000 buildings.
As you can see, the idea is that in the endgame, instead of building your buildings individually, you build modular islands (like a "stacker" / "cutter" island) and blueprint / reuse them! Basically like playing shapez 1, but you built the buildings (=space stations) yourself :)
Tunnels
Tunnels are a way to transport shapes up to 10 space station chunks wide, but only in a straight path. We updated the visuals, although tunnels are still work in progress, game design wise!
New Placement UI
When placing space stations, you now have a proper "blueprint" look, as well as indicators what shapes you are about to mine:
Same goes for buildings:
And you now also get indicators during placement:
Improved Research UI
The research UI has been improved quite a bit. The main milestone is now shown much more prominent, and you can now also see which milestone unlocks which upgrade:
New shape patch visuals
The shape patch got reworked, and you can also see the reworked materials here:
HUB Island Improvements
The HUB island has been improved visually, but there are more changes to come!
Also the notches have been improved, and they now glow when a catapult is placed:
Updated pipe meshes
Pipes have been updated (even after the last devlog) and also upward/downward pipes now show the fluids correctly:
Updated Shape Miner + Extractor Visuals and Animation
The shape miner space station has also been improved and now has a (WIP!) animation:
The extractor is now also connected to the shape patch:
Updated Main Menu
Finally, here's a screenshot of the updated main menu:
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I hope you enjoyed the devlog and the new style of showing the changes from the last update! Wish you a great start into the week!
~Tobias
PS: All screenshots are taken from Alpha 6, which is already available to our Patreon supporters.
Wishlist Shapez 2
Be sure to wishlist & follow Shapez 2 to receive important updates and notifications about playtests!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2162800/shapez_2/