This is a series of developer "Speed Blogs" dedicated to the development of SpeedRunners 2: King of Speed. They are meant to give you a better idea of what kind of game it'll be when it comes out. Expect development updates, peeks into the creative process, and simply cool details about the upcoming sequel. Today in Speed Blog №2, let's talk about brand new Tournament and 8-Player modes and why we thought implementing them would be a splendid idea.
Speed Blog 2: Tournaments & 8-Player Mode
🏆 TOURNAMENTS
To state something that's absolutely obvious, SpeedRunners is a very competitive game. "Who's the fastest?" is one of the main questions in the community, and what is the best way to get an answer than good old playoffs? Since the first game didn't have an official way to play tournaments, we decided to fix that in the sequel.
The Tournament mode is meant to serve as a means for many players to get together and engage with one another simultaneously. Besides, we feel casual players will appreciate the ability to participate in tournaments since matches there are snappier—best-of-two instead of the classic best-of-three. Hence, less pressure compared to the Ranked mode.
HOW IT WORKS
Tournaments are not tied to a specific time and are held continuously.
Matchmaking for tournaments works similarly to quick matches. If you search for a tournament, the game puts you in the bracket that's the fullest at the moment, but has fewer than 64 players.
- Maximum players: 64
- Players are shuffled into 4-player matches
- The tournament is held over four playoff rounds, with single elimination
- The top 2 players advance in Rounds 1–2 (Round of 16 and quarterfinals)👇
- Only the 1st-place finisher advances in Rounds 3–4 (semifinals and finals)
- The winner of the final match becomes the champion
- Spectating will be available!
SPECTATOR MODE
Speaking of spectating, do you see that Ui element in the left-hand corner of the screen? If you click on that field or press X, a code will be revealed that, when shared, can allow people to spectate the tournament you're in.
A participant can spectate the rest of the tournament from which they've been eliminated. You can also select any tournament from the list and watch speedrunners compete from start to finish. Just a head-up, though—you won't be able to join a match that's underway as a spectator.
We don't currently have a way for people to join the same tournament as you, other than being in the same region and joining within the same minute, but we plan to add that functionality eventualy.
PROGRESSION
"Okay, I won a tournament. What do I get?" As of now, we have plans to add a badge to the player profile that will count your wins. This is our projected scope for the launch. After we've launched, we might introduce more cool rewards like cosmetics. Creating your own custom tournament? We have this idea on our "things-to-consider-during-Early-Access" list!
DEVELOPMENT CHALLENGES
Okay, great. We came up with the idea to implement tournaments. Sounds fun, and it really fits the game. There's a "but," however: What if players are so good that they just keep running? And running. And running. Competition can't drag on forever, now can it?
First, to keep tournaments within a specific timeframe, we shortened the number of rounds to win from 3 to 2, as we already mentioned above. Our game designers also considered a timer-based elimination system, which was tested... and not liked. We'll probably just start spamming rockets if a tournament match drags on for too long... I'm serious, we're considering that. If you have more ideas, feel free to share them in the comments below—we'd be uber-happy to read them, guys!
🏃 8-PLAYER MODE
At the prototyping stage, our team wondered how to make the game bigger than the first one. Why not just double the max number of players in an online match? We believe this simple but effective solution can inject more chaos and fun into casual runs (yup, 8-player matches will not be available in Ranked). Character outlines and toning down the level backgrounds should help with visibility.
In this mode, the ring of fire appears and begins shrinking as soon as a player is eliminated.
Just like the Tournaments, you'll be able to test this mode during the upcoming public playtest.
That should do it for today, speedrunners! Let me know what you think about this Speed Blog in the comments. Last but not least, can't wrap this post up without addressing the elephant in the room. Yes, I'm talking about the playtest. It's coming real soon, folks: Our "before the end of the summer" promise stands, so keep your eyes peeled for an announcement. And sign up, if you haven't.
Join our Discord Community to chat with other speedrunners and share ideas with the devs directly:
Consider supporting us by wishlisting the game; also, follow our Steam page to keep up with the news.
