Supraland 1
Supraland now has had over 600,000 unique players (plus pirates) and word of mouth is doing fantastic for it. And there is more great news in a few days.
Supraland 1.5 / Six Inches Under
But let's get to the one question you're here for: When is Supraland Six Inches Under done?
Short answer: Not Q1 or Q2. But in Q2 we'll sure start public alpha testing.
Most of you just want to play the final version and not alphas or betas. But many are also waiting for the unfinished version. But because I'm not alone anymore, we can push the early access phase back a lot. We get so much feedback from internal testing that we have a huge todo list to work on.
Once internal testing can't provide more useful feedback we'll release the game to the Tier2 crowdfunders. And after that, we'll release it Early Access on Steam. After that comes the actual release. Currently the game is pretty much playable from start to finish, but there is a lot to be done.
Meanwhile a screenshot from the current pre-alpha:
If you missed it: it started as a DLC for SL1 and was more like an experiment. But it grew into a standalone game that we consider something like Supraland 1.5. Not quite SL2, but way more than a DLC.
Since we changed plans from DLC to standalone we had to rethink a couple of things. We can't assume that players know all the abilities, so we had to come up with new ways to introduce them from the ground up. So we're putting in some small new areas here and there. We also noticed pacing problems that we're trying to fix and there is small stuff that should be improved around every corner.
The new enemy/combat system is getting into the final stages now. The combat balancing process and the exact spread of upgrades will only start now. This is a crucial step and I want to spend as much time on it as needed. There is no deadline besides "when it's good". In SL1 the combat was only interesting up to the point where you got the blaster combo and beyond that it kinda fell apart because it was too simple afterwards. The combo was just destroying everyone too easily. From now on there is no more one solution to killing every enemy type. The blaster won't even exist in this game. There will be completely new weapon types.
An often requested map feature is currently in the works and it's soon finished. It will also be added into SL1 when it's done. But I don't want everyone to just have the map; I think it's much more valuable if you have to earn it.
So it will be an optional map that only shows the areas you've been to. If you like, you can paint on it to mark stuff.
There are no symbols on it at all, because I think that's the worst a map can do, because it takes you out of the 3d world and you're just staring at the map. I remember that moment I had when I played Assassin's Creed Unity and I realised, all of this beautifully crafted world is irrelevant; it's just gameplay wise useless geometry with nothing to discover. All interactable things were marked on the map. There was no more need to look at the actual world, which should be what makes adventure games interesting in the first place.
Anyway, if you have more questions regarding Six Inches Under, put them in the comments! I usually answer everything.
Supraland 2
Meanwhile the Supraland 2 pre-production is in full swing. I'd love to talk about all the great ideas, but that would ruin the surprise party we have planned for you in 2-3 years I guess. I'm making this number up. I have no idea when it's done. But nothing besides a doc exists yet.
But basically the set of abilities is being specified at the moment and the order in which you get the abilities will soon be locked down. I'm planning for half of the game to be purely optional, with lots of completely optional abilities. They will make puzzles and combat encounters easier, but they are not necessary.
I'm also trying to work in planned sequence breaks (instead of accidental ones...) and completely alternative ways to beat the entire game. It's a complex web to weave but should be mindblowing if it works out as planned.
When coming up with abilities for metroidvanias everyone tends to mostly go for stuff that allows you to reach higher places or break stuff. I try to avoid this pattern in favour of things that let you think in new ways. I'm pretty bored by all metroidvanias doing the same stuff... higher jumps, double jumps, dashes, wall climbing and lots of different attacks that break different kinds of walls.
Our new set of abilities will be far less about verticality and jump'n run stuff but more about intelligent and versatile interactions.
Also the combat encounters will be far more puzzly. Certain enemies only react to certain interaction types, not to others. It mostly depends on the materials they are made of. So fire works great against the paper enemy but is useless against the metal one. The enemies are being designed and sketched right now.
A big question remains: should we call it Supraland 2 or something else? When you see a 2, do you think you need to play the first? We don't want the number to stand in the way for new players. Most of the movie and game industry seem to totally avoid numbers on their sequels. Only very few still do that. Opinions in the comments are very welcome!
[Edit] The name "Supralandland" was suggested in the comments. Why do I like this way more than I should? :D [/Edit]
If you want to help work on Supraland 2, amaze us with your skills! We're looking for FX artists, Sound Designers, 3d Modelers (assets and characters), Voice Actors (if you can make a voice that suits our NPCs) and whatever else you think would be great for the game. Send us whatever will make it impossible for us to reject!
To not miss any game we ever release, follow Supra Games on Steam here:
Steam: Supra Games
And as usual, upvoting this post speeds up development dramatically!
- David