We're of course working hard on Supraworld. It's coming together slowly and I love every bit of it but I have nothing new to show at the moment. I am always holding myself back from posting new stuff we made that I would love to show around. But we're of course preparing a big surprise party and don't wanna spoil it!
But besides that I have a couple of other design documents. What else is to be expected from us in the future?
- I threw the idea of a Supraland remaster into the room with RTX and stuff and asked everyone what else they would improve on the game. But even my own list of things I would change, is so big, it became clear immediately that it would actually need a Supraland remake +, not a remaster.
With Supraworld we're still working into the blue and don't really know how everything will feel in the end because it's all really unique. But in Supraland, after having read about 8000 user reviews, after countless talks with players and after having watched 100+ people stream it, I have an ultra precise idea about all the game's pros and cons. At this point It would be concept wise trivial to make a much better version of it.
A little peak into my list of things I would change in a Supraland Remake:
- Have everything built out of real objects instead of looking like a normal size landscape (which it originally was until I decided to have it take place in a sandbox halfway through development)
- Each area needs a more distinct look (both things were not possible back then due to lack of assets and zero budget).
- Throw out all assets that were not original but bought from the marketplace (enemies, music)
- Some areas are too big and empty (Carrot town, Supraball pitch), others too linear (Volcano)
- My whole concept of puzzles has a improved a lot and lots of puzzles in the first game are just not that good anymore and could easily be replaced with better ones or improved big time.
- I don't wanna confront players with puzzles they cannot solve yet.
- I wanna tie some mechanics much deeper into the game; as they were only improvised into the game at a late stage and you can feel that (coloring, nom-nom flies, shooting through stuff with the blaster, shield generator bouncing, burning stuff...)
- All red barrels are way too pointless while the golden barrels matter a lot
- Story wise i would reemphasize certain characters way more early on (the Cousin, Mr Miracle, the endboss were just improvised into the game and not planned ahead in any way!). They could get more depth and foreshadowing instead of suddenly being there.
- A much clearer quicktravel system
- The combat balance gets completely lost after you get the blaster combo; it needs to stay interesting in new ways afterwards
- Generally more interesting enemies; I think the ones in Supraworld will be fantastic and they could even make a comeback or we make new ones
- A better way to deal with enemy spawning (we'll see how the new ideas work out in Supraworld and then draw more conclusions)
- Make the whole main progression less linear; let players choose which crystals they wanna go to in whatever order
- Eventually find a way to actually involve the big kid more (something I threw out of the window for Supraworld because there is just physically no room for him due to all the level design objects everywhere; it would have destroyed all level design if we kept empty room for him everywhere...).
- And lots of other little details...
Improving all the things in the old code would not make any sense effort wise. For Supraworld we're right now building all tools from the ground up and future proof (we think). It would be much easier to remake everything with them.
But even then the remake would be indistinguishable from the original Supraland, so it might just be its own thing with some heavy influences from the first Supraland game. Kinda like many Metroid or Zelda games that are new games but they take/steal heavily from their previous games to basically update the original.
I see in the comments, many think it would be the same game again as the first; but no, it wouldn't. It would be a new game that might take the best bits from the first game, improve them and have lots of new stuff as well. You would barely recognize any of it.
- But that is for a future that's years away. Our new code for Supraworld will also be kinda multiplayer ready, because everyone is interested in doing what we call "Twopraland", a Supraland coop only game.
We keep hearing the request to "pls add multiplayer", but that is technically impossible and design wise total nonsense because most puzzles would not be puzzles anymore when you're together.
By multiplayer ready code I mean that the code is now structured in a way that multiple players would technically not destroy the whole game because everything is referenced and modularized properly. A coop Supraland would require both players to get a different set of abilities and both need to work together to solve puzzles and find secrets. It Takes Two has shown the big interest in that kind of game, but it seemed so handholdy and made for like first time gamers. Ours would be less linear and actually be challenging as you can imagine.
- Anyway, I think right after the Supraworld development ends, the first thing we will do is to continue and finish work on a special little tower defense game that we already started earlier this year in our spare time and are kinda hyped about because it will add something unique to the genre. It goes by the development name of Supratower.
- I also wanna do an RTS Singleplayer game at some point. I'm not a multiplayer fan in RTS at all but I love for example the Command & Conquer campaigns a lot. I only make games when I think I bring something creative and new to the table. What I have in mind could be described as a Metroidvania-Realtime-Strategy-Game. The development name is Supra-Command.
Please let me know which of the projects mentioned appeal to you and also which do not appeal to you at all! I know why you are here and that things outside Supralands genre will likely not appeal at first glance to everyone.
And is there anything really important I did not mention in my list of things to improve in a Supraland remake?
-David