Hey everyone!
Happy progress blog day! We’ve been working a lot on the visual presentation of Shapez 2. This includes everything from making the game easier to navigate, as well as making the whole factory-building aspect (which is quite important in Shapez 2, I’d say) smoother and a bit faster.
As always, these blogs are bi-weekly! One week, it's all about the progress we made developing the game. Two weeks later, we do a deep dive into one specific mechanic or feature that warrants some explaining. We plan to keep this cadence going until the full release of the game, and probably even after!
While you’re here, make sure you have Shapez 2 wishlisted! Not only does it allow you to stay up to date with the latest know-how on the game, it also gives Shapez 2 a better shot at getting featured by Steam. It would help us out a ton, thanks!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2162800/shapez_2/
News
Alpha 11
Alpha 11 is available to our Patreon supporters and features all the improvements we mention in this blog, alongside a handful of smaller changes (like bug fixes). These alphas are – as per usual – available for Windows, Mac and Linux systems.
Devlog 012
We’ll first tackle some changes that directly impact how you build your factories. We will then move on to the visual changes that will improve the overall gameplay experience.
Game Design
It's finally here: Introducing the Blueprint Library! While still a work-in-progress, it allows you to save and load blueprints to your heart's content. You can also copy the blueprint to share with others through a simple text message, or dive into your game files to find the Blueprints folder. From here, you can share the blueprint files with others or back them up for later use.
This is just the start of our plans for the Blueprint Library. We'll be adding a bunch of features to organize your library, like folders and customizable icons.
You can now also research discounts for your blueprints that allow you to place the specified amount of buildings free of charge.
We made some changes to the way you connect two space stations to each other using belts. When placing belts, the game will automatically place receivers on station notches for you when you place the catapult. There is now also an indicator for this mechanic to make it more clear.
Deleting one of the outputs of a belt splitter or merger will now automatically remove the left-over connection of the deleted output. So, when deleting an output, a three-way splitter will turn into a two-way splitter and a two-way splitter will turn into a regular belt.
We added some new station platform designs. Have a look!
The shape & fluid patches have been updated with a new potential layout. These changes are accompanied by updated visuals for the fluid patches, as well as the outer walls of fluid and shape miners.
Additionally, a starting map will now spawn resource patches closer to the HUB, lowering the amount of transportation necessary in the early stages of the game.
Visual Updates
A new design for the Full Cutter has been added, and the name for the Full Cutter will just be ‘Cutter’ going forward.
New Halves Swapper design & animations have been added.
The HUB was rotated 90 degrees so the initial camera position now faces north. This should make it easier to get your bearings when starting a new game!
The tunnel entrances and exits are now finally centered! No more throwing shapes through solid walls.
New indicators for mismatched belt directions have been added. We’ve all messed this up before, so now it should be easier to notice when something is off! The current visuals are placeholders and will be changed in the near future.
UI/UX
We’ve been putting a lot of work into updating the UI and UX in the latest Alpha versions. Let’s take you through the highlights!
The icons for the toolbar, all the buildings and some UI elements have been updated in a new style. Thank you to the people in the Discord for your initial feedback on these new visuals!
Additionally, the icon for certain key bindings have been updated to be more readable. For example, the 'SHIFT' key binding is now reflected with a single-family home, the arrow you see on most keyboards.
The Skill Academy we covered in Devlog 010 is now implemented, and will give you quick tips on newly unlocked features. Be sure to read them if you ever run into a skill, uh... issue.
Unlock notifications now display videos of the newly unlocked buildings, which show how they’re used.
Updated placement grid and Layer UX visuals now indicate which layer is selected. This should make it easier to build across multiple layers and keep track of the layers on which you’re building.
The lock indicators are now always shown, so you’ll always know which slots are locked and which ones aren't.
Building descriptions are now shown when selected and are unique per variant. The descriptions for every building and its variants have been updated along with this change.
Several improvements have been made to the main menu and settings page. These improvements include drop-down lists for most settings and clearer key bind settings, as well as a confirmation prompt when leaving the graphic settings page with unsaved changes.
We’re experimenting with hover indicators when hovering buildings or islands. Hovering is the state the building is in when the building is selected but not yet placed. Please let us know your thoughts on these indicators!
Balancing
We’re working on rebalancing various goals to make the progression of the game feel more rewarding. The Tunnels, Chunk Limit 1 and Blueprints have been moved to unlock slightly earlier, while the splitter & merger goal will take more shapes to unlock. Platform and chunk limits have been increased.
Half Swapper and Full Cutter speeds have been changed. For both, you’ll now only need 4 to keep up with a full belt.
And that wraps up everything for this devlog! Be sure to leave your thoughts in the comments, or join the discussions on the Discord server.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2162800/shapez_2/
We hope you enjoyed reading devlog 012, see you again in two weeks!
~Tobias & the shapez 2 team
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