Hey everyone!
Alice here again for this little status update whilst the rest of the team are still recovering from Gamescom and working hard on 1.0. Let’s jump right in :)
As mentioned in our last devlog and across socials, the tobspr team was at Gamescom last weekend. They manned the stand in the Indie Arena Booth, where so many of you visited and had a go at shapez 2. It was a massive motivation boost to hear your positive comments and compliments about the game, as well as getting some much-appreciated feedback on where we can improve.
You also seemed to love the merch we had to give away (you could have at least left some for me…). We had 500 stickers, 300 pins, and 200 keychains and you guys snapped them all up like they were going out of fashion. So, one of our biggest learnings for next year is to triple the amount of merch we have on offer…
Also, people LOVED the magnets. Stay tuned, because although these aren’t available to order yet, they will be soon! We've now got a newsletter you can sign up for below, where we'll be keeping you updated when the magnets are ready. We expect them to sell out fast, given the interest you guys have shown so far.
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Check out some snaps the team took:
I teased this in the last devlog (just couldn’t hold my excitement), but we were waiting on the HQ video to share it fully with you.
A few weeks ago, something wild happened: shapez 2 was performed by a full symphony orchestra!
We teamed up with Dyson Sphere Program for their Cosmic Harmony of Light and Strings over at the Jaguar Shanghai Symphony Hall. The fact a whole live orchestra learned and played one of our OST tracks still blows my mind. It’s one thing to hear a cool piece of music in game (thanks to Peppsen for putting it together), it’s another level to hear it with live instruments in a concert hall with an audience.
Check it out here:
Of course, the team is still hard at work on the 1.0 update. Here are some updates for you.
One of the main, most exciting things we’re bringing to 1.0 is the new game mode (currently called ‘Factory Mode’). Basically, it focuses on building huge, permanent factories, in contrast to the current mode where the build > demolish > rebuild mechanic takes precedent. This is something that’s been requested the most above all else, and we’re super excited about what we’ve got so far. It’s progressing well, but there’s still a lot to be done. We hope to get some beta builds out soon for early testing.
As a little teaser, here’s some WIP footage of the rocket animations (pls don’t tell Max I’ve shared this):
We’ve mentioned this previously, but ICYMI: 1.0 will have modding support! After gathering feedback from our community, mods will use the Steam workshop. If everything goes to plan, we’re hoping we can do some sort of closed beta around October.
We’re considering holding a modding contest with prizes up for grabs - let us know if this is something you’d be interested in.
Taking in your feedback on achievements (as well as a pretty rigorous in-house approval process), we’ve got a decent shortlist and we’re making good progress with the technical implementation.
Now for a bit of disappointing news I’m afraid. I know we’ve said previously that we aimed to release 1.0 in November this year, but that’s looking more and more unlikely. We want to make a game that’s worth the 1.0 label, and we just don’t feel it’s up to par yet. Especially with the new game mode - this has to be worth the wait.
Whilst we can’t give a definitive date yet, we’re now aiming for somewhere around early April 2026. Of course we’ll keep you updated every step of the way.
That’s all for now. Thanks for reading, and I’ll catch ya in the next one.
- Alice & the tobspr team
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