from the development team
Who would have guessed that we have finally reached the end of 2020, from bushfires to viruses and everything in between it has been a very interesting year to say the least. Today we are doing a quick update on the statuses of both ShapeVS and Shape Mini as we enter 2021. Let’s begin with ShapeVS!
What a year it has been, since starting development early this year and being officially revealed in the middle of this year ShapeVS feels like it has come an incredible way in such a short period of time. I’m going to cover a few new games, where they are going and what to look out for.
“New game who dis?”
If you’ve been following the development of ShapeVS, you may or may not know, that the game as of now is set to launch with 12 games, all of which we have aimed to make great experiences within their own right and not just as part of a collection. So far we have talked about Shape Fly, Shape Battle, Shape Rush and Shape Zone. Why not cover a few more?
Shape Move
We’ve talked about Shape Move before but for those who haven’t kept up, Shape Move is an expanded upon remake of the mobile game of the same name where players must avoid falling hazards as they try to get at the stars around the map.
Currently the team has focused on map design and interactivity. Right not with a lot of the games, the maps are static and we want to add a level of excitement and flair to them. Moving platforms, teleporters and more. We are eager to see how our experiments and play tests go.
Shape Race
The game pictured above, Shape Race is our take on the top down micro machine style racers we used to play when we were younger. Using various items, boosts and more, take the number one spot.
As you can tell from the screenshot above Shape Race is in very early development, but mind you that screenshot is a bit old at this point and we will be showing off Shape Race at play tests in the new year. Right now you can complete a race and using the boost pads, weapons and track hazards are being designed to make sure the game is a fast paced, high stakes racer in a small package.
Shape Shoot
We’ve always been fans of games like Galaga, R-Type and Jamestown and wanted to play with those concept styles. Shape Shoot plays like a scrolling top down shoot-em up where players fight of waves off enemies and get the most points.
Out of the three listed today it’s the earliest in development but right now we are really enjoying it in-house and look forward to sharing more in the future.
“Right now the biggest focus for Shape Move is level variety”
So as we stated again in the last dev blog we aim for the 70% and playable mark as it keeps us on a path we know we can achieve. Scope creep is something that can definitely kill a game, we are developing 12 games for ShapeVS but so much was dropped to make sure we don’t get far ahead of ourselves and cause any needless delays.
That being said we do want to share “some” things you will be able to do with the 12 games:
Multiple difficulty levels
To make sure the game can played by multiple people we have worked hard to make it as accessible as possible. From changing the frequency of hazards to extending limit timers, players will be able to craft an experience for those in their session.
Power ups can be turned off and on
The power ups are designed to be bit hectic, change the pace of the game and more. Sometimes these power ups can be a bit chaotic and provided certain advantages to those who know how to use them efficiently. Whilst in some cases this maybe ideal we want players to be able to determine just exactly how many and how much can affect a game.
and, different rules
For some of the games we tossed and turned on what we wanted the main goal to be, sometimes we came up with a fair few. We will allow players to toggle between these, from score goals to timers and other variations players will be able to battle it out in the ways they want to.
“As always Smash Bros. servers as an inspiration, in this case being able to customise games”
ShapeVS is very much a game about those playing it, be it a competitive night with friends or a relaxing after dinner game session with the family so we’ve built multiple systems to try and make the game customisable for the situation at hand.
Having a passion for the competitive nature of games (see the entirety of Down Tilt) we wanted to add features and rules as seen in our favourite fighting games that allow players to build a scenes for various games. Whilst we are not aiming for that (it would be very cool) it serves as a major inspiration for our design goals.
“ShapeVS, the game you can crush the competition with or relax with friends and family. In the end the choice is yours!”
Well that about covers it for today, thank you again as always for taking the time to read. Some huge things have happened in December and we get to start sharing it with you all in the new year. Look out for some exciting updates soon!
Happy Holidays!