shapez 2 News

Hello everyone!

We got quite a few requests in our devlog feedback survey to talk about Fluids! It's a subject we haven't really talked about much before, mostly in passing and progress. So, let's have a look through what we're working with right now!

As always, a lot you’ll see in the devlog is work in progress. The mechanics are there and almost at 100%, but the visuals are in various stages of development.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2162800/shapez_2/

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[h2]What are fluids?[/h2]

Fluids are what you’ll use to give shapes different colors. If you’ve played the first shapez, you’ll remember mining colors and transporting them by belt. For shapez 2 though, we wanted something different. Colors have been turned into colored fluids, which you move around through Pipes. This adds some visual variety and a couple of new challenges. In short, coloring shapes should be more exciting!

[h2]Gathering & Transporting Fluids[/h2]

The process of gathering and transporting fluids starts off very similar to regular shapes, though you’ll need the fluid variants of the regular buildings you’d use:

• Fluid Miner instead of Shape Miner
  
• Fluid Miner Extension instead of Shape Miner Extension
  
• Pumps instead of Extractors
  
• (Space) Pipes instead of (Space) Belts
  
• Fluid Wagons instead of Shape Wagons
  

All the specialized fluid variants behave the same as their shape counterpart. Pipes have some differences though.

When placing, Pipes currently behave mostly the same as belts. They have the same placement limitations: They can split off horizontally in every direction. We plan to add more flexibility to the pipes, allowing you to branch them off of vertical parts, but this is planned for later.



To get fluids across a gap, you can place a Fluid Launcher. This version of the Launcher will accumulate fluid to create a blob that it will launch to the other side. It can store two blobs-worth of paint, scaling with painting speed. One fluid launcher will be enough to support one full belt of painters.



Unlike shapes and belts however, there’s currently no limit to throughput for pipes. Pipes do not have capacity of their own: if there’s fluid available in the buffer of the output building, it will show the fluid in the pipes. When this buffer is empty, the pipes will be empty as well. Essentially, any paints used by another building will be taken directly out of the Painter buildings. The pipes determine where the building can get paint from.



We plan to make some improvements for this, like a limit to throughput would be introduced to make pipes behave more realistically. However, there is no advanced fluid simulation planned. Adding flow / pressure-based simulation would add a lot of complexity to the game without major added gameplay value. We want you to be able to focus on solving shapes, instead of having to worry about fluids getting stuck in pipes.

Then there’s the Fluid Tank. This building holds up to 1,800 liters and works as a buffer between out- and inputs to make sure the flow continues to flow for a while when your Painters run dry. They give you room for error, but can be optimized out of the system if you’d like!



[h2]Painter[/h2]

To paint a shape, you have the Painter building. This building can paint any shape you send through it, but only the top layer. To paint multiple layers, you’ll need to paint first, stack later. It has a buffer of 20 liters and has inputs on three sides for extra flexibility. Painting a layer uses 10 liters.



In previous builds, we had a Full Painter building that painted every layer of the shapes you run through it. However, we recently removed it as it was not very useful for the challenges we set.

[h2]Mixing[/h2]

With default world settings, you’ll only be able to find Red, Green and Blue fluids throughout your world. To get the secondary colors and the tertiary, you’ll need to mix the fluids. For this, you have the Color Mixer! This building has two inputs next to each other, and one output on the opposite side. Colors are mixed as followed:

• RGB: Additive color mixing, works like light
• RYB: Subtractive color mixing, works like paint
• CMYK: Subtractive color mixing, works like printer ink
• Colorblind: RGB with textures, with additive textures (dots mixed with lines becomes dots with lines)
  

All three buffers have a capacity of 50 liters each. The ratio is 1:1, so 25 liters of each input fluid makes 50 liters of the output fluid.

Visuals are work in progress

[h2]Crystals[/h2]

Towards the later stages of the game, you’ll start to run into Crystals. We did a deep dive into Crystals last year, though a lot of it is quite outdated by now.

To summarize, Crystals are made by providing fluids to the Crystal Generator. This building will pump the fluid into any Empty or Pin quadrants up until the top layer of the shape you run through it. This paint will then harden into Crystal, matching the color of the fluid used. The problem with Crystals is that when you try to separate two adjacent Crystal quadrants or try to stack it on top of another shape, it will shatter and disappear. You can separate Crystal from a regular shape and stack shapes on top of Crystals, however.

Filling a shape uses 20 liters of fluid, regardless of the amount of quadrants it has to fill.

Both the building and crystals themselves are still work in progress

[h2]Other tidbits[/h2]

The fluids fully support the newly added Color Schemes, including Colorblind RGB!



When generating a new world, you have the option to include secondary and tertiary colors, allowing you to gather them using Pumps. If you choose to include all colors in the world, the Mixer becomes optional. You can also choose to remove primary colors, but some patches of primary color fluids will remain near the Vortex to allow you to progress.

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That’s about everything! We hope the new fluids make for a more interesting system than using belts to move colors. Let us know what you think!

See you next time!

~ Tobias & the shapez 2 team


[h3]Join the community:[/h3]

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[h3]Check out the previous devlog:[/h3]
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2162800/view/4173225900655549931

Hello everyone!

It's been a little while since we've done a progress devlog! We have a couple of bigger changes and various small improvements across the game, so let's take a look.

As a side note, thank you to everyone who filled in the devlog survey! Based on the responses, we've made two changes to this devlog. First up, more images! We'll try to show off as much of the game as we can in blog format, though gifs didn't make much sense for today's topics. Secondly, we've tried to keep our writing a bit more to-the-point. Let us know what you think!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2162800/shapez_2/

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[h2]Game Customization[/h2]

We’ve added a ton of new settings and features to customize a new start to how you want to play shapez 2. Patreons can expect these features in Alpha 21, coming soon!



[h3]Difficulty Presets[/h3]

You can currently select from 5 different difficulty presets that change a handful of modifiers to change the way you play. You can customize all of these presets, or start off with the Custom preset at the bottom of the list. These presets can be changed at any time!

• Normal: Copy/Paste is free once unlocked, but there’s a limit to how many platforms you can place.
  
• Chill: Copy/Paste is free once unlocked and there’s almost no limit to how many platforms you can place. Research goal costs are decreased slightly.
  
• Classic: Copy/Paste costs blueprint points, but there’s a limit to how many platforms you can place. Research goal costs are decreased slightly.
  
• Logistics: Copy/Paste costs double the amount of blueprint points and there’s a limit to how many platforms you can place. Research goal costs are quintupled. Will require you to move a lot of shapes around!
  
• Puzzle / Fast: Copy/Paste is free once unlocked and there’s almost no limit to how many platforms you can place. Research goal costs are minimal. Little need to optimize production or throughput.
  

[h3]Scenario Presets[/h3]

Scenarios will allow you to completely change the game. From core mechanics to map generation, everything can be changed. For now though, we just have the normal preset and custom. When you go to edit a Scenario Preset, you get 3 tabs.

Scenarios
This is where you can select a scenario separate from map generation and game rules. Again, for now it’s just the standard experience and something we’re experimenting with but won’t show today.



Map Generation
Just make it a setting? Fine, we’ve made everything a setting. Aside from the Seed, you can customize pretty much everything about how the map will be generated.

At the top are the general Shape & Fluid patch settings. You can customize how many will generate, how large they start off, how much they will grow based on distance from the Vortex and the max size. For Shape patches, you can set how colorful they’ll be and how often rare shapes will appear. For Fluid patches, you can choose whether primary, secondary and/or tertiary colors are generated. Scrolling down, you can set the likeliness and minimum distance from the Vortex for each shape category. On the right, you’ll see a preview of the map you’re about to generate. You can zoom, look around or hide it if you don’t want spoilers.



Do keep in mind that with this much map customizability, there are plenty of ways to make your time very difficult or even impossible to progress. We highly recommend keeping all the settings at the default for your first playthrough.

Game Rules
In the last tab you can set extra rules that can really change up certain mechanics. For now, there are just two.



These settings will allow us – as well as modders – to create presets that massively overhaul the game and make shapez 2 infinitely replayable! Sharing options for map generation are being worked on.

[h2]Colors[/h2]

The name of the shape color Purple has been changed to Magenta. If you’re using shape codes, this means that any use of p needs to be changed to m to work. Keep this in mind when importing shape codes from shapez 1! If you’re not familiar with shape codes, don’t worry about it.

The contrast between uncolored shapes and white ones has been increased to make it easier to keep them apart.



We’ve added two more color schemes that change all the shape colors and fluids, totaling to four color schemes. Whether you need a change of scenery or struggle differentiating certain colors, be sure to check out the other modes! They can be changed at any time in the settings.

• RGB (Default): Red, Green, Blue, Cyan, Magenta, Yellow & White
  
• RYB: Red, Yellow, Blue, Orange, Green, Purple & Black
  
• CMYK: Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Blue, Red, Green & Key (Black)
  
• RGB (Colorblind): Increases contrast of the default RGB colors and adds a texture
  

The same shape in RGB (top left), RYB (top right), CMYK (bottom left) and Colorblind (bottom right)

Keep in mind that the shape codes stay the same, regardless of the color scheme you’re using. In RGB, CwCwCwCw will create a white circle. In RYB, this circle will be black.

[h2]Other changes[/h2]

We’ve made a large amount of changes to fluids, but we’ll save that topic for a dedicated Fluids blog.

[h3]Gameplay[/h3]

There’s now a separate miner extension for fluids. Miner layouts now have a new layout, reducing the maximum amount of extensions that can be attached to a miner to 4. However, patch arrangements have been improved!

Miner Extension visuals are still placeholder

The Full Painter building has been removed. It just wasn't very practical and there was little reason to use it. The regular Painter building is still available, which colors the top layer of any shape you run through it.

Map generation has been made more interesting. The farther from the HUB you go, you'll get rare shape patches that can save you some work. Patches in general are much bigger, but everything can be customized in the map generator now!

[h3]Visuals[/h3]

Fine-tuned the pins shader to be more visible on top of shapes, keeping in mind the new color schemes.



The visuals of the Stacker building have been finalized!



There are new placement indicators when placing fluid miners & pumps, to make it a bit less confusing when your camera is angled.



[h3]User Interface[/h3]

The top left corner now has a button for every research tab: Milestones, Shop, Tasks, Upgrades. If you unlock something new in any of those categories, it will show a small notification marker.



Unlocking a milestone now shows an overview for the newly unlocked tasks, upgrades and content. You can click the info icon on the new milestone to see the overview again, or check out any of the other milestones’ overviews.



The Upgrades UI has also been improved to clearly show the effect it has on speed.



There are now Feedback buttons in several places of the game that will open a window with several more buttons that take you to either the Discord, Feedback Form or Suggestions Portal.



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That's the devlog! A lot of our focus is currently set on refining the game, but we have plenty more to show soon.

~ Tobias & the shapez 2 team


[h3]Join the community:[/h3]

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[h3]Check out the previous devlog: [/h3]
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2162800/view/4207001628976651047

Hello everyone!

Last devlog we talked about trains, so let's look at your other option today: Space Belts. You'll likely be using these a lot, so let's take a look at what we're working with.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2162800/shapez_2/

[h2]News[/h2]

[h3]Devlog survey[/h3]
We're really interested to learn if there are ways for us to improve the quality of the devlogs and/or align them more with what you'd truly like to know about shapez 2! This survey includes questions about quality, usage of visuals, your interests as well as a suggestion box where you can suggest topics for future devlogs. So whether this is your first devlog or you've already read all twenty(!) of them, we would really appreciate it if you could take the time to check out the survey!

[h3]➡ Fill out the survey here! ⬅[/h3]

[h3]Alpha 20[/h3]

Not only do you get Devlog 020 today, Patreons also just got access to Alpha 20! This new build includes everything mentioned in this blog, plus a bunch of new features and visuals. Updated content includes train collision avoidance, simulation improvements, map generation improvements, new visuals for a couple of buildings and much more.

[h3]Disclaimer[/h3]

Just a reminder, everything shown in this blog is still in development and is still subject to change. They're not quite placeholders anymore, but the visuals of the Space Belts are not finished yet. Your thoughts and feedback are welcome, as always!

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[h2]A brief history[/h2]

Space Belts are an essential tool to transport large quantities of shapes between platforms. Ideal for short distances, they allow you to easily cross a gap or connect a train station to your factory for pickups or deliveries. However, their original design was quite different from what we’re working with now. Let’s walk you through it!

[h3]Just build it yourself![/h3]
Initially, you were expected to build connections using these platforms manually. You would place platforms and then build belts and launchers on them to create connections. It quickly became obvious that this is very burdensome to do all the time for every connection (as you may expect), so we started working on improvements.

Old build

[h3]Space Tunnels[/h3]
One of the first improvements was the addition of special tunnel platforms. These allowed your connections to transport shapes under other platforms, making connecting across sections much easier. Additionally, their ability to consistently transport large quantities of shapes essentially made them function as Space Belts, but without the flexibility of seamlessly splitting and merging. The tunnels exist as their own form of transport alongside the buildings you know from shapez 1, as well as Shape Launchers.

Old build

[h3]Hyperbelts[/h3]
The first step towards improving space platform connections was Hyperbelts. Despite the fancy name, it was just a tool that allowed you to easily place prebuilt versions of the space platforms with belts & launchers without having to build all of it yourself. It was based on the idea of belt placement in your factory, but very simplified - it didn't support merging or splitting unless you manually made platforms to do so.

Old build

This system is what you saw in the demo and this is – as expected – something we got a lot of feedback on. Technically we could’ve made more prebuilt versions to allow for more complexity, but it would still be clunky and not very pretty. We can do better.

[h2]Space Belts[/h2]
With a ton more feedback under our belt, the Hyperbelt’s flaws became clearer and clearer. Aside from the lack of complexity we already mentioned, it was also just very slow. They moved shapes at the same speed as all other belts in your factory, and when you’re crossing larger distances, it really did take a while before your shapes got anywhere. Essentially, what we needed was a system that had all the functionality of regular belts, but much larger, faster and independent of platforms. So, we made just that.



Enter: Space Belts. They’re huge belts that support up to 12 regular belts across 3 layers, move shapes way faster and retain the flexibility you expect from belts, all without needing platforms to build on! This makes Space Belts your best option to connect platforms over shorter distances. If you need to move something over long distances however, Trains are the better option.

Shapes moving across the Space Belt



When there are Space Belts, you also need Space Pipes. With the recent fluid system rework, it became possible to transport fluids across notches with pipes. This then allowed us to make the prototype of the Space Belt’s younger brother, Space Pipes! These work identical to Space Belts, but move fluids instead of shapes and have a different look to reflect this. Have a look at the concept below.

This may or may not be what it will actually look like

[h3]Merging with Tunnels[/h3]
For close-distance transport, we would now have both Space Tunnels and Space Belts & Pipes. The key difference between the two is that Tunnels can move shapes under a platform, bypassing it without slowing down. However, they can only go straight and have a range of 4 chunks, which is where Space Belts and Pipes come in.

Now, you’ll likely come across a situation where you’d like to place your Space Belt across a platform, without connecting to said platform. That’s where you connect a Space Tunnel to your Space Belt! However, keeping Space Tunnels and Space Belts separate doesn’t make much sense anymore as they work closely together now. So, Space Tunnels now have a brand new visual that matches that of the Space Belts, they’re both part of the Space Belts category in the UI and Tunnels can now be integrated into the smart-placement tool.



[h2]What’s next?[/h2]

Space Belts are already in a really good state, but there are some improvements yet to be made. As we just mentioned, the Space Tunnels still need to be integrated into the placement behaviour of Space Belts. That’s to say, Tunnels should automatically be placed when you drag a Space Belt across a platform.

We are already considering other ways of improving them even more, however: a topic that has come up internally is that merging or splitting across different factory lanes and layers in space is too troublesome for too small of a result. To make this easier, we are evaluating Merge/Split Balancers. These special space platforms would have one side that can receive up to 12 belts and another 36 split across 3 other sides. The Merger takes up to 36 input lanes and distributes contents evenly across up to 12, while the Splitter takes up to 12 input lanes and distributes the contents evenly across up to 36.

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Well, that's everything for now. The bottom line is that Space Belts should act similar to regular belts, but a lot bigger. Anyway, progress is going very well and we have plenty more to show, so we hope to see you again for the next devlog.

~ Tobias & the shapez 2 team


[h3]Join the community:[/h3]

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Hello everyone!

It's finally time to talk about possibly the most anticipated feature of shapez 2: Trains! We'll keep the intro short, but please remember to wishlist shapez 2! There's a high chance you already have (in which case, thank you very much!), but every single wishlist helps out!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2162800/shapez_2/


[h2]Disclaimer[/h2]

Please note that the vast majority of train visuals are placeholder or early concepts. The mechanics and balancing explained in this blog are also subject to change, depending on community feedback. To read more about how we implement new content and the current state of the game, check out our previous devlog!

You can explore everything you see and read in this blog yourself in Alpha 19, available to Patreons.

[h2]Our goal for trains[/h2]

We’d like to quickly preface the blog with our intentions for trains. Their purpose is to transport a large amount of shapes over large distances. While tunnels and space belts work fine to connect nearby platforms, trains will connect your distant platforms that mine that specific shape you really need, but spawned multiple sectors away.

Ultimately, our goal was to create a fun, long-distance transport option that fits well into the existing shapez world and the mechanics you’re used to. It should be easy to get into but provide depth for optimization and versatility. For this reason we’ve omitted signals and other, more complex train mechanics in favor of a simpler line system that still offers a lot of depth for those willing to invest their time into optimization.

[h2]The basics[/h2]

To get started, let’s place a station! You can also choose to start with the track or a depot, but we’ll start with a station as they come with a pre-build segment of track. The station building tells a locomotive where to stop. To load and unload the wagons you need to place Train Loaders and Train Unloaders, both of which are available for both shapes and fluids. Each (Un)Loader can service one wagon.

Once the stations are in place, it’s time to place tracks. You don’t have to worry about the length of the line, as placing tracks is completely free. Connect the stations by track in any way you want, but do keep in mind that tracks are directional. Additionally, trains have to slow down when making a turn and speed up on long, straight sections. You’ll want to minimize the amount of turns a train needs to make in order to maintain a high speed.



When your stations are connected, you won’t have to worry about making a loop or a place where the train can turn around: tracks are double-sided. When a train reaches the end of a line, it will flip to the bottom side of the track and turn back to where it came from. This helps a lot with space management as you won’t have to worry about frontal collisions or need to make two tracks to allow trains to travel back and forth. However, trains traveling along the bottom of a track cannot be serviced by stations and only travel in a straight line. If the line has junctions or switches, you may still need to complete a loop to get your train back to the start.



Now that you’ve connected an input station and an output station, it’s time to get a train running. To spawn a train, you need a train Depot. This depot is one chunk big and allows you to spawn a single locomotive that cannot carry any products by itself. To add capacity, you’ll need to attach a Wagon Extension to the Depot. You can choose between two types of cargo wagons: Shape Wagons and Fluid Wagons. Filler Wagons are also available to space out two cargo wagons, but can’t be used to transport products. You’re free to mix and match the wagon types, there’s no need to stick to just one. With these wagon extensions attached, any train spawned by the Depot will pull a single wagon for every extension. If you’d like a second train, you’ll need to place a second train Depot with its own wagon extensions.



A train will automatically spawn from the depot and do its thing: it will follow the track and stop at every station it comes across. It will load shapes at Train Loaders, and unload shapes at Train Unloaders. This is the simplest use of trains: a single train moves along a line and does its thing. You can stop there, but there’s a lot more possible.

[h2]Lines[/h2]

If you were to give every single line its own track, you’d need to reserve a lot of space for all the tracks you’d need. Instead, you can work with colors! When placing a track or a Depot, you can currently pick between four colors: red, green, blue and white. The color determines which line which train will follow. For example, a train from a red Depot will always follow the red line in case of a switch.

The colors come into play once you merge two or more tracks of different colors into a single track. If you have a green line and you merge a red line onto the same track, the track will become both green and red in the direction of the track. This means that both red trains and green trains can travel along this line! If you were to split the green line off this track, you’d get your separated red and green tracks back.



A track can support all four colors simultaneously, giving any piece of track an effective limit of four different lines. If you require more lines, you’ll need to make a parallel track that travels in the same direction or separate your train network into smaller subnetworks. When traveling along the bottom of a track, trains will no longer follow their line and only go straight at switches.



[h3]Crossings[/h3]
If you need to cross tracks, there are two ways to do it. The first one is to simply create a crossing by placing a second track across an existing track to create a crossing. At a crossing, lines and trains can only go straight. If you want to give trains the option to merge into the other track as well, you need to manually build a switch.



However, the second way is a lot more fun: just make a Train Launcher! Just like with conveyor belts, you can place a launcher that will launch the train into the air and across any other tracks and onto the catcher. Unlike the conveyor belt equivalent, you can change the strength of the launcher to determine how far the train will fly.



Before you ask: Yes, the Train Launcher also works on trains at the bottom side of the track.



[h2]Balancing[/h2]

So after all this, you may wonder why you’d use trains instead of tunnels or space belts. Aside from being way cooler, it’s a matter of cost, speed and throughput.

[h3]Costs[/h3]
Below, you see a table with the costs of running a train. For this example, we run a single train with three wagons between two stations with capacity for all wagons.

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39 chunks may sound like a lot, but the best part is that tracks are completely free! This means that no matter the distance, be it 5 chunks or 500, the cost remains the same. Additionally, locomotives don’t require fuel and there’s no maintenance fee either. If you compare this to our other mass-transport options like Space Belts and Space Tunnels, both of which have an effective per-chunk cost of 1, trains become increasingly more chunk-efficient the longer the distance traveled. The cheapest possible setup for a functioning train is one locomotive with one wagon running between two stations, which would cost you 21 chunks.

[h3]Throughput[/h3]
Shapes and fluids are loaded on a train in packages. A single wagon has capacity for three packages – one for each building layer – with each package having a capacity of 960 shapes or 9,600 L of fluids. This gives every wagon a maximum capacity of 2,880 shapes or 28,800 L of fluid when using all three layers. Trains will only pick up packages that are completely filled, giving a wagon a minimum required load of 960 shapes or 9,600 L as well.

A wagon can only pick up one package per layer. If you only use the bottom layer of the station, the wagon can only pick up one package: it does not automatically place a second package on top of the first one. Additionally, Loaders and Unloaders can store up to two full packages per layer. To make full use of both the wagons and the (Un)Loaders, you’ll want to split the load across all three layers.

When it comes to speed, trains are considerably faster than the alternatives. If you were to move shapes across a distance of 300 chunks using space belts, you’d be looking at almost an hour of travel time! A train however, will cross that distance in under 30 seconds. Trains slow down for turns and take some time to get back up to speed, so every corner will considerably increase the travel time of a train. Adding wagons to a train does not affect the speed or acceleration.

To summarize the balance, space belts and tunnels are ideal for short-distance connections between platforms. Trains are what you’ll want to use for medium and long distances. They’re incredibly versatile and you can add or remove trains and wagons as needed. However, it takes time to set them up and poor planning and/or using too many trains can create bottlenecks when collision avoidance enters the fray – more on that next.

[h2]Future possibilities[/h2]

[h3]Collision avoidance[/h3]
In the latest Alpha build (Alpha 19 at the time of writing), trains still just phase through each other. However, we’re currently experimenting with a collision avoidance system. How it will work exactly is still to be determined, but a train should brake when another train gets in its way. Once the path is clear, it should continue its journey.

This also means that congestion would be possible if you have a lot of trains on the same line or have a very busy crossing. Avoid conflict points, build station bypass tracks and use the line colors to the best of your ability to avoid gridlocking your entire transport system.

[h3]Colorblind features[/h3]
Since we’re working with colors, we’re planning to use the same color pattern shaders we showed in the last devlog for the line colors as well. How exactly this will look depends on what the final train and track visuals end up looking like.

We have some more ideas, but they require more testing before we can say with certainty they'll make it into the game. Names pending.

• Side swapper track: Special track segment that will ‘flip’ the track and allows trains to swap to the other side while continuing in the same direction, without slowing down.
  
• Locomotive recoloring platform: Change a locomotive’s line color and reroute them on the fly with a special platform.
  
• Vortex train launch: Launch trains directly into the Vortex to deliver a large amount of shapes at once.
  

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Can't wait to try trains and want get involved in the process? Consider supporting us on Patreon to get access to the bi-weekly Alpha builds as they release! Your feedback is essential to us while we're working very hard to get shapez 2 ready for Early Access.

That's all we have on trains for now! We hope to soon be able to show you what trains will actually look like, but we first need some more time to get all the features in. Thank you for your time and we hope to see you again in two weeks.

~ Tobias & the shapez 2 team



[h3]Join the community:[/h3]

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Hello everyone!

We have something a little bit different for you today! Our topic for this devlog is the future – more specifically, where we are with the development of shapez 2, what still needs to be done and how we’re looking at the Early Access release. In general, it should give you a better insight of how we work.

You could technically call it a roadmap, though all the information we’d like to be included is a bit too wordy to be put into a single fancy image. You’ll have to do with a 5-page devlog again. Sorry!

[h2]Demo reception[/h2]

To get us started, let’s talk about the demo again. Two weeks ago we shared a survey with everyone. There’s a lot of very useful information here that will help us determine the sentiment on the demo now that it’s over and gives us more to work with when it comes to the eventual release of the game. However, we would like to share the results of one of the questions.



These are the ‘grades’ you all gave the shapez 2 demo. Of course, these results will be biased. We shared the demo within the Discord and the blog, so the people filling out the survey will be big fans of shapez. It’s safe to assume that the grades will be higher than they would be if we were to ask a group of players that have no prior knowledge of shapez.

However, even if we were to subtract a point of every grade for a possibly more accurate score, we’re very happy with the responses. It fills us with confidence that the demo gets such high scores, considering the flaws it had – most of which have been fixed by now.

[h2]Shapez 2 today & the road ahead[/h2]

Shapez 2 and the development thereof is looking very promising. With the demo, we were able to show what we’re capable of, now that we’re more than just a single person working on a game. We want to deliver the same quality for Early Access, but aspire to go beyond.

The biggest challenge we face now is to finalize the newer mechanics. The demo mostly consisted of “proven” mechanics, things from shapez 1 that we know work well. Shapez 2 and its Early Access will of course have a lot of new mechanics as well, which require more iterations and testing to make sure they’re functional and fun.

So, let's start to look ahead. There are three phases: developing the core mechanics, making them work in the game & polishing everything up for publishing. This system is used when it comes to developing mechanics, but it also applies to the game as a whole.

[h3]Phase 1: Game Mechanics[/h3]

The beating heart of any game are the mechanics and core elements. We’re still partly in this phase, developing new mechanics, reworking old mechanics and gathering feedback on everything to make sure it all feels right. It’s a lengthy process, but you can’t really continue when parts of the core game are still missing.

Currently, we’re happy with the following major mechanics:

• Fluids
  
• Wires
  
• Crystals
  
• Research
  
• Building layers
  
• Blueprint library
  
• Pin mechanics
  
• Space belts & tunnels
  
• Shape types (including the reworked Windmill shape)
  
• The majority of buildings
  
• Colorblind mode (see below!)
  
• ...and many more smaller features and improvement to tie everything together
  

This is not to say that we will never change anything about these mechanics ever again, but we’re confident that they are fun and work as intended leading into Early Access.

Colorblind mode – colors have patterns to help differentiate them if two or more colors look alike

Colorblind mode – these patterns are also applied to icons in the UI

There are also some mechanics that are still in the concept or prototype phase and we’re actively gathering feedback on how they should work. Once the concept is sound, we can finalize the concept and work on implementing it all into the game. These mechanics are as followed:

• Trains
  
• Chain miners & Fluid Extractors
  
• Infinite Research (not yet started)
  
• MAMs (Make Anything Machines): Everything you need to make a MAM is in the game, but there currently is no incentive to make it without the Infinite Research goals.
  

We’re aiming to have all the major mechanics done by the end of April. When everything is functional, it’s time to move onto the next phase.

[h3]Phase 2: Production[/h3]

This is the phase where you turn the mechanics from phase 1 into a completed package. It includes all the visuals, quality of life improvements, placement, optimization, sounds and music – all in the name of making shapez 2 a nice experience. Let’s go through a couple of these points.

Wires are functional, but everything is still missing its visuals

Fluid pipes were in already, but got some improved visuals

We are always improving the simulation (don’t make me link the blog again). Currently, our focus lies on the precision issues of shapes and factories that are not on your screen. This is important to make sure every shape is where it should be and the factory keeps behaving when you look away for a second. Additionally, we have lofty goals when it comes to maintaining performance for huge factories. Not all our planned improvements made it into the demo but did get implemented shortly after, so it’s already in a very good state compared to what you got to try. We didn’t stop there though: it’s our goal to allow for 500k to 1 million buildings in a save on an average PC setup. For context, shapez 1 would start stuttering at 50k on the same system.

Then there’s our planned input rework. Shapez 2 works well with its default keybinds, but things start to break down a bit when you start customizing them. It’s very easy to produce conflicts or unexpected behavior – rebind Shift at your own discretion. When it comes to physical keys, there are some issues as well. For example, on the German QWERTZ layout you have to press Ctrl+Y instead of the expected Ctrl+Z to undo an action. Outliers like these are very difficult to fix, but not impossible.

Other ongoing work includes readability improvements – like the overview mode needing improved visualizations – and a statistics panel.

How long this phase will take is hard to predict, but we’re currently planning to spend about three to four months to get this phase right. That puts us around early August!

[h3]Phase 3: Polishing[/h3]

Now, the gameplay is mostly done. There’s still a lot to do though! This is where we work on the tutorial and the knowledge panels with all the necessary content. The research goals need images or videos and the game should be localized for all the major languages.

Work on UI is also always ongoing, but you can now bind blueprint and folders to your toolbar!

New animation when you deliver your first shape

This is also the moment where we do a lot of testing of all parts of the game with the help of the community and external partners. A feature may work in phase 2 but a bug could still suddenly rear its head when you’re finalizing it with an image.

At this point it’s also time to work on the trailer for the Early Access release. The visuals will be done by this point, so we can record the footage we need.

This phase should take about one or two months, putting us around September or possibly October.

[h2]Early Access[/h2]

So looking at this all, it’s unrealistic we’ll be ready for Early Access before September. Our bottomline is to release the game this year still. The latter half of the year already seems quite busy when it comes to factory games, so we’ll need to find a good window of opportunity to release shapez 2 – and we would like the game to be ready for us to jump on said opportunity.

As we’ve always said, our outlook on Early Access is that while the game is technically not finished yet, it should feel and play like a complete and polished game. We don’t want you to think you’re missing out on anything by playing it early! A lot of you tried the demo and gave us incredibly valuable feedback on the game, and the same goes for Early Access. We’ll be confident in the state of the game, but there are always other perspectives and ideas to explore that could make shapez 2 even better.

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If you’d like to be part of this process and support us during development, do consider supporting the game on Patreon. It helps us fund the ongoing development costs, and gives you access to bi-weekly Alpha builds with the newest features before they go into Phase 3. Your feedback on these builds will in turn help us make a better game.

Another way to support us is by simply wishlisting the game on Steam!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2162800/shapez_2/


That's it from us today. We hope to see you again in two weeks!

~ Tobias & the shapez 2 team


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