shapez 2 News

Hello everyone!

It’s been a while since you last had a look into our progress. In fact, we haven’t really updated you since the release of the demo! While we already did a deep dive into the evolution of the Research System (which you can read here), it’s time we show you what other parts of the game we’ve been working on and what will be available in Alpha 18.

[h2]News[/h2]

[h3]End of the shapez 2 Demo[/h3]

The demo will soon be coming to a close. It will remain available until Monday, March 25th, 10 AM CET. This gives you the entire weekend to give the demo a go and see what shapez 2 is all about, or finish the projects you’re currently working on! Pick up the demo here:

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


[h3]shapez 2 Demo feedback survey[/h3]

A ton of you have already given us your feedback and thoughts on the demo and its system. As always, thank you so much for your time! We have a couple more specific questions we’d love you to answer.

[h3]➡ Find the survey here! ⬅[/h3]

[h3]Alpha 18 release[/h3]

We just released Alpha 18, which includes all of the changes mentioned in the blog and a little bit more. If you'd like to test it and share your opinions with us, consider subscribing to our Patreon!

[hr][/hr]
[h2]Devlog 017[/h2]

[h3]Production[/h3]

The Windmill shape has been reworked. The previous design was the only shape type that was asymmetrical and always looked a bit awkward because of this. The new design is symmetrical, allowing for better looking shapes – in our opinion. The shape goals with Windmill quadrants have also been changed to make better use of the new design. It may take a bit of time to get used to it, but let us know your thoughts!



We have a new design for the Pin Pusher you’ve seen in the bonus build of the demo. Before, it only placed one pin in one quadrant, but it now places a pin under every existing quadrant. This changes where in your production line it would be best to use the Pin Pusher, as you may need to utilise a couple more cutters if you don't want pins under everything.

A grey circle after going through a Pin Pusher

Inspired by the original shapez, we’ve added Chain Miners and Chain Fluid Extractors that you’ll be able to connect to your main extraction platform. This saves you from having to go through the trouble of having to set up multiple platforms and connect them all. It also allows you to use all nodes of a cluster if one of the nodes is completely surrounded by other nodes without blocking any of the adjacent nodes. The map generation has seen some changes to allow for better usage of these chain miners and extractors.

Visuals are still WIP

[h3]Transportation[/h3]

The old hyper belts (single platforms with four belts on them) were replaced with Space Belts. These new belts work similar to regular belts in that you can split and merge them, but a space belt carries four regular belts on three layers and can split the load into different directions. They are quite a bit more versatile than tunnels, but move shapes at a lower speed. Use them for short-distance connections between platforms or train stations.

Trains now travel along a solid set of rails, instead of the old rainbow ones. This makes the rails look a lot more weighty and inline with platforms. You can place a station platform along any set of rails. Connect the station with your factory using your second-favorite mode of transport, load them on a train and watch your shapes go off into the sunset.

You can build centralised train stations and connect them with your factory using space belts

We are still determining what role exactly trains should fill in shapez 2, but we've been getting some good feedback from the Patreon testers in the Discord. We hope we can share more about trains soon!

The first prototype of the 3-way splitter is here! While it’s still missing the visuals to make it make sense, we know it’s been a highly requested feature and are glad it’s making its way in.



We are working with a new Fluid Simulation system that should be more accurate and intuitive. To make sure the pipes feel good to use and keep the simulation running smoothly, we’re essentially working with a signal-like system. If there’s any fluid anywhere in a continuous pipeline, any connected building will be able make use of it. There will not be any fancy liquid simulations or advanced pumping mechanics. Additionally, Fluid Tanks are now directional to prevent back flow.

You now start with a new Vortex platform layout. It’s a 3x3 platform with a Miner on every side, supported by Chain Miners. These will pump up the shape output of the Miners so you have enough shapes to keep you busy until you unlock Chain Miners yourself.



[h3]Mechanics[/h3]

There has been some progress on the wiring content for the game. We now have functioning Buttons, Displays, Virtual Rotators, Virtual Analyzers and Virtual Unstackers! It’s still early days for wiring so there’s still a lot of progress to be made.



Alpha 18 has the brand new Blueprint Library design. Essentially, it works just like the files in your operating system. You’ll be able to organise all your blueprints into separate folders by simply dragging and dropping them as you wish. If you’d like to use a blueprint, you can drag the file into the hotbar for quick access.

Want to organise your blueprints without launching the game? Just head into the blueprint folder using something like Windows File Explorer and you’ll find everything exactly as you left it in game. Your library is synced between save games and devices.



[h3]Various other changes[/h3]

• A lot of rendering refactoring & performance improvements
  
• Various improvements and extra visuals for the UI in many parts of the game
  
• Further changes to simulation ticks & steps per unit to fix (some) precision issues
  
• The shader of the shape viewer has been improved. Shapes now reflect some light.
  
• We brought back larger platform layouts as optional unlocks.
  
• The max range of tunnels has been changed from 3 chunks to 4. Their entrances now input and output shapes on 3 layers, with 4 belts on each layer.
  
• Platforms are now one tile bigger in every direction. This has decreased the gap between platforms and belt launchers had their range reduced to match this change.
  

[hr][/hr]
Thanks for checking out our progress! Again, you only have a couple days left to try the demo before it goes on cooldown. Be sure to give it a go and wishlist the game if you're into it!

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


Until next time!

~ Tobias & the shapez 2 team


[h3]Join the community:[/h3]

X / Twitter YouTube Discord Reddit TikTok Patreon

Hello everyone!

A popular point of feedback on the demo was the research system. It's kinda a hassle to navigate and you couldn't really play how you want to play, unlock what you want to unlock. We went back to the drawing board and took another look at the research system, There's a new system now, and we'd like to explain it to you! However, we think it would be interesting to walk you through the history of the research system.

If you'd just like to read about the newest system, feel free to skip to design #4.

So to get where we are now, we had to make a number of iterations of the research system, see what elements worked and which didn’t and then improve upon that iteration by making a new, hopefully better one. Let’s walk you through these iterations, so you have a good idea of our progress!


[h2]Design #1: The initial research tree[/h2]

Way back when, the research system had a classic tree structure connecting one research to the next. Every research could require multiple previous ones and each and every individual building and building variation had a unique research you’d have to unlock.



While such a research tree would be functional – in the end you’d have everything – this design brings a couple of major problems.

Features were extremely broken up. You had to complete multiple separate researches to unlock all the bits and pieces of a single mechanic. You could make painters but wouldn’t have a way to move paint around to make use of the new unlock. You’d also be missing out on a lot of quality of life features that make building a lot easier, so you waste a lot of time and space building elaborate factories while a single unlock would make that system a lot easier and compact to work with.

The research–per–building system also means the tree would be extremely large and overwhelming. It was hard to find out what exactly you were working towards, if you could even find what you’re working on right now.

What we needed was a new tree design that combined various buildings into single researches to make the tree more compact and easier on the eyes.


[h2]Design #2: Main progression line with categorized subtrees[/h2]

For this design, we went with a linear research tree – a tree trunk, you could say. Core elements such as rotators and stackers would be right at the top and the main mechanic you unlock when completing the research. Many of the smaller bits and pieces were unified as part of these core unlocks to make sure you unlock all the necessary buildings you need for the main new mechanic.



Other unlocks that weren’t part of the core mechanics would be in separate, smaller subtrees. You’d have a subtree for belt speed, one for building speed, one for blueprints, etc. This removed the clutter from the main tree and organized all the other unlocks in separate tabs.

This design made it a lot easier to see the next big thing you were working towards, and made it impossible to miss any core mechanics you’d need to progress the game. The fact that you’d immediately have all the elements you needed to fully enjoy the new mechanic prevented a lot of frustration that came with the old design.



However, this design too came with issues. The splintered subtrees would still make it difficult to find some researches, since some researches could fit in multiple categories. Is fluid packing part of fluids, or part of transport? It also made it difficult to keep track of your progression across subtrees: you sometimes had to flip through multiple tabs to find out what you just unlocked and where a new research had just become available.

Additionally, it was hard to understand the connection between the main progression line and the subgoals. The small trees give you a general impression of what you had to do to progress – unlock one belt speed increase to unlock the next increase – but subgoals also needed you to progress the main progression line at times. The only way to find out about this was to guess. Can’t progress this subtree? Got to be the main line.



The tree-like design also just didn’t really add much. Some researches would be locked behind other researches just for the sake of looking like a tree. You had to unlock the CCW rotator before you could unlock the 180° rotator, even though you can definitely do without the former to use the latter.

To add insult to injury, some unlocks most would consider essential and were huge QoL improvements were spread across these subtrees. You had to go out of your way to unlock splitters and mergers for example, and while you could technically progress without them, it made complex factories unnecessarily painful and inefficient to build.

While this iteration fixed a lot of the issues of the first design, it brought a whole host of other issues to light. So, we went back to the drawing board.


[h2]Design #3: Milestones & Side goals[/h2]

We decided to ditch the trees and go with stones instead. This new design consolidated the main progression line into milestones: bigger, more meaningful unlocks. Every milestone you reach is like a whole new world of options and side goals to explore. The tree structures and all the separate tabs were completely removed and everything was centralized within the new milestones. Essential quality of life unlocks like mergers and splitters are now unlocked from the start, and more minor unlocks could be found behind optional side goals you unlock with the milestones.



It was now extremely easy to understand when you unlock what mechanic and when new side goals become available. You have complete freedom in choosing what side goals you want to take on, as you no longer have to unlock full cutters to unlock the swapper, for instance. Milestones are now the only dependency.

This iteration of the research system is the one currently seen in the demo. While it worked well enough for the part you could play in the demo, some issues started popping up here and there. Thank you again for all the feedback!



The big issue here is that the progression of the shape you needed to make to unlock the milestones didn’t really progress in a logical way. The required shapes were too different from each other, and with the limited space available – especially before you unlock space platforms – it required you to demolish your previous work to make space for the new production line. This process is very mentally draining and doesn’t feel as rewarding as it could. The milestones should incentivise growth, not feel like a rogue-lite game.

Additionally, the long, single line of milestones made it difficult to keep track of all the available and completed side goals. You had to navigate back and forth constantly to find the ones you wanted. Again, since the demo wasn’t that large, this isn’t that big of a deal yet. When all the milestones become available in the full game however, finding anything will be a struggle. Adding more goals to the game would be a challenge as well as they’re tied 1:1 to the milestones, but it would also make the previous problem worse.


[h2]Design #4: Evolving milestones & Side tasks progression[/h2]

With all that in mind, we move on to the research system that’s currently available in the latest Patreon-exclusive Alpha. We stick with the milestone system, but have made a handful of big changes.

Milestone goals are no longer limited to one shape type. Some goals may have multiple shape requirements that either build upon shapes you had to deliver previously or will be reused in a future goal. This is a fairly standalone change, but there’s more.



Introducing: Research Points. Optional unlocks, like belt speeds and blueprint limits, are no longer tied to goals. Instead, you’ll be rewarded Research Points by completing ‘Side Tasks’, which in turn are unlocked by reaching new milestones like before. These side tasks start off simpler than milestones, but you unlock new, more difficult side tasks by completing them. These ‘side tasks lines’ (name pending) can have between 3 and 7 tasks and will continue to ramp up in difficulty until you reach the end of the line. Side tasks can also award other minor rewards alongside research points, like extra blueprint points and platform limits.



The research points you obtain can be spent on whichever upgrade you like as long as you have completed the milestone to unlock the mechanic you want to upgrade. All possible upgrades are now on one dedicated screen – a shop, as it were – instead of being tied to a long, single row of milestones. You can really go wild with your research points: want to max out belt speed in the early game? If you can afford it, it’s yours.



This system is quite a big departure from the iterations we had before, but it brings a lot of improvements to the unlocking experience. Milestones now feel even more important and rewarding to unlock. They clearly show what you get by unlocking them, without being bloated by small upgrades. The research points and the ‘shop’ where you unlock upgrades gives you both a lot of freedom to play how you want to play and also makes it a lot more clear what upgrades are available. This also helps make the game more replayable – you could decide to focus on different upgrades and challenge yourself in new ways.

The new system is clearly the perfect solution to all current and future problems and will never have to be improved ever again! …is what we tell ourselves to sleep at night.

Joking aside, we’d love to hear your feedback on the new research system. It won’t be added to the demo, but it is currently available to Patreon supporters.

[hr][/hr]
With all these iterations, the research system of shapez 2 is the single most reworked element in the game. It’s really important to get this right. The game should feel both challenging and rewarding, without being frustrating. We will continue to tweak this system until we nail the balance!

That's the devlog! We hope you enjoyed reading about the history and old designs of the research system. See you again soon!

~ Tobias & the shapez 2 team


[h3]Be sure to wishlist shapez 2 and play the demo![/h3]

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


[h3]Join the community:[/h3]

X / Twitter YouTube Discord Reddit TikTok Patreon

Hello everyone!

The demo period has been very insightful for us, so today we’d like to talk you through some of our learnings from the demo and our plans leading up to the Early Access release. Though, there’s something else we’d like to tell you first!


[h2]Demo extension[/h2]

To start us off, we have an exciting announcement. A lot of you asked for us to extend the demo, so we did! The demo has been extended until Monday, March 25th. This gives you a whole extra month to try out the demo or get truly creative with the tools at your disposal.

However, we currently have no plans for any additional updates for the demo. You’ll have to do with what’s there now! If you haven’t already, be sure to opt-in for the Pins branch to try out Pins and complete some new challenges! You can read about how to install the update here:

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2162800/view/4042612637275401107


[h2]General feedback[/h2]

We’ve received a ton of feedback from all of you. From the bottom of our hearts, thank you so much! Hearing your thoughts and having discussions with all of you really helps us out developing shapez 2. There’s been very little negative feedback, though there were some recurring topics worth pointing out.

First up, the reusability of shapes and production lines wasn’t great. You at times had to remove what you just built to make space for a completely different shape. This simply doesn’t feel good, as if you’re not really progressing. We’ve already taken action to address this and have already significantly changed the research system to allow you to reuse shapes and expand upon your existing production lines. If you’re a Patreon, you already have partial access to the reworked system.

(New research system menu mock up – early WIP)

There were a lot of suggestions for features and changes we were already working on, but did not make it into the demo. We sadly had to cut out some features to make it in time for the Steam Next Fest. Included in this list are a lot of the further performance enhancements we explained in devlog 011 as well as certain Quality of Life features for the Blueprint library, which was missing folders, icons and more.

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2162800/view/3710460746137286714?l=english

The Pin Pusher you could unlock in the Pins branch has already seen a significant rework to make it more interesting than just pins being essentially a fifth shape.

You can find all the suggestions we are planning to add to shapez 2 on https://shapez-2.nolt.io/. Make sure to use the filters available to get a good idea of what we’re currently working on and what we’re planning for the future.


[h2]Known issues and plans to fix them[/h2]

There were quite a significant amount of issues with the exclusive fullscreen mode of shapez 2. This includes difficulty alt+tabbing, flickering during the load screen, overlays not working or functioning correctly, misaligned cursors and certain crashes. These issues can be traced back to Vulkan, the graphics API we are using, and Unity, the game’s engine. We expect these issues to be resolved if we were to switch to DX12, so that’s something we are currently considering.

Rebinding keybindings and overlapping keybinds is something that could use some love. We plan to really improve this experience ahead of Early Access.

Performance in general was really solid, especially considering not all the optimizations we were working on made it into the demo. Some players were encountering unexpected performance issues however, even on systems that should easily be able to run shapez 2. We are looking into these edge cases and hope to fix them, but with some many possible PC configurations we can’t promise to fix them all.

The brave pioneers who journeyed to the “farlands” may have seen some graphical issues along the way. If you move far enough away from the hub, the map would get choppy because of floating point issues. We plan to fix this, but it’s currently not a priority for the Early Access release as most players will never come across this.

We are happy though that most players did not encounter any issues during their time with the demo.


[h2]Moving forward[/h2]

Currently, we’re focusing on the mid- and end game where you’re really expanding your factory with the use of space platforms. We are prototyping and finalizing the mechanics we have planned for this portion of the game. This includes trains, space belts, fluids and the new research tree.

Work in progress

Progress is being made on improving the simulation to be fully precise, even when out of view. This feature was disabled for the demo as the scale is quite small, but this is something that needs to work in the full game. Slowing down the tick rate of the parts of the factory that are out of view allows for massive performance gains and will keep the game running smoothly when your factory reaches gargantuan sizes.

Once we’re happy with the state of the mid- and end game mechanics, we’ll move into production mode again. This is where we work on art for the mechanics, refinement, balancing, quality of life improvements and wrap it together into a finished product.



We move into the bug fixing, localization and quality assurance phase once all the features are in. This is the last step, and after this the game is ready to release in Early Access. It’s our goal to deliver a very polished experience straight from the get-go. That’s to say, while the game will release in Early Access, we internally treat it as the big 1.0 release.

[hr][/hr]
To close it all off, here are some player stats from the demo:

The demo was played by 109,477 unique users so far. The median time played comes in at 48 minutes. The milestones you hit are as follows:

• 73% of players reached the Stacker milestone, with a median time to complete at 15 minutes
  
• 48% of players reached the Blueprint milestone, with a median time to complete at 49 minutes
  
• 29% of players finished the demo, with a median time to complete at 2 hours and 49 minutes
  
• 6,7% of players finished the extra demo challenges, with a median time to complete at 5 hours
  

In two weeks, your regularly-scheduled progress devlogs will finally return. We have a lot to discuss, as we've made some good progress on trains, space belts, the new pin pusher design and much more – like the new vortex platform design as seen below.



Thank you again, and see you soon.

~ Tobias & the shapez 2 team


[h3]Be sure to wishlist shapez 2 and play the demo![/h3]

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


[h3]Join the community:[/h3]

X / Twitter YouTube Discord Reddit TikTok Patreon

Hello everyone!

Thank you all for playing the shapez 2 Demo! As a little thank you gift, we have a small content update for you. This update adds pins to the game alongside some new demo challenges to go with it! Be sure to read on, as the update won’t automatically install.

[h2]New content[/h2]

The new update brings pins to the game. These pins aren’t a shape, but do occupy the space they’re placed in. This allows you to put shapes on top of the pins and create so-called ‘floating layers’. You can gain access to pins by unlocking the new ‘Pin Pusher’ milestone in the research menu, situated between ‘Space Platforms’ and ‘Demo Challenges’.



It may not sound like much at first, but it adds a lot of new challenges and possibilities. The challenge goals at the end of the demo have been updated to require the use of pins, so be sure to give this new mechanic a go and let us know what you think!

If you're ever unsure on whether or not a shape is using a pin, remember to click on the shape you need to make to see a 3D view!



[h2]How to install[/h2]

Now, this addition required us to make some changes to the research unlocks. As to not erase your research progress, this update has been added as a separate game branch. You’ll need to manually opt in for this branch. You can still load your existing savegame in the Pins branch, however you will lose all progress past the space platform unlock. If you’re planning to do this, please make sure to make a backup of your savegame before you overwrite it in the new branch. A savegame from the Pins branch is incompatible with the main demo.

[h3]To install the new update, follow these steps:[/h3]

1. Go to your Steam library.
   
2. Right click “shapez 2 Demo”.
   
3. Click on “Properties…” (the last option in the menu).
   
4. Click on “Betas” in the new menu (fourth option in the list on the left).
   
5. To the right of “Beta Participation”, click on the dropdown menu.
   
6. In the dropdown menu, click on “pins - New Pin Pusher Content”. If you do not see the option, you may have to restart Steam.
   
7. The shapez 2 Demo should now automatically begin updating. You can close the properties window.
   
8. Wait for the game to fully update and play the game!
   

Please keep in mind that this update does not fix the known issues of the demo. We are actively working on fixing these, but this most likely won’t be ready before the end of the demo period. Additionally, the new pin branch hasn’t been tested as much as the main branch, so please report any bugs you may find!

We recommend you play the base version of the update first before diving into the update, though there’s nothing stopping you from going with the pins version immediately.

Hope you enjoy the update!

~ Tobias & the shapez 2 team


[h3]Join the community:[/h3]

X / Twitter YouTube Discord Reddit TikTok Patreon