[h2]Introduction[/h2]
Howdy guardians!
We’re back for another Roboquest devblog.
Before diving into it, let us repeat a few information we’ve talked about already:
• The reason there hasn’t been a game update for a long time is because we’re working on the 1.0.0 version of the game (out of Early Access)
• It is the biggest update we’ve worked on so far and we’re all hands on deck
• That’s also why we might be a bit less active on our different community platforms
• For now, the only date we can talk about for the release of the 1.0.0 is Q3 2023
• We’ve been asked several times whether there were going to be updates after the 1.0.0, the answer is likely yes, but it’s way too soon for us to talk about anything regarding this as we first need to finish what we started, and to finish it properly
• There will be more Noisecream tracks (and yes, they’ll be added to the soundtrack)
Talking of Noisecream... what could this be?
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
Now onto the Devblog itself, what are we going to talk about today?
Let’s talk about something that you all talked about a lot during EA: “MOAR CONTENT”.
[h2]Adding more content[/h2]
We’ve already been adding more content at each update, but we still need to push it further in the 1.0.0.
In terms of content, we would say that what you experience during the EA is the “skeleton” of the gameplay loop of Roboquest. We now need to talk about the muscles we’re going to add on top of it.
So let’s discuss just that: what features we’ll be adding in the 1.0.0 that are pushing the content further.
[h3]Higher toy diversity[/h3]
What we’re calling “toys” are anything you can play with. Things such as weapons, classes, perks, enemies, items etc. More toys means run variety, replayability and more playtime in order to discover, learn, play around and get tired of each single toy.
However, we need to be extra careful with certain types of toys. For example, adding too many items might distill the “good” ones among a lot of “junk” ones, negatively impacting the gameplay experience.
In any case, regardless of those “too much of it” cases (which can be handled through careful random system management), usually “more toys” means “more content” and we’re adding more of that in the 1.0.0.
[h3]Alternative in-run objectives[/h3]
Right now there’s only one objective in each single run: to go the furthest possible, eventually beating the game.
While it’s simple and straightforward, there’s nothing much to pay attention to in each level, there’s not much to “unveil”, to “discover” or “to do in between”. It doesn’t get fresher each run.
But what if there was more to it? What if there were quests to complete? Paths to discover? Secrets to unveil? Things that would ask you to actually pay attention to stuff, whether that’d be environment, enemies, items or weapons. Things that would require you to plan a little bit more, to think ahead, to plan your next run for?
Well, then we feel like it would make each run more exciting and overall extend the playtime of the game. Mostly because it would give you other things to do aside from beating the game but also because you’d be incentivized to spend more time figuring things out in the game.
But discovering things for the sake of discovery isn’t that thrilling, especially in a fast-paced game. So we needed to find things you’d actually care for as Roboquest players (or Guardians shall I say) and reward with it when pursuing those “alternate objectives”.
Here’s what we came up with:
[h3]Power Crystals[/h3]
The later in the game, the more powerful enemies are. So much so that they are powered by powerful and mysterious crystals.
Finding and claiming these crystals for yourself will weaken the late-game level traps and other hazards as well as populate the world with more elite enemies (netting higher rewards).
Those crystals only need to be recovered once, and then their effects will be permanent. There are several different crystals, each granting a unique basecamp upgrade and applying a different set of effects on the late-game levels and bosses.
One of the new objectives as a player is then to find and recover those crystals to facilitate the access to the late game and increase the number of rewards in each run (by increasing the number of elite enemies).
This also goes well with the player progression. The more you play, the better you become and the easier earlier levels might become. Making these levels harder by adding elites to them makes each playthrough a bit more engaging and challenging. Also, since you have more experience in the game, being granted more rewards won’t “overwhelm” you with too much information or choice to make because you’re more than capable to make those choices at that stage of the game.
Finding and claiming power-crystals will usually imply changes in rhythm, pace and play style compared to your regular gunfights.
[h3]Quests[/h3]
We added a wide array of NPCs in the game. They all are friendly figures you can encounter in the different levels of the game. Most of these figures will give you a unique reward if you complete a quest for them (quests are one-time completion, meaning once completed their reward is permanent).
Rewards will usually be game elements like gadgets (most gadgets will now be unlocked through quest completion).
“Quests” can imply a wide range of objectives but we mostly limited it to “find an item and bring it back to the NPC in your next run” or “find a specific hidden place”. It is not necessarily limited to that though.
While playing, we realized it creates an interesting player behavior where you’re actually looking for a specific item or place and then, once you found it, go back to the initial place you were given the quest in (usually in another run). So you’re actually changing your run behavior to look for something specific.
We think it’s quite compelling to complete the toy collection (gadgets mainly but not limited to) by scouring through the levels. The extra “exploration” layer added is a quite fresh addition to the usual “run and gun” gameplay.
We really liked this system: not only did it gave us more things to do in the game (by incentivizing new and fresh run objectives), it also made the unlock process of game elements (like gadgets) more interesting (because more interactive: you don’t need to simply “click a button to unlock” anymore).
Finally, adding QUESTS to RoboQUEST was definitely something we felt was missing.
[h3]Secrets[/h3]
As simple as it sounds, the Hidden Sanctuary in the Oasis had quite an effect on most players who discovered it. Back in the days, we also had several other secrets such as Buddy bot opening an hidden door.
Not only is it rewarding in itself to discover such areas or hidden interactions, the actual rewards contained within are often interesting in terms of gameplay and can incentivize going in a specific level just for them.
We’re bringing back those kinds of secrets.
“Secrets” in Roboquest can take various forms: hidden places, interactive elements scattered in the levels, items to carry on from a run to another (or within the same runs) and other things like this.
Some Secrets will grant unique and permanent rewards (and you won’t have to “find” or “resolve” them again). Some others will unlock the access to rewards you can gather each single run (which can have an impact on the levels you’re going for in a specific run).
We can’t really dive deeper into the details of what secrets are, at the risk of spoiling them. But we’ve concocted a wide variety of interactions that we hope you’ll be thrilled to discover by yourself (and to take advantage of during your runs).
While it may seem like it doesn’t “add more content”, we believe the additions of those secrets will actually be interesting “side run objectives”.
[h3]Alternative Levels[/h3]
Tied to the quests, the secrets, the power crystals and the exploration of the levels in general comes the addition of several alternative levels.
We’re populating the game with various “corrupted” versions of the levels.
These levels will be harder, weirder, sometimes different in terms of gameplay and filled with different enemies than usual.
Accessing these levels will first require you to complete quests, find secrets or simply to explore the regular levels.
These levels will each contain a “power crystal” that you must claim for yourself.
Once a crystal is claimed, you will still be able to reach these corrupted levels and run through them (in case you’d want it for various reasons such as gaining run time, earning specific rewards or taking a specific route).
We hope that finding the way to access the corrupted levels and then completing them will be a compelling experience for you as it diversifies the way to play the game.
[h3]Various elements to unlock[/h3]
Unlocking non-gameplay things for the sake of unlocking them. Things such as unlocking all achievements or filling the entirety of Max’s Museum (a collection of everything you’ve encountered in the game).
While it isn’t something that directly “adds playable content” (depending on what type of player you are), one shouldn’t undermine the importance of such “unlocking” systems.
Granting players “a list of things to do” and the possibility to show how much of the world of Roboquest you’ve explored (and challenged) is something that often greatly increases the amount of “content” to play with.
While “unlocking non-gameplay things” is a joy in itself and doesn’t grant you any reward gameplay-wise we’re still ironing out the details of these systems and imagining the potential ways to add gameplay rewards to them.
[h2]”Wrong” Content[/h2]
During the Early Access of Roboquest and along the way of adding more content, we’ve come across several systems that we deemed unfit to the game. Either they didn’t fit our philosophy or they’d be detrimental to the gameplay experience for various reasons.
Among those ways, we ruled out the idea of increasing the length of each run, the idea of having to grind for numerous small stat upgrades in order to be able to compete against the enemies (in terms of raw stats) or the idea of “virtually multiplying” everything we have (from basecamp upgrades to levels).
These solutions mostly added “content” that we didn’t deem worthy of your time. We like grinding stuff, but not in Roboquest. Ultimately, our goal is to provide a very high rate of awesome / second.
[h2]After 1.0.0[/h2]
If there’s one thing we’ve been discussing for a long time now it is “alternative game modes”. And two of them have caught our attention.
We’ll be discussing something here that won’t be included in the 1.0.0 but that we have our eyes on.
We very much like the idea of having things such as an endless mode and a run-of-the-week system.
While both modes seem to be straightforward in terms of design, there are still some design decisions to make and some technical difficulties to face. We can’t just say “let’s add them” and be done with it.
“Run-of-the-week” would simply be a fixed run that every player can try to finish once a week. That would require implementing things such as leaderboards, data synchronization between players (and platforms) as well as a few other details.
Another mode we’re thinking about would be “Endless Mode”. We have a specific implementation in mind for such a mode, which is a bit different than just saying “loop again with a higher difficulty once you complete a run”. We won’t dive into too much detail here but basically it would be something like an endless stream of short levels, alternating between free-corridors, battle rooms and boss fights. That would require us to tweak the player progression a bit and also probably to do some adjustments to some Bosses.
Basically these are both ideas we like and enjoy and they do highly increase the game’s content. But they need a lot of work and like we said previously, we need to focus on the core gameplay first and foremost.
And that concludes our thirteenth devblog. We hope you like what you read. Don’t hesitate to give us feedback here on Steam or on our Discord (link below).
We wish you all the best Guardians, and see you soon with more news :)
Discord | https://discord.gg/roboquest
Website | http://www.roboquest.com/
Twitter | https://twitter.com/RoboquestGame
YouTube | https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiusIjcrkm3HrAESaKZALYQ
If you have a question about the game, you can find the
FAQ here on the Steam forums. And if your question is not answered there, make sure to ask us in the community forums or on
our Discord server (where you can interact directly with us!).
