From One Step Ahead to Subtype Grounds
Hello,
You may have noticed that the game (originally "One Step Ahead") has been renamed to Subtype Grounds.
I've worked on One Step Ahead for quite a while. However, when I came to the beta testing with users it became apparent that the game, as it was, had definition issues.
I put too much accent on realism. As you would in real life, in an average game there are 5-10 minutes where nothing much happens, and the action is concentrated in a few seconds. This is fine for the first few games, but it would become a reason for players to get bored quickly and not come back often.
Since the original gameplay only made sense if played from the beginning, and given the duration of an average game, matchmaking would quickly become an issue. Joining players would have to wait for all of a game to end (in average 15 minutes) before they would be allowed to join in a new one. That's a long time to sit still.
The third issue was the fact that the game could not be played in single-player.
For these reasons, I've gradually modified the original game, and while I was doing so a different story started to pop out.
To fix the gameplay, I started making interactions happen more often by adding AI. You gradually played against not other players, but robot machines. This was also due to alpha users requests coming in to add some different elements. It became a Coop.
To fix the matchmaking issues, the game started having a long mission that would be split amongst various levels. At the end of each level there would be a safe-house where you could heal and replenish with equipment if you made it alive, but it's also where dead companions or joining players would (re)spawn. Therefore, the wait to get into a game would be much shorter.
Finally, being a coop also solved the issue of being able to play in single-player. It's the same game, except you play it alone if you want to.
The evolution from One Step Ahead to Subtype Grounds is now the story that you can read in the store page: one of a coop game where a team of 4 people must infiltrate a territory where robots have gone rogue, in a mission to annihilate the Artificial Intelligence which controls them all.
Various concepts are still there (it's obviously still an FPS, it has a certain level of realism, i've kept various elements such as trap bombs) but the enemy and gameplay have changed.
...Did I mention the robot machines? :)
Roberto.
You may have noticed that the game (originally "One Step Ahead") has been renamed to Subtype Grounds.
I've worked on One Step Ahead for quite a while. However, when I came to the beta testing with users it became apparent that the game, as it was, had definition issues.
I put too much accent on realism. As you would in real life, in an average game there are 5-10 minutes where nothing much happens, and the action is concentrated in a few seconds. This is fine for the first few games, but it would become a reason for players to get bored quickly and not come back often.
Since the original gameplay only made sense if played from the beginning, and given the duration of an average game, matchmaking would quickly become an issue. Joining players would have to wait for all of a game to end (in average 15 minutes) before they would be allowed to join in a new one. That's a long time to sit still.
The third issue was the fact that the game could not be played in single-player.
For these reasons, I've gradually modified the original game, and while I was doing so a different story started to pop out.
To fix the gameplay, I started making interactions happen more often by adding AI. You gradually played against not other players, but robot machines. This was also due to alpha users requests coming in to add some different elements. It became a Coop.
To fix the matchmaking issues, the game started having a long mission that would be split amongst various levels. At the end of each level there would be a safe-house where you could heal and replenish with equipment if you made it alive, but it's also where dead companions or joining players would (re)spawn. Therefore, the wait to get into a game would be much shorter.
Finally, being a coop also solved the issue of being able to play in single-player. It's the same game, except you play it alone if you want to.
The evolution from One Step Ahead to Subtype Grounds is now the story that you can read in the store page: one of a coop game where a team of 4 people must infiltrate a territory where robots have gone rogue, in a mission to annihilate the Artificial Intelligence which controls them all.
Various concepts are still there (it's obviously still an FPS, it has a certain level of realism, i've kept various elements such as trap bombs) but the enemy and gameplay have changed.
...Did I mention the robot machines? :)
Roberto.