Creating games is fun but it’s hard work. It’s fun, otherwise we would be doing it, but it can also feel pretty daunting.
One of the core principles we want in Space Farmers 2 is the ability to evolve the game. We want to take feedback from players and add it to the game. The idea is that if someone comes up with a cool new gadget we want to take it and add it to the game. Now I’ve written that down it sounds too easy – we’re not even coming up with the ideas!
Setting up the foundations for that to happen though is where we are at the moment. But trying to build foundations for a house, when you don’t know what the house will look like, is not simple. In fact it’s something that I find quite paralysing.
Thankfully I am reassured by the knowledge that between us Andy and I have about two hundred years of experience of people asking us to perform impossible programming feats. I hope that by being open and honest about what we’re doing people will understand what we can and can’t do and why we make the decisions and priorities we do.
As 48% of us here in the UK think – we’re better together.
We need your help!
So with all of that said, we need YOU to help us add as many crazy features and cool ideas to our public Trello board as possible!
Get commenting below, tweet at Rich and Andy or, even better, come visit us on our weekend Live Streams. Let us know what your priorities are in the game. Talk about the features that we, and others, have requested. Together we can make this game even more awesome than the first!
Glad to see you’ve already put the timer idea in there
As you can guess, most of my suggestions are gonna be speedrun orientated because that’s how I like to play the game
1. Sprint
This would not only open up some options for more time-sensitive puzzles, but it means the game as a whole becomes more fast. Alternatively, make the default movement speed a tad faster than SF1
2. Costumes have attributes?
i.e. more health, speed or higher jump etc
I’ll be honest, little unsure on this one – it’d be cool but the balancing would be hard, I think.
3.Platforming
I feel like SF2 might just have more of this in general as it lends itself more to the new FPS/TPD design but it’d be cool to really utilise that system and make you not only have to use your head but have to actually have precision. Rewarding platforming makes you feel like a god and would also make for a more exciting and challenging run.
4. Campaign
I feel like you did mention this when you were playing the demo on stream briefly but perhaps moving away from the “select 5 levels” system and in to a more linear campaign might be cool. However, as of right now, there’s two types of run on the leaderboards Any% which is just the fastest five levels and then all levels which is all of them (except that one)
I think I might miss it when it’s gone to be honest, the theorycrafting that went in to finding the actual fastest five levels was pretty cool and there’s still the option to run all levels anyway.
5. Leaderboards
Honestly don’t know how feasible this is, especially because you gotta make it so it’s not abusable but as you’re thinking of adding a timer in game, how about showing who out of your friends completed that level the fastest or how you stack up against the rest of the world?
6. Single Level Challenges
This might be a bit redundant to be honest, but I think it’d be neat. The ability to play just one level on it’s own and perfect it. This kind of goes hand in hand with the leaderboards and timer, there’s a type of speedrun called an “IL”or an individual level and even though I’ve created a leaderboard for SF1, there’s no good way to grind out a single level to get a good time.
7. Blink gadget?
Gadget that gives a small teleport in the direction of your choice.
Again, might be hard for balancing reasons as it’s easily exploitable but a blink gadget could open up some cool options for both puzzles and platforming
Phew, that’s it for now – again, if you ever need some QA testers and don’t want to pay them, me and my friends are gonna be available
Wow! Thanks for the feedback!
I’ll go through the you’re ideas in order and
1. Sprint – You’ll be able to sprint by default. Also the idea of the Jet Shoes gadget will make you run faster still. I’ve also added ‘boost pads’ which would make you faster when you run on them.
2. Costumes with attributes – this was something that we talked about with SF1 but as you say it makes balance difficult. Has made me think that there could be something we could do here to make the game more accessible. Maybe you wouldn’t get achievements or placed on the leaderboard
3. Platforming – yep the characters now have feet and the ability to jump. The jumping shoes gadget should help there too.
4. Campaign – this would be great. One of the initial ideas for Space Farmers is they would be having different adventures while finding their way back to earth. Much like Red Dwarf.
5. Leaderboards – Added to the board. Great idea.
6. Single level challenges – We will have single player levels and I’m guessing that you’ll want to quickly restart if something goes wrong.
7. Blink Gadget – Great idea. Added to the board. I’m thinking that infinite blinks may make things too easy but you can fill up with more teleportation juice.
Thanks for the testing offer. Basically once we’re sure that the game isn’t a buggy and frustrating we’ll be letting people have a go.
And if you have any more ideas be sure to let us know 🙂
Woah, the solution to number two would be crazy cool, let’s you go a little bit crazy and keeps the competitive integrity – it’d also make for some pretty entertaining speedruns.
I love this idea by the way, giving everyone the chance to chip in is amazing even if it doesn’t make it to the final product, it is a really neat idea 🙂
Keep it up, my dudes!