Supraland - DavidM
Clickbait ftw!
I just wanted to write a bit about how in the first DLC (which is basically a 2nd Supraland game) you will see what I (now we) learned since the first game and where we increased the production value.
You cannot compare both games directly, because their general structure is significantly different. It is still very familiar for Supraland veterans but a lot should feel really fresh. Which I hope is kind of the perfect formula for a sequel. Enough familiarity but also enough new stuff. The core abilities are the same though (plus some variations), that's why we felt more comfortable releasing it as a DLC rather than a standalone game. It also does not tutorialise as hard as you would expect from a standalone game.
Here are the biggest changes:
- The world is much denser in DLC1. It is smaller, but there is much more stuff everywhere. In the first game the world is bigger but also much emptier. Red Town was the only very dense place. I find a high density much more appealing and in general better game design.
- The dialogue writing is much more interesting.
There are stories playing out in the world now, while in the first game there was pretty much nothing.
Narration for Supraland is tricky, because you don't want to interfer too much with the player's freedom and agency, which is the core of the game.
- The NPC characters are more fleshed out and interesting, compared to the random throwaway hint-givers from the maingame.
- The production value is higher when it comes to animations. You will see some cool animations here and there that we made just for an easter egg for example. Same for some elaborate assets that were built just for one little joke.
- It's pretty much all new assets. You will barely see assets repeating from the first game.
- There are more cutscenes, but we are honestly not quite sure yet how much we like it. During development you completely lose your senses for this kind of stuff. Some of these cutscenes take the control away from you for a moment, which is something I prefer to avoid, but sometimes there is just no other way because you must see certain things and we can't allow you to look the other way or run away. But these scenes are like 1% of the full playtime.
- A big difference is that the world design is now much more clearly a miniature world. When the first game was started, it was not supposed to be a small world. I got that idea when I was halfway through, so a lot of the game is not really built with big things. This time around it's pretty obvious.
- Combat is very minimal and barely noticeable. I know combat is the most controversial thing in the first game. But everyone saying "get rid of combat alltogether" is wrong. It has big effects on exploration rewards, on the entire atmosphere and other things. So what we're doing in this DLC is basically an experiment, but I have other combat plans for future games. But you can be sure, no monster is gonna bother you while you try to solve a puzzle.
- There are tons of little improvements that also made their way into the first game, like better speech bubbles, a reactive crosshair and much more. The next update will include a lot more of these.
- Last but not least, the music in the first game was all bought in the asset store. It fit very well, but it's awkward if you hear the same tune in another game. Now almost all music is made by us.
The songs also feature different moods, and we created a system that can seamlessly blend back and forth between them depending on the situation. The background music will become more energetic in an action scene and it becomes muffled when you're entering a house.
David
I just wanted to write a bit about how in the first DLC (which is basically a 2nd Supraland game) you will see what I (now we) learned since the first game and where we increased the production value.
You cannot compare both games directly, because their general structure is significantly different. It is still very familiar for Supraland veterans but a lot should feel really fresh. Which I hope is kind of the perfect formula for a sequel. Enough familiarity but also enough new stuff. The core abilities are the same though (plus some variations), that's why we felt more comfortable releasing it as a DLC rather than a standalone game. It also does not tutorialise as hard as you would expect from a standalone game.
Here are the biggest changes:
- The world is much denser in DLC1. It is smaller, but there is much more stuff everywhere. In the first game the world is bigger but also much emptier. Red Town was the only very dense place. I find a high density much more appealing and in general better game design.
- The dialogue writing is much more interesting.
There are stories playing out in the world now, while in the first game there was pretty much nothing.
Narration for Supraland is tricky, because you don't want to interfer too much with the player's freedom and agency, which is the core of the game.
- The NPC characters are more fleshed out and interesting, compared to the random throwaway hint-givers from the maingame.
- The production value is higher when it comes to animations. You will see some cool animations here and there that we made just for an easter egg for example. Same for some elaborate assets that were built just for one little joke.
- It's pretty much all new assets. You will barely see assets repeating from the first game.
- There are more cutscenes, but we are honestly not quite sure yet how much we like it. During development you completely lose your senses for this kind of stuff. Some of these cutscenes take the control away from you for a moment, which is something I prefer to avoid, but sometimes there is just no other way because you must see certain things and we can't allow you to look the other way or run away. But these scenes are like 1% of the full playtime.
- A big difference is that the world design is now much more clearly a miniature world. When the first game was started, it was not supposed to be a small world. I got that idea when I was halfway through, so a lot of the game is not really built with big things. This time around it's pretty obvious.
- Combat is very minimal and barely noticeable. I know combat is the most controversial thing in the first game. But everyone saying "get rid of combat alltogether" is wrong. It has big effects on exploration rewards, on the entire atmosphere and other things. So what we're doing in this DLC is basically an experiment, but I have other combat plans for future games. But you can be sure, no monster is gonna bother you while you try to solve a puzzle.
- There are tons of little improvements that also made their way into the first game, like better speech bubbles, a reactive crosshair and much more. The next update will include a lot more of these.
- Last but not least, the music in the first game was all bought in the asset store. It fit very well, but it's awkward if you hear the same tune in another game. Now almost all music is made by us.
The songs also feature different moods, and we created a system that can seamlessly blend back and forth between them depending on the situation. The background music will become more energetic in an action scene and it becomes muffled when you're entering a house.
David
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