This post describes the overall experience I'm aiming for with the finished game. As such, it incorporates all the current features and everything I have notes for and/or have planned for a long time. Half of it's descriptive and half is subjective, depending on the state of the related projects.
I need a post like this because I noticed the game is still too sandbox to create "Did you know"s for it in the discord. Seed exploration needs to be a component of the game and not the overall point. It's only that currently because none of the progressive features are feature-complete. Anyway, onto the post:
I'm going to add posts to this as I go -- it's apparently more work than anticipated to lay everything out.
Pre-game
The first thing you'll need to do is login or register. Shatterloop uses GTX0's login system which is very very easy to set up an account with.
Once logged in, the shatterloop homepage has your save files at the top (if any), followed by a list of potential "worlds" to play. There are also links to help and the community.
If you have save files, those will be indicated before the world selection -- you'll get like three of those and a button that lets you view all of them (along with more information). Save files are marked with the home dimension's colors and the current location, though you can also name them. On the save file screen you can also upload or download save files -- the game is all javascript so you can download a save file and play the game 100% offline and re-sync it later.
In addition to a good bit of internal help, shatterloop will have external help with the projects system of GTX0. Some of this will be streamed directly from the in-game help. If there's a community wiki that will also be linked to. Official game help focuses on how to play the game and sometimes gives tips, not strategies or guides. It's meant to be something you figure out as you go.
Shatterloop's community will be the shatterloop forum of GTX0, or more than one forum if it needs to be expanded. Any part of the community not related to shatterloop is shared with the GTX0 community at large. Social media will be different, while the discord might be on GTX0's discord server and might not -- that depends on what both communities want.
Picking a new world
Before you actually start a game, you need to pick a world. You're presented with around 12 boxes that fill up the screen. Those boxes are representations of a world and its color scheme in some basic terrain formatting. You can pick a world here, or generate a new set of worlds ("Reseed") to choose from. You can also enter a seed directly if someone gave you one. Seed links will go straight to the world itself. The idea here is to pick a world where you're comfortable with the color choices. Most worlds look good, but some look better than others, and a lot of it is personal taste.
You can also play on seeds you already have save files for -- this makes sense for returning players since you already know the resources/crafting recipes/towns and just want a fresh experience of the same game.
Systems -- Shatterloop is *extremely* systems-heavy. There's a huge variety of things to do, and each system is alterable in a wide variety of ways. The systems are all absurdly in-depth which makes the game overwhelmingly complicated, however the UX and unlocks of it should be simplified enough that new players can just jump in without reading a novel beforehand.
Materials -- a key part of the game is the materials systems. Items can be pulled out of the world in various ways, altered in various ways, extracted or crafted, can tie into systems in various ways, and in some cases can be turned into each other. Materials and Currencies (many of which are items) are the backbone of this game. There will be all kinds of inane possibilities in this complex, which gives players a lot of room for experimentation.
Procedural Generation -- Another huge part of the game. The game world is very large and very diverse, and various things are randomized in unexpected ways (like enemies or recipes). Seeds are very different from one another so you get a pretty unique experience each game.
UX -- given the enormous complexity of the game, having solid UX is very very important. It's important that weird features are unlockable and various things are sequestered so new players don't have a hard time with the game. This is one of those things that makes sense to do only after all the systems have been finalized, so the UX is going to suck hard until Beta. Therefore it also doesn't make sense to release the game until Beta, which is unfortunate. The last watchthrough I did demonstrated just how bad things are right now.
Integration -- Systems aren't just isolated challenges, there's a huge amount of interplay between them. This adds an enormous amount of depth to the game, particularly the Magic System, which affects every other system. The integration also makes various challenges (including the main quest) have a more nonlinear feel to them -- you can accomplish any objective in a variety of ways.
Hard Choices -- The materials complex is loose and transformative but also is somewhat brutal. Items can only be extracted for one item, every item has many many uses (and you have to choose), useful items have to be sacrificed to turn them into useful Currencies. This forces you to pick and choose what you want to do and why, creating a whole playstyle around your choices.
Nonlinear challenges -- Ideally this is entirely implicit rather than explicit because of the huge amount of systems, but it's important that any major goal can be accomplished in multiple different ways. This is especially true for the main quest, which has variety in the systems and then also alternate paths and reroutes.
Variety -- Crucial to any complex system or Procedural Generation algorithm is the idea of Variety -- this game should not feel boring and repetitive for a long long time, and it should surprise players for a long time. Various secrets that I've put in or will put in will help with that as well, including some absurdly hidden secrets.
There are three distinct types of game that have influenced Shatterloop to a huge extent. I'll detail them a bit in this post.
Roguelikes such as Nethack -- the game looks and feels like a roguelike with the large variety of items, complex systems, random nature and overall graphical style. Some things are lifted directly from those games like wands/Scrolls but for the most part it's an aesthetic and depth-based inspiration.
Survival games -- Modern survival games have heavily influenced this game. There's a solid Crafting system, a Building system, a Farming system, a Fishing system and a lot of ability to alter the world or environment. Additionally there are elements in the game whose sole purpose is to create immersion, such as a Hunger/Thirst system or Aesthetic elements in the Building system. The World's Procedural Generation makes more sense from a Survival point of view than a Roguelike point of view as well -- environments are very weird and unique.
Morrowind, maybe open world games in general -- A lot of influence comes from this game. Some things are lifted pretty directly like the Potions system, Theft/Loot mechanics, and Town Routes system. Some elements are more abstract -- morrowind gives you a lot of systems to work with and customize to your heart's content and doesn't either hold your hand or limit you in any way. Similarly Shatterloop gives you some very robust systems but doesn't try to constrain you to specific playstyles or keep you from becoming OP when you've mastered its systems.
Improvements to the above formulas
Roguelikes -- Unlike other Roguelikes, Shatterloop makes everything randomized to a much greater extent - materials, enemies, dungeon layouts, etc. Roguelikes are interesting in their systems and item variety but are lacking in terrain and gameplay variety, whereas each seed in Shatterloop is a fresh new experience.
Survival Games -- These suffer horribly from inventory management and inventory limits. Shatterloop has some of this but its shared Base inventory (that's accessible everywhere in all bases) cuts down on a lot of that. Additionally, the Backpacks system is infinitely upgradeable provided you have the resources for it. The way Bases work you don't have to constantly ship items from one place to another, you can just access your base or personal inventory and go from there.
Inventory management is the single biggest issue I have with modern Survival games - they focus on it so much that you lose a lot of the immersion that makes those games so great in the first place. You find yourself constantly backtracking, needing some material you can only get one annoying way, or storing equipment that might be useful because you lack space.
Shatterloop may have some inventory limits but it doesn't force you into doing very annoying things to maintain the experience. Anything you may need, there are a variety of ways to obtain it. Equipment has plenty of storage room or items can even be combined together. The Portals and Town transport systems help you get around the world easier, and so on.
Morrowind / open-world games -- By far the biggest issue with these games is the grinding. Grinding can be fun but for the most part it's a mind-dulling slog to get to the next level. This is definitely an issue with Survival games as well and maybe games in general. The incessant grinding turns games into work and repetitive work at that.
With Shatterloop however the focus is always on fun and experimentation. There are always a wide variety of ways to accomplish any particular goal and many many ways to bypass necessary grinding by being clever or using alternate systems.
Additionally, instead of a Leveling/Skills mechanic, there is nothing beyond materials, which are the only way to advance. Survival games do this very well usually, putting upgrades behind the exploitation of new resources, however they then suffer from those resources only being obtainable one very specific way. With Shatterloop you always have a variety of ways to obtain resources, and the actual systems you use to get them have a lot of upgradeable variety as well.
These elements of the three game styles aren't bad but have been chosen against for Design reasons.
Roguelike Permadeath -- this works very well in roguelikes but doesn't work in Shatterloop because of how much investment and immersion you have in what you're doing.
Roguelike turn-based time systems -- There's some of this happening, but because of the influence of survival games it makes more sense to switch to more of a real-time system.
Roguelike cursed items / identification -- Chosen against because of how complex the inventory system already is. It's important that you know what items do do you can loot better, and important that you're not afraid to equip them so you can focus more on experimentation. The only real element of this is the food poisoning system, which honestly might be scrapped.
Survival block-based building -- this definitely works with Survival games because of the materials angle, however with Shatterloop there's so much materials influence already this isn't necessary. Removing it in favor of an aether-actions system makes it so you can be a lot more creative with your designs, which is probably better in a top-down game.
Materials-extraction Tools -- again, very useful in survival games. Here I think it's better to make materials gathering more of an arcade experience to improve fun. Subnautica does this very well and I have to agree with the way they handled it -- the progression is in getting to new areas, not in pulling resources out that are already around you. This prevents unnecessary backtracking and just overall improves the experience.
Morrowind early-game difficulty -- I think this is a key part of what makes that game work, but in Shatterloop it's vitally important that new players can jump right in without worrying about being too weak. Shatterloop is all about experimentation so the more accessibility you have the better.
Morrowind's lack of fast travel -- makes the game work really good so you get the most out of the transport systems, however can be very annoying for complex or repetitive tasks. With Shatterloop you're going to be moving back and forth a lot and also the world is gigantic, so systems like Portals are pretty necessary.
Shatterloop has a very large amount of items and item types. Two things are very vital to it, which I explored a bit in other developmental stages but have been neglecting lately:
Each item type needs multiple ways to obtain it.
Each item types needs multiple uses.
A couple caveats to these rules as well:
The PGCS does not count as a use -- it should be drawing upon resources that are useful elsewhere.
Main game progression should also not count as a use, for several reasons -- It only happens once so the item isn't a consumable thing (which is important to this game), but also this locks rare dangerous resources as only valuable in the main game, whereas valuableness should be directly proportional to work/riskiest.
Shop buying should not count as a means of obtaining an item, unless it's some rare mechanic or shop type or is unlocked through civ systems. Some items (like tetradshards) could technically be obtained by shops, but those types of shops are very rare and require scanning functions to find, so that's an acceptable source.
The magic system should not count as a source. Part of the reason is how random it is and how rare particular spells are, but a bigger issue is I want the magic system to be completely isolated-- it's meant to give you enormous power when mastered, not to be essential to gameplay because the primary sourcing of a resource is hard or annoying for a particular playstyle
I really like the concept of refineries and things like the Prism -- if done well these are an excellent way to both increase resource uses and resource sourcing. However if not done well they overwhelm with complexity and especially overwhelm the analyzer. There's also an issue with overlap with the refining mechanic in the PCGS that creates new exotic materials, which I definitely want to have.
Switching the mechanics up is a good way to fix this -- the Prism and Ghost Recycler both do something similar, but they have unique gameplay mechanics underpinning them. Similarly, shop services and the magic system work very very differently.
So it's important that resource transformation fixtures aren't all variations of the same thing -- I may have dropped the ball a bit on this with the Composter and battery station -- these need new mechanics unique from each other and also both can't just be a simple property comparison challenge. Maybe composting is better with specific types of mulches or takes time or something. Maybe the battery station has varying charging times or capacities depending on the materials used. Simple things like that would go a long way to increase engagement.
However the simplicity should be directly related to the necessity -- more essential systems should be quirks rather than complex features. Which is why I feel alright with a very convoluted magic system-- it's not essential in any way, it's just fun to mess around with it. Meanwhile, crafting pops up a lot so it should be very basic -- no intermediate products for example. The materials and properties are themselves complicated, but that's a major feature of the game so it's okay.
The entire premise of this game is making difficult choices and using your wit and lots of experimentation to figure things out. So I think it's Vitally important to have the two key points above. For anything you need there is an alternative, and for every choice you make there is a decision cost.
And then also items are useful in a wide variety of ways so you should never feel like any item you have is garbage. Terrible weapons can be forged with good weapons to improve them, or sold or atomized. The random nature of everything helps a lot here -- some item might seem to be complete garbage in every way, and then you find out it produces a massive amount of fuel.
Similarly, a major major theme of the game is making the content interesting. Since it's procgen and I'm one guy, making a massive amount of handcrafted content is a bad idea. Instead, there are two key points to the content of the game:
It should be as unique as possible (see: dungeons)
The gameplay should be puzzling enough that procgen works in its favor (see: entropic plane).
And, this is probably not worth doing yet but a major other key point to this is:
There should be incredibly rare instances of handcrafted stuff.
For example, some ECS should be practically nonexistent and maybe not even searchable. It's important that long-term players stay engaged, and if particularly rare content is also highly randomized it will encourage long-term players to continue to comb the game.
Things like the infinity and particularly the aleph systems won't be explained in any way. The lore will hint at it, some of the systems will confirm it, and it is possible to find it by accident, but these secrets should be well-kept because of how interesting and useful they are.
Similarly, structures like the ascended loop center, or things I might do to chimeras that are all one symbol should be incredibly rare and hard to even learn about. The game shouldn't just hand you the interesting content, you should have to work for it and find it or get really good RNG and stumble across it. There should be stuff in there that people won't find for *years*.
This is kinda the key with exploration -- you need to actually be able to find stuff with it. Unique stuff, unique experiences, absurdly hidden secrets that come about by thinking way outside the box.
I havent really thought about it much but I need a solid marketing strategy to help distribute this game. However, there are a few problems:
The game's graphics aren't great. They'll do good for what they are, but this will be a turn-off for many people. My solution here is to make the roguelike graphics as un-roguelike as possible -- solid colors, effects, animations, etc will go a long way.
The main selling point of the game is the depth, and this is hard to explain in a trailer. Worse, depth looks a whole lot like overcomplexity, and that's going to turn a lot of players off.
It might make sense then to focus on the unique or relatively unique aspects of the game. People are always on the hint for fresh experiences, and that might be enough to such them into its depth. A few contenders:
Definitely highlighting the weirdness of the graphics-- it's text based but doesn't feel like it. Things like vvvvv did well I think because they had the old school feel but embraced modern concepts of graphical representation. Similarly there are a lot of great 2d games that build lush worlds despite their graphical shortcomings.
The Portals system, when the UX makes more sense.
Dungeons, particularly with the combat and/or bosses if I get there. The dungeons in shatterloop are gigantic and uniquely terrifying.
An emphasis on the surreal or existentially terrifying aspects of the game. Maybe the infinity thing in the entropic plane. Caves with their limited light. Void enemies maybe -- that might be better as a secret though.
The lockpicking system is up there. Probably Theft mechanics in general are worth showcasing.
If I can get the UX right, the wide variety of things you can ask NPCs about, their services, etc.
The base building system isn't perfect yet but it's pretty phenomenal. There's a lot of stuff you can do here that you can't do in other survival games.
Instability. This adds to the existential terror aspect, as do some of the quantum effects. Possibly have this later in the video so people can see the normal graphics a lot in comparison.
Naming systems. Picking up Wildwilllow Shrubs for example. Or scrolling through your items in some visually appealing way. Fish in particular are pretty damm good.
Anything related to the physics or mathematical references -- tachyon, the quantum plane, the chromodynamo, strange Loops, the aleph naught. Plenty of stuff here.
The depth of the lore. It's hard to cram this into a video but it needs to be long enough to read some of it and get an idea of the depth and weirdness of it without seeing the whole thing. Make people go back, pause and read it. Maybe something like fish scouts, they'd think wait what you can have Scout Animals, and they're fish? Wtaf.
Parts of the story. Don't want to reveal spoilers for sure but a roguelike or even a Survival sandbox with a good story is pretty rare.
Combat will hopefully be a good contender. If it's not, rebuild it until it is. Things like flow and tactics would look really interesting and hint at depth if shown right.
I want to keep the fact that there are 11 billion dimensions under wraps as much as possible. Usually this is the selling point of procgen games, but in this case I want it to feel like a normal game with a neat bonus that you find via exploration and game progression.
Explore magic a bit -- not how to do it but what you can do *with* it. Good magic systems are rare, magic systems that tie into literally everything are nonexistent. Show weird effects that are virtually unused in any game. Focus on the unique aspects, not the mainstream ones. Recovering health with a potion is normal, potions to help you fish better are rare. Ideally pick whatever the absolute weirdest effect is here, idk what it is yet.
The food system, if done right. Recipes come to mind, though you naming them would be a turn-off when people actually play. Maybe there can be some handcrafted stuff in there like making pies or souffles or whatever to help actual players and add to the weird aesthetic in the trailer.
Alloying weapons together is very unique -- someone said it was the main reason they wanted to play the game. Should definitely explore this.
I think the goal of the trailer should be showing some of the outlandish stuff you can do or see in the game, rather than trying to describe the game. That's where the depth is, and that's also going to be the easiest to entice players by making them repeat "what. What. What the actual fuck. Whaaaaat." over and over. Then you know stick some stuff at the end that tells you it's a materials sandbox rpg whatever game.
Music is definitely important. I havent sourced this yet, but I want it to enhance and help create the weirdness aesthetic. Shatterloop is a very weird game, and some bizarre dnb or atonal chiptune stuff would fit in very well. I also like the idea of having variety in the soundtrack -- electronic stuff is good but there should be variety in the styles. Throw in some metal here and there, some operatic stuff. Try to align it with that part of the game so it's not just a random mish-mash, but definitely make sure it's all very weird. But also not earbleedingly weird.
I don't know if there will be sound effects, but if there are they should have depth. It shouldn't sound like a fantasy pixel game, it should sound like a 3d space sim. This adds to the uniqueness of the experience and also sound depth is good to have. Also again no earbleed, ux here should be perfect.
Speaking of fantasy, make sure to always mix fantasy and sci-fi tropes in a trailer since shatterloop is definitely both. Show robots but also alchemists. Swords but also portal guns. And so on.
maybe show the tetrad system and how it's useful to get up on solids or barricade enemies. This 4d thing is definitely rare, and unique among 2d games. Might lead to overcomplexity though and turn new players off, so the wording (if any) should be that you *can*, not that it's an essential gameplay mechanic. Because it is technically possible to rarely use it.
The loot system is on point. Needs better feel and UX but the huge variety in things you can obtain is a major selling point. Particularly if their use can be demonstrated as well.
I havent thought about this much because I do UX last when systems are changing, but good UX is vitally important in a complex and visually challenged game.
There are two principles with good UX that must always be in balance:
The game should explain unintuitive stuff.
The game should encourage experimentation and learning instead of holding your hand on everything.
The game is very open-ended by design, and you have a lot of different ways to accomplish goals and also with the memory thing you start out with very little knowledge. It's important that there's UX to fix a lot of this, but not so much that it makes the game feel locked into a particular path or playstyle.
Things like the wiki system I think are already well-balanced -- there's information at your fingertips if you want it, but it doesn't beat you over the head with mechanics. You can instead explore at your own leisure and maybe save bookmarks in wiki trees for later use.
I think the rest mechanic will help as well -- it's a way to recover health and maybe gain light nonessential additional effects, but unlike sleep it's slower and encourages exploration of menus and documentation and lore.
Speaking of lore, I really think good lore adds depth to systems. The systems are the same but you feel more like the agent manipulating them rather than being a person playing a puzzle game. The Cybernetic Station actually has lore and history behind it, including wars and major world events. So when you turn animals into cybernetic animals you have that context to it.
This is a very rare feature in games -- there might be lore but it tends to expand beyond what you're working with rather than supplementing and explaining it. So in those games you feel like you want to live there and experience that but can't, whereas with Shatterloop you feel like you're already living there because of how close the lore fits the gameplay.
Similarly, one feature of my type of lore that contrasts with other settings is the extreme technical background of magic or advanced technology. There are actual explanations for magic effects and items, for placements of resources, for alien technology. Nothing should feel arbitrary or hand-wavy - I mean granted at some point it reduces to "alien physics" and "post-standard model theory" but that's way below the surface. Things like the dodecaverse and the expansion of humanity that aren't even relevant to the game are explained in fine detail.
A good lore should not just be based on the gameplay but should also influence the game. Anything the lore creates should be in the game in some capacity, even if the locations or entities are irrelevant. It should feel like a living breathing world instead of just a representation of one.
More UX Stuff
With complex systems there's always a tradeoff between fine manipulation and overwhelming complexity. I definitely want fine manipulation because the definition of the game is depth, but don't want to absolutely overwhelm the player or make it impossible to play.
Striking a balance here is very tricky. And solutions like plug-ins or settings can *add* to complexity or things the player has to remember. The best tools I've found for this are:
Decentralization -- keep menus separate from each other as much as possible. Don't overwhelm with things to possibly do and also don't cause players to scroll to find what they need.
Aggregation -- Compile things together in a variety of ways. A good example of this is the fishing log -- compiles everything you know about fish, not just the current one you're studying. A good journal will help a lot, or things like looking up old plot points in the story. The wiki system helps a heck of a lot.
User customization -- allow players to rename things or take notes or recolor stuff. This helps an enormous amount because players are more likely to remember changes they've made to prioritize stuff. However notes systems can also lead to absurd complexity and also technical complexity, so a good balance is needed.
Sorting and Filtering is very useful for wading through long lists of data (like the inventory). However if done poorly it can contribute to complexity and unintuitiveness. The solution might be occasional reminders, but those are universally annoying. Maybe having separate menus for things like the inventory would work well -- like have a sortable/filter able section rather than putting it everywhere, or put it everywhere but make it smaller, and then bigger and bolder in that specific menu.
Get actual players to test the game. I can't think of everything, and this definitely helps find things I didn't realize.
With the new base-centric crafting update and the direction all loose ends seem to be going, Shatterloop has become very Base-heavy. This is probably a good thing since it concentrates several interesting pieces of gameplay:
The Base Builder tool which has a whole heck of a lot of options (and runs on Aether).
The PGCS, which helps you actually build all base fixtures and gain all unlocks.
Industry, which ties into the other crafting engine and lets you smash items together or upgrade them.
Early Alpha 1 -- gameplay works up until the end of the Caves stage.
Early Alpha 2 -- gameplay works up until the end of the quantum plane iirc.
Early Alpha 3 -- Game is "completeable".
Heavy systems work -- Currently here. Building out systems since early alpha qualifiers hadn't made sense for a long time.
Early Alpha 4 -- Early game is almost feature-complete -- all the relevant big projects and several loose ends.
Late Game Development -- All Big Projects are complete. Basically Early Alpha 4 with the Civilization and ECS updates. Late-game development involves systems that build on the big projects, and no project here is big.
Final Development -- Developing features that are reliant on everything else being done, like magic or lore. The systems here are huge draws, so I don't want a release until they're done, but could conceivably go to Alpha before the Story is done.
Alpha -- The development is nothing but loose ends and bugs. Development work is focused on UX, game balance and tightening systems and mechanics around each other. I should begin releasing the game in this stage.
Beta -- The game is feature-complete and I'm looking for and fixing bugs. Other players are doing the same.
Full Release -- Whenever I feel the game is stable enough to get out of Beta.
