The following is a weekly devlog for MIND CONTROL DELETE, the Early Access standalone expansion to the original SUPERHOT. Check it out HERE The only way to make sense out of change is to plunge into it, move with it, and join the dance. Alan Watts Hey you. I will drop a rather lengthy one on you so grab your jasmine green tea, sit down and lets chat. I postponed writing devlogs until I have something substantial to show but keeping you in the dark for so long is unfair so lets not do that anymore. SUPERHOT MIND CONTROL DELETE hasnt been updated for like hmm...forever. Its something like a half a year already. I wrote in few other places what were the reasons but it is worth repeating.

• We managed to do regular updates with new features but didn't have time to fight bugs and do a streamlined gameplay.
• MCD was getting new content but there was no time to think whether it's good content.
• We were fixated on hitting regular deadlines and didn't look if people actually "get" the game. If they enjoy it at all. Or if there is a game at all.

So there came this moment when we tested MCD with less dedicated players than you lot. Folks that havent touched SUPERHOT or MCD. Then we cried blood when we looked how they played. The game was confusing for them, had quite a few annoying bugs and cluttered UI. We had to make a really hard decision to stop working for updates sake and start working for the game itself. That was brutal since it IS Early Access. But we really don't want to release unpolished shit. We want our shit to be shiny and sexy or not have it at all.
Barefoot Build Testing. Right now SUPERHOT: MIND CONTROL DELETE is far better though. I will try to give you a fast run through the changes so far so that you can get a general sense of current development direction.

Sense of Progression

Up to this point SUPERHOT: MIND CONTROL DELETE was a set of runs nicely packed within ASCII pyramid with growing difficulty curve. But something was lacking. It felt like a gameplay without an actual game. You unlocked some parts within the pyramid, completed runs but you still had a small void during your playthroughs. What we lacked was the mythical sense of progression. This sexy feeling that you get when you unlock a stage, see something new, explore the game and it rewards you with new content. It is a very elusive feeling but once you tap into it, whole game improves. We decided that we need an introduction in MCD. A beginning that will be partially a tutorial but also an intriguing plot hook for the player to keep on playing and exploring.
Tom and his sexy sweater working hard on assets. Without spoiling much, we came back to designing levels in a more linear approach so that we can have more control on events within the game. Now those early MCD levels are more SUPERHOT-like in a sense that there is a beginning and an end. It gives us more freedom to manipulate what we show you and when you see it. The core gameplay levels stay the same. They are still designed like an arena with small procedural touches. Speaking of Levels at this moment we've reached over 30. I think we overdid it a bit but hopefully you wont mind ;). The level of detail has been stepped up a notch. Since we have stopped regular updates, our 3d artists gained some breathing room. Now they have enough time to go crazy with assets. Trust me it was worth it. SUPERHOT levels look pretty basic now compared to MCD.
Konrad making levels pretty. Not watching Mtg matches.

Hotcoins.

While they gave some gratification for the player they created even more confusion. They had to be explained, needed additional UI solutions and constantly were redesigned. We tried out some builds without them and to our painful surprise nothing was really missing from actual gameplay. If you can remove parts of the game and it works fine, why should it be there in the first place?

Pyramid UI

UI for runs was all fine and dandy lore-wise. It was a nice wink towards previous SUPERHOT players but sometimes a problem to work with. We were either running out of space or ideas how to fill it with content. Forcing design process around something that just looks nice is never a good idea. Right now we are testing a few others solutions. Trimmed down to basic choices current UI starts to look like a simplified branch or root. It works far better, there is no confusion but its not a pyramid. This one I will actually miss but I completely agree with the decision.

Internet.exe

Weve ditched the whole approach towards plot in MCD. Story previously could be explored through the main Norton Commander inspired GUI. It has been hidden somewhere in between obscure messages and snippets of information. Almost completely separated from the gameplay and optional, story felt like a second thought rather than an integral part of the game.
Matthias doing...erm something with code. In current builds player takes part in the story by simply playing the game. Its an element of the game not an option as it was previously. Obviously you can ignore all the weirdness around you and just keep on killing red dudes. Thats all up to you. We are not planning on giving you an exact explanation of what is going on. We've always prefered to leave some room left for interpretation. No one wants to give you a definite meaning of events in MCD. What is happening in your head is always far more interesting from whatever we might think of.

Release date

Part of the journey is the end. Right? Obviously we won't be able to do a release this year. We are gunning for Q1 2019. Trust me we really dont want to move it any further. Thank you for being patient with all of this. Change socks daily. Szymon from SUPERHOT Team

[ 2018-12-07 19:53:09 CET ] [ Original post ]