Hey guys! In this devlog I wanted to share some insights how the map in shapez 2 works, which is mainly based around the concept of building space stations platforms. https://store.steampowered.com/app/2162800/shapez_2/ Here's a quick screenshot of how the islands look like, although it is already outdated:
However, to understand why the concept ended up the way it is, we need to look at how shapez 2 evolved: IMPORTANT NOTICE: This devlog includes a lot of old screenshots, alpha footage and placeholders. The final game will look very different!

How it started

Back in July 2022 when I started prototyping shapez 2, this is how it looked:
As you might notice immediately - I actually started with a hexagonal grid. This originated from a survey on the shapez 1 discord, and was basically my starting idea to distinguish shapez 2 from shapez 1:
It quickly evolved, and starting from the beginning I already wanted all machines to be open:
However, once I actually started to implement basic belt placement, I ran into the first issues already.
Placing straight belts on a hexagonal grid is possible, but only in 3 directions. This leads to weird looking sharp-turn belts. Disabling sharp turns didn't make it any better though, since then connecting machines got really annoying, and you still can't have straight belts in all directions:
Additionally, symmetry and tilable designs are possible, but work very differently in a hexagonal grid:
Which is, after long consideration, I decided to drop the hexagonal grid, in favour of allowing to build multidimensional factories (which we will cover in another devlog!).

Infinite map?

I definitely wanted to have an infinite, procedurally generated map for shapez 2. However, to make it look more interesting than in shapez 1, initially I wanted to introduce a concept of "Biomes". Biomes could be areas that contain exclusively red color patches for example. This would also incentivize the new mass transport features. Here is a first overview how it looked with those different biomes:
The result was not pleasing, but because I wanted to keep shapez 2 abstract, I couldn't just introduce styles like "Forest " or "Water" which would have made it more interesting. Thus we came up with the "Islands" concept (they are still called like this internally), which evolved around the idea of, while still having infinite space, having to build the playable area yourself:
The idea was that you could craft islands by using shapes:
Basically better islands would cost more and/or better shapes, and they could also have shape and color resources. After a few iterations, we simplified the crafting dialog:
However, while playtesting, we found that the crafting mechanic wasn't really interesting. The main issue was that the organic factor was entirely missing, thus every playthrough would be the same. And I didn't want to introduce randomness into the crafting, since that would not fit the concept of shapez. To fix this, we decided the resources should instead spawn procedurally on the map again, and to mine them there will be special miner "islands":
Here is an early screenshot of the map, although the resource distribution is temporary and will change!
I hope you can already see at which scale you'll be able to build within shapez 2!

Modular Designs

Another feature of the islands was allowing to build modular - the idea was that in the lategame, you no longer have to build individual islands but instead you have an island that contains only cutters or stackers and you can rearrange them - building on a much, much larger scale. The idea was basically that these modules are like a building from shapez 1, but instead it was built and designed by yourself! (If you want to find out more about building modular, Giantwaffle showed it during his exclusive stream of the alpha) This is a first draft how I wanted it to work:

Art Style Change

During the transition, we also introduced an art style change, which is a topic for another devlog! However, because we changed to an "Abstract Space" style, the islands now became space station platforms:

Island Layouts

I wanted to have different layouts of islands which allow for interesting combinations, while not being too simple. Inspired by the idea of "Pentominos", every island consists out of chunks which are up to 16x16 tiles large.
(Image source) The layouts for the islands are not determined yet, but we will try to make sure that every layout has a use and it doesn't get too much of a puzzle (i.e. there should be some puzzle aspect - but it could also get very frustrating if the layouts don't fit together nicely).

Inter-Island Transport

Additionally to the mass transport (trains - covered in another devlog) we of course also need local transport between islands. To make the islands actually meaningful, it was clear that we can not just allow transport on all sides of the island. Otherwise, there would be no actual difference to an infinite map. Thus, we came up with the idea of "notches", only allowing to transport shapes at certain locations of an island:
The concept is very simple: There is a building (we call it "belt port" internally) that allows you to catapult shapes over a certain range. Because the distance between two islands is higher than the maximum range of the belt port, transport is not possible. But because the "notch" has 4 tiles that are closer to the other island, these are the places where you can exchange shapes between islands. A notch allows for 4 of these buildings per layer - so once having unlocked 3 layers, that means effective 12 belts throughput (throughput of the belt ports is identical to the belts):
Notches are displaced, so that if both islands have a notch at this location, you actually get twice the throughput:
As you can see, they are also bi-directional (which is actually something we are considering to change - let us know what you think!)

Island costs

We spent a long time thinking about the costs of the islands. Since we removed the crafting mechanic, at this point the islands were entirely free to place. The first idea was to make them still cost a certain shape. However, then we figured it makes a lot more sense to instead keep them free, because it would fit the concept of shapez best - buildings are free as well, after all. This incentivices playing around with the islands, rearranging them, deleting them without having any penalty attached to it. To still reward building optimized factories, we then introduced a "limit" to the maximum chunks you can place, which can be increased via research. Every island consists of multiple chunks (as shown above), so larger islands are more "expensive". But because it is just a limit and not a cost, you can just play around find out what works best for you!
As you can see, the cost if the island (4 chunks) is shown when placing it, as well as the current usage and the limit. Of course, the limit can be increased via research, and we actually want to make it an infinite research so your factory can grow forever!

Further topics

Writing this devlog has actually been incredibly difficult, because there are so many more topics I could dive into, but even writing this together already took quite a while! (Which is why I had to delay it by one day). However, I wanted to already give you an insight on what topics you can expect from further devlogs: - Fluids & Fluid packaging - Multidimensional factories - Crystals - Trains - Research Tree - New blueprint system & currency - Art style change - ... and so much more! If this was an interesting read to you, please let me know in the comments so I know the devlogs are appreciated! And if you want to stay informed about the upcoming devlogs, giveaways and more, please follow the Shapez 2 store page:

Follow to get updates

PS: In order to get updates, be sure to wishlist AND follow Shapez 2, since just wishlisting doesn't give you any notifications on new events & updates! https://store.steampowered.com/app/2162800/shapez_2/ Have a nice remaining weekend! Tobias