Earlier this week, globular suck ’em up Slime Rancher 2 acquired the Song Of The Sabers replace. It provides a brand new, snow-covered zone referred to as Powderfall Bluffs crammed with prehistoric slimes. There’s a trailer for the replace beneath – however its additionally a “secret” designed such that some gamers would possibly by no means discover it, says its game director.
Here’s the trailer:
That seems cute, however extra attention-grabbing is what Monomi Park co-founder and Slime Rancher 2 director Nick Popovich had to say about the update on Twitter.
“A observe about our new zone, Powderfall Bluffs: the complete zone is hidden, it is a secret. Not an not possible one, however one thing {that a} participant *would possibly* by no means discover if casually taking part in Slime Rancher 2 and never checking wikis and such,” writes Popovich. “In gamedev you usually all the time all the time be sure the participant sees and experiences the factor you spent your cash on, or else why did you spend the cash? This after all makes a bunch of sense, however I believe over time this has result in individuals having the identical expertise in a given game.”
With this Slime Rancher 2 replace, they wished to create a scenario the place, “in some unspecified time in the future years from now somebody who missed this replace information will likely be dozens of hours into SR2 and stumble into Powderfall Bluffs and it’ll blow their thoughts.” Popovich says that “a second like that could be a very explicit sort of magic that I’ve solely ever present in games.”
I’m all in favour of this. There’s an amazing thrill not solely in stumbling throughout surprises like a hidden space, however in figuring out that these surprises would possibly nonetheless be ready in a game you have performed for lots of of hours. I like not figuring out the place the sides of an expertise are, whether or not that is being not sure exactly what genre Candy Box is operating within, not figuring out on which objects an immersive sim developer determined to blow their price range, or outright secrets and techniques like Powderfal Bluffs.
Slime Rancher 2 appears fairly nice normally, though maybe discovering these secrets and techniques will counter the sensation that it is in any other case too acquainted.