The Launch of shapez 2

The TLDR is: if you know you like this kind of game, this is one that is very easy to recommend. Pick it up. GLHF.

If you still need some more convincing about whether this game is for you, let me try.

A Brief History of shapez

With the full launch to 1.0 just last week, it is time to look back at what the game is and what it does well.

shapez 2 is the second (or might be the third) part of the shapez games. As far as I know it first started with a web-based test for the core logic. shapez.io came online sometime during 2020 and can still be played today. After a good reception it was moved into a standalone game released on Steam, also during 2020, and has been very successful over time.

With that success, a new plan for a more fully scoped game started and a new studio was created. One thing I find really uplifting is that they were given a grant by a German program to help studios develop games in Germany. I think this is really nice and it shows that gaming has reached a pivot point where it is viewed as more than just a toy — it is now a real industry. Something that feels odd from someone who has grown up with the medium and seen it move from something rather niche into mainstream.

German Games Funding Info

The Game Loop

So that was a lot of background but nothing about the actual game. I have played the early access for about 25 hours and the 1.0 for about 5 hours, so this is still an early look.

The game loop is about fulfilling orders for different patterns, and it is your job to create them by cutting, stacking, and painting. The loop is rather simple for the first shapes. The hard part comes when you have to deliver 10,000 of a shape that needs 8–9 steps to produce from the basic shapes found in the world.

Scale and Platforms

In the first game the playing field was a more or less infinite flat world. This time around that is not the case — we are more limited with space and work around platforms, which lets us zoom out from smaller parts to a bigger scale. I think a new player might struggle with this change. Where the optimization felt more small-scale before, we now move over to galactic scale.

This is a bit of a double-edged sword. I think it plays very nicely, but I never find myself trying to find the smartest way for each part — it is normally better to brute force it by just creating more platforms. I think the end game here will hold for a very long time, and I’m looking forward to getting my train lines up and running. I’m looking forward to creating more complex shapes and trying to build smarter blueprints to scale my factory to an intergalactic level.

Visuals

Maybe the biggest change is the move to 3D over the 2D aesthetic from the older game. I really think the style looks gorgeous, and I find myself just swooshing back and forth in my factory, mesmerized by the shapes moving around. The details on all the parts just look so good.

Performance

The game runs really well, at least when the factory has not reached massive size. I suspect they have tested much bigger factories. It feels very smooth, though this can depend on your setup. I have not had any performance issues at least.

Should You Buy It?

Looking at the first reviews on Steam, it looks like they have managed to create another really solid game and a lot of folks are having fun with it. If you know you like this type of game, I don’t think you will be disappointed.

If you think you might like it but are not sure it is worth the full price, I can recommend picking up the first game — at the time of writing it was on sale for about $1. Not much to think about. Or the web version still gives you a good intro for free. But I do think you should support indie game studios with at least something. They really do make sure the space shines.