Red Thumb Games "Shelled 2" Update

It's been 5 months since I first blogged about Shelled 2 and 8 months since the project started so it's a good time for an update and screenshots to share. Note that these are pre-alpha development screenshots, many with temporary art.

Firstly, Shelled 2 now has a custom tank avatar creator. Choose from 5 options each of your tank body, cannon, jets, tail, and color to create a huge variety of tanks with one suiting your style.

From "cute":


To "punky":


It's not as robust as say Tony Hawk's Create-A-Skater, but even some basic customization options can go a long way towards the fun of seeing your creation at play in the battle arena, and relating to and caring about that object.

In addition to the new Create-A-Tank feature, the game now has MORE WEAPONS:



Not only are there now more weapons, but there are more types of weapon behavior, including freezing your target, moving your target, and even healing your target (for team games). The weapons have also been properly balanced, as the original Shelled suffered from an over-powerful triple-shot.

Here is one such new weapon type, the planted mine:



It is great fun to strategically plant one at your target's feet so that if they move they will detonate it, THEN follow up with an aerial shell, making both your aerial shell and the mine explode, destroying your target:



I am very pleased with the new weapons -- it does not feel like we just jammed them in for filler, they are varied and unique and offer differing complementary strategies like the example above.

On the topic of weapons, you can now fly and shoot at the same time. This is a big change and it is indeed a good one. I was stubborn about keeping movement and attack seperate in the first game to stay true to the game's turn-based roots. However, a gameplay exploit allowed you to fly way up into the air, kill your jets, and then fire while your tank floated back to the ground, which proved to be one of the most fun ways to ambush a ground target like a sitting duck. From playing with that style myself, and from listening to player feedback, simutaneous flight and attack has now been made possible.

There are three main modes for Shelled 2:



The single player mode is a 20 level campaign with custom scripted missions that give a ton of depth to the
framework of the fire-and-fly gameplay.

For example in the screenshot below I am in a mission to deliver medical supplies to a remote base in the tundra. It is guarded by two turrets (which are a new object to the game) which will aide me by attacking incoming enemies:



I am surprised by how little it takes to engage a player's suspension of disbelief and have them role-playing with the mission. All it takes are a few well placed story and gameplay cues and soon you are playing in the make-believe world of turtle tankdom wanting to say to your commander, "Red Five standing by."

The "Arcade" levels are simply the 20 levels from Shelled 1 with the addition of high score posting and world ranking. In effect this puts the entirety of Shelled 1 into Shelled 2 but with enhancements like firing and flying, new weapons, and the create-a-tank feature. It's "classic" Shelled with some upgrades.

Finally, in addition to the campaign and arcade modes, there's the online game mode, with a total of SIX types of games to play, five of them brand new:



Here I am hanging out with my team, taking a little incoming fire and looking out towards the blue base:



And here I've parachuted into the blue base and am preparing to steal their golden shell (watch out suckers!):



All in all the game is shaping up great but of course there is a lot to do ahead especially in the way of level design, art asset completion, and balancing polishing and testing. Just a few small things right? Look for Shelled 2 on InstantAction in early 2008. Thanks to Project Lead and Lead Programmer Gary Preston, Lead Artist Christophe Canon (both of whom worked on the original), and Evyn Shuley who's cranking on level design.

Josh