Hey, everyone!
This week’s post is going to be a little more open-ended than our previous ones. We’ve shown you a whole lot of the trees that comprise the game so far, so we’ve decided it might be a good time to back up a bit and talk a little more about the forest. Put another way, we’d like to give you a broader overview of what Runner3 is all about and what we hope to accomplish with it.
We landed on a mantra of sorts early on in preproduction for the game: “Runner3 needs to be worthy of being a numbered sequel to BIT.TRIP RUNNER and Runner2”. We didn’t want it to feel like a half-step because A) it would be a huge disservice to fans of the series and B) it wouldn’t be nearly as fun to make. Change for the sake of change is no good either, however, and so we knew that all additions to the game would need to be in service of the overall fun. Fun is, above all else, our #1 priority when making a game. We want the graphics to be nice and juicy, of course, but this becomes a moot point if the game isn’t fun to play.
All of the additions we’ve announced so far—branching paths, collectible “gem” currency, an item shop, vehicles, puppet shows, Hero Quests, etc.—were put in the game because we found they contributed to the overall joy factor of Runner3. None of them serve to reinvent the wheel or impede the rhythm-music gameplay of the game; they just flesh out the world more in terms of the narrative and overall experience. In fact, the Hero Quests (which require the player to stop running and chat with a character in the game) are wholly optional. You always have the ability to skip the Hero Quest path and stick with the traditional RUNNER gameplay.
This touches on another important aspect of Runner3’s design philosophy: We want you to be able to play the game however you like. Rather than adding difficulty modes like easy, normal, and hard, we decided to bake those options into the game itself. Every standard level in Runner3 features branching paths of varying difficulties, allowing the player to choose what they want to do in the moment. Feeling lucky? Take the harder path (and earn yourself some premium currency in the form of gems)! Looking for something a little less intimidating? Take the standard gold path! There is no right or wrong way to play Runner3.
There’s a lot more to talk about here, such as the lengths we’ve gone to to ensure the worlds of Runner3 will be more fleshed-out and visually appealing than the first two games. Not to mention the vehicle rides! And the item shop! And the super fun characters we haven’t announced yet! I think We’ll save all these topics for another day, however, because we’ve already rambled on for far too long!
In the meantime, let us know if you have any questions about the game and we’ll do our best to answer! Unless it spoils a surprise, of course.
Thanks for reading this (way too long) post!
- Mike and Alex
