Where Are We Going With This Whole Runner3 Thing?!

EVERYWHERE!

You might have noticed that our announcement image had ABSOLUTELY no running. This is fairly silly, considering the game is called Runner3. Well I am here to tell you that we are very silly people, but also, we are silly people that have already made two running games. We need to add as many herbs and spices to this tangy sausage as possible so that we can serve it to you with maximum flavor, aroma, and aftertaste. 

Making a sequel is a bit harder than you might think. We are bound to the rules of gameplay that have already been set in place. The fans have an expectation that is based off the previous game, so you need to honor that relationship. That said, you also need to reinvent and evolve the game, so it's not the same ole bag of beans. If we aren't careful, we can paint ourselves into a corner.

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UP, DOWN, and EVERYWHERE! WOO!

BIT.TRIP RUNNER was fairly linear, point A to Point B. Runner2's evolution saw this same linearity, but we had more ups and downs, along with splitting pathways and alternate exits. Runner3 will see a whole new world, with ups, downs, lefts and rights, split paths, and of course forwards!!! 

We are also adding a mechanic that we are calling "controlled events." A controlled event is basically what you see in the image. Commandervideo will now be in control of various vehicles, animals or whatever weird things our minds can dredge up from our frothy mucus filled mind tubes. 

Let's hear your ideas for some wacky rides! What kind of zany,hare-brained or down right preposterous chariots can you come up with? This could be anything you want and if they fit or make us laugh, we might just use your idea! - Example: Commandervideo riding a bologna sandwich like a flying carpet, and using a mustard bottles as a propellant. FREAK US OUT!

-Mike

Get Spooked With This Runner3 Asset

Hey everyone!

Now that we’ve entered the spookiest month of the year, I wanted to go ahead and share an appropriately creepy asset from Runner3. I should warn you, however, that this is not for the faint of heart. If you consider yourself easily frightened or unnerved, you may want to go ahead and click away.

Alright, now that all the scaredy cats are gone, let’s get down to business.

Moving forward, our plan is to share assets from the game on a regular basis. Sometimes these assets will be super exciting, and other times they’ll probably be a blade of grass or something similarly bland.* As more and more assets are shared, you'll start to get a good sense of what the world of Runner3 is going to be like.

Since this is our first time doing it, however, I figured we should start things off with a real banger. Feast your eyes on this deliciously creepy Runner3 asset:

Pretty mortifying, no? 

We'll be sharing another asset with you next week, but I hope this one whets your appetite in the meantime! Let's talk about it in the comments!

*This was not meant as a knock to grass. We are, by and large, a pro-grass company.

- Dant

The Retro Challenges of Runner3

Well hello there! I’m Jason Cirillo. I work on video games here at Choice Provisions, and everyday that I come to work, there’s always some kind of wacky new task to jump on, as well as some kind of bizarre foreign snack that we’re all daring each other to eat.

This time around, I’m absolutely thrilled to be hard at work on Runner3. The last time I worked on a Runner game with a numeral in it, it was Runner2. There, a big part of my job was designing the look and feel of the Retro Challenges. Well, I guess my work wasn’t a total disaster, because I’ve been asked to design the Retro Challenges yet again.

For those of you who don’t know, (which is approximately 99.99% of you) I am a huge fan of not just old video games, but also old cartoons and animation. I have always really enjoyed the stylings of Friz Freleng (Pink Panther, Ant and Aardvark) and Hanna-Barbera, particularly works from the 1960s and 70s. We thought this time around, it might be a lot of fun to explore those styles and see what we could do with those as inspiration.

Here's a preview of the style we're going for in the Retro Challenges of Runner3. Although this art isn't technically final, it's fair to say that it's very close:

CommanderVideo has explored worlds reminiscent of the Atari 2600 days as well as the 1980’s 8-Bit NES style era, and we wondered what it would be like if he found himself transported to a world unlike any he’s ever visited before.

So far, all I can tell you is that we are having some gigantic belly laughs at the world we’re putting together for CV to romp around in. The terrain and creatures and enemies that lurk here are absolutely unlike anything you’ve ever seen before in CommanderVideo’s worlds. I am genuinely very, very excited about what we’re doing with these special “Retro” Challenges this time around, and I think you’re really going to love it.

I’d love to answer whatever questions I can (at this point) as well as hear your thoughts on Retro Challenges! Have at it in the comments.

Till next time!

- Jason

Let's Talk Characters!

Believe it or not we truly had no idea what people would think when we announced Runner3. We suspected the reception would be positive, but it turns out we underestimated the amount of trailer views, site visits, comments, and tweets we were going to receive. It’s motivated us even further to create the best game we possibly can.

This is all my way of saying:

With that addressed, I’d also like to reiterate our plan to offer user polls and allow everyone a chance to weigh in on certain aspects of the game. In fact, why don’t we hit the ground running and start talking about playable characters? Our hope for Runner3 is to offer a roster of characters both old and new, and while we have a list that we’re super excited about internally, we’d like to hear what you all think! Which characters are you hoping return for Runner3? And who, in your wildest dreams, would you like to see added to the game? It can be a character from another property, or it can be a character you made up in your head!

Full disclosure: The character roster of Runner3 is pretty locked down by this point, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t open to suggestions. If there seems to be strong demand for a character we weren’t planning on including, then we will seriously consider it! Obviously we’re going to encounter licensing issues if everyone requests Darth Vader or Shrek or something like that, but that doesn’t mean you can’t dream big!

Let’s talk about it in the comments!

- Dant

Joy

One of the most important ideas Mike and I pushed on Runner2 was that it should be, and could be, a game for anyone. If you were a hardcore BIT.TRIP fan, you could have a tough-as-nails, controller-throwingly difficult experience by pushing the game to its hardest setting. But if you wanted to simply enjoy yourself without getting sweaty, you could play on the easiest setting. There were no perks or penalties associated with the difficulty chosen. 

Runner2 was a game you could play on your own terms.

Too often, games focus on rewarding hardcore players and perpetuating the idea that if you play on easy, you're somehow less of a gamer. What if games don't bring you as much joy if they're ultra-challenging? Maybe that doesn't make you "less". Maybe that just makes you "you".

So in Runner3, we're focusing on bringing our notions of difficulty and what makes a game rewarding front and center. The focus in Runner3 is on giving the player a joyous experience. In fact, one of our development pillars for the game is:

"Runner3 needs to be a joyous experience in every moment--both in the game, and during its creation."

If you like being challenged relentlessly, will you get that? Yes. (It is us, after all.) But if you prefer being able to experience the entire game without being ultra-challenged, you'll be able to do that as well--without penalty. We have some very interesting tricks up our sleeve as to how we're going to accomplish this, and we'll be revealing them here over the course of development, so keep checking back.

A fan of Runner2 recently contacted us and asked why we chose to make the final two levels of Runner2 so easy once the player was past the checkpoint. The answer is: because it felt joyous to end the game the way we did.

And our players deserve a little joy in their lives.

- Alex