In Super Hero Life IV players can easily create unique custom superheroes with elaborate lore, custom superpowers, and a procedurally generated map to adventure through, all the while earning in-game currency to purchase luxuries like secret layers, vehicles, and even mech battle armor! Also, did we mention you can travel through time?
In comparison to all games:
Next Generation Character Creation
Custom Super Powers
Multiplayer Time Travel
In comparison to all Roblox games:
Procedural Story Generators
The Most Powerful Character Editor on Roblox
The LP3 Character Style and Immersive Benefits
In comparison to the previous SHL games:
Character and power customization are fully free
Fleshed out non-character purchases, as opposed to just 1-2 options for vehicles and apartments
Procedurally generated map
The goal experience is for players to fully escape into a world where they are a powerful superhero. A hyper-immersive world where they have the freedom to be whoever they want to be.
Here is the order of focus for SHL4:
Samsung Smart Fridge: this is the platform you should use for the optimal experience
PC: It is easiest to develop for
Tablet: It has the largest audience
Mobile: It is also a major audience but has less screen space
Xbox: It has enough people to be worth investing in, but the limitations of the platform make it a tougher port.
VR: Probably not.
The infinite procedurally generated world of Minecraft has always been inspiring to me for both its variety and for its immersion, I'm hoping SHL4s map will be able to build off what they pioneered.
The quest and immersive world design of The Outer Worlds (and most Obsidian games) was very compelling to me. I loved getting to know the NPCs, and make decisions which actually impacted the world around me. My only critique was that to an extent it all felt predictable - as though these stories and decisions have existed in previous Obsidian games. They do a good job trying to provide compelling arguments for both sides of a morality choice, however reality isn't like that. Obviously they are limited by how much quest they can code and write into a game - and that's why I think procedural generation has so much potential. If you define a society by values and rules, the emergent behavior should create these interesting moral decisions. As a superhero you're in a place of power to change things as you see as moral - something I want to incorporate in SHL4.
In my time as a Game Design major at Indiana University, I got to experience the free form fantasy that is D&D and CC. I saw how compelling getting a custom character was, and how much fun it could be. I want to make that level of immersion possible, something many designers before me have tried to implement into their games. To me it is broken down into 3 major hurdles:
A flexible enough character creation system with meaningful inherent advantages and disadvantages.
The creation of balanced yet unique attacks allowing for simple yet strategic combat.
Dynamic adventure systems which adjust to player behavior and decisions.
And with all of that, it needs to feel amazing. Because with D&D and CC they draw on your imagination so it can look as amazing as you like. With this however the visuals are fully the developer's responsibility, and so a lot of effort will need to put in to make sure that not only do we overcome these hurdles, but do so in a fantastic way.
Despite the game being completely in third person, I feel the recent Hitman series has excelled in immersion better than any other major game. The worlds feel lived in, and when I'm walking around in them I feel like I'm on a vacation to a place I've never been before.
That's what I want in SHL4. Obviously there are limitations to how many assets I can add to the game, as well as how many assets the game and player's devices can handle. But I think with increasing functionality, as well as focusing on implementing interactive assets, and of course the addition of background NPCs, we can make a vacation like experience for our players to escape to.
From my interactions with fans it appears many want an apology for SHL3. They expected it to be an HD remake of SHL2, and when it wasn't they were disappointed - so is the risk when trying to build "hype" for a sequel. Even if you are fully transparent (the game's development was literally streamed) about your design intentions to make the sequel try new things, the fans of the previous games already have their expectations built in. To an extent maybe I should have created a new brand for SHL3 - but that IP was so valuable it would have been foolish to pass up. What I didn't expect was the harsh rebuttal by the community.
Now I don't regret SHL3 - I can't. It earns half of my revenue. It is part of the reason I can be a developer full time. But it is impossible to receive so much criticism without wondering if you could have accomplished the goals of a successful profitable SHL game a bit better.
Looking back, it doesn't appear to be so much what SHL3 did poorly in implementation, it's a much more polished game than any other entry. Rather it came down to flaws in design. It cut back on areas perceived unimportant, when in reality they were the heart of what people loved in SHL2. This was an experience of "you don't know what you've got until it's gone", and because of that SHL4 will be made with a full appreciation of all that was lacking in 3 that players miss.
I learned nothing from SHL2 from a high level of design. It was just SHL1 again, with the biggest design change being separating RP and PVP players into two different servers, as well as a more flexible character editor with reduced monetization. Obviously the quality of the game increased, but the high level design of it remained the same. The changes, while minor, were improvements from a gameplay perspective (not monetization though).
These changes however, were what caused the game to outperform SHL1 by a longshot. I attributed too much of this success to the improvement in the visuals and aesthetics of the game. I just viewed it as "a better game", rather than reflecting on if the design changes contributed to the growth in audience.
What I failed to see was the fostering of the RP community. This was almost accidental considering how little my design contributed. The first major help was the suit glitch - something which allowed even more customization than I was allowing at the time. This accidentally turned the game from a place where you can make superheroes, to a place where you can make almost any character. This made it a haven for RPers, providing more freedom than most competitors. On top of that, by making the customization free (unlike in SHL1 and SHL3) people could make their dream character immediately -thus removing another major barrier for the RPers. To this day, most of the audience of SHL2 plays for roleplay reasons, and most youtube coverage of the game is in the form of character design tutorials or machinima.
I want SHL4 to take what SHL2 accomplished accidentally, and accomplish it better than ever before. This means a hyper-flexible character editor, and no paywall for character customization. It also shifts the game's focus from combat centered, to roleplay centered (though combat will still be a large part to help with immersion, it won't be meant to be seen as super-competitive, and is of course also now optional). Hopefully this, along with other changes I'm making to the game, will propel the SHL series past the others in the franchise.
We are hoping that this game will be enjoyed by action and immersion loving players ages 8 and up, with an emphasis on those who like Marvel, DC, MHA, and other hero media.
The average SHL fan is ages 8-14. They like roleplay, but not as much as the hardcore roleplayer. They're more a fan of escapism, making a character and interacting upon the world through it. They have fond memories of SHL2 (though not necessarily recent memories), as well as some possible disappointment towards SHL3. They'll be looking for a series redemption, with better fighting and customization.
These players love immersion way more than the average player. They're often the most dedicated fans of the game and have use the mechanics of the game to perform elaborate stories with other players. They aren't necessarily high spenders, but they play the game daily and keep up concurrent player numbers.
An easy way to get new players in the game is to get their friends to play it. As many influencer enjoy a parasocial relationship (a 1-way friendship) with thousands if not millions of people, they are great opportunities to get a ton of new eyes on the game. A typical Roblox influencer friendly game needs to have exciting moments, and ideally has enough variety in the game experience to drive the player to want to play as well.
For every big influencer who glances at the game, a few small to medium sized influencers focus on it for much longer. They'll make videos on strategies, Easter eggs, weekly compilations of fun gameplay moments, and sometimes even machinima from the Hardcore RP community.