Category: Ark: survival evolved

Since the beginning of 2018, the collective of Designers Sokpop has been developing a game a month thanks to the support they receive from Patreon. The idea of constantly creating and frantically part of a challenge that the four developers were self-imposed the previous year and by which they intended to gain experience by dedicating only 30 days to deepen an idea, leading it to the limits of their possibilities. During these months, and counting the extra titles that often accompany the monthly mini-game, Sokpop has managed to finish more than 90 different games, among which they stand out – according to their own patron – the Title of Strategy with Simmiland cards, the Heliopedia spatial exploration game and the deck Builder Toverblade.

But although with each title the developers experience with different genres, artistic and mechanical styles, it is with the letters with what they usually get better results. The team has perfectly controlled the sensation of random generated by the deck and are experts on counteract it with enough elements as for games to always feel righteous. In addition, and precisely because it is the design element to which they usually appeal more often, they know how to work the gamefeel of the cards so that the final result is always superior to what we could expect from a title created between two people, In just a few days. With Stacklands, his last proposal, the collective demonstrates his good to do through a survival game and construction of cities that we discovered through the interaction between different card packages.

The randomness is the central element in Stacklands. The game, completely set in a single screen where we can place the elements to our liking, offers us a small free card package. In addition to a “citizen”, this package will randomly contain a series of basic letters between which rock, wood, trees and shrubs with berries can be found. To start exploiting each of these primary resources we will have to combine the letters with the citizen, putting one on top of another, and leaving them acting for a limited time until we can use secondary resources, items that we can use for constructions or sell to get even more envelopes of letters. Thus, Stacklands raises two game loops, the first, focused on survival, encourages us to grow our society, being limited by our ability to feed the villagers that we have at the end of each month. The second loop, conditioned by the internal economy of the game, leads us to try to create expensive resources that we can sell for more currencies, so that we have the ability to invest in the most expensive envelopes, with the strangest and most valuable cards. Developing a good game strategy goes by finding the balance between the two loops that reward approximations different from the game, and also, becoming clear that there is a limitation in the number of maximum letters we can have on the board. But once our departure takes off, the interesting thing is to move guided by curiosity. Also because of the satisfaction of seeing the surprises that each of the envelopes keeps for us.

Although among the letters we can find in Stacklands there are “ideas” that will tell us how to develop ambitious constructions, the title is designed so that we are we who discover the recipes following our instinct and applying a bit of logic. Thus, when we reveal the flint, it is natural that we investigate the possibility of making fire. In the same way, when one of our citizens dies, it is normal that we investigate the possibilities to get rid of the corpse. Stacklands, despite having only 100 different elements and constructions, is full of ingenious surprises that take out all the game to the simplicity of representation by letters. While other “major” proposals are limited by the characteristics of realistic representations that introduce, when using letters, Stacklands shows us its different elements such as “similar objects” with which it makes sense to experiment. That’s why it’s not others to try what happens when mixing ese building with sa fruit or ese type of citizen with the idea of the house.

However, the most interesting thing in Stacklands is as it uses all the design elements surrounding the loot boxes in a totally harmless and honest way. To advance the game we have to constantly buy envelopes of progressively more expensive and sophisticated letters that we must pay with money in-game. The satisfaction of opening a package after another, and the pleasure of finding a strange or especially valuable letter, they are a Very important part of our experience as players that we can enjoy openly by not being associated with real money or external elements to the game. Resell the letters that do not interest us or those that we still can not get it out, it becomes especially interesting when we unlock the market and we must choose if we prefer to sell them there, with the cost of associated time, or do it immediately, at a lower price, In the basic system of the game. In the proposal of Sokpop we are both an omnipotent God who plays with a civilization and stressed strategist who must adapt to the conditions of the game. But the mixture works. The two independent loops cross at a certain moment thanks to the characteristics of roguelike that allow us to maintain the accessible “ideas” at the beginning of a new game.

Stacklands surprises a depth that contrasts with the simplicity of your gameplay. By the simple way in which it launches complex ideas and the eloquence with which it presents the bases of any survival game, making it clear that those pillars can give for much more. Sokpop’s goal may not pass by revolutionizing any gender. After all, the collective only wants to experiment with different ideas without arriving at any time to commit to a project, looking for the returns of commercial viability. But this is one of those games that are short, one of the best experiences that has come from the group of creators. A solid, direct and complete title, which takes out all the possible game of the minimum elements that put it to work.