- King of Meat studio co-founders say the game’s Create mode does have some design limitations for the sake of creative learning
- Studio head and co-founder Johnny Hopper says that the game isn’t a “totally free form, Minecraft-esque” experience
- Mike Green, co-founder and design director, says players invested in creative learning can “tweak all the behaviors of pretty much everything”
According to Glowmade’s co-founders, King of Meat‘s Create mode will have some limitations built in for the sake of creative learning.
In an interview with TechRadar Gaming, studio head and co-founder Johnny Hopper and Mike Green, co-founder and design director, touched on the game’s dungeon maker, explaining that players will be able to create levels with the tools that were used to make the game’s 100.
Green said that the team was “inspired by Mario Maker” when designing the game’s Create mode, but that there will be limitations for the sake of casual creatives so players know what they’re doing.
“We know the language of Mario, we know what every single one of those things does without needing a tutorial,” Green explained. “So we tried to do the same thing because, you know, obviously, with community-made content, you want people to go: ‘Oh that’s a switch, I know how a switch behaves’, and if somebody took it away, [they’ll] be slightly confused. So we’ve kept those limitations in, but then we’ve got a whole underlying logic system.”
The developer continued, explaining that a casual creator can build a dungeon easily using the tools provided, but for players invested in creative learning, they can “tweak all the behaviors of pretty much everything” and “go to town with it”.
“You know, sometimes the best creativity comes from having limitations,” he said.
Hopper added that this limitation was a deliberate decision because the game isn’t a “totally free form, Minecraft-esque” experience.
“It’s a different ask from a player, you know, if you give somebody a blank canvas and say, ‘Now go make a level’, that’s much, much harder than kind of going, ‘Here’s a room, and you can jump in it, and you can get from A to B’, and that change, that is actually a, kind of an easier thing,” he said.
The studio head said that the development team wanted to help players figure out how Create mode works from the start, because after creating the building blocks for a dungeon, the game gives more context for how to improve it.
“Really, one of the challenges of Create mode is not just building a thing, it’s building a thing that is fun, and to try and kind of communicate that in the language of the tools and the visual language that we use to help players understand what it is to make something that is fun has been a really interesting challenge,” Hopper said.
King of Meat doesn’t have an official release date yet, but we know the game is coming to PC, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and Nintendo Switch.
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