If you’re a fan of side-scrolling platformers and also roguelites, then Neon Abyss will likely need no introduction, as Vewoo’s original is a staple among genre fans thanks to its crunchy pixels, crisp gunplay, and vibrant neon-infused artstyle.
I’ve played the new sequel, Neon Abyss 2 as part of a playtest, and my first impressions were positive. Kieran then worked through the latest public build for his Demo Disc round-up, also liked it, and he is currently playing the Early Access release with a view to writing more about it in the coming days.
While we wait for his musings to land, we are lucky to have just got back a really detailed set of answers to some questions that I was invited to put to Vewoo Games last week. Read the full Q&A below:
RL: What are the main differences between Neon Abyss 2 and its predecessor?
VG: We loved creating the first Abyss, but due to a lack of experience the first game suffered from structural limitations. This made ongoing changes very difficult to implement, and so the first major change is a new, solid foundational framework which will support new feature additions in both short and long-term.
Right now, the biggest difference is the addition of four-player co-operative play. This was something that was really important for the players, and so it was really important for us as well.
We’ve also added a huge number of additional weapons, and as well as just adding guns (lots of guns) we’ve also added all-new weapon types including swords, knuckles, magic items, sports equipment and more.
The Faith system is also a new addition – evolving the Wisdom vs Violence system from the first Abyss. There are a variety of new Faiths in Neon Abyss 2, and they each have unique mechanics and bring their own unique rewards. By aligning their playstyle with the Faith, players will unlock the Faith Temple, which can provide many different types of reward.
We’ve also upgraded the Pets system, which will now see players unlocking lower-level Hatchmons throughout their battles in the Abyss. When players have the right combination of baby Hatchmons, they will fuse into a new Super Pet – and again each Super Pet has their own unique abilities to help players.
Those are the main differences but there’s also been a whole lot of visual polishing and tweaking which has gone into making our upgraded Abyss and we can’t wait for Agents to jump in and experience them.
When you’re developing a sequel to a popular indie game, how do you manage the balance between indie creativity and audience expectations?
Early Access is a great way to do this, and we’ve been so lucky to have an incredibly engaged community from the very beginning. A lot of Agents who loved the first game have come over to the new Abyss as Beta testers. These are all incredibly passionate and funny folks, who endured our constant tweaking almost as they played the game. They’d often encounter bizarre bugs, and weapons might change between even morning and evening play sessions.
Our thought has really been to keep communication open with those who are playing our game. Whether it’s over on X / Twitter, or Steam community forum or our own Veewo Discord server, communication has been absolutely key.
It’s important to set expectations early on, and to be honest with players when they are giving ideas, on whether this will be possible. It’s equally important on our end, to make sure that we are listening to testers, so that when things are achievable, we can accomplish them together.
I love the aesthetic and pixel art style – what can you tell us about the game’s design and how you’ve captured its specific look and feel?
The look and feel was really set with the first Neon Abyss. We have always loved the pixel art style, but initially this actually wasn’t the plan for our first game. However, cost and time limitations made us consider using pixel art for the Abyss and since then we haven’t looked back!
The overall neon aesthetic and cybermyth vibe really grew from Lans’ (Creative Director) love for the novel American Gods, and the Suicide Squad movie. Once we’d mixed pixel art and cybermyth neon together we simply could not go in any other direction.
How we’ve captured it is a different story. A lot of collaboration and constant communication on designs. A LOT of iterative changes and tweaks where we felt designs were maybe too cute or too bland. Having the ideas is great, and we feel the team have perfectly captured that vision as it’s transferred from paper to the screen.
This has continued in the upgraded Abyss, but we’ve now gone even further. Each level has it’s own unique theme and designs, as well as more generic upgrades and polish throughout the Abyss.
What are the challenges of combining running ‘n’ gunning with roguelite replayability?
A couple of the biggest challenges are pacing and randomisation. This is especially important in the way which we’ve approached synergies within the Abyss in Neon Abyss and Neon Abyss 2.
For pacing, it’s been important to make sure that users are always feeling a sense of progression. Sure, you’re going to die, a lot. It’s the Abyss. But, unless you have a particularly bad run, it should never feel like you haven’t achieved anything on that drop.
It’s important to make sure that players are unlocking new items, whether this is new weapons, new artefacts, new curios, and even new Agents. Of course, on top of this, it’s equally important to make sure that it’s not too easy to unlock things, and that there will be more to collect as you progress and get further each time.
With the random nature of the game as well (key to many roguelikes), our synergy system has had to take into account that players have minimal choice over which weapons and items they get. Each Agent in the Abyss comes with their own unique abilities, whether it’s Elise’s love for Hatchmon, Xuan’s near-miss buffs, or James’ arsenal. The items you pick up, though, mean that players will have to pray a little to the gods of RNG.
Because of this it’s been important to do two things. Firstly, we’ve worked to make sure that there are plenty of synergies between weapons and items, and that players have a lot of ways they can build a loadout which works well. Secondly, we’ve also improved the choice that players will have with weapon upgrades, and of course, made new weapons and items available in the game’s shops, too.
Talk to us about the weapons in Neon Abyss 2? What can players look forward to?
We know that players had a lot of fun with the chaotic weapons in the first Abyss. We wanted to keep that chaos at the core, but it was important to give Agents new toys to play with (we don’t want them getting bored).
So the obvious answer was to add more guns – Which we have done. The not-quite-so-obvious answer was to add more weapon types, so we did that, as well. Agents can now find swords, magic items, knuckles, sporting equipment and more.
Still want a gun? Sure, you’re going to find a bunch of them, including a lot of old favourites. But you’ll also find new melee, close combat and ranged weapons, as well as those when blend these aspects together (so a baseball bat is great for hitting but wouldn’t you rather it also launched baseballs across the room, which increased with every combo hit?).
We don’t want to give any spoilers, as we LOVE watching players discover things on their own, but take a look at our recent trailers and social media and you’ll definitely see some of the new ones in action there!
When it comes to the boss designs, what has been your approach to keeping them feeling fresh?
We really wanted to make sure that we have offered something new while remaining respectful to what Agents loved about the first game. We really wanted to keep that theme of more modern gods, and we know players will have seen a lot of these within the playtests and demos which we’ve already put out there.
It’s been important to keep to that cyber-mythology theme, so that’s meant some creative conversations on what these new, new gods should be. We’ve also made sure to really keep to our loyal audience as well, and focus in on new gods which would be familiar to gamers, geeks and tech-lovers.
To keep things fresh, this can be a little harder. We’ve worked hard to add new abilities for each of the new, new gods, alongside new references and designs. We’ve also introduced new Void Power upgrades and you’ll see more bosses and Titans on the roadmap we’ll be sharing soon.
With the first game, you supported it post-launch with DLC. Is that the plan here?
We’re currently focused on the Early Access program, and we’re finalising a provisional roadmap which we’ll be sharing with players very soon. With the nature of the game, DLC content is a natural progression following the 1.0 launch, but it’s not something we’re looking at very much right now.
Finally, when and where will the game be available?
You can pick Neon Abyss 2 up in Steam Early Access on July 17th! For those on other platforms, we hear you and we appreciate you, and we hope to have more news closer to 1.0 launch!
Thank you to Vewoo Games for their detailed and thoughtful answers. As I mentioned up top, Kieran is playing this one for review, so stay tuned for more on Neon Abyss 2 here on Rogueliker!
