Hopoo Games has confirmed working on a sequel to Risk of Rain, the 2013 action rogue-like that lets players explore its procedurally-generated planets alone or in groups of two to four. And the studio has big plans for Risk of Rain 2, including a transition from 2D side-scrolling to hectic gunfights in open-world environments.
Oh. And it’s 3D now. No big deal.
Details on Risk of Rain 2 remain incredibly scarce. According to a blog post from the studio, Hopoo Games has only been working on the Risk of Rain sequel for about 6 months. The game is still very early in development. So early that Hopoo says it hasn’t even nailed down which systems and mechanics from the original game will be retained and which will be replaced. The same goes for Risk of Rain 2 ’s visual design. And characters. Pretty much everything to do with the sequel is still up in the air because this is the first 3D title being developed by Hopoo Games. So no one on the team is ready to say what will/won’t work because they aren’t really sure.
“None of the systems, artstyles, assets, or game design choices will necessarily translate to the final game,” the team wrote. “We’re learning as we go along - I hope that you guys find it as interesting to read as we do to develop.”
The current iteration of the project looks remarkably similar to its predecessor, given the addition of a third navigable dimension. A number of familiar faces can be seen in the GIFs published this week, including the towering cyclopes and flaming skulls seen frequently in the first Risk of Rain . The team has also created a 3D iteration of Commando, the orange-suited combatant who serves as the default character (and cover art) for the first game. An early Risk of Rain 2 screenshot also seems to confirm Acrid will return; however, it’s hard to know for certain if the unfinished pink character in the image is actually the ball-and-chain dragging miniboss from the first game.
Hopoo says it plans to release additional blogs throughout the Risk of Rain 2 development cycle. Future updates will include details on the systems currently planned for the sequel, including a “unified character system” and “item proc chains.” No timeline was given for those updates or the Risk of Rain 2 release date. We don’t even know what platform(s) the game will be available for at launch. The first Risk of Rain hit PC, PS4 and the Vita. So it’s probably safe to assume some combination of those machines will also have access to the sequel. Unfortunately, we’ll have to wait until Hopoo Games feels a bit more comfortable speaking about Risk of Rain 2 publicly before we find out if the sequel will head to Nintendo Switch and/or Xbox One.
Risk of Rain 2 is in development for unidentified platforms.
Be sure to check back with iDigitalTimes and follow Scott on Twitter for more Risk of Rain 2 news in 2017 and however long it takes Hopoo Games to release its upcoming Risk of Rain sequel.
