One of the coziest games in the cozy game genre currently has a sequel in Early Access. Slime Rancher 2 takes the foundations of the original game and expands upon them with a greater wealth of customization and ways to make the ranch feel more dynamic. The game’s latest update, Add to Cart Prontomart which launched in late May, included a host of new features toward that end.
Game ZXC spoke with Pearl Ko, a senior user experience designer for Slime Rancher 2, about the latest update and her feelings on the state of the game overall. The following interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
Slime Rancher 2 Developer Discusses How The "Add To Cart Prontomart" Update Honors Pride Month
In an interview with Game ZXC, UX Designer Pearl Ko discusses how Slime Rancher 2's new Pride Flag gadget celebrates Pride month.
The Rancher Experience
Q: Can you introduce yourself?
Ko: My name is Pearl Ko. I'm a senior UX designer at Monomi Park.
Q: What kind of accessibility features does Slime Rancher 2 have now? And are there more accessibility features planned in the future?
Ko: Currently, right now, we do have a few things in place–we do have key binding. And so you know, that's the ability to remap some of the keys and buttons when you're controlling stuff in the game. We also have a few different things that are just to aid like movement and action. We have the ability to toggle on and off the sprint action, or using the vac in the game. So there are some things revolving around movement that we have already put in place. As far future accessibility. features and settings, nothing's been determined yet, but we are keeping a close eye on what we can do for future releases.
Q: How would you compare the user experience from Slime Rancher 2 to Slime Rancher 1’s user experience so far?
Ko: I'm not too familiar with Slime Rancher 1–I did play a little bit of it, but I wasn't involved in its development. I would say that probably the biggest change has been, at least in terms of the UI side of things, just trying to make things more clear, more minimalist, and making things easier to just kind of grok at a glance. I know that the first game had a pretty light touch in terms of styling of the UI, so this time around, things are a little more curated to the overall vibe of Slime Rancher. Things should feel more cohesive. It should feel a little more like it's part of an overall vision in terms of the artistic style.
Personalization is On Sale at Prontomart
Q: What would you say was the main goal of the recent update?
Ko: I'd say the main goal behind Add to Cart Prontomart was just giving players a way to spend and have fun spending their hard earned Newbucks. Newbucks is the currency that's used in-game. So previously, you know, there was no shop inside Slime Rancher 2, but now there's a way for players to spend the resources that they've earned and then customize their ranch and the world to their heart's content. So yeah, that was the primary goal behind the update.
Q: What made that such a priority for the studio and this update in particular?
Ko: This update is going very hand in hand with the previous update, which is Gadgets My Way. That update allowed players to be able to place gadgets, which are these structures that players can build in game–they can place them now anywhere, whereas previously in Slime Rancher 1 there were only designated areas where you could put these things, which also include decorations. So now after the previous update, essentially like the entire world has been opened up to players being able to place these things everywhere. And so this update is more about helping players get even more and that they can purchase and can craft a variety of things so that they can further decorate and customize their experience.
In a statement, the team at Monomi Park added: “We've always wanted players to have more agency in expressing themselves in Slime Rancher , but previous constraints limited gadget placement to specific, predefined locations in the world. With the overhaul of the gadget system, players can now place gadgets nearly anywhere they like, making the game world more personal and engaging for experimentation, decoration, and revisiting as we add more content. Our recent update, featuring the Prontomart, provides a sustainable way to introduce new gadgets, expanding the options for players to personalize their ranch and the world around them.”
Q: And gadget variants are a major part of customizing.
Ko: So players will be able to purchase variants that will replace the default appearance of a gadget that they have already made in game. So that's as easy as just, once you've placed a gadget somewhere in the world, you can just go up to it when you're in gadget mode, and you press the change variant button, and then that will cycle to a variant that you own for that gadget.
Making the Ranch Unique with Gadgets
Q: The toys, gadgets and decorations throughout Slime Rancher 2 – but in this update, in particular – give the game a much more dynamic and personal feel than its predecessor? Why is that a priority to focus on?
Ko: I think part of this was a desire to help the player engage more with discovery in this game. There are slimes out there to capture and take care of and you know, just collect, but also, we wanted players to just like, have fun, you know, taking time to customize their own experience. I think part of this was a desire to get players out there to gather more resources and engage more with the crafting loop, which is a major core part of the experience of Slime Rancher. That's my take on it.
Q: How did you decide on the list of new gadgets to add with this update?
Ko: Oh, that's another really good question. I was not personally involved with that, I can only answer from what I've seen. But I know a lot of it was informed by the gadgets that we already have kind of theming around some different areas and kind of like biomes that we have. So some of the newer content is themed around beach stuff. One of my favorite gadgets on this update is the clam throne. So it's kind of like a chair where you can slot in the slime. But that came up as a result of brainstorming around like, oh, what else could be added for this sort of beachy set of gadgets?
Q: Is the clam throne your favorite of the new gadgets?
Ko: Definitely one of my favorites. That and the pride flag also.
Q: Can you talk a little about why that pride flag is important to Slime Rancher 2?
Ko: Well, I can't speak for the whole studio. But I know for myself, personally, I really do appreciate this game feels so welcoming. It is just very open to the kind of narrative and story that as a player, I can just go into without having to deal with you know, like a narrative that's been constructed so fully that I can't immerse myself into. I think there's a lot of this exploratory feeling that the world itself, although it’s not completely safe, feels very gentle and welcoming. And I think that goes hand in hand with thinking about inclusivity. Yeah, but that's just my personal take, but I can't answer for the rest of the studio.
In a statement, the team at Monomi Park added: “We're an inclusive studio and we support everyone in our community.”
New Sites to See
Q: Can you talk a little about the design that went into the digsite and how it was made to stand out?
Ko: I guess it kind of calls to mind fossils, which is super cool. It does make me think of like, you know–I'm from the LA area so I grew up near and went to the La Brea Tar Pits. So you know, my mind goes to like a prehistoric timeframe when slimes were roaming everywhere and were of all different sizes. So maybe there were giant slimes and slimes that we don't see currently, some very cool and different ones.
In a statement, the team at Monomi Park added: “With the Digsite we wanted the space to highlight the new gadget system and to encourage players to really embrace its possibilities. We settled on an archaeological dig site theme because it fit the idea of discovering new objects. We doubled down on that idea by scattering a bunch of free decorations around the expansion that players can 'clean up' in order to both free up space but also gain some new decorative props to use anywhere via the new gadget overhaul as a reward for the effort.”
Q: If a reader has not yet picked up this patch, what do you recommend they spend their Newbucks on first?
Ko: Oh, that's yeah, that's tough. Yeah, there's a lot to buy and have fun with I think probably. Gosh, I think the toys definitely are probably a good spend. They're super cute. They're also very tactile. So they're not like a gadget strictly, they're more like an object for slimes. Slimes can interact with them like any other physics objects in the world. And because they are designed for slimes, they can help put slimes in a better mood. You'll see slimes like bouncing around with them, which is really super adorable. So I think that that gets a lot of really fun visual mileage for players.
There are a lot of also really fun, functional gadgets like a really cute fan–a standing room fan that you'd have in real life, but they are themed in different colors–and one is themed tar, which are like black and multicolored creatures, and this fan is designed to look like a tar, and I think it's incredibly adorable. But there are gadgets like this that you can use to manipulate objects in the environment. So the fan is capable of pushing objects around. So something I've seen players do is construct these gadgets in such a way as to move resources around or create new assembly lines. I think it would just be really fun for players to continue to explore that–I think that's probably where a lot of fun is.
Q: Is there anything else you would like to add?
Ko: I guess I'd love for players to continue to visit Prontomart and look around in the shop for any secrets. I think they'll get a kick out of some of the things that they'll discover if they visit the shop, for example, at different times of day or night. Yeah, things might be a little different than their expectations. I think that will be fun for them to discover.
[END]
Slime Rancher 2
Monomi Park's Slime Rancher 2 follows Beatrix LeBeau as she sets up a ranch in a colorful world filled with the eponymous slimes. In order to make money, Beatrix must cultivate and sell the slimes' plorts.
