Excessive On Life 2: Why Squanch Added a Complete New Hub-Primarily based Design

Excessive On Life 2 is doing the belongings you’d count on this sequel to do – it’s larger, extra full of jokes, much more experimental than the primary recreation, and now has a skateboard you should utilize at any time (naturally). But it surely’s additionally doing one thing we didn’t count on: altering the primary recreation’s construction essentially. Excessive On Life 2 is taking cues from Metroidvania video games, however utilizing them to its personal ends.

In an episode of the Official Xbox Podcast, Squanch Video games’ COO & Government Producer, Matty Studivan, and Artistic & Artwork Director, Mikey Spano defined – amongst many different issues – about how the crew modified their considering to supply a complete new hub-based design for the sport.

“Our Design Director, Erich Meyr, and I early on determined we needed to do one thing that had Metroidvania parts to it, however we additionally needed to assist telling actually tight tales,” defined Spano. “So, this time round, we tried to maintain all the Metroidvania parts within the hubs.”

Whereas the unique Excessive On Life was constructed round a single hub, Blim Metropolis, the sequel will take you to a few totally different hubs, every with much more to them and, in traditional Metroidvania type, providing increasingly interactions the extra you play and earn.

“It’s a giant step up for us from the primary recreation,” mentioned Studivan. “In the event you performed it and you recognize Blim Metropolis, it’s a very cool spot, however fairly small geographically.”

“We’ve got three decent-sized hubs in [High On Life 2],” provides Spano, “and every a type of hubs has loads of little aspect issues you are able to do, NPCs you could find, tons of collectibles, tons of unlockable issues. And clearly with the skateboard; there’s loads of cool stuff associated to the skateboard that you are able to do within the hubs.”

The change is successfully about letting Squanch have their cake and eat it – the brand new construction signifies that the crew can pack within the stupendously bizarre moments that made Excessive On Life beloved, without having to derail the core story to get non-sequitur jokes in there. It’s a sublime combine:

“By way of the way it all flows collectively, you’ve bought your own home base that you simply’re all the time returning to,” defined Spano. “And in there, you’re speaking to your crew about what you’re going to do subsequent. After which, you’ll be dropped down into the hub. After which from there, you’re navigating to a goal that you simply’re following. However when you get to a sure level, it triggers a extra linear expertise the place we will inform the story in a tighter approach. We nonetheless all the time have selections that you simply’re making and stuff like that.

“However when it comes to ending a stage after which coming again with new power-ups, we attempt to hold all that within the hub in order that we will inform a whole story without having gamers to return again and listen to the identical issues again and again.”

The upshot is that Squanch can inform the story they wish to, however give gamers the liberty to step away and discover simply how odd the encircling world is at their leisure. To assist create all that aspect content material, Squanch took a really enjoyable method:

“One of many methods we had been in a position to try this is that we do recreation jams on the studio, as a result of your complete crew is so inventive,” added Studivan. “And so, we had eight or 9 groups [jam] for every week – and I believe like seven of the sport jams are within the hubs on this recreation.”

It ought to make exploring the hubs rewarding in itself – with total different recreation sorts hidden away, each discovery can change into one thing new. We’ll get extra of what we discovered to count on from the primary recreation, too – Excessive On Life included total, real-life films to observe, and that may return (with a movie show to observe them in). We additionally know that Squanch has licensed full video games (NES recreation Bible Adventures fashioned a pivotal a part of the demo we lately performed) that may seem alongside the way in which.

“We’re spending much more assets and time on [side content]. It actually makes the world really feel such as you’re someplace lived-in,” mentioned Studivan.

The massive adjustments to construction are additionally about catering to totally different sorts of gamers. Those that simply need the story can soar from essential mission to essential mission with out friction. Those that wish to do every little thing can achieve this with out having to repeat missions, and at their very own tempo. And there are additionally those that may waver between fast blasts and marathon classes:

“So, with the missions, we attempt to hold them at a sure size in order that in case you’re like, ‘I’m going to go take down this bounty,’ you truly can end it in an evening after which get again to placing your youngsters to mattress or no matter it’s that you must do,” mentioned Spano. “After which for the players that desire a extra free-form expertise, they know they will simply hand around in the hub for some time and do no matter they need and tackle missions each time they need.”

For a recreation that presents itself as unabashedly dumb, there’s a core of sensible, traditional recreation design considering sitting beneath all of the insanity. With that design in place, it permits Squanch to go as wild as they need with the concepts we, as gamers, will work together with.

Even within the earliest seems to be on the recreation, we’re seeing how far they will push this – one boss combat abruptly sees your enemy hack your recreation, sending you navigating your individual menu screens to combat him off. And, better of all:

“That’s one of many extra regular components of the sport,” Spano mentioned. “This demo is early within the recreation. By Act Three it’s simply so off the rails and insane. I believe persons are going to be actually shocked.”

I’m very a lot wanting ahead to seeing how a lot weirder this could get – Excessive on Life 2 arrives for Xbox Collection X|S and Xbox on PC on February 13, 2026, and will probably be out there on day one with Sport Go Final.

If you wish to hear a lot, far more concerning the recreation, ensure that to take a look at the complete Official Xbox Podcast episode, which dives into how Squanch circled a sequel so rapidly, the tough artwork of writing comedy for video games, the advantages of switching to Unreal Engine 5 and… the marvel of Microsoft Excel.