Materials Suggestion (with pictures!)

Looking back, it's hard to miss the fact that KoGaMa has always been inconsistent in its handling of materials.  From price changes to seemingly unwarranted texture and hue edits, the materials are prone to constant alteration - yet, we never can tell if we'll get any new additions.  Sometimes many are added in quick succession - other times, we go years without a single new addition.  The materials menu has needed to be reorganized and revamped since the second page was filled.  Despite all this, materials are essentially the last remaining build feature (besides themes) that costs gold - and therefore has potential for revenue.  It's time to capitalize on materials - and I don't mean price hikes or demanding builders purchase the same material a second (or third!) time.

Here we go.

I've made this clear many times in the past, but let me reiterate yet again: the materials menu needs to be completely overhauled.  As it is, it just isn't designed to handle any more additions ... as it is, I flip through the same pages over and over again looking for that one material buried in the mess.

Now, this is going to sound insane, but I suggest releasing a new material every month - and only having it available for purchase that month.  Another route, which would allow for even more quantity, is a biweekly (every two weeks) release schedule - 27 materials per year.

On top of this, you could add in a marketplace system.  Allow builders to purchase the same material multiple times (multiple shares) - so that they can then resell those shares in the market after they're no longer available in the developer-run materials shop.  Also allow them to set their own prices - with a minimum gold price to keep the price gouging at a minimum.  Once a builder sells all of his/her shares in a material, he/she loses access to that material.

Why have such a system?  One, making materials limited time encourages players to buy gold to grab up the materials before they're gone (and before they hit the market and prices rise).  Two, allowing builders to buy multiple shares and resell encourages players to buy gold to do just that, in the hopes of earning more gold in the market.  Three, if materials hit the marketplace at a higher gold cost, players will ultimately purchase more gold in order to get them.  Cha-ching!

These monthly releases can be recycled in the next year, so you can re-release the same material multiple times.  Due to potential scarcity from a growing playerbase, you'll make money each time around.

On top of the special limited time releases, there'll be plenty of permanent materials for players to buy up too.

Before going forward, it'd be awesome if we could change a few of our existing materials one last time.

Removing the checkers from black concrete, dark red concrete, butter, and ice would be a good start.  Parkour may or may not need an update, since checkers seem a common theme in physics materials.  Kill and poison could use a de-striping so that they don't look like modified grass.

Now, striped green grass is an iconic feature in Kogama, dating back to the beginning.  I suggest adding in three green concrete materials in addition to the existing striped materials.

A great aspect of this suggestion is that it's relatively easy to recolor existing materials and resell them as new.  It's relatively quick and cheap, and can turn a profit.

Something I'd like to point out is a feature that originally sold players on the grid material was that it glowed in the dark.  This should be re-implemented in the existing materials, and in new variants.  It's a great selling point, and it makes projects look fantastic.

The circuit material has never had a glow shader, but it would make it more appealing.

Something nice is that it's relatively easy to modify striped concrete into completely new materials.

Something nice is that a lot of old versions of existing materials can be resold as new standalone materials.

This trampoline one is one of my favorites here.  The black trampoline would just be a recolored version of the regular material.

There's also potential to add in destructible variants:

And new physics materials, like a blue ice that has the same effect as an ice sentry turret:

I couldn't fit everything here.  To see the full gallery, you can check out this Imgur link: imgur.com/a/eAemNlc

The possibilities are quite endless here.

Anyway, that's my two cents.

~ Ozy