WHAT IS PHANTOM BRIGADE?
Phantom Brigade is a hybrid real-time and turn-based tactical RPG, focusing on in-depth customization and player-driven stories. As the last surviving squad of mech pilots, you must use your advantage of prediction technology to capture enemy equipment and facilities to level the playing field. Outnumbered and out-gunned, we need you to lead the Brigade through a desperate campaign to retake their war-torn homeland.

WHAT IS EARLY ACCESS?
Early Access is a period in which players can purchase Phantom Brigade early if they would like to support development, help shape its future, or simply experience the game before 1.0. During this time we’ll continue to add features, balance the game based on player feedback and further polish the game.

WHY EARLY ACCESS?
Early Access allows us to get your feedback as early as possible so we can make Phantom Brigade the best game it can be. We’re bursting with ideas and want you to help us shape the future of the game.

HOW LONG WILL THE GAME BE IN EARLY ACCESS?
We are currently planning on having Early Access for at least a year. However, this could change if we feel like the game is not ready for a full 1.0 launch.

HOW IS THE FULL VERSION PLANNED TO DIFFER FROM THE EARLY ACCESS VERSION?
The full version will have additional features, more content, better game balance, cinematic tools, and improved mod support.

HOW OFTEN WILL YOU BE UPDATING PHANTOM?
Phantom Brigade will see one major update to the game per month, similar to our other project Industries of Titan. Phantom Brigade major releases should land on the 3rd Tuesday of every month. The Experimental branch of Phantom Brigade will likely see an update a week at least as we roll out our new features for testing.
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GB: You were heavily involved in the production of Troika Games’ Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura. In fact, your alter ego, Sir Chadwick Moore, was immortalized in one of the loading screens as the author of “An Unfortunate Affair,” a very much real short story that served as a piece of foundational fiction for the game. Can you tell me something about how that story, and the game’s unique world that combines magic and steampunk technology, came to be?

CM: That was a really fun and interesting project that I took on soon after joining the team at Troika. We had already done a lot of early world-building, but we needed something to bring all of those great ideas into a more compelling picture of what the world was like. And so “An Unfortunate Affair” was born. It ended up being a lot longer than I’d originally planned – but I think it was really successful in communicating what was unique about the game world. It was really useful for the team as a creative target, and I remember the community really enjoying it when we released it later on.

GB: Where does this story of yours fit into the bigger picture? It mentions Tarant, the game’s biggest hub, features some prominent NPCs, describes a good number of spells and technological gadgets, and even sneaks in a mention of the infamous gnome conspiracy quest. Did you have some reference document when writing about all those things or did you invent them for the story? What's the chicken and the egg situation here like?

CM: It was a little bit of both. Things like Tarant, Tulla and the gnome conspiracy were already an established part of the lore – and I wanted to weave them into the narrative. But I created the characters from whole cloth to tell this particular story, and made up a few gadgets and spells along the way. The best part about the whole experience was going back and weaving those characters back into the game itself – so you could meet Perriman Smythe in Tarant, or Sebastian in the Boil, and recruit them as followers. Even Willoughsby and Lorham made cameos. My inner lore nerd still gets a little giddy just thinking about it.

GB: Beyond that story, which parts of the game you personally worked on? Which were your favorite?

CM: Outside of the character models that I modeled and implemented into the game, one of my main responsibilities was writing and scripting many of the followers. Each of them had different stories and personalities, and many of them would react differently (and sometimes violently) depending on who else was in the group. It was a very complex exercise, but very cool in those situations where their reactivity was on display. There were some really great personalities in there as well – from Magnus Shale Fist the secret descendant of the legendary Iron Clan to Franklin Payne the world-renowned explorer.

GB: An individual by the name of Edward R. G. Mortimer is credited as the game’s main writer. From what I can tell, he was an editor and contributor to Judges Guild, a pen and paper RPG publisher from way back in the day, but very little is known about him. Can you shed some light on who Mr. Mortimer really was and what he did for Arcanum?

CM: My memory on this was pretty fuzzy, so I had to go straight to the source: Tim Cain. Tim told me that Edward G. Mortimer was a designer from the Judges Guild - a company that made modules for D&D and AD&D back in the 70’s and early 80’s. Mortimer wrote some really good modules for them, so Tim contracted him to do some additional writing for Arcanum. Back then it was much more difficult to coordinate with employees remotely, so most of what he wrote was additional material for our generated dialog system. Although he didn’t end up being a major contributor over the long term, Tim was happy to have worked with (and hired, in fact!) one of his favorite JG designers.

For my part, the one thing I remember about Edward R. G. Mortimer was that he had the snazziest pair of rainbow suspenders I have ever seen.

GB: Now, let’s move on to some of your other projects. While you were still at Troika, you had a hand in making Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines happen. And once again, it looks like you were involved in pretty much everything from character art to the game’s main story. What are some of your favorite memories about that project?

CM: Bloodlines was such a great project. I remember meeting with the guys from White Wolf to talk about the WoD, and then getting a huge box full of all the source material to dive into. I remember meeting Gabe Newell up at Valve and talking about how could we use the source engine to create our world. Lots of late nights with Leonard and Jason talking about the best ways to translate the VtM systems into the game. About what city the game should take place in. About the kinds of music that best represented the game’s vibe. Creating the first prototype with Jeanette, an alleyway, and a creepy basement (parts of which showed up in Gimble’s Prosthetics years later). Writing the game’s main story arc. Creating the Malkavian’s language. Modeling characters like the Nosferatu, the Tzmisce, and the Werewolf. Directing voice over and hearing our characters come to life through talented folks like John DiMaggio, Courtenay Taylor and Gray DeLisle. Watching a coven of dominatrix vampires spank fans with a leather horsewhip on the show floor at E3. Those were just a few of the highlights. But the best part was that we had a great group of devs who really cared about making a cool game. Many of us still keep in touch to this day.

GB: Between Arcanum and Bloodlines, you worked on both isometric and 3D action-RPGs. Which way of doing things do you prefer? Why?

CM: 3D ARPGs are definitely my favorite of the two genres. Personally, I like the more immersive experience that a first-person game provides, coupled with skill-based action-mechanics that you can enhance and progress through role-playing systems. There’s an immediacy to that kind of experience that I really enjoy. I’ve always felt that Bloodlines was ahead of its time in this respect – a truly deep and immersive story-driven RPG blended with a fun and engaging action game. In many ways it’s become the template for what many consider the modern RPG.
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Hello everyone!​

It’s big patch time. But this time, not only are you going to feel the improvements, you’re also going to see them. As we’ve previously said, Early Access is about improving and iterating on every single facet of the game, and that includes all of the things you see and hear.

In this big patch, we’ve got general fixes for cinematics such as this one below. He was starting to get a crooked neck, and we’re pretty sure he doesn’t have health insurance so we helped him out a bit.

It’s not just about tweaks though. As many of you know, despite playing through the Early Access content sometimes for up to a hundred hours or more (wow!) you still haven’t seen all of the content, because incrementally new things are seeded into the game. In this case, a missing cinematic. Where once was darkness, there is now light!

See if you can spot the differences in the game for yourself, or continue to read this Community Update with attached patch notes for spoilers. You know you want to.

A certain song has also been ‘re-shot’ by our cinematics team, which gives you an excuse to check it out again. Did you need one? Side note: we’ve been watching your reactions to this song in your VODs and YouTube videos, as well as in various streams, and the reactions are beautiful. Watching you play the game as we improve it is very motivating for all of us.

On the topic of music and joy, last week saw the Symphony of Sin, which included the first ever live performance of some of the music from Baldur’s Gate 3, as well as some wonderful songs from Divinity: Original Sin 2. You can watch the VOD here, it’s well worth it:

With that said, let’s look at some of the data that’s been making us smile over the week.

Everyone knows you can pet the dog in Baldur’s Gate 3, but did you know the dog has been petted 400k times? Such a good boy deserves that many pets.

Speaking of good boys, last update we discussed how Gale was ultimately attacked quite a lot. Check out last week’s update for the stats on that. Somewhat contradicturally, he’s the most “romanced” of the party. He’s been “romanced” by 33% of players. Shadowheart came second, falling in love with 31% of players, and in return 31% of players fell in love with Shadowheart.

1.37% of players chose to sleep alone. Which is cool too! We have the other stats, but thought it might be fun if you gave it a shot and guessed them. One thing we’re seeing is the stan memes aren’t correlating with the actual “romance data”. For sure, there’s enough tinder in the campfire to ignite some flames.

On a less romantic note (though this really depends on your tastes), 5.87% of players tried to steal the ring… but 26.3% of those players merely sucked a toe. If you haven’t got there yet, you’ll know when you see it. Since we’re talking about failure statistics, many people have made it to The Underdark. But 40.79% of players who jumped down a large, dark hole arrived dead, because they leapt without Feather Fall.

We’re saving perhaps the most interesting until last. Slight spoiler, so if you don’t want spoilers, don’t read this. You may know that at a point in the game, you may side with one of two factions: the Tieflings against the goblins, or with Minthara who demands the gates are opened for the goblins to attack the Druids Grove.

74.85% of you stood with the Tieflings, and 25.15% of you sided with Minthara. Good outweighs evil, it seems.

An optimistic note to end on.
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MicroProse, originally co-founded by Sid Meier almost 40 years ago, made a surprising return this year. It looks like it's picked up where it left off, publishing games that feel most at home on PC, typically with a tactical or sim bent. The latest is Urban Strife, a mix of turn-based tactics, management and roleplaying during a zombie apocalypse. Check out the trailer above.

Developed by White Pond Games, Urban Strife is set after the zombies have wiped out civilisation, but they've yet to finish the job and zombify every single human. That means you've got time to build up your shelter, make deals with a trio of factions, put together a team of gun-toting survivors and generally prepare for the return of the horde of wandering corpses.

So many turn-based tactics games get compared to XCOM these days, but Urban Strife's got more in common with the Sir-Tech classic Jagged Alliance 2. Like the tactical merc RPG, Urban Strife boasts a dynamic campaign where you'll have to go out and explore, chatting up NPCs and engaging in a bit of diplomacy in an effort to unite the last specks of humanity. This time, though, the NPCs apparently have their own lives and allegiances, with their morality determined by the faction they've joined.

Urban Strife's got a trio of factions: army rebels, a cult of zombie-lovers and a biker gang—standard post-apocalyptic fare—and you'll be able to work with them or, if diplomacy breaks down, add them to the large list of things that you have to shoot.

As well as fighting off any factions you've pissed off as you try to expand, you'll naturally encounter some of those moaning, shuffling zombies. The thing is, zombies usually suck in turn-based games. Fighting off hordes of enemies who sluggishly move one by one is a chore, but Urban Strife's reanimated corpses use a horde AI that means they all move in a single turn. Each is still an individual enemy, but when it comes to movement they all act as a single unit.

Like Jagged Alliance 2, you'll fight during the day and at night, and sticking to the shadows means you'll be able to sneak around and use melee for silent takedowns, or set up your squad for an ambush. You'll be sneakier at night, but using cover, stealth is still viable when the sun is out. And speaking of lighting things up, you can use fire as a weapon, which will dynamically destroy anything flammable that it encounters.

Urban Strife is coming out next year on Steam, but MicroProse says there will be an opportunity to play before that.
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We have decided to postpone the premiere of Gamedec to 2021.

During the Kickstarter Campaign, we were fully open with our decision to make Gamedec a community-driven project - We wanted you to be an active factor in helping us create the game you would like to play. We try to keep you informed about the production status and provide you with information about our activities as often as possible.

Right now, two months after the Backer's Build release, we sat down and discussed the feedback many of you provided in the surveys or previews both by press and content creators. We realized that they were sincere, sometimes rough, but always beneficial and mind-opening, hence our decision to postpone the release date.

This made us understand that we're heading in the right direction with the game's production, and our branching system works well, but there is still room for improvement and much work to be done. We know that the decision to delay the release will help us deliver the consistency in the quality of the premise you've backed.

We are iterating many different aspects of the game to be sure they meet the high standards our community anticipates. We know that the dialogues (and their translation) need to be improved– That is one of the most commented problems from the Backer's Build Survey, and we want to deliver the quality we've promised during the campaign. Most of the in-game locations are done, but we are still iterating the meta-scenario factors and polishing the narrative branching. We will provide you with more information about that in the future, with more dev-diaries, content videos about the progress, and more.

As for user-created input – we promised space to deliver community-made assets that will find their place in the game's final build (graffiti, voice recordings, naming NPCs, or companies), and it is still a work in progress. In the following weeks, we will be reaching out to gather the input/content from you to process it into the game. Expect some emails/check the Discord Backer Channels for more info on that.

When it comes to physical rewards - they will be sent out to you shortly before the game's release so that you'll have them on the launch day, and at the moment, we are working on them to have the highest possible quality to satisfy you fully. You can also expect various updates on this matter, as we will try to show you the process of their creation and tell you a bit more about what it looks like "behind the scenes".

Gamedec is still set to debut on PC. Switch and other consoles are still confirmed, but we can't promise a simultaneous release.

Thank you for being such a fantastic community and for your continued support.

#TeamGamedec
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You are Sir Mordred, the nemesis of King Arthur, the former black knight of the grim tales. You killed King Arthur, but with his dying breath, he struck you down. You both died – and yet, you both live.

The Lady of the Lake, the ruler of the mystical island of Avalon brought you back to end a true nightmare. She wants you to go on a knightly quest. She wants you to finish what you have begun. Kill King Arthur – or whatever he has become after she took his dying vessel to Avalon.

King Arthur: Knight’s Tale is a Role-playing Tactical Game - a unique hybrid between turn-based tactical games (like X-Com) and traditional, character-centric RPGs.

Knight's Tale is a modern retelling of a classic Arthurian mythology story filtered through the dark fantasy tropes, a twist on the traditional tales of chivalry.

The story campaign puts a huge emphasis on moral choices, which have significant consequences in a rogue-lite structure, adding extra tension to the tactical and management decisions.​