Game News Mechajammer Kickstarter Update #27: New Title, Beta Updated

[Infinitron]

Tags: Mechajammer; Whalenought Studios

The Copper Dreams beta build was unexpectedly updated two days ago. Once again, the game's visual style had completely changed. In fact, it now looks remarkably like Serpent in the Staglands, Whalenought's previous title. This time they published a Kickstarter update to explain what was going on, starting with the fact that the game is now called Mechajammer. Here's its new trailer:

Greetings! We hope this reaches you all in good health.

The Copper Dreams project gets a new name to go with its shiny coat of paint and ruleset as we begin to complete main sections of the game. Beta v2 deathmatch modes now available for testing and glory.

We had mentioned earlier this spring that we wanted to perfect some of the movement systems and companions in the game since the alpha work. The Alpha/Beta v1 response has favored tighter controlled characters for faster turns with simultaneous minded tactics, and we've chiseled beta v2 to focus on that.

There’s an improved interface for actions, and we made the appropriate cozy visuals to engage your fleshy eyeballs and roleplaying imagination. Sprites are super easy to at-a-glance in the midst of the action compared to their 3d counterparts of old, allowing you to survey a battlefield much more quickly. The environment lovingly followed — an industrious colony surface atop the skeletal husk of a city with a century worth of damage from the Ci-War, now pushing back the encroaching jungle and mutations from all sides and depths. All of it drenched in rain-soaked streets, haunted under-cities, and atomizing laser deaths.

For those of you who got a beta release a while back as we were finishing up on our final tweaks for tiles and squad gameplay, that’s been updated on Steam with all changes. If you didn’t receive that invite send us an email and we can shoot you another. All other KS tiers will be receiving an early test invite in the future (final release date coming soon). Next release(s) on Steam will be additional maps to test on, and soon the first big chunk of the game to explore.

We’re also working on some updates for the community page so that's been currently down, and the next content we share will be more story related now that beta v2 is done and we're getting more chunks of the main map done.
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The new beta has been received more positively than the original release in March, though as the update states all it contains right now is a deathmatch mode. Hopefully the game is now truly entering full production. The combination of Serpent in the Staglands' visual style with the new mechanics that Whalenought developed for Copper Dreams was probably always the right way to go.

 

[Thonius]

Jesus these people... now they are changing name.

 

[Murk]

Wasn't this similar to the look they had a long time ago? Or am I mistaking it for a different game.

 

[Infinitron]

Wasn't this similar to the look they had a long time ago? Or am I mistaking it for a different game.

Here's how it looked in early 2016:

 

[toro]

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

Reminds me a lot of Syndicate. It looks better than what I remember seeing of it while it was Copper Dreams. I will now be watching this.

 

[Murk]

Wasn't this similar to the look they had a long time ago? Or am I mistaking it for a different game.

Here's how it looked in early 2016:

Perhaps it's because it was the first I saw, or because of strange nostalgia for a "super detailed and developed early 3d era style", but this looks the most appealing to me.

EDIT: Though I think I like the most recent iteration over the cell-shaded look.

 

[ghostdog]

 

[CyberWhale]

I like how everyone's reaction now is: "Nothing to see here. Move Along."



Corporate suits and project leads really do exist for a reason, and I think the Kickstarter era proves that better than any argument one might verbalize.

 

[Thac0]

Between Black Geyser and this the codex might need a best rpg that will never come out award.

 

[Skdursh]

The new name is incredibly generic and has a completely shit "mouth-feel" when you say it. "Copper Dreams" was much better.

 

[Zyondyne]

Okay, at this point this is not even funny anymore. It's borderline insane actually.

I can appreciate that they want to deliver a product as good as they can, but I'm already pretty sure they have no vision or general direction.

 

[holla_cabezas_de_mierda]

I don't know, looks good to me. Like the dice.

 

[HoboForEternity]

i like old name better. the the art is looking good. like more vibrant original look.

seriously mechajammer sounds like generic rouge like action dungeon crawler or something

 

[luj1]

They have to be trolling at this point

 

[Morality Games]

I will at least say that I like the visual style in that video.

 

[aratuk]

Had to read the comments just to see this iteration of "They changed it! Why they keep on changing it?"


Give peace a chance, you popamoles.

But… shouldn't the name be Mechajamma?

 

[Drowed]

Well, they needed to change the name because that's essentially not the same game in any sense anymore.

 

[Grauken]

I like how everyone's reaction now is: "Nothing to see here. Move Along."



Corporate suits and project leads really do exist for a reason, and I think the Kickstarter era proves that better than any argument one might verbalize.

It was a costly lesson for some of us, but overall a worthwhile reality check

 

[Farewell into the night]

Wow, it's still evolving

 

[Outmind]

What is it with these studios changing excellent names to crap?

First No Truce with the Furies and now Copper Dreams? I loved Copper Dreams, damn it!

Let's just hope they pull off a Disco Elysium and the game becomes a smashing success.

 

[CyberWhale]

Mechajammer is a decent name, but considering the changes in style and the development cycle, we could have gotten both.

 

[thesheeep]

I don't know, looks good to me. Like the dice.

It does, but I think the point here is that this severe change of art style several times over (how many times did that happen so far? Have we hit a dozen already?) and now also the change of name to something that just sounds way less interesting than "Copper Dreams" did...
To me, at least, it shows a lack of vision and/or leadership and/or management and that simply doesn't inspire confidence.

One important part of project management is to make plans and stick to them. Only change plans if completely unavoidable.
There will always be phases in which a plan suddenly doesn't seem to work out, and in these phases, it is especially important to see it through, because more often than not, it was just some missing/unfinished element that made the plan look bad.

 

[V_K]

To me, at least, it shows a lack of vision and/or leadership and/or management

As if their first game wasn't evidence enough of that.

 

[SausageInYourFace]

If the name-changes take the same trajectory as the visual style this will go through another five iterations at the very least only to end up as Snake in the Techlands.