Putting the 'role' back in role-playing games since 2002.
Donate to Codex
Good Old Games
  • Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.

    "This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.

KickStarter BioSynth: Rising - a turn-based sci-fi isometric RPG

Joined
Aug 27, 2021
Messages
698
Haha butthurt euro dev's shit kickstarter failed to raise the funds? What a surprise.

I hope he comes back and waves his ass around some more though, it was pretty funny.
 

Infinitron

I post news
Patron
Staff Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
99,662
Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
https://neptunegames.net/update-state-of-the-demo/

Update: State of the Demo


We’ve been testing the demo… and we’re very happy about the results so far! Let’s talk about it!

Bugs​

First things first, let’s talk about the bugs.

Up to this point we’ve encountered a number of bugs… but no as many as one may expect from a demo and, more importantly, only a few of those were game breaking or even problematic.

Also, most of them were quick fixes, so we already solved all the “first generation” bugs. This is just great and we’re satisfied about this aspect of the game

Of course, many more bugs will rise while testing the demo, but we’ll be ready to fight! Actually, we’re already identifying the “second generation” bugs and things look promising so far.

Improving the Game Performance​

We feel there’s a giant room for improvement regarding the game performance. While the game runs well on the devices where we’ve run the tests, we know we could do better.

For example, there are some textures that are definitely too big – for example, a small display doesn’t need a 4K texture.

Let’s also say that we’ve been working on a certain optimization practice for months now and finally it’s getting close to an end… it’ll help performance a lot… and it will free some manpower so that we make progresses in other areas faster.

Making Cool Stuff​

This is the aspect of the game that is taking the most effort at the moment… we’re proud of the results, so it’s totally worth it!

We’re working on a number of things to make everything even cooler, including: better materials, holograms, both static and dynamic screens, art style for some widgets currently missing it, visual effects, adding details to levels, game sequences.

BioSynth-Rising-corridor.gif

Among the many cool things we are working on, we must mention this guy: Sir Galahad The Slayer.

Galahad-The-Slayer.jpg

If you remember it, we hinted at him in a past post… he’s a Judge (the highest rank for bounty hunters) and is kind of unusual – the medieval inspiration behind him is more than evident.

His story is very interesting and… he doesn’t work alone… let’s just say that his party is fearsome!

Other Stuff and Upcoming Plans​

Other than what we just talked about, we are working on a few other things… but we are still a little behind on those, so we aren’t ready to share them yet.

Once we get through this phase, it’ll be time for more extensive testing, followed by balancing and improving content so you can have the best possible experience when playing.

Doing everything is going to take a little time… but things look interesting, to say the least!

Talk soon!
 

Üstad

Arcane
Joined
Aug 27, 2019
Messages
8,624
Location
Türkiye
What's the deal with bounty hunters?

With just a hanful of exceptions, nations don't exist anymore on Jaia - the planet in which BioSynth takes place.

The reason for their disappearance is quite complex, but we can simplify and say that big corporations were guilty.

No nations mean no police, no army, etc... then, how do you keep an order?

While nations were disappearing, there was an organization that was rising: its intent was to gather the strongest men and women on the planet. By the way, this organization had the help of big corporations that had interest in its success. The men and women gathered became bounty hunters.

A bounty could be placed on anyone's head, if you had enough money to pay for the job. That spread an immense fear among the population. And that's how the order is kept on Jaia: fear. The fear that if you do something wrong, someone will come for your head. That has worked pretty well for controlling the population... but, at the same time, has created tons of opportunities for strong individuals to do as they please.

It basically means that the, on the surface, you see an order. But if you go deep, the world is a huge mess.

Ok, enough for today :) If you have any questions, feel free to ask!
Sounds super generic. Why cyberpunk though? The game's name is BioSynth so biopunk would be more fitting. I suggest you guys to be more experimental, throw some unused ideas, instead of dull unimaginative wannabe corporate douchebags.
 

Infinitron

I post news
Patron
Staff Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
99,662
Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
https://neptunegames.net/update-a-quick-overview/

Update: a Quick Overview


Today we share a very quick update, since at this moment we’re very busy.

BioSynth-Rising-Quick-Update-1024x702.jpg

We’re making good progress on a variety of aspects, including:
  • Set dressing – today we completed our last map! We’re still improving the levels, but they are ready if we wanted to put the demo out there now.
  • Rigging characters
  • Improving the materials – so they’re both cooler and better performing
  • Bug fixing – we fixed all the bugs encountered up to this point and are waiting to find more with the upcoming tests
  • Music
  • Environment functionalities
  • Icons
  • More…
The next month is likely to be a big one for us, so let’s stay in touch!

Talk soon.
 

Infinitron

I post news
Patron
Staff Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
99,662
Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
https://neptunegames.net/update-big-rework/

Update: Big Rework


It has been a while since we last published the last update about BioSynth. I want to apologize for this and for the delay in publishing the demo.

And I want to explain what’s going on behind the scene.

I’ve had some “life issues” which slowed the project a little – nothing big, but this delayed the progresses by a couple of weeks.

Other than this, we recently started reworking on a level: the slums where you end up at the beginning of the game.

And…

It’s looking much better than before, so we think it’s worth to complete the rework on that before progressing towards the demo.

Unluckily, the slums is a pretty big level, so it’s going to take some time.

The rework is at a very early stage, so we don’t have anything really worth sharing. But so that you can have an idea of what’s going on, here’s a screenshot.

Early-Stage-Rework.jpg

For your reference, in front of the brown building, previously there was just an empty street. Now you can see a small market. Very different scenery. This shows you that it’s a deep rework of the whole map.

Previous-scenery.jpg

We’ll be updating you about this. It may take some time, but rest assured that we’re still progressing and we’re still doing our best

Talk soon!
 

Infinitron

I post news
Patron
Staff Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
99,662
Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
https://neptunegames.net/update-progressing-the-map-rework/

Update: Progressing the Map Rework


In our last post we mentioned an important rework on a certain level…

Well, before the holidays we wanted to update you about that work.

Let’s simply say that it’s progressing

This was a place of the slums that we showed in our last post:

Early-Stage-Rework.jpg

And this is its current state:

Map-Rework.png

It’s still missing NPCs, VFXs and some additional details… but you can already get the vibe of the place.

The map is huge, so it’s going to take some time, but the good news is that shortly after we complete the rework, we should be able to deliver the demo.

We’ll keep you updated. In the meantime, we wish you some great holidays and a merry Christmas.

Merry-Christmas-1024x1024.jpg

Talk soon!
 

Infinitron

I post news
Patron
Staff Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
99,662
Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
https://neptunegames.net/a-big-step-forward/

Update: a Big Step Forward


I’m sorry we haven’t published an update in a while… unfortunately, life got in the way and kept me busy.

While this means that BioSynth’s progresses slowed down a bit, we have some good news to share too

If you can remember, we closed the 2022 talking about a huge rework of an area in BioSynth – the slums of the city where you start the game.

The map we’re talking about is BIG. Here’s a screenshot of the old map, so that you can get an idea – no spoilers, since the level changed a lot.

Old-Map.jpg


The old slums that we redesigned. It’s a big and crowded district… for reference, those “vivid green lines” are people, so you get a better idea of the area size.
Redesigning it seemed a crazy idea at first, but now we can say it was a great decision. Let me explain.

How did we come up with the redesign idea?

During our tests, we noticed that the map presented some playbility problems.

Many buildings and pipes were in the way of the camera. One of the reasons why this was happening was because, when we first created the map, we intended to make the player switch between isometric and third person views when playing. But then, for a variety of reasons, we cut the third person view.

Camera-problems.jpg


As you can see, the big pipe in the air covers the playing character when venturing in this area.

Sure, a person who played the map countless times (like us devs) could navigate it without any problem. Also, we feel like someone who played rpgs like Divinity Original Sin, Pathfinder, Solasta or Wasteland (games where you tend to move your camera quite a lot) wouldn’t have problems wandering around the area. But preferred to improve the navigability.

Also, there was something that was bugging me quite a lot: I wanted the area to be more cohesive.

Redesigning the area also meant rewriting the lore about the district.

We completed the first draft for this redesign and everything went surprisingly well: the area looks more cohesive, is WAAAY more navigable and the overall look feels more appealing.

But that’s our opinion, it’s better if we show you the results and you tell us what you think about it

Consider that this is a first draft: we still have to add VFXs, NPCs, better lighting and more details.

1.jpg
2.jpg
3.jpg


Still missing a lot of details… like the “Arena Slogans” on the screens – on which our artist is currently working.

Now that this first draft is completed, while we refine the level we’ll have the time to work on a variety of game aspects.

Let’s update soon about more progresses.
 

luj1

You're all shills
Vatnik
Joined
Jan 2, 2016
Messages
15,170
Location
Eastern block
Failing to see anything distinctive about this game. Core pillars? Design philosophy? Style? Looks like a big nothingburger, generic game #504.
 

Infinitron

I post news
Patron
Staff Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
99,662
Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
https://neptunegames.net/update-something-we-didnt-mention/

Update: Something We Didn’t Mention


Recently we did something that has been on our to do list for a long while.

We have never talked about this before…

… the reason is that we weren’t sure about the outcome.

BioSynth started on Unreal Engine 4.25. As we were working on the game, Epic kept updating its engine…

… we followed the updates. Sometime updating the game engine was as easy as clicking a button, other time it was a time consuming task.

At a certain point, Epic released Unreal Engine 5. Its features were so fantastic that everyone was talking about it.

UE5-screenshot.jpg
A scene realized in Unreal Engine 5.
We were eager to try it, so we did it!

We did it just to discover that by updating BioSynth to Unreal Engine 5, the game became unplayable: there was a massive drop in FPS.

At the time there were some crucial goals to achieve, so we decided to postpone the migration to UE5 – with the possibility that we wouldn’t ever migrate from UE4.

Well, recently we decided it was the time to take the migration seriously – also because there are a couple of UE5 features that we really wanted to leverage. So we tried again the migration…

…and this time it has been a success

Finally we’re ready to use UE5 and its incredible potential to further improve BioSynth.

But this is something in more detail that we’ll cover in another day.

Talk soon!
 

Infinitron

I post news
Patron
Staff Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
99,662
Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
https://neptunegames.net/update-moving-forward/

Update: Moving Forward


BioSynth keeps moving forward, so let’s talk about what’s new!

Here’s a number of improvements that we brought to the game in the last few weeks:
  • Added a “Miss” text – so you know when you or your enemy misses
  • Added some melee weapons, with their respective animations
  • Improved the functions about attack
  • A basic saving and loading system – because you’ll want to save a lot during the demo
  • Improved the materials used in Graffiti
  • Completed a “hologram handler”
  • Added art for the screens in the slums
About this last point, let us share an important one.

Klauss.png

In the first map of the city you’ll already encounter some factions.

As you can imagine, in BioSynth’s world there is an incredible amount of factions that operate in a variety of areas… each with its own plotting schemes. Part of what we want to accomplish in the final game is giving you the freedom to mess around and impact on many factions.

This could even include wiping out a certain faction or leading a small group to bigger leagues.

That said, we wish you a Happy Easter!

See you in the next update!
 

Infinitron

I post news
Patron
Staff Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
99,662
Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
https://neptunegames.net/update-things-are-getting-exciting/

Update: Things Are Getting Exciting!


After our last post, there have been a few interesting progresses…

Today we want to talk about one of those!

Testing​

Up to now, only the team members have been playing/testing BioSynth. It’s faster to run an inside test, so it’s possible to run a ton of tests in a short amount of time.

This gives you the chance to get many feedbacks on how the game is working.

But this process has also its flaws.

For example, when you play a map 20 times, you already know everything. Another example is that you can use the controller perfectly.

That’s why you can’t just test a demo inside the team.

1-1.jpg

Recently, we’ve run our first test of the demo outside of the team…

… and the results are exciting!

Gameplay Length​

The content inside the demo at this very stage keeps the player busy for 2+ hours.

Considering that now the map is basically empty, this is a wonderful data!

Map Improvements​

If you read this post, you’ll remember that we did a huge map rework to improve its navigability.

Watching players, that have never played an isometric game and that were totally new to the way the mouse is used there, navigate the map with no troubles was a big satisfaction.

The big rework that we did paid off!

Environment and Exploration​

We received some great feedback about the environment and the fact that when you play you feel like you want to explore more and more.

2.jpg

Both the environment and the world building is nowhere near where we want it to be, so it’s great to know that we’re onto something!

What We’re Currently Working On​

We already worked on many bugs and necessary improvements that showed up during the recent tests, but still have to accomplish a few more things.

Aside from that, we’ve been working on the game sound effects and are close to completing the work. So this is our current top priority.

This work on the game audio was part of a bigger picture: we’re improving the game look/sound/feel as much as we can in this phase. Not only we want you to enjoy the game, but we also want the demo to be streamable – which means that is has to be quite polished.

It’s an ambitious goal, but we are confident that we can do it. And if you want to help, consider supporting the game.

Talk soon with more news!
 

Infinitron

I post news
Patron
Staff Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
99,662
Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
https://neptunegames.net/update-sound-effects-characters-customization-and-more/

Update: Sound Effects, Characters Customization and More!


Today we have quite a few things to talk about, so let’s dive in!

Sound Effects​

The first work on sound effects is completed (it’s a first work because we’ll surely find some more effects to add and others to refine, while we keep developing the demo).

Now, the UI, the environment and the fights are way more enjoyable!

One of the cool things that we got to do was customizing both sound and visual effects when you hit an enemy, based on its material. So hitting a human without an armor will feel different than hitting a human with an armor or a robot.

More Characters Customization​

We refined the skin material used for characters so that now we can easily add tattoos, scars, makeup and implants to them.

Tattoo.jpg


Thanks to our new system, we can add a variety of tattoos to our characters.

Another important addition to the game is the use of accessories on characters, like, for example, glasses and gas masks.

The new skin material paired with accessories will help us create a more diverse selection of characters that you’ll encounter – which is especially important for the demo, since our currently limited financial resources bounds us to having fewer characters than we’d like (if you want to help us with this, be sure to check this page).

MakeUp_GasMask.jpg


Here’s an example about how we can use together the new customization options (gas mask plus makeup here).

MakeUpChange.jpg


The new system grants us a good flexibility and ease of use. For example, changing the makeup is as easy as clicking a button.

Improving the Environment​

The work that’s taking the most time at this point is about the environment. The plan is simple: add a ton of details and transform the slums into a place where everyone wants to live!

We have already improved most of the scenes in the map and we like what we are shaping. We’re confident that you’ll love the improved environment too!

BeforeAndAfter.jpg


This gives you an idea of the amount of details that we’re adding to the map.

Balancing and Getting Ready for More Tests​

We planned further tests starting in the second half of August. Those are going to be crucial tests: if everything works fine, we’ll just be completing the final touch to deliver the demo to you.

Other than testing ideas and bug fixing, these tests will help balancing the game for good.

What’s Ahead?​

The task list is getting short and many items in it are kind of quick to accomplish. If there aren’t unexpected troubles along the road, we should be getting to the demo 1.0 soon.

If you want to help us, don’t forget to support the game.

We’ll get in touch soon with more updates!
 

Egosphere

Arcane
Joined
Jan 25, 2018
Messages
1,926
Location
Hibernia
Not sure what the point is in going after 'boutique' mechanics like character styling in an isometric game. Gonna get the levels, the combat and the writing down pat, then see if you still have anything left in the tank for touch ups.
 

Infinitron

I post news
Patron
Staff Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
99,662
Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth


https://neptunegames.net/update-we-got-there/

Update: We Got There


Let’s get straight to the point: the demo is ready.

Not almost ready. Just ready.

You could play it, explore and have fun – watch the video below to see it.


But we can’t deliver it to you yet, for a couple of reasons. So, what’s going on?

We want to talk about that and more.

Testing Revelead a Ton​

We gathered players to test the demo in front of us. After all this time working on BioSynth, it was an immense satisfaction and joy to see where the game has gotten and how much players appreciated it.

All the players loved the environment and said that it makes you want to go around and discover what’s waiting for you.

Dialogs were also very appreciated.

And the fact that people wanted to keep playing even when the city area is still basically empty (we plan on adding way more cool NPCs and quests) feels great.

There was a player who took part only in 2 minor fights, yet he loved the demo. It means that the world we’re building is fascinating enough to make you don’t care about combats that much.

Fights were working properly, with the exception of some minor bugs that appeared once in while.

The soundtrack and the audio in general felt on point.

And it was very reassuring to know that the game was good also performance-wise: we run it with zero problems on a 6-7 years old pc. We haven’t had the time/resource to really optimize the game, so we weren’t sure how it would perform.

And last but not least, the bugs. Sure, we encountered quite a few bugs, but most of them are easy fixes… we can fix all encountered bugs within a week or so.

Which brings us to the next point.

Translation​

One of the reason why we can’t deliver the demo to you yet is that most of the dialogs have been written in Italian. It’s better for the writer to write in his first language and then translate the writing into English, than writing directly in English.

Italian-language-1024x576.jpg

So, at this time, we’re looking for a translator who is an English native speaker and can also speak Italian good enough to understand the dialogs. Finding a good one is harder than it seems, but it’s just a matter of time before we get there.

Apart from that, there’s something more we have to talk about…

Structure Improvements​

Since we got to the demo earlier than we were expecting, we saw it as a chance to do something important.

Some of the bugs encountered during the demo could be avoided by having a better code structure as a root for the game.

Funny-Bug-1024x553.gif
One of the funny bugs that we encountered while testing.
So, instead of fixing some bugs one by one, we plan on improving the code to fix a bunch of bugs all at once while improving performances, making everything more flexible and having a more robust overall code.

This will also help in adding new features that we didn’t think about when we started to create the game (more on this below).

A Better Experience​

Maybe playing Baldur’s Gate 3 ruined me… but at the moment I feel like we could improve combat.

When you start getting skills, fights become a lot more interesting. But at the earliest levels, with no skills or just one, it’s ok but not great. And we’re aiming for greatness.

There are a number of ways to solve this:

  • Environmental interactions (if you remember our trailer from a while ago, we already have this… but we were thinking of destructible objects as mid to late game additions. Instead, we now realized that they could feel very refreshing in early game)
  • Common actions/skills. For example, think of Baldur’s Gate 3 action shove.
  • Class actions/skills outside of those acquired thanks to the skill trees. For example, each bounty hunter could start the game with a set of hand-to-hand combat actions/skills.
  • Action/skills acquired by objects (this was already planned for the full game, but we didn’t get to work on it yet… since as an indie developer we don’t have much funding/manpower).
  • Certain “combat conditions” that we can’t talk about yet (were already planned for the full game and are really cool… maybe we’ll bring those to the demo).
If we work well, we may be able to add some of these cool things to the demo before we give it to you.

More Content?​

This is still an internal debate because we don’t know if we can afford it… but adding more content to the demo would be cool. All will depend on how the works mentioned above will unfold.

If we get the things we talked about ready within a reasonable time and without selling our souls, we’ll likely be able to add a thing or two.

Here’s a list of the possible additional content, in order of priority (highest to lowest):

  • 1-2 additional quests
  • New class: ninja
  • Additional enemy models
  • 1-2 additional small indoor levels

Conclusion​

To sum it all: we feel like waiting a little more to deliver the demo to you will improve your experience, so you’ll forget us for that

Anyway, we wanted to talk about what’s ahead for the development of game and show you that BioSynth is slowly but steadily getting where it has to be.

That said, we’re shooting for giving you the demo by the end of September.

Talk soon!

PS: if you want to help us, visit this page and support the game.
 

Infinitron

I post news
Patron
Staff Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
99,662
Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Exctited: https://neptunegames.net/update-the-finishing-touch/

Update: the Finishing Touch


We’re exctited. Are you excited?

Let me explain what’s going on…

In brief, very soon, we expect to deliver the demo to you.

As for the longer version of the facts… here we go.

How is the Translation Going?​

In the previous post I said that we were tryig to give you the demo by the end of September. Now it’s the beginning of November.

We have had some difficulties in finding a good translator and that has caused an important delay.

But finally the translation is done.

We have to do some proof reading and some extra checks to ensure that dialogs are still working properly, but most of the work is done.

More Testing​

While waiting for the translation to be completed, we’ve been conducting some additional important tests.

Testing.jpg

At this point, the bugs aren’t a big concern.

Don’t get me wrong, there are still bugs and you’ll likely encounter quite a few of them when playing the demo. The fact is that, most likely, the bugs you’ll encounter will be small. In fact, some are so small, that only the devs know that it’s a bug.

Considering the (tiny) size of our team, the (small) amount of testers and the (early) development stage of the demo, we see that as a success.

Is it possible that a game-breaking bug pops out while playing the demo?

Yes. Some testers encountered one of those, others didn’t. We’re trying to eliminate as many of them as possible. But to have a full list, we’d need thousands of players testing the game… and that isn’t possible unless we do something like an early access – which, by the way, we’re considering for 2024… but let’s talk about this another time.

Hopefully you won’t encounter any game-breaking bug… but just in case, save the game often and you’re safe. Also, that prevents you from having a “Dark Souls moment”, since BioSynth can be unforgiving at times.

Anyway, let’s move away from bugs because our recent tests were also oriented towards something else… and that is improving the gameplay experience for you.

QoL Improvements​

By watching testers play the game, we’ve had the chance to see a number of things that we wanted to improve.

Among those, we identified quite a few quality of life improvements. For example, during the character creation, we highlighted the key attributes for the specific class you picked.

highlighted-key-attribute.jpg

Another example is about the cursor in combat.

Before the recent update, the cursor weren’t that clear during combat. For instance, when equipped with a melee weapon, you saw something like this when an enemy was out of range for your weapon:

Too-far.jpg

This was happening even if you had enough AP to move close to the enemy and to hit it. It was confusing. Now, thanks to “air shapes” you can clearly understand when you can move close to an enemy and attack, and when you can’t.

Attack-air-shape.jpg

Cannot-attack.jpg

Gameplay Improvements​

Aside from QoL improvements, the tests gave us a glimpse of how we can elevate the gameplay.

A very simple thing is that we added a couple of ladders to speed up your navigation. While we’d love that you take the time to explore the whole area, when you just want to go from point A to point B to progress a quest, it’s right that you can do it without wasting your precious time.

Ladder.jpg
This one ladder will save you hours. In fact you’ll love it so much that you’ll print its screenshot and pin it in your room.
Of course, we got to work on more complex things too…

One of the things that stood out the most is the fact that players continuosly interacted with the quests in unexpected ways. We designed the quests with a lot of possible points of interactions… yet we kept seeing new possibilities.

This made us re-think the quests and give you more freedom.

And, of course, let’s not forget about balancing the game. It’s an ongoing work, but after each iteration, the game looks more balanced.

What To Expect Next​

Once the proof reading and dialog check is done, and once we complete some tasks that we thought necessary after the recent gameplay, we’re running a final test.

Such test is going to involve quite a few players and will likely take about a week.

That test will show if we can give you the demo right away or if we need to put a little extra work. Anyway, unless things go horribly wrong, you’ll likely ear from us very soon with good news

Stay tooned!
 

Infinitron

I post news
Patron
Staff Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
99,662
Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
https://neptunegames.net/update-the-demo-is-ready/

Update: the Demo is Ready


We’re really excited to say that yesterday we delivered the first batch of the BioSynth: Rising demo!

This is a huge milestone for us and we’re proud of what we created.

Let’s talk about a few things.

How Can You Play the Demo?​

BioSynth-Demo-Gameplay-Screenshot.jpg

Since the demo needs additional work, we’re moving forward quite slowly.

Another reason why we’re taking some time it’s that for the last 2 years, BioSynth has been built by a single person with little occasional help from artists (for concept arts, UI design, 3D modeling, animations and audio), devs (for some coding) and testers (for testing the game).

So, because of these two reasons, we’re sharing the demo with a limited number of people at a time. At first we decided to share the demo only with the people who backed us on Kickstarter years ago and with people who preordered the game. After this first initial round, we’re going to share the demo with other people.

If you haven’t got to play the demo yet, be sure to sign for the waiting list (it’s free). As soon as possible, we’ll deliver the demo to you too.

If you’re a streamer/YouTuber/journalist/etc. and want to play BioSynth or talk about it, you can reach us from this page.

There’s Still a Lot of Work to Do​

BioSynth-Demo-Gameplay-Screenshot-2.jpg

We’re fully aware that the demo still needs a lof work.

But we wanted to give it to the people for a couple of reasons:

  • First, the players’ feedback is vital for improving BioSynth and make it the best that it could be.
  • The demo is fully playable and enjoyable, if you can ignore a few bugs here and there and a couple of VFX/SFX that we still have to make for certain skills. So we didn’t want to make the people who trusted us wait any longer.

What’s Next?​

BioSynth-Demo-Gameplay-Screenshot-3.jpg

We’re going to improve the demo in a few ways.

  • We’ll try to improve it based on the players’ feedbacks that we’re receiving.
  • Recent works made us realize that a few systems that we built in the past could be greatly improved – as the end result, the game will be more stable, more optimized and more flexible.
  • We’d like to improve the game design and work on some mechanichs – especially when it comes to combat.
  • We’ll be trying to add some new content
It may not seem like it, but these 4 points are a ton of work and after we properly take care of them BioSynth will be in a great shape.

Talk soon with more exciting news!
 

Infinitron

I post news
Patron
Staff Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
99,662
Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth


In this video, I talk about how I've been developing BioSynth: Rising, a strategic classic RPG in a sci-fi setting, for the last 3 years in Unreal Engine.
 
Last edited:

Infinitron

I post news
Patron
Staff Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
99,662
Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth


In BioSynth: Rising, a strategic classic RPG in a sci-fi setting, you will select a class for your character.
One this RPG classes is the Surgeon, who is usually used as a healer. But healing is part of only one of the three skill trees at your disposal. The other two skill trees don't really involve healing, but something totally different..
 

Infinitron

I post news
Patron
Staff Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
99,662
Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
https://neptunegames.net/update-how-is-the-demo-doing/

Update: How is the Demo Doing?


It’s been a couple of weeks since we released the demo to a first group of people… we have quite a few news to share with you.

But first, let me wish you a Happy New Year!

Back to BioSynth, here’s what happened.

The Feedbacks We Gathered​

We got incredibly valuable feedbacks from this first demo release.

Let’s start by saying that, even with its flaws, people liked the game. Which is great!

Feedback.jpg
One of the praises that the demo received.
Apart from that, we got detailed feedbacks about things to improve and bugs to fix. I put together a list of all of these and… yes, it’s a long list (but not too long!), it’s going to take some time and will require a lot of work…

…BUT…

… fixing those is the thing that will make a difference in the long run.

Task-List.jpg
The current task lists for BioSynth.
And it isn’t just about refining the game as is now. It’s the attitude we adopt that’s the key. Let me explain with an example.

I still remember when Swen from Larian (by the way, I’m so happy for him and his team that Baldur’s Gate 3 won the GOTY 2023!), in one of his talk said that, when working on Divinity Original Sin, they started gathering feedbacks from players and they compiled an endless list.

Then, even if the work seemed endless, they started working to fullfil that list. We all know how it played it out…

That’s the whole point: when you listen to players, your game will become good.

Which brings us to the next point…

Improving the Game Based on Players’ Feedbacks​

We already started working on the list mentioned above.

One of the top critics to the demo was about navigability. Unluckily, it’s super-hard to make a cyberpunk city environment with a lot verticality easily navigable with an isometric view.

For example, many buildings, pipes, cables and dozens other things will be in front of the camera soon or later. At first we thought about fixing this with a solution similar to this below:

BG3-gif.gif

By making objects invisible between the playing character and the camera, you can move without problems. Both Bladur’s Gate 3 and Divinity Original Sin 2 adopted this solution to avoid navigation problems.

Then, we got this right after countless attempts and realized that it couldn’t be the solution we were looking for.

Invisible-materials.jpg

A fantasy environment is very different from a cyberpunk one. In a fantasy world, most of the times, between your character and the camera there’s only going to be a tree or a rock. Making it invisible is kind of easy and a great solution.

But when you have to make invisible multiple layers of wall, a screen, a pipe, some wires and a street lamp all together, that’s a real challenge. It doesn’t always work as you wish… and even if it does, it’s costly on your computer performance.

Problems-with-invisible-materials.jpg
Sure, it’s still working, but it’s ugly as hell. Look at that tank… you want to make it explode…
So, we tried a totally different strategy and it seems to be working incredibly well. When an object gets between your character and the camera, the camera will simply move in front of the object.

BS-dynamic-camera.gif

We’ll have to gather players’ feedbacks about this, but we’re confident that this is the best solution for our specific case.

Other then navigability, we started working on an improvement for the skill system. One bug exposed a problem that could lead to bigger issues along the way.

After looking at the code, we decided to take this chance to rework the system and make the skills modular. This is a BIG step forward, since it allows us to compose totally new skills with only a few clicks.

We found the building blocks in our skill systems. Then started remaking the entire skill system so that each skill is made only of those building blocks.

Skills-building-blocks.jpg
Figuring this out, with 72 skills (some of which are very specific and different from others), was a hell of a job…
It’s a very challenging operation, but the more we progress, the more it seems an amazing solution. It’s looking so great that in the future we intend to bring it to the next level by building a drag and drop tool that will make composing skills a breeze – it’s very similar to the idea behind the dialog maker.

Anyway, we’ll talk about these better and will show you the results with a video soon.

About videos, there’s more…

More Videos Are Coming Up​

We realized that we have to make more videos. It’s cool to write and share images or even animated GIFs…

But seeing a video is on another level… we can share a lot more cool things about BioSynth with videos.

Here are two examples you can watch, since recently we published a couple of videos…



I always restrained myself from making videos because English isn’t my first language and I find writing easier than talking – so I don’t have much problems writing a blog post, while a video is more difficult for me.

I decided to overcome this and the results seems encouraging, so I’ll keep making videos. Subscribe to our channel not to miss them.

What’s Next for BioSynth​

As you can expect, we’ll keep working on the list of improvements we talked about at the beginning of the post. We’ll release new versions for the demo while we make progresses and will share the demo with more players – if you want to play the demo, join the waiting list (it’s free).

Once we’re happy with the state of the game, we’ll start adding new content.

It’s likely that around that time we’ll also publish an open demo on Steam.

Once the new content is ready too, the plan is to release an early access. While I’d love to see this in 2024, it’s more likely to happen in 2025.

Remember to subscribe to stay updated.

Talk soon!
 

Infinitron

I post news
Patron
Staff Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
99,662
Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Lots of videos:



The turn-based combat system in this isometric RPG offers you a variety of choices. Thanks to many skills, different environments, enemy diversity and much more, you'll enjoy fun and deep combats.
 

gurugeorge

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Aug 3, 2019
Messages
7,906
Location
London, UK
Strap Yourselves In
Lots of videos:



The turn-based combat system in this isometric RPG offers you a variety of choices. Thanks to many skills, different environments, enemy diversity and much more, you'll enjoy fun and deep combats.


Colour me interested. Terrible placeholder audio fx though, makes you realize how important good audio fx are to the general feel of a game.
 

Infinitron

I post news
Patron
Staff Member
Joined
Jan 28, 2011
Messages
99,662
Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth

Listening to players is crucial to improve a game. In this video we talk about how we took players' feedbacks and used them to improve our indie game, one step at a time - including some of the latest development for this indie RPG.
 

As an Amazon Associate, rpgcodex.net earns from qualifying purchases.
Back
Top Bottom