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Tags: Copper Dreams; Whalenought Studios
Whalenought Studios have published an end-of-year Copper Dreams Kickstarter update to announce that the game's alpha test is now scheduled for release in February. The alpha will involve a raid on a location called Block 24, a syndicate stronghold crawling with hostile agents. It's not entirely clear, but it sounds like the release will actually consist of several versions of the mission, each one aiming to test a different aspect of the game corresponding to its core design principles. Joe and Hannah have put together a new gameplay video showcasing some of the features we'll get to play with. The graphics still need work, but there's a lot of cool stuff here:
We’re working around the clock to get a build ready for you all, so expect some news on that final date shortly. For $35+ backers, we'll be sending out information about getting a key in late January. Everyone else, expect your beta keys in the next couple months!
The alpha build will have some varying options for you test out a raid on Block 24, a syndicate stronghold full of petrified civilians and hostile agents. There will be a normal, mission-oriented version, as well as more mechanics-focused ones to mess around with in the playground-like map:
1 — Visualizing step-by-step actions within turns
Goal: The entire game-world is built with turns that are visualized with ticks (.25 sec intervals in gameplay). In combat your individual actions take a certain amount of time, and then dictate when your world stops for another turn.
Execution: Play cat and mouse noise with an enemy combatant with turns, get into a firefight, and then lose enemy and have them return to patrolling. This has most of these mechanics that can be telegraphed easily with in-game notifiers and the tick display.
2 — Gameplay impactful damage and resources
Goal: Character damage should encourage a change of tactics, and be mechanically as profound as the damage. This needs to be done in a fun way, not to impede gameplay.
Execution: Attacking an enemy in the legs results in slowing their move speed. Attacking in the arms reduces aim quality, attacking in head lowers sight and hearing. Enemies will react to this and change tactics appropriately.
3 — Accessible environments, movement, and tools
Goal: Moving around the world needs to be simple and intuitive and not require any hand-eye coordination. The interface bar needs to give easy access to any available player skills equally, to establish an equal importance between them during gameplay. Sensory mechanics for both NPCs and the player need to be easily visualized within the 3d maps and with height.
Execution: A combination of auto-movement changes and manual toggles to navigate around an environment by running, walking, and sneaking, then climbing, jumping across a gap, crawling through a vent, ascending a ladder, swimming, manually jumping over a trap, and then manually opening and closing a door. Get every skill a player can put character points in within a click away on a uniform dock-like interface.
The update also has a section about Whalenought's ongoing work creating Copper Dreams' distinctive character model faces, including backer faces. There will be a variety of visual modifiers for character faces. For example, if your character is a veteran of "Ci-War 2000", his face will be scarred.
Whalenought Studios have published an end-of-year Copper Dreams Kickstarter update to announce that the game's alpha test is now scheduled for release in February. The alpha will involve a raid on a location called Block 24, a syndicate stronghold crawling with hostile agents. It's not entirely clear, but it sounds like the release will actually consist of several versions of the mission, each one aiming to test a different aspect of the game corresponding to its core design principles. Joe and Hannah have put together a new gameplay video showcasing some of the features we'll get to play with. The graphics still need work, but there's a lot of cool stuff here:
We’re working around the clock to get a build ready for you all, so expect some news on that final date shortly. For $35+ backers, we'll be sending out information about getting a key in late January. Everyone else, expect your beta keys in the next couple months!
The alpha build will have some varying options for you test out a raid on Block 24, a syndicate stronghold full of petrified civilians and hostile agents. There will be a normal, mission-oriented version, as well as more mechanics-focused ones to mess around with in the playground-like map:
- Golden-gun mode for one-hit kills
- Don't get caught mode
- Machine-gun mode
- A few super secret modes to unlock if you beat previous modes
1 — Visualizing step-by-step actions within turns
Goal: The entire game-world is built with turns that are visualized with ticks (.25 sec intervals in gameplay). In combat your individual actions take a certain amount of time, and then dictate when your world stops for another turn.
Execution: Play cat and mouse noise with an enemy combatant with turns, get into a firefight, and then lose enemy and have them return to patrolling. This has most of these mechanics that can be telegraphed easily with in-game notifiers and the tick display.
2 — Gameplay impactful damage and resources
Goal: Character damage should encourage a change of tactics, and be mechanically as profound as the damage. This needs to be done in a fun way, not to impede gameplay.
Execution: Attacking an enemy in the legs results in slowing their move speed. Attacking in the arms reduces aim quality, attacking in head lowers sight and hearing. Enemies will react to this and change tactics appropriately.
3 — Accessible environments, movement, and tools
Goal: Moving around the world needs to be simple and intuitive and not require any hand-eye coordination. The interface bar needs to give easy access to any available player skills equally, to establish an equal importance between them during gameplay. Sensory mechanics for both NPCs and the player need to be easily visualized within the 3d maps and with height.
Execution: A combination of auto-movement changes and manual toggles to navigate around an environment by running, walking, and sneaking, then climbing, jumping across a gap, crawling through a vent, ascending a ladder, swimming, manually jumping over a trap, and then manually opening and closing a door. Get every skill a player can put character points in within a click away on a uniform dock-like interface.
The update also has a section about Whalenought's ongoing work creating Copper Dreams' distinctive character model faces, including backer faces. There will be a variety of visual modifiers for character faces. For example, if your character is a veteran of "Ci-War 2000", his face will be scarred.
