KickStarter Cyber Knights: Flashpoint - the latest tactical RPG from Trese Brothers - now available on Early Access

[fantadomat]

another one ....

Yeah it's a sequel to their earlier game.

was talking about the ukrainian screech.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

another one ....

Yeah it's a sequel to their earlier game.

was talking about the ukrainian screech.

What about it? Dime a dozen they are.

 

[ricolikesrice]

....amazing partners in Ukraine to dream, design and create the art of Cyber Knights: Flashpoint

the art style of this looks like absolute shit - no wonders russians fans of turn based games are up in arms about it.

 

[cyborgboy95]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1021210/view/3193622590950497764

March Progress + Featured in PAX East Rising Showcase

It has been a busy 3 months since we launched the alpha in January. With 5 Phases and 12 updates under our belt, hundreds of Knights have tested out these early versions of the game. We’re getting daily input, suggestions and bug reports and are working constantly to improve Flashpoint.
Now, on to this month’s progress update!

Spoiler

Public Studio Chat
We are excited to announce that we will be doing a public “Studio Chat” Tuesday, April 5th, 2022 at 9pm EDT. Studio Chats are our version of a Reddit AMA -- post your questions in advance and we'll answer them live that evening! Cory and I will be chatting in a voice channel on our Discord[discord.gg] to answer your questions, hang out and talk about CKF, STF and all things Trese Brothers.

If you’re able join us, the voice channel will open shortly before 9:00 pm Eastern. The Studio Chat will run about 1 hour and will be recorded so we will post a link in a future Kickstarter update.

If you have a question you’d like answered during the chat, post it in the #studio_chat channel on our Discord beforehand (start it with “studio chat q:” please, and feel free to add react emojis to other questions you like).

Hope to see you there!

PAX Rising Showcase at PAX East
Speaking of “hope to see you there!” -- we’re going to PAX East 2022! We are thrilled to announce that we’re one of 12 indie games being featured in the PAX Rising Showcase at PAX East this April. We’re very excited to be back at PAX again. It’s been too long!

We'll be in the PAX Rising booth and you can come and play the demo any day of the show. Come hang out, we can't wait to see you there. You can learn more about the PAX Rising Showcase and all of the games that will be a part of it at http://www.paxeast22.com/Rising

Alpha Phase 5
Over 3 months, we’ve cranked through 5 major phases of the alpha -- initial gameplay, training your mercs, buying and modding weapons, death and recruiting and finally with Phase 5 we added a new class the Cybersword. We’ve received hundreds of in-game bug reports and thousands of pieces of feedback from the community of players.

If you haven’t joined in yet but backed at the Alpha Tier ($60 or higher), let us know! Reach out to us here, on Kickstarter or on our Discord[discord.gg] (type max!addrole after joining if you included your Discord username in the Kickstarter survey, or DM @Liviana for help getting set up).

Matrix Mk2 Prototype
As we approach Alpha Phase 6, we have completed the first Matrix Mk2 prototype. This prototype hits a number of our key goals for Matrix Mk2:

• Digital Battleground -- a completely new tactical challenge awaits your hacker in the matrix. Terminals across the RL map lead to small and large computer hosts, tasked with everything from controlling a door to storing trade secrets. Your hacker must load up their programs to scan, search, slice through quantum nodes, override security and battle potentially deadly IC to find the target -- priceless paydata, control over security systems, doors or even the AI’s Alarm system.
  
• Extensive Hacker Build Options -- your hacker will be building out a deck, hand-picking programs, installing cyberware add-ons and training on a class tree that compliments and improves their use of entire families of programs. Mix programs and class training to build a hyper-aggro hacker who smashes enemy IC or an ultra stealth hacker who ghosts through quantum nodes unseen. Decks are linked in loadouts, allowing multiple decks per hacker and multiple hackers per team.
  
• Multi-turn hacks -- Hackers may slice into a terminal and hack across the Matrix while their meat body sleeps. If the hack is hard enough it will take multiple turns so it is up to the team to keep the hacker safe by distracting or fending off security in a gunfight. Your Soldier may be screaming, “Jack out now -- We can’t hold them!” but does the slumped hacker even really hear him?

The UI is clunky and you have to know exactly what you are doing to get through it right now, but that is rapidly improving as we approach Phase 6 of the alpha, which will be the debut of the fully operational Matrix Mk2 system!

Ultra Edition: Naming Surveys
For those backers who pledged at the Ultra Edition or higher, you’ve been receiving emails including surveys to add your names to the game. While we initially thought we’d source 10 names from each backer, we’ve increased our ambitions to 50 names by breaking it out into 5 surveys focusing on a wider range of name types, such as characters, codenames, drones, dogs, cats, weapons, items of different types, locations and more. We’ve sent 3 of 5 surveys so far and will wrap this reward up in a few weeks.

Reward and Stretch Goal Progress
For completeness, we have included the progress bar infographic in this update. The Matrix Mk2 Prototype is now complete and the Naming Reward is on-going and will soon be wrapped up. Always exciting to see motion on this multi-year delivery plan!

If you have any questions about rewards or stretch goals, check out the graphic or reach out to us.

 

[cyborgboy95]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1021210/view/4647160733967221620

New Cyber Knights demo and exclusives at PAX East 2022!
We're thrilled to be headed back to PAX this year, selected by the PAX team for a featured spot in the PAX Rising Showcase.

Even if you're not going to PAX, this means more in store for you, including a new studio chat in Discord[discord.gg] next week, and a giveaway of one of these awesome Cyber Knights posters:



Follow @TreseBrothers on twitter for some sights from the show, or the new Cyber Knights instagram[www.instagram.com] for even more!

What we have in store for you...

Your Knight has been captured! You'll get to choose from three versions of the Vanguard in a tense rescue and extraction mission.



We're looking forward to seeing all the ways players make it through (or crash and burn) this heist -- if they get all squad members (you'll be up to 3 by the end) out alive, and which of them will be needing emergency cyber-surgery by the end. The alpha crew has already provided some great feedback, and we're hoping PAX will be the perfect place to get the game in front of a whole new set of strategy RPG fans.

We'll also have at least two more chances for you to win a Cyber Knights poster, plus a photo opportunity you've already been asking for without even knowing it.

Going to be there? Find us in the PAX Rising section, booth #13091:



Have a great weekend, Knights!

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

 

[cyborgboy95]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1021210/view/3194751025775125219

April Progress + PAX East Report

We’re back from the PAX Rising indie showcase at PAX East, where we had a pleasure to meet a number of you in-person and show off an exciting heist demo. Thanks for stopping by, checking out the game you’ve funded or in some cases, stomping the demo with your alpha know-how :D

We’ve been ripping along, adding content, maps and wrapping up implementation of the game’s systems throughout April. Let’s get into this status update!

Check Out Latest Studio Chat
We just held another live Q&A Studio Chat on our Discord, sharing our experiences, funny stories and demo tales from PAX East, plus answering hard hitting questions like “coffee or tea” lol --



Thank you to everyone who joined us during the Studio Chat and we hope that everyone enjoys the recording. We will be doing more Studio Chats in the future, so keep an eye out for the announcements.

PAX Feedback & Results
Cyber Knights: Flashpoint did really well on the show floor. The art style and clear turn-based tactics vibes caught a lot of attention. Our demo stations were going non-stop, with over 250 players playing through the demo. It was a great chance to watch so many players who have never heard of the game give it a try (and sharpen our how we describe it to get people interested).
If you’d like to hear for yourself and see some of the demo, check out this interview we did (and give the video a thumbs up / leave a comment to help more people see it):



We’ve come back from PAX riding on a huge wave of energy, and have dived right back into development and story writing -- we have so much more to show you all, and every month we’re getting closer to bringing the full game to you.

Soon: Hacking!
The next phase for the Alpha was delayed a bit to get the demo ready, but alpha players are benefiting from the work done on that demo. Both in behind-the-scenes improvements on camera work and animation debugging, and on cool new mission objectives (like rescues and squad member rendezvous) we hadn’t planned to add until later. And we’re back at our desks now working away toward the next big addition to the alpha builds: hacking.

If you haven’t joined in yet but backed at the Alpha Tier ($60 or higher), let us know! Reach out to us here on Kickstarter or in our Discord[discord.gg] (type max!addrole after joining if you included your Discord username in the Kickstarter survey, or DM @Liviana for help getting set up).

Wrapped Naming Surveys
The final naming survey went out last week, bringing the total to 5 surveys and over 50 names for backers who pledged at the Ultra Edition or higher. A final reminder email will go out soon with a link to all the surveys. They will stay open for the foreseeable future if you haven’t had your chance to add your names yet.

While we couldn’t use every name that was submitted, we wanted to highlight some hilarious and clever submissions that cracked out team up
Drones:

• 4 Whom the VTOLs

Corp Names:

• Death & Taxes (funeral home/lawyer/accountant, surprisingly successful)

Security Devices:

• WHACKSpoetic's DictAttack Algorhythm
  
• Big Red Button
  
• Fr8Train

Explosives:

• BECAUSE (we have no plan)
  
• A Dubious-looking baseball with fuse

Tech Devices:

• Optimal technically attuned device-ma-bob
  
• Neo Pocket-Pets (interactive audio of hunds/cats. Audio bluffing tool.)

Healing Items:

• Delicious Life Juice - 100 % vegan
  
• GoodVibes Defibrillator Mk V

Sniper Rifles:

• Ma Bell AT&T Special, for when you need to reach out and touch someone.

Swords:

• Slashy Mc Slashface
  
• Ol' Pokey

Shotguns:

• Rock'Em Sock'Em
  
• Guy-B-Gone Double Barrel

ARs:

• PerappaTheBrappa
  
• Woodpecker (rat-ta-tat)

Code Names:

• Justin Case

Reward and Stretch Goal Progress
For completeness, we have included the progress bar infographic in this update. The Naming Reward is now complete and next up is Encoding Your Legend. It is always exciting to see motion on this multi-year delivery plan!

If you have any questions about rewards or stretch goals, check out the graphic or reach out to us.

 

[Abu Antar]

They went gridless.

Spoiler

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

They went gridless.

They did that way back.
From their kickstarter page:

The game features a gridless movement system...

 

[cyborgboy95]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1021210/view/3328735652612999524

May Progress Report: Mk2 Matrix

Knights and Backers,

With the end of May, the start of summer is just around the corner and we’re excited that it comes with some big news on the Matrix Mk2 stretch goal. The alpha phase has continued at a great pace and we’re very happy with the feedback we’re getting and all the ways the game is improving daily. With 15 alpha updates under our belt, thousands of Knights have cruised the streets of New Boston in the early version of the game and really, we’re just getting started.

And a last-minute reminder: if you haven’t already seen it in Discord or from our Twitter or Facebook[www.facebook.com] posts, we’re raffling off a Cyber Knights poster, featuring some of our favorite character concept art!

We’ll ship this 18” x 24” poster anywhere in the continental U.S., just join our Discord[discord.gg] and enter to win. It’s the last day to enter, so act quick!

Now, on to this month’s progress update!

Spoiler

Hacking the Matrix Mk2
Last week, we released the Matrix Mk2 system to the alpha team in update v0.6.1. This major milestone completes our second biggest Stretch Goal for the Kickstarter project -- introducing a Hacker class and allowing Hackers to infiltrate networks in mission maps to gain key control over the map including security devices, doors and the alarm level. And these server hosts are also gleaming with valuable data and secrets -- from blueprints (used in the future release of crafting) to straight paydata (value with your Contacts) to the Loot Manifest (revealing the contents of all loot boxes in the facility).

In addition, Hackers can run hacking-only missions from the Safehouse which will allow them to steal valuable paydata, or hack to gain pre-heist advantages like the facility’s loot manifest or a forged security key.

For now, all of our efforts have focused on the game design, balance and integration of the Matrix into the larger game. The UI is clunky but serviceable but it isn’t inspiring at the moment -- something we’re working on over the summer as it punches up into isometric 3D and gets some glitz, shine and polish.

Backer-Only Studio Chat
To celebrate and share the Matrix Mk2 release, we’re holding a Backer-only Studio Chat on Thursday June 2, 2022 at 9pm EDT. Studio Chats are our version of a Reddit AMA -- post your questions in advance and we'll answer them live that evening! Cory and I will be chatting in a voice channel on our Discord to answer your questions, showing off the Matrix Mk2 and hanging out and talking about hacking, its challenges and inspirations or anything Trese Brothers.

If you’re able join us, the voice channel will open shortly before 9:00 pm Eastern. The Studio Chat will run about 1 hour and will be recorded so we will post a link in a future Kickstarter update.

If you have a question you’d like answered during the chat, post it in the #backers channel on our Discord beforehand (start it with “studio chat q:” please, and feel free to add react emojis to other questions you like).

Hope to see you there!

Late to the Alpha?
If you haven’t joined in yet but backed at the Alpha Tier ($60 or higher), let us know! Reach out to us here on Kickstarter or in our Discord (type max!addrole after joining if you included your Discord username in the Kickstarter survey, or DM @Liviana for help getting set up).

Reward and Stretch Goal Progress
For completeness, we include the progress bar infographic in each and every update. The big news for this month’s progress update is that the Matrix Mk2 stretch goal and the major addition of the hacking layer to the game is now complete and available to all alpha players.

If you have any questions about rewards or stretch goals, check out the graphic or reach out to us.

 

[Parsimonious cook]

Yo what up? Hacking and Matrix gameplay was finally introduced into the Cyber Knights pre-alpha, so lets take a look at that.


It is pretty complex, you use your cyber deck and character stats as a foundation for what you can do (ie HP and AP both virtual and physical), your Matrix related skills come into play along with the programs that you buy for your cyber deck. There are quite a few programs implemented already (with many more coming obviously), which allow the basic stuff like scanning the nodes, attacking/disabling/spoofing the IC etc. You slowly pick up trace while hacking (much like you pick up increased alarm status in the physical world), which over time leads to increased security response. Some IC just try to boot you out (ie. decreasing your Matrix HP), while others try to fry your brain directly. The hacker can also take HP damage from various failed skill checks and random events (ie. spending too much time in the Matrix is not good for one´s health. There are going to be Matrix-only missions, but of course hacking will also be a part of standard missions too – in general it gives you an opportunity to get extra loot (valuable files you can steal from some nodes) and manipulate the environment (disable security, open doors etc – the usual fare with the hacker being jacked into a terminal while rest of the team fights off the guards, hoping he can get an exit open in time).


Here is a video by Trese Bros showing how it works in practice.




After trying it out for a while I can say that it is fairly complex (the current manual available to alpha backers has eight pages that cover the essential basics) and as such it takes some effort on the players part to figure out what does what – it is pretty rewarding once you know what you are doing though and I like it more than the HBS´s Shadowrun approach.

 

[cyborgboy95]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1021210/view/3354633888454818841

June Progress Report

June has roared by in a flurry of work and progress. The alpha’s received two big new updates, from which we are gathering piles of great feedback and play statistics. Our goal is to finish implementing the final feature sets in July, which will help get the entire team free to create content and polish for another big (months long!!) push – stretching for that 40+ hour goal for the game.

Launch Planning
We'll start with the most exciting news first: we’re closing in on a launch window! All of our backers' alpha participation has been hugely helpful in driving this forward – the gameplay feedback, rapid bug squashing, and clever ideas that have flooded into the Discord have been excellent. While we haven’t set a specific date yet, we can now say with confidence that Cyber Knights: Flashpoint will release to Steam Early Access in early 2023.

Security System Rebuild
A big improvement to the game this month was a rebuild of the game’s central security AI. The original security system was feeling too inflexible between levels and the security escalations being tested were limited to more enemy reinforcements arriving. With the rebuild, we’ve allowed every level to define its own security parameters – some levels can have lax security while others are touchy and quick to react; the worst can pop off escalations every turn.
In addition to customizing the pacing of security escalations level-by-level, we’ve also greatly expanded the tools security AIs have at their disposal to make your life... interesting. Reinforcements are still a key event, but the AI now has the ability to reset all disabled security devices, to increase its own security escalation rate, to enable the lethal setting on some security features or to buff all its troops. This has opened up a wide area for future expansion that will help differentiate megacorps and street gangs, giving each their own escalation profiles and powers.

Started Official UX Design
We’ve put off diving into serious design of the game’s UX and UI for a while, primarily focusing on the most important part -- the gameplay. The UI is already complex and jammed full of functionality but as of mid-June we’ve started the official process of working through a from-the-ground-up assessment and wireframe of the game’s UX, style, colors, fonts and elements.
It will still be a little while before any of these exciting results hit the alpha, but it is energizing to see these elements looking so good, even if it's only in design mockups right now.

Packing the Level Pipeline
As we’ve rounded the corner into summer, the focus is shifting from wrapping up the game’s system implementation and critical major reworks (thanks Alpha team!) toward full-tilt content production. We are now packing the game’s level pipeline with new missions. As this pipeline fills up, we’re starting to get an idea of how much content we can crank out for the game at full speed and it is looking very promising.

Steam Integration
We’ve completed integration of the Steamworks SDK; a quiet milestone for the engineering team but an important one! All the boxes are now checked to be able to make demos available for events like Steam NextFest and, eventually, to launch the game into EA on Steam.

Animation Expansion: Movement & Mantling
As part of the Animation Expansion stretch goal, we’ve completed a number of new animations that are helping movement around the level environments feel more natural. These include much needed animations to make sliding into cover feel more fluid and a skidding slide movement for characters ending their movement in the open field.

The most impactful new animation allows your characters to mantle (climb) over small obstacles like fences and barricades. This will be coming soon to the alpha and will greatly open up movement paths throughout levels. Especially sneaky characters are going to love this, as a way to get behind or around enemy positions. It is also highly useful in dynamic firefights where your characters need to switch to the other side of a barricade for better cover...

Reward and Stretch Goal Progress
For completeness, we include the progress bar infographic in each and every update. If you have any questions about rewards or stretch goals, check out the graphic or reach out to us.

The art team has started designing the concepts for the Omega Style reward. We will show off these unique concepts in the next update!

Our next big move in reward town is to gather details and backstory for the Creator and Backstory Edition rewards, where backers will create in-game characters who can be recruited to your squad.

 

[almondblight]

Heads up - there's going to be a combat demo available for the game this weekend only, starting at 9 am Pacific time.

 

[santino27]

Heads up - there's going to be a combat demo available for the game this weekend only, starting at 9 am Pacific time.

The official (backers) announcement:

Update #64

PAX Rising Online: Early CK:F stealth & combat demo available this weekend​

Trese Brothers GamesCreator
July 8, 2022

Knights!
We are happy to announce that we are taking part in PAX Rising Online this weekend — an indie games showcase from the Penny Arcade team. You can learn more about the event, including when we will be live on their Discord talking about Cyber Knights: Flashpoint, at https://www.paxsite.com/global/en-us/risingonline.html.
As part of this, we’ll also have a very early demo available on Steam for the duration of the event (this weekend only). This two-stage level demo focuses on just the stealth & combat tactical gameplay, dropping you straight into a mission after a heist gone wrong. You can get it from the CK:F Steam page starting Saturday at 9am Pacific / 12pm Eastern.
We’re planning to offer a larger demo at a future date to give the public a fuller sense of what Cyber Knights is really all about. But we wanted to give the Penny Arcade audience at least a taste of what we’re working on and so are making sure all of you backers who aren’t in the alpha get a chance to try it out too!

Share your feedback on Discord​

Be sure to join our Discord if your checking out the Steam demo. Once you’ve joined up, type the command “max!addrole” in #bot_talk to get MercerBot to add your special Kickstarter role, granting you access to private channels on the server.
If you haven’t used Discord before, it’s easy and we’ve got a friendly server full of gamers like you -- come hang out and make this Discord community your first.

Get your cyberpunk fix on our social accounts​

As always, we’ll keep you in the loop with more updates as we hit some key milestones over the summer here. Hope you enjoy the demo!
In addition to the @TreseBrothers twitter where we chat game dev and share highlights from all our games, we now have a Facebook and twitter account for Cyber Knights!
Plug in to keep updated and get your regular cyberpunk fix. We’re sharing concept art, gameplay previews, news & interviews, highlights from the forums & discord, shout-outs to other awesome cyberpunk creators, and more. See you on the net, Knight!
Thanks for your support!
Andrew & Cory
Trese Brothers Games

 

[LESS T_T]

Demo:

 

[Harthwain]

The control scheme is awkward and I really don't feel how the combat works (cover, for example). I liked Project Haven a lot more in terms of how tactical aspect of the game was handled.

 

[Tsubutai]

I loved Invisible Inc and turn-based stealth isn't a genre overflowing with games, so I was quite keen to try this, but the demo has pretty much anti-sold me on the game; it feels really janky.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

 

[Darth Canoli]

They deserve bankruptcy even before full release for their "art-style" or rather the lack of art-style and originality.

 

[santino27]

source: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tresebrothers/cyber-knights/posts/3563157

July: Alpha Update​

Knights and Backers,
This month’s update is a look at the Alpha -- how far we’ve come, where we are at, and what is in store next for the 1000+ alpha players helping us shape Cyber Knights: Flashpoint into a release-ready game.

Summer Checkpoint​

The CK:F alpha started in early January of this year. Since then, we have gone through multiple major cycles of expansion -- new levels, new systems, new stories, hacking (!!), new classes -- followed by periods of rebalance and consolidation. The alpha backers have played thousands of games, submitted thousands of feedback and bug reports and pushed hundreds of thousands of events about levels, talents, and more into our analytics.
At this mid-summer moment in the alpha, we’ve been in another rebalance and consolidation phase. It’s been a good time for it; while the game is still getting a lot of play daily, we are seeing a clear summer vacation dip – hope you’re all enjoying them!
We’re currently preparing a major new content push of story, recruits and the Sniper class for our next expansion phase. With each passing month, the alpha’s scope is increasing to reach the game’s full scope; our pace of adding content will be rising.



We are also continuing the push to bring all the major audio-visual elements of the game up to the quality level we know we need to hit for Steam Early Access. Our UX designer continues to iterate on and improve the UI design and the SFX team is prepping for a second project in August to add more variety and depth to the game's soundscape. At the same time we're working through the game's post processing, material design, color-grading and quality settings to get everything looking as awesome as possible.

Transitioning the Alpha from AppCenter to Steam​

We did our first online public demo of Cyber Knights: Flashpoint this month for PAX Rising Online, focused purely on the stealth & combat tactical gameplay over a two-stage mission, expanded from our in-person PAX East demo. Not only did we get the game in front of thousands more players, with all the valuable feedback that comes with that, but it also accomplished an important dev milestone: completing our process for building and deploying to Steam.
This is very good news for the alpha backers, because we’ll soon be using Steam’s awesome “Playtest” feature (in private mode, not public signups) to provide you with alpha access going forward. That means shorter (and more reliable) downloads, quicker builds and faster bugfixes.

Creator & Backstory Rewards​

We’re excited to have embarked on the first major step to completing the Creator and Backstory Edition rewards. The surveys to gather data from these key creative tier rewards have gone out and include a wide variety of questions big and small. Cory and I will personally review each of the incoming responses and work on translating your creative ideas directly into the world of Cyber Knights and New Boston.
If you haven’t received a survey email but should have, please reach out to us here or email andrew@tresebrothers.com

Reward and Stretch Goal Progress​

For completeness, we include the progress bar infographic in each and every update. If you have any questions about rewards or stretch goals, check out the graphic or reach out to us. We sent out the surveys for the two recruitment reward tiers -- Creator and Backstory Editions -- so keep an eye on your email for those and let us know if you have any questions!

Thank you for your on-going support,
Andrew & Cory Trese
Trese Brothers

 

[cyborgboy95]

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1021210/view/3350136705329770884

August Progress Report

The leaves are getting crispy here as August has already come to a close. This month was a big one! We migrated the alpha to Steam and posted two massive updates with piles of new content and features. The UX team is wrapping up the visual design for the main mission screens while 1-2 new levels are coming through the level design production pipeline every week. Everything is moving along at a very steady clip and the entire team is heads down on loading up the game with exciting content and new progression of play.

There are far too many dev milestones to list them here in a single update -- but let’s hit a few high points!

Progression, Enemy Variety, and Alpha Playtest Missions
Throughout the month of August, we’ve been hard at work building out content sets to help establish the game’s progression beyond the first few upgrades and levels. In August, this included doubling the maximum length of a single game from 50 to 100 days, raising the maximum character level to 14, adding multiple levels of armor to be purchased from Contacts and adding a new storyline to introduce the concept of Legwork.

Legwork is a story system that represents any type of challenge, assignment or task that isn’t part of a tactical heist. Derived from tabletop RPGs, legwork could be the type of work you do before a heist such as casing the joint, following a target, forging some IDs or afterwards, like finding a fence or sinking something you need hidden to the bottom of the New Boston harbor. Legwork always takes some time and your mercs qualify for different types of Legwork based on their backstories, traits and tags -- making who you know, where you’ve come from and what soft skills you have very important. For example, a merc with a history in the Fenian gang, who crewed an Atlantic cargo ship or who did a stint working at the dockyard might know where to sink that precious package under the harbor’s black water. Legwork is a key glue we’ll be using to hold the storylines together, to build relationships with Contacts and to bring the city to life.

The next step for progression was to add a big dose of variety to the enemy spawn system and allow for more exciting squads of enemies to spawn. These new squads are custom designed to present a coherent type of challenge on the battlefield and often feature a captain along with different types of enemies who work well together. Their specialized roles will be even more clear as all enemies are now using Talents beyond Overwatch, including buffs, debuffs, (occasionally) heals and laying down their own types of covering fire.

The 1st of 4 playtest levels so far: “Big Door”

In order to get faster feedback on new levels being designed for the game, we’ve added the Mission Playtest program, which gives alpha players the option to play a (rapidly growing) number of missions disconnected from their larger story or heist context. These playtest missions are rough cuts with basic lighting and simplified objectives. But they give us an important opportunity for our level design team to gather valuable insight into how they are playing at large before they are finished and integrated into their storylines.

Story System Dynamics
August also saw the final major pieces of the story system connected and working. We’ve finished modeling exactly how the complex web of backstories, factions and relationships of all types will work to ensure they are tracked and useful to the story system. The game is constantly applying metadata tags to track everything about your choices and characters and now can also allow for multiple faction relationships (hates, loves, ex, betrayed, hunted by), as well as multiple personal relationships (sibling, parent, ex-lover, hates, friend).
The casting director component which is in charge of selecting characters to slot into each storyline can use these fine-grained details and match targets by their faction at multiple scopes (Matsumoto backstory or more generally, any Megacorp backstory) as well as character or contact pairs (a pair of siblings, a character and contact who hate each other or 2 characters with milsec backstories and on and on). These final features for the story system are going to allow us to weave the most emergent and interesting types of storylines that are dependent on your past, your relationships old and new and your choices as the game spirals.

Steam Playtest Success!
We migrated the entire alpha from Microsoft AppCenter to Steam Playtest during August and it has been a major success. The wins are trifold -- for our team, the build process (build, upload, process, distribute) is much faster and the player experience is much easier (incremental downloads in your Steam client, often automatically). Finally, the game is now fully ready for Steam and integrated with its SDK.

Creator & Backstory Surveys
Last month, the surveys for Creator and Backstory Edition tiers ($250 and $500) went out and we’ve received over half the results already. Cory and I personally review each of the incoming responses and then set to work on planning just how your unique character will fit into the game and larger story landscape. The input from the alpha players who pledged up to these two tiers has been stellar and we’re enjoying every new entry.
If you haven’t received a survey email but should have, please reach out to us here or email http://mailto:andrew@tresebrothers.com

Getting those loadout feels

Upcoming: Power-Broker & Heist Rewards
The next set of creative rewards due to open up for input in September are those for the Power-Broker and Heist tiers. There are in total 23 Power-Brokers with 7 of those being linked to major Heist as well. We’re gathering this creative input as early as possible so we can find ways to tie them tightly to the larger game storylines everywhere we can to ensure these special contact creations are highly integrated and important.

Reward and Stretch Goal Progress
For completeness, we include the progress bar infographic in each and every update. If you have any questions about rewards or stretch goals, check out the graphic or reach out to us. The latest change was sending out the surveys for the two recruitment reward tiers -- Creator and Backstory Editions -- and our next major move is gathering creative feedback for the Power-Broker and Heist creative rewards, so keep an eye on your inbox for these emails later this month.

 

[Ironmonk]

It seems the demo is available since 25 of September... anyone tried it yet?

We've got an early stealth and combat demo up to participate in the tacticon event. The demo is pretty stripped down and focused only on the tactical mission part of the game. We are aiming for an early 2023 release to early access.

 

[ERYFKRAD]

It seems the demo is available since 25 of September... anyone tried it yet?

We've got an early stealth and combat demo up to participate in the tacticon event. The demo is pretty stripped down and focused only on the tactical mission part of the game. We are aiming for an early 2023 release to early access.

Tried it a bit. Certainly adequate.

 

[Parsimonious cook]

It seems the demo is available since 25 of September... anyone tried it yet?

We've got an early stealth and combat demo up to participate in the tacticon event. The demo is pretty stripped down and focused only on the tactical mission part of the game. We are aiming for an early 2023 release to early access.

Check page 12.

 

[cyborgboy95]

September Progress Report

Another month and another major set of features and content milestones have been completed! During September, we released 3 major alpha updates packed full of features, improvements from community feedback and content. Two of the major systems that we wrapped up this month are close to our hearts: difficulty and Trait mutation. Both have drawn a lot of inspiration and lessons learned from our last game, Star Traders: Frontiers. In addition, the UX team has completed the visual design for the both the main mission screens as well as the Matrix Mk2.

As always, there are far too many dev milestones to list them all here, but let’s check in on a few!

UX Redesign
For a long time, Cyber Knights: Flashpoint has been living with a functional, if not beautiful, game UI. Working with our UX team, we’ve now completed the discovery, wireframe design and finally the visual design for the main tactical modes of the game -- the real-life heist missions as well as the Matrix Mk2 hacking you can engage in during a heist.

We still have the challenging task of bringing the full UI design into the game, but all the assets are ready, and we’re prepared to start this week while the UX team is moving on to a very exciting discovery and wireframing process for the Safehouse.

Starting with wireframes for rapid design and iteration --

^^ Wireframe of main map + character status

^^Wireframe of hacking the Matrix Mk2

We progressed to the final visual design --

^^ Visual design of main map + character status

^^ Visual design of hacking the Matrix Mk2

And then into animations --

^^Which will especially helpful to bring the overlord Security AI "to life" as an adversary --

Difficulty System
We take difficulty systems very seriously in all of our games! During September, we carved out 6 difficulties, each one slowly ratcheting up the challenge curve across all aspects of the game. The final needed addition which is planned to be added during the Steam Early Access period is our classic Custom Difficulty setting to allow you to fine tune difficulty with extreme precision -- just like you could in CK classic with famous difficulty settings like Live Fast, Die Young (LFDY) that maxed out starting credits and enemy difficulty.

This is an area where we’ve listened closely to our Star Traders: Frontiers players over the years and we’ve made difficulty aspects even more nuanced than ever before. We’ve also added the #1 most highly requested difficulty feature from STF which is to enable slowing down or speeding up of the game’s story. This will allow players who want to take more time and explore more angles of the game without feeling a time crunch to play at a more relaxed pace and also let those who love the pressure of the tick-tick-tock-tick of a very short clock to prove they can play the game with a icy calm no one else can handle.

Difficulty settings can adjust a very wide range of game aspects including mission XP and monetary rewards, the cost of all types of goods and services, the speed of the story, your character’s base resistance to Trait mutations, Wounds, Armor Shredding and Death as well as increasing the enemy’s scaled Power Level, Matrix Power Level, enemy hitpoint pools and more. Between the 6 difficulty levels (Casual, Easy, Normal, Hard, Brutal, Chrome) and the to-be-added Custom Difficulty, you’ll be able to tune your play to your own style.

Trait Progression
We rolled out the Trait mutation system which is an evolution of the system we built for Star Traders: Frontiers but with a strong focus on delivering a compelling experience for a smaller squad. Throughout their career, your character's Traits come from their backstory, events in their life, battle wounds and from choices they make in their stories.

As your merc’s career progresses, events and story choices - surviving a mission, taking heavy wounds in combat, seeing a friend die in battle, succeeding at Legwork, maxing out your cyber, etc - will build up negative and positive points in two separate pools. When either of these pools grow large, they can cause Trait mutations which can either weaken or strengthen a positive or negative Trait. Different aspects of your base building choices at your Safehouse, choices you make in stories and medical care you’re willing to pay for can help manage these swings.

This system allows Traits to have varying impact on your character, change and mutate throughout your character’s careers as events take turns for the better or worse and still honor the Traits that make them who they are and carefully manage the number of Traits they have so there is room to add more at the right pivotal moments.

Power-Broker & Heist Surveys
We’re excited to announce that the surveys to gather the first round of input for the top tier rewards - Power Broker and Heist Edition - have been sent out to backers. Cory and I are personally reviewing every incoming response and it's clear already that these big rewards are going to lead to some extremely fun co-creative endeavors with our backers as we fill New Boston up with wild, eccentric and dangerous characters.

If you haven’t received a survey email but should have, please reach out to us here or email andrew@tresebrothers.com

Reward and Stretch Goal Progress
For completeness, we include the progress bar infographic in each and every update. If you have any questions about rewards or stretch goals, check out the graphic or reach out to us. With this month’s update, we’ve sent out the surveys for Power Broker and Heist Editions and so those two reward categories have moved into in-progress status.