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

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tresebrothers/cyber-knights/posts/2766119

3 Reasons to Hype and Share + PAXEast

Knights and Backers!

We want you to get hype! As we enter the final 10 days of this Kickstarter, we are working doubly hard to share the project far and wide and get everyone to join the alpha team. We want to extend a big Trese Brothers thanks to all of you who are helping us carry this campaign upwards by pledging, upgrading, telling a friend and sharing the Kickstarter on social media. If every current backer finds one new backer we’ll hit all these stretch goals.

Tomorrow, as we near the Skyrise at $150,000 we will unveil the campaign’s stretch goals all the way up to $350,000. In the meantime, here are some ideas you can use to draw in your friends.

Spoiler

Unique Cyberpunk World and Narrative

Cyber Knights: Flashpoint takes place in one of the oldest cities on the eastern seaboard which has become a melting pot of influences, criminal elements and corporate power players. We’ve taken inspiration from our years of pen and paper RPGs as well as cyberpunk greats like Phillip K. Dick and William Gibson to craft a city steeped in history, alive with character and awash with neon.

The stories of Cyber Knights aren’t content to let you sit as an outsider to the risks and challenges of the contacts you are helping. While everyone might agree that being on a “need to know” basis would be better, it isn’t likely to last very long. Once you get involved, you’ll find yourself getting drawn in and having to make choices that won’t be easily forgotten or erased. Multiple stories and plots will run concurrently, and you’ll make choices about which jobs get your attention, and which calls go unanswered. Every playthrough will be unique as the game adapts to your team and choices.

Such Cyberpunk Style

Cyber Knights: Flashpoint allows you to customize your characters from the very start. You’ll configure your specific mix of character traits, visuals and skills to craft just the Knight you want leading your mercenary team. You’ll also get to customize the path through life that brought your character to the mean streets of New Boston, picking a background and narrative hook that explains the starting point for your character’s life as a Knight.

Every playthrough will adapt to your choices, both in character generation and during the game. You’ll be customizing your Knight, your squad and the New Boston Zone itself based on the moves you and your connections make in the endless power struggle of the street. Every playthrough can be carefully customized and your entire squadron’s load-out and armament is yours to control. Each mercenary on your team will be capable of storing different configurations of weapons, armor and gear so they are ready to rock and roll when you want to take them into different roles in a mission.

Very Cyberpunk Cyberware

As you take missions -- and bullets -- the harsh urban world of Cyber Knights will chip away at your team. In an effort to keep ahead of the curve and to compensate for injuries and nano-pollution, you’ll need the services of a street surgeon and a cyber clinic. Before long, your mercenaries will be a mish-mash of flesh, wires, chrome and nano-technology.

In Cyber Knights, body modifications go far beyond piercings and tattoos; your characters will change as you replace their parts to keep them alive, or just to keep them one step faster, one draw quicker than the competition. These cybernetic implants will grant your characters new skills, new abilities and sometimes new character quirks that illustrate their slow departure from humanity. Not only will the character’s stats and capabilities change, but so will their appearance as cybernetics will be rendered into your character’s model.

Lets us get the hype out by continuing to share our project with your groups and interested communities. If we all tell someone new we can keep the project going stronk to the very end!

Here are some ideas --

• Post the campaign to social media
• Post our interview with Rock, Paper Shotgun
• Share on your favorite forum
• If you’re an active member on a gaming community site, share it there (don’t spam!)
• Tell a friend who is going to PAX East about us or come visit us in the Kickstarter room, 10 AM to noon daily
• Blast the Soundcloud track "Neon Flicker" from your phone at 10 volume in public and when people ask you what the frag you are doing tell them about the Cyber Knights Kickstarter!

Thank you for your support and sharing the project far and wide!

Cory and Andrew Trese

Trese Brothers Games

 

[santino27]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tresebrothers/cyber-knights/posts/2768420

Stretch Goals: Final Days

Knights and Backers!

What a day! The momentum is starting to build for a big last week. With 8 days to go, we have crossed the Skyrise stretch goal at $150,000 and are now climbing toward the Skyrise Soundtrack expansion to support the new mission environment kit.

In tonight’s update, we’re going to review the Skyrise stretch goal we just hit as well as unveil the our stretch goals all the way up to $350,000 mark. Once across the $200,000 mark, the stretch goals spread out to almost every $25,000 as each one is a bigger chunk of content and work. While this may seem like a dreamer’s list, we don’t want to hold anything back in this campaign and have been asked by many backers to see the full vision, so let’s put all these cards on the table!

Without further delay, let’s talk about these new stretches! For a look at the rest of the stretch goals that we’ve hit or are still pending, check out Update #5 Stretch Goals: Skyrise + Hacking Mk2.

Spoiler

Skyrise Achieved! ($150,000)
First -- back in Update #5, we showed draft concept art for the space and design of a Skyrise mission environment. This morning, we burned across the $150,000 mark and we are excited to now show off the completed concept art for the Skyrise environment (above). These luxury residences are likely within an arcology or hundreds of stories above street level in one of the corporate towers. We are excited to move forward with this new and different environment. Not only will Skyrise open up new security system behavior, guard types and mission objectives, the design of these spaces will be functionality different than all other mission environments. Featuring grand entryways, tucked away security control rooms and clusters of smaller rooms and hallways, Skyrise will require different tactics and feel very different than the other 3 environments in the game. Now open for business -- Skyrise will invite you to kidnap valuable human targets, steal paydata, help dissatisfied corporate citizens defect or assassinate megacorp executives who have outlived their usefulness.

New Assassin Job + Cybercat Companion ($225K)
There were rumors about the cats and that they would have their day. And that day would be the day on which the campaign hits $225,000. If we can hit this stretch goal, we will introduce a completely new stealth Job to the game and a completely new type of enhanced animal companion. For those cat lovers who have been requesting it, the Assassin and their cybercat are for you!

A new animal companion would require new models, textures, a completely new feline animation rig done by our expert in animal animation, not to mention the new Assassin Job and companion rules to make sure the cybercat works and feels very differently than dogs and drones. Whew, that is a lot! The starting major differentiator for a cybercat’s is their surety in stealth as well as their singular one-to-one relationship with their human, where a single hunder may run a pack of multiple dogs.

Additional Cybercat Breed ($235K)
If we do all the work to create the new Assassin Job, add a completely new type of companion, design and model cybercats and build out their completely unique animal animation rig -- it would be a shame to only have one type of cat breed. If we can reach the $235,000 goal, we can add a second breed of cybercat to the game to give the Assassin another big branch of options in their feline companion. If we do unlock an additional cybercat breed, we will host a poll after the Kickstarter completes to pick the exact breed lineage. Feel free to post a comment with your suggestions of which cats should be considered.

Traps, Turrets and Trauma Kits Expansion ($250K)
This stretch goal would give us the ability to fund additional content and implementations for some popular add-ons and rules expansions. First, it will enable us to fund a set of interactive traps that your team can aquire, take on missions and use to disable, confuse, distract or incapacitate guards and enemy drones. These traps will take the form of craftable or purchasable in-game items that can be deployed directly onto the combat map during a mission.

Second, this stretch goal will let us extend the interactive map layer to also support turrets. These automated gun sentries will increase our options for corporate security, provide your squad new challenges to overcome and enrich the already vast options for pre-mission advantages and hackable devices. For example, we will add options to allow your team to ensure the resupply of turret fuel cells was defective or your hacker scrambled their programming the night before the operation.

Third, this stretch goal will let us expand the on-mission medical options by adding more variety and items like the trauma kit. When your beloved hacker gets shot up and you’re trying to prevent their cyberware from shorting out and blowing the whole operation, these items will be literal lifesavers. While Cyber Knights already supports several healing and combat enhancement item classes, this stretch goal will enable an additional category that can be applied in-game to unconscious or dying teammates.

Animation Expansion 2 (275K)
As with the first Animation Expansion stretch goal, we know that every animation will improve the game’s final level of polish and detail. Hitting the first Animation stretch goal granted us the budget to go beyond the basics needed for the safehouse and tactical combat map. This included fan favorites like petting the dog and mechanical advancements like picking up unconscious friends or dragging the bodies of slain enemies to less conspicuous places. Not only did that stretch goal add animations for the tactical map, but also gave us a budget to fund additional animations specifically to support the safehouse environment.

Like the first, the second Animation Expansion stretch goal would benefit both the combat and the safehouse. The animations in the second pack are more cosmetic in nature but are very expressive. This Expansion 2 would include animations to scan an area, notice a target or single out a hostile, and additional transitions where today we might rely on blending (such as, going from a crouch to a run). In addition, the Animation Expansion 2 would allow us to add facial expressions to all characters including frowns, smiles, suspicious eyebrows, winks and more. While these may sound like small pieces individually, combined they will deliver an immersive and visually diverse game experience.

Lowrise Environment ($300K)
The Skyrise 4th mission environment focuses on corporate residential and luxury living, far above the street level. The complementary Lowrise environment kit would focus on the seedy habtowers, slum flats and gang dens that make up the seedy underbelly of New Boston. This 5th mission environment would be in addition to the existing four: industrial, research/data lab, urban and skyrise.

The streets environment we already have will cover underground tunnel systems, open street fights, gang territory and dilapidated slum habtowers. However, with a limited scope, it will not be able to dive deep into the room-to-room excitement that you could find deep inside habtowers, criminal dens and gang hangouts. Sagging couches, piles of trash, rat’s nest of wires spewing from a street hacker’s command station and a hive-like room and door set would all open up a lot opportunities to create a very different tactical experience. In addition, we would gain additional budget to stylize these lowrise living environments and some of the street environments as well to specific gangs and organizations, adding more special graffiti tags and textures to make the ownership of legendary organizations like the Fennians, Blue Ox and Yakuza felt.

Like the Skyrise expansion pack before it, the Lowrise environment will include expanded mission types, mission objectives, pre-mission advantages and interactive map elements. These additional models and textures will not only benefit the combat map, but will also give us a whole new type of safehouse for your Knight!

Additional Domed City ($350K)
As far back as the original Cyber Knights classic game, we have fielded constant requests to take your Knight and your team beyond the dome of New Boston to other cities in the world. We’ve always loved this idea and included it early in the Cyber Knights: Flashpoint design as a way to massively expand the game storyline and basically create an alternate city, contact network and story campaign.

For the $350,000 stretch goal, we will open a transatlantic route to Neo-Prague. An additional domed city -- with history much older than New Boston -- would allow us to explore a very different feeling, culture and power structure than can be found in the UNA. While some of the global corporations of New Boston would also appear in Neo-Prague, this new city would add a huge list of new corps, crime syndicates, gangs, story characters and storylines.

As a potential huge expansion for the game, Neo-Prague would be developed specifically as an expansion pack (free for all players). We would not start work on this stretch goal until the game was released, launched and ported to all platforms. This would allow us to achieve this stretch goal, scope and plan for it without slowing down or blocking the main development of the game.

So Close “Savage 700”
Throughout the week, we have been constantly gaining on the Savage 700 goal. With the aim of doubling the size of the alpha team from Star Traders: Frontiers, we are now at 665/700 players! With only 35 more alpha team members we will unlock the Savage 700 and double the size of the Omega Style digital reward for everyone at the $60 reward and higher.

As we vie to reach these stretch goals and deepen the content and variety of the game, help us keep sharing the game. We’re building momentum for a strong finish, so let's do this together!

Thanks for your support,

Cory and Andrew Trese

Trese Brothers Games

 

[Kuattro]

Well as it happens I wasn't that far off with my 250.000$ prediction. Turns out I have a clinical eye for these things.



At least I trust the uptick all kickstarters see in the last few days of the campaign might put them in the 160-170K field.

 

[just]

cybercats are the real goal now

 

[santino27]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tresebrothers/cyber-knights/posts/2769452

PAX East Day #1 Report

Knights,

We’re writing in from the road, after our first day showing off Cyber Knights at PAX East. Thursday is a bit slow but everything is ramping up for a huge weekend. The timing is perfect as we have just entered the final week of the Flashpoint Kickstarter. Not long from now we will close the doors on this crowdfunding process and begin the next chapter -- building the game and preparing the alpha! We couldn’t be more excited to work hand in hand with you, our backers, to develop something of which we can all be very proud.

The first week of a Kickstarter is an exciting rush and the last week of a campaign is the mad dash to the finish line. We’re going all out to hit these stretch goals for you and deliver the biggest, most expansive and most beautiful Cyber Knights we can. We’re pulling out all the stops, turning the void reactor to 105% and calling in all the favors we can with our Contacts -- including travelling to the heart of New Boston and attending PAX East with our friends from Kickstarter.

We are at PAX East 2020 in the Kickstarter Room (#103) above the main convention hall every day from 10 AM to 1 PM. We’ll be demonstrating a Cyber Knights build, talking to potential backers and seeking out our friends in the press to help support the campaign as we march towards the finish line. If you’ll be at the show, please come say hi! If you know anyone who has been on the fence about backing the project, show them Star Traders: Frontiers and remind them that the doors close, forever, on this Kickstarter Thursday March 5th, 9 PM EST.

Before we wrap up this short update, we’re excited to share another amazing Kickstarter that is going on right now!

Spoiler

As fans of the complex world of Pathfinder: Kingmaker, we were excited to learn that Owlcat Games' next ambitious title, Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous, would be on Kickstarter at the same time as Cyber Knights. We know that our community has a love for classic RPGs based on the depth and richness of pen and paper games, so we wanted to feature the newest Pathfinder Kickstarter. This exciting new title in the genre is breaking ground in dynamic gameplay and player agency ...

Power is alluring. But it is you who decides how to use it and where it will lead you. You may become a merciless lich and command armies of undead. Or a noble angel— a symbol of hope for those who follow you. There is always an option to succumb to the bloody desires and become a demon… And if you want to decline all celestial powers — you can walk the path of the Legend.

Those are only some of the Mythic Paths you can follow in Owlcat Games new Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous. You’ll choose and embrace one of the many Mythic Paths to gain power and in turn shape the world with your deeds, lead an army pushing back the invasion of demons (yes, you can fight demons as a demon—moar power, any power!) and explore an intricate branching plot. Using the Pathfinder First Edition ruleset as its core, Wrath of the Righteous enables near endless possibilities for character creation and customization to find your own path to power.

Wrath of the Righteous is crushing through its stretch goal list and adding even more to the game at each turn. If you love classic RPGs, we encourage you to check out the project and help them unlock even more awesome. If they can keep climbing, it will be possible to have a fire breathing martial artist bear clad in magical armor. Do you want that? The answer is yes! And if they unlock mounted combat, you can ride that very bear into battle. Does that mean you are on fire? The answer is ... probably!

All joking aside, the project is awesome and the stretch goals are opening up epic new angles of play. Check it for yourself - it’s Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous!

Thanks for your support and we will send more news from PAX East tomorrow!

Andrew and Cory Trese

Trese Brothers Games

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tresebrothers/cyber-knights/posts/2771336

Home Stretch + PAX East Day #3

Knights!

The finish line is in sight. Four days to go. The final, bonkers, last 48 hours is waiting, just ahead. This week we rolled out our final stretch goal list and we even unlocked a few like Skyrise and now the first Skyrise OST Expansion. This expansion will include a theme, introduction and tension track for the Skyrise environment. These additional tracks will be available in the released version of the game for all backers and players and will also be added to the Soundtrack Edition reward ($25). We’re excited to work with our composer to make even more glorious cyberpunk music for you!

Spoiler

PAX East Final Day
We’ve had 3 amazing days in the Kickstarter room at PAX East and we have one more day to go. We want to send a shout out to all of our fans who have stopped by to say hi and to play the Cyber Knights prototype -- some community legends like @en1gma and others, thank you for coming by! And also, we especially want to express our gratitude to all of our new backers who pulled out their phones and pledged to the project on the spot. What a momentum and energy boost this has been and we can’t wait to all work together to create this game.

You can see Kickstarter went in on the “drenched in neon” theme!
Are you Savage?
With so many upgrades and new pledges to the Alpha Edition ($60 or higher), we have been in the hunt for the Savage 700 bonus all last week. Finally, as of yesterday we went over the mark for 700 players on the alpha team. This means we will now double the number of style additions in the Omega Style Collection from 6 to 12 for every backer at the $60 tier and higher. If you haven’t upgraded to this level, consider the awesome additional cosmetics in your decision and let’s get savage together.

Dogs or Cats? Or both!
Are they Loyal?
As you lead your team through the twists and turns of the story, you will make many choices -- who to work for, who to work against. In addition to impacting the narrative, your choices are directly linked to the evolution of your individual character’s Traits and Loyalty. Most of the pivotal story choices you make will add or remove a Trait from an involved character, helping to knit together that character’s unique history.

Traits are a trigger for additional personal story-lines so these Trait changes are adding hooks for future stories. Your choices will have profound effects on each character’s Loyalty score which measures how connected they are to you, the Knight, and has weight in what future stories may hook to that character. Certainly, after you save Rocket’s life he will join with a high Loyalty score out of gratitude, but will your choices keep it that way? Pillz the Yakuza-hating Warmachine’s Loyalty is ebbing away every time you ignore his grumbling and run another lucrative job for the criminal organization -- when will he become a liability?

Hitting Stretch Goals!
Over the last few days, we hit the Skyrise Environment expansion and now have cleared the goal for the soundtrack to back it up. You can see above another piece of environmental concept showing the luxury lobby spaces of the Skyrise environments, grand entry halls, sweeping staircases and reflective faux marble.

With the $160,000 stretch goal achieved, we’re now all looking toward the next steps along the way up to Hacking Mk2 at $200,000. We’ve got a few more to climb over -- the new support drone, the new corp outfit and the additional soundtrack expansion for your safe house. From there, things get even bigger and more exciting with Hacking Mk2 and cybercats!

 

[Yosharian]

Oh. I just bought Star Traders Frontiers on Steam. Didn't know about this KS. Should I back? I love cyberpunk.

Edit: Alright I watched the sales pitch, I'm in, looks great.

 

[santino27]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tresebrothers/cyber-knights/posts/2773279

Add-Ons + PAX East + Squad Goals

A milsec commander outfit WIP -- still needs more tech-feel
Knights!

Today we want to take a moment to stop before the final climb to the summit on Thursday night to express our thanks for you as a member of this absolutely amazing community of backers. As we have said in our past campaigns, the positive energy and excitement from the community is what drives us to make our best possible game. We’re so excited to build, alpha, release and update Cyber Knights with you and for you. Andrew and I are back from PAX East and ready to close this campaign out strong and get started on the next phase -- getting the game built!

Tonight we wanted to share the details about our campaign add-ons today so that anyone interested can increase their pledge now to cover any add-ons they want.

What are Add-ons?

After the end of the Kickstarter campaign, we will be using the Backerkit pledge manager to gather surveys and offer additional campaign add-ons. In the pledge manager, you’ll be able to assign any extra funds from your pledge or increase your pledge to snag any of the campaign add-ons you want. For example, if you wanted to get an additional Steam key for Cyber Knights and were already pledging $100, you could up your pledge to $115 during the Kickstarter campaign and then assign that $15 to a Steam key after the campaign. If you wanted two extra Steam keys and the hardcover art book, you could increase your $100 pledge to $180 ($100 + $15 + $15 + $50). If you have any questions, please just message us directly.

Spoiler

Additional Cyber Knight Steam Key ($15 add-on)
The first add-on that backers have asked about are Steam Keys for Cyber Knights: Flashpoint and our previous release, Star Traders: Frontiers. Additional Cyber Knights: Flashpoint Steam keys will be available for $15 for anyone who wants multiple copies for yourself or for a friend. Steam keys for Star Traders: Frontiers and the STF OST will also be available as campaign add-ons.

Hardcover Printed Art Book ($50 add-on)
The Founder’s Edition reward ($40) includes a downloadable digital artbook that will showcase the game’s artwork in all of its stages, from concept art to high-poly renders to final in-game scenes. We are excited to also offer a special-edition hardcover art book as a $50 campaign add-on. This 8.5”x11” hardcover book will include 100 pages of the best and most striking high-resolution concept art from the game. This reward and shipping will be available in the pledge manager after the campaign ends.

New support drone achieved!
Support Drone Stretch Goal
Earlier today we crossed the $170K stretch goal and unlocked a new support drone chassis. Thanks to everyone who is pledging or increasing their pledge to help bring us across the line and unlock even more content potential. The new support drone stretch goal will give us additional art budget for the model, animations, sounds and abilities for the new drone type. Support drones aren’t as fast as scout drones and they don’t have the heavy armament or structure of a battle drone but they are easy to fly and highly customizable. Depending on your Drone Pilot’s build and your squad’s needs, support drones can be configured with mobile medical stations, long range scanners, jamming pods or nanogears for buffing your team. A support drone’s piloting module makes it a breeze to fly for an experienced pilot and as a result its orders require fewer Action Points, leaving more of your turn to command your battle and scout drones, or fire a weapon, or use a Talent …

Styles within styles
PAX East 2020
Andrew and I had a terrific time at PAX East and we were so honored to be selected by the Kickstarter Games team to represent our fellow creators and Cyber Knights in their room. We screened the video, showed off the concept artwork and demonstrated a pre-alpha build that featured one level and 3 of prototype character builds. Between Thursday and Sunday we ran just over 160 games of Cyber Knights: Flashpoint with a wide variety of players.

Every afternoon we returned to our hotel room and huddled over our laptops to fix the bugs we found that day and tweaked the level, balance and AI to incorporate user feedback. We didn’t know what to expect out of PAX, but it has built a ton of excitement for the upcoming Cyber Knights: Flashpoint Alpha test. It was amazing to meet everyone who attended.

Ready to pilot that drone!
Tactical Update
The pre-alpha prototype that Andrew and I demonstrated at PAX East focused on the player overcoming a small squad of guards and a rudimentary security system while attempting to cross the map and escape by moving their team to an exit door. The player had a three character squad using an Agent-Ex, a Stalker and a Combat Medic with a variety of Talents that could be used to manipulate security components, guards, positioning and combat elements.

As the player infiltrates the level, they must contend with multiple layers of opposition. Individual guards can see and hear the player’s units, and on the guard’s turn the AI can alert other nearby guards or use a communication panel to call in an alarm. Security cameras placed at key locations alert central dispatch of intruders, dead bodies or violent actions and these had to be avoided at all costs.

The prototype gave the player a toolbag of options to disable security cameras, move invisibly between two points, walk without making a sound using Talents like Jam Camera, Nano-Walk and Dead Silence. Buffs like Nano-Shell provided a short term damage mitigation ability, giving the players a way to tank a couple of shots if they made a positioning mistake or were caught by a patrol.

Some players found Talents like Dazzle to blind guards and Distracting Noise to lure them into traps provided the most fun, while others took the high ground and engaged directly. The combat components of the prototype were popular and we were happy with how well people adapted to gridless positioning. Systems like the high-ground advantage and recoil were functioning smoothly and we will keep working on improving them.

The player’s builds had a mix of heavy and light armor as well as a variety of modified and basic weapons. Silencers, scopes and limited shotgun ammo were all tested out and added to the tactical combat layer. Even with silencers and stealth, the demo level was built so that most players were flushed into a chokepoint and spotted eventually. Usually the alarms would be set off, giving most players a chance to try out both the sneaking and fighting components. However, a few players made clean stealth runs all the way to the end, which was a pleasant surprise.

All in all it was a really great chance to get extremely early test data about how the AI and map navigation perform. Players found the visual and audio detection system to be easy to understand and the tweaks we made over the weekend definitely helped. It was really awesome to see people actually playing a little bit of Cyber Knights: Flashpoint and enjoying it. It is extremely early in the process, but we’re underway!

Owlcat Games & Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous
We wanted to send another big thank you to the team at Owlcat Games, creators of CPRGs in the Pathfinder universe like Kingmaker and the Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous Kickstarter. As big fans of their work, it was exciting to be able to share each other's campaign in an update and we wanted to recommend them once again. If you backed us today on the recommendation of Owlcat Games, say ‘hi’ in the comments and know that we appreciate your support very much. If you haven’t seen the Pathfinder: Wrath of the Righteous campaign go check it out and help support one of the coolest RPG campaigns on Kickstarter right now!

To arms!

Cory and Andrew Trese

Trese Brothers Games

 

[santino27]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tresebrothers/cyber-knights/posts/2773743

“Half Minty” Pledge Drive

Knights!

We have an amazing community member, the Masked Knight, stepping forward to help us push our momentum in these last days by offering a second Pledge Match Drive. With only a few thousand to go to the New Corp Outfit at $180,000 this one is likely to push us over that line!

“Half Minty?” Pledge Match
The generous backer known as the Masked Knight has thrown down the gauntlet. He will match every dollar pledged new to the campaign or upgraded to an existing pledge for the next 6 hours. The generous pledge match offer extends all the way up to $1,000, so if we can hit $1,000 in pledges or upgrades in hours ahead, the Masked Knight will kick in another $1,000 on top! The pledge drive is named in honor of the earlier “May I Call you (Mint) Dragon?” Pledge Drive and we hope everyone will join in to make this just as successful!

“Valkyrie Zero” Narrative Stretch Goal
As we chip away at our Stretch Goal list we are unlocking budget for more and more Cyber Knights content. Even as the budget changes, the mission stays the same -- we are dedicated to creating deep, carefully crafted, replayable games at a fair price with no shenanigans. And we pride ourselves on releasing hundreds of updates.

Early in the campaign we unlocked the Valkyrie Zero stretch goal at $100,000 which gave us us our biggest addition to the game yet and thanks to your support we are going to be able to pour even more time, energy and budget into the game’s storylines. Valkyrie Zero traces the fallout from the destruction of the Knight Horizon Security corporation and the Snake Island Incident thirteen years before the beginning of Cyber Knights: Flashpoint. While many in New Boston would like to forget Snake Island and KHS completely, things that are buried in the NBZ have a way of coming back to the surface eventually.

Valkyrie Zero adds an optional branching narrative, side quests, and new character storylines attached to recruitable mercenaries. This content won’t be required for a play through the main story arcs but will add an estimated 20 hours of additional gameplay to explore interwoven into the universe. This stretch goal will add content to every part of the game -- additional contacts, missions, story choices, maps, recruitable characters, loot, traits, cyberware and writing to weave this narrative into the game.

Spoiler

The campaign’s big stretch goals like Valkyrie Zero at $100k and Matrix Mk2 at $200k aim to enhance the experience without deviating from the project’s aim or distracting from the core features. Stretch goals like these that extend the budget on multiple fronts will improve the game in so many ways beyond just boosting the core release. These expansions will also enhance the toolkit available for our backers when they are crafting their recruitable characters, backstories, legends, villains or operations. The additional characters, hooks, traits, loot and cyberware will be available to backers as they configure their creative rewards in the game.

My personal recruitable character will be a dangerous old hacker who knows too much but can never leave the shadows and go legit even if he wanted to. If we hit the Matrix Mk2 stretch goal I’ll have even more optional Traits, gears and cyberdeck upgrades to play with. Perhaps your recruitable character has an old Valkyrie port but doesn’t even remember having it implanted ...

Steam Page

Cyber Knights: Flashpoint has a Coming Soon page on Steam, where you can follow the game or add it to your wishlist. We hope you’ll join us on the community discussion boards by posting a comment, question or your support for the game’s campaign. Every backer will get a Steam key at least 48 hours before the game goes on sale in Early Access.

Trese Brothers Comms

We are online on the Trese Brothers Discord server where we welcome Knights and players of all of our games to come and hang out. We’re online every day -- come share your stories, ask questions and get involved. We also have our ever-popular Trese Brothers Games Forum for players who prefer a less real-time form of communication.

Trese Brothers on Twitch

We’ll be doing a stream today, Tuesday at 4:00PM EST. You can find us on the Trese Brothers Twitch where we demo game development, answer questions and talk about the studio Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Thank you for your support!

Andrew and Cory Trese

Trese Brothers Games

 

[santino27]

Well, they blew through the goal for the half minty pledge match in just a few hours, and just hit the 180k stretch goal.

Less than two days left on this KS. I think we'll probably get 2 more stretch goals but fall short of the 225k stretch goal for assassin stealth job/cybercat.

 

[santino27]

Spoiler

Another stretch goal met with a bit over a day to go. I guess they're waiting for the final-day countdown for more updates.

 

[santino27]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tresebrothers/cyber-knights/posts/2775803

Last 24 Hours + Stretch Goals Unlocking!

Knights,

As the Kickstarter campaign races to the end -- and wow it is blazing fast! -- now is the last chance to share our project with friends and family, coworkers and random people on the street, your local gaming store and coffee shop. Help us get the word out and leave a comment on the campaign to let us know where you shared the game!

As we bring the campaign to a close, please double check your pledge and make sure it is exactly what you want it to be. You can click “Manage Pledge” anytime before the campaign ends to either increase or decrease your pledge. If you want to add to your pledge now to cover add-ons as described in Update #18, now is the time to do it. We wanted to offer a quick clarification the Steam key add-on at $15. These add-on Steam keys come with access to all of the digital rewards from your main pledge (Chromehawk, Nano-Boost, Omega Style, Cyber Tactitian). Therefore, if you pledged $25 for the Soundtrack Edition and add-on $15 for one extra Steam key, that Steam key comes along with a Chromehawk Starting Weapons digital reward. It’s a very nice gift for a friend -- not only a copy of the game but some exclusive cool rewards!

No matter what your pledge is, we are happy to have you with us on this project. This will likely be one of the final updates from us before the campaign is over and if we forget to say it 10 more times before the end -- thank you all so very much. Over the years you’ve made our dreams come true, you let us work together as the duo we have always dreamed of being. Together, let’s make Cyber Knights something exceptionally memorable.


Join us tomorrow, Thursday March 5th on Twitch starting around 4 PM EST. We will be celebrating the final hours of the campaign and cheering on a big finish. Thank you for helping us spread the word to everyone who might be interested in becoming a Cyber Knight!

In the meantime, come hang out on the Trese Brothers Discord where the crew is counting down the hours and the distance to each stretch goal. We have the best community in gaming, come join us.

Achieved: Safehouse Soundtrack ($190K)
Together we’ve gathered more than 4600 backers to help us expand and extend Cyber Knights: Flashpoint with more budget and creative rewards. We’re hitting stretch goals across the spectrum of artwork, rules and music. Our most recent stretch goal is the Safehouse Soundtrack, a fun set of additional tracks will be available for players to listen to in their safehouses; these tracks will also be added to the Soundtrack Edition reward ($25). This means the $25 reward and every reward higher than it has just jumped in value again!

These tracks in particular will have a unique place in the world and will be “performed” by in-game synthwave artists, some of which were mentioned in Update 12: News Simstreams like Seven Banners Burning and Cody Navi. After the campaign closes we’ll work up some options and persona write-ups for our megastars of 2231 and let the backers choose in a poll who’s music will be included for the Safehouse Soundtrack.

We’re excited to once again team-up with our composers to make an even more massive synthwave-cyberpunk soundtrack for Cyber Knights: Flashpoint!

Spoiler

In the Hunt: Hacking Mk2 ($200K)
This update is going out as we speed toward the Hacking Mk2 stretch goal. We original unveiled Hacking Mk2 in Update #5 which is highly inspired by the abstract network maps of the SEGA Genesis Shadowrun and hacking in Deus Ex: Human Revolution.

As you move through a mission, your hacker will seek out access points and other hackable terminals across the map. If your hacker can reach one, they will connect to the Matrix and start to spend Action Points cracking security the node’s security, decrypting protocols, downloading files or controlling map elements -- hopefully while someone is watching their unprotected body. If you get traced by the firewall, you’ll have guards and drones headed your way fast!

To stay ahead, the Hacker Job uses a mix of software, cyberware and Talents to slice through intrusion countermeasures. Depending on how tough the node’s security is it might take you multiple turns and attempts. Once successful through the first security, the Hacker can download valuable data from the system or control connected devices on the map through network functions. Different Matrix networks will enable your hacker to access security controls, industrial systems or corporate databases.

Beyond just disabling security cameras or unlocking doors your Matrix hacks will allow you to manipulate interactive map features. For example you could disable temperature and pressure limiters, shutdown voltage detectors or open industrial valves flooding a space with chemicals. Matrix control over corporate functions will open up various options, such as requesting camera maintenance or triggering intrusion alarms intentionally to summon guards and divert attention from your real goal.

Matrix hosts will often contain side-quests, pay data, prototype recipes and intel about corporate operations -- sometimes hacking them will be optional while sometimes it will be a core part of the mission. In addition, once upgraded your safehouse will allow for hacking-based pre-mission advantages.

More Reading
If you're new to the Trese Brothers or just catching up on this campaign, check out some of the awesome interviews and AMAs we've done over the last 30 days:

• Rock Paper Shotgun Cyber Knights Flashpoint Interview
• /r/pcgaming AMA (Reddit "Ask Me Anything")
• /r/games AMA (Reddit "Ask Me Anything")
• Podcast with Plastic Hearts "Building Strong Communities Around Your Games"
• GameDev.tv Community Podcast Episode 41 with the Trese Brothers

Thank you for your support and for joining us in the excitement of the final sprint to the finish! Every penny raised on Kickstarter will go towards making the best game we possibly can. In preparation for a very hype launch on Steam, please add Cyber Knights: Flashpoint to your Wishlist!

Cory and Andrew Trese

Trese Brothers Games

 

[just]

they broke 200k so we'll get the matrix
probably not enough time to get the cats tho

 

[Harthwain]

I am positively shocked they did manage to get to 200k. I thought they'll reach 150k.

they broke 200k so we'll get the matrix
probably not enough time to get the cats tho

Cats? You surely meant assassin jobs?

 

[ERYFKRAD]

Low-rise would have been nice, hope that gets in later.

 

[santino27]

Doesn't seem like we'll hit the 225k goal, but things have picked up steam a bit.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tresebrothers/cyber-knights/posts/2776509

Cyber Knights: the Final Hours

Knights,

Thank you for being a key part of the Trese Brothers community and for making the Cyber Knights: Flashpoint Kickstarter a HUGE success. This community funded the Kickstarter in the first 12 hours and delivered the long-awaited Matrix Mk2 stretch goal at $200,000 in the final 24 hours.

And now we now enter the final phase, the endgame of the Cyber Knights. In a few hours, the campaign will close and the great machine of Kickstarter will sputter to life to start charging cards. It will take a few days for the dust to settle and for us to work out errors and backer issues with payments but it won’t be long before we are sending surveys, assigning roles and posting progress updates about development!


Click to follow our Twitch channel
Twitch Stream!
We are going live on our Trese Brothers Twitch channel today at 4 PM EST and will be live streaming through the close of the campaign. We’ll be telling studio stories, talking about Cyber Knights development and next steps and taking questions from backers and fans. Come join us!

BackerKit / Pledge Manager
Following the end of the Kickstarter campaign, we will move to open up backer surveys through our pledge manager, Backerkit. In the days after the end of the campaign, you’ll get an invitation to the pledge manager to complete a survey and make any final decisions about your pledge add-ons. During the pledge manager phase, you’ll have the option to increase your pledge or pick additional add-ons.

We’ve prepared the full list of pledge-adds on. If you are interested in an add-on, upgrade your pledge while the Kickstarter is still running and then you can assign those funds to the add on during the pledge manager phase.

Digital Rewards and Starting Complications
To read more about any of the digital rewards, Starting Complications and the Horizon Cypher add-on, check out all the details in Cyber Knights: Flashpoint Update #6: Character Creation.

Assassin Job and Cybercat ($225K)
This stretch goal will introduce a completely new stealth cyber-Job to the game which is designed to synergize with a new type of enhanced animal companion. For those cat lovers who have been requesting it, the Assassin and their cybercat are for you. Like the Hunder and the Drone Pilot, the Assassin cyber-job will be built around coordination with the companion but the cybercat’s unique one-on-one NeuroRig operates very differently than the pack-mind of the Hunder’s EvoRig.

From a budget standpoint, the new animal companion will require new models, textures and a completely new feline animation rig done by our expert in animal animation. This will be a pretty big addition beyond what we’ve planned for dogs and drones and the Assassin job will have unique sound effects, Talents, abilities and visuals.

From a gameplay standpoint, the Assassin looks down at Matrix Mk2 and asks “Does hacking the camera even matter if it never saw me in the first place?” Armed with the advanced senses and mobility enabled by the NeuroRig, the Assassin will slice through physical security. A high-risk, high-reward playstyle the Assassin is a glass-cannon with both short and long range kill potential.

Cybercat upgrades will focus on enhanced sensors, mobility enhancement, target debuffs and NeuroRig efficiency. At $225K we can afford to complete one full cybercat model and effect set. If we can find support for the campaign beyond that, $235K will fund a complete second cybercat based on the cybercat animation rig. If we fund to this level we will have a poll for backers after the campaign to decide on bobcat, puma, lynx or civet.

One very generous backer created this poster to help explain why you must pledge for cybercats!

Spoiler

Character Traits
We have had a lot of questions about Character Traits, so we want to share some more details about the system. Lots of these ideas have been proven in Star Traders: Frontiers and we’re going to take them to the next level with Cyber Knights: Flashpoint.

Traits are special aspects or quirks that a character possesses. A newly hired mercenary starts with a few Traits based on background and history. Each member of your team will gain, lose and change Traits during game and story events, through a process called Trait Mutation.

Traits will often be added or removed based on your story choices and situations that occur while on missions. Your hired mercenary’s traits will evolve over time based on the way you play the game. Each mission could change your team -- for the better, or worse. Some Traits will be positive, bonuses like Nimble and Tough. Other Traits will be negatives for the character, like Crammerhead or Chronic Pain.

Not only will Traits include gameplay rules and be connected to your choices and actions, they will also trigger new personal stories. Narrative hooks that start because of a character’s Traits will forever alter the character, the story and perhaps the New Boston Zone based on your choices. For example, the “Cyberware Infected by Q-Virus” Trait is a one of a kind story hook based on failing a particular hack. Nasty stuff.

No matter how your mercenaries acquire them, many negative Traits can be mitigated with cyberware, medical treatments or nano-based healing. Some Contacts in the game provide other types treatments that can deal with Traits of biomedical and psychological nature. Many of the negative Traits your mercenaries acquire from dreadful combat wounds you can correct at the Safehouse with a few days, weeks or months in a Nano-Vat.

Contacts also have Traits that make them unique and living actors within the world. If you’re familiar with the simulations that underpin Star Traders: Frontiers, then you will recognize the character sheet below. Traits are listed here in the order acquired. Born Nimble, he learned in combat to be Calm. In the remote wilds of the desert planet Radiux IV, he learned to be Driven, to never break. But along the way he saw too many things, and found himself in the cups at the Spice Hall, day after day. Now, he finds the only thing that stirs his soul is staring into the darkness, into the Xeno, into the Other.

Cyber Knights: Flashpoint will keep careful track of each mercenary’s career and record a log for each one, including their individual Trait mutations and events so that you can review their stories (or visit their shrines in the Safehouse’s memory book.)

Thank you for your support!

Cory and Andrew Trese

 

[SausageInYourFace]

Final stretch of campaign stream starting soon:

 

[santino27]

Talking about the trait mutation system now on the stream.

(Sort of. He gets distracted everytime someone subscribes, follows, or donates.)

 

[pm_675]

they broke 200k so we'll get the matrix
probably not enough time to get the cats tho

Well, they have US$ 220.629 with little more than 60 minutes to finish. Perhaps they can get the 225.000 before the end.

In any case I did my part and backed. I´m a sucker for cyberpunk

Edit: And with 10 minutes to go 225k reached. Kitties are go

 

[santino27]

Upped my bid, proving once again that watching streams is bad for my bank account.

Doesn't look like 225k will happen, but still... successful KS.

This has been a crazy last hour. Assassins and cats secured.

Spoiler

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tresebrothers/cyber-knights/posts/2777340

Thank you Backers, you Funded it!

Knights,

What an incredible month this turned out to be! It was almost a year ago that we held the first planning session for this campaign and it feels like it was a year ago when we pressed Launch. Yet here we are, 32 short days later, with a 453% funded project with 5,041 backers excited to get started with Cyber Knights.

To each and every backer: we cannot thank you enough for your pledge, comments, support, and ideas over the past month. You have given our dream project life. We’re so fragging excited to make this cyberpunk epic a reality. It’s all thanks to you. You.

Spoiler

What happens next?
The first phase of the mission is complete. We have secured our pre-mission advantages, compiled our stretch goals and built our Alpha Squad. Now we begin the next part of the operation -- build and deliver. We have a busy couple of weeks ahead closing down the Kickstarter and getting the pledge manager ready for all our backers. Every step of the journey is important to get right, so we aren’t going to rush it.

Today

The campaign is closed. Kickstarter has now processed your pledge and your card has been charged according to the pledge amount you selected during the campaign. If something didn’t work with the charge, you will get an email from Kickstarter. Visit the campaign page to make sure your pledge was processed and if something went wrong, you can use the Kickstarter buttons to get it resolved. Remember, if your pledge does not charge and clear successfully, you will get no rewards (sorry).

This morning, we have also started configuring BackerKit pledge manager to do all the required surveys, pledge add-ons and reward tiers. This will take some time to get setup. As we were hyper focused on the campaign up until the last seconds, we didn’t start this in advance.

March 5 to March 12

There is a 7-day window following a Kickstarter’s deadline for collecting and processing pledges. For Cyber Knights: Flashpoint that window ends March 12 9PM EST. If a backer doesn’t resolve their payment issues within seven days, the pledge is dropped. The Kickstarter total will not change, but the pledged funds will not be transferred to Trese Brothers and the user will not be a backer on Kickstarter.

If your pledge encounters problems billing, please contact Kickstarter support. Unfortunately we have no control over payment processing.

March 13

We will send a Kickstarter update on or around March 13 with more details about the Backer Surveys. At this point all pledges on Kickstarter have either successfully charged or canceled, and BackerKit pledge manager will use Kickstarter’s API to import all confirmed and charged pledges. No billing information is transferred to BackerKit.

We will email your Backer Survey from BackerKit. This survey allows you to select your pledge options and choose your add-ons. You can increase your pledge via your BackerKit Survey if you wish to get additional keys and add-ons. This is also how you’ll provide your shipping information if you want a Hardcover Art Book.

March 20

Right around 15 days after the Kickstarter ends, the bank will transfer the campaign’s fund, minus fees, to Trese Brothers. We have already begun working with our partners and collaborators to bulk up our projects with them to include the newly acquired stretch goal content.

April 5

We will send an update on or around April 5 to provide a backer update on progress over the past month and summarize the bookkeeping and reward progress. At this time we will also start to finalize and close down BackerKit’s late-pledge option and disable PayPal. We will complete a final roster of alpha backers, a list of planned creative rewards and any adjustments to the development plan necessary.

How do I keep up with progress?
Our most current status will here on the Kickstarter page. We will be posting updates throughout the development process to keep backers in the loop about how things are progressing. If you have email notifications enabled, you will get each update in your email the moment it's available.

We are committed to providing a steady stream of updates -- at least once a month -- but will provide big updates with more information packed into one instead of multiple shorter updates. However, during this early phase around the pledge manager, we will be sending updates at each of the major milestones outlined above.

Andrew and Cory

Trese Brothers Games

 

[santino27]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tresebrothers/cyber-knights/posts/2778297

One. Last. Stretch. Goal.

Knights,

Thursday night was something truly epic and special. Hundreds of backers tuned in to the live end-of-campaign countdown stream on Twitch. If you didn’t get to see it, the recording is now available.

However, even with such success we cannot help but feel a little lost now that the campaign is over. Refreshing the Kickstarter page every 5 seconds doesn’t have the same feeling it did last week. Some of our Discord crew has expressed the same feeling. The end of the campaign was absolutely amazeballs but it feels like if we’d have just one more day to press F5, we might have hit just ... One. More. Stretch. Goal.

<fade out>

<Two concerned looking Jupiter Corp Security guards patrol in a top-secret biomedical facility>

Guard 1: Should we call in those two wild-eyed scientists who just ran by? They were babbling about “escaped prototype cybercats.”

Guard 2: I’m sure it is nothing. Everyone knows there is only one kind of cybercat. Jupiter Corp would never experiment with such dangerous animals.

Guard 1: Are you an idiot? Our patrol route is labeled “Cybercat R&D Laboratory” on the map!

<Guard 1 suddenly spins and disappears in a spray of red and gunfire>

Cyber Murdercat “Type 2”: Meow.

<Guard 2 screams and flees, shooting wildly. More screams are heard as the second cybercat breed escape the lab>

<fade out>

Unlocked New Cybercat Breed ($235K)
We mean it when we say Thursday night was epic. Hundreds of new backers flooded into the project and hundreds more upgraded their pledges to help us lunge across the final stretch in those last hours. A big shout out to Cringer for raiding our Twitch stream and starting it off with a bang. We also want to especially thank @1johnrobinson and @SweetPollyPurebred for their “mistake” in thinking the hardcover art book cost $500 and ordering 2 of them in the last minutes. What a legend. What a night!

With $226,709 pledge on Kickstarter and an additional $1,355 raised on PayPal we are still about $7,000 short of the New Cybercat Breed stretch goal. However, we have seen many of our backers buying and sharing Star Traders: Frontiers (Google Play, App Store) and Templar Battleforce (Google Play, App Store) over the last month. Based on our current player counts, it is clear that many new players found us through Cyber Knights: Flashpoint.

Spoiler

Combining the extra game sales with our growing Patreon support and Twitch subscriptions we are really close to affording the new Cat Breed. Therefore, we resolved to do something crazy -- we’re stretching to gift you the New Cybercat Breed with a bow on top. Careful opening it, it might be more than you expected!

So thank you for all your support. You earned this. When backer surveys go out, it will include backer poll to determine the new cybercat breed!


XKCD's "A-Minus-Minus" tell this story well
Progress Update
We have made faster than expected progress configuring BackerKit pledge manager for the surveys, add-ons and rewards. We should have no problems sending them on the schedule we outlined in Update #22.

We’ve also completed coding and testing our MercerBot, the Discord agent that will manage your server role and alpha access. This will mean automated and easy role assignment, private channel access and alpha readiness. We have begun moving forward with our partners and collaborators on the stretch goal content for the campaign. We’re starting now to make sure these stretch goals don't slow the project down.

Failed Pledges
Please be sure to check your email to ensure you got an email from Kickstarter stating your pledge ran successfully ("We've collected your pledge for Cyber Knights: a cyberpunk RPG"). We still have 118 pledges (less than 2%!) that were not successfully processed, probably due to incorrect information entered at the credit card stage.

Please be aware that if you are not able to resolve the failed pledge by Thursday March 12th, you will not get any rewards and the window will close to join the project (sorry).

More Thanks
We could not have run this campaign without the guidance, support and assistance from everyone on the Trese Brothers team. As we embark on the next phase of Cyber Knights, build and deliver, we want to be certain to stop and thank some of those who helped us get this far. Roll credits and cue the Soundcloud music, please.

• Music & Composition by Studio Viking
• Art & Technical Support by N-iX
• Video Production by Oswego Creative
• PR & Marketing by Novy Unlimited

With great gratitude,

Andrew and Cory Trese

Trese Brothers Games

 

[Infinitron]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tresebrothers/cyber-knights/posts/2782026

Late/Declined Pledges + Survey Prep

Knights,

The deadline for corrected payment problems with pledges is tomorrow March 12 9PM EST. There are still 68 Knights with errored pledges. Please be sure to confirm your pledge was successfully collected by Kickstarter! You can visit the campaign page and see a “Fix payment error” button if your pledge failed.

For anyone who missed the campaign, we have now opened the late pledge store on BackerKit and will be accepting pledges to the Alpha and Ultra Edition only through April 6th, 2020. If you or any of your friends missed out on the Kickstarter, you can still jump in on the campaign! This is the final opportunity for slacker backers to jump in!

This is the point where a Kickstarter project might start to wander or go silent for a while. You will find no such delays from the Trese Brothers. We intend to set a high standard of execution throughout Kickstarter, from day one to day 1,000. Our organization and planning aim to be as sharp as a Matusumoto nano-edge katana and our communication is as expertly delivered as Crane Tech’s latest datablaze. If you have questions at any time, message us on Kickstarter. If you need to reach one of us directly, you can email Andrew at andrew@tresebrothers.com or Cory at cory@tresebrothers.com.

In the mean time, check out this draft animation of the cyber pitbull. Does he smell something? Surveys!?

Surveys are Coming
Backer Surveys will start going out on Friday, March 13th. For most, they will arrive Friday or over the weekend. Once you fill out your survey, add-ons that are ready (such as Star Traders: Frontiers Steam keys) will process immediately and you will get your keys. We are using BackerKit as our pledge manager to offer the options to upgrade your pledge, purchase additional add-ons and to get the best survey and digital delivery experience possible for you.

In your survey, you will be asked to provide your Discord username and a Trese Brothers Forum username. If you are not a member of either of these services and will participate in the alpha test, be sure to take a moment to sign up so that you can provide all the answers to the survey.

Spoiler

Detailed Project Tracking
Part of our commitment to you is to share detailed information about the timing, status and ordering of Kickstarter rewards and stretch goals. To that end, we will be using and evolving this “Progress Bar” infographic.

The progress bar graphic contains all of the major release milestones (alpha, Steam Early Access, Steam launch, and the mobile/Switch ports) as well as every stretch goal and reward. The ordering of these items indicates their timing of delivery or completion. For example, you can see that we won’t start working on recruitable characters until after the launch of the alpha, as it is important for everyone to play the game before starting to hammer out these details. Or you can see that we will be working on completing the Skyrise Environment kit during the alpha phase and not before it.

A big campaign has a lot of promises and we hope that this graphic is helpful for you to keep track of where we are in delivering them. As we go, we will be marking items on the list as complete and including this graphic in every single Kickstarter update so that we are all on the same page.

Thank you for your support and this is all until Friday when the surveys go out!

Cory & Andrew Trese

Trese Brothers Games

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tresebrothers/cyber-knights/posts/2784133

Surveys Sending!

Knights!

We have exciting news to share today, the surveys are going out! Backer Surveys have started going out today, Friday, March 13th. For most, they will arrive immediately or over the weekend.

The BackerKit pledge manager will offer you the option to upgrade your pledge, assign extra pledge value you reserved for add-ons or purchase new add-ons. Here are a few examples of how your pledge manager experience might look:

• Just survey -- You decide to make no changes to your pledge level and select no add-ons. Simple -- you just complete your survey.
• Assign Extra Kickstarter funds -- You pledged an extra $15 to the Kickstarter. In the pledge manager, you decide to make no changes to your pledge level and assign that $15 to an extra Cyber Knights Steam key. Then you complete your survey.
• New Add-on -- You decide to make no changes to your pledge but you want add a Star Traders: Frontiers Steam key. You pay an extra $10 in the pledge manager checkout and then complete your survey.
• Pledge upgrade -- You decide to upgrade your pledge level and pay the difference in the pledge manager checkout. Then you complete your survey.

Please let us know if you have any questions, we are on deck to help!

Once you fill out your survey, the first wave of rewards will be ready to deliver, as shown in the Progress Bar infographic.

• If you enter your Discord username into the survey, you will be able to chat with the MercerBot in our Discord to get your role assigned. Simply type “max!addrole” into any channel and MercerBot will grant your new roles.
• The Trese Brothers Forum badges take a little longer to process. We will wait until we have a majority of surveys completed to fulfill these. They are basically used for the Alpha Phase, so these are not that important to get done quickly.
• During the survey, you’ll enter the name or attribute you want in the game’s credits. We will load these straight into the game’s database and they will appear in the credit’s screen post haste.
• During the survey, you’ll be asked to vote for which cat breed will be selected for Type 2.
• If you are getting a Star Traders: Frontiers or Templar Battleforce Steam key as an add-on, you’ll get those keys immediately via Backerkit.
  

Remember that during the survey process, you will be asked to provide your Discord username and/or a Trese Brothers Forum username. If you are not a member of either of these services and will participate in the alpha test, be sure to sign up so that you can provide all the answers to the survey.

If you have any questions, we are gathering a helpful FAQ for the Cyber Knights: Flashpoint where we will try to keep all the most useful answers. So, reach out to us and we’ll help and evaluate your question for the FAQ.

Late Pledges
If you’re late to the party, you can still pledge through the Late Pledge store.

Failed Payments
If your payment failed on Kickstarter, you will get a survey in 7 days from BackerKit. At that time, you will have the option to complete your payment via the pledge manager checkout. If you do so, you’re redeemed to full backer status, and can complete the normal survey and pledge manager options like picking add-ons.

Thank you for your support!

Andrew & Cory Trese

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tresebrothers/cyber-knights/posts/2790196

Survey Reminder!

Backers,

Like this draft animation of hurling a grenade, we chucked the Backerkit surveys out to you last week on March 13th. Catch! :D

TLDR; this is a survey reminder and we’ve calculated our near-final funding total. Our art, music and animation teams are smashing away at the stretch goals. And thank you.

Surveys!

Since then 76% of our backers have completed their survey, voted in the cybercat poll and selected any campaign add-ons they wanted. We are sending out this one week reminder on Kickstarter to make sure you (1) got a survey email from Backerkit (support@s.backerkit.com OR no-reply@s.backerkit.com) and that you (2) complete the survey and pick any final add-ons.

If you have not received a survey or had any issues filling it out, please email me at andrew@tresebrothers.com or message me here on Kickstarter. We are here to help.

While we are not closing the backer surveys soon, some of these rewards (like the 3D face modeling) and choices (like the cybercat breed poll) have a limited window. By April 6th, we are planning to close the late pledge store and will be making the final rounds to try to get everyone across the survey finish line. By early April, we want to be full steam ahead on every item.

Spoiler

Final Funding

While there is still some room for final add-ons to increase the total, we have nearly our final funding numbers for the campaign. Together, we raised $226,709 on Kickstarter and $1,355 on PayPal for a campaign total of $228,064. The pledge manager add-ons and late pledge store have now added $9,560 to that total bringing the total Cyber Knights: Flashpoint warchest to $237,624 before chargebacks and fees.

So once again we find ourselves steeped in great gratitude. In the pledge manager, the majority of the additional funds raised is from additional keys of Cyber Knights: Flashpoint to share with a friend and picking up keys of our previous two games, Star Traders: Frontiers and Templar Battleforce. We drew a line in the snow and gifted you the extra cybercat breed stretch goal in thanks for the amazing campaign and month. You met us at that line once again! And so, we want to express our thanks for those players new to the Trese Brothers studio who picked up keys for our previous titles and joined us on Discord to talk strategy, lore and more.

Remember to vote for your favorite cat!

Status

We will include the “Progress Bar” in every single Kickstarter update whether or not something changes. To keep the best track of what is done and in progress, we've added a little blue "in progress" icon next to the items that we are actively working on.

Our latest progress report is that we’ve met with Studio Viking to begin moving forward on the Skyrise and Safehouse soundtrack additions and our art team is working on all of the concepts for the 6 unlocked outfits. We’re wrapping up some of the animations required for the game’s initial scope (such as chucking grenades) and doing detailed storyboards for new animations like hacking, petting the dog and more. Cory and I are working on picking the best looking pictures of King Tut and Rigatoni for their concept art debut. So -- across the board, we’re firing.

Thank you for your support,

Andrew & Cory Trese

Trese Brothers Games

Drafting a Brave Star outfit design

Data / tech lab doors are smaller than industrial doors -- designed for individuals

Looking good and taking names

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tresebrothers/cyber-knights/posts/2798411

April 6th Deadline Reminder

Red lacquered armor of Matsumoto Sec speaks to style, refinement and technology

Backers,

We’re sending out one more update as a reminder on the important upcoming date of April 6th. This is the last “boring” update that we will send out that is purely a reminder. From here, we will be pivoting to content focused updates as the development of the game continues as well as progress updates as we deliver each reward and stretch goal.

As usual, we end the update with a some of the work-in-progress art from the game!

With the late pledges and add-ons, we've scooted across the $239K mark
Late Store Closing
One month out from the end of the campaign, this is the date when we will close the Late Pledge Store. If you know anyone who would love this game, give them a heads up now that this is the final call. As of April 6th, we will close the doors, tally the final commitments and turn all of our attention to completing the game’s alpha.

Polls Closing Too
April 6th is also the point in time where we will make the official tally of all Kickstarter polls -- the Cat Breed Poll (in your survey), the Favorite Class Poll (comment on this update) and the Survivor Poll (comment on this update).

Spoiler

Please Complete Your Survey Today!
Backer surveys are a critical part of the cycle of a Kickstarter. We need your details, choices, Discord username (if you have one) to be able to deliver the rewards you are owed. If you do not complete a survey, we will not be able to:

• Send your Steam key for the game!
• Invite you to the alpha
• Add you to the in-game credits
• Badge your Discord or forum username
• Etc!

At this point, 86% of our backers have completed their survey, picked add-ons and voted for cybercat. Surveys won’t officially be closing at any point but we are asking everyone to hop in and get these done so we can have the best shot at completing your reward -- whatever level -- in a timely fashion. Getting this done now means less emails and support issues later.

You should have received an email from Backerkit (support@s.backerkit.com OR no-reply@s.backerkit.com) and please follow the link to complete the survey. If you have not received a survey or had any issues filling it out, please visit the BackerKit Survey Recovery link or email me at andrew@tresebrothers.com or message me here on Kickstarter. We are here to help!

Stealth suites can provide all manner of cloaking and sensory avoidance
Progress on the Progress Bar
A good progress bar is always in motion! With every Kickstarter update, we will always post the “Progress Bar” infographic and do our best to keep it moving forward. Some of these items are very large, so sometimes there will be lulls in reward delivery or stretch goal completion.

Our latest progress report is that the art team has started working on the concepts for all 3 new types of drones that were unlocked as stretch goals. In addition, since the animation expansion has such impact on the gameplay, the animation team has completed the current round of more basic animations (reload, swap weapon, slide into cover) and is now working through the storyboards for the first set of expansion animations -- specifically hacking and carrying bodies.

We're also hammering out the exact intake process for the 3D faces with the art team, so that reward will be coming up in the next week or two.

Streaming on Twitch
You can find Cory (and sometimes Andrew) on the Trese Brothers Twitch where we are streaming game development, answering questions and talking about the studio Tuesdays and Thursdays at 4PM EST.

Thank you for your support!

Andrew & Cory Trese

Trese Brothers Games

High poly sculpt of a directed energy weapon, such as a pulse rifle

Paramilitary outfit features a bold armor strategy

You might find such mobile battery units in a field station or underground medical lab

Each megacorp and milsec corp will feature a unique color scheme and soldier design. Here is some of the design work for Brave Star!

 

[santino27]

source: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tresebrothers/cyber-knights/posts/2807578

Project Update - Month One

Knights,

It is hard to believe it has already been a month since the campaign ended. The Kickstarter may be over, but the updates will keep coming. We plan to post news about the state of our game and our current progress every month. Together we raised $226,709 on Kickstarter and $1,355 on PayPal for a campaign total of $228,064. After the end of the campaign, pledge manager add-ons and late pledges have added $13,135 which brings the final funding total for Cyber Knights: Flashpoint to $241,199 before chargebacks, manufacturing for physical rewards and fees.

Here at Trese Brothers HQ, we are busy finalizing the saved game format, putting the finishing touches on the dynamic story node system and reinforcing the foundation of the all-important battle map for missions.

Survey Update
Please understand that we are a bit obsessed with survey completion. If you don’t complete your survey, you can’t get any rewards. So, we are excited to have now achieved a 90% completion rate for backer surveys! Nearly everyone has voted in the cybercat poll and selected the campaign add-ons they wanted. If you have not received a survey email from Backerkit (support@s.backerkit.com OR no-reply@s.backerkit.com) if you have not completed the survey and picked any final add-ons now is the time!

If you have not received a survey or had any issues filling it out, please email me at andrew@tresebrothers.com or message me here on Kickstarter. We are here to help.

Poll Results!
We have wrapped up 3 polls from the Kickstarter -- the New Cat Breed, Favorite Profession from Cyber Knights classic and the Survivor Poll from Cyber Knights classic. The results are below!

Snow Leopard Wins Cat Breed Poll

The votes have been tallied and the winner is Snow Leopard. This majestic cat will be integrated into the Assassin cyber-job as the second companion type. Thank you for all your support -- you made this happen. Our backers, Patreons, Twitch subscribers all pitched in and we’ve begun funding the animation, model and texturing work to bring this beauty to life. Meow!

The voting was extremely close in the first two weeks but then Snow Leopard took the lead and never looked back. We thank everyone who voted -- no matter which cat you fancied we’re all winning here. Each cat had a lot of votes and we’re very excited to be expanding the feline variety in the game!

Gunslinger Wins Profession Poll

Spoiler

In the poll for which profession would have the honor of being the first template in the new game list, Gunslinger beat Hacker out by a hair. We appreciate everyone voting on this poll during and after the campaign, it was a fun one. Very clearly -- Gunslinger, Hacker and Cybersword broke away from the other professions as the favorites.

Eliza Krofter Wins Survivor Poll

By a landslide, Eliza Krofter the young Cyber Knight featured in the “Made, Not Born” storyline of Cyber Knights classic was voted as the Survivor. She beat out both Clive Zep and Side-Arm Gerrin at a rate of 5 to 1. We’re excited to see a seminal character’s story continue and to find out what Krofter has been up to for the last 14 years.

To those who campaigned for the other survivors, we have seen the #CliveLives hashtag and even heard rumors of CliveLives appear in graffiti in the game.

Stretch Goal Update - Soundtrack Expansion
We are making progress on the Skyrise and Safehouse OST projects with our music and sound team at Studio Viking. For Skyrise, we’ll be expanding the OST with 2 unique compositions and 4 thematic remixes.

The Safehouse expansion will include 4 unique songs performed in-game by artists like Seven Banners Burning or LTS. We are working with Studio Viking to develop these artist’s personas around the voice talent -- all while juggling studio recording in the age of coronavirus.

If you’re getting the Digital Soundtrack Reward as part of your pledge tier, you will automatically get these additional tracks. All players will be able to hear them in-game when they’re raiding the high-style Skyrise towers or laying low in their Safehouse.

Reward Update: 3D Faces
In order for the art project to continue smoothly, we need to start gathering all of the details for the backer’s character faces that will get rendered into the game. We have finished preparing an in-take process to gather images, references and the other details needed to make this as smooth as possible. Once we have all the input for each face, we will create a concept art shot of the newly designed head and hair. From there, the 3D team will be ready to take over!

If you pledged at the Backstory Edition or higher ($500+), you will receive an invitation to a Google Form from atrese@gmail.com within the hour.

Wishlist / Follow on Steam
This month we worked with our video team to cut a pre-alpha teaser trailer for Steam. The more wishlists we can accumulate for the game’s eventual launch the better. If you can, please visit the Cyber Knights: Flashpoint page on Steam and click ‘Add to Wishlist’ and ‘Follow’ the game. This will help the game build momentum for the inevitable Early Access Release.

Trese Brothers on Reddit
We’re are online at the Trese Brothers Discord server but we’re also active on our Reddits, /r/TreseBrothers, /r/StarTradersFrontiers and newly minted /r/CyberKnightsGame so come, post a meme or a guide.

Final Hours of Kickstarter Livestream
We streamed the last five hours of the Kickstarter on Twitch, and if you missed it the video is archived on YouTube: Twitch Stream - Final 5 Hours of Cyber Knights: Flashpoint Kickstarter

Streaming on Twitch
You can find Cory (and sometimes Andrew) on the Trese Brothers Twitch where we are streaming game development, answering questions and talking about the studio Tuesdays and Thursdays at 4PM EST.

Many thanks for your support!

Cory and Andrew Trese

Trese Brothers Games

 

[pm_675]

New actualization! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tresebrothers/cyber-knights/posts/2816954

Stretch Goals: Drone Concept Art

Knights!

We are excited to share the first pieces of unlocked concept art from the campaign’s stretch goals. These are all work-in-progress, but we wanted to give you an insider’s look at the raw output from the art team.

Survey Reminder
Please forgive us if we are a bit obsessed with survey completion. Backers who don’t complete a survey, don’t get any rewards. We are happy to have now achieved a 92% completion rate for backer surveys. If you have not completed a survey please email me at andrew@tresebrothers.com or message me here on Kickstarter.

If you missed the results of any of the polls, including the cybercat breed poll, our last post “Project Update - Month One” included all the results and details. Go Snow Leopard!

3X Drones Stretch Goal
The campaign unlocked three stretch goal drones chassis. These stretch goals gave us additional budget for the art, model, animations, sounds and abilities for each new drone type. These drones will be available for your Drone Pilot to purchase, customize and deploy on missions. The concept art for the drones has now been completed by the art team and we are working to review it before moving it forward into the 3D modeling phase. As with every aspect of the project, we're excited to share this progress!

The scout drone has light weaponry, digital scanners and baffled engines to reduce the chances of enemies detecting it. Scout drones are unarmored and easily destroyed, so the Drone Pilot must rely on their speed and stealth to gather valuable intel for her team and the Cyber Knight. Scout drones can spot enemies, mark targets and, in an emergency, lay down covering fire or attempt to distract enemies or security.

On the other end of the spectrum, the Battle drone is a heavily armored combat chassis designed to dish out and soak up damage. Battle drones can be equipped with top of the line heavy weapons, reactive armor and battle-ready redundant systems; representing the state of the art in 23rd century robotic combat. Equipped with huge, powerful engines they are loud, expensive, and difficult to pilot.

Support drones aren’t as fast as a Scout drone and they don’t have the heavy armament or structure of a Battle drone but they are easy to fly and highly customizable. Depending on your Drone Pilot’s build and your squad’s needs, Support drones can be configured with mobile medical stations, security scanners, jamming pods or nanogears for buffing your team. A Support drone’s piloting module makes it a breeze to fly for an experienced pilot and as a result its orders require fewer Action Points.

Spoiler

Development Update
At Trese Brothers we’ve moved from executing our Kickstarter-focused tasklist to executing on the next phase of building Flashpoint. This week we are iterating on the Wounds, Cyberware, Traits and Trait Mutation systems that play critical roles in bringing your characters to life in Cyber Knights. We started with an improved version of the Star Traders: Frontiers Traits and Trait Mutation systems and have further expanded it to include a threshold system rather than relying on random chance and can now allow five times as many Traits per character. We’ve woven Cyberware and combat Wounds into those mechanics and the resulting blend gives us dynamic characters that will encounter meaningful change from their time working for a Cyber Knight.

On the technical side, we’re testing the “Save Slots” feature that will let players store an unlimited number of named snapshots for their saved games (depending on available storage, infinity disk not included.) This feature will be available in non-Ironman difficulties and in any Custom Difficulty that wants to include it. Based on player feedback, Cyber Knights: Flashpoint Custom Difficulty will support both Ironman and Save Slots as unique settings that can be configured independently.

We are putting a priority on Save Slots and support features like it based on backer feedback from our last Kickstarter campaign. The Kickstarter-exclusive Star Traders: Frontiers alpha test was critical to the success of the game on Steam in Early Access and we want to do everything we can to repeat that success with Cyber Knights. While some of these important features were deployed later in the Star Traders: Frontiers cycle, we’ll be including them up front to ensure that the alpha test will be easier and more fun for all of our Kickstarter backers.

Our third in-progress element involves interactivity on mission maps. We’re testing new security systems, door types, bridges and other features your runners will be able to control with terminals or Matrix Mk2 hacking. We’ll have more details about this one in a future update!

Twitch Stream Today
We will be live today on the Trese Brothers Twitch where we are streaming game development, answering questions and talking about the studio -- we’ll be live today Tuesday 4PM EST.

Progress Bar
As a matter of routine, we always include the Progress Bar infographic in our updates. Here are the notes about the latest movements on the chart:

• We have now received input from over 25 of our backers who will join the game with their 3D face. These will be headed to the art team soon! If you pledged at the $500 reward and haven’t completed your intake form, please do!
• We’re also excited to announce we’ve set the start date for the first of 2 pen and paper RPG reward campaigns.
• Skyrise Environment is moving forward with the art team working on specific props and objects you’ll find in these tower lux residences.

Thanks for your support,

Andrew and Cory Trese

Trese Brothers Games

Comfy and stylish lux furniture

Who doesn't need a golden, glowing coffee table?

Corporate boardrooms require commanding chairs

Recreating the beauty of lost nature