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

Abu Antar

Turn-based Poster
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Joined
Jan 19, 2014
Messages
13,514
Enjoy the Revolution! Another revolution around the sun that is. Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
https://www.n-ix.com/game-vr-studio...ership-with-n-ix-interview-with-andrew-trese/

Cyber Knights: Flashpoint is a tactical RPG in a neon-soaked cyberpunk setting that was recently launched for alpha test and is planned to be released in 2022. The game has a turn-based combat system and offers a dynamic story, sophisticated and challenging missions, and an endless variety of builds. Trese Brothers Games, the game’s developer and publisher, partnered up with N-iX Game & VR Studio to turn their vision into an appealing design with the help of our art production services.

We conducted an interview with Andrew Trese, one of the founders of Trese Brothers, where we talked about how they started creating games, their upcoming RPG in a cyberpunk setting, cooperation with N-iX Game & VR Studio, successful Kickstarter campaign, and even cat memes.

Highlights
  • We never shy away from the complexity in games. In fact, we probably lean into complex systems really hard, which allows us to create games that have a lot of depth and replayability.
  • I think N-iX was maybe the ninth studio that we were talking to. We were talking to a lot of studios at the same time. And N-iX was awesome from the get-go, cause you guys asked us a lot of questions, which made us feel comfortable that you were going to pay attention to what we wanted”
  • We reached out to a couple of different studios that you guys had worked with to make sure that everyone else was happy with your work. We got all positive responses, so that was very confidence-building.
  • We wanted it to be a partnership, not just that you guys are working for us.
  • A Kickstarter is such a visual hook. People land on your page, see the gifts, watch the first 10-20 seconds of the video, and you have to make them interested. If those assets don’t catch their attention, they’re never going to read the text, they’re never going to scroll down, and they’re sure as hell never going to click the pledge button.
Says Andrew Trese.

Who is Who
  • Andrew Trese, the mastermind behind Cyber Knights and other Trese Brothers’ games;
  • Daniel Poludyonny, Head of Game & VR Studio;
  • Arthur Tereshchuk, Writer at N-iX Game & VR Studio.
The Beginning of Trese Brothers and Game Development Vision
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Arthur: How have you guys decided “we should probably make games,” and what is your story of success?

Andrew: We started in 2010 when my brother Cory and I were still working in enterprise software. We lived on different coasts of the country: he was in California, I was in Boston. Together we started creating a very hobby game project called Star Traders RPG. It was a Firefly or Dune-like space game where you fly around, pay your crew, and do missions across the galaxy. We posted it only on Google Play and were quite surprised when a lot of people got to play it. We were just making something for the two of us to share and didn’t intend to turn it into a game that we would be paid for. But there were so many people that started playing and emailing us with questions, suggestions, and complaints about solar distances and how big the universe was, and all sorts of things. We eventually put it on sale and interest just snowballed. So we realized we can make money making games and decided to keep doing that. And we’ve been making games ever since.

Arthur: What is your vision of video games, what makes Trese Brothers’ games stand out?

Andrew: We never shy away from the complexity in games. In fact, we probably lean into complex systems really hard, which allows us to create games that have a lot of depth and replayability. We give players a lot of options and let them come up with their own story and their own way. For example, in Star Traders Frontiers, our last game, we layered out nine professions (space smuggler, bounty hunter, intergalactic spy, explorer, etc.) and set this all have to play completely differently. You have to mix and match all the elements. Players have total freedom of how to play the game. So people will play a hundred-hour run of the game playing one way and then they can play a hundred hours another way. Based on the choices they have made, players often tell different emotional stories about the same game.

And I would say that another big thing that if people were to identify stuff about Trese Brothers games is that we hang out and talk to the community. We source a ton of good ideas from them, for sure. We always read and take the suggestions very seriously cause we have a history of finding that it makes our games better. We have players suggest straight-up items with stats, and if there is the right item we will put it in the game. It’s really helpful.

Upcoming Game Cyber Knights: Flashpoint
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Arthur: Considering your upcoming game, Cyber Knights: Flashpoint, it is the second game of the Cyber Knights franchise that takes place 14 years later from the Cyber Knights RPG. Why have you decided to make a sequel?

Andrew: As a company, we have made five games, and two of them were in the same world. We realized that our community loves those worlds, and we wanted to not really make sequels, but build the game worlds and tell stories by moving the time along. So from there, we started going back, basically making not sequels but games that progress the storyline. Star Traders Frontiers is set 200 years after the original Star Traders. It has a lot of similarities in its concepts. It’s the same world, and players who love the first game can see the play out of the choices they may have made in this galaxy. Experience the changes and keep playing.

So once we hit the fifth game, we decided not to make any more totally new, but rather go back to the beginning and refresh the titles. We did Star Traders, Templar Battle Force, which is a refresh of Templar Assault, and now we’re back to Cyber Knights. We had made this decision in the time of Cyberpunk 2077’s first trailer and then actually got serious about making the game. So we had already sailed on this pretty much before they made everything popular, but it’s good timing for us.

Arthur: Probably the most catchy difference between the first and the second parts of Cyber Knights is the 3rd dimension. How do the development process and art production differ when you develop 2D games and 3D games?

Andrew: Yeah, obviously super different. This is our first 3D title, so we waited many years before we tried to upgrade. We always wanted to make sure that we had enough success as a studio. That is if we upgraded to 3D, we would be able to do it with a partner who could deliver awesome 3D.
How was the process different? I mean, it’s a good question. With 2D you have a very limited ability to express certain things that happen in the game. With 2D art, if you want to have some sort of cut scene or cool thing to happen, you may need to develop art specifically for that. Whereas in 2D plus 3D you create a whole bunch of assets that can be reused in lots of different ways to create many different scenarios, setups, angles, and looks on things. You can change the lighting and it feels very different.

What I’m excited about, especially from a story and a world-building perspective, is that with all this 3D art that N-iX artists have created, we’re much more flexible. It can help us make a house that the characters live in and set up scenes where the characters walk around and talk to each other. And with some extra assets pulled in, we can show the city in different ways. And that stuff is very difficult. 2D art is often really specific – once made, it has a single purpose. You can’t rotate it, flip it upside down, blow it up, or anything like that. If you want to blow something up in 2D, you probably need to make sprites that show it blowing up specifically.

That’s why I am excited about 3D. It costs a lot more to get it, but once you have it, you have a lot more potential with what you can do.

Daniel: Besides, I think that when you go completely 2D, you need to render all those shadows and stuff, and there’s much less customizability to what you can do. When you make a 3D-asset-based game, you can then reuse those assets quite a lot, shuffle them and create new content based on the existing one.

Andrew: Exactly. With 2D you plan exactly how it’s going to work and then, as Dan said, it has limited use. 3D seems pretty like we can do tons and tons of stuff with this. We have a guy, our youngest brother actually, who’s doing texturing for us now. So he’s taking stuff that N-iX has made and then going in and retexturing things. Taking walls, floors, crates, swords, and all sorts of things and just put new material on it and you get a new looking thing. He’s super excited to do face tattoos for characters because we now can do face tattoos for characters. We have a character-building system in Star Traders Frontiers, but it’s very delicate and restricted. You could never add face tattoos in 2D. It’d be impossible, but the guys at N-iX just modified our shaders and put face tattoos on all the characters. So I think you can get a lot more mileage out of 3D.

Cooperation with N-iX Game & VR Studio
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Daniel: You wanted to partner with a team capable of delivering the entire pipeline: starting with concept art and then modeling, texturing, rigging animation, and visual effects. I believe you decided to go with some outsourcing companies and external teams. How was that process looking back then and how did you end up choosing N-iX?

Andrew: We knew some of what our budget restrictions would be and we went looking for studios. We talked to 14 different studios, and N-iX was one of them. We had an idea of what we wanted, but it was our first 3D game, so we also knew we had a lot to learn from every studio.

We sent a request for a quote to every one of the studios we had. With most of them, we ended up on the phone. Our goal was to show the team what we thought we wanted and then get some ideas from them. See what their concept art, 3D team, and animation team could do. Be it a good reference sheet, a chat on the phone, sample assets, maybe even custom assets made to impress us and get us on the deal.

And we quickly learned a lot. I think N-iX was maybe the ninth studio that we were talking to. We were talking to a lot of studios at the same time. And N-iX was awesome from the get-go, cause you guys asked us a lot of questions, which made us feel comfortable that you were going to pay attention to what we wanted. So that was a very good starting point.

What we found pretty quickly was that there were a number of studios that just wanted your list and then were like “Oh, we’ll do it for you. Don’t worry, we’ll take care of this,” which felt very scary to us because it’s such a big project and it’s going to be the backbone of the game.

We were going to make a lot of cool game systems and stories and things. But game art is a sort of the poster, the marketing, it’s everything. Basically in some regard, it’s critical to the game to be successful. So we wanted someone who felt like a partner, who we could really trust, who was going to talk to us about stuff. N-iX was responsive, really asking a lot of questions. Then we reached out to a couple of different studios that you guys had worked with to make sure that everyone else was happy with your work. We got all positive responses, so that was very confidence-building.

Our goal is always to find a partner that we can stick with. 14 studios. It took us about six months to find you guys. It’s expensive to find a partner and we really wanted someone who could do everything. We were very happy that N-iX could do the whole stack of art, that you had Unity developers (and maybe in the future we’ll work with you on coding), that you had people that did shaders and animation. You really are a full-service studio.

In the past, we’ve worked with 2D teams and then hired an outside animator. It’s very difficult to get people to align really cleanly. After having selected you guys, one of the things that makes me the happiest is that your teams internally work really closely together. There was never any major point of confusion. Everybody is working together to make sure that it’s all gonna work.

Daniel: Yep, that’s pretty much an answer. From my end, I would like to add that for the team and for everybody who’s been working on Cyber Knights: Flashpoint, before the Kickstarter campaign and after it, it was a huge pleasure. The inclusion that you make for the team into your processes is great, and we’re feeling so blessed to work with you guys and contribute to this specific project. And the parties were super great.

Andrew: I think that the two other things that we were looking for in a partner, Dan, is that we really wanted somebody who could not only make sure that we ended up with amazing stuff but would also buy in creatively to the project and be excited about it.

I’m an artist, I know that when you’re excited about something you work, you do produce better quality stuff. So the teams that said “Oh yeah, we’ll do that. Just give us your list. We’ll take care of it,” scared us a little bit, because we didn’t know who’s gonna do it. We wanted to talk to the same people every day and know that we have great artists working on it.

One of the other things that have been really fun is when we gave the concept to our team, and we said “Hey, why don’t you guys do some outfits? Why don’t you think up within this world, what fits you,” to engage you guys creatively as well. So I think that’s been really fun and that’s one of the reasons we threw the parties. We wanted it to be a partnership, not just that you guys are working for us.

And I think it’s shown in the team that has gone above and beyond so many times to find solutions to really hard or complicated problems. That makes us super happy. And that’s what we were looking for. We got the feeling that when we sat down with you guys in those early meetings, the number one thing that stuck out to us was a willingness to communicate good things and problems. You guys told us about stuff that was going to be easy, like “Oh yeah, okay, we can do that. Here’s the hour count,” and that’s pretty straightforward. But then you also warned us about stuff like “do you have any idea how that’s going to work? That could be difficult. That might cost more money.” And we got a real feeling early on that all the teams were thinking about it, and that we were getting a real look from the team about how we can deliver.

So I would say for us, the number one thing that did stick out about N-iX was that you communicated well about the project, and that indicated that you’re going to be engaged the whole way through. It was probably our biggest decider. That’s helpful.

Kickstarter Campaign


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Arthur: How have you approached the Kickstarter preparation process and how N-iX studio was involved in the campaign? And since it was your third Kickstarter project, maybe you can share some interesting or helpful insights about launching a successful campaign?

Andrew: It’s a whole subject we could do an hour on. I think one of the big things about Kickstarters is that it requires a huge amount of prep. To be successful, you’d need a bunch of time. Without a doubt, a lesson learned from our previous two Kickstarters was that we didn’t prepare enough and we didn’t have enough of the game assets to be able to show what really the game was going to look like.

We had to start a campaign in February because Cyberpunk 2077 was going to launch in April, supposedly. So we really felt like we had to launch. We wanted to make a Kickstarter before they launched the game. That didn’t happen, but we still were stuck to the date. That put us on a little tighter schedule with you guys than we wanted.

N-iX was super helpful and produced a bunch of videos and did high-priority assets that we needed. And you guys made a bunch of 3D renders for us and things. So basically I would say that everything visually we showed in the Kickstarter that was awesome looking was pretty much thanks to you guys.

A Kickstarter is such a visual hook. People land on your page, see the gifts, watch the first 10-20 seconds of the video, and you have to make them interested. If those assets don’t catch their attention, they’re never going to read the text, they’re never going to scroll down, and they’re sure as hell never going to click the pledge button. So we were really happy that you guys helped us produce, that was really valuable.

And then again, literally, everything we showed, except for wireframe diagrams, flow charts, and stuff, which is not art, it’s Google docs, was pretty much done by you guys. On Kickstarter, especially with games, people want to see what it’s going to look like, and that was hugely helpful.

Also, there is one thing about Kickstarter. We had a great plan, we had all these stretch goals planned and a funding goal, we had updates prepared in advance. We were ready to go, that plan is not going to change. And then as soon as it gets going, the plan starts to change. You’ve worked really hard, you’ve shown your community what you’re going to do, you’ve previewed it to a bunch of people, and you thought you knew what the crowd wants. But then, once it’s live, you start to get all sorts of different feedback.

For example, we had not planned to add cats as a feature in the game, we’ve always had dogs, but the number of people asking about cats was insane. We had no idea. To pet the dog was a big deal, we knew that everybody was gonna want to pet the dog, but there are also cat people. They are easily 50% of the Internet, and I guess we should’ve known that. So, we had absolutely no plan to do anything with cats, and then halfway through the Kickstarter, we were like – “we gotta add cats!” We have to have them. People are just losing their minds. So we went back to N-iX and the team helped us put together concept art for cats in a hurry so that we could do cats later that week. We announced that if we get to a new funding goal, we would do cats.

It was exciting to put some beautiful cat art on Twitter. Our social guy made a ton of memes out of it, he was quite busy with it. So, to be in the middle of Kickstarter and be able to say “We really need something from you guys right now, can you help us do this?” was so valuable.

Daniel: I remember that time really well – the voting for the cats. I think I also voted for the snow leopard. What were the other two options?

Andrew: A Siberian tiger and lynx I guess. The snow leopard won out pretty, pretty big.

Daniel: For us, it was so intense watching the Kickstarter campaign every day. Every morning started with refreshing the page and looking at what’s going on in there. And we even had a little bet during that party. There were around 12 people and everybody would guess a number that you guys are gonna make out of this Kickstarter campaign. It ended somewhere like about 300k at the top, and the least optimistic forecast was around 50k. So, it turned out to be above the average of what people were expecting of it.

Andrew: Yeah. I think it shows exactly what you can get with good assets behind. Because there are just so many people that visit the page and you just need some visuals that grab them. And that was really what N-iX made possible for us. We have learned so much from you guys. I think the team has learned some pretty awesome things in trying to find answers to all the hard questions that we’ve done, all those creative solutions.

And now, everybody here is super excited about the chance to sit back down on a new project with a new budget and come back for game two. We got to finish Cyber Knights, it’ll be a while, but when it happens, we’re coming back to you guys. It’s been awesome. We’re very happy.

Support for Ukraine
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N-iX Game & VR Studio team also wants to thank Trese Brothers Games for being among the first of our partners who immediately expressed support for Ukraine and N-iX when Russia declared war on 24th of February, 2022:

The entire Trese Brothers team is heartsick and worried to see the invasion and wanton destruction of their country – missile strikes hitting hospitals, apartment buildings, even kindergarten schools. We are scared for our friends, their families and their children.

My brother Cory and I have worked closely with amazing partners in Ukraine to dream, design and create the art of Cyber Knights: Flashpoint over the past 3 years. Over that time, our partnership has grown to friendship

Our studio and country are lucky to have such amazing people on our side. For now, we are looking forward to playing Cyber Knights: Flashpoint and working on new exciting projects after our victory!
 

ricolikesrice

Arcane
Joined
May 11, 2007
Messages
1,231
....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

News Cyborg
Joined
Aug 24, 2019
Messages
2,735
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1021210/view/3193622590950497764

March Progress + Featured in PAX East Rising Showcase
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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!
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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!

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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

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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).

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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!

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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.

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cyborgboy95

News Cyborg
Joined
Aug 24, 2019
Messages
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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!

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cyborgboy95

News Cyborg
Joined
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Messages
2,735
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1021210/view/3194751025775125219

April Progress + PAX East Report
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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

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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!

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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.

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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.

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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).

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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

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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.
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cyborgboy95

News Cyborg
Joined
Aug 24, 2019
Messages
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https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1021210/view/3328735652612999524

May Progress Report: Mk2 Matrix
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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!

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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!

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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.

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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!

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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).

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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.

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Glory to Ukraine
Joined
Nov 22, 2020
Messages
2,164
Strap Yourselves In Codex Year of the Donut Codex+ Now Streaming!
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

News Cyborg
Joined
Aug 24, 2019
Messages
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https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1021210/view/3354633888454818841

June Progress Report
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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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almondblight

Arcane
Joined
Aug 10, 2004
Messages
2,549
Heads up - there's going to be a combat demo available for the game this weekend only, starting at 9 am Pacific time.
 

santino27

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Oct 1, 2008
Messages
2,678
My team has the sexiest and deadliest waifus you can recruit.
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​

user avatar

Trese Brothers GamesCreator
July 8, 2022
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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
 

Harthwain

Magister
Joined
Dec 13, 2019
Messages
4,689
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

Educated
Joined
Oct 5, 2021
Messages
165
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.
 

santino27

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Oct 1, 2008
Messages
2,678
My team has the sexiest and deadliest waifus you can recruit.
source: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tresebrothers/cyber-knights/posts/3563157

July: Alpha Update​


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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.
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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!
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Thank you for your on-going support,
Andrew & Cory Trese
Trese Brothers
 
Last edited by a moderator:

cyborgboy95

News Cyborg
Joined
Aug 24, 2019
Messages
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https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1021210/view/3350136705329770884
August Progress Report
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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!
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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.

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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.
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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.

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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.

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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

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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.

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Ironmonk

Augur
Joined
Sep 29, 2014
Messages
463
Location
Mordor


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.
 

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