Incline Das Geisterschiff - turn-based cyberpunk dungeon crawler

[Grauken]

So, full game will be 6 to 8 hours?
If we buy it on itch, do we get steam keys later?

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

So, full game will be 6 to 8 hours?

Yes if you're playing for the first time. Could be even longer, but it's not that easy to estimate without beating the whole game first.

If we buy it on itch, do we get steam keys later?

That's the plan. Steam release is expected after the full game is released, although it may take an extra month or so.

 

[Lurker above]

Is the June 1st beta release date still valid? If so, is there a point in playing the current v0.47?

 

[Mustawd]

Is the June 1st beta release date still valid?

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

Is the June 1st beta release date still valid? If so, is there a point in playing the current v0.47?

Yes and yes.
Demo is there to determine whether this is your type of game.

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

ITS OUT
DOWNLOADING NOW

Spoiler

jk, in a few hrs
meanwhile, i've updated the demo
enjoy

https://surt-r.itch.io/das-geisterschiff

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

So.

After two years of work on this project in my spare time, multiple restarts from scratch and over 9000 Virtual Boy jokes, the beta version of Das Geisterschiff is finally available for those interested in getting more than just a demo and supporting the final stages of the development.

The beta version features the first half of the game, which is set on Earth and offers 2-4 hours of gameplay (depending on how fast you'll learn the mechanics and your playstyle) and should be pretty much finalized at this point and allow you to prepare for the second half of the game and the ghost ship itself.

In other words...

Spoiler

ITZ OUT
DOWNLOADING NOW
https://surt-r.itch.io/das-geisterschiff

Enjoy!

 

[agentorange]

I got a cameo and lhynn didn't, 10/10

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

A few folks (including agentorange) have informed me about the hang at the start of the first chapter and I'm preparing an update for this. I'll post the full changelog later.

Here's a quick workaround for now:
- Save the game after Burke encounter.
- Close the game, run it again, load the save, DON'T enter the warehouse.
- Proceed as planned.

This shit only affects the beta version.

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

The update is out. Changelog:

• Game no longer hangs at the start of Chapter 1;
• Fixed a rare issue where save files wouldn't be detected by the game;
• Fixed several typos.

Just download the new build from here: https://surt-r.itch.io/das-geisterschiff

 

[Ninjerk]

A couple of picture comments:
Are the following tiles meant to communicate that they are doors, because I initially thought they were:

Spoiler

Also, this reads as "Gated" not "Gate D" (I'm assuming that's what you meant.

Spoiler

A couple of questions: are the obviously non-English words meant to communicate some kind of subtext, i.e. is a German-speaking player getting more information about what's going on in the game because of what some of these words connote? I'm also curious if at any point there's going to be some more environmental storytelling with the analyze feature (e.g. I analyzed the boxes in the warehouse...I want to know what products are protecting by whom with LANDMINES).

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

Are the following tiles meant to communicate that they are doors, because I initially thought they were

Yes, but the color communicates whether these doors are usable (when they're a bit lighter than the walls) or act as a gate between level segments (whey they're bright orange), while others (same color as walls) are just decorations.

Also, this reads as "Gated" not "Gate D" (I'm assuming that's what you meant.

Thanks, I'll note down that I should increase the distance between them.

A couple of questions: are the obviously non-English words meant to communicate some kind of subtext, i.e. is a German-speaking player getting more information about what's going on in the game because of what some of these words connote?

Eberbach Corp and its subsidiaries use German language to mark their territory and communicate among the high-ranked members, while Bright Corp uses either English or Japanese depending on the region (since the megacorp was a merger of two smaller corps to avoid getting absorbed by Eberbach). You can use Analyze to translate them.

I'm also curious if at any point there's going to be some more environmental storytelling with the analyze feature (e.g. I analyzed the boxes in the warehouse...I want to know what products are protecting by whom with LANDMINES).

Analyze is used in a couple of cases, but it's pretty rare -- I'll see if I can do another pass over the first half of the game to add more 'triggers' for it.

 

[Ninjerk]

I didn't notice the color difference at all, but I'll check next time I play.

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

I didn't notice the color difference at all, but I'll check next time I play.

It's subtle compared to the walls -- you can check the minimap if you're in doubt. Overall usable doors, gates and fake doors have different 'textures', so it's also possible to differentiate them this way (kinda like generic doors, exit doors and fake doors that show where you 'came from' in Doom).

 

[Ninjerk]

I didn't notice the color difference at all, but I'll check next time I play.

It's subtle compared to the walls -- you can check the minimap if you're in doubt. Overall usable doors, gates and fake doors have different 'textures', so it's also possible to differentiate them this way (kinda like generic doors, exit doors and fake doors that show where you 'came from' in Doom).

I did begin to rely on the minimap for doors.

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

I didn't notice the color difference at all, but I'll check next time I play.

It's subtle compared to the walls -- you can check the minimap if you're in doubt. Overall usable doors, gates and fake doors have different 'textures', so it's also possible to differentiate them this way (kinda like generic doors, exit doors and fake doors that show where you 'came from' in Doom).

I did begin to rely on the minimap for doors.

I think you'll get used to the main view sooner or later. Here's the main difference between the base wall color and color of doors:

Spoiler

 

[Lurker above]

Is the June 1st beta release date still valid? If so, is there a point in playing the current v0.47?

Yes and yes.
Demo is there to determine whether this is your type of game.

You forgot to mention that the beta is paid-only. (

Seems like I'll have to do with writing my impressions on demo 0.6.3 alone.

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

Is the June 1st beta release date still valid? If so, is there a point in playing the current v0.47?

Yes and yes.
Demo is there to determine whether this is your type of game.

You forgot to mention that the beta is paid-only. (

Seems like I'll have to do with writing my impressions on demo 0.6.3 alone.

Nope. See here:

Imma craving for your $$$ so I'll release the first half of the game (Intro and Gangland chapters) on itch. Right now I'm thinking to do it on June 1st after I double-check everything.

What are your impressions so far?

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

Another update for the beta is on the way. Current changelog:

Spoiler

-- Doghouse: one encounter removed, additional detail added.
-- Fixed slightly misplaced tiles/details in Mitarbeitersektor M22 and Warehouse (thanks to Ninjerk for spotting one of these).
-- Slighly altered the door color to make them easier to recognize.
-- Additional minor bugfixes.
-- Fixed a typo in the Intro briefing.

Will probably be released today or tomorrow. Will also update the demo to bring over the savegame-related fix from 0.6.3p1.
Afterwards I'll focus my attention on the second half of the game unless bugs/issues pop out.

 

[Lurker above]

What are your impressions so far?

Well, I played a little of the the old demo right before I first posted on this thread. With this one, I played to the point I killed Herzog and a Young Crow, but then a drone finally killed me in the corridor somewhere. Not sure how much more of it was left by that point.

I did see some improvements when compared to the old demo (i.e. the map in the intro's background is no longer so ridiculously dark.) In both versions, though, I am really not sure what the draw of the game is supposed to be. Is it...

• The "hardcore" gameplay? The majority of what you do is opening doors (and eventually ramming them once you get tired of wandering around in circles). The encounters are brief and, up until you finally find the way into Hideout, they are horribly paced. As in, you'll likely get attacked almost immediately by a drone somehow emerging from the way you came into the tunnels in the first place (reminded me of original's Soldier of Fortune's ridiculous maximum difficulty with its endless respawns), but afterwards, you can seemingly only trigger combat encounters next to that forcefield thing that can only be disabled through Hideout, or in the Hideout itself. In between, you can wander endlessly through all the tunnels, and encounter nothing but doors. (I think you said somewhere in the thread that doors are supposed to delay drones, so that you have an incentive not to break them all (besides the associated loss of health/ammo, obviously). However, that doesn't really work when places with the most doors have no drones around.
  • The combat is simple, and the "tactical choices" present are far too shallow, with the gains often overriden by RNG. For instance, with the Ruma bot, "advancing" can potentially let you attack twice, first by ramming and then by shooting, which feels really cool. However, the chances of ramming success/failure feel like flipping a coin, and if you fail, you get shot at twice in a single turn, so it's not really worth it. You should also retreat from Young Crow so that he doesn't blow up, but that's just common sense. If you advance at a Scheiss, it'll retreat, sure, but often, that just means it gets behind a corner, and then either a) you round it to attack it, but its own turn triggers and it shoots; or b) you stay in place/get back, etc. and then it'll round the corner and shoot on the same turn: either way, it gets a free hit. As such, if one attacks you in a "normal" corridor, it seems like it's best to just stay in place.
    • However, most encounters seem to occur in places where there's a pillar in the middle of the room. There, you can often just keep going around it, and the enemies will keep trying to follow you, while staying one step back. After 6-10 turns, both types of drones will just fuck off and leave, dissappearing into thin air offscreen. Because you literally get nothing from the battles, and only lose ammo and/or health, this is literally the best thing to do every time you get a drone in a room with a pillar. (Herzog and Young Crow will also circle the pillar indefinitely, though with them, it's pointless, since they won't leave.)
    • The 4 weapon choices seem cool at first, but you soon find their limitations. It makes no sense to use Assault Rifle or Bazooka on bots, so your choices are SMG or Laser, and they generally seem to deal damage in the same range: a range that varies a lot, from about ~10 to 40% total bot health per shot. The only difference I noticed is that Laser had a less annoying firing sound, and it seemed to miss less, so I only used up until I fought Herzog. His reaction to me pulling out a Bazooka was awesome; probably the only great moment of the game.
• The exploration? Well, I suppose there must be a few lovers of trudging through corridors made out of completely identical wall/door panels. I don't get why you would start a commercial game with that Tunnels section in the best of times; doing it several years after Steam introduced refunds seems especially foolhardy. Most others, though, tend to think of exploring as going around the level to seek unique sights or find unique things, and your "ghostship" fails on both. The most unique things you'll see in the tunnels are those horrible flat bullet holes. Eberbach Fortress hideout looks comparatively good, but it falls prey to copy-pasting as well: the "Terminals" room with painted-on OK Computers every single wall was ridiculous. The completely empty side rooms, or the prisons where every cell is the same, are no better.
  • However, you can also explore for the sake of tangible stuff. I have beaten NetHack, which doesn't bother with graphics at all, so I know the draw of just being able to stumble on some awesome, helpful or just really weird item. In "Geisterschiff", the only things you seem to find behind C level doors and in some "tiles" are Light Armor Plates you can't even use on the level itself, which is literally the opposite of exciting or interesting. (Well, there was one insta-use Evasion upgrade by the end, but that's too little too late, and is a Sawyery kind of upgrade anyway.)
• The aesthetic? Well, it's kinda cool at first, but grows old soon; see above. I also have a theory that this sort of bright monochrome look best fits really fast-paced action games (as opposed to B & W, and such, which is at home in depressing arthouse indies like Limbo). In stuff like, say, Super Hexagon, or various music rhythm games, it encourages you to go fast, and you do not have time to ponder it much. Here, you have lots of orange, an action colour, and yet you move in stops and starts; both because it's turn-based, and because there are doors everywhere (and where there are no doors, there are landmines.) The way you automatically ram a door by bumping into them actually encourages a player to move slower, so that they do not do it by accident. Again, though, the way there are so many repeated assets is what kills the aesthetic the most.
  
• The storyline/lore/etc? Let's be honest, this was never the focus of the game; yet, there was actually somewhat more text and writing then I expected. It's too bad none of it helps to make the setting more memorable: dystopian world, megacorps, gangs, off-world colonies and.... yeah. Only the optional stuff you get with "Analyse" is somewhat interesting (though the idea your corp is Eberbach's sworn enemy and yet is reliant on their guns is strange). The notes you find are seemingly the most generic one could think of, and everything feels arbitrary (i.e. your boss in the prologue says police tipped them off, but won't intervene; if you venture outside, you get a note saying the police are waiting to kill the survivors of your showdown. Why does the story even need to mention the police: wouldn't a megacorp in 2080s have trackers on such shipments in the first place? I am rather more interested as to why an apparently all-powerful Eberbach would have abandoned the fortress to some gang in the first place, or other such questions.

These are the problems I have with the game so far. If I were to approach it from the perspective of fine-tuning what's already there, though, it would be the following:

• Add more detail to the menu screen(s). Having nothing there but title in the middle is a wasted opportunity. I would suggest placing a rendition of the suit the player's using, since they won't ever see it themselves while actually playing. (You do see the enemy suits, but that happens late in the game, and is hardly the same.)
  
• Equally, make the intro infodump less static. When he mentions Everbach fortress, why not change the world map in the background to a satellite's view of the area?
• Add an outright "skip intro" function for those who just want the gameplay. You press it, and just get one screen with the year, the location, and the list of controls, before being dumped in the starting area.
• Speaking of which, why does your character begin the game turned in the direction he's not supposed to go in?
  
• Make the controls more consistent and convenient by default. First off, it's really strange how you are first asked to "press space", and then "press Enter"? Why not pick one or the other, or even better; why not make space and Enter do the same thing all the time? It's generally more convenient to use space for opening doors, etc. if you move with WASD. I would also suggest that with bullet holes, "Eberbach Uber Alles" and other scannable items, "Use" does the same thing as Scan (F).
  
• I think that the combat would be substantially better with one or both of the following:
  • "Status effects". Essentially, there's the most minor of differences in between using an SMG/Assault Rifle and a Laser; when enemies attack you with one or the other, the only thing that seemingly changes is the graphics/sound effect. What if laser could blind/overheat things, for both you and enemy, and bullets could unbalance with force of their impact, or the like. This would also then make exploration a little more interesting, as you could find upgrades improving those properties on guns, or increasing your resistance to those.
  • Targeted shots. One more layer of choice during combat ought to make it that much more interesting. (Especially if accuracy was affected both positively and negatively by advancing/retreating, depending on the area targeted.)
• Failing the above, what about the absolute minimum, and making it so that the enemy remains do not dissappear? I want to stumble across their wreckage on the floor and feel awesome! Spawning clips on the floor after every shot from you or Rumas, and bullet/laser marks on the walls after someone misses would be almost as good. Same goes for making the walls/floor/ceiling get all screwed up after a landmine/bazooka explodes in the vicinity.
• Crows Gang sounds really lame. I have a feeling they would sound better in German as well. Since the Hideout is theirs, why not draw up some insignia for them and hang it around the place?
• Broken doors only appear as broken when you are literally a square away from them, and look fine from further distances (both on-screen, and on mini-map.) Mini-map itself is too zoomed-in to be of much use, but that seems by design. However, why not at least make it mark D,C, B, etc. doors differently? And if you insist on making all doors look the same, what if scanning one will then make the suit mark it with D,C/wrong side hovering in front of it? It's 2086, so such AR stuff should be child's play.
• Ramming should either ask your input, or at least, it should only trigger straight ahead. Accidentally moving backwards or sideways into the door is annoying as hell.

So, yeah, this is pretty much all I got, besides the more cardinal suggestions above. (I.e. throw out the goddamn Tunnels, or at least redraw them, so that every stretch of it actually looks different.)

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

Another update is out to address a few additional issues found in the beta.

Changelog: https://surt-r.itch.io/das-geisterschiff/devlog/36031/beta-updated

Lurker above thanks for the feedback, I'll provide a detailed response a bit later.

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

Again, thanks for detailed feedback, Lurker above. Let's dive right in.

Spoiler

The majority of what you do is opening doors (and eventually ramming them once you get tired of wandering around in circles). The encounters are brief and, up until you finally find the way into Hideout, they are horribly paced. As in, you'll likely get attacked almost immediately by a drone somehow emerging from the way you came into the tunnels in the first place (reminded me of original's Soldier of Fortune's ridiculous maximum difficulty with its endless respawns), but afterwards, you can seemingly only trigger combat encounters next to that forcefield thing that can only be disabled through Hideout, or in the Hideout itself. In between, you can wander endlessly through all the tunnels, and encounter nothing but doors. (I think you said somewhere in the thread that doors are supposed to delay drones, so that you have an incentive not to break them all (besides the associated loss of health/ammo, obviously). However, that doesn't really work when places with the most doors have no drones around.

So keeping the encounters minimal in a puzzle-focused level where one can wander around for a while until they get their bearings is a bad thing?

The combat is simple, and the "tactical choices" present are far too shallow, with the gains often overriden by RNG. For instance, with the Ruma bot, "advancing" can potentially let you attack twice, first by ramming and then by shooting, which feels really cool. However, the chances of ramming success/failure feel like flipping a coin, and if you fail, you get shot at twice in a single turn, so it's not really worth it.

Except the same applies to you whenever enemies attempt to ram you. Try equipping a weapon w/ minimal evasion penalty (or locating enough upgrades to make the penalties of other weapons less painful) and setting the ram response to ATTACK when you encounter a particularly fat enemy type that enjoys ramming others to the death (good example -- Herzog) and enjoy the results.

You should also retreat from Young Crow so that he doesn't blow up, but that's just common sense. If you advance at a Scheiss, it'll retreat, sure, but often, that just means it gets behind a corner, and then either a) you round it to attack it, but its own turn triggers and it shoots; or b) you stay in place/get back, etc. and then it'll round the corner and shoot on the same turn: either way, it gets a free hit. As such, if one attacks you in a "normal" corridor, it seems like it's best to just stay in place.

You can walk around the corner and attack in the same turn by pressing 'attack > target > advance'. The whole combat system was designed around the player and enemies playing by the same rules -- so you can get a free hit against certain enemies too if you figure it out.

However, most encounters seem to occur in places where there's a pillar in the middle of the room. There, you can often just keep going around it, and the enemies will keep trying to follow you, while staying one step back. After 6-10 turns, both types of drones will just fuck off and leave, dissappearing into thin air offscreen. Because you literally get nothing from the battles, and only lose ammo and/or health, this is literally the best thing to do every time you get a drone in a room with a pillar. (Herzog and Young Crow will also circle the pillar indefinitely, though with them, it's pointless, since they won't leave.)

Huh, I should look into this -- if it's that easy, then I should implement more precautions to avoid obvious cheese.
Other than that, I don't see how having an incentive to get the enemies to fuck off and leave is a bad thing -- and if you're struggling to get them off your tail, you may want to cripple them first.

Well, I suppose there must be a few lovers of trudging through corridors made out of completely identical wall/door panels. I don't get why you would start a commercial game with that Tunnels section in the best of times; doing it several years after Steam introduced refunds seems especially foolhardy.

Except that's not the start of the game -- this chapter is located roughly in the middle of the Gangland chapter (which is set on Earth and serves as a prelude to the ghost ship chapter). The reason why the demo offers these two levels are purely because Tunnels and Hideout were some of the first completed and connected levels in time for the local indie cup. Surprise -- Tunnels worked well to filter the players, because half of the players (casuals and normal players alike) figured it out in a couple of minutes by paying attention to the marks on the walls, while some of the others went for a methodical approach and had a blast mapping it out, while others cried for the automap/quest compass.

I should probably add a note like 'a few hours later...' after the briefing.

the only things you seem to find behind C level doors and in some "tiles" are Light Armor Plates you can't even use on the level itself, which is literally the opposite of exciting or interesting. (Well, there was one insta-use Evasion upgrade by the end, but that's too little too late, and is a Sawyery kind of upgrade anyway.)

1. Keeping upgrades hidden inside areas like these is a bad thing?
2. Armor plates can be used inside a workshop -- getting out of the mech halfway through the battle to attack whem would be p retarded.
3. While accuracy/evasion upgrades are minimal, they stack up in your favor -- of course, they won't change the situation in your favor too quickly and that's fine by me.

Add more detail to the menu screen(s). Having nothing there but title in the middle is a wasted opportunity. I would suggest placing a rendition of the suit the player's using, since they won't ever see it themselves while actually playing. (You do see the enemy suits, but that happens late in the game, and is hardly the same.)

Add an outright "skip intro" function for those who just want the gameplay. You press it, and just get one screen with the year, the location, and the list of controls, before being dumped in the starting area.

Make the controls more consistent and convenient by default. First off, it's really strange how you are first asked to "press space", and then "press Enter"? Why not pick one or the other, or even better; why not make space and Enter do the same thing all the time?

However, why not at least make it mark D,C, B, etc. doors differently? And if you insist on making all doors look the same, what if scanning one will then make the suit mark it with D,C/wrong side hovering in front of it? It's 2086, so such AR stuff should be child's play.

Will think about it, but not going to promise anything.

Equally, make the intro infodump less static. When he mentions Everbach fortress, why not change the world map in the background to a satellite's view of the area?

Unfortunately that's not going to happen since the artist had to leave the project last year. Would definitely keep it less static if I had an opportunity to do so.

Speaking of which, why does your character begin the game turned in the direction he's not supposed to go in?

It's only logical that he used an elevator a few moments before venturing into the tunnels.

Make the controls more consistent and convenient by default. First off, it's really strange how you are first asked to "press space", and then "press Enter"? Why not pick one or the other, or even better; why not make space and Enter do the same thing all the time? It's generally more convenient to use space for opening doors, etc. if you move with WASD. I would also suggest that with bullet holes, "Eberbach Uber Alles" and other scannable items, "Use" does the same thing as Scan (F).

And what do you suggest doing w/ objects that can be used and analyzed?

"Status effects". Essentially, there's the most minor of differences in between using an SMG/Assault Rifle and a Laser; when enemies attack you with one or the other, the only thing that seemingly changes is the graphics/sound effect. What if laser could blind/overheat things, for both you and enemy, and bullets could unbalance with force of their impact, or the like. This would also then make exploration a little more interesting, as you could find upgrades improving those properties on guns, or increasing your resistance to those.

Good idea, but won't be implemented here. FYI jammers (while not being present in the demo) do affect one's status in one way or another (slow the entities down/blind them/etc).

Crows Gang sounds really lame. I have a feeling they would sound better in German as well. Since the Hideout is theirs, why not draw up some insignia for them and hang it around the place?

This is a good idea -- for whatever reason I never bothered w/ their insignia, but I'll look into it.

Broken doors only appear as broken when you are literally a square away from them, and look fine from further distances (both on-screen, and on mini-map.)

Did that happen in the Tunnels level?

Ramming should either ask your input, or at least, it should only trigger straight ahead. Accidentally moving backwards or sideways into the door is annoying as hell.

 

[AdolfSatan]

The thing with broken doors showing the not-broken sprite from afar and some of the marks appearing only when standing straight up ahead of said door/wall happened to me as well, that's why I ended up resorting to hand-mapping (which I hate, let me say it once more if only because I love hearing my own opinions out loud).

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

Imma wokring of a short tutorial section for the game now to give more information about the gameplay including the subtle nuances of combat system and some other mechanics which are hidden under the hood and would require a lot of experimenting to get the best out of them. Will also probably replace the levels in the tutorial w/ the levels from the intro since I believe they would work better as a quick demonstration of available mechanics and these levels are a bit more friendly to players unfamiliar w/ dungeon crawlers or suffering from topographical cretinism.

 

[zwanzig_zwoelf]

Started piecing the tutorial section together.