Game News Procedurally generated cyberpunk dungeon crawler Conglomerate 451 released on Steam Early Access

[Infinitron]

Tags: Conglomerate 451; RuneHeads

Conglomerate 451 is a grid-based cyberpunk dungeon crawler with roguelike elements that came to our attention back in March. The developers are an Italian indie studio by the name of RuneHeads. I don't know much about them or about the game other than what's on its Steam page, but it was released on Early Access today so now there's an opportunity to find out. I know many of you dislike procedural generation, but it sure does look cool. Here's the launch trailer and Early Access FAQ:

Why Early Access?
“Early Access is a way to stay in contact with the community, collect feedback from the players and make sure the quality of the release version meets ours and our players’ expectations.

Conglomerate 451 is based on a procedurally-generated missions system, but we’ll be taking advantage of the Early Access period to balance it, add new features and polish all aspects. Our current plan is to include 35 enemy classes, 10 character classes, more than 100 skills, 50 weapon upgrades, more than 30 cyber implants (upgradable), hundreds of different mental and physical traumas into the final version of the game... all of which needs careful work to keep everything balanced and fun.

We want players to be part of this process and help us create a deep, fun, tactical game that everyone enjoys.”

Approximately how long will this game be in Early Access?
“Our plan is to keep the game in Early Access for around 6-8 months. During this period, we want to update the game twice every month – sometimes the updates will include major additions, sometimes minor. The development roadmap will be available in the game description below for everyone to see. However, we don’t want to make any big promises or set specific dates. Game development can get complicated, and we want to make sure we deliver a complete product that satisfies both ourselves and you, the players.”

How is the full version planned to differ from the Early Access version?
“We're planning to add lots of features (different mission types, a drugs and intoxication system, diplomatic missions, etc), and five or six times the content compared to the initial version. All information about Early Access content will be made available in the game description below for everyone to see.”

What is the current state of the Early Access version?
“We have the core system in place: you can create and manage your agency and your squad, and use the research centre and healing centre. There is one District to begin with (in the final game there will be four) and there is currently around 1/5 of the total planned content (enemies, scenarios, items, weapons, etc.)”

Will the game be priced differently during and after Early Access?
“Our plan is to increase the price at least once as we get closer to the full release of the game. We will be informing everyone through the Steam news, Steam Discussion forums and our social media channels before each price change, so you can plan ahead.”

How are you planning on involving the Community in your development process?
“We encourage player feedback and suggestions! We’re continually talking to our community about our design process, and keeping them informed of our decisions and improvements with regular updates.

Everyone interested in submitting feedback or communicating directly with the developers and other players, can do so either in our Steam Discussion forums or in the official Discord Channel, here: https://discord.gg/xBAUAFw

We’re a small team, but we read every comment, every message and every suggestion you send us!”
​

There are more details about Conglomerate 451 on its Steam page. You can grab it there for $16 with a 10% launch discount until next week.

 

[Kev Inkline]

The trailer looked somewhat better than the name of the game, which is silly.

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[Kev Inkline]

They should.

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

I think "dungeon crawler" and "procedurally generated" are basically opposite charges on my hype-o-meter, so they effectively nullify each other.

 

[HanoverF]

Throw in "Early Access" and it's

 

[thesheeep]

Nice!
Hopefully it will turn out more interesting than StarCrawlers.
In such a game, the systems are king, so if the character and combat systems are good, then it will be fun. And it seems there are some more systems in place, too.

One gigantic bonus is that the word "puzzle" does not appear once on the entire Steam page. So at least that crap won't ruin the flow.

 

[aratuk]

…because 451º is the temperature at which 'cybers' burn, right?

 

[ntonystinson]

Theme song is kinda catchy

 

[Mychkine]

Buy it, may wait a bit before actually trying it. I love SciFi dungeon crawlers and there can be too many of them.

Edit : I meant, of course, "There can't be too many of them".

 

[luj1]

Hate this style of crawlers (procedurally generated, e.g. Starcrawlers)

Anyway... This game has no style. Looks very meh. The best thing about it is the original name.

 

[User0001]

Hopefully it will turn out more interesting than StarCrawlers.

Not that great of a feat, really.

.. so if the character and combat systems are good

Did not see it, so probably not.

One gigantic bonus is that the word "puzzle" does not appear once on the entire Steam..

Agree

.. So at least that crap won't ruin the flow.

"flow" ...

 

[RickOmbo]

Hope they've played StarCrawlers and know how boring is that.

 

[thesheeep]

.. So at least that crap won't ruin the flow.

"flow" ...

That is exactly why puzzles have no place in these games.
You romp through these dungeons, fight encounter after encounter, find loot and artifacts, go deeper, fight more, level up, assign skillpoints, take in the scenery, find more loot, fight more enemies, go deeper, take in new scenery, find more loot. You're in the flow, everyone who got sucked into a game knows this feeling.
But then -
SCREEEECH! The game grinds to a complete halt! No loot, no levelling, no dungeoneering, no combat, no scenery. Instead, you have to press these buttons in a random order until they click, or "guess the word" or go back twenty-four scenes to pick up that useless item because it fits so neatly in a slot. Makes you shake your head because you know this shit is only there because some designer wanted to be "clever" - it has no in-setting reason to exist -, pulls you right out of the experience, before you can continue with the interesting part of the game.

How is "ruining the flow" not a good description here?
It is the reason why I hate puzzles so much in these games. I don't hate puzzles in general, I do play some puzzle-focused games every now and then. But I loathe artificially placed puzzles in non-puzzle games with every fiber of my being.

 

[User0001]

Spoiler

.. So at least that crap won't ruin the flow.

"flow" ...

That is exactly why puzzles have no place in these games.
You romp through these dungeons, fight encounter after encounter, find loot and artifacts, go deeper, fight more, level up, assign skillpoints, take in the scenery, find more loot, fight more enemies, go deeper, take in new scenery, find more loot. You're in the flow, everyone who got sucked into a game knows this feeling.
But then -
SCREEEECH! The game grinds to a complete halt! No loot, no levelling, no dungeoneering, no combat, no scenery. Instead, you have to press these buttons in a random order until they click, or "guess the word" or go back twenty-four scenes to pick up that useless item because it fits so neatly in a slot. Makes you shake your head because you know this shit is only there because some designer wanted to be "clever" - it has no in-setting reason to exist -, pulls you right out of the experience, before you can continue with the interesting part of the game.

How is "ruining the flow" not a good description here?
It is the reason why I hate puzzles so much in these games. I don't hate puzzles in general, I do play some puzzle-focused games every now and then. But I loathe artificially placed puzzles in non-puzzle games with every fiber of my being.

So you don't want your game to ruin your immersion flow. I get it.

 

[Tuco Benedicto Pacifico]

Nope, I absolutely want to jump out of this hate bandwagon against puzzles.
Puzzles are absolutely fine and a welcomed addition for me, if decently designed.

In fact the alleged lack of puzzles to focus on grinding is yet another reason to skip this, if confirmed.

 

[thesheeep]

Puzzles are absolutely fine and a welcomed addition for me, if decently designed.

I wonder what you think makes a puzzle well designed.
I couldn't come up with a single example of lever puzzle or whatever that would not rip you right out of the experience of playing an RPG and putting you somewhere completely else instead (which, if you wanted THAT, you could have played a puzzle game instead).

 

[Damned Registrations]

I liked the puzzles in Lufia 2. They did break up the gameplay, but that was a good thing- it kept the battles from being monotonous. It helped that they were usually optional and held good rewards. Realizing that a particular wall doesn't fit the pattern the rest of the dungeon is laid out in, inspecting it, and finding a hidden passage to a good treasure is more satisfying than just finding the treasure in that spot.

You'd need some very skilled proc gen to come up with decent random puzzles though.

 

[Strange Fellow]

Puzzles are absolutely fine and a welcomed addition for me, if decently designed.

I wonder what you think makes a puzzle well designed.
I couldn't come up with a single example of lever puzzle or whatever that would not rip you right out of the experience of playing an RPG and putting you somewhere completely else instead (which, if you wanted THAT, you could have played a puzzle game instead).

This may be true if your 'experience of playing an RPG' consists of whacking bad guys and nothing more. There's no reason for that, though, and for many of us there's more to it than that, including puzzles. Of course they need to be well designed, but that's true of any facet of game design.

 

[User0001]

I couldn't come up with a single example of lever puzzle or whatever that would not rip you right out of the experience of playing an RPG and putting you somewhere completely else instead

Arx Fatalis, Deus Ex, system shock 2 ...

Dude, you just need to play some good games, bro

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

Depends on the genre and definition of puzzles. The near end of The Standing Stones c64/appleII (both ended differently as one you had to climb out of the dungeon) was a surprise. Consider the old man as giving you a term paper to complete before you can progress. A puzzle of sorts.

Repetitive and more complex lever, pressure plate, teleporter puzzles with endless respawns ARE annoying. Set/limited mobs and its far less so.

Any game can become a grind be it rpg, shooter, management, rts, simulation etc. Adventure games like Kings quest/Zork seem mandatory for puzzles and i guess i wouldn't expect them to NOT have them. But, maybe there were some MUDS that were just combat fests. I don't recall.

Cyber-punkish? Yeah, i'll at least give it a look since thats cool but the OST better rock. I don't want some generic fantasy symphonic crap.

 

[thesheeep]

Puzzles are absolutely fine and a welcomed addition for me, if decently designed.

I wonder what you think makes a puzzle well designed.
I couldn't come up with a single example of lever puzzle or whatever that would not rip you right out of the experience of playing an RPG and putting you somewhere completely else instead (which, if you wanted THAT, you could have played a puzzle game instead).

This may be true if your 'experience of playing an RPG' consists of whacking bad guys and nothing more. There's no reason for that, though, and for many of us there's more to it than that, including puzzles. Of course they need to be well designed, but that's true of any facet of game design.

There is a lot of space between "whacking bad guys" and "solving an artificial puzzle". Dialogues, quests, exploration, stealth, .... there is so much that can be done in an RPG that doesn't take you right out of the game.
Puzzles stand out like a sore thumb as they are entirely artificial and have no in-setting reason to exist.

If you have gameplay elements that cannot be reasonably explained in-setting, the game would simply be better off without those elements.

Arx Fatalis, Deus Ex, system shock 2 ...

Dude, you just need to play some good games, bro

I played all the good games, trust me.
But I know that they were good despite their immersion breaking puzzles (if they had any, I don't even remember any in Deus Ex?).
A good game won't likely be ruined by puzzles, but it will always be a downgrade, especially if not skippable.

One of the most horrible examples in recent memory was near the end in D:OS2, where you had to do a pipe puzzle of all things. It was comically bad. I think I even vented about it on the Codex back when I encountered it

 

[Strange Fellow]

If you have gameplay elements that cannot be reasonably explained in-setting, the game would simply be better off without those elements.

Disagree ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
In some RPGs, sure, but in blobbers? Nah son.

 

[KeighnMcDeath]

First trailer i watched i thought this was going to be a updated type of syndicate then system shock with the hacking. Music seems ok but i hope there are cycles of different ambient tunes throughout. Hell, i'm all for games that let you plug in a jukebox of your faves to cycle through. Turn-based and not ole DM/EOB style? Hmmmm... I'd have went either way but TB is great imho. Or am i just skimming toomuch here?

I think they need work on the random dungeons. Tbh, those should have been just extra areas to explore in addition to core areas thoughtfully developed. Extra random is fine but solid random? Eh, I'm not entirely sold on that but i guessits trying to say the game is endlessly replayable. Or is it just being lazy or they have no cartographers on staff?

 

[User0001]

But I know that they were good despite their immersion breaking puzzles

I'll give a different example. Dark Messiah of Might and Magic went from okayish to good because it had some good environmental puzzles that put you in it. Just to give an example from the other side of the spectrum.