Indie Quasimorph - dark turn-based extraction RPG - now available on Early Access

[Harthwain]

Disclaimer: the game is a procedurally generated turn-based roguelike (with Escape From Tarkov and Stoneshard elements) with RPG elements. It identifies itself as an RPG ("the extraction turn-based RPG"), so I am putting it in this section.

What you have above is the game. It isn't out yet. However, the demo is out, and it's excellent. I highly recommend it.

There was a whole bunch of changes between this and Quasimorphosis: Exordium:

• There are enemy mercenaries running around, so the gunplay is much more prevalent and the game got much more deadly. Cover is VERY important (as well as reloading and keeping your weapon in shape).
  
  
• The visuals have been upgraded.
  
  
• The demo offers you a bunch of missions and shows quite a few planets you can potentially visit in the full game.
  
  
• The RPG elements are very nominal. There are two classes in the demo and they have a fixed set of skill which effects you can unlock with use. It's not Jupiter Hell/DoomRL in this aspect, where you could pick your skills when leveling up. Here it's more akin to progression (which is why you want to keep your character's alive, by the way).
  
  
• It's very rapid-fire despite being turn-based. But make sure to use shortcuts to switch between running and operating ("<" and ">" and use spacebar to pass turns) to maximize your actions as you have to manage your hunger while exploring.
  
  
• It's worthwhile to extract if you have some decent equipment on you (akin to Escape From Tarkov), because otherwise all you have available to equip between missions are some generic starting items (although I think you can unlock some via pendrives you find on missions). The more time you spend lingering, the deadlier the quasimorphs become. Although you need to find certain unlocks for the game to allow you to extract (either that or complete the main mission). This is a second time-management aspect (besides hunger).
  
  
• The pixel art and injury system reminds me strongly of Stoneshard. It's nicely put together and requires of you to have certain medicinal items on you. It can make the game somewhat more annoying for people who tend to be pack-rats and can't decide what to prioritize.

 

[normie]

DEVLOG 001
Hello, mercenaries!

The dust has settled: a month ago, we launched the prologue Quasimorph: End of Dream, and two weeks later, we released the demo on a Steam Next Fest with completely new content. The result exceeded our expectations: in a month, we doubled the number of wishlists and reached the milestone of 100,000 wishlists!

Thank you for your attention and feedback. We believe those who played both versions noticed how significantly they differ. We wanted to test our mechanics in different conditions to ensure we are on the right track before the release.

What's next?

Next, we have a direct path to the Early Access release. As you may have noticed on the game's page, we plan to launch the game on August 16th. Just in case, we reserve the right to adjust the release date. Our target is mid-August to September. When we are 100% certain about the release date, we will come back to you with an official announcement. Consider this announcement unofficial for now!

Timeline, News Feed, and Factions

So, the most attentive players of the prologue may have noticed a strange button in the mission launch window.
What is this red button that clearly indicates it's not functioning?

Well, we're planning to paint it green so that it clearly indicates its functioning (by the way, don't forget, we'll also change the font to a more readable one!).

While you're dying, cloning yourself, collecting ramen packs, and traveling between planets, something is constantly happening in the world. Through this tab, you'll be able to explore real-time events. It's like Twitter, but it will work properly!

These events can affect the strength of your employers and change their position in the corporate food chain. New events mean new sidequests and more work for you, Boss.

In the galaxy, there are many poles of influence: corporations, rebel groups, and... who knows what else. By working with specific clients and completing their tasks, you establish relationships with influential individuals. Who knows what they can offer you if they trust you with their problems?

Someone may give you a special storyline quest that can significantly change the situation in the System. And it's not guaranteed that you'll like the result. Someone may unlock unique opportunities and tools for you that are otherwise unavailable.

Global Map
We will expand the mission and location rotation using planets. Each planet has its key conflict involving different factions. If you decide it's time to boost your reputation with a particular corporation, be prepared to change the balance of power and intervene.

We strive to make each planet offer unique variations of enemies, locations, and conditions. Lava may emerge on the surface somewhere, while the local proletariat may get involved in a corporate war. Maybe it's time to join the revolution?

In the Early Access, in addition to Mercury and Venus, we plan to add Earth, Moon, and Mars. With future updates, we will expand the roster of locations and the events that take place on them. And don't forget about unique enemies: each location will have its own set of distinctive foes.

So get ready to find the balance between the forces in the conflict. And that's not to mention your rivals - other mercenaries. We'll tell you more about the factions themselves in the near future, but for now, let's focus on something urgent!

Time
Look for items on missions that will truly represent value to your clients. Value their time as much as you value your own. And you'll have reasons for that too.

Events won't wait for you. Prologue players already understand the importance of time: Quasimorphosis inevitably grows upwards, so it's best not to linger and keep moving forward. This logic applies to the game map as well: as long as your ship remains stationary, you're in real-time. But as soon as you embark on a journey to a neighboring orbit, you'll enter a cryocapsule, and time will accelerate. What did you expect?

That's why the event feed will be crucial for you. It will serve as a guide, allowing observant players to understand the logic of events and always be on time for the most rewarding contracts. Use your time wisely.

What else?
Before the release, we'll return to discuss other release details and new mechanics:

• We have already started selecting different fonts to make text easier to read.
• We're revamping the trading and bartering system.
• We're redesigning the inventory! We'll bring you more updates on this soon.
• Improving AI! For example we'll fix those allies who shoot at you and forget to bring ammo on missions.
• Balancing character progression and classes. We have plenty of ideas to make this aspect of the game more interesting, and we'll share them closer to the release!
• Round planets. Our planets will no longer resemble d20 cubes with textures; they'll look more like spheres. In the future, the surface of even the planets familiar to us has changed quite a lot and you will be able to study the history of this world by the traces that remained on the planets.

 

[normie]

DEVLOG 002: NEW SYSTEMS OVERVIEW
Hello, Mercenaries!
Kept You Waiting, Huh? And the early access release is just around the corner!

For the past six months, we've been showing you our core combat system: first in End of Dream, and then in the demo. In early access, we've expanded it: added a bunch of new weapons, new classes, and new operatives with unique modifiers. But we'll talk about that some other time!

Because today, we'll tell you about the most important innovations and systems that you'll try for the first time very soon: October 2nd!

Corporate Warfare
So, welcome to the anarchocapitalist Solar System. States are a thing of the past: media, factories, cities, and even entire planets are owned by private corporations. There's a constant struggle among these corporations for assets: people, labs, industrial complexes, and information.

Each corporation has its own interests, goals, tasks, and development strategy. Not surprisingly, their interests often clash with each other, leading to corporate conflicts that need resolution.

Where Does PMC Fit into This Corporate Meat Grinder?
You are the tool for solving any problem. A direct conflict between corporations can lead to unforeseen consequences, so corporations are happy to outsource violent operations to people like you and your team.

Our main task before entering early access was to integrate a large system that would generate new contracts from corporations and allow you to participate in corporate warfare. Your reward will be reputation, information, and access to powerful tools, technologies, and equipment.

Your Opportunities
Let's take a look at the first screen you'll encounter after launching the game. What will you see there?

1. Stations
Each planet has a unique set of stations and special modifiers. For example, on Mars, for some mysterious reason, the Quasimorphosis processes have stopped, and demons cannot get involved in the conflict between corporations and interfere with you completing your contracts.

Access to stations depends on the planet's situation, your reputation, and the available contracts from corporations. There are three types of access statuses:

• Peaceful - stations you can visit to exchange goods or information. During early access, you'll want to visit them to exchange your items for those offered by the owning corporation.
• Closed for Visit - stations you can't visit due to low reputation with the owning corporation.
• Stations with Open Contracts - stations currently involved in corporate conflict, and one of the corporations issues a contract for its completion. Fulfilling the contract may lead to a change in ownership and a decrease in reputation for the former owner.

2. Stock Market
Corporations and their rivalries drive events in the Solar System. Corporations are also your clients, and it's essential to monitor their relationships and development to know whose side to take during conflicts.

In this section, you can find information about corporations and the progress of corporate wars: your reputation, technological level, and the power of corporations. You can also see potential rewards for completing tasks and bartering. Here are the key characteristics of corporations:

• Power - the cumulative rating from stations belonging to the faction. Influences the number of enemies on missions against this faction and the loot volumes that can be found on these missions.
• Technology - determines the equipment of enemies on missions against this faction and the number of simultaneously existing missions from this faction. It also expands the range of rewards for completing tasks and for barter. Over time, your clients' assortment will include more items.
• Status - market strategy.
• You can also check the list of active missions here.

3. Map
Here, you can view available contracts across the entire solar system, travel times to other planets, and embark on your journey.

Time is a valuable resource. While you travel, complete tasks, or produce new items, corporations are engaged in a series of ongoing conflicts that affect their position and strategy, and most importantly for you, the list of available contracts. Contracts open and close automatically, so if you see an available contract on a neighboring planet, it's worth comparing travel time to the contract's availability. You might not make it in time!

4. Barter
No one will officially trade with PMCs, and political realities also affect trade. Items aren't highly valued in the world of Quasimorph; your reputation is more critical. So, it's considered normal to exchange a pack of cigarettes for a laser machine gun, a rare chip with the consciousness of a legendary hero, or a new character class. All you need for this is a bit of perseverance and luck!

So, you want to engage in trading. Let's say you want a large backpack. On the Stock Exchange screen, you can see that the Realware company trades items and has a 25% chance of providing a backpack.

To complete the exchange, you need to find a station where you can exchange items that may remain in your possession after missions, such as batteries.

At the station, you'll find a terminal for the exchange process, next to it is a trader who can provide you with exchange rates. Here's how it works: place the batteries from your inventory into the Station Cargo, click "Exchange," and the exchange is complete. If you return to your ship, you can access your Cargo to transfer items from the exchange to your inventory. If your Cargo is full, you can depart and retrieve the items later.

What Else Awaits You at Release?
So, let's summarize what's waiting for you at the release!

It seems like this picture is part of something more significant! But we're getting a little ahead of ourselves. Consider it a small teaser, and we'll share more details closer to the release.

Join our community on Discord to be the first to receive updates about the game and get notified when the release drops! Also, dont forget to follow us on Twitter!

There's less than a week left until your journey begins! Stay tuned!

 

[InD_ImaginE]

That is not something I expected when playing the 2 demos. It was kinda confusing as the first demo was dead space like in theme and the 2nd demo is some Aztec doomlike theme, but with above update of you essentially has freedom in choosing missions and all, it now kinda make sense.

 

[Harthwain]

and the 2nd demo is some Aztec doomlike theme

That demo was utter shit. The one where you had three separate missions with the possibility to take loot-data back with you was great.

 

[Tyranicon]

Huh, this is looking pretty interesting. Might have to get the demo.

 

[sser]

and the 2nd demo is some Aztec doomlike theme

That demo was utter shit. The one where you had three separate missions with the possibility to take loot-data back with you was great.

Yeah one of the demos may have done damage. The game has been remarkably improved since.

 

[Tyranicon]

So I got it, and the demo does play a lot like a more fast-paced, scifi Stoneshard.

 

[Serus]

A roguelike is by definition a subgenre of CRPG. And yes i'm aware that we don't have a definition but the roguelikes end in rpg disscussion. Saying "A rogulike with RPG elements" makes no sense at all. Even if someone thinks RLs are not rpg they certainly have strong RPG elements. It is saying "a RPG game".
What i'm saying - no need to explain the game having a thread here.
And sorry for the rant.

BTW, looks interesting.

 

[Tyranicon]

Played it some more and they made the end of the current demo quasi-impossible to finish, which is kind of an insulting way to make a demo tbh.

 

[Harthwain]

Played it some more and they made the end of the current demo quasi-impossible to finish, which is kind of an insulting way to make a demo tbh.

You can grind for the unlocks (extract with blue USBs whenever you get the chance), which makes the last map possible to finish.

 

[Infinitron]

Tomorrow:

 

[Tyranicon]

A tightly-designed little game. I'll probably grab it when it goes on sale.

 

[normie]

DEVLOG004: ROADMAP & FAQ
Hello, mercenaries!

There are only a few hours left until the release! It's time to answer some frequently asked questions and share our plans for the next year.

First of all, Early Access is just the beginning of a long journey. We are planning to stay in Early Access for approximately 1-2 years. In the previous devlog, we already discussed what you can expect in the current version of the game, but let's recap:

• Corporate War System and Mission Generation System
• Project SKULL System and 10 Demon Pacts
• Crafting System and over 200 Recipe Chips
• Advanced Animation System
• Advanced Medical System
• 4 Planets and 3 Satellites with
• Unique Enemies and Modifiers
• 49 Stations as a objects of corporate war
• 6 Classes with Skill Progression
• 12 Unique Operatives
• ~100 Types of Weapons
• ~65 Types of Armor
• Initial Barter System Iteration

ROADMAP

In the near future, we will focus on fixes and patches to make your gaming experience more stable and convenient. But the first changes are just around the corner...

So, as you can see, the first major patch is planned for the end of the year!

In it, we will bring you some new weapons, and there will also be puddles (acidic!) in the game.

But most importantly - Narrative Missions! We really wanted to add them to the early access release, but we decided to postpone them so that we have more time to polish the core mechanics of the game. Players who have tried the prologue or demo already have a rough idea of what we're talking about.

We'll share more details about other segments of the roadmap in future devlogs. But for now, let's answer some questions that might be on your mind!

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Supporter Pack
At release, you'll have access to the Supporter Pack, priced at $10 (or your regional equivalent). We don't want to provide items that give you an advantage; it's not our style! So, Supporter Pack owners will receive:

• A unique Magnum skin for your PMC base
• 3 pre-release versions of the game: 2 demo versions and the End of Dream Prologue - Legacy content that might interest those waiting for story missions
• The official soundtrack (and we'll add new tracks as the game updates)
• Artwork (we'll add new ones as well)
• A T-shirt design file that you can print to feel like a true fan!

Progress will be wiped from time to time
Look for big patches! We will warn you in advance when this happens.

Localization. We're ready to confirm 11 languages at release!
Russian, English, Polish, Japanese, Korean, Brazilian Portuguese, German, Simplified Chinese, French, Turkish, Spanish.
It's a significant amount considering how much text is in the game, so please don't judge us too harshly if you encounter errors or inaccuracies in localization. We'll work on improving the quality of localization with patches.

Co-op or multiplayer is not planned
We won't lie; it would be cool to have coop, but right now, we are focused on enhancing and expanding the single-player experience of Quasimorph. So, we're making no promises! Сonsider Quasimorph as an exclusively single-player game.

Achievements
They will definitely be added, but first, we'd like to introduce more systems, mechanics, and properly balance the core gameplay loop. We'll get back to this later!

Controller Support and Steam Deck
Planned for the second half of next year. We'll provide more details when there's something to show.

If you still have questions, feel free to ask here.

Join our community on Discord to be the first to receive updates about the game and get notified when the release drops! Also, dont forget to follow us on Twitter!

Thank you for your support and patience. Soon, you'll all get to try our game for yourselves!

 

[InD_ImaginE]

From "roguelike dead space" to the scifi-dystopia-doom roguelike thing that you never knew you wanted

I am pretty fucking hyped. Honestly I kinda wished this would be sort of Battle Brother thing instead of a roguelike after reading that roadmap, would be a pretty cool thing

 

[Harthwain]

I am disappointed this is EA release. I thought it will be 1.0 version. Oh, well... I will wait some more then.

 

[Tyranicon]

It's actually with the same publisher behind Stoneshard, Hypetrain Digital, which is interesting.

But I got it, will give thoughts later.

 

[Tyranicon]

I was going to praise this game, but then I got shot through a solid wall and died. Not sure if that was a bug or a feature.

Honestly this game is a delightful surprise. It's a dark scifi roguelike/tactical/extraction shooter with procgen elements. The gameplay is extremely solid and tightly-designed, with the main loop being you clearing a space station or whatever of enemies room to room, looting bodies, getting better gear, and leaving alive. The EA version is much easier than the demo, mostly because you get a lot more gear and ammo early on and the basic enemies are fodder.

The story is vague in a good way. Some kind of demonic apocalypse happened and corporations replaced nation states. There's a fair amount of lore injected into the game, but I don't know if it'll be fleshed out more later. You have interesting tidbits like a massive entertainment conglomerate that is anarcho-communist and openly produces propaganda in its media.

I have some minor quibbles. It's still somewhat buggy, the faction interactions seem minimal right now, and the "orbital cities" and other areas are all similar looking rooms in similar looking tilesets. The mechanic where you can't see in dark spaces is somewhat negated in that you can just sweep your mouse (or press alt) until it highlights the enemy. Some of the procgen missions are also really boring clear the map deals.

Also, there's no real in-game reason why only one merc goes on a mission at a time. You start with four. Clearly that's not what this game is built for and balanced around, because then it would be a squad-based tactical game.

But.... that would really open up your customer base if you added an extra mode. Maybe that's something in the works or I'm just not deep enough in the game yet.

 

[sser]

This game is about to get nuked in the reviews.

A bit of a shame as there is some gold here: it's like if you took Crusader and Tarkov, blended them into a roguelike, then threw some old True Lies-esque SNES graphics on top of it.

Problem is that it is very, very untuned and, adding fuel to that fire, unnecessarily opaque. Even worse, the game is not as fast-paced as one would expect. You can spend 30-60mins on any given mission, which is a lot of time when there's some weird crafting system in place. Not sure if I'm supposed to be crafting anything -- crafting ingredients usually eat 3-spaces in your already limited inventory. Alternatively, you could leave them on the ground, but that requires backtracking which eats your food which ultimately eats you. There's no way that crafting in-maps is superior to just picking things up as you go.

You can't leave missions once you're on them, so if shit goes sideways you're just stuck and die. Given the super limited resources at the start, if this happens early you should just quit and restart everything. Note, with Tarkov it's just your weapons and gear, but here it's that + actual RPG stats. This drives down an XCOM A-team effect where you'll basically be playing the game with 1-char who, if they die... you might as well restart.

My best run took about 60mins into one mission where I must have killed over 100 people/demons. Yet I still died because the game would not let me leave and wouldn't tell me why. With three massive floors to move around in, and the way hunger depletes so quickly, it just ran into a brick wall. In this case, I could not evac and the game had no reason as to why other than something was blocking the ship. Naturally, I went down to the ship to see if something was physically there, but that was not the case. That was 3 floors of travel, mind, at which point food reserves were exhausted.


The HP/health system is also a little aggressive. Everything jams up your guy's health over and over again. It's not as refined as something like the system in Dark Corners of the Earth where you really had to get clobbered to take on injuries. Additionally, the dmg input coming your way is a bit random. Sometimes you eat bullets for breakfast, other times they punch through and suddenly you're at like 5HP with wounds all over. Given the # of injury archetypes needing to match specific medical applications + infection meds + food, your inventory is pretty quickly jammed up with crap just to stay alive.

I'd come back to this one in a few unless you're alright with this sort of gameplay. I've seen this sort of whacky balancing in other roguelikes and ditch them pretty quick, but Quasimorph DOES have a fair bit of charm and uniqueness to it for whatever that's worth.

 

[InD_ImaginE]

My best run took about 60mins into one mission where I must have killed over 100 people/demons. Yet I still died because the game would not let me leave and wouldn't tell me why. With three massive floors to move around in, and the way hunger depletes so quickly, it just ran into a brick wall. In this case, I could not evac and the game had no reason as to why other than something was blocking the ship. Naturally, I went down to the ship to see if something was physically there, but that was not the case. That was 3 floors of travel, mind, at which point food reserves were exhausted.

I think the offensive mission is bugged as the floor 2 and 3 doesn't have target to achieve unlike the 1st floor. It's best to just play the Defense mission for now.

 

[InD_ImaginE]

But yeah overall impression is that balance is whack. There are also a lot of "noob trap" considering the game kinda has a strategic layer so you can get FUBARed and pretty much soft locked.

Few things to note is that:

1. Currently crafting resource is important. The tutorial mission has some nifty items but nothing is probably as important as disasembling trash loot to rags + thread so you can crafft backpack on ships. Going mission without backpack is pretty much crippling and downright impossible.

2. Never goes all in a mission, always only bring as much weapn/armor as you need. Your operator dies = you permanently lose the loot. And as such looking at some trash item you can craft and pick up the components in a mission is important. You can just salvage your way in a mission from enemies weapon drop but going into a mission naked with no weapon = guaranteed death. At the very least always pick up bladed thing to craft a knife. The Melee guy + Melee class can kill trash mobs easiily.

3. You need to craft the Syringe thing in ships if you go to offensive mission at all. It reduces the Quasimorph meter I think and it reduce the chance of spawning demons things when you kill mobs. This is very important as at high Quasimorph meter level, you are talking about some lol random some bullshit demon spawn and oneshot your guy. Craft free foods and ALWAYS bring sufficient food. Offensive mission I think would be good to have 2 full stacks of the free food.

Problem is that it is very, very untuned and, adding fuel to that fire, unnecessarily opaque. Even worse, the game is not as fast-paced as one would expect. You can spend 30-60mins on any given mission, which is a lot of time when there's some weird crafting system in place. Not sure if I'm supposed to be crafting anything -- crafting ingredients usually eat 3-spaces in your already limited inventory.

Those crafting table inside the mission is for you to salvage and create resource, especially bandages and splints which you can easily craft from disassembling stuff from the mobs. For the same reason you better just bring the antibiotics pills as those are uncraftable inside the mission. Having 3 of them you can craft medpack if needed in mission.

4. Defensive mission doesn't increase the quasimorph meter, other reaason playing it is preferable.

 

[sser]

My best run took about 60mins into one mission where I must have killed over 100 people/demons. Yet I still died because the game would not let me leave and wouldn't tell me why. With three massive floors to move around in, and the way hunger depletes so quickly, it just ran into a brick wall. In this case, I could not evac and the game had no reason as to why other than something was blocking the ship. Naturally, I went down to the ship to see if something was physically there, but that was not the case. That was 3 floors of travel, mind, at which point food reserves were exhausted.

I think the offensive mission is bugged as the floor 2 and 3 doesn't have target to achieve unlike the 1st floor. It's best to just play the Defense mission for now.

I found and killed the target, but after that I got a "Evac is stormy" type of message which simply never went away.

A bummer of a run, too, as I was pretty kitted out with weapons to remove most of what I was facing.

 

[Takamori]

I am disappointed this is EA release. I thought it will be 1.0 version. Oh, well... I will wait some more then.

Yeah when I played the demo thought they were blasting the 1.0. I ain't gonna buy it until is done, don't wanna end up with a stoneshard in my hands.

 

[Harthwain]

I was going to praise this game, but then I got shot through a solid wall and died. Not sure if that was a bug or a feature.

There aren't "solid walls" in the game that sense. You must've been at the corner of a wall. All it does is give you some cover via obstruction (while also making it harder to aim for you, by the way), but it won't protect you from getting shot. Otherwise you could've been shot from behind or something.

Not sure if I'm supposed to be crafting anything -- crafting ingredients usually eat 3-spaces in your already limited inventory. Alternatively, you could leave them on the ground, but that requires backtracking which eats your food which ultimately eats you. There's no way that crafting in-maps is superior to just picking things up as you go.

Crafting food is super important and it only takes two items: meat and an empty can. Other items are situationally useful (splints and bandages, which are easy to get, because you can disassemble boots, shirts, etc. to get what you need for it). Creating a weapon repair kit can be great, because it fully repairs a weapon without dropping down its durability, which is important in terms of how often you can fire from it before it breaks down again, but you need to hang on the required items for that, which can be somewhat problematic with limited space (and I don't know if you have access to what items you can craft without being physically at the crafting bench, which is pretty stupid design as it forces you to either write it all down or memorize it).

You can't leave missions once you're on them, so if shit goes sideways you're just stuck and die. Given the super limited resources at the start, if this happens early you should just quit and restart everything. Note, with Tarkov it's just your weapons and gear, but here it's that + actual RPG stats. This drives down an XCOM A-team effect where you'll basically be playing the game with 1-char who, if they die... you might as well restart.

Did they got rid of the USBs? In the demo you could evac if you found one, which permanenty unlocks a technology for everyone. Playing through a level with basic goon shouldn't be that much of a problem if you keep that in mind and play somewhat catiously. Just expect to die anyway until you scavenge better gear (and even then expect to die) or find USBs to extract with so you can take better gear with you from get-go.

I found and killed the target, but after that I got a "Evac is stormy" type of message which simply never went away.

Sounds like a bug.

 

[InD_ImaginE]

Did they got rid of the USBs? In the demo you could evac if you found one, which permanenty unlocks a technology for everyone.

USB now unlocks item to craft, new character, new class. Each character has a quirck in this game (e.g. melee guy has 5 defense for all dmg type, some other guy immune to infection). You start with 2 class and can get more through chips.

Getting them in mission does allow you to extract. The problem is unlike the demo they are rare drop now