Cyber Knights: Flashpoint News

Happy new year and we wanted to shoot a quick note to share our excitement -- Alpha Phase 0 launched last night on January 4th as planned. 🎉 We wanted to post a quick update in case anyone missed the email.

[h2]Check Your Email for the Invites![/h2]
If you are in the alpha team, you should have received both an invitation email from App Center and an email with instructions at the email address you used for Kickstarter. If you do not see them in your inbox, please check your spam folder. If you have questions or didn’t get the email, reach out to us here on Kickstarter or in our Discord (run the “max!addrole” command and then check out the #alpha channels.)

This initial phase is a tech demo build -- it is NOT the game. It contains and tests everything required (graphics, sound & music, game engine player, all the code libraries, bug reporting, analytics) to play the game on your computer. Starting with this allows us to find any critical bugs in our new game engine on your platforms immediately while we can still focus solely on fixing these issues. It will also allow us to give priority to supporting everyone through sign up and download before we are also supporting the game.

Please take a few minutes today to at least:

• find your invite email and sign up through App Center.
  
• join the Discord - it’s our hub for all alpha feedback!
  
• use the max!addrole command in Discord to make sure you can get access to the #alpha channels.
  

We’ve already had over 200 of you run the tech build; more is helpful but if we could at least get everyone set up in the App Center and Discord it will help us get a playable version to you sooner and keep things running smoothly while everyone’s playtesting. 🙂

[h2]Alpha Phases and Duration[/h2]

The Alpha is a series of Phases and the first is Phase 0, a “tech demo” which is currently available for download to help us identify bugs on different hardware combinations. Next, we’ll move on to Phase 1 which will start with a limited version of the game that is completely focused on the core player experience (tactical missions). We will provide prompts and seek feedback on this core gameplay loop, then start the process of expanding the available content and systems in the game with new Alpha Phases. With each new Phase, we will provide new prompts and gameplay areas where we are specifically seeking feedback.

From our previous alpha experiences, this entire process will take 6-12 months, will include many Alpha Phases and possibly 100+ updates. This is a marathon process that includes you in the game’s development, not a quick sprint or stress test. Your feedback shapes the game as it grows from the central kernel of tactical missions to the full game experience by the end of the alpha.

[h2]Reward and Stretch Goal Progress[/h2]
For completeness, we have included the progress bar infographic in this update even though nothing much in it has changed. If you have any questions about rewards or stretch goals, check out the graphic or reach out to us.






Thanks,
Trese Brothers Team

Happy holidays and happy new year. We are here with a quick update outlining the next steps for our alpha community, sharing some of the progress updates from our crazy December and getting a good laugh at ourselves.

[h2]Laughing at Our August-Selves[/h2]
Sometime back in August, there must have been a discussion that went something like this:
Cory: “We’re going to need every minute we can get in 2021 for this alpha to fly.”
Andrew: “Right up to the end of the year? That’s going to be rough with the holidays.”
Cory: “OK -- we can’t do that to ourselves. Let’s make a more reasonable plan.”
Andrew: “I’ve got it. Three days after the holidays!”
Cory: “That’s it!”

Hahaha, that was a great meeting. We’re glad we made that choice. Things are good. We’re fine.


[h2]Alpha Phases and Duration[/h2]
As the alpha kicks off in less than a week, we want to make sure everyone’s on the same page about how this will work. We have planned a series of Alpha Phases, starting with a Phase 0 “tech demo” app that will help us identify bugs on different hardware combinations. Then you’ll move on to Phase 1, a limited version of the game that is completely focused on the core player experience (tactical missions). We will provide prompts and seek feedback on this core gameplay loop, then start the process of expanding the available content and systems in the game with new Alpha Phases. With each new Phase, we will provide new prompts and gameplay areas where we are specifically seeking feedback.

From our previous alpha experiences, this entire process will take 6-12 months, 10+ Alpha Phases and possibly 100+ updates. This is a marathon process that includes you in the game’s development, not a quick sprint or stress test. Your feedback shapes the game as it grows from the central kernel of tactical missions to the full game experience by the end of the alpha.



[h2]Alpha Next Steps[/h2]
On January 4th, the alpha will start with invitations to download, install and launch a tech demo build for Cyber Knights: Flashpoint. The tech demo build is not the game itself but an app that contains and tests everything required (graphics, sound & music, game engine player, all the code libraries, bug reporting, analytics) to play the game on your computer.

Starting the alpha with this tech demo build will accomplish a few things:

• Find any critical bugs in launching our new game engine on your platforms and allow us to focus solely on fixing these issues.
  
• Get all alpha players setup with accounts on the distribution system, so you can receive each new version as we go.
  
• Help all alpha players (who haven’t yet) get logged into our Discord and get their alpha roles.
  

While we’ve tested with the platforms the majority of you have reported you’ll be playing on (thank you for your quick survey responses!), the many combinations of operating systems, processors, graphics cards, and more from the 1,000+ of you means there will inevitably be some combinations producing bugs we haven’t yet encountered.

It’s not the most fun part of the process, but we need to start the alpha by identifying and fixing these while we can easily isolate them -- before they’re mixed in with any gameplay issues that might come up.

We expect this “Alpha Phase 0” to go quickly though. We’ll be all hands-on deck to follow-up on your reports -- the more devices you can help us test on, the better. Then once this first round of critical bugs has been fixed, hopefully by that weekend, we’ll give you access to the first playable levels, and Alpha Phase 1 will begin!

The alpha will initially only be available on desktop. In our December survey, we saw there were a handful of you (2.3%) who were not planning to play on desktop. We want to make sure you know your time will come! Our development and alpha process focuses on foundations first, using the platforms the vast majority of backers will be playing on, but in a later phase of the alpha we will release an early build of the eventual Android & iOS ports, and ask all who are able to help us test them.


[h2]Please Join the Discord[/h2]
Especially if you’re in the Alpha, please be sure to join our Discord. 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. The hub for the Alpha will be our Discord, so getting everyone on board and ready before the launch date will help everything run smoothly and get all Discord roles setup before January 4th :D

If you haven’t used Discord before, it’s easy, we almost never (0 in the last year) send @everyone notifications, and we’ve got a friendly server full of gamers like you -- come hang out and make this Discord community your first.

[h2]December Progress[/h2]
Every moment not spent wrapping presents this month has been spent wrapping up things for the alpha. 😅 Cory has been working on the tech demo, distribution, bug reporting, and analytics systems. Early in the month Andrew finalized game content for alpha phase 1, and our internal team’s been testing and iterating on it ever since. We’re making sure issues you encounter are ones we have not been able to find (/reproduce) on our own and adding a layer of polish and improvements not always present to the “I know exactly what that blank, un-animated icon I’ve been using for three months does, what do you mean it needs a label?” developers.

Yepppppp, that's bug. The "Iron Grip" Talent kills everything. Expected Damage is from 100-300.

Our internal tests identified three major classes of bugs that locked up or created hangs in the game; we’ve fixed those and significantly improved the pace and smoothness of play. Mid-December we encountered a font corruption bug that by itself ate a few days of our schedule -- these are the kind of unpredictable delays we dread when setting deadlines, but we are back on track now.

We spent a few days fighting the AI "F0nt Sm4sh3r" but deployed our Cyber Knights and eventually won.

Last but not least, we’re continuing to build toward more than just the next few weeks. Work continues on stories & missions for the later phases of the alpha, additional classes and their abilities, etc.

Looking back at all the monthly updates we’ve sent out this year, it’s been a tremendous climb to get this rollercoaster ready to go. We’re holding our breath as it approaches this first summit, and as always, so grateful you’ve come along for the ride.

Have a happy New Year, knights. We’ll see you at the drop.

[h2]Reward and Stretch Goal Progress[/h2]
For completeness, we have included the progress bar infographic in this update even though nothing in it has changed. If you have any questions about rewards or stretch goals, check out the graphic or reach out to us.



We are extremely excited to be taking the next steps on this project in just a few days!

Knights!

We’re down to the final month preparing for the upcoming alpha. The Nightbot on our official Discord server is counting down the hours, minutes and seconds --



It has been a busy 2 years of sharing progress updates, showing the concept art morph to 3D and then into animation, and giving sneak peaks of the game’s many systems as they have shaped up. We’re finally on the precipice of an entirely new chapter of this Kickstarter project and now the updates will turn more and more to focus on the Alpha Phase.

As in our previous updates, we will highlight 3 big areas within the game that we’ve been working on at the end, but this update is more focused on the procedural prep for the impending Alpha Phase.


[h2]Alpha-Only Kickstarter Updates[/h2]
For alpha backers, we want to give you a heads up that there will be some additional communication this month in prep for the upcoming Alpha launch. There will be 2 Kickstarter "Alpha-only" updates published for Alpha and higher tier backers only in the month of December. The first should be out later this week and will include an invitation to complete a quick survey about the platforms you plan to play on.

We will also be doing a test run with our Alpha backer email list, so everyone in the Alpha group will get a direct email announcing this survey as well.

[h2]Please Join the Discord[/h2]
If you’re in on the Alpha Phase, please be sure to join our Discord. Once you’ve joined up, run the command “max!addrole” to ask the MercerBot to add your special Kickstarter role. The hub for the Alpha Phase will be our Discord, so getting everyone on board and ready before the launch date will help everything run smoothly and will let us focus on the game and not Discord roles on January 4th :D

If you’re not on Discord yet, we’ve got a very friendly server -- come hang out and make it your first.

Even if you aren’t in the alpha phase, there are special #backer channels for you, so come see what MercerBot can grant you.


[h2]Last 3 Days to Join Alpha![/h2]
When the private alpha launches in January, we will welcome more than 1,000 backers who pledged at the alpha access level or higher into an early version of the game. These players will be the first to plan heists, build their merc squad and test their skill against the enemy forces & AI. We rely on the private alpha to put the game through its paces, help us improve the systems and allow us to build out the rest of the game hand in hand with you. This feedback is critical to ensuring we create the best possible version of Cyber Knights: Flashpoint.

If you’d like to join that very special process, there are 2 days left to complete your late pledge to get exclusive alpha access with the option to add the alternate-start add-on reward “Horizon Cypher” through Backerkit.

[h2]November Progress[/h2]
November has been another big month of progress -- every day hammering on the game and improving and preparing for the big day. With more than a month to go, we’ve been putting our current list of infrastructure, distribution and player feedback channel tasks first so that those don’t end up squeezed off the end in early 2022. So -- with that said, here are 3 highlights for November --


This month, we’ve made another big round of improvements to our build automation framework. We’ve selected our distribution channels and are wrapping up major upgrades to the build architecture to automate the build processes and push those builds up to the distribution site for the alpha. This is hard work but will save us oodles of hours with each Alpha update so it is critical.

We’ve also been working on the crash and bug reporting pipeline which will be key for our small team to keep up with the larger player-base for this Alpha. We’re excited to share that the game will automatically send crash reports to our servers which is going to be a big help when and where we run into crashes. And, to boot the game will also feature a hotkey / button you can push to report a bug, which will immediately snap a screenshot and open a form you can fill out to add a summary and reproduction steps to the bug report.


During November we also finished a rebuild of the game’s Overwatch and Other Persistent Map effects system, which internally are called Tokens. While this system will be primarily used for Overwatch when the Alpha releases, it has amazing potential for future cool Talents, cyberware and gear effects. A token represents anything that persists on the map and causes an effect within a given template (such as a sphere or an arc of fire). In the case of Overwatch, the token allows a combatant to take reaction shots at anyone who enters the Overwatch template. In the case of a smoke grenade, the grenade leaves behind a token which blocks sightlines which prevents long ranged gun attacks (but not swordplay, ziiiing!). The possibilities with Tokens extremely wide open, so once we saw how cool that could be, we felt the need to invest in a bit of a rebuild to make sure the door was wide for further classes (Agent EX, Toxkit, Drone Pilot, Assassin all come to mind ...) and gear.


[h2]Reward and Stretch Goal Progress[/h2]
For completeness, we have included the progress bar infographic in this update even though nothing in it has changed. If you have any questions about rewards or stretch goals, check out the graphic or reach out to us.

The private Cyber Knights: Flashpoint alpha is rapidly approaching, where we will welcome over 1,000 players into an early version of the game. These first players will plan heists, recruit and train merc squads, test their mettle against enemy security & AI, put the game and all of its systems through their paces. Their feedback will help us update the game like crazy and make it better every week.

Almost as soon as the Kickstarter ended, we started hearing from many players — "I don't know how I missed it, is there any way I can still join the alpha?"

So we're excited to offer one final chance to become a backer and join the Cyber Knights: Flashpoint alpha. We're opening up late pledges through Backerkit. It's a $60 pledge, and comes with all the same rewards and privileges as the pledge level did when the Kickstarter was live.

While this pledge level does include a full copy of the game on release, we'd encourage you not to use it as a pre-order. As much as we appreciate the support, we're really offering the alpha as a way to be involved in shaping the game.

But if you're already a member of the private alpha and know an equally passionate gamer who'd love the chance to help shape an upcoming squad tactics / cyberpunk heist RPG, feel free to share this final chance to join. ;)

What's the alpha experience like? Is this worth it?
This will be the sixth game we've offered a private alpha for. Backers get sent an early build of the game on all platforms they'd like to try it on (PC/Mac/Linux/Android/iOS), with more features & content unlocked through several phases of the alpha as we ask for your feedback on different components, iterate, and balance. You can play throughout and be one of our core collaborators, or give some feedback early and come back months later to see everything that's new.

It's a really fun community experience, and shapes the game for years to come. Many game mechanics for Star Traders: Frontiers got revamped, cut, and added based on players' feedback during its alpha. If you're the type of player that loves discussing the meta of a game, or wants to be one of the experts in the community by the time we hit Early Access and the player base is growing exponentially, this is for you.

Can I pledge more for some of the higher rewards (e.g. getting my face in the game), or less, just to support?
Sorry, we're only opening up late pledges for the alpha level and a couple of small add-ons. Most rewards (especially those that offer benefits far above & beyond what other players get), need to remain a limited-time opportunity during a game's Kickstarter.

Make sure you're on our mailing list (extremely low-volume, 2-3 emails per year) and following our socials to ensure you don't miss out on future projects. We really appreciate your desire to support though! Our Patreon is also available and comes with many special benefits of its own.

Will these late pledges count toward stretch goals from the Kickstarter?
No; while we will be drawing in some small extra funding from this event, we don't expect there to be so many new alpha players that we need to be thinking about stretch goals. It'd be a huge win if we reached the milestone for the extra stretch goal we already threw in. 😄

[h2]I read to the end, where do I do the thing?[/h2]
👏 Right here: pledge to join the Cyber Knight's private alpha —and thank you!

Fresh reports for you from the Trese Brothers HQ, deep beneath the New Boston Zone. As we continue to improve Cyber Knights: Flashpoint, working toward the alpha at a feverish pace, we’re dedicated to our monthly update schedule to keep the news flowing.

For this month’s update, we highlight 3 big areas we are working on -- but first we want to give the schedule update we know everyone is waiting on.

[h2]Alpha Launch Date![/h2]
As a team, we have decided to launch the alpha on January 4th, 2022.

A slight adjustment -- our last major schedule update did say the alpha would be ready by the end of 2021. We were pretty sure then it would end up in late Q4, and the more items we cross off the to-do list, the more accurate that looks: late Q4. Based on what’s remaining and our current estimates, it looks like we will end up checking the final checkboxes just before the end of the year. But, with October and November still ahead we are uncomfortable having so little margin of error in that estimate.

And as many of you know, the start of the alpha is the start of a non-stop process for Trese Brothers. With a thousand players potentially firing up the game there are sure to be early issues we can’t discover on our own. Every issue you find we will want to fix ASAP. Trying to do that over a holiday season doesn’t seem realistic. With the Steam Holiday sales and winter travel, it becomes impossible. We’ve settled on a date just past the new years line and hope you’ll agree this is the best thing for the alpha’s success.

We are so eager to share this game with you and hear what you think! Hope you’re just as excited to start 2022 with Cyber Knights: Flashpoint.

“The procedure will be painless, just don’t move."

[h2]Progress Highlights[/h2]
One of the major tasks of September has been to complete and fully test the gameplay cut-scene director that allows the game to interrupt regular gameplay with a series of scripted events. This includes dialog, choices, camera controls, arrival of reinforcements, opening and closing doors, turning on and off security devices and more. This capability has already been worked into some of the early levels and is key in pushing the game missions’ interactivity with little dialog quips and mission intros as well as important map features like interactive switches, ambushes and more.


Quick demo to show the camera moving between a series of scripted events.

Continuing the Jobs and Talents work from last month, we put a special focus on differentiating jobs. We’re staying true to the design by avoiding and cutting out “Buff salad” while pushing for as many special mechanics, features and limitations as possible within each class. For example Vanguards, who rely on their Chameleon Sheathe cybernetic implant, are now restricted from wearing heavier armor which would interfere with its concealment powers. On the other hand, the Soldier has the only ability in the game to shorten or lengthen optimal range of their weapon, and the Cyber Knight’s ability to manipulate ally and enemy Initiative (manipulating turn order to their advantage) has been strengthened so you can pull off perfect ambushes.

In addition, we have been tightening up the security system’s tolerances and stealthy characters options to work around them. Talents that interfere with or disable security devices now cause the Minor Alarm Level to tick up, and have a lower duration than previous builds. At the same time, we added Talents to predict enemy patrol routes and disintegrate enemy bodies in a pinch. It's a fun formula, ratcheting up the tension while offering even more routes of play.



We’re ramping up for a big sound-effects mini-sprint in October so that your boot heels will clang on metal and clomp on concrete and everything in the game will whir and buzz and beep with the right ambience playing in the background. By far, Cyber Knights is going to set a new high-water-mark for our music and SFX, and we can’t wait for you to hear the entire game come alive.


[h2]Executive Producers #9[/h2]
We’ve scheduled the 9th Executive Producers meeting for late October to share the latest progress with our EP team and to get that key early feedback. EP #8 showed off gameplay and talked about the unique design for CKF’s tactical combat engine. We won’t know the topic of #9 until about a week ahead of time, as we always like to pick something exciting / in the forge with the iron still red-hot to share. As the alpha gets closer by the day, we’ll keep meeting with the Executive Producers regularly, gathering feedback from this valuable “first line” of players.


[h2]Reward and Stretch Goal Progress[/h2]
Per our promise, we always include the progress bar infographic. If you have any questions about rewards or stretch goals, check out the graphic or reach out to us. With this update, we have set the Alpha launch date in stone (chrome? PNG?) but otherwise there are no changes as we are hammering down to the final milestones before alpha.

For anyone still waiting on 3D face deliveries, apologies from Andrew. 55 of 76 faces have been delivered -- with few exceptions those remaining are waiting on some specific haircut, beard or specific cyberware or accessory to be fully completed before we can send them out. Thank you for your patience on these, they are coming.