Cyber Knights: Flashpoint News

With July already well underway, we’re back again for some show and tell about game dev progress and to deliver a reminder to everyone about the awesome MercerBot features on our Discord, and reveal the latest on both stretch goals and rewards. It’s a big one, so be sure to keep scrolling!

If you missed Update #31, we announced language pack support and debuted the snow leopard design. In Update #32, we announced the game’s reactive music/SFX and shared all of the concept art for the backer’s faces.

[h2]Level Builder[/h2]
In the last few updates, we’ve talked a lot about the foundation elements of the Cyber Knights: Flashpoint game -- including translation support, reactive sound design and our new UI toolkit. Another fundamental piece underpinning our ability to successfully build out the game is our Level Builder tool, which we are now excited to off in an early preview video.

Our goals in designing the Level Builder toolkit were simple but as this is a tool where we will spend an astronomical number of hours, we had to hold it to a very high standard. We’re excited to have hit the minimum requirements we set for ourselves -- with lots of room for iterative improvement -- and are now in motion with the Level Builder, logging bugs, improving its various themes and most importantly -- building levels!

• Author can rapidly block out of levels
  
• Author never places individual elements that are prone to error (walls, floors, fences)
  
• Author can play the level during development very easily
  
• Level Builder optimizes objects and components for efficiency (merge geometry, box colliders)
  
• Level Builder retains its ability to edit a level even after level is shipped to production (so that updates are easy and not painful)
  
• Level Builder is prepared to be a cornerstone tool of our modkit
  

In this preview video you can see a high speed preview of “blocking out” of the level codenamed “Ascent”. This is the first phase of laying down a new level, in which it gains its basic shape and form. The video ends with adding the first few props and decorations. The Level Builder helps the designer setup all the basic pieces and prep the level for the later stages such as props, mission events and lighting. Keep in mind, at this stage this is a level with no grime, no graffiti and none of the visual details that will make it really shine which are all added in later stages.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h2]Using MercerBot on Discord[/h2]
To support our 5000+ backers on the Trese Brothers Verified Discord Server, we’ve written a custom Discord bot, styled after the terrifying cyber-tactician, Max Mercer. To communicate with MercerBot, you can type commands into any Discord channel on our server but you can also use the dedicated channel just for messing around with bots, #bot_talk.

[h3]Cyber Knights Volunteers[/h3]
Volunteers are players interested in helping new players with advice or answer questions. You can become a Cyber Knights Volunteer using the commands “max!vol” to join, or the “max!unvol” to depart the group. Any user on the Discord server can mention the “@CKF Volunteer” role to ask for assistance with the Alpha Test, Discord or other community resources. We hope to have a sizable community of volunteers signed up by the time the game becomes publicly available so that these pro alpha players can help support the game and the community.


[h3]Cyber Knights Notifications[/h3]
You can sign up to receive Cyber Knights Notifications from the Trese Brothers team using the commands “max!subscribe” to join the list and “max!unsubscribe” to depart from it. We will mention the “@CKF Notification” role when we publish new Kickstarter updates, Alpha builds or social media posts we think are worth checking out.

[h3]Star Traders: Frontiers Volunteers[/h3]
Similar to Cyber Knights Volunteers, the server has a matching role for our previous Kickstarter, Star Traders: Frontiers. If you’d like to volunteer to provide support there, use the commands “max!vol_stf” to join, or the “max!unvol_stf” to depart the group. Any user on the Discord server can mention the “@STF Volunteer” role to ask for assistance with the game.

[h3]Twitch Notifications[/h3]
You can sign up to receive Twitch Stream Notifications from the Trese Brothers team using the commands “max!twitch” to join the list and “max!untwitch” to leave. We will mention the “@Twitch Notification” role whenever we go live on Twitch.

[h2]Stretch Goal Outfits: Milsec & Corporate[/h2]
You unlocked 3 different new outfit sets (street, military, corp) during the campaign’s funding run and we’re excited to share the second and third sets today -- milsec and corp!

First, the milsec pair features a lighter set of armor of the all-day, every-day security soldier. Eschewing some of the trappings of heavier armor, the military tactsuit design enables a mobile street soldier who needs to balance speed, carry and defense.


And then those fancy corps have dressed to kill, pushing the stylistic limits of 2231 to ensure they are wearing the blaziest blaze.



[h2]Backer Faces in 3D[/h2]
With all of the concept art now wrapped up for our Kickstarter backer’s faces, the 3D team is starting to migrate those faces into the pipeline and into the high poly sculpting phase. We’re very pleased to share the early results! These are, of course, earlier drafts but we can’t wait to see the entire crew in 3D glory.



[h2]Progress Bar[/h2]
As a rule we include the progress bar in every update. The changes with this update are to add the “3D” tag to the New Military and New Corp Outfit stretch goals as they have passed through their concept phase. If you have any questions about the current state of stretch goals or rewards, just post a comment on this update or drop us a message and we can help out!



Thank you for your on-going support! Be sure to Wishlist Cyber Knights: Flashpoint if you haven't yet.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1021210/Cyber_Knights_Flashpoint/

Knights!

The third quarter of 2020 is just around the corner and we are back to share the latest game dev news and highlight the backer rewards that are fast moving at the moment. As we get into the height of summer, we’ll be picking up the pace of updates a bit as there is going to be a lot coming together at once.

If you missed the last Update #31, we announced language pack support, debuted the snow leopard and the new Street Outfit stretch goal design.

Remember to hit that Wishlist button!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1021210/Cyber_Knights_Flashpoint/


[h2]Reactive, Dynamic Music/SFX[/h2]
In the last Kickstarter update, we announced that Cyber Knights: Flashpoint will be translated into multiple languages. A week later, we’re wrapping up another major upgrade to our music and SFX system. Part of our journey over the last 10 years has been working to always improve every aspect of our work with each new game. For those of you who have been with us for a while, you’ve heard this evolution as we have grown from buying $35 non-exclusive tracks, to $350 non-exclusive tracks and finally experiencing the joy of having our own custom composed soundtrack for Star Traders: Frontiers.

Today we’re excited to share another step beyond that -- we have upgraded to Wwise, a feature-rich AAA audio-middleware that provides interactive audio solutions for games. Working with our composers and sound designers at Studio Viking, we’re now rigging up the game’s soundtrack with unparalleled dynamics -- at least for us. The ability for the game’s music to dynamically reflect the state of the game is a huge step beyond a beautifully composed soundtrack. The game’s music will now react to different gameplay modes, playing and transitioning between different music as you are sneaking versus in combat versus fighting a boss. Even more awesome, within these different musical modes the music playing is no longer just looping tracks from the soundtrack but it will actually change, increase or reduce its tempo, add and remove musical elements and intensify as the threat level (of being discovered, of the boss, or of the fight at hand) increases or wanes.

Once we hit the stretch goals for Skyrise and Safehouse soundtrack expansions, we knew that it was time to take the next step up the evolution of game music and SFX. And here we are!


[h2]Legacy Campaign 1 of 2 Complete[/h2]
Last week we completed the final and 13th session of the first Legacy Edition campaign reward for @DrSpendLove and his crew. The conspiracy and its secrets, final betrayals, discoveries and nail biting choices played out to the very last minutes when a final calculating decision changed the lives of Yoss, his team and New Boston forever. The results of this first campaign are packed full of game story spoilers we are not willing to share yet. Their extensive campaign has set up one of the big conflicts that will feature in-game for New Boston in the year 2231. We look forward to the day where we can reveal more about the story arc they played, the choices they made and the impacts they had on the game.

[h2]Creator’s Edition Faces[/h2]
One of the largest creative reward sets we’ve been working to deliver is the concept art for over 50 backer faces. We’re excited to share a sampling of those unique and exciting creations today!


With this set nearly complete, the 3D modeling team has just started sculpting the first faces, so the next step will be coming soon.


[h2]First Exec Producers Recap[/h2]
We had a great meeting with the Executive Producers team last week to share the inner workings of the game's art design and process, how we have executed the project and the results we've been able to achieve. It was an exciting hour but we had so much to share we didn't cover half of it! We'll be scheduling more EP meetings with the team to finish up the art discussion, discuss major design and gameplay milestones and more!

[h2]Progress Bar Status[/h2]
With each update, we always include the Progress Bar report so the current status is nice and clear. Here is a quick summary of the changes with this update:

• We’ve marked 1/2 of the "Pen and Paper RPG" for the Legacy Edition rewards completed
  
• With the 3D team starting on the backer faces now, we've added the “3D” tag to the Creator Edition Faces reward
  

Knights!

It has been a little longer than we expected since the last update -- a month and 3 days -- but we’ve got a massive slew of news today including new artwork, the snow leopard reveal, exciting language pack plans, details about the first upcoming Exec Producers meeting, reward deliveries and more. We've got at least one more Kickstarter update scheduled before the end of June, so we'll keep the pace a little more snappy.

With that much to cover, let’s get going -- and remember to Wishlist now on Steam!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1021210/Cyber_Knights_Flashpoint/

[h2]Introducing the Snow Leopard![/h2]
Thanks to all of our backers, we unlocked cyber cats and the Assassin Job at the $225,000 stretch goal. Even better, we decided to unlock the additional cat breed from the $235,000 goal as well -- because, two cats are better than one! And then, in a run off between three possibilities, you voted for the Snow Leopard to be the additional cat breed.

And that leads us to today, where the concept art team -- led by some cat lovers! -- has delivered this amazing piece for the snow leopard design. What a beast! Clearly, this will not be an easy cat to find and recruit, but to have such a majestic animal at your Assassin’s side will never grow old.


[h2]Announcing Plans for Language Pack Support![/h2]
Since the close of the Kickstarter, we’ve been extremely busy building new engine components and adapting our workflows and content building systems for Cyber Knights. These are some major tasks that will set the foundation of Cyber Knights and include items like rewriting our UI toolkit and establishing a proper text management system within Unity.

Each of our future Kickstarter updates is likely to touch on the results of some of these major engineering tasks. Today, we’re excited to share our plans and progress for translating Cyber Knights: Flashpoint into many languages. Despite being only available in English, our previous game Star Traders: Frontiers has a large international fanbase and we’ve always hoped to be able to translate the game for those players. However, this is much easier when we have a fresh start and this Kickstarter and Cyber Knights has afforded us that opportunity.

We have not finalized our language list or exact system for how translations will be available; however, the engineering work has reached a point where we can commit to translating Cyber Knights: Flashpoint into multiple languages. During the alpha, we work with interested players within the community to help test out the full translation pipeline and provide some initial community-led translations. Depending on the success of those efforts we will further engage the community and bring in professional translation services as needed to complete the project.

While we can’t commit to specific language nor which languages might be available when the game launches on Steam, the UI toolkit is now ready to play and we’ll be keeping that support tested, polished and primed for translation throughout the entire game development cycle.


[h2]Stretch Goal Outfits[/h2]
There were 3 different new outfit sets (street, military, corp) unlocked as the project marched up its stretch goal ladder and we are excited to debut the first set today -- the street outfits. The corp and military additions will follow soon enough, but for today we’re looking over a street berserker and an all too cool bubble-gum popping street blade.



[h2]Forum Badges Delivered[/h2]
We have now completed the sweep of social rewards due for the project, with every backer who entered a forum username for either the backers badge or the alpha badge now tagged on our forum. For our alpha backers, this badge will grant you access to the private forum boards used for feedback, suggestions and bug reports during the alpha. Now is a good time to check your forum account and make sure you are a badged! If you want your Cyber Knights badge to be shown as your active group, you must set it to be your user’s display group under Edit Profile > Settings > Display Group.


[h2]First Exec Producers Meeting[/h2]
As the project has been picking up speed, we’re now preparing to sit down with our 22 Executive Producers ($1,000 reward or higher) and give them the first big behind the scenes look. This first meeting is focused on the game’s artwork and the process of visualizing, designing, drawing and then 3D modeling the Cyber Knights world -- not to mention putting it all into motion. The Execs will get a special tour of the process, the tools we use, and get a sneak peak look at a lot of the work-in-progress art as it stands.


[h2]Backer Pen & Paper Game[/h2]
When we last covered the pen and paper game for @DrSpendLove in our May update, we’d played the first four sessions of the campaign. Last night we played out the 13th and penultimate session with the final showdown looming inexorably over Yoss and his team. Some huge final choices have to be made and the consequences will ripple through New Boston and the game's story!

From where we last left Yoss, Cat, Shimmer and Lupin they dove straight into spoiler territory for the game. Their investigation led them through illicit gambling houses, corporate shadow banking and onto the trail of a secret shell corporation -- Nordic Financial Holdings Limited. “In these situations, you have to follow the money,” Shimmer said at the time. The Face’s quote has haunted them for the rest of the campaign.

The trail of money has led them through shell companies, to secret orbital communications relays, to the very top of the Matsumoto board and back down again into the dirty and bloody Los V streets of Ward 4. The trail of the money ran deep and they have peeled back layer after layer of a dizzying conspiracy until at last they saw how it all connected in Session #11. The deadly cat and mouse game has continued unabated, each side landing body blows as the team has destroyed both some key enemies and assets but have lost their safehouse, friends and limbs in the balance. The chips haven’t all hit the table yet and there are still more to fall.

[h2]Progress Bar Report[/h2]
With each update, we always include the Progress Bar report so the current status is nice and clear. With this update, the only change is to mark off the Forum Badges as now completed and to add the little "3D" icon to those assets that have their concept art completed and are now in the hands of the 3D modeling team.

Here is a swift summary, but see below for more details and art.

• All concept art for the stretch goals (dogs, drones, cats, outfits and environments) are in the hands of the concept team and most are in the review and tweak stage or completed.
  
• Our concept art team has completed 46 or the 55 heads turned in our backers and the concept art is getting reviewed, finalized and ready for 3D processing.
  
• We’ve completed 13 sessions -- almost 40 hours -- of the first reward pen and paper Cyber Knights campaign. We will play our last session next week and bring the campaign to its nail-biting conclusion. We will miss the weekly chance to visit New Boston -- it has been so much fun!
  

Knights!

We have a lot of exciting progress to share in this report, but we wanted to start with some gratitude. We’re counting ourselves lucky to have all of you with us during these difficult times. It has been only two months since the close of our Kickstarter but it feels like much longer than that. Our community is chatting and growing in our Official Verified Trese Brothers Games Discord Server so be sure to download Discord and register an account. As a backer,you’re entitled to VIP standing on the server, so type “max!addrole” to summon the MercerBot to gain your backer or alpha role. Hope to see you all there!

Recently, we were excited to sit down with an interview with a longtime mainstay in the gaming press -- Hardcore Droid -- whose team has covered our games since the beginning when we only made Android games. We hope you’ll check out the Hardcore Droid Interview with Trese Brothers where we talk about the game, the Kickstarter, the industry, our relationship brothers and co-creators and more.


[h2]Progress Bar Report[/h2]
With the last update 3 weeks out, we are excited to report some moving and shaking across the Progress Bar. Our schedule for rewards and stretch goals is split out into major groups (pre-Alpha, Alpha, and then the series of game market launches) and we are excited to say that all but one stretch goal and reward (waiting on Matrix Mk2) in the pre-Alpha grouping is now underway with the blue progress circle hovering by their names. The next exciting phase of this will start to see more of these items struck from the list completely finished.
Here is a swift summary, but see below for more details and art.

• All dogs, drones, cats, outfits and environments are now in the concept art phase or waiting with finished concept art to get pulled into the 3D production pipeline. This includes a number of stretch goals committed for delivery during the Alpha.
  
• We’ve turned over the first 20 references for backer’s 3D heads to the concept art team as well.
  
• We’ve completed 4 sessions -- about 11 hours -- of the first reward pen and paper Cyber Knights campaign. The story, connections and risks have intensified with each new session.
  

Outside of Kickstarter rewards and stretch goals, we’re making progress across the entire game. We’re deep in building out the UI kit, testing a new take on Talent cooldowns, tuning the mathematical models for the game’s stats and progression and adding more sophistication in combat, stealth and character animation. We’re pushing forward across the board!


[h2]Backer Pen & Paper Games[/h2]
Let the games begin! We have been extremely excited to sit down with Legacy Edition backer @DrSpendlove and his friends and spin an all new story in the world of Cyber Knights. Under the New Boston dome in 2230, the Cyber Knight Yoss and his team are extremely well positioned to impact the timeline and events of the game set in 2231. Cory and I have had an absolute blast so far running the campaign together as co-storytellers and we’re both on the edge of our seats to see what major decisions and characters will echo into Cyber Knights: Flashpoint’s storyline as this campaign continues to unfold.

First, let us introduce the team: Yoss the Knight, Shimmer the Face, Catalina the Gunslinger and Agent EX Lupin. And second, tell their story.

Arranged by their Fixer Razor, the team agreed to work for a Matsumoto scientist to steal a Crane Tech prototype. They targeted a vulnerable moment as the prototype was shipped across the city at a commercial hover hub. The heist was complicated by additional security and a megacorporate shake-up within Crane. Luckily, Cat was on overwatch with her Customized Jaguar AT and by the time it was over, her rifle’s suppressor was smoking and the hover transport was a mess, but it was secure. Inside the hover transport, the close-quarters combat was savage and over in seconds. The capture cost Lupe his arm to the cutting edge of his own nanowire whip, traded for the life of the enemy's security team captain. With the prototype stolen, they escaped back into the shadowy streets but complications continued as the Matsumoto scientist changes the plan again. After a few tense days of unexpectedly sitting on the prototype, they finally got the call and smuggled the mysterious item out of the dome and into Ward 4. With the real sky over their heads, they dodged Los V gangers and Shimmer’s past life on those mean streets. The clandestine delivery of the hot prototype ended at the scientist secret laboratory tucked away under an abandoned factory deep in the Ward. With Brave Star and a wrathful megacorp trying to close the net on them, they slipped back to their safehouse to let the heat blow over.

A few weeks passed before the Matsumoto scientist called again with a second job and even juicier pay. This time it’s was clear he had suddenly gained a new ally or boss with powerful connections in the Matsumoto military. The team signed up to help investigate a suspicious ransom-kidnapping by a no-name criminal syndicate, the Seven Dragons.

After digging into the story across rough Fenian territory, banking records and in the seedy gambling dens halfway between corporate and the streets the team believes they’ve uncovered an ugly truth -- that the kidnappers secretly work for Matsumoto and they are caught in an internal megacorp rivalry turned toxic.

With session #5 and #6 coming up this week, the waters are about to get a lot deeper!


[h2]Creator Edition: Character Faces[/h2]
Few things are more rewarding than seeing some of our backers joining the ranks of characters in the game. With the first 20 faces reference sets delivered to the concept team, the first finished faces started coming out of the pipe late last week. We’re thrilled to get feedback from our creators, and especially when it reads like this: “I absolutely love this, 100%! It came out so much better than I thought. ... You guys definitely have a top notch [art] team.”


[h2]2X Dog Stretch Goal[/h2]
Due to the avalanche of votes we received about the new dog breed, we committed to add two new dog breeds to the game -- both of our personal dogs. Each new breed will come with its own art, model, animations and abilities that can make it advantageous for your Hunder’s style. These are the first round drafts of the two dogs -- a support/sensory beagle and a fast attack shepherd. As the designs are pretty personal to us, we’re going through a set of revisions to tune them before they head to the 3D team. As with every aspect of the project, we're excited to share this progress!



[h2]Wishlists on Steam[/h2]
You’ve helped back us to create this amazing game. Now please help us get the word out by telling a friend of yours about the game you’re helping to create. Invite a friend or gaming community today to add Cyber Knights: Flashpoint to their Steam wishlist and ‘Follow’ the game. This will help the game build momentum for the inevitable Early Access Steam release to make Cyber Knights as successful as possible.

[h2]Streaming on Twitch[/h2]
You can find Cory (and sometimes Andrew) on the Trese Brothers Twitch where we are streaming game development, answering questions and talking about the studio Tuesdays and Thursdays at 4PM EST.

With 36 hours and counting left for our Cyber Knights: Flashpoint Kickstarter, we are sending out the "last chance" alerts and appeals to every fan. This campaign will close its doors permanently soon and if you haven't joined us we hope you will consider taking a look at the campaign!


If you enjoy the style that Trese Brothers brings to game dev, join us! We develop highly replayable and mechancially deep games with passion. We publish free updates and free expansion packs for life without any paid DLCs.

Pledge now to love the gamedev



In our last 36 hours, we're putting out the call to all cat lovers. If we can hit the $225,000 stretch goal, we will introduce a completely new stealth Job to the game and a completely new type of enhanced animal companion. For those cat lovers who have been requesting it, the Assassin and their cybercat are for you! A new animal companion would require new models, textures, a completely new feline animation rig done by our expert in animal animation, not to mention the new Assassin Job and companion rules to make sure the cybercat works and feels very differently than dogs and drones. Whew, that is a lot! The starting major differentiator for a cybercat’s is their surety in stealth as well as their singular one-to-one relationship with their human, where a single hunder may run a pack of multiple dogs.

Pledge now, for cats!



Cyber Knights: Flashpoint has been summarized as a cyberpunk XCOM -- and it is a great way to understand the core offering in just 2 words. However, this high level summary is missing all the details that make Cyber Knights so unique and exciting. The flexible stealth model, hacking against the enemy security system and gridless combat are all some of the ways the tactics map is different. Our mission heist system where you might bribe a cop and the management of a network of criminals from Yakzua to gang bosses to corrupt corporate agents are all some of the ways the strategic layer is different.

Pledge now for love of cyberpunk XCOM but more



Did you realize you can train a pack of cybered war dogs, pilot three drones at once or graft titanium to your skeleton and go full Wolverine with hand claws?

Pledge now for Wolverine!



We have only a few hours left, come take a look at our campaign and know that we're going to build the game with the same dedication and passion we brought to Star Traders: Frontiers.

Pledge now for Star Traders



Back the project today!
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/tresebrothers/cyber-knights?ref=dwqayq