Cyber Knights: Flashpoint News

Sometimes it feels like these late winter months go too fast. How is March over already!? It has been a very productive month with every team member hard at work on adding new features, creating exciting content, and polishing the game in preparation for the Alpha v2 return.

The biggest two internal projects - the UX implementation and L2 pipeline are chugging along. We’re definitely in the grind now, which is a heads-down “crunch” to the end but without the crazy overtime or deadline induced stress.

Another big month and a lot of progress - let’s check out some highlights!


[h2]New Game: Picking your Backstory, Origin Story and Team[/h2]
This month we’ve made big strides improving the new game setup for the Cyber Knight’s alpha. Where previously there were few options and every game started the same, we’ve now introduced three sets of choices which combine to create very different starting points for each game.

The first is your Backstory, which tells the story of your life before you reached this point. Were you raised on the unforgiving streets of the Wards under a radioactive sky, were you brought up in the plush luxury of a corporate tower preparing for your aptitude tests or trained up as a milsec contractor?
Your Backstory will define some of your initial Contacts when the game starts, your starting Attribute package and many of your character’s metadata tags describing their faction, connections, skills and more. There will be numerous backstory options.

The second choice is your Origin Story which answers the question of how you came to have a Cyber Knight’s quantum rider surgically and irrevocably spliced into your spine. The first Origin Story in the game will be Syndicate Debts, in which you and your friends have pulled together everything you had and taken a massive loan from a Syndicate financier to afford the installation of a Cyber Knight’s computer. The stretch goal “Valkyrie Zero” and the Kickstarter add-on “Horizon Cypher” are both Origin Stories. There will only be a handful of origin story options.

As well as explaining your new cybernetic, your Origin Story sets up one of the big story arcs for the first act of the game and this story will include a set of Contacts -- be they friends or enemies.

The final set of choices will be to pick your team from a list of available character templates. You’ll be filling up the slots for your team from a few locked slots -- your team needs a Face, a Vanguard and a Hacker -- as well as a few free slots -- your pick of Soldiers, Snipers, Cyberswords, another Vanguard, etc. There will be numerous character template options.

Each templated character you pick will have a starting name, character visual (both of which can be changed), their own Backstory, special starting equipment, optional cybernetics and at least one Contact that they know.

As a sum total -- your Backstory, Origin Story and team picks will give you a strong starting foundation for your covert merc team and aims to deliver on classic tabletop RPG feels -- you’ll have friends and enemies, faction connections, a variety of skills and abilities and trouble already knocking at your door.


[h2]Cont. L2 Mission Pipeline[/h2]
The L2 pipeline is going to roar onward from here for... well, possibly years from now. We’re working every day to design new levels, challenges, and improve and refine the ones we have while also beautifying everything. Levels are now assembling into awesome heist storylines full of surprises and complications and it's feeling great.

In a new and exciting development, we’ve added new tools for the level designers to be able to add, move, or remove key elements such as enemy spawning locations, patrol paths, security devices, and loot boxes in any map based on the storyline it is being played in. This is a huge boost in replayability for the levels; when combined with the existing ability to change entry, exit, and objectives based on the storyline, now these level spaces can be reconfigured to have completely different objectives, challenges, and rewards, such as a raid to steal loot, an escape route out of a heist, or a kidnapping mission, to name a few examples.



[h2]Cont. UX Implementation[/h2]
March saw major progress across the UX implementation project, we are now nearly complete with the mission map UX with only less than 10 items still kicking around needing attention and of course, some bug hunting to wrap up. That has allowed us to move on to the Matrix UX where progress has been rapid so far. The Matrix Mk2 HUD has taken shape, we’ve completed the addition of missing features for hack-only missions and we’re closing in on starting the big central node map which is the core of the work and the key part to beautify.

A very ugly WIP Hacking screen with some of the HUD elements replaced -- there are nice things starting to gather in the corners but the main of the screen is not pleasing

The final visual designs for the Safehouse screens are being handed off for review on a daily basis now, and we’re building up a growing style library of shared components that will help speed up the implementation once we get into the more menu-focused tasks in the safehouse.



[h2]Reward and Stretch Goal Progress[/h2]
For completeness, we include the progress bar infographic in each and every update. If you have any questions about rewards or stretch goals, check out the graphic or reach out to us.

We’re continuing to work on and refine the design of the Digital Artbook pages and push this reward toward completion.

We have also started work on the Lorebook in earnest now. It will be quite a process -- gathering the lore notes from many sources, paper and separate Google Docs from all these years working on this game world and pulling them together into a single, well-organized tome of lore.

We are excited to share February’s progress and development with you. The team has been hard at work ensuring that the game meets the high standards of Trese Brothers for quality, depth of systems, replay and world building story.

The UX project is moving along smoothly and the entire feel of the main stealth-and-fight mission gameplay is hugely improved. As reported last month, our level designers are working daily on the L2 Mission Pipeline to create compelling stories spread across impressively challenging and beautiful areas of New Boston.

Overall, it’s been another big month and we’ve made a ton of progress. Let’s take a spin through some of the highlights!

[h2]Alpha v2 Update[/h2]
In late February, we shared a private stream with the Alpha team to show off some of the finished progress, some of the work-in-progress and some things we are planning to work on in the coming months. This stream update really focused on the UI improvements to the game and the upgraded levels.

It was great to get together with the backers and get live feedback on what we've been working on. The new features that are bundled into the UX implementation got a lot of attention and positive vibes from the crew.


[h2]Cont. UX Implementation[/h2]
The UX implementation project is continuing -- it’s big and will go on for months now. Critically it includes major feature improvements, so it is not just a reskinning. The gameplay aspects -- easy of play and quality of feedback/hints presented to the player -- are improving dramatically with the project, all of which are key to providing the strategic planning experiences of a heist that is so key to Cyber Knights: Flashpoint.

We are closing in on finishing the main mission map changes and the next step will be to tackle the Matrix.


[h2]Cont. L2 Mission Pipeline[/h2]
The L2 pipeline is roaring along daily. New stories are assembling and each demands that the levels it needs sign up with their 17-point checklist, ready to be reviewed in depth. In this L2 pass on levels, we’re focusing heavily on quality in every single level, being really picky and turning on our perfectionist cyber-eyes. It is paying off!


[h2]Improving Controller and Keyboard Support[/h2]
The Alpha included enough control binding features and basic support for controllers for us to test what we needed, but it was far from finished. This month we have implemented a system we call control glyphs that are capable of representing any bound control in Cyber Knights: Flashpoint. A glyph could be a keyboard key, a controller axis, a complex multi-key binding with modifiers or mouse click. The controller glyphs can communicate the accurate glyph for your controller, mouse or keyboard and blend into a game’s overall UX. It has not been a simple feat to get the game to display your customized keyboard bindings, hot swap those to controller bindings based on your type of controller or handheld -- XBox controller, Dual Shock, Steam Deck or Nintendo Switch -- and back again if your hands wander back to the keyboard and mouse.

Ignore our ugly controller glyphs, the nice ones are coming!

In February, we have cracked this one as one of the last major hurdles in first class controller support for the game. As part of the UX reimplementation project, we’re also streamlining controls, simplifying the way controllers work and reducing overlap between bindings.

[h2]Reward and Stretch Goal Progress[/h2]
For completeness, we include the progress bar infographic in each and every update. If you have any questions about rewards or stretch goals, check out the graphic or reach out to us.
We’re continuing to work on and refine the design of the Digital Artbook pages and push this reward toward completion.

This month passed fast! With Alpha updates on pause and the workshop doors locked up tight, the entire team has been heads down working madly on everything from technical memory management to visual effects and level polish.

As we arrive in 2023, there are now 7 team members working on Cyber Knights: Flashpoint across design, coding, UX, animation and level design - so let’s take a spin through some highlights of the month!

As the team grows, so do the branches in our source code control

[h2]UX Implementation[/h2]
We’re excited to have welcomed a new Unity engineer who is focused on the UX implementation to the project in December. With his help, we’ve been accelerating the conversion of the UX to the new design, adding UI features and improving the data flow to the player and also making it look great.



Still the project is massive - spanning the tactical mission map, Matrix Mk2 hacking and the safehouse with all of its interconnected systems. This is no small mountain to climb! The final piece -- the extensive set of safehouse wireframes -- just entered the final stages of visual design last week. However, the results are looking awesome; the design includes considerations for controllers and multiple screen sizes (TV, PC, mobile). We are getting nearer to completing the implementation of all the tasks for the main tactical mission map which would be an exciting milestone.



[h2]L2 Mission Pipeline[/h2]
Throughout 2022, the level design team planned, designed and crafted over 70 levels (fun fact: that’s more than in our previous squad tactics game, Templar Battleforce). These levels were brought up to the playable stage and many of them were loaded into the game in the Alpha’s “Mission Playtest” menu while others have just been played by the internal team.

At the start of January, we engaged the “L2” mission pipeline. This second pass on level design includes a review of each level’s themes and its location within New Boston, integrating the level into the larger scene and surroundings, final level lighting, volumetrics and VFX, a close review of the level’s security, matrix and reinforcement flows, and finally optimization and performance testing.



In addition to all these improvements, during this phase levels are also being plugged into story missions — finalizing its scripting, special cut-scenes, complications and secondary objectives.
We’re in a good place with levels; the L1 pipeline, with thanks to all of our alpha players’ feedback, has produced a vast trove of well-constructed “raw material” for this L2 pipeline to refine. Now that the L2 pipeline is up and running, it will keep running straight through Steam Early Access, loading more and more content into the game.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
[h2]Fuzzier Stealth[/h2]
Stealth mechanics are tough! They’ve been getting better throughout the Alpha as we’ve soaked up the feedback from our players, studied other greats in the genre and worked hard to figure out how to achieve the right feeling in Cyber Knight’s turn-based gameplay.

Our latest improvements makes our stealth systems “fuzzier,” adding much-needed padding to the concept of being spotted by the enemy. This style of AI alertness is used by some of the best stealth games in the genre and has greatly improved the feel for Cyber Knight’s stealth. Where previously, a single raycast from a mile away could get you spotted by an enemy (so frustrating!) being spotted is now a function of your distance from the enemy and the exact time exposed to the enemy’s view. The farther you are away, the longer you need to be in their view to be well-and-truly spotted.
This creates a few key scenarios that didn’t exist before -- (1) if you dodge between some crates at a distance from the enemy, they might not see you or they might just become Suspicious and investigate that area (2) if you’re in a decent hiding spot and the AI moves past you, sweeping over you with their sight cone, you need to be in a more exposed position to be truly spotted.

This gives all your mercenaries more room to wiggle in the stealth system, which is important. Starting mercs also now all come with stealth weapons equipped (silenced pistols, silenced SMGs, blades) and even classes like Soldier now have at least one stealth-capable Talent in their class tree.
Going hand-in-glove with these improvements is the upgrade to the UI to warn players about detection when they are planning their movements. Removing the guesswork from moving in stealth changes the nature of the gameplay, rarely are you now failing stealth due to a simple mistake (“Ah crap, I shouldn’t have run that close”) or miscalculation (“I didn’t think he’ll patrol that way!”) but instead as a forced sacrifice (“I’m out Talent charges and time, I have to run for it”) or due to a strategic planning failure (“I shouldn’t have split the Vanguard off the other way...”).

Basic bounds help keep the game camera in the playable area - there is a heist here, pay attention ;P

[h2]Continued Alpha Pause; a Fresh Start Coming[/h2]
We’re continuing our pause on alpha updates for now, aiming for an “Alpha V2” fresh start that will give you a big package of improvements and new content all at once. When the time comes to resume the Alpha, we want to get every Alpha player back to the game for a big V2 hurrah and playtesting bash as we march to Early Access.

Everyone who’s participated so far has given us a ton of great feedback, bug reports, playthrough data to work with. So hang tight for now; when we welcome you back it’ll be to a game that’s taken a big leap forward, and your feedback will be that much more valuable in determining any changes we still need to make before launching to EA.

[h2]Creative Surveys Closed[/h2]
Per the deadline we shared in November, all created reward surveys (except Encode Your Legend, which is not yet available) have now closed. If you have any questions, we’re in the #backers channel in our Discord to help.

[h2]Reward and Stretch Goal Progress[/h2]
For completeness, we include the progress bar infographic in each and every update. If you have any questions about rewards or stretch goals, check out the graphic or reach out to us.
We’ve completed about half of the pages that are planned for the Digital Artbook, including character, faces and cybernetic concept art and are working toward wrapping up that project.

Wow, what a year! Cyber Knights: Flashpoint launched into its alpha phase January 4th, 2022. It’s such a natural time to reflect on everything that’s happened in Cyber Knights this year and to look forward to the next year.

So, let’s do it!


[h2]1 Year of Building With Our Alpha Backers[/h2]
A scroll back through this year’s monthly updates will show you just how many milestones we’ve hit since starting the alpha. Players have helped us shape nearly twenty heist levels, over 100 class talents and hacking programs and a good 75% of the game’s intended features at launch.

Alpha players’ feedback & gameplay have led us to add a few new features to game as well. Some have been small but fun, like being able to hurdle fences. Other additions have been more core to what makes Cyber Knights unique, like the pre-heist legwork system that allows you to build your relationship with contacts, earn pre-mission advantages, and flesh out storylines taking place beyond the tactical gameplay.

On the tactical maps, feedback from the alpha has led to numerous quality-of-life changes and a major revamp of the combat/weapon rules, helping us iterate the gameplay to its most-fun.
We even got the chance to make a public stealth & combat demo available on Steam a couple of times this year, particiapted in the first TactiCon and were featured in the PAX East Rising indie showcase (an interview from the PAX floor is included below).

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h2]Current Content Pause; a Fresh Start Coming[/h2]
Now, during the months of December and January, we’re holding off on Alpha updates so we can integrate a few overhauls too large to roll out incrementally.

We’re aiming to resume regular updates in a month or so, with a big package of changes and new content for the game. It’ll be a fresh starting point for all Alpha players, a chance to come back and check out the latest and greatest with revamped core systems and a fresh UX and one of the last major milestones on our way to Steam.

[h2]The Road to Launch[/h2]
This is the year Cyber Knights is coming to you and to Steam! Upfront, we want to let you know it’s not going to be this quarter. The wide scope of the UX & design project has turned out to be a much more extensive process than we anticipated – the payoff in how intuitive and enjoyable the game’s deep, complex systems will be immense, but it does take time to create, iterate, and get right across the entire game.

Although that’s taking more time than we anticipated, it is going very well. As you’ve hopefully seen in the previews we’ve shown, we’re feeling this will be the best-designed Trese Brothers game to date.

Wireframe design for pre-heist planning

Visual design of mid-mission status page

Wireframe of the Knight's revamped class tree

Another area that has expanded beyond our initial projections is the iterations on the stealth systems and related enemy AI improvement. We set quite a challenge for ourselves creating a game that seamlessly mixes tactical combat, stealth and hacking into one mission experience. Getting the balance right of just one of these pillars is hard enough. It’s been essential for us to spend extra time on in the alpha on stealth, increasing the variety of security device challenges, making sure enemy units behave intelligently and convincingly as they hunt for your team, and tweaking stealth so that it feels fair and fun is a broad balancing act.

We’re not ready to share the specific launch timeline yet, but we will continue to keep you updated here and in Discord as we close in on it. We know you want the game; as a small indie studio I can’t tell you how much we want to hurry up and release it! 😅 But the game only gets a single launch. That launch significantly impacts its lifetime success & future, and so we’re making sure the game we deliver is the game that’s ready for you to have a blast with.

[h2]An Update on Our Team in Ukraine[/h2]
With all of the hype for this game’s UX quality and while looking at the progress behind and ahead, we need to take a moment to mention our amazing art & design partners based in Ukraine.

It’s now over 10 months that Ukrainians have had to defend their country from Russian invasion & bombardment, enduring loss and horrific war crimes with perseverance and determination. While so many of us enjoy the escape and entertainment of games in the warm safety of our own countries, people just like us are dealing with tremendous hardship and worse so that we can have that luxury.

We continue to stand in support of our colleagues and peers and ask that you do the same. Project HOPE, Direct Relief, and The Kyiv Independent are all worthy non-profits our team has donated to and recommended. Most of our colleagues are relatively safe in Lviv at the moment, though Russia continues to target energy infrastructure across the country to try and create a winter of suffering. Even with everything going on in their lives, these folks regularly go above and beyond for us; we really hope that soon this year their country will be able to return to peace.

[h2]Creative Surveys Closed[/h2]
Per the deadline we shared in November, all creative reward surveys (except Encode Your Legend, which is not yet available) have now closed. If you have any questions, we’re in the #backers channel in our Discord to help.

[h2]Reward and Stretch Goal Progress[/h2]
For completeness, we include the progress bar infographic in each and every update. If you have any questions about rewards or stretch goals, check out the graphic or reach out to us.
We have continued to work on the Digital Artbook and are cutting new pages weekly.

Another month! The last quarter of the year always goes by in a flash. During November, we’ve had a special focus on wrapping up the UX design process, implementing lessons we’ve learned throughout the alpha process and adding new storyline content to the game.

There are always way too many dev milestones to list them all here, but let’s check in on a few!



[h2]UX Design Goes Safehouse[/h2]
The UX design phase is beginning to truly wind down as our implementation phase is rapidly ramping up. We have a huge amount of UI work to do to make the game as beautiful and flowy as the designs but it is going to be very worth it. Most recently, the UX design time has been focused on the Safehouse and here are some of the latest drafted wireframes (not the visual design, just design of elements, spacing, organization, flow -- that is, this is not intended to be beautiful at this stage).

Cleaning out your safehouse for expanded operation

Shopping and comparing weapons

It's just Business with Origami Joe, an underworld contact

Planning your next heist

A plan comes together - paying bribes, calling in favors, running legwork and more

[h2]New Storylines[/h2]
The game is growing daily and is a voracious beast for more content. Storylines, recruits, and new maps are coming online as fast as we can handle them. We’re very excited to be passing through some major milestones and assembling the most complicated story and heist content yet this month.
November saw the addition of a new “Deaddrop” storyline from your Gun Runner and if the month had another day or two left in it, November would also see the “Carnivore” storyline about a corrupt cop (the update is in final tweaks and testing now...). The “Undercutter” storyline can proc with a friendly Gun Runner who pitches you a hard to beat one-time deal to acquire a powerful E-Rifle weapon (more below).

These new storylines are also seeing your squad’s Face coming into their own as a powerful player in the strategy and story layer. The team's Face now appears prominently in your Roster, can access their Training and cannot multi-class. The Face is your team's negotiator, fixer and voice on the comms during missions. Their special skill tree is dedicated to the strategy layer and has no tactical abilities on it. In this new storyline, you'll have the option to use your Street-focused "Razor Bargain" ability to force the best deal even if it cuts a bit too deep. The new “Carnivore” storyline will introduce and see the first use of Milsec-focused “Hardliner” ability.

The old UI is functional but not great or pretty
[h2]E-Rifles and IO-Chargers[/h2]
One of the latest storylines added introduces the first chance to get your hands on an E-Rifle. This hi-tech class of weapons are mid-ranged armor melters with limited full auto capability (3 shots) and a penchant for Pure Damage and killing drones. However, E-Rifles have a limited number of reloads on a mission (all stages of the mission, not just one) so carrying one is a known trade-off and puts a lot of weight on your other weapon to work in more situations than not.

Tagging along with this new type of limited-ammo weapon, the new IO-Chargers went up for sale at your local Gun Runner which shakes up the item meta for Cyberswords and anyone planning to carry E-Rifles. The IO-Charger is a mobile battery unit capable of filling the current ammo bar of your weapon. For a blade with an IO-Batt, this completely recharges the blade and enables you to use another round of Talents which rely on these critical charges. For an E-Rifle or any other reload-limited weapon, the IO-Charger will refill the current ammo bar only. If you have 2/3 reloads for the E-Rifle, you can empty the first magazine and then reload it with IO-Charge to stay at 2/3 reloads.

For anyone carrying a blade (Cybersword or not!) or an E-Rifle, an IO-Charger is very likely to be a requirement in your limited item carry.


[h2]Alpha Lessons: Downed becomes Bleeding Out[/h2]
We’ve learned so much over the 11 months of the alpha and are constantly reapplying that learning back to systems, features and content in the game. In November we had time to come back to an important system - what happens when one of your characters takes a deadly hit. Previously in the Alpha, this would knock you into a “Downed” state that required healing before you could take action again (you could heal yourself). We heard a lot from the alpha player about the reasons this wasn’t fun and were excited to roll out the new Bleeding Out rules this month. If you take a hit that would potentially kill you (reaching 0 HP), you get a surge of HP (up to 30% of your total) but also a nasty debuff, naturally called Bleeding Out. As soon as you receive any healing, Bleeding Out is purged.

Bleeding Out costs you 20 HP a Turn and will kill you if you are not healed - it is only a matter of Turns. The debuff also slaps you with a -2 AP and -2 MP penalty but most importantly allows you to take any action or use any Talent. You can run, shoot, Overwatch or throw a grenade. Our mercs go down fighting, thank you very much. Fun!

But consider healing yourself quickly or calling an ally for help -- if you take another wound that brings you to 0 HP while you are Bleeding Out, you roll your Death Save and are likely to die (see your chosen Difficulty here).

[h2]Creative Surveys Deadline[/h2]
We have set a deadline for the completion of the creative reward surveys. We will be sending a private Kickstarter update next to be sure everyone sees this.

Throughout 2022, we have sent out Google Forms surveys to collect information for your Kickstarter rewards. Depending on your backer tier, you will have received naming surveys, recruitable character surveys, and/or Ally, Villain, and Heist surveys. If you have not received a survey, you believe you should have, please message us here, email [email protected] or reach out to Liviana on Discord so we can make sure you get them.

We want to do everything we can to make sure that your characters and stories are integrated into the main story beats of CKF as much as possible. To ensure this can occur, we will be closing all of these surveys at the end of the year 2022. If you have not yet filled them out, please do so before the end of the year. If you have any questions about how to fill out the surveys, did not receive your surveys via email, or need clarification on what we are looking for, please email [email protected] or contact Liviana on Discord.

This deadline does not include Encode Your Legend reward which has not yet been started and is slated for 2023.

[h2]Reward and Stretch Goal Progress[/h2]
For completeness, we include the progress bar infographic in each and every update. If you have any questions about rewards or stretch goals, check out the graphic or reach out to us. We’re continuing to work on Digital Artbook Assembly.