Void Crew News

Hello Ectypes!

This is our fifth “Space Log”, where we share what we are doing and some of the things we are currently working on for Void Crew.

Void Crew is in Early Access, which means we have looooads of things we still work on. It also means that sometimes we are experimenting on features as well as balancing, and with the help of feedback from you all in the Void Crew Community, to keep improving the game.
… with the goal of making it a great and fun co-op action experience.

So, let’s get on with it:


I’m Daniel, the Creative Director for Void Crew.

Since the launch, we’ve gotten a TON of great feedback, both in how we can improve the game but also what works. Adjustments have been made, and we see needs we didn’t see before.

To align the future with the vision, I do catch myself thinking back to the original inspiration: Being part of a crew aboard a spaceship, headed into the unknown with friends, trying to make the best out of the equipment at hand and sparse resources - all while facing menacing odds. But just the same, it’s all about players creating their own (chaotic) adventure [to share].

As I reflect on the journey of developing Void Crew, I'm struck by the myriad of iterations and the rich tapestry of learnings each one brought. It's a humbling thought, knowing that if we had the wisdom of hindsight, our decisions might have been different.

So let’s open up a bit and talk about where we are headed. I do think it’s important to remember where we came from, and therefore carve out a clearer future for Void Crew.

This article will reflect some of my thoughts on our roadmap, core design concepts and feedback we’ve gotten since our launch into Early Access in September last year.



Embracing Early Access was a pivotal moment for us, and perhaps one of our wisest decisions. Yet, the path was not without its trepidations. From a developer's perspective, the prospect was (and still is) daunting. We were acutely aware of the bugs that needed squashing and the polish that the game was yet to receive. The real challenge, however, lay in the vulnerability of opening up, a significant leap for someone who cherishes their introverted sanctuary.

The upside, however, was amazing - just seeing people playing and having a blast, creating fan art, asking lore questions, reporting bugs, requesting features and more… to see the community grow and forming groups to play is just indescribable.

Some very condensed takeaways from the community include freedom of setting up your ship (hint: Stay tuned for our upcoming update!), adjustment to the progression/game loop, and also looking into our co-op mechanics, which we’ll dive into in a second.


Void Crew is anchored in three fundamental pillars:

• Co-op Gameplay
  
• Tactile Mechanics
  
• Epic Space Battles
  

[h2]Co-op Gameplay[/h2]
The heaviest pillar IMHO, and the heart of our vision lies in the co-op experience, where the synergy between players elevates the adventure to epic proportions - and more than anything, we want the game to tell your story!*

While adding more players does indeed introduce an element of fun, our journey through Early Access has highlighted the potential for deeper, more meaningful co-op play, hell, I’d even call it social play, that we have yet to fully explore.

Stories can occur by themselves in sandbox environments, but very sandbox-y games tend to put the responsibility of fun on the players themselves - I think a lot of those kinds of players would probably have equally as much fun in a literal sandbox! So being a small team, it’s clear that our strategy is to create sandbox elements, and then have mechanics and balancing revolve around creating situations and conflicts that force players to cooperate. And then making a bit of fun with it and celebrating what we call “Happy Accidents”.

An early model we used was that slow, progressive pressure would eventually break any cooperation and communication down and Ectypes would start to make costly mistakes. Being an Early Access game, this balance is hard to maintain as we are still shuffling things around, but it is something we are constantly aiming for.

Little fact: In the beginning we tried to use mechanics that “sabotaged” players cooperatively (think “Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes”), but we found that we didn’t need to … players would eventually mess up by themselves! (yes, partially thanks to the increased pressure model I mentioned earlier).

Moving forward, I do see us spending more time digging into the player mechanics, and how they could create fun situations that have some interplay with other systems. In the realm of examples, we recently did a prototype of “space swimming”, yes, it makes very little sense**, but grants just a tiny bit of control if you get blown out the airlock or lose gravity in your ship (due to an unsanctioned Void Jump).

* This does include the lone wolf’s solo runs as well!
** We could argue that suits have micro-air-exhausts, auto-released in case of panic movement…

[h2]Tactile Mechanics[/h2]
Our tactile interface allows players to interact with the game world through intuitive controls, like pressing buttons, flipping levers, and deploying gadgets. The game revolves around this living entity that is your spaceship - even though it’s an advanced piece of technology, it still needs to be operated manually as each system is isolated. The Ectypes (the players), are the meaty vessels that spread the word of METEM and they do so with their very own hands - limiting as liberating, it protects the ship from the dangers of relying on electronics and automation for survival. A mechanical race like the HOLLOW would surely seize such opportunity if it was otherwise.

[h2]Epic Space Battles[/h2]
These mechanics set the stage for thrilling confrontations with foes, eager to turn your space vessel into cosmic dust. We present things that challenge players, creating the canvas in which players can be tested as a crew, and overcome these obstacles if they work together.

It’s easy to categorize this pillar as all about new enemies, new objectives and more wrecks to explore, but it’s also about how to make players feel like being part of the battle. For example, we had a tactical screen at some point, where players could get a kind of radar-top-down-perspective of things. I admit, it was a darling

All in all, Void Crew is in Early Access, which means the game is not done yet!

We want to do more on several aspects, especially making an even stronger co-op experience, and more “drama”/ “happy accidents”. Plus of course better stability and ironing out bugs. It also means the roadmap is living and might be adjusted as we get more and more feedback.

We have some pretty neat ideas we can’t WAIT to share more detailed with you, but right now, at the moment of writing, we are wrapping up an exciting Update 3, which - spoiler alert - includes Elite enemies, more module and weapon marks, improved lootboxes, collectable Codex-lore entries, the experimental “Freedom” ship loadout and maybe even some Valentine’s special stuff!

Oh, and more stuff we want to try out that completely unbalances stuff we probably shouldn’t have … but, it’s a game in Early Access after all!

In other words, we are working hard on the further development of Void Crew, and with all the great feedback we have gotten and still getting (hint hint, keep sharing!), our goal is to make Void Crew the greatest Co-op Space Action Adventure out there!
If you have thoughts, then head over to our discord and share your ideas in the Feedback channel :)

Until the next rambling ...
[h3]Metem Preserve You![/h3]

// Daniel, Creative Director
Hutlihut Games

* End goal, of course, being THE GAME that you and your friends keep coming back to for more epic space adventures :)

Hello, my ectypes!

This last Thursday we had our usual Dev Stream, with a special guest; we were joined by Spoony, that has been supporting us since CBT weekend. With more than 400h played, a Lego Ectype created by his son (you remember our post about it?) and loads of questions for us, we were very excited to have him, and had loads of fun playing together.

Watch the Highlights video here (including most of the questions we answered during the stream):
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

If you want to watch the full stream, you can do that here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kfv81_Lxe_Y

We're also adding a written version of the questions that were answered during the stream, to make the information more accessible for everyone!

[h3]Why can't we just upgrade the guns, or build tier 2 crates on the Fabricator without having to relay on loot?[/h3]
You can't see it, but under the hood the fabricator has received sort of a data structure update which will also allow it to be responsive to perk choices. The idea was that some of the perk choices will give you the ability of fabricating better stuff right out of the gate (while still keeping the sense of progression during the game).

[h3]Gene Tree/Perks rework[/h3]
When we do the perk tree rework, things like the above will make your choice of perks a more conscious decision. This rework isn't coming next patch, but we've been talking a lot about how we want to rework perks into you having a limited amount of points, but being able to spend those points in all classes the way you want. That's something we want to do.

[h3]Insane difficulty[/h3]
We've heard that Insane difficulty was much harder before we changed it; we looked at the completion rates for the current Insane difficulty and found them too high for what we intend. So we're actually looking at making Insane... insane again!

[h3]Wormholes/Blackholes... how is that going to be implement and how will they affect the game?[/h3]
The Astral Map got a bit of an overhaul - we laid objectives secuentially from left to right to give more of a sense of where you are going during your Pilgrimage. With the addition of the wormholes, after you pass a certain amount of jumps you'll be able to get to a wormhole. It will appear a bit like optional objectives, but it will somehow indicate that it's maybe a time-limited thing, or maybe something you have to "earn access" to unlock.

The original idea for the shards that go into the Astral Map was always that they'd be like navigation data, but then we ended up doing a lot of different things with them, because it made sense. But we really want to look into introducing this concept of actually unlocking a place that you haven't had on the map up until that point. The data shards will potentially be the thing that unlocks the jump coordinates for the wormhole.

And then, once you get into the wormhole, you'll face a boss or some kind of encounter - something that is at least as intense as an interdiction. Something that has stages and requires some degree of cooperation. It's an opt-in challenge that will be very difficult, so you might want to save it for when your run is going very good, or at least you've gone through a few objectives and have the ship well-equipped (and the hull not totally hammered!). We're looking at all the classics for how to design a good boss encounter! We want to see if we want to challenge our players.

[h3]Have you thought about increasing crew player limit?[/h3]
We have, and we have not. We obviously talk about it internally, but the moment we are balancing for bigger numbers we're also taking on the responsibility of making the game function for that many players.

So we're keeping it to 2-4 players for the co-op experience, and then solo players also get a bit of separate balancing love - with The Lone Sentry loadout, but also actually the spawn rules are quite different when you play the game solo. There's actually things that simply cannot happen if you're playing as a solo player.

Can the game handle it? Well, going by what the modding community is achieving, it seems that superficially it definitely can. But gameplay-wise, the game at all times assumes there's not more than 4 players in a session.

[h3]Will there be different designs of ships?[/h3]
Yes! We don't have a third ship planned yet, so it's not "in sight" at the moment, but we know that we want to do more ships. Our data structure is intact for that, so we consider it part of our content pipeline for the future.

[h3]Lore-wise... who are the good guys?[/h3]
On the next patch we'll be expanding on the lore! You'll be able to find lore shards that you can insert in the Astral Map, and they'll unlock hidden entries in the Codex. That should shine a light on what's going on both in terms of the history of the universe, and Metem fixing the whole thing.

[h3]When is Controller Support coming?[/h3]
It's literally being worked on at the moment. We don't have a date yet, but we're on it!

[h3]When are the next updates more likely to come?[/h3]
That's always a risky question! We're closing in the next update, so while we can't give specific dates... it shouldn't be too long!

[h3]Lootboxes: Legendary Lootboxes not giving special stuff, duplicates, etc.[/h3]
Right now, the current Legendary Lootboxes are called "legendary" because their loot pool extended into the epic and legendary items. You can't get those items from a common lootbox, but you can get common items from Legendary boxes.

The new lootboxes (coming next patch) will be more in line with how Overwatch 1 lootboxes worked: the box can sample from an entire loot pool, and depending on how the roll was it will try to give you something of that rarity. And if you already have that, it will try harder to not give you a duplicate inside that rarity. It also has this thing where if you roll an epic item and you already own every epic item from that loot pool, it will go down to rare items and check if there's something there you don't own yet. After running some simulations, this system seems to be quite efficient at filling out your cosmetic's collection.

We're dicussing several improvements to lootboxes. At the end of the day, they should be a "feel good" element, so we have to get them to a point where they feel good. And everyone, including us, agree that duplicates don't really feel good.


[h3]And that's all for today[/h3]
Thanks to those that offered feedback about the streams and how they'd like both the streams and the highlights videos to be more about discussing the future of the game. We want to keep improving for the community!

Have a great weekend, and as always...
[h2]Metem preserve you![/h2]

With love,
The Hutlihut Games team

Hello, ectypes!

This is Thomas, I’m a Sound Designer working on Void Crew!

There have been some questions from the community about some interesting sources for the sound. Also, some of you have asked whether the ship is alive or organic.

I think I can answer that by sharing a bit more about the sound design direction we have taken for Void Crew, with some examples!





From the beginning, one of the main ideas was that the ship should be perceived as almost a living thing. After all, the ship cannot function without the Homunculus inserted into the Central Computer Cradle. It is the heart and the brain of our ship!

Also, most of the actions in the game must be performed manually (fixing the hull breaches, trimming the engine, charging the thruster boosters, fixing the circuit breakers etc.), which makes us less vulnerable to being hacked by Hollows.

This synergy between technology and biology (widely adopted by Metem) is an important and distinctive element of our game and its identity.

In order to support and emphasize that idea, we wanted the sound to be not only sci-fi, but also in a sense primal and animalistic.

To achieve this, besides the typical sounds of machines and sci-fi technology, we often use various animal sounds in the sound creation process, and sometimes even support the sound effects with our own voice.




[h2]Let’s start with the sound for Engine Trim Points[/h2]
For those of you who haven’t played our game yet - Trim Points appear all over the ship during the game and players use them to recalibrate the ship’s engines.

Simply said - those are debuffs to the propulsion system. If you accumulate too many of them, the ship’s speed will be severely reduced.

Usually I work on the sound when at least some visuals (models, animations) or gameplay prototypes are done, but in this case I started with just the gameplay design ideas provided by one of our designers.

The idea was clear enough (handles used by players to fix/calibrate the ship), so I could start working on the sound palette - the sounds I want to have at hand later, when I know a bit more about the thing that needs the sound.

At this stage I pick the interesting and fitting sounds from the sample library, record some sounds myself, create some sounds from scratch using synthesizers or experiment a bit with the sound processing (effects) that I want to use later. It doesn’t mean I never do those things later in the process - I often do, but it helps to have something prepared in advance.

When the models and animations were ready, I could proceed - I knew how long the animation would be, so I could pick and edit the sounds that worked and felt best for the particular valves and levers.

It is also very important to define exactly how a player can interact with the object. This determines how I need to structure the sound, so it can be implemented properly and so it feels best during the interaction. Here are some questions that needed to be answered for the Engine Trim Points:

• Will the whole animation play when the button is clicked? (in our case - no)
  
• Will the animation play only when the button is pressed? (yes!)
  
• What happens when you release the button during animation? (animation reverses)
  
• What happens when you click the button again during the reverse? (the animation continues from the point when the button was clicked)
  
• Does the animation have some kind of auto-completion point? (yes, it auto-completes)

With those, I decided to split the sound to 2 stages:

1. Interaction (the sound that plays when player starts to interact with the lever)
   
   • Supports communicating to the player, that the interaction takes place
2. Interaction Complete (finishing part of the sound)
   
   • Communicates to the player that the interaction is successful and finished
     
   • Also stops the Interaction sound, if the player resumed the interaction/animation after releasing the button during the animation

However, if the interaction is not interrupted, you most probably won’t be even aware there were 2 separate sounds (stages) playing.

Also, I usually design the sounds to the whole animation, but knowing that separation will be needed helps to group the sounds appropriately.

And here’s how the whole thing sounded for all the Engine Trim variants:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

If you've used the Engine Trim Points in the game, you may notice that the sounds are a bit different from what we have in the game.

That, in the video above, was the first version, which was just mechanical. It was ok, but we felt it was missing something. It was a bit too raw and it didn’t bring as much connection between the player and the interaction, as we wanted it to.

We needed it to sound like there’s something more happening inside of what we’re repairing/calibrating.

For the next iteration, I added some animal sounds, so it could feel deeper, richer, more satisfying and more…alive! Unusual sources include sounds of tigers, toads, camels and various growls.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h2]Circuit Breakers[/h2]
Another similar example, my personal favorite, is the sound of fixing the Circuit Breaker.

When modules in the ship draw too much power, the ship’s power core can get overloaded. Circuit Breakers act as a safeguard against critical overload, but if all are used up, the next overload will shut down the ship, and eject the Homunculus from the Central Computer Cradle.

It also combines sounds coming from both worlds (mechanical and animalistic).

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h2]Recuser Beamcaster[/h2]
Now a weapon example, also a little spoiler of what’s coming in the upcoming update!

As we develop the game, we want to continue to add upgrade paths to our modules. Soon you will be able to upgrade your Recuser Beamcaster to MK2 and MK3!

For that, we added some extra animalistic sound layers in higher MKs for that weapon.

Weird sources include the sounds of leopards, lions, walruses and… me!

I did some recordings of me growling into the microphone. Then that recording got cleaned up, slowed/pitched down, I added some effects and glued it together with other animal layers.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h2]Elevators: Before & After[/h2]
Let’s finish off with a quick comparison of before and after, for our Elevators (the air tubes in the Destroyer and in the Hub)!

Previously, the sound was just airy. We felt there is more potential there, and it could sound more like some kind of alien, mystic and primal technology, maybe like travelling through the ship’s throat :)!

I found an atmospheric-ambience-windy sound in my library, that, when sped up, sounded like some eerie breathing. The file name suggests that some elements of this sound may come from baboon recordings. I adjusted the sound with a few simple effects to emphasize its depth and breathiness, added another airy sound recording to it and the result was much more interesting and primal than the first version.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[h3]And... that's all for today![/h3]
My aim with this Space Log was to offer you a glimpse into the artistic decisions and design directions shaping our game. I hope it will allow you to not only recognize and understand some nuances in the sound, but also gain a slightly different perspective on your ship and your interactions with it.

Thanks for reading, and also, thanks for being awesome with all the feedback, opinions, bug reports and all the other great community input.

See you around in the game (let’s listen to the ship’s purring together!).

And as always,
[h3]Metem Preserve You![/h3]

// Thomas (Sound Designer) and Hutlihut Games Crew

Hey ectypes!

It's Dev Stream Thursday, and it's a special one!

Today there's a very special guest: we will be joined by Daniel aka Spoony, that has been with us since CBT. With more than 400h played, a Lego Ectype created by his son (you remember our post about it?) and loads of questions for us, we're very excited to have him!

Come watch us today at 16:00 CET | 10:00 EDT | 7:00 PDT

We will be simulcasting to Steam, Youtube and Twitch!

📍 https://www.youtube.com/@HutlihutGames/

📍 https://www.twitch.tv/hutlihutgames

[h2]Metem preserve you![/h2]

Wish you all the loot,
Kinnadelth (Community Manager) and the Hutlihut team

[h3]Hey ectypes![/h3]

We recently created a Gameplay video to show the basics of how Void Crew looks in action. We wanted to have a showcase of the game for those of you interested but curious about the in-game process, or to share with friends that might want to try the game!

Watch it here:
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]



The best is to learn by practicing! But don't worry, we have some step-by-step instructions to get you started (you can watch more on the video above). We don't want any lost ectypes, Metem needs all the fighting forces it can get.

[h2]The Hub[/h2]

1. Once you're in the hub with your crew, you can go over to the Ship Loadout Terminal and choose the ship and loadout you like the most.
   
2. Settled on a ship loadout? Great! Now go to the Galaxy Map and chose a Pilgrimage. There are different kinds of objectives, you can see a brief description of each one in the interface!
   
3. Congratulations, ectype. You're now ready to join the fight for Metem! Head up the elevator (or stairs if you want a bit of cardio warm up), and sit down to be transported to your ship and start the mission.
   

[h2]Already on the ship? Keep reading![/h2]

1. Freshly (fleshly?) printed ectypes should grab the Homunculus, insert it comfortably in the Central Computer Cradle, and power up the ship.
   
2. Charge the Void Jump so you can head over to your objectives. Remember that if you're using the bigger ship (Destroyer) two people will be needed to activate the Sync Charge Boost at the same time so it charges faster!
   
3. Head over to the helm. Chose an objective in the Astral Map, and have the designed pilot sit down on the helm, turn it on, and pull the Void Jump Lever.
   
4. Make sure you're sitting down before the jump starts! We don't want you to end up being ectype paste, it's quite hard to clean... don't ask how we know this.
   
5. While inside the Void Tunnel, chose your desired objective in the Astral Map, and jump again. Still need to be seated for this one!
   
6. You've arrived to the action! Follow the instructions on the upper right to complete your objectives.
   

Kill enemies, explore abandoned wrecks, scoop all the loot (remember... ABS - Always Be Scooping!), try not to die too much so you don't run out of Biomass, definitely try to avoid your ship exploding... and victory will be yours!

Rinse and repeat for all the objectives in your Pilgrimage, and you'll get some cool cosmetic rewards and experience to progress in your journey. Metem demands it!

Hope you have fun playing Void Crew! Remember that we have a Discord server where you can look for crew members, share experiences, ask for advice and even interact with our team. We also have a Wiki page that the community contributes to, with loads of information about the game and its features.



Always be scooping,
The Hutlihut team