SENTRY News

Hi everyone,

This month we’ve been primarily focusing on all of the associated tasks surrounding our Tech system, which is replacing Passive Gear. If you missed the post that describes what Tech is, you can catch up here:

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1252680/view/544495527868237649
We’ve been working on a collection of Unique Tech – this is the purple ones that have a standalone and more powerful impact (previously we’d been working on the Stackable – i.e. blue ones).

You gain new Tech every battle and make your selection from a random pool on the After Action Report, so we’ve re-done this screen to allow that functionality as well as sprucing it up:


The above is still work-in-progress, but gives you an idea on how you choose your Tech (hovering over an icon will give information on each piece of Tech in a tooltip). You can equip up to five pieces of Tech in the Loadout menu, so can lean into certain play styles accordingly.

The blank “Optional Objective” is part of an accompanying system we’re currently working on. The idea here is twofold:

First, it’ll provide an extra layer of gameplay variety in combat through optional challenges.

Secondly, achieving these objectives provides a bonus you can use in the After Action Report when you choose your Tech. For example re-rolling the current selection or allowing you to make two choices – essentially giving you more control on the sort of build you want to craft in your run.

Because we’ll message Optional Objectives in the HUD – and we had a few feedback points we wanted to address – we’ve done another pass on how this looks:


We’ve got a new wave icon, changed the colours on the health and armour bars, added some improved functionality and messaging on the ammo and secondary fire modes in the bottom-right, and only have one instance of the word “BREACH” in the top-left. It’s not shown here, but we’ve moved the breach timer to be just below the middle centre underneath the phase banners.

One thing you may have noticed in the screenshots above is that our font has changed. There were a few aspects with the previous font that were problematic, whether that be how it was hard to read when smaller through to how the upper case ‘D’ and ‘O’ looked too similar – for example the “RETURN TO POD” message basically looked like it was “RETURN TO POO”. While that may have amused my immature mind, it was a good time to address those problems with a focus on legibility.

A lot of the new Tech utilises status effects, so we’re also working on fleshing them out. Their damage over time is varied and has additional gameplay effects to further differentiate them. For example:

• Burn deals damage rapidly. It can spread between targets that are close. It can be extinguished if affected by venting and if the player repeatedly crouches and stands in quick succession.
  
• Poison (which is being renamed to Toxic) performs low damage over a long period. It increases firearm spread by a % amount (more for enemies than the player). It damages armour at a greater rate than health and can be cured by healing either via dispenser or the Stim.
  
• Bleed gives high damage in stabs over a short lifetime and moving above a certain speed increases the frequency of damage. While suffering from Bleed you are also weakened to other damage (the enemies even more so). Bleed can be stopped immediately by healing and if you’re wearing armour it won’t even take effect.
  
• Enemies have immunities and weaknesses to certain status effects (for example the drones suffer increased damage from burning, the creatures that spit green projectiles won’t suffer Toxic damage)
  

Aside from the above, now that we’ve implemented playtest feedback Alex has been arting up the two new levels (Conduit and Hab), here’s a WIP screenshot of the former:


Sean has been doing some early balancing work on the equipment and enemies – with lots more to come as we look to get MU4 on a Beta Branch for testing!

[h3]From the Community[/h3]
Another couple of posts this month from our community. Discord user Furious George posted this for when they roll a Chasm defense:


I’m sure everyone has a level they feel something similar :)

While fellow Discord member Fritz X posted this video regarding the general vibes for listening to the game music:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
Probably a good time to say that yes, the soundtrack will be released – we’ve still got a few more tracks coming though, so we’ll wait until those are done before putting it out.

As ever, keep the cool submissions coming!



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Thanks for your continued support!

Hi everyone, here’s what the team have been up to in September.

[h3]Passives becomes “Tech”![/h3]
Since the first Early Access version of SENTRY, we’ve been wrapping the original Passive Gear into other systems. The Jump Jets became a default ability, while armour became something you could spend resources on in the Crew Menu, leaving just the Bandolier behind.

This is because we’re changing Passive Gear into “Tech”, which are small memory card-like objects a SENTRY chooses at Loadout to lean into certain playstyles and do a bit of build crafting. They come in unique (purple) and stackable (blue) formats:


Tech is awarded upon combat completion regardless of whether you won or lost a level. You’ll choose the Tech you want from a selection of three (although depending on other variables, this could go higher). There’ll be additional mechanics (mentioned later) that allow you to pick more than one, or re-roll the existing selection.

We’ve implemented over 20 thus far, with plans for over 40 more that we’ll gradually work our way through. This is another one of those systems that we’re looking forward to hearing ideas from the community on too, and our Discord Playtesters (who have access to this feature) are already suggesting some cool ones.

A couple of current in-game examples we’ve recently employed: This one is great with a P9M along with a backup melee weapon:



This deals bonus weak spot damage while scoped, which also has a chance of causing enemies to become slowed. There’s Tech that grants bonus damaged to slowed enemies too. On the melee side, there’s one that gives a chance of inflicting burn damage, while another increases melee damage with each wave that passes.

Or this one focused more on Deployables:



The first two repair some health to Turrets for each wave they survive, along with granting them extra health in each new Prep Phase. There’s Tech for any automatic equipment (so weapons like the Assault Rifle along with the Auto Turret) that has a chance of causing poison, with another dealing bonus damage to poisoned enemies. Capping it off there’s one ideal for the Tesla that increases the amount of shock damage that chains between enemies.

As with previous systems, there’s been a hefty amount of work integrating these into the existing game as they touch multiple areas – the equipment menu, HUD, Loadout and the After Action report have all needed to be updated. We’re still working through those aspects, but the AA Report in particular is going to look much better as a result.

[h3]New Levels![/h3]
In August we made a new level called “Hab”, and this month we’ve made another called “Conduit”. Both of these levels are currently with our Discord Playtesters, so once we’ve watched their videos we’ll adjust the levels and hand over to Alex so she can replace all of the greybox assets (it’s more efficient to do these early tests and make changes in greybox form).

Here’s a brief glimpse of the new levels; first up is Hab:


The exit point is an open room that is hard to defend, but you can utilise doors to re-route enemies from either level extremity the long way. This means you can funnel enemies into your preferred ambush spot – mine is this area that is great for the Vortex Glove, Conveyors and Vortex Grid – but also affords some nice sniping opportunities for enemies crossing the bridge.

And here is Conduit:


My favourite area to battle in this level is by the C & D breach points, which are by a large pit that they have to cross via a bridge – many aliens have already died on this choke point!

[h3]Other Stuff![/h3]
We’ve started the design and planning work on another mechanic that complements the new “Tech” system: Optional Objectives. The idea behind these is they’ll provide some extra gameplay-related sub-mission to achieve in combat that’ll not only provide additional variety, but also grant rewards that allow you to have more choice in the Tech you’ll attain. Part of this includes the creation of a Stats system, which will also be utilised for an eventual achievements system. While Achievements is planned for the full release update, we’re planning on implementing the Optional Objectives and accompanying Stats system next for MU4.

We also upgraded our engine to take advantage of some performance improvements. This normally breaks some random things we need to patch up and the same was true of this occasion.

[h3]From the Community[/h3]
Our Discord community member Jajomba had a play around with the game files to see what a wave filled with our most deadly enemy would look like:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
Finally, you have to admire the dedication behind this image from Snake with a tophat (also from our Discord)


Maybe don’t stand so close if you’re employing a similar strategy :)

We love seeing all the cool things you come up with, so please keep sharing them with us!



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Thanks for your continued support!

Hi everyone,

In case you missed it, we planned out the remaining work for Early Access and posted up our new roadmap here:

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1252680/view/534359257319997678
After the release of Major Update 3 in July, August was about diving into some of the work that is outlined in the new roadmap.

[h3]New Enemy![/h3]
We wanted our next new enemy to be one that had a big gameplay difference to any of the existing roster.

The primary function for this enemy (codenamed ‘Ghost’) is that it can disable deployables within a radius, which allows nearby allies to move past those traps and turrets unhindered.


For its attack, it creates a homing projectile and once it receives damage it can turn incorporeal for a short period of time, blue flames on each hand dissipating to denote how long this Phase Shift lasts.


We had plans for this enemy for a while, even creating concept art that was shown previously, so it has been good to move to implementation.

[h3]MU3 Patches![/h3]
We released a couple of patches throughout the month, the first as a response to player feedback from the MU3 release, detailed here:

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1252680/view/534357354429286849
Once the translations for the new text arrived, we added those in as well.

[h3]Other Stuff![/h3]
We commenced work on a bunch of other stuff listed in our Roadmap post, including:

• The new passives system. We often find that new systems like hazards, crew etc. have big ramifications for exiting menus and systems – so there’s a process of unpicking those first, creating concepts for new/changed UI, implementing the core system and then working on the individual passives.
  
• Writing designs for how we’ll improve turrets, along with the a revised status effects system where they have greater gameplay differences between them
  
• A new level. We’ll likely get two done before getting our Discord playtesters to have a go on these.
  

[h3]From the Community[/h3]
Because the last few Dev Transmissions have been focused on new beta builds or Major Update launches we haven’t featured any fan contributions for a while, so here’s two to make up for the absence.

First up Discord user TheCartoon1st has sketched what they imagine delivers the ship loudspeaker announcements in a piece titled “Enemies have breached entry point delta”


This is an old one from Discord user Kyuirah back in March 2024, but it made me chuckle when going through my backlog of cool community submissions:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
Those who have been with us from the start may recognise that clip as the original Mess Hall, where the exit point was located back where the current E breach is placed – it was way too easy, hence the change.

Keep sharing anything cool with us!


You can reach us through various ways listed below. We always read any feedback, making a log of it in a big tracker we keep – so even if we don’t manage to respond to every comment, please know that it’s being added to this mega-list!

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Thanks for your continued support!

Hi everyone,

We’ve built out a plan for our remaining work on SENTRY, so we thought we’d create a new Roadmap post.

First, if you haven’t been keeping updated on the changes thus far then you can read up on the Major Updates in these posts:

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1252680/view/4235154200342543684
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1252680/view/526460937466544207
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1252680/view/534357354429284567
[h3]The High Level Plan[/h3]
After deriving a list of new features, content and adjustments we’ve been splitting these into our planned remaining updates.

The first of these will arrive in Major Update 4, which will be out before the end of the year. We’ll then graduate from Early Access with a full release update in spring 2026.

We’re still supporting our previous game even years after its v1.0 release, and you can expect the same on SENTRY too.


[h3]General Additions[/h3]
Every update we aim to include some new levels, equipment and enemies.

The remaining enemies we’re planning on prioritising utilise a gameplay mechanic that hasn’t been used in-game yet. We like to keep some surprises but I’ll talk about the first one of these in the August Dev Transmission – we showed concept art for this particular enemy before, and you can now see the associated in-game model that’s incoming:


We usually have a few headline features in mind when thinking about Major Updates. But there’s a bunch of other important work we’re planning on spreading across forthcoming updates, such as:

• Reworking turrets. There are a few issues with them currently, but the biggest problems are the combination of new players finding turrets hard to learn, but experienced players placing them effectively where they become too powerful, with no valid counter. We’ll be looking to make adjustments to solve this while making them more fun to use in general.
  
• Improving hazards and rewards. Making some of the less effective rewards more meaningful, introducing hazards that provide greater variety (rather than just a player debuff) and general balancing
  
• Adding some form of “hard mode” toggle in the campaigns, where there’ll be optional challenges for players to select (including hazard stacking).
  
• Creating a menu that can be viewed during loadout where you can view useful things like active hazards and enemies
  
• Merged Boarding Parties – this will reduce the instances of re-playing the same level multiple times in a row
  
• Extra ships, and making the existing ones better
  
• More ways to increase your slots during a run
  
• Additional tiers of Supply Beacon
  
• Revisiting Mastered Upgrades
  
• Reducing the number of upgrades that Gear has, so we can make them more effective sooner
  
• A mechanic where you retain something of your choice between runs
  
• Making status effects have greater differences to one another
  
• Introducing some gameplay to the Guardian Camera (we’ll potentially make this something the player can choose to re-spawn into for Singleplayer, too)
  
• We’re conscious that in co-op, we inject increased challenge by escalating the breach points that get used – but this often means players are fighting separately. We can do something better here
  
• Additional variety to the navigator
  
• There’s issues with different enemy speeds meaning that sometimes waves can end in a very anti-climactic manner, we need to tighten this up
  
• Full gamepad support
  
• Extra game modes
  
• Implementing the Vendor
  

This isn’t the full list of course; if I listed every single thing we’re planning on addressing this post would be the length of a novel :)

Needless to say, every Major Update comes with a bunch of polish, bug-fixing, optimisations and balancing too.

[h3]Major Update 4[/h3]
The main focus for MU4 is the replacement system for passive gear that we’ve mentioned in previous posts.

When we initially released SENTRY, passive gear entailed the Jump Jets, Armour and Bandolier. We made the Jump Jets a default ability, built Armour into the Crew System and while the Bandolier will remain in some form, you’ll now be able to equip multiple slots of passive abilities that provide additional combat bonuses and gameplay variety. We’ll talk about this more in a future post.

We’ll be looking to implement as many general additions into MU4 as possible.

[h3]Full Release[/h3]
As well as the usual extra levels, enemies, equipment etc. this update’s main focus is the addition of a new campaign with a suitable game ending. We’ll also be re-framing the narrative around the existing two campaigns in such a way that it makes sense when viewed collectively. This will include some visual changes to make it feel like you’re going on more of a journey. We’re all very excited about the changes in this update, but I’ll resist spoilers for now…

We’d like to introduce a new tutorial/prologue that gives a better introduction to the game and the full release update is an appropriate time to revisit this.

A lot of people have been asking for a Codex: it’ll be in for Full Release, with a special surprise tied into it as well.

We’ll also be adding achievements for this update.

[h3]Post-Release[/h3]
On our previous game that was in Early Access, we released a free Major Update after Full Release. We found this was useful because Full Release tends to bring in a new wave of players, and with them a lot of extra feedback. This update addressed that new feedback. It also gave us an opportunity to squeeze in some fun but non-essential additions that didn’t quite make v1.0.

This worked well on Abandon Ship and it’s highly likely we’d do the same on SENTRY.

[h3]And Beyond…[/h3]
Once we have our full suite of music we’ll release the soundtrack. On our previous game we did an Art Book; this was something we enjoyed putting together so it’s likely we’ll do the same for SENTRY.

If there’s demand from the community we can look at other DLC, but that’s something we’ll only consider once we’re well past version 1.0.

On our first game, even after the free Major Update was released we continued to support the game with several free content updates – the most recent in April this year. Each game is special to us, so any excuse to add something cool is seized upon – and I expect to give the same level of support to SENTRY.



More items will undoubtedly get added to the list as we continue development, so while this is our current plan sometimes things can change – but we’ll keep you updated as we go. We’re also keeping a few surprises in store too :)

As ever, the best thing you can do is keep telling us your thoughts. We go through every single post, comment and review, logging it into a big tracker which helps us focus on the most important aspects. So please keep doing that!

Thanks for your support,

The SENTRY crew

Hi everyone, we're busy working away on MU4 but the translations for the previous Major Update have arrived, so we've updated the text file for build version 0.8.26715 to include them.

Because the text files are outside of the packaged game this means the build version number hasn't been updated from the last patch.

Steam should auto-update, but if you're running the game in any language other than English and you're still seeing non-translated text, try validating your files to nudge Steam into downloading them.