Grid Force - Mask of the Goddess News

Hello!

Welcome to the Playtra Games developer update for the month of May, 2022.

We slowed down our event attendances and sped up our game development as we blast through the final months of development on Grid Force - Mask of the Goddess.

And, due to a last minute change of plans, there’s a lil’ bit more going on in this blog post than expected, which is why I’m writing this after the rest of it, and why it’s reaching you a day later than usual

(Sorry.)

We’re very close to release now, the final stretch, and next month we’ll likely have tons more material to share, too, so even though this puts May in an awkward transitional period for us, don’t fret, as there’s still a lot of stuff to share with you today, including some livestreams we’ve been doing, some spicy asset updates in Grid Force, and, most crucial of all, the new Grid Force demo.

Send it.



Let’s start with the most important bits first.

Last month I mentioned that we were rolling out a new demo to Steam in the near future after getting feedback on it at both Insomnia 68 and Format. Well… it’s here, baby!



The team has been working hard on getting it as polished and bug-free as possible, and with the development of the main game happening simultaneously, it’s a more time-consuming task than one might think.

Even still, in case you missed our update yesterday, to coincide with our inclusion in the Dreamhack Beyond Steam event we have unveiled the latest, shiniest, brand spanking(est) new Grid Force demo for everyone!



(Try it out, and let us know how you got on!)



Next up, residents of our Grid Force Discord server (join the server please please please) will have seen some asset upgrades that are being worked into Grid Force as we approach our release date.

There’s too many to show off in this post, but here's a couple of our most recent before & after snapshots to show the night and day difference between the old assets and the new.

Tikaka Wooden Stake Upgrade / Pietro Brunelli - Concept Artist

And for the next one:

Tohora Graphic Rework / Pietro Brunelli - Concept Artist

If you’d like to see more of these, keep up to date with the graphical reworks as they’re made, or even ask questions to the artist directly you can do so via our Discord server.

(But, perhaps you’d like to see the assets whilst they’re being worked on? Well…)



We’ve been putting a lot of effort into building and interacting with our community as best we can over the last few months, and the next step in that plan for us has been the introduction of the PlaytraGames Twitch channel.

We’re still working out how to best utilize our livestreams so we can chat with viewers and get some work done at the same time, so, here’s a few tentative examples of what we’ve been up to.

Level Design / Character Balancing w/ Dan
Grid Force Bug Hunting w/ The QA Team
Art Streams w/ Noemi
Asset and Visual Updates w/ Pietro
Educating Fudge!

We have something akin to a schedule, but we’re also open to streaming spontaneously, too, so if you’re interested in seeing our work in real-time as crack on with Grid Force, you know where to go.

(Here. It’s here.)

Alongside that, occasionally we’ll be taking one of our streams, chopping it down into something more manageable, and throwing it up on our YouTube channel.

Like this one!
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]



The team hates bugs.

They’re annoying, they break stuff, they take a lot of effort to root out and fix; it’s just a nightmare. Now I’m not saying that I, community & marketing gremlin at Playtra, love bugs, but what I am saying is that the bug reports are very funny to read.

Unbelievably, this next bug was captured live by the QA team.


For context, this segment appears early in the game, the first full stage, in fact, and comes as a result of making a certain decision wherein Pan sends out a healing orb to bring Pai back from the brink of death.

However, Pan is… well, not the best shot, apparently, so the orb just bounces around for a bit instead of striking Pai to heal her, before vanishing into thin air as unhelpfully as possible.

At the time of writing, this has been fixed, but it gave us a good laugh when it came up.



With all that being said, I’m going to wrap up this month’s blog post!

It was on the longer side than it was a few days ago, and as June is also going to be such a hectic month for us here at Playtra, there’ll be no shortage of content for the next one. In fact, I suspect it’ll blow the lid on a lot of the bits and bobs we’ve been keeping under wraps for the time being.

With an updated demo available right now, and a brand spanking new trailer coming soon, the latter edited by yours truly, we’re going to have lots to talk about next time.

Until then, though, I hope you’ve had a great May, and I wish you all the best moving forward into June.

Be good to each other.

- Staples [Community Manager at Playtra]

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Hey there!

You’ve read the title. (Hopefully).

You’ve seen the teasers. (Maybe).

You’re here to conquer the grid. (Who isn’t?)

So, we’re pleased to announce that the new demo for Grid Force - Mask of the Goddess is officially live on Steam.

Dropping you into the very start of the game, the new demo will give you the chance to experience the story from the beginning, try out the heavily reworked tutorial -- or skip it entirely if you’re a Grid Force pro -- and blast from Clea’s Temple to Tohora with optional dialogue, secret encounters, and chances to upgrade your squad.



What to expect in the demo:

• Graphical updates and asset overhauls.
  
• Roaming feature implementation.
  
• Reworked tutorial.
  
• 2 stages | Clea’s Temple & Tohora
  
• Improved upgrade system.
  
• New UI.
  
• Story opening.
  

With our previous demo being from October 2021, we’ve been working hard over the last 8+ months to crack on with development of the game, and with us being so close to getting the full release out there, we wanted to give everyone the chance to experience how far the game has come in that time.

Plus, the previous demo had a few… unsavoury bugs, shall we say, and we wanted to put our best foot forward with this new one.

Also, to coincide with this, we’re part of the Dreamhack Beyond Steam event!



Thanks to those at Dreamhack for letting us share a space with tons of brilliant games, and, if you’re here from that event, hello! Please consider wishlisting our game as it really helps us out.

And, if you’ve been on the fence about trying Grid Force, now is the best time to give it a crack.

Here’s that link again! (Don’t say I never do anything for you.)

So, jump in, let us know how the game feels, and most importantly of all, conquer the grid!

Take care,

- Staples [Community Manager at Playtra Games]

Howdy!

Welcome to another developer update for the month of April, 2022.

It’s been an exhausting yet wonderful month for us here at Playtra, and as always, there’s plenty to update you on, so much so that I’ve chosen to squeeze a lil’ TL;DR at the end of this post in case you want to skip to the cold, hard facts.

I won’t be offended.

(I might be.)

We visited some gaming events. Two, to be exact, and we’ve a plethora of content to share from those, as well as a handful of progress updates, and the game mode that could’ve been.

Let’s roll.



A handful of us here at Playtra attended the i68 Insomnia event in Birmingham on the 15th - 18th of April, and boy howdy, it was an adventure.

Rishi & Jordan [QA Team] | Dan [CEO & Co-Founder]

We got to meet many of you there and give away some event-exclusive Grid Force merch, as well as show off our newest demo that’s not currently available to the masses. Don’t worry, though, as we’re looking to push that demo out onto Steam in the coming weeks, so everyone gets to have a crack at all the new iterations Grid Force has been through since our last playable teaser.

To get a better look at what we got up to at Insomnia, swing on over to our social media pages, such as this TikTok, and this one, too.

You can also head over to our Twitter, or, better yet, our Discord, and have a peruse through our events channel.

(Oh, and if you were at Insomnia, give us a shout so we can find you!)

((Not in a weird way.))



In addition to going buck wild at Insomnia, less than a week later some of the Playtra team did the very same at FormatGG’s gaming event in Manchester.

Nicola [Marketing/Community Manager & SFX] | Noemi [Comic Book & Concept Artist] | Fudge [Social Media & Community Manager]

Once again, getting to meet so many gamer folks, streamers, journalists, and other content creators really was a dream come true for us. All the feedback we received during these events is invaluable to our team as we press onward with development.

To get a better look at what we got up to at FORMAT, swing on over to our Discord, and be sure to let us know if you were there as we’d love to hear from you.

(You may have also gotten a sneak peak of the upcoming Grid Force trailer that I’ve been working on, but shh, don’t tell anyone.)



It’s not often I’d dedicate a whole segment to talking about a quick social media post we made, but, with the recent addition of social media and community legend Fudge, Playtra’s newest team member, our TikTok page has had some much-needed life breathed into it, and nowhere is that better demonstrated than the #GamingSkills speedrun post, now boasting a hefty 120k views.

The Playtra Games TikTok Page | 29/04/2022

If you haven’t done so already, head on over to our TikTok page and give the video a watch.

Also, don’t forget to follow our page because, in the words of Fudge, more bangers coming…

(Should we do another speedrun challenge soon? Hmm…)



This one isn’t real.

April Fools is an interesting holiday.

Sometimes you do a quick goof that deploys the dopamine and moves on, nice and easy, and sometimes you spend several hours of the only life you’ll ever have designing a game mode as a joke until nobody thinks it’s a joke anymore and your colleagues become greatly concerned.

Anyway, here’s what a fishing minigame would look like in Grid Force - Mask of the Goddess:

Fishing Minigame Concept | Grid Force - Mask of the Goddess | Nicola

It might be hard to tell from this gif that’s had all the pixels squeezed out of it, but you don’t just stand at the water and get a fish for free. In fact, if you try and pull a fish too soon, or too late, you’ll get nothing. But, if you nail the timing, a Physhilla could be yours.

Or it would be, if this was going in the game, which it isn’t.

Unless…

(I am actually legally required to say that this is not going in the game ever.)

So why am I showing you this?

Well, I think there’s a lot to glean from this regarding Grid Force, and game development in general. To make a fully-fledged fishing minigame that would feel appropriate and respectively polished in Grid Force would be a real time sink and, from a budgetary standpoint, not that viable either. But, being able to visualize our ideas is an important part of seeing what does work, what doesn’t work, and what we just don’t have the time or resources for.

It’s a shame we can’t do it, but sometimes that’s the way it is. You gotta make the tough decisions to keep the wheels in motion. Plato said that.

(Probably. I dunno.)

Grid Force won’t have a fishing minigame, but the systems we have in place made something like this possible, so, make sure you keep an eye out on what else our game can offer when it releases in the summer of this year.

(If anything, I’m just annoyed at Nicola for getting me all hyped up for a fishing minigame that we’ll never get to see.)



Lastly, our beloved second stage in Grid Force, ‘The Burg’, is getting a facelift.

For those unfamiliar, the Burg is the stage currently serving as the demo for Grid Force, at least, it is when this developer diary is being posted.

That means it’s time, once again, for our traditional before and after image:

The Burg | Before & After | Grid Force - Mask of the Goddess

With a shift in the time of a day, some extra props on the side, and a cheeky bit of graffiti, the Burg is the nearest hot spot for champions wielding huge laser cannons looking to destroy giant robot teddy bears.

Like the changes? Let us know in the comments!



At last, with all that being said, it’s time to wrap up this month’s blog post!

Thanks for reading, and be sure to add Grid Force - Mask of the Goddess to your Steam wishlist.

We wanted to thank everyone who has already done so, too, as it helps us out tremendously.

As for the quick notes…

TL;DR:
We went to i68 Insomnia and Format.
We have a new community & social media team member.
We concepted a fishing game for a laugh.
The Burg has had a visual redesign.

Take care, everyone. See you in May!

- Staples [Community Manager at Playtra]

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Hello!

Welcome to this developer update / recap for the month of March, 2022. This one will be on the shorter side compared to February’s packed blog post, but don’t worry, as we still have some neat bits and pieces to share with you today.

We had a few Grid Force livestreams that you may have caught over the last couple weeks, as well as further updates to our game as we fire full speed ahead to our release date, and some fun (frustrating) bugs that we love to share on the side.

Let’s get to it.



We collaborated with the It Gets Better Project once again to dedicate a day to streaming Grid Force - Mask of the Goddess on Twitch, and we had a great time doing so.

First up, on the official It Gets Better Twitch channel, JM from 2Gays1Twitch played through the demo of Grid Force and was joined by Playtra’s very own co-founder & game director Dan, concept & comic book artist Noemi, and composer, marketing, & community manager Nicola.



Together, we gave away some CORSAIR goodies, an AMD Ryzen 5, and a copy of Grid Force, to boot.

The VOD can be found here.

On top of that, two other streamers, Risshella and Mivyard, also gave Grid Force - Mask of the Goddess a go on their streams, as well, both doing an amazing job mastering the mechanics and showing off the game to their lovely audience.

(Plus, we love seeing people play our game, so, if you’re a streamer or a gaming YouTuber who’s interested in Grid Force, please feel free to reach out to us so we can share your work!)



Something broke again.

Our QA Team are always hard at work breaking Grid Force as best as they can, and this sometimes leads to bugs that we just have to share with you all, such as this one, where the entire roster can’t decide who should fight Mama Bear first.



Koniko body-blocking the projectile for Donna is awesome, but, well, it’s also a lil’ busted, too.

Needless to say, this won’t be carried over into the live game, despite how amusing it is every single time it happens.

(It’s the way Donna says “What was that?” whilst the universe crumbles around her that really sends me.)



As somewhat of a spillover from last month, the FORMAT Event in Manchester is fast approaching, and at the time of this post going live, we are a mere three weeks away from hopefully seeing many of you there!

For those interested, tickets are still available, and you can use the discount code FORMAT_AP25 to get 25% off your order in time for April 21st.

Those in attendance can stop by to check out Grid Force - Mask of the Goddess, and enter our giveaway to be in with a chance of winning some CORSAIR peripherals and some other cheeky, Grid Force-related prizes. Swing by for a shot at those, play some great games, and chat with the developers, too.

Further details can be found here, and we hope to see you soon!

(We’ll touch more on the experience of FORMAT next month once we return, so keep an eye out for the April update dropping in… well… April.)



We’re continuing with something we occasionally like to do over on our Twitter and Discord (pluggo pluggo, click the links) wherein we show something in the early stages of development, and then jump over to how it looks now to get a nice comparison and see how far it’s come.

Today, we have some spooky scary skellies to show you:



Now with stained teeth, smoother edges, and deeper, sunken eyes infested with greenery, this skull is perhaps more alive than ever.

For a closer look at these images, head on over to this post for a video breakdown of the changes made, and hit us with your thoughts down in the comments.



To wrap this post up, we revamped some aspects of our Steam store page to see how we can best make use of it. If you’re reading this, there’s a chance you’re there right now, but, either way, have some screenshots for your convenience!

Here’s the capsule image comparison:



Nailing the capsule image for a Steam store page is hard, really hard, so we’re experimenting with this new one and seeing how people feel about it; seasoned Grid Forcers and fresh faces alike.

Whilst the data we pull will say a lot about the change, feel free to let us know down in the comments, too, as we’d love to hear your feedback.

Which one do you prefer, old or new?

Lastly, we also gave the bio a refresh, too, bringing it more inline with the rest of our promotional material for Grid Force - Mask of the Goddess.



And that’s everything for this month!

Be sure to wishlist Grid Force - Mask of the Goddess on Steam if you haven’t done so already, as with the Q2 2022 release date getting closer every day, we’ll have more announcements to make in the coming months. But, until then, thanks for stopping by, and we’ll be back with more updates next month.

Take care, my friends, and I hope April treats you well.

- Staples [Community Manager at Playtra]

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Hello, Grid Forcers!

First, we hope you have had a wonderful holiday season, and started the new year off in a positive way. If not, no stress, as there’s always plenty of time for it to turn around.

We have been super busy here at Playtra Games since the start of 2022, and as such, we haven’t had a chance to post an update.

That changes today.

And, speaking of changes, today’s blog is going to be breaking down everything we’ve been working on since the start of the year, the upcoming changes to Grid Force – Mask of the Goddess, as well as a sneak peek at what’s to come moving forward.

Strap in, baby. It’s gonna be a big one.

GOT YOU IN MY SIGHTS

Aiming is hard, but it doesn’t have to be.

In Grid Force, swapping characters on the fly and using their abilities effectively is one of the key pillars of our snappy combat system. We received some feedback last year that aiming certain characters’ attacks was difficult due to the varied nature of their kit, and how there was no way to aim ahead of time, causing frequent misses.

This didn’t feel great, and as we agreed with this feedback, we’re implementing a new system to combat it.



Players can now pull up a dynamic aiming reticle that will show them exactly where their shots will land, accounting for their character, the ability in question, as well as their location on the grid.

This feels much better now, and it was something that came to us as a response to your wonderful feedback, so please, keep it coming.

(I also have no excuse for whiffing with Bird’s stonking great cannon now, so, this is mostly just a nerf to my self-esteem.)

OPEN WORLD

Grid Force is not going open world, but it is going slightly more open world than it currently is.

In some more great feedback that we received – thank you, thank you – it came to light that conquering grid after grid without any respite could lead to the game feeling exhausting for some players. After all, battles can be intense, but the prolonged intensity of those battles when stacked atop one another is where the issue came in.

Here’s how we’re addressing that:



When a grid is now conquered, the player will be given free rein to traverse the grid and interact with a few things around them.

This includes sigils, which can be slurped up to assist you with upgrades later down the line, but it also includes the option to save your game, and, as has been much requested, the ability to adjust your roster before progressing in the level.

Tag out Koniko for MerMer, or Pan for Pai, and continue your journey through Gora with plenty of opportunities along the way to adjust your playstyle and team setup once again.

We hope this relieves some of the prolonged pressure players were feeling. After all, the player experience is our top priority, and this feels like another strong step in a positive direction.

(Sliding around a grid and picking up sigils is oh-so satisfying, too.)

LEAN MEAN SPEED THINGY

If you’re a part of our Discord server – and if you’re not, you should be, click the link, pluggo, etc. – you may be aware that we’ve started a new challenge that anyone can participate in.

Essentially, we have a £20 Steam gift card up for grabs, and to have a shot at winning it, you can enter our speedrunning competition, and be the fastest grid conqueror this side of Gora to take down Flint.



You have until the 14th of March to submit your time, and we can’t wait to see how people tackle the challenge in their own way. It’s also something we’d love to do more of in the future, so, if this one proves successful, expect even bigger challenges moving forward.

Further rules and details can be found via our Discord server, linked here.

HELLO, MANCHESTER

Playtra Games are coming to Manchester on the 21st of April for the FORMAT gaming event.

This event is open to ticket-holding members of the public, and if you stop by, you’ll get a chance to play Grid Force – Mask of the Goddess, ask us questions, and just generally engage in some chatter with the developers.

We’re a passionate bunch, but we’re casual folks, too, and hope to see some of you there.

Further details can be found at this link.

ART ATTACK

Now, listen, we could flood one of these blog posts with nothing besides incredible art from Grid Force, but we must behave ourselves.

With that in mind, here’s another piece we wanted to share with you this month to close off this dev blog.



And with that, we’ll leave you be.

BEYOND

Hopefully this has been an interesting look at what we’ve been working on thus far, and, be sure to wishlist Grid Force – Mask of the Goddess on Steam if you haven’t done so already.

It is a huge help for us as we move ever closer to the release this year.

We also have a plethora of retro updates and other bits and bobs that we frequently post over on our Twitter, so, please follow us via the links below, and hop into our Discord to join the conversation directly, where we post constant live developer updates.

We’ll be back with more updates next month.

From all of us here at Playtra, we hope you’re staying safe during these tough times, as well as taking care of yourself and those around you.

- Staples [Community Manager at Playtra]

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