The Hexadome: Aristeia Showdown News

Hi everyone!

Today, we’re thrilled to share the results of The Hexadome’s 1st Closed Beta Playtest!

[h3]Closed Beta Playtest Results:[/h3]
After our Alpha playtest in February, we quickly got to work thanks to the community’s helpful feedback. The last couple of months were filled with working on the tutorial, adding champion challenges, creating emotes, skins, VFXs, environment art, and much more.

While the team was working hard, we also attended PAX East in Boston, where we got to share The Hexadome in person for the first time. It was an exciting milestone for us and we talked about in our last dev blog.

There was no time to waste when we returned! We announced the dates to the closed beta playtest, unveiled our official trailer, and revealed our participation in Turn-Based Thursday Fest! All that to say, we’ve been very busy since our previous playtest and we’re thrilled that you joined our playtest from April 4th to 9th!

We want to take a moment to truly thank you for your incredible support during this time. Thank you for sharing your feedback, for streaming our game, for spreading the word, and just your encouragement overall.

That being said, let’s share the results of the latest playtest!


[h3]What players liked: [/h3]

• The new and improved tutorial
  
• The champions' designs and VFXs
  
• The new emotes
  
• The core gameplay
  

[h3]“It was quite fun to play. Obviously there is a lot to learn, about champions, their synergies and so on, but I still enjoyed the matches I played.” @neveresttt[/h3]

[h3]“The character designs and core gameplay seem solid so far.” @Syncroniam[/h3]

With the tutorial, it had a revamp since the Alpha playtesters had their hands on it. We decided to split it in two parts where one focused on getting to know the champions and their abilities, how to score points, utilizing their energy points, and more. The second tutorial dove more into the core mechanics of capturing sponsors, advancing in timeline with time steps, and learning the synergies between your team’s champions. We got lots of feedback that even though it ran long, they found the mechanics to be clearer than in our previous playtest.


[h3]“The new tutorial and challenges are very good now. I understand the mechanics better than the first time. And the challenges are good to know more some characters.” @Morrigan[/h3]

As always, our champions stole the show and players fell in love with the updated designs, VFXs, weapons, tactics, and unique abilities and ultimates. We were surprised that Wild Bill was one of the most popular champions used during our beta as his skin is not finalized yet. His golden bullets must’ve caught their eye!

One of the biggest updates in this beta was Laxmee’s new skin reveal with her stunning VFXs for each of her abilities. Don’t underestimate her low HP, as many players described her as being very overpowered when focusing her teammates or stunning her opponents.

We’re currently working on more character skins, and we’re very excited for you to see them in the near future!


[h3]“Big fan of some of the updated animations! Laxmee just looks fantastic, has me excited for getting Parvati and Hannibal animated.” @Crusadia IX[/h3]

Another new element to the game were our brand new emotes! From Maximus’ GG to 8-ball's crying Noo, these emotes allowed the players’ to communicate in an intense match. We’ve already gotten suggestions for Hexx3r and Señor Massacre.


[h3]“The emotes are super fun!" @anonymous[/h3]

Overall, the feedback we received was very positive, with players expressing their love for the art style, the arena’s environment, and the addicting core gameplay.

[h3]What could be improved:[/h3]

• The tutorial: We have lots of game mechanics and don’t want to overwhelm new players with too much information. We’ll work on splitting the tutorial elements for players to redo them in the tutorial main page. For example, if they need a refresher on how Cheers works, they can redo the Cheers tutorial there.
  
• Improve the game mode for a better, smoother, and shorter game.
  
• Make the Timeline, Time Steps, and Scoring Zones clearer!
  
• Clarify how Energy Points work. One tip with energy points is that sometimes the best move is not to move in that moment.
  
• Create a singleplayer mode for those not wanting to battle it out against another player.
  
• Champion overview page on the main screen to showcase their unique abilities, tactics, stats, ranges, lore, and more.
  
• Add timers in certain areas (for example: when picking the team of champions).
  
• Define more mechanics: “!”, stars on Champions, Line of Sight, Golden Bullets, and more.
  

We’re taking all these suggestions into consideration for our next playtest!


[h3]Final Thoughts:[/h3]

We want to take this time again to say a huge THANK YOU to all our playtesters and community members for your support on The Hexadome’s latest playtest. Thanks to your feedback, we’ve already started tweaking some of the game mechanics for our upcoming playtest.

Want to stay in the loop on the latest developments? Be sure to join our Discord, Wishlist The Hexadome on Steam, and follow us on Twitter, Tik Tok and Facebook for exclusive sneak peeks, playtest updates, and exciting news!

Closed Beta Patch Note
0.2404.9 – April 8th

📖 Onboarding

• Fixed Bonus Effect text in Tutorial.
  

🎲 Gameplay fixes

• Fixed too many kills awarded on some occasions (Parvati's ultimate, Lunah's attack switch).
  
• Fixed Frostbite being applied to too many targets in some specific situations.
  
• Fixed AI stuck on some occasions, when Mushashi displaces himself after dealing damage during his Overwatch.
  
• Tactic Stick to the Plan can't target KO'd Champions anymore.
  
• Added more time before AI chooses a sponsor reward.
  

🖱️Mouse control

• Camera rotation and movement with mouse will now keep the cursor at the current position in the screen.
  
• Reduced Right click long press time from 1s -> 0.2s to trigger mouse camera movement.
  

🎶 Sound

• Fixed crowd and announcer audio mix.
  

🐛 Other Bug fixes

• Fixed Typos in Hit Point tooltip.
  
• Added missing names for Lorolocco and Pharmacomp Sponsors (displayed in event log after sponsor reward has been chosen).
  

Closed Beta Patch Note
0.2404.8 – April 6th

🐛 Bug fixes

• Fixed Tactics with multiple targets costing Cheers for each target affected.
  
• Removed UI Scaling in settings, as it is currently bugged and not usable.
  
• Fixed Pick and Ban Sponsor displayed when Pick and Ban starts while player was already in Pick and Ban vs a Bot.
  
• Fixed Character name tag sometimes displayed over an HexaDrop in challenges.
  

Closed Beta Patch Note
0.2404.5-Prod – April 5th

📖 Onboarding

• The cheer bar is now visible in the Advanced Tutorial module about Upgrades.
  
• The Overwatch tutorial has been tweaked
  
• The copy in the Champions’ Challenges has been changed.
  
• Laxmee’s challenge victory condition has changed: she now needs to be in the scoring zone AND stay alive.
  

🎲 Gameplay fixes

• Fixed Hannibal having a teammate play an action while being in Overwatch. Overwatch is now correctly cancelled.
  
• Fixed displacing drop on a champion not triggering the drop.
  
• Fixed Player stuck in Combat UI when chaining a move and an action request and failing to disengage on their way.
  
• TACTIC: Fixed Dance for me Tactic not allowing to target Champions.
  
• TACTIC: Parvati’s Advanced Surgery now Hastens its target 3 times
  
• TACTIC: Hannibal's Code's feedback in Timeline is now fixed.
  
• TACTIC: Fixed Tactic Adamantine so it can't target Valkyrie or other Immovable Champions.
  
• TACTIC: Code: - Fixed Champion not able to attack if he attacked during his last turn
  

🌐 Online matchmaking

• Match intro now displays the name of your opponent instead of a Worthy Opponent (not that they are not).
  
• Stability fixes for online matches.
  
• Reduced opponent disconnected timeout from 60s to 20s.
  
• Shows a “player disconnected” popup while in pick and ban if opponent encountered connection issues.
  

🎨 Animations

• Updated Gata's ultimate animation “Like a cheetah”
  

🎶 Sound

• Removed some voices still attributed to Gata and 8-Ball.
  

🐛 Other Bug fixes

• Fixed double escape at the end of the game closing and opening the menu back.
  
• Fixed unable to escape if pause menu is displaying before entering the game during the cinematic.
  
• Fixed feedback panel not available in gameplay with f11 shortcut.
  

Hi everyone!

The Blindspot Games team has been working very hard since our last Alpha Playtest, which happened in early February. Our closed beta playstarts starts today at 1PM from April 9th.

Since then, we've created a whole new onboarding, added Laxmee's full animations (with some super cool VFXs), stunning emotes, and more!

Here’s a recap of our latest Patch Notes:

[h3]📖 Onboarding[/h3]

• ONBOARDING – The tutorial was a big complaint during the Alpha. We worked on a new version; there’s now a tutorial to learn the basics, and an advanced tutorial to dig deeper. Onboarding is a huge focus for The Hexadome, your feedback is going to be very valuable.
  

[h3]⚔ Game modes and waiting time[/h3]

• DUEL MODE – We added a duel mode to play against a friend.
  
• QUEUE – You can now play versus an AI while you wait to be matched in an online game. When an opponent is found, your AI game will stop, and you will join the multiplayer game.
  

[h3]🎲 Gameplay mechanics[/h3]

• TIMER – The timer’s duration was changed. Previously, you could stack 30sec, making your total timer 1m30. We reduced it to a maximum of 1m15 to allow for quicker games without compromising too much on thinking time.
  
• SPONSORS - Sponsors have been added to Pick and Ban. Each Sponsor comes with their 2 new Tactics and 4 new Rewards. 6 Sponsors are currently implemented. You will not be able to see which Reward comes with the Sponsor you pick yet. We’re working on it!
  
• KO – We’re still working on the gameplay mechanics around KO’d Champions. Their behavior will be the same as during the Alpha, except for the fact that they’d be down on their knees instead of lying dead. During the Alpha, some players hated KO’d Champions blocking paths, other enjoyed the added strategic layer. We’re still working on finding the right balance for KO’s.
  
• INITIATIVE – The initiative stat isn’t used anymore. A Champion moving to a timestep will automatically go after the Champion already present.
  
• TIMELINE – The timeline was something players struggled with during the Alpha. We worked on a new visual representation to make it clearer. Let us know what you think.
  

[h3]⚖️ Balancing[/h3]

• ULTIMATES – They now cost 60 Cheers instead of 80. Ultimates were a little too expensive and were not used as often as we would have liked during the Alpha. We want to make them a more attractive option for players. We’re also considering applying different costs for the Ultimates of certain Champions.
  
• HANNIBAL – Programmed Strategy is now limited to a range of 10 hexes and now requires LoS on its target. On top of that, a Champion who can play an action by using Programmed Strategy or the Code: Tactic can now upgrade their attributes, their skills, or use Tactics. The range reduction is a nerf that will require players to position Hannibal more strategically, but we’re offsetting it by enabling upgrades and Tactics when using Programmed Strategy and Code:.
  
• PARVATI – Her Reset roll values have been tweaked: we added more 2s and removed the 3s that were useless since her max HP is 3.
  

[h3]🖌️ UI[/h3]

• ROLL RESULTS – The have a new UI and new VFX. We also hid all other UI during rolls to help players focus on the important information.
  
• OVERWATCH – We wanted something visually more interesting than the plain red text we had before. It feels a bit out of place for now, but it’s a work in progress and we’d love to know your thoughts!
  
• TACTICS – You can now see your opponent’s Tactics! It will allow the player to know which Tactics have been used by their opponent and make strategic decisions accordingly. Do they still have their Cleansing Tactic, or can I safely Dazzle Lunah? 😎 The players will be able to know what Tactics and what Sponsor their opponent picks during the pick & ban phase, so it’s only fair for them to keep having access to that information during the match instead of having to memorize it.
  
• DISENGAGE – We added color to the Disengage feedback text to communicate the chance successfully disengaging from an opponent. Green means high change of success, Orange means average, Red means low.
  
• CHARACTERS – They all have new avatars.
  

[h3]🎨 Visuals [/h3]

• EMOTES – We added Emotes! They’re adorable and we love them.
  
• LAXMEE – Her model and animations are now in-game! She also has VFX for her D/Buffer and Purge skills.
  
• MAJOR LUNAH – She has a new animation for her victory pose. She no longer waves at the crowd but does a military salute. She also has new VFX for her Suppressive Fire skill.
  
• HEXXER – She has a new Idle Breaker animation.
  
• GATA – New Contender animation
  
• SPONSORS – The sponsors you capture will now take the color of your team, regardless of the sponsor’s branding. It helps communicate which team controls which Sponsor.
  
• ARENA – The floor texture was changed for better visibility + the stadium now has screens and holograms.
  
• VFXs – New permanent VFX for Dazzled.
  
• FIGURINES – Champions who are still figurines are now slightly animated to give players better feedback on the states and actions of the Champions.
  

[h3]🎶 Sound[/h3]

• MAJOR LUNAH – New SFX on Called Shot and Suppressive Fire
  
• 8-BALL – New SFX on Eat my Fa Jing and Be Water Dude
  
• GATA – New SFX on Misdirection and Contender
  
• ARENA – New SFX on the Sponsors
  
• TUTORIAL – New SFXs everywhere
  

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


We’ve got lots of exciting news coming up in the next week! Our closed beta playtest starts TODAY until April 9th, and we’re participating in Turn Based Thursday Fest at the same time (April 4th to 8th). To register for the closed beta playtest, head to our Steam page, scroll down to “Join The Hexadome: Playtest” and click on “Request Access”. Remember to share the news with friends you’d like to play with: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1498550?utm_source=steam&utm_content=devblog


Want to stay in the loop on the latest developments? Be sure to join our Discord, Wishlist The Hexadome on Steam, and follow us on Twitter, Tik Tok and Facebook for exclusive sneak peeks, playtest updates, and exciting news!