Infinity: HexaDome Tactics News

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
  

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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!

From April 4th to 9th, jump into The Hexadome and lead your four champions to victory in tactical 1v1 turn-based matches, play against a friend in duel mode, or challenge the AI in PvE mode!

Welcome to our Closed Beta! The Hexadome currently contains:

• 12 playable Champions, each with unique abilities
  
• A 1v1 ranked mode
  
• A duel mode to play against a friend
  
• A PvE mode to challenge the AI
  
• A tutorial to teach you how to play
  
• Challenges that will put your tactical skills to the test
  

Since we're still in development, some Champions aren't rigged or animated yet, but they're all fully playable so you can already discover their unique playstyles and skillsets!

If you played the Alpha last February, you'll notice many changes, including a new fully animated character: LAXMEE!

You can register via the "Request Access" button on our Steam page. Once you register, you'll be added to the Steam Playtest list and we'll open spots gradually. You'll get an email notification and see the game appear in your Steam Library under "The Hexadome: Aristeia Showdown - Playtest" starting April 4th at 1pm EST.

We encourage our playtesters to share their feedback to help us make a better game. You can do that by joining our Playtester channel on Discord, or by sending us an email. All feedback is good feedback, don't be shy!

Also: have you seen our new trailer yet?!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

See you soon in the Hexadome!

Hi everyone!

PAX East was a weekend to remember for the Blindspot Games team. It was our first ever gaming convention where we got to showcase The Hexadome!

Before we dive in, we want to take a moment to thank the Blindspot Games team for their hard work in making our first gaming convention a success. From those who were behind the scenes, working away on creating an engaging build to those who were able to attend the convention in person, you guys are a dream team! Thank you, thank you!

And of course, we want to thank all of the amazing people that stopped by our booth to play The Hexadome. From players, to press and influencers, seeing your excitement truly warmed our hearts and made us feel hyped to head back to the office and make our game even greater.

Here’s a recap of our week-long adventures at PAX East!

[h3]DAY 1 – The Drive [/h3]

On your mark, get set, GO! The Blindspot team met at the Montreal office, filled up our two cars with equipment and suitcases, and headed to USA.



We drove 5 hours from Montreal to Boston, admiring the Vermont trees and mountains. To fight sleep and boredom, we decided to play the license plate game and noted down how much different plates we saw from every state. In the second car, they did a game jam, pitching ideas for our next game. Some were…. Interesting.

After a quick stop at Applebee’s, we finally arrived in Boston!

At our Airbnb, we got to see our new key art banner and our vertical banners for the first time. We had no idea what it would look like, as we received them at the very last minute (rookie mistake) but we were so happy with the results!

Right before we left for PAX, we purchased some t-shirts online, but they honestly didn’t meet up to our standards. Luckily, our UI/UX designer, Mary, had a Cricut machine and worked her magic to create an amazing t-shirt for the team.

After a long day, we got some rest for the next day.



[h3]DAY 2 – The Set Up [/h3]

Time to build our booth! After getting lost while looking for parking, we finally arrived at the Boston Convention Center. We picked up our badges and unloaded our cars to Booth 18102.

Before we started, we knew that we wanted to capture this moment for our socials. We set up a go-pro for our timelapse and got to work! We had to DIY so many parts, from creating a clothesline and attaching our big banner with zip-ties, to cutting the rope and covering it.

While mounting the TV setup, we actually broke a PC. The side of it was glass and it just shattered instantly. Luckily, we had a spare laptop that we hid under our booth table.

For décor, we placed our business cards (with beta codes on the back), pins, character sheets, and our contest info.

We noticed that we were missing some cool lighting – so we headed over to Target & Best Buy to get some new lights .

The day ended with creating more The Hexadome t-shirts (thanks to Mary and her Cricut)! After a few hours of peeling the stickers, we made 12 t-shirts for the team!



[h3]DAY 3 – First PAX Day[/h3]

After another morning of experiencing Boston traffic, we arrived at the booth – caffeinated and ready for the crowd!

Our first day started off a bit slow, but we think it’s because people immediately went to demo the big studios and to buy their merch before it sells out. (Which we should have done too. Lesson for future us: don’t wait until the last day to go buy merch!).

After the first couple of hours, our booth was full! This was the moment we’d been waiting for! People were playing our game in front of us and we could see how they’d strategically playthrough our tutorial, master the mechanics, and challenge themselves in our contest. For our contest, if a player finished our set of challenges, one person a day won a free key to the game and became a member of our VIP discord group where they’d get future updates first and play with the devs!

Since our tutorial was on average 20 minutes long, so some people didn’t have time to wait. Luckily, we were distributing business cards with beta codes on the back, so they can play the game from April 4th to 9th.

Outside of the players support, we were very lucky to be near some other incredible indie devs. We even had ‘Just Shapes & Beats’ set up in front of our booth, so the team would dance off our tiredness to some Mortal Kombat music.

After PAX was closed, we took that time to set up our new lights around the tables. And we chose the perfect shade of blue and orange to fit with the Hexadome brand.

During our lunchbreak, we went through the tabletop section and got a social drinking card game called ‘Frenemies’. Definitely a fun game to play with colleagues where you REALLY get to know them. We had many good laughs, bro dot com (if you know, you know)!

We finished the day by contacting our 1st PAX Contest Winner @Gradyth!



[h3]DAY 4 – Second PAX Day[/h3]

Friday’s crowd was busier! As we continued to dance to the Mortal Kombat music, we also got to explore other indie games and purchase some merch.

After our first day, we got into a routine of how we pitched our game to people coming by. Our TV was set up in front of our booth, replaying our latest Stream, so once we noticed someone was interested, we’d approach them, and they were hooked by our hex grid arena and our visuals. As soon as we mentioned that the game has XCOM meets Overwatch vibes, we could see the interest grow!

Even when we got back to the Airbnb, we kept working. From capturing new screenshots for our PR kits, to editing a “Day in the Life” Tik Tok, to tweaking our builds, it was a non-stop work day for the Blindspot team. We prepared for tomorrow – the biggest crowd day!

Our 2nd PAX Contest Winner was @Tehwadesta!



[h3]DAY 5 – Third PAX Day[/h3]

We were preparing all week for Saturday – the tickets had been sold out for weeks, so it was definitely the biggest crowd!

Right before it opened, we headed over to Staples to print big QR codes and stuck them to our vertical banners. We noticed that our QR code was quite small, so this was definitely a useful item for us to draw in people’s interest.

By the time the crowd was let inside, we already had 2 people run over at 10am on the dot. It was such a heartwarming feeling to see that people wanted to play our demo first – on the busiest day!

Throughout the day, our 4 computers were constantly full. We even had a line going, where we kept chatting with the players and showing them our Champion sheets, which highlighted their unique abilities.

After 8 hours of non-stop pitches, we arrived back to our Airbnb for a nice rest!

Our 3rd PAX Contest winner was @King218



[h3]DAY 6 – Last PAX Day[/h3]

All good things must come to an end! Sunday was our last PAX day (big sad)!

On our last day, we kept dancing to Mortal Kombat, giving out beta codes, and would continue to watch our players go through our tutorial and contest. A highlight from that day was definitely seeing a group of friends put their heads together to complete the challenges of the contest. It was awesome to hear them talk out their strategies and figure out how to solve the challenges.

At 6pm, there was a final announcement that PAX East was officially over! The enforcers came and escorted the remaining players out of the convention center.

As we packed up our booth, we filmed a few Tik Toks of “we’re game devs, of course we…”. It was really fun coming up with creative ideas and it ended up being a hilarious video!

With our 2 cars loaded up with computers, TV mounts, banners, and the remainder of our merch, we went back to our Airbnb and celebrated a job well done.

Our final PAX Contest winner was @shadowdragon654



[h3]DAY 7 – On the road again[/h3]

Time to go home! We left Boston with our heads up high and our cars loaded to the brim. Even though our feet were hurting, backs were aching, and we were sleep-deprived, it was an incredible and fulfilling weekend!

We found a sushi restaurant, played the mobile game ‘Wavelength’, and got our last dose of Dunkin Donuts before crossing the US border.

After a 5 hour drive, we’re back in the Montreal office! We unloaded our items, placed a PAX t-shirt to everyone in the studio, and the 6 happy indie devs went home!



[h3]Final Thoughts:[/h3]

Overall, it was a week to remember!! Thank you again to the Blindspot Games team and to the amazing players that came by our booth.

We’ve got lots of exciting news coming up in the next week! Our beta playtest will be taking place from April 4th to the 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!

IT'S OUT! Our official gameplay trailer for The Hexadome has just dropped!

Ready for the ultimate showdown in The Hexadome? Watch our charismatic Champions battle it out, see their unmatched abilities and synergies come to life, and feel the excitement of the crowd!

We’re so excited to reveal our official gameplay trailer! Ready to jump in The Hexadome?

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Hi everyone!

Today, we’re thrilled to share the results of The Hexadome’s Alpha Playtest!

[h3]Alpha Playtest Results:[/h3]
Let’s start by explaining why we initiated this playtest. The Hexadome: Aristeia Showdown is Blindspot Games’ first game and we ran our Alpha Playtest from February 6 to 13, 2024. This was a very exciting milestone as it was the first time we shared The Hexadome with our pioneering playtesters!

We want to take a moment to truly thank you for your unwavering support throughout this process. Your dedication to battling it out in the arena, analyzing our visuals, bopping your head to the soundtrack, and getting addicted to the gameloop has been instrumental.

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

[h3]What players liked: [/h3]

• The soundtrack
  
• The characters and their unique abilities
  
• The arena and its atmosphere
  
• The Cheers mechanic that allows to upgrade all that's upgradeable! Attacks, support skills, characters' stats, up to unleashing your ultimate attack: Cheers is the go-to resource!
  
• Learning the unique abilities of each Champions and creating synergies between them to outsmart their opponent.
  

[h3]“I like the visuals of The Hexadome and the cheers!” @Raziel[/h3]

[h3]“God damn, this game is addictive!” @AntipodeanBolt [/h3]

[h3]“Played a bunch of games. Seems pretty dang good, especially for an alpha!” @Ilan Inglis [/h3]

We learnt a few things along the way! Like how many players highlighted Laxmee as their favorite underrated Champion, pointing out her effectiveness in strategic gameplay. Despite her low HP, don’t underestimate her ability to swiftly power up her teammates. The synergy between her and her teammates definitely creates an epic battle, and occasionally leads them to victory!

A few community members pointed out that they loved pairing Laxmee and Major Lunah together. Laxmee would buff up Major Lunah, making her roll only high numbers when fighting their opponents. Major Lunah turned into a killing machine and the players felt invincible!



[h3]“After a few rounds with Laxmee, she’s definitely an underrated aristo.” @BanzaiZAP [/h3]

[h3]“I’ve been running with Laxmee in the last few games and she’s felt super nice. She can debuff a whole bunch each round, which leads to a lot of free movement. She’s definitely a champ who wants the 20 points into d/buffer.” @CAnon [/h3]

Overall, the feedback we received was very positive, with players expressing their enjoyment of the arena, the Champions, and the game mechanics.

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

• Improve the tutorial and better explain the timeline, LoS, upgrades, drops, overwatch, brawn, defence, and attacks. All these mechanics are a big part of players' strategy and we're working hard to make them clearer for our next playtests!
  
• Clarify the results of disengage, combats, and actions
  
• Add certain buttons that will help your strategies: undo option, surrender, view your opponent’s tactics, in-game tips
  
• Create a glossary of keywords and a guide of our Champions with their special abilities
  
• Create a play with friends mode
  
• Customize game modes for those that don’t want to play ranked
  
• Improve the difficulty of AI in solo matches
  

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. With your feedback and the development team at Blindspot Games, we will create the best turn-based tactics game.

Here are a few words from Aurélien Simoni, the Co-Founder at Blindspot Games:

[h3]"We’re having a lot of fun working on The Hexadome, and we believe that we have something unique on our hands. The positive reception of this Alpha confirms that we are on the right track and motivates us further to make The Hexadome an exceptional game!"[/h3]

We’ve got lots of exciting news coming up in the next few months! We’re already gearing up for our next playtest and we’re preparing for PAX East next month. We'll be in Boston from March 21st to March 24th - If you’re going, come by our booth #18102 and say hi!



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 and Facebook for exclusive sneak peeks, playtest updates, and exciting news!