MORSE News

[p]The time has come! MORSE has a release date...[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]You can check out the launch trailer here: MORSE - Official Release Date Announcement Trailer[/p][p][/p][p]Here are some of the features of the final game:[/p]

• [p]A frantic campaign mode featuring a midnight breach of the Blockade of Germany. [/p]
• [p]A skirmish mode to hone your telegraphy skills on a breadth of different words.[/p]
• [p]40 different characters to learn in Morse Code.[/p]
• [p]3 different telegraph types and calibration settings to tune to your needs.[/p]
• [p]Put your knowledge and skill to the test with Expert Mode.[/p]
• [p]Connect up a homebrew or commercial telegraph key for the authentic MORSE experience.[/p]
• [p]Explore the manual to learn more about MORSE but also how to apply and expand your knowledge of Amateur Radio. [/p]

[p][/p][p]It's the final push for the project so if you haven't done so already, give MORSE a Wishlist and tell your friends and communities about the project! [/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]I'm so excited to finally be getting the game out of the door, MORSE has been a long time coming since the Flash origins of the project back in 2015. It's gone through numerous iterations and settled on on a form that's deliverable but still true to the original's vision. I can't quite believe it's finally complete.[/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]I got thoroughly burnt out from MORSE a couple of years ago and had to come to terms with the fact the game may never see release. But, at the start of this year I realised 2025 marked the 10th year of MORSE's existence, and decided that it had to be finished. Through a lot of hard work and the support of good friends, the goal has been reached.[/p][p][/p][p]This achievement is however bittersweet; MORSE represents my swan song for my time in games development. Whilst I love the medium of games and have thoroughly enjoyed my career in the industry, this will be my last major commercial games project before I focus on my research and advocacy around designing play for the elderly and people with dementia. [/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]It is rare for developers (particularly during this difficult industry landscape) to end their career in games on their terms and on a high. Regardless of how MORSE does on launch, I'm very happy with the game I've built, proud of myself for committing to completion and am so eager to see if the game can help bring new people into amateur radio. The engagement with the ham radio community has been deeply enriching so far, I hope MORSE can inspire others to consider designing tailored experiences to engage other passionate communities in need of support. [/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]Having said all this, my departure from games doesn't mean I'll be ditching MORSE. I have update plans for the project which I'll elaborate on once launch is out of the way. At the very least, I want to continue touring the game around Hamfests and events dedicated to preserving and growing Amateur Radio, MORSE serving as a tool for outreach and education. There's also still one major reveal that we're yet to share.[/p][p][/p][p]If you've found MORSE interesting, please consider reaching out to friends, community groups or streamers to tell them about the project. Whilst I feel confident about the quality of the game, I am very aware in the current climate, there's no guarantee of quality translating to success. [/p][p][/p][p]Thank you again to everyone who has been patient in awaiting the release, in particular those who have followed MORSE for years now. I truly hope the game meets your expectations.[/p][p][/p][p]73, Alex[/p]

[p]Hello folks![/p][p]Thanks for your patience the last few weeks, it's been a very busy time for me. I'm developing this whilst juggling other jobs, so doing these writeups requires a moment of quiet. Without further ado, lets get stuck in![/p][p]I've had a big push for the 24th of last month to get a version of the game that is effectively feature complete and ready for playtesting, something that I've successfully achieved. There's been a substantial number of additions, here are some of the things I've added: [/p][p][/p][p]+ Cruisers: These were great fun to implement, first pass involved adjusting the graphics I previously had for the Cruiser, as they were too far removed from the rest of the ships. Second task was differentiating it enough from the Dreadnought and Minesweeper. Minesweepers now attack at higher speed at close range, Dreadnoughts do high damage at very long range, the Cruiser sits between the two as a mid ranged ship that fires a volley of two artillery shells per salvo. The Cruiser is heavily armoured, numerous and explode violently when destroyed. The game really kicks up a notch once they enter the fray. Only tweak is there's maybe too many of them at the moment, so I'll be decreasing their frequency slightly to not overload the player, particularly on the higher levels.[/p][p][/p][p]+ Achievements: MORSE now has over 20 different achievements to unlock, testing speed, accuracy and ability to beat the game with different keys! Adds a nice cumulative feel to the game and gives players some extra challenges beyond the campaign. [/p][p][/p][p]+ Umlauts and Dynamic help sheet! In keeping with the presence of German, MORSE now features Umlauts (ä, ö, ü) which are different German letters that have their own Morse variants:[/p][p]1. Ä: .-.-[/p][p]2. Ö ---.[/p][p]3. Ü ..--[/p][p]These throw a little bit of variance in there and mean German words can be accommodated. Leading on from this feature, the help sheet will update based on if your coordinates get scrambled, avoiding situations where you don't know the grid you need to move to (because it's off screen).[/p][p][/p][p]+ Skirmish Mode: As you might remember, the game previously was just randomised words for the maps rather than a "Campaign" of curated ones, so I re-added that mode in for people to experiment/practice with. After playing the Campaign over and over again in playtesting, it's refreshing to beat a bunch of new levels/words again. The start menu has been updated to add an additional option to alternate easily between the modes and leaves the door open to more mode types being added. [/p][p][/p][p]+ More tutorials and expansion of manual: Through playtesting, it became clear that elements of the game weren't explained in depth enough for players to grasp, so I've added a dedicated tutorial explaining the receiver and I've added some supporting tutorial images/text for explaining submarine functionality. I've expanded the enemy sections in the manual and added new areas such as ARDF and BOTA, I hope that it's going to be a growing document with more updates.[/p][p][/p][p]+ Campaign Implemented: Very excited to confirm that the bulk of work to add a Campaign for the game has been implemented! Given the narrative richness of the UKGF version of the game, I wanted there to be some narrative grounding for the setting, though doing it in a way that didn't bloat scope. In summary, each mission starts with a Naval Signal giving you some narrative that ties to the word you're using in gameplay. For example in the image above.[/p][p]The format uses Naval Signals, which include a location, time, who it's from, date and message, all of which gives subtle bits of worldbuilding. The waves play out over the course of a midnight raid of the Kaiser's fleet and I've tied the widening of the grid to an increasing breach in the naval blockade. What I'm particularly pleased with is I've used a black highlight for the word that's being used in the grid so you know what you're in for. [/p][p]All in all, it's a simple enough implementation that adds a sprinkle of narrative and ties the plot to the words in the level like the previous version. To give the levels more of a distinct form to them, I've added a "Blackout" mode to the Campaign with limited visibility (mirroring the expert mode) and made the spawning more curated. Find out more below:[/p][p][/p][p]+ Blackout: On expert mode, the game is played in "Blackout", meaning enemy ships unless directly hit will remain hidden, decreasing your visibility. The problem I had was how to visualise the mode change, so the grid is now blacked out, the fog of war significantly further forward and the letter colours flipped, which differentiates it from the regular mode. In the Campaign, this mode is also added in intervals to mix up combat and provide extra tension.[/p][p][/p][p]+ Spawning refinement: Previously, MORSE would throw every ship unlocked by that point at you, which got a bit repetitive and challenging towards the end of the campaign, so I added some logic that means you're much more likely to get certain ships on certain maps. This worked well as it ties the narrative and word choice in with the enemy spawning, makes the game feel more cohesive and a bit easier to predict in the Campaign (and plan accordingly). [/p][p]I've also spread the ship spawning out a bit more, adding logic to limit bunching of ships. Further, the ships previously had a currency associated with them (1-5) to take from the spawn budget, the budget increases with each successive wave. I've increased the values for the high end ships to balance out the distribution of enemies. It's dropped the number of enemies but means you're not getting an unbeatable concentration of enemies at once.[/p][p][/p][p]+ Accuracy Scale Overhaul, Enhanced Upgrades and Accuracy Threshold: I've taken a hatchet to the accuracy scale, previously it was far too punitive where if you missed ONE shot, you'd lose your "combo" fully, which with the multi-shot shell types was a point of frustration that came up again and again in the feedback. So, this is what's changed:[/p]

• [p]The scale does decrease when you miss, but the amount it decreases starts low and rises with each successive missed hit. Means the odd miss won't hurt too bad, but fully missing with a salvo you're punished for. This allows players to shoot in the dark more without feeling like they're going to be punished for trying to do reconnaissance.[/p]
• [p]There is however now motivation to avoid missing where possible: Accuracy Threshold checks if you manage to maintain a level of accuracy above a certain amount, giving you both faster reload (as was the case before) but also unlocking more powerful upgrades. This means you can be a bit a more tactical with your choice of upgrade, sometimes it'll be better to let the scale sit below the threshold to unlock basics whilst otherwise you'll want to unlock the most powerful stuff.[/p]

[p][/p][p]As for what I have left to do:[/p][p]- Balancing: I can beat MORSE, but after a recent playtest it's clear that the skill curve is too steep with too much introduced between waves. Having too much substance isn't a bad thing necessarily, but I need to do some further refinement to smoothen out that curve. This will most likely mean reducing the wave "Budget" increase and spreading it across more waves, I'm thinking 20 would be sufficient. Cruisers currently are too much of a dominant force so I'll be dialling them back and certain levels have huge difficulty spikes, hopefully there's enough time to get these all ironed out.[/p][p][/p][p]- Full Save Function: I was particularly dreading implementing the save function for this game, mainly because there's so many interconnected systems that it could play havoc with. Thankfully I have been able to get everything reliably loading/saving achievements and unlocks, but full save functionality remains a major task. The core 3 things that need sorting:[/p]

• [p]Preserving upgrades: If a player quits the game and rejoins, their upgrade stats should be retained, such as shell type unlocks.[/p]
• [p]Mine spawning: This is definitely the biggest of the 3 tasks: Storing the mines in several lists with 3 data points; upgrade level and X and Y position and making sure they reliably spawn in on load.[/p]
• [p]Maintaining consistency: General rigor to make sure that level sequences load correctly, such as the state, word choice and grid length.[/p]

[p]- Finish implementing achievements: The achievements should (hopefully) be easy to implement, just a case of getting on with it and making sure they strike the balance of ambitious whilst not being too challenging.[/p][p][/p][p]- Steamdeck Compatibility: I really need to get MORSE so the controller loads automatically with the handset, just a bunch of admin faff but hopefully can be figured out in time, the game feels a really good fit on handheld.[/p][p][/p][p]- Playtesting: I'm going to be doing some last minute playtesting with various groups to really nail down last issues.[/p][p][/p][p]All in all, I'm very excited that the project is coming close to being done, it's bee a long time coming with the project but it's almost over the line, it's going to be great to see what people think of the game.[/p][p]Finally, I just wanted to say how excited I was to see MORSE featured on the "Ham Radio Crash Course" afterchat, it's exciting to see the game slowly finding its place in the ham radio community! [/p][p][/p][p][/p][p][/p][p]That's all for now, stay tuned for more soon, got some more fun things coming down the pipe. [/p][p]73, Alex[/p]

[p]Hey folks! [/p][p][/p][p]Very exciting announcement - MORSE received a two page feature in EDGE Magazine's November Edition! I am absolutely over the moon about this. I was visited by the EDGE team last year at my local hackspace. We discussed everything from interactive LED installations, designing games to help people in care homes, approachable games design and of course, giving them a hands on preview of MORSE. [/p][p][/p][p]There was a big emphasis in the article about my goal of getting folks to use telegraphs to operate the game and introducing more people to Morse Code. Hopefully inspires more people to give it a try building their own and means more ham radio folks find it. [/p][p][/p][p]Regardless of how the game does on launch, this is a lovely artefact to have for my career, I'm very grateful for the feature. I'd love to be able to share with you what was said, but you can get a copy of the magazine here and check it out for yourself! [/p][p][/p][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink]Also wanted to highlight this Lets Play by the channel N7KOM Mountaintop Portable Radio who did a playthrough using a Naval Flameproof Key, was very cathartic to watch. I've also been increasingly hearing from folks trying to find technical solutions to wire up their keys with MORSE, it's so exciting that folks are going that extra mile!
[/p][p][/p][p]I'd really appreciate you Wishlisting MORSE, but if you're still not convinced, I'll be doing an update soon showing all the wonderful new features that will be making it into the release build. [/p][p][/p][p]Thanks![/p][p][/p][p]73, Alex[/p]

[p]Hello folks! [/p][p]Just an apology for the lack of posts since August, it has been a thoroughly busy time but I can assure you I've been working hard on MORSE and will have some major announcements coming soon! Your patience, as always, is greatly appreciated.[/p][p]In the meantime, I wanted to share some exciting news! I recently had the privilege of showing MORSE as a guest of the Radio Society of Great Britain at National Hamfest, the UK's largest ham radio event. It was such a wonderful weekend, got to meet lots of new people, proper immerse myself in the culture of the hobby and get a deeper understanding of how the organisations that support Amateur Radio operate. Check out the video I did around the event:[/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p][/p][p]One of the things that's motivated me a lot in the last few years is how games can serve as a tool to enrich cultural spaces and community groups, particularly those underserved by play (such as the elderly). MORSE has been designed with this in mind, the game is intended not as an endpoint for curiosity into ham radio, but a potential diving board down the rabbit hole. Further, my hopes are for it to serve as a way for encouraging intergenerational play between younger audiences (enthusiastic about games) and older audiences (enthusiastic about ham radio) to help bring new folks into the fold.[/p][p]Whilst my enthusiasm for Telegraphy has been ongoing for a decade, I'm relatively new to that broader Ham Radio hobby. But, over the 6 months really delving into it, I've become increasingly fascinated and immersed in different communities. The group I became a member of recently was the Radio Society of Great Britain or RSGB, they're a century old organisation that does outreach, education and advocacy for Amateur Radio in the UK. I got in touch with them directly earlier this year and they expressed a keen interest in doing more hands on, practical installations at their booth at National Hamfest, so seemed a natural fit for MORSE and I was absolutely stoked to get involved.[/p][p][/p][p]For the event I had two versions of MORSE, one with my Iambic Key and my Straight Key. The Iambic Key was running on a Steamdeck, whilst the other was connected to my LED rope installation that outputs dots and dashes along the LED strip. The idea was to have the Straight Key as an approachable interface for those unfamiliar with Morse Code and an Iambic Key as an approachable interface for those familiar with Morse (a majority of folks that still do CW use Paddles for input). [/p][p]We got a really good placement right in the middle of the RSGB area who had a sizeable footprint for the event, National Hamfest itself was hosted in a big hall on Newark Showground, an old RAF site. The LED rope I mounted up the side of a girder so it really stood out as a beacon to draw folks over. I was quite nervous going into Hamfest, whilst I did have a positive response from the online Ham Radio community for MORSE, there wasn't a guarantee that it'd translate into a conventional setting, but sure enough, MORSE went down really well! [/p][p][/p][p]We had a number of players come say hello who'd been following MORSE online who expressed their enthusiasm about the project, I got to give several seasoned hams their first experience of sending Morse (licenses haven't required Morse proficiency in over 20 years) and watch telegraphists demolish the game. I was particularly fond of was getting older Hams to give the game a go who were able to operate the game because of the familiar controller (Iambic and Straight keys) and were drawn in by the various keys I had lining the table. Even the small interactions were appreciated, several just enjoyed entering messages with the LED rope linked Straight Key which was fun to watch. I'm looking at designing games for older audiences (including those with dementia) once I've finished MORSE, so it was great to have another case study. [/p][p][/p][p]I also got interviewed by several Ham Radio journalists and got to spend time with the folks of the RSGB and get to know them. Sam, their Youth Activities and Engagement Champion was really generous with his time in discussing and playing MORSE, he gave so many different insights to explore, particularly helping me refine the controls for the Iambic key. [/p][p]Easily my highlight was that ahead of the event, I had decided to put some minijack sockets on the back of the MORSE controllers for different telegraph keys to be plugged into. I'd theorised that attendees might have their telegraphs with them and would want to try the game with that personal touch. Sure enough, several attendees connected up their personal telegraphs, my favourite was a homebrew Iambic telegraph made out of a plug socket (below) which was very satisfying to use. [/p][p][/p][p]All in all, it was such a fantastic event to be involved in and cathartic to see that there is an appetite for the project. I am eager to bring MORSE to other Hamfests and festivals, particularly ones abroad next year! MORSE aside, I had a really great time, I got to meet lots of interesting people, learn more about the hobby such as ARDF and BOTA and I got myself a single paddle key and a tiny homebrew Iambic key from the markets. As mentioned earlier, I rounded off the event by registering as a member of the RSGB, getting my first radio and I hope to get my foundation license by the end of the year. Will definitely be back next year.[/p][p][/p][p]If you have any suggestions for any events coming up in the UK or elsewhere you think MORSE would be a good fit, please let me know!

Thanks again for reading this and your interest in the project, I'll be following up shortly with an update on MORSE, got lots of things to discuss!
[/p][p]73, Alex[/p]

[p]Hey folks![/p][p]Just dropping a chunky update for where MORSE is at, thanks for your patience. It's been just over a month since I last posted but wanted to give reassurance that I am still beavering away at the project, here's some of the recent updates: [/p][p][/p][p]+ MEGACON and Sheffield Games Market: Had such a wonderful time showing off the game at these events, the installation was very well received by the public and got lots of useful feedback. Here's some photos from the events![/p][p][/p][p]We had quite a few people play cooperative on the game which I love, one person operates the telegraph, the other the launch button. [/p][p][/p][p]My highlight was getting to see a young boy who was partially sighted and partially deaf play the game and absolutely smash the game, his father mentioned the fact the game was high contrast helped him play. Was very sweet to see, I think the youngest we had playing was 4![/p][p]Here's some footage of the demo being beaten at Megacon: [/p][previewyoutube][/previewyoutube][p]+ Submarines: The latest enemy type, I've been trying to figure out for a while to implement them and finally found a satisfying manner of doing so. Submarines are permanently hidden, even shooting them directly will not reveal them as they're beneath the water. They are effectively jammers, scrambling your letter selection as they move. They're really hard to spot but because they're scrambling letters on the X and Y axis local to them, you can zero in on their location as they scramble more of the letters and numbers around them. They add a fresh spin on gameplay whilst still being cohesive. Here's some extended gameplay showing the submarines in action:[/p][p][/p][p][dynamiclink][/dynamiclink]+ Expanded Manual: This bit I'm particularly proud of, I've expanded the manual to have a tonne of information about Morse Code. It discusses the different activities available, how to get started with ham radio, common terms/shorthand and national organisations that folks can join if they want to find their local clubs or national events. I'm planning to expand this as the game develops and I come across more events, groups and activities. I have very fond memories from Age of Empires 2 of vast collections of information and history about the different factions/historical events of the time and I'd like MORSE to be a launch point for people to discover the hobby of ham radio rather than an end point. [/p][p][/p][p]+ Receiving Morse Code: Speaking of giving people an entry point into ham radio, this is a small update but with a significant change to the game! A common critique from folks learning Morse Code (and hams more generally) is the dominance of visual Morse Code in my game. So, I've added the ability to receive Morse Code through sound, specifically the coordinates of ships! When you fire, you receive the position of the first ship hidden in the dark on that row audio. You can see this in the video below.[/p][p]I'm undecided on whether this will be an ability or something just available for players throughout, but it it's fun mimicking the audio and seeing the crosshair reach the corresponding letter. Means you build an association between the letter and the sound in a way that it wasn't before (if you can copy the sound and rhythm of the sound, you can create the letter). Any suggestions for implementation would be appreciated! I've also added a blinking light for those hard of hearing to use as reference.[/p][p][/p][p]Here's a video demonstrating the receiver: [/p][p]Morse Transmissions now added to my WW1 telegraphy game![/p][p]+ Key binding for Iambic/Sideswiper: This was a huge faff, but getting key binding sorted for the multi-paddle keys has been sorted! Means that folks can wire up their telegraphs proper to play the game with like their straight keys.[/p][p][/p][p]+ Detail and polish: I've been adding as much polish to the project and detail to the project as possible, things like a backing for the deck cards with dots and dashes, adding a subtle bit of red to the mines when placed, tweaking the probability of ships exploding, fixing issues with mine spawning and softening the penalty for missing a shell on your accuracy scale. [/p][p][/p][p]The launch is coming relatively soon (to be announced soon!) so I'm trying to limit new features/additions so close to launch. Having said that, here's what I have left to do:[/p][p]- Save system: This is going to be a real messy element to integrate for mid-run saves, so to begin with I'm going to get the baseline working for saving base game data (E.g. Achievements and unlocks) then expand from there.[/p][p]- Refinement of the accuracy scale: I'm not happy with it currently, it does enhance the gameplay but is too punitive and lacks a defined purpose. [/p][p]- Tutorial implementation: Whilst I do have a functional tutorial, I have LOADS of lovely visuals in the manual that aren't being properly utilised. [/p][p]- Implement the Cruiser: This enemy is designed but hasn't been properly added to the game yet, [/p][p]- Refinement of Iambic/Semi-Auto: Whilst I'm happy with the Iambic key mapping function, both Iambic and Semi auto need further refinement.[/p]