Dev Diary 3: KILLSQUAD is a place
Welcome back, bounty hunters.
Team is working really hard to deliver a killer E3 demo. If you come to LA, come say hi in the Indiecade booth (West Hall, #5200). We’ll have a really nice playable version of KILLSQUAD. We’ll give you KILLSQUAD goodies. It’s gonna be a blast.
Today, I wanted to talk about what I feel makes KILLSQUAD great. Yes, the visuals are nice. Yes, the fast-paced control feels great, both on keyboard or gamepad. We have monsters that’ll make your jaw drop. But there’s something else we try to do on all Novarama games, which we think sets our games apart. And it’s this: our games are not just games: they are places.
If you think about it, when you go see a movie, if the movie is great, you’re not on the theater. If you’re watching say Lord of the Rings, you’re not in a Cineplex: you’re in Mordor, and Aragorn is your buddy. Mentally, movies have a capacity to transport us to places and generate powerful emotions.
Games, being interactive, are ten times more powerful.
KILLSQUAD, like all Novarama games, wasn’t born as an experience. We didn’t think: what do we want players to do? What is the gameplay? We thought: where do we want players to go? And we all agreed: remember that scene on Star Wars (the original one, yes, of course), where Luke and Obi Wan go to the Mos Eisley space cantina? That feeling of: “this is revered ground, the place where bounty hunters flock to find gigs, collect rewards, and make new friends or team mates”? KILLSQUAD tries to be that place.
Everything in KILLSQUAD is designed so the moment you boot it, you are mentally in a seedy Bounty Hunter Space Cantina.
So, we started working, and designing a story mode. But it felt weird. Because, if you’re in a space cantina, you have no clue what comes next. Maybe you’ll go on a bounty hunting trip to kill the Helldörren, a warlord. Maybe you’ll lead a revolt against the Federation. Cantinas bring adventure.
That’s why KILLSQUAD doesn’t have a story mode per se: what we have instead is a contract screen, where all the players in the world receive proposals to go places and get stuff done. That’s what would happen on Mos Eisley: somewhere on the cantina there would be a crappy wooden board and, on the board, adventures for you to pick. That is exactly the structure of KILLSQUAD. But our “board” has two characteristics that make it special.
The first one is that contracts are shared. Which means you see the same ones I see. So, if I say “ok, I’m gonna pick this one, kill the Jotun who’s running wild on Kemmekh”, on your screen you’ll get an update: “someone is assembling a squad to go kill a Jotun on Kemmekh”. And, you know what? You can tag along. Like on a space cantina. So, missions are improv. Wanna go with a friend? Sure! Want to assemble a team of perfect unkowns? Go for it.
Of course, players can always tag their contracts as private, so they are not visible to the rest of the bounty hunting community. Do this if you wanna play with your mates. If you wanna go solo (yes, you can play Killsquad alone). Or if you just have a bad day and wanna go solo. Like Han. Yeah, terrible joke, I know.
The second thing is that the contract browser is adaptive. So, it’s gonna offer you things that make sense to you. We don’t force you to do this or that contract: you’re a bounty hunter. No-one tells bounty hunters where to go. So, we’ll offer you custom experiences that fit your level, so you can choose your poison.
This is tied to your vector which I’ll cover in a future article, but is basically your hero level. We compute your hero level, which depends on your weapons and gear, and think “ok, what would be cool contracts for this guy?”.
You’re gonna get some easy ones, but there will be tough stuff as well. And there may be events. Hey, maybe this week we’re doing a competition, so we’ll show you that as well.
The last thing is that our system is always evolving. Which means we can do all sorts of cool stuff. Maybe we have special contracts on weekends. Maybe we ramp up difficulty and do a suicide week. Maybe we celebrate Independence Day with a specific, only that week contract. A living system means a living game universe. And a living game universe is… well, a living universe is cool. Period.
So that’s our vision: KILLSQUAD is a bounty hunter cantina, where all players meet, build squads, to go on quests together. It’s a place of socialization, of community. It’s designed to adapt to you, so there’s always a cool adventure at your fingertips. And it’s alive, so it will be ever changing.
Now, you guys bear with us for a bit while we test the game.
Ship will depart to the Space Cantina soon.
We can’t wait to open the door and say “welcome, bounty hunter".
E3 update!
Team is working really hard to deliver a killer E3 demo. If you come to LA, come say hi in the Indiecade booth (West Hall, #5200). We’ll have a really nice playable version of KILLSQUAD. We’ll give you KILLSQUAD goodies. It’s gonna be a blast.
Today, I wanted to talk about what I feel makes KILLSQUAD great. Yes, the visuals are nice. Yes, the fast-paced control feels great, both on keyboard or gamepad. We have monsters that’ll make your jaw drop. But there’s something else we try to do on all Novarama games, which we think sets our games apart. And it’s this: our games are not just games: they are places.
If you think about it, when you go see a movie, if the movie is great, you’re not on the theater. If you’re watching say Lord of the Rings, you’re not in a Cineplex: you’re in Mordor, and Aragorn is your buddy. Mentally, movies have a capacity to transport us to places and generate powerful emotions.
Games, being interactive, are ten times more powerful.
Enter the Space Cantina
KILLSQUAD, like all Novarama games, wasn’t born as an experience. We didn’t think: what do we want players to do? What is the gameplay? We thought: where do we want players to go? And we all agreed: remember that scene on Star Wars (the original one, yes, of course), where Luke and Obi Wan go to the Mos Eisley space cantina? That feeling of: “this is revered ground, the place where bounty hunters flock to find gigs, collect rewards, and make new friends or team mates”? KILLSQUAD tries to be that place.
Everything in KILLSQUAD is designed so the moment you boot it, you are mentally in a seedy Bounty Hunter Space Cantina.
Who needs a story mode?
So, we started working, and designing a story mode. But it felt weird. Because, if you’re in a space cantina, you have no clue what comes next. Maybe you’ll go on a bounty hunting trip to kill the Helldörren, a warlord. Maybe you’ll lead a revolt against the Federation. Cantinas bring adventure.
That’s why KILLSQUAD doesn’t have a story mode per se: what we have instead is a contract screen, where all the players in the world receive proposals to go places and get stuff done. That’s what would happen on Mos Eisley: somewhere on the cantina there would be a crappy wooden board and, on the board, adventures for you to pick. That is exactly the structure of KILLSQUAD. But our “board” has two characteristics that make it special.
Tag along with me…
The first one is that contracts are shared. Which means you see the same ones I see. So, if I say “ok, I’m gonna pick this one, kill the Jotun who’s running wild on Kemmekh”, on your screen you’ll get an update: “someone is assembling a squad to go kill a Jotun on Kemmekh”. And, you know what? You can tag along. Like on a space cantina. So, missions are improv. Wanna go with a friend? Sure! Want to assemble a team of perfect unkowns? Go for it.
Yeah but I hate people
Of course, players can always tag their contracts as private, so they are not visible to the rest of the bounty hunting community. Do this if you wanna play with your mates. If you wanna go solo (yes, you can play Killsquad alone). Or if you just have a bad day and wanna go solo. Like Han. Yeah, terrible joke, I know.
Tailor-made death
The second thing is that the contract browser is adaptive. So, it’s gonna offer you things that make sense to you. We don’t force you to do this or that contract: you’re a bounty hunter. No-one tells bounty hunters where to go. So, we’ll offer you custom experiences that fit your level, so you can choose your poison.
This is tied to your vector which I’ll cover in a future article, but is basically your hero level. We compute your hero level, which depends on your weapons and gear, and think “ok, what would be cool contracts for this guy?”.
You’re gonna get some easy ones, but there will be tough stuff as well. And there may be events. Hey, maybe this week we’re doing a competition, so we’ll show you that as well.
It’s alive!
The last thing is that our system is always evolving. Which means we can do all sorts of cool stuff. Maybe we have special contracts on weekends. Maybe we ramp up difficulty and do a suicide week. Maybe we celebrate Independence Day with a specific, only that week contract. A living system means a living game universe. And a living game universe is… well, a living universe is cool. Period.
So that’s our vision: KILLSQUAD is a bounty hunter cantina, where all players meet, build squads, to go on quests together. It’s a place of socialization, of community. It’s designed to adapt to you, so there’s always a cool adventure at your fingertips. And it’s alive, so it will be ever changing.
Now, you guys bear with us for a bit while we test the game.
Ship will depart to the Space Cantina soon.
We can’t wait to open the door and say “welcome, bounty hunter".
"This is your home”.