Dev diary: Welcome to Gamescom!

Hello everyone!


We are in Cologne in full force showing Killsquad to all our German fans. If you are in town, make sure to come by and say hi! We are in Hall 10.1, Booth D050.



Our main reveal of the show is the Colosseum of the Unseen. This area will drop in our first major update soon, but we wanted to share with you a glimpse here (click to open on Youtube):



Here's the Codex entry for the Unseen:

"The universe is a stormy sea raging with factions and warfare. But among the storm, there is light and there is shadow.

You have experienced shadow, which comes in the form of Plague, the unspeakable disease that's spreading across the galaxy, destroying lifeforms and threatening the Federation.

You have faced its minions, the Nightbringers, and seen what they are capable of.

But light breaks through shadow like a knife. And, in the Killsquad universe, that knife is the light of the Unseen.

In the old days, the Unseen were counted by the thousands, a race of warriors revered throughout the galaxy.

They taught people how to fight. How to fend off Plague. How to survive. Temples and colosseums were erected in their name.

In recent times, their numbers have drastically decreased, and the Unseen can now be counted with your fingers. Plague is spreading. The only hope is for the Unseen to train new heroes, and fend off Plague once and for all.

So, in your adventures across the Killsquad lands, if you ever see a Portal... that's them. The Unseen, choosing you. As a member of Killsquad, your highest honor is to be invited to enter the Colosseum of the Unseen, to receive the ultimate training.

This is not for the faint of heart: if you're going to become a Champion of the Unseen, you better come geared up and ready for battle with everything you've got. The Unseen have no time for the weak or the weary.

They will summon the hardest adversaries in the galaxy to put your skill to the test.

Bow in defeat, and join thousands who came and failed before you.

Achieve victory in the Colosseum, and be granted rewards beyond your imagination."




A lot of you are asking us on Steam, on emails and on Discord: what are you guys preparing? What comes next for Killsquad? So, we wanted to give you a sneak peek under the hood. Expect more like these soon, as we get our stride and begin rolling out our main content updates. Of course, keep in mind all of this is work on progress, so things might and will change and evolve. All this will come as part of our roadmap of free updates during 2019:

We are working on the Federation, with the idea of expanding it into a full blown faction. More on this on our September update, but here you can see some artwork which should give you a hint of where things are going:





We are also working on new characters that will expand the lore and the gameplay of the Killsquad universe. Here's a new unit we are working on, more on him later this year:





Last, we are working a lot on Game Progression. The basic idea is to have our standard in-contract evolution, combined with a permanent "hero career" path, so you can invest hours and months into your heroes, and see them evolve and grow with you. More on this later, on our September update.



Aside from expanding the universe and gameplay, we are hard at work on more practical issues that we hope will have a huge impact on the enjoyment of the game. Here is a list of what we are actively pursuing:

• Steamcloud, cloud saves, support for multiple computers, cyber cafes, etc. We are making progress, but work still remains. So far, we have:
  
  • Fixed a number of issues, reducing the amount of problems related to this
    
  • Published a comprehensive guide to alleviate the inconvenience while we find more permanent solutions. Please find it here
  • If you're a player using multiple computers, we are interested in knowing if the latest builds work better, as we have made changes to the way we use Steamcloud to increase security.
    
• QuickPlay: we are working on a solution to the "there's people on the servers, but matchmaking doesn't pair me and I end up playing on my own" problem. We will implement a "Play Now" option, so you can jump into a game right away, and always find people to play with.
  
• Higher bandwidth: We had to slow down progress a bit during August due to the holiday season. We're happy to announce we've back full steam, with 2 additional hires (bringing the code team at Killsquad to 7 coders). You won't notice this now, but we hope this will accelerate efforts September onwards on new game features.
  
  

Last, but not least, for our friends in the USA, we will be at PAX next week in Seattle. We hope to meet more of you guys there.




If you love Killsquad, tell your friends about it, and please do write a review! Did you know research shows people with negative opinions are more likely to express them than people with positive ones? The same applies to game reviews! Don't let anger and negatiity win: if you like Killsquad, please spend 1 minute writing about it. That's the biggest favour we can ask.


Last, but not least, if you experience bugs...

• We're very sorry about that. Killsquad is an evolving game in Early Access and we're improving things constantly. We've fixed dozens of issues. And more will come.
  
• Please tell us at [email protected] or on the Steam discussion board so we can make it better!