Killsquad News

The famous physicist Werner Heisenberg once wrote that, in physics, some things can be, and be not, at the same time. Well, enter our own Heisenberg Launch! Killsquad CORE is live. And it’s not. Depending on who you ask.

As many of you have noticed, YES, Killsquad:CORE is now ready to download by all Steam users. So, do you want to play Killsquad: CORE this weekend? Go for it! It is waiting for you in your Steam library, not as a lame BETA, but as a full release. Come on, go play!

At the same time, we won’t be doing our marketing push today, we need to delay that to next week. Why? Because we’re still hunting one nasty bug we want to clear before announcing the game publicly. But we don’t want to keep you guys waiting. So that’s why it’s live. And that’s why we’re telling no-one until next week. Except for you guys.

So go play! Enjoy! The full game is there for you to explore. Just make sure to keep an eye on this bug: on teams of 3 or 4, you will select the contract and load. And sometimes the game will enter an endless load loop, and the mission won’t begin. A variant of the same bug is that the load will end, but you will be stuck in a first person camera view, and the game won’t work.

If this happens, don’t panic: all you need to do is close the game and try again. The bug won’t break your save game or anything like that, but it’s annoying enough that we want to fix it before going all in with the big marketing gun.

As a second note, the update is only available in English or Spanish. We will be dropping the rest of languages in the next few days (Portuguese, French, Russian, Korean, Chinese, Japanese, German and Italian) as they arrive from the translators.

As soon as we have that bug cleared, we’ll do our big announcement: a Steam event, trailers, the full package. Expect mariachis, a marching band, and creatures unknown to man roaming the streets to announce the world the arrival of Killsquad: CORE.

If you want to find out all the new goodies on Killsquad: CORE, full patch notes will come next week in the official announcement. But here is the Beta release article, which lists all the new game features:

Killsquad: CORE Beta Features

If you are part of our Beta crew, you'll be happy to know today’s build also fixes many bugs found since Beta 2. Here’s the list, on a Steam Forum post:

HotFix Patch Notes

Last, but not least, everyone at Novarama would like to personally thank all the people who took the time to write a review about Killsquad this week. We are speechless, humbled and thankful. This makes up for all the long hours of work.

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What? You read this far? Well, you didn't think we wouldn't reward you for doing that, right? Here, take this gift:

Hello all!

Welcome to another Dev Diary! As you know, every Friday we bring you the latest on Killsquad's development to you, the community. Let's cut to the chase, shall we?



Since CORE dropped last Friday, Reviews on Steam have been super positive. All the feedback on Discord has been very encouraging. Our Discord server is gaining new followers every day. We couldn't be happier. And the best is yet to come.

But today, let's talk about the Beta: we asked, and you responded. We received lots of bug reports, and we're clearing them quick. A big shout out to tehgreg, Bum, Petrisis, Mazter, shisaya24, leonardo_768, scotilen, griPP, zerogear, sikedjonny, MC, and everyone who reported issues on this beta update. Here is the report as of today:

• Fixed the bug where Zero's weapon, "Red Baron", could share its overcharged state when switching weapons.
  
• Fixed the bug where Troy's weapon, "Cognita Finem", dealt a 100% of Critical Hits (Thanks tehgreg).
  
• Fixed the bug where the game crashed when players used the Gadget "Ice Age Bomb" against Helldorren on its "Showtime" attack (Thanks tehgreg).
  
• Fixed the bug where the first encounter with the Runaway appeared with a higher Vector than intended.
  
• Fixed the bug where the first encounter with the Prototype Guerrilla appeared with a higher Vector than intended (Thanks lopedo).
  
• Fixed the bug where players would stop suddenly every time they pressed B with the controller to skip dialogs (Thanks Bum).
  
• Fixed the bug where after selecting "host private" in a contract, players returned to the Main Lobby without any selected contract (Thanks Bum).
  
• Fixed the bug where an exclamation mark appeared in Completed Quests (Thanks Petrisis).
  
• Fixed the bug where players couldn't unlock Spec Ops Contracts (Thanks Petrisis and tehgreg).
  
• Fixed a localization bug in the description of "VectorUpCase 30" (Thanks tehgreg).
  
• Fixed the bug here players didn't earn Faction EXP in some situations (Thanks tehgreg).
  
• Fixed the bug where the Runaway's Codex entry couldn't be unlocked (Thanks tehgreg).
  
• Fixed long and missing texts in Quests (Thanks Bum and tehgreg).
  
• Fixed the small text that appeared in the "Move Right" Input Settings (Thanks tehgreg).
  
• And countless bugs found by our trusty internal QA team (Thanks Hannah, Arnau, Bing, Alba and all led by Jmen)
  

We've fixed approximately 60% of the bugs reported by fans. At this pace, we'll be out of Beta soon. Now, to celebrate, we're happy to drop, effective now, Beta 2, which has all these bugs addressed. So it's a much better build. All the same rules of Beta 1 apply here, which I'll summarize below:

[h3]FAQ[/h3]
Joining the Beta
Follow this link https://discord.com/invite/killsquad and enter the #beta-instructions channel.

Save games
The Beta uses a branch of your save game. You’ll start beta with your existing save game, but the progress made during Beta won’t transfer to your main branch save game.

Backing up your save game
Please do back up your main branch save game following these instructions:

Backup everything that it’s inside the “SaveGames Folder, which can be located here:

Users\\%Username%\\AppData\\Local\\Killsquad\\Saved\\SaveGames

Inside Steam’s “userdata” folder, you can find a couple of numbered ones. In here, you have to find Killsquad’s folder (910490) and backup these folders.

Program Files (x86)\\Steam\\userdata

And check out if you have this folder route. If you have it, back it up. If not, ignore.

SteamLibrary\\steamapps\\common\\KillSquad\\Game\\Saved\\SaveGames

Streaming the Beta
Please stream the beta! But please do not do it to showcase bugs or broken systems: we are constantly working on Killsquad and of course Betas *do* have bugs.

Reporting bugs
Report bugs in the #beta-bug-report of our Discord channel. Please be specific describing the bug: the easier for us to trigger the bug, the faster we solve it.

[h3]We need your help![/h3]

Reviews!
Haven’t written a review? This is THE single most important thing you can do! Please write one if you like our work!

Social media follow:
Discord: https://discord.com/invite/killsquad
Twitter: @Killsquadgame
And on the Steam forums

Streaming!
Stream Killsquad! Tell the world about it, on Twitch, on Youtube, anywhere. If you have a significant following, contact us at [email protected], and we’ll try to support you in any way we can.

That's it for today. Come on, go play!

Hello all!

We are happy to announce the release of the Beta of our next major update, titled Killsquad: CORE.
CORE brings deep changes to all internal game systems, making a huge impact on your Killsquad experience. Our vision throughout this year has been: which core systems make Killsquad fun, and which systems should be improved? We vowed to fix all of them in a single, mega-update. Welcome to CORE, we hope you like it.

Here is a summary of the main changes:

[h3]New Vector system
[/h3]
Before CORE, enemies levelled up: you levelled up, so did they. This felt like not-progression: why keep playing, if enemies level up with you and the ratio stays the same? This full system is gone. Now, enemies have a static vector, which represents their level. So yes, when you vector up, you rise above their vector. And crush them. And feel pleasure in doing so.

[h3]New enemies & enemy generations
[/h3]
Of course, if you out-level enemies, it means we need more of them, to keep the experience fresh. CORE brings new enemies across all the Veteran section of the game. Be ready to face new foes with new powerful battle tactics. Additionally, CORE brings Enemy Generations: to diversify your enemy encounters with the new vector system, we have created 30 new enemy variations: new behaviours, new color schemes, so there’s much more to hunt and destroy.

[h3]Elemental resistance
[/h3]
CORE introduces elemental damage and elemental resistance on all enemies, enemy attacks and weapons. So be ready to invest your hard earned cash on the right tool for the right contract. Don’t use a freeze gun on an ice monster, you fool! This also affects the gear system: now there’s specific gears that bring resistance to certain types of damage. So if Helldörren is frying you, gear up to counter that.

[h3]Dual weapons
[/h3]
With elemental resistance, picking the right weapon was more important than ever. That’s why you now have the possibility of carrying two weapons, with different damage profiles. Let’s call these the mob clearing and the boss buster weapon. Choose them wisely: both influence your vector and your chances of survival.

[h3]Gadget system
[/h3]
You guys wanted more character build options. And we agree. In Killsquad your character build is not static (for example a RPG-style skill tree): it’s dynamic, and it emanates from your currently equipped gear. That’s why we expanded on this system, introducing the Gadget system. Gadgets are consumable power-ups you can carry with you and unbalance the battle. Life pools. Poison areas. As you rank up, you get more gadget slots, up to 6. These allow for an unprecedented layer of customization, and mean life or death on the harder mission, especially Colosseum and Plague. More Gadgets are coming in future updates.

[h3]Shop & reward system
[/h3]
Of course if we give you dual weapons, gears with elemental resistances & gadgets we need a place to go shopping, right? Enter the new shop! And also, pay attention to the contract end screens, these have all been revamped and now do a much better job at getting you excited about the new equipment you just earned.

[h3]New campaign map
[/h3]
This one is self-explanatory. Yes, a campaign map. A lovely one indeed. Go check it out! And, while we are at it, new tutorials so all game systems are explained. Of course tutorials will make a difference if you’re a new player only. But they are massively important.

[h3]Checkpoints[/h3]
You have been crossing a perilous land for 45 minutes. Only to reach the final boss who, as bosses do, kills you in one strike. Back to the start! So unfair. We have fixed that. The game now automatically saves progress at key moments, so you can restart from there. More fun. Less frustration.

[h3]New rendering
[/h3]
We have replaced all the lighting code. Expect dark nights. Red sunsets. Rainy days. The kind of atmosphere that would feel extremely romantic, if it wasn’t because a ten ton monster is crushing your guts. So yeah, do kill the monster. But enjoy the views along the way.


[h3]Joining the Beta
[/h3]
To join the beta, Please join https://discord.com/invite/killsquad. You can find the steps in the #beta-instructions channel.

[h3]Save games
[/h3]
The Beta uses a branch of your save game. So you’ll start beta with your existing save game, but to avoid contamination once the Beta period expires, when we release the full version, the progress made during Beta won’t transfer to your main branch save game.

[h3]Backing up your save game
[/h3]
As with any Beta, there could be bugs. Please do back up your main branch save game following these instructions:

Backup everything that it’s inside the “SaveGames Folder, which can be located here:

Users\\%Username%\\AppData\\Local\\Killsquad\\Saved\\SaveGames

Inside Steam’s “userdata” folder, you can find a couple of numbered ones. In here, you have to find Killsquad’s folder (910490) and backup these folders.

Program Files (x86)\\Steam\\userdata

And at last, please backup the files inside steamapp’s SaveGames folder.

SteamLibrary\\steamapps\\common\\KillSquad\\Game\\Saved\\SaveGames

[h3]Beta period
[/h3]
We expect this Beta to be up for approximately two weeks. Then we will release the game with all the fixes we encounter during the Beta phase.

[h3]Streaming the Beta
[/h3]
You can stream the beta, but please do not do it to showcase bugs or broken systems: we are constantly working on Killsquad and of course Betas *do* have bugs. That’s precisely their purpose, to find and fix bugs.

[h3]Reporting bugs
[/h3]
The most efficient way is by joining our Discord community. Please do so here:

https://discord.com/invite/killsquad

You can report bugs on the #beta-bug-report channel. Please be specific describing the bug: the easier for us to trigger the bug, the faster we solve it.


[h3]Roadmap
[/h3]
CORE is not the end: CORE is the beginning. We needed these 6 months to fix many internal things. But now comes the fun part, which is expanding the game on top of these new systems. We are happy to announce our Roadmap update, which includes 3 more updates after CORE. Please see them in these two images. We will do a more detailed update on roadmaps soon, in a Gathering video. But we wanted to share this right away. So yes, Christmas will bring cosmetics and Talismans. Q1 next year will take us on a journey to Skua, the base of the Feds. And summer next year we will unleash our endgame features and, yes, finally release a fifth hero so the team building options expand.







We hope you enjoy CORE. If you do, let us reiterate the following: we are not any sort of huge corporation. We are just a Barcelona-based indie studio self-funding a game. We have said it a few times, and we’ll say it again: we won’t stop until the game is perfect. We’re now more than one year into Early Access. Wanted commitment? Here’s commitment.

Now, if you like our work, and would like to lend a hand, here’s what you can do:

[h3]Reviews!
[/h3]
Do you like Killsquad? Haven’t written a review? This is THE single most important thing you can do. Reviews do magic to the Steam algorithm. And, even better, if you wrote a negative review back in the day, and came back to the game and feel we’ve done a good job, do you know you can update your review? Reviews are the blood that keeps us alive!

[h3]Social media follow:[/h3]
Discord: https://discord.com/invite/killsquad
Twitter: @Killsquadgame
And on the Steam forums

[h3]Streaming!
[/h3]Yes, do stream Killsquad. Tell the world about it, on Twitch, on Youtube, anywhere. If you have a significant following, contact us at [email protected], and we’ll try to support you in any way we can.

And now, go play. The universe needs heroes. We need heroes. Heroes like you.

Welcome to our Dev diary!

Today is a fantastic day. The Jotun on Kemmekh are working out. Helldörren the Cruel is cleaning up his Palace of Pain with a Roomba. Vasperiaths are sharpening their claws. They are waiting for their prey:

YOU

And you all know why. The Beta is coming. Yes. All the hard work of these last months is coming to an end. Very soon.

I am very happy to announce all the features are in place, and team is just doing final QA and balancing.

If all goes well, the Beta of the new Killsquad update will be live...

[h3]Friday, October 9th[/h3]

Yes. We are seven days away.

Remember this update restructures the full game, and is the result of six months of work. Here is a high-level feature list:

[h3]Update Features[/h3]

- Rework the vector system, which affects all weapons, enemies and contracts
- New enemies for veteran, which we have been showcasing these last few weeks
- New enemy generations / new behaviours for existing enemies
- New item system: consummable power-ups to use mid-battle
- Elemental damage and resistance on all enemies, weapons
- Dual weapons, so you can carry a mob clearing weapon and a boss weapon
- New in game shops for weapons, gears, items
- New campaign map
- Tutorial system for new players
- New weapon + gear skins for collectability: 3 skins per weapon
- New lighting engine
- Save Checkpoint system, so no more dying on a Boss Battle.

This update fixes many game systems we discussed with the community. We honestly hope you like it.

Here is a short FAQ, more cool stuff below:

[h3]Frequently Asked Questions[/h3]

How do I join the Beta?

If you already are a Killsquad Beta member, you should get the build right away. If you are not, please send us an email to [email protected] with "Beta Signup" as the subject line.

How does this affect my savegame?

It doesn't, with some caveats.

1) As we announced, gears now belong to the hero, and cannot be shared anymore. This has to do with the Vector rework. What we have done to keep everyone happy is to give existing players a copy of each gear for each hero, so you don't miss anything with the update. Just be aware that, in the future, each gear you buy is unique to that hero. Once the build drops, you won't be able to move gears to a new hero anymore.

2) The new build fixes things throughout the whole game. This means that be heaviest impact will be felt if you start from scratch. We won't wipe savegames, as we don't need to. But we will provide instructions on how to delete your save game and start over if you want to start from scratch.

3) The Beta uses a copy of your save game. So, if you were vector 70 prior to the Beta, and you enter the Beta, you will be vector 70. Now, once the final build drops, all progress done during Beta will be lost, so if you managed to go to vector 75 during Beta, and the master build drops, you will revert to your vector 70 save game and carry on from there. We do this to prevent a Beta save game from contaminating your progress.

4) As usual with Betas, please back-up your save game prior to downloading the Beta, just in case. We will give instructions next Friday on how to do this.

When will the final version go live?

If all goes well, 1-3 weeks after Beta, with 2 being the most likely number.

Remember a Beta is a version designed for testing and tweaking. We share it to get feedback and polish. Things can be broken, bugs can exist.

[h3]Roadmap update[/h3]

Now, more cool stuff: next week, along with the Beta, you will get a Roadmap update for the next 9 months. We get asked all the time "what comes next?". Ok, worry no more. We are gonna give you an open, clear vision of how do our next 3 updates look like.

We have said many times: we will never stop working until the game is top-notch. I think this next update is yet another proof of that. It's our 14th update since launch July last year. Want commitment? We have commitment. So yes, every time someone buys a copy of Killsquad during Early Access they are helping us fund development, showing support for indie game development, and helping us make the game better.

We can't wait to share with you what comes next. We'll talk about cosmetics. New planets. Talismans. You name it. Be here next week.

This completes our Dev Diary for today. See you next week. And yes, at last, see you in the Outer Reach.

Hello all! Welcome to today's dev diary. Beta status? yes! New enemies? yes! Here we go!

I'm happy to announce our next major update is weeks away. We're doing final touches to the feature set, then will release it as a Beta, and then a stable build. You know we've spent a good amount of time fixing many core game systems, so we hope all the hard work will be worth it!

To make the wait easier, today we're gonna update you on the last enemies to enter production. We've got cool videos from 2 of them, so we hope you like them!

First we have the RhinoSnail. This is another deformity you'll encounter on Wasteland7A. He's got a pretty large life pool, and so he's quite tough to beat. Combine that with charging attacks, and you're in for a nasty treat, especially of you're a melee player. Here's a short clip of this new creature in action:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Second, we have the RazorSnake. This slitherine creature was crafted by Helldörren to defend his living quarters. Fast and sneaky, RazorSnakes detect visitors with their electro-bionic eyes, and stalk them from the dark. Here we show you some animations from this new monstrosity:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

And here's an attack sequence:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Of course, remember each of these guys is going to appear in different generations, with unique behaviours and stats.

So for example on the next update you'll get 4 types of each of our "classic" enemies, plus these new enemies, in 2 generations each. The new enemies all go into the veteran section of the game, with different skin patterns. Check some of them out below:



I'm happy to inform you that all our new quest system is in place now. This is on top of the contracts, so you get additional goals to fulfill and rewards to unlock.

So as you can see, basically we're 90% done with the update, we hope to be able to announce the Beta date soon. If all goes well, next week. Please bear with us, one final push and we'll be able to enjoy all the new game features together.

See you in the Outer Reach!