Killsquad News

Hello all, here's what we have been working on this week. As you will see, we are making progress on all the items discussed in our last Gathering video. If you missed it, it's here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aB3GlYDpsyU


1) We have added weaknesses, strengths and attack types to all enemies. These can now be consulted on the Codex, and of course are applied in battle:




2) On a non-visible update, but crucially important, the team has completed work on Checkpoints for all Bosses/final battles on the Veteran section. So, when you die in a boss fight, you get a second chance without having to cross the whole level again. Next week we will carry that onto the Recruit section. With that, the full game will have the announced checkpoint system we described at the Gathering.


3) Work has begun on the new enemies, here is one of them in 3D, more coming soon, there's 6 of them in production as we speak:




4) The biggest change announced at the Gathering was the revamp of the levelling/contract/vector/enemy system. We are now implementing all of this. It's already working across Wasteland07 and Kemmekh, next week we will implement the new vectoring / enemy system on The Palace of Pain, our 3rd world, and begin balancing it.


5) The new shop is also making good progress. All inventories are loaded, weapons have their own elemental strengths. We are now working on effects & bits and bobs of the new shop. In this case, all the notifications for new products:



You can now preview skins on your heroes, with the new shop style:




6) Also as part of the new shop, we can now confirm all gears will be visible on your hero. So, as you equip a gear, that gear will be worn on the shoulderpads or your bounty hunter. As examples, here are two such gears, in 3D:






7) We are migrating to Unreal 4.25. Which brings lots of bug fixes, but also enables the amazing Atmosphere system. So you can expect day-night cycles, better nights, evenings, dawns and dusks, across the Killsquad universe. Nothing to show just yet, but check out this video, it's really cool:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

So that is it for this first week of Dev Diaries. We will be back next week with more goodies. We hope to show you the whole progression UI (contracts, shop, inventory) plus much more enemy work! We still have one more week of pure dev work then the effort will shift to balancing, playtesting and debugging all the new systems.

Take care!

In this video our game director explains all the features currently being developed, which will drop in the next few months. Enjoy, and let's discuss on the forums!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

A dark Plague is attacking the Killsquad universe. One by one, planets are falling, infected by an unknown force. Creatures are mutated into pulsating blobs of pure evil. And the Federation just can’t cope. Someone is going to have to step in before it’s too late. Welcome to a new episode of the Killsquad saga, Crush the Plague.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
Crush the Plague is the natural continuation of the Genesis update we released two months ago. On Genesis, you got the first Act of Killsquad, the 12 Recruit contracts. You got your first glimpse into the life of a band of space bounty hunters: chaos, destruction and money.

Crush the Plague delivers the next 8 contracts, designed for Veteran players. Expect longer, harder missions for you and your friends to embark on. You’re going to face the Federation Forces, the controllers of the galaxy. You’re going to embark on relatively mild zoological expeditions. But things are going to get messy with curses, minions of the Plague, new mission types and brand-new epic bosses for you to battle against.

Remember Killsquad is an Early Access game. Released in July 2019, we are updating it every 2 months as we continue development. So, if you are a Killsquad supporter, Crush the Plague is our way of saying thank you and giving you a reason to come back to the game. And, if you haven’t tried Killsquad before, now it’s a better moment than ever: a 20 contract storyline, dozens of enemies to crush, epic boss battles, on top of a classic 4 player coop class-based top-down bullet extravaganza.

And stay tuned. Our next update takes us to Space Station Skua, the battlestation of the Federation Forces: new environments, a whole new set of enemies, coming to your screen in the Early Summer. And we are working on the game’s progression system, to give you a deeper career path for each one of our heroes.

Crush the Plague is our way to send all of you, our fans, a message of unity and courage. The full update has been developed by the Novarama team working from home due to Covid19. While the “Plague” theme existed before the Covid19 outbreak, we thought a message of fighting disease, of heroes united, and of overcoming challenge, was what our fans needed.

So, in these dark times, we’re gonna tell you to team with your friends and go in a monster killing spree. Together. Because that’s what we heroes do.

We hope you enjoy Crush the Plague. See you in the Outer Reach!

[h3]Useful Links[/h3]
Twitter: https://twitter.com/killsquadgame
Discord https://discord.com/invite/killsquad
Bug reporting: [email protected]
Full build notes:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/910490/discussions/0/2242174386384051222/

[h3]Hello bounty hunters![/h3]

We have just released the Beta version of our next major development update to Killsquad, aptly titled: Crush the Plague. As you know, our last update overhauled the whole recruit experience, the first act of the game. Crush the Plague upgrades the first section of the Veteran experience, providing 8 brand new action packed contracts. New quests. New bosses. You name it.

In Crush the Plague, an evil force is spreading throughout the Killsquad universe. It contaminates all life forms. It deforms creatures and turns them into monsters. And it’s getting worse every day. Someone must step in and sort out this mess. That’s us, the Killsquad. Sounds familiar? With this update, we want to remind all of you, our fans, that in troubled times, a party of heroes is all you need to fix things and stamp plagues out. The Killsquad will prevail, and so will we.



This full update has been developed by the Novarama team working hard from home due to Covid19. While the “Plague” theme existed before the Covid19 outbreak, we thought a message of fighting disease, of heroes united, and of overcoming challenge, was what our fans needed.

As with all Beta versions, there may be bugs. So, please play only if you wish to participate in our Beta program. To join, please send us an e-mail here at [email protected], with the subject line "Killsquad Beta Program participation". After a couple of hours, you will receive instructions on how to join.

We are hoping to release Crush the Plague as a stable public build in 1-2 weeks. We really hope you’re all doing great, and, if our game can make your days of confinement a bit, our goal as a company has been fulfilled. So now, enjoy Crush the Plague!

And the good news don't stop here. In the next few weeks we will be revealing what comes next: new adventures as the Killsquad assaults Space Station Skua, the Federation mothership. And our all new progression system, which we have been designing for some time now. All of this is coming to the game in the next few months.

Remember Killsquad is an Early Access game. As such, it is not a finished product: we are developing the game as we speak. And we share it with the community so we fund it, gather feedback and make the game better by talking to you guys.

So please DO get in touch in our Forums, on Twitter (@killsquadgame) or via Email ([email protected]). We love to hear what you have to say. But always keep in mind the game isn't finished, so please try to keep comments constructive!

Stay safe guys!

Novarama

Hello Bounty Hunters! Dani here, Game Director at Novarama.

After a few rough days due to the coronavirus outbreak, I’m here to tell you everything we’re working on for our next major Killsquad update. A ton of cool stuff ahead, we hope you enjoy this post.

Last time we spoke, we explained how we are fixing variety in Killsquad first, to then move into progression. Variety has to do with giving you guys rich missions, adventures and enemies. And progression, which will come right afterwards, is all about giving you heroes that grow and evolve and loot.

We already updated Recruit on the Genesis update. Our next 2 updates (coming in April and June) deal with Veteran. The first update will come second half of April, and it’s full of cool stuff. Here’s all I can share as of today:

First, you will be embarking on a long quest versus the Plague, a hidden infection that is spreading throughout the galaxy. Plague is an unknown force. First, it appears as mysterious seeds that arrive from space, and slowly begin infecting a planet. Here are the seeds of the Plague, from which Plague emanates:



Plague affects all lifeforms, infects everything you see. Soon, planets become blobs full of pulsating danger:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

As Plague advances, it brings its own set of deformed monsters. You have met the Nightbringers before. That’s the first stage of the infection. But expect things to get way worse this time around, with new Plague-themed boss battles, including or most epic boss yet:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Speaking of bosses, with Helldörren, Abomination and Moggoth now gone, we can now infiltrate their territory to reap the benefits of their disappearance. To name one, hatching eggs of a Queen Moggoth in a military facility has become a serious research project. So, our friends at Biosystems Labs will send you in a zoological quest to find these eggs, and ship them back in an escape pod for further research. As usual, things won’t quite go as planned!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

You will also expore new areas of our game world, such as the breeding grounds of the mighty Vasperiath. To summarize, in a month from now we are going to be giving you 9 new contracts, full of content for you guys to enjoy.



And of course work never stops. We’re already coding our next update, Veteran 2. This is centered around the Federation, and their brand new battle station planet, Skua. You’ll be of course meeting the Federation in our first update. But Skua is where things will get serious, and you’ll encounter the Armed Forces of the Federation. Here’s a sneak peek of one of their units just for you guys:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

As you can see, the horizon looks great, with one update weeks away and another one right afterwards. With these two, we feel our work to make the Killsquad world rich and varied will be mostly done, and we will move on to progression.

So, before departing for today, let me take a couple lines to tell you we at Novarama are all safe and working from home, and we wish you all safe times during these next few weeks. As you know we’re based in Spain, which has been hit quite hard by coronavirus. Our region wasn’t the worst luckily (Barcelona), and we were careful enough to move all teams to remote work before the infection began.

As the virus spreads around the world, stay safe guys. Social distancing is the name of the game here. And we are doing our best to give you a fantastic game to spend these weeks at home. Let’s focus on killing monsters on a game screen. In the real world, we need to work together to break the infection chain.

Dani out!