Killsquad News

Hello all!

Welcome to another dev diary. This week we are bringing you two playtest videos, so you can see some of the systems we are working on in action. These are raw clips taken from gameplay sessions, so they are quite long, but full of interesting stuff.

On the first clip, you're going to see all the new UI systems: shop, contract map, equipment screens, gear on your heroes, etc. From there you'll see the squad embark in 2 contracts in a row. There, you're going to see checkpoints in action (in both instances the team gets killed by the boss and needs a second attempt to beat it). You'll also see the new reward screen at the end of the contract. During the battle, you'll see dual weapons and elemental damage. We're working to make these way more obvious visually, please keep in mind these videos are work in progress! Last, but not least, you'll see the new difficulty setting: the game is now way more challenging, as you have checkpoints and power-ups to counter the enemy strength:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

The second clip is taken from a Kemmekh mission. On this one, we're showcasing the new lighting engine, with a beatiful night scene thanks to Unreal 4.25. Secondly, you are going to see a lot of power-up work, as Kosmo unleashes his power-ups on the enemies. Some of these are working as intended (Poison Area is a good example), while others are still WIP, but we hope you guys will get the idea behind this: to give players many more options to build up their hero for each contract.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

That is it for today. We really hope you see we're making solid progress, and you like the new systems. Work now focuses on VFX/SFX, balancing and bug fixing. Stay tuned for more cool stuff next week!

See y'all in the Outer Reach!!!

Hello all!

So this week's Dev Diary comes a bit late. We know, we promised "every Friday", but last Friday we had one of those gamedev-style work traffic jams, which made it impossible to post our weekly update. We're so sorry to be late!

Anyhow, here we are, once again, reporting to you, our fans.

We're happy to report the next update of Killsquad is already into playtesting. We have the following features in place:

• Checkpoints on all bosses
  
• Twin weapons
  
• Shorter, tighter contracts. Missions are now around 15 minutes, to maximize fun and reduce repetition
  
• Elemental damage on enemies, weapons
  
• Visible gears on heroes
  
• New contract browser
  
• New lighting system
  

And work still remains on:

• Items & Power-ups (this has 2 weeks to go)
  
• Permanent talismans (same-y timing)
  
• Tutorials
  

On a more visual note, we've been hard at work doing enemy generations. You know: the classic RPG mechanic where you get variations of an enemy with different behaviours and stats. So expect champions/elite versions, coming with the new enemies we've been showcasing in the last few weeks. All of this, together, will vastly expand the range of enemies and behaviours you'll encounter in your adventures in the Outer Reach. Here's some photos for your viewing pleasure:







This week, we hope to be able to share with you all a video showing you a full contract, with all the new stuff in place. Come by next Friday, we hope you'll like it!

See y'all in the Outer Reach!!!

Hello all!

If it's Friday, it's time for a Dev Diary! I am going to share today quite a few things, many of them work-in-progress. As we get closer to having a Beta, we are integrating systems, and so we can begin showing how things will work.

First of all, here's a quick clip we've done of the new UI. If you watch carefully, you'll see the weapon shop, the gear shop, the twin weapon equip, the item shop, and even the contract tree. Some things are still being worked on, but it's a pretty interesting clip:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

On the video above you'll see the items are currently placeholder. Here are some of them, in all their 3D glory. We expect to integrate them next week:



Of course, as now your weapons have elemental damage, we felt it would be a nice touch for contracts to show you their "typical" element, so you enter the contracts well prepared. So in these two shots you can see the damage of your currently equipped weapon (above) and the contract's recommended element (below)





And, of course, our art team is still working on Gears, our equipment. There's never too much of this in a game like Killsquad, here's today's batch!



On a non-visual update, here's two very important items:

1) We have shortened all contracts on Recruit, so they are around 15 minutes each. We feel less is more: shorter, more varied missions, with good replay value. Veteran will remain longer, of course.

2) You'll remember on our last Gathering we said our driving force was Progression, specifically, giving you guys more ways to customize your hero. We are already adding:

- Twin weapons
- Six item slots
- Weapon elemental damage
- Our two gears, which now become visible

Okay, I am happy to announce we have decided to add 2 more slots, which we call "Permanents" for now. Permanents are our way to give you guys more control over passive skills. In the current system, most Passives emanate from the weapons & gears. So, when you changed your weapon, you lost the passive (say, a shield passive). This put players between a rock and a hard place: you wanted to keep the Passive skill, but at the same time you need to move on from that weapon as it's not strong enough.

Wouldn't it be amazing if you could somehow "lock" your favourite passives?

Enter Permanents! You can wear two of these, and think about them like "cursed amulets": Each Permanent generates one passive, say shield in the example above. The way it works is, when you get it (for example via the Colosseum of the Unseen) the Permanent is not charged. So it will have a negative effect on your passive. In this example, shield will be *lowered*. Still, by using the Permanent and beating contracts, the Permanent will be slowly charged, and its true passive will flourish. So for example a Permanent giving you 25% extra shield, may start taking 10% from your shield, so you need to work on it to unleash its power.

We are thinking Permanents will be tied to the Unseen, so expect them to drop on Colosseum Battles. But this is still being discussed.

We feel Permanents are a great way to further customize your hero, and at the same time enhance the game's progression. What do YOU think? Post your ideas on the forums, we are always there to read them!

So that is it for today! Lots of stuff, and more to come as we integrate all game systems. We expect to begin announcing our Beta date soon. Still lots of work ahead, but the game is coming together nicely.

See y'all in the Outer Reach!!!

Hello all, another week, another dev diary! 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 are working full steam on the new enemies. You saw one last week, and we bring 4 more today. Here they come!

We begin with a ranged enemy, for Wasteland07



This is a ranged enemy, for Kemmekh



This is a ranged enemy, for Palace of Pain



And here is a melee enemy for the Palace of Pain.



Expect these to drop on our updates 2nd half of 2020, to breathe new variety into the game. We're still discussing their behaviours, names, backstories. So, if you want to get involved, go crazy! Remember these are basic enemics, not bosses, so you are going to encounter them in relatively large mobs.

2) We have been working on the new shop, which you can see here. Worth noting is:
- The 2 weapon slots on the right hand side, with the elemental damage of each weapon. Remember you can now swap between your two weapons mid-combat
- The 6 item slots at the bottom, in this case, unoccupied
- On Troy's body, you can see his gears. We think they are a bit too small, what do you guys think?



3) More about the shop, here you can see the new Gear section, where you can check out all the features of each gear before buying it.



4) Talking about internals, we have completed our migration to Unreal 4.25. So expect images soon of beautiful sunsets, nights and more from the Killsquad universe.

5) And another internal item, the implementation of checkpoints is now complete across Recruit and Veteran, so gone is the frustration of being killed at the very last moment: you can now go back to the checkpoint, and take it from there.

We hope you like the progress of this week. We're deep into contract rework, balancing, and testing. If you want to know more, stay tuned next week!

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!