Killsquad News

[NOTE: all the screenshots on this post are content coming on our next update]

Hello all! Dani here, Game Director at Killsquad bringing your development update.
It’s been 2 weeks since we released Genesis, our last update. I wanted to tell you how it went, and what comes next. Lots of goodies, so stay tuned!

As we announced, our focus for 2020 is two game areas: VARIETY and PROGRESSION. Variety as in “more stuff to do and discover”, progression as in “and my hero grows and evolves”. As we announced, we are tackling variety first (so you get a richer game ASAP) and progression will come afterwards. Here is our roadmap:

• Feb: Genesis (reforms all of recruit, already out)
  
• April: Vet 1 (reforms 8 contracts of Veteran, those taking place in our existing planets)
  
• June: Vet 2 (reforms 4 more contracts of Veteran, all taking place in a new planet, Skua)
  
• June will complete the variety updates. Then, all the second half of 2020 is Progression updates, more on this in a bit.
  

in the lair of the Vasperiaths

Of course when we released Genesis we got some negative reviews from the players who would have wanted us to tackle progression first. Still, as new players began discovering
Killsquad and entering, they began saying nice things about the update. Our recent reviews are actually really good (vast majority of the last 10 days of reviews are positive, thank you so much guys!), and the traffic we had for the Genesis release was as high as the Christmas Break one, so that’s great as well. It seems we're making real progress in delivering a cool game world full of places to visit and stuff to do.

So, now that Recruit is working much better, let’s move to Veteran, where we are going to double down on the content. You guys are gonna love the stuff we’re working on.

Veteran is going to consist of 12 contracts, 8 of them happening in our 3 initial planets, and 4 more happening in a brand-new world, Skua, which is the home of the Federation Army. As Veteran is a big section of the game, we’re splitting it in two updates.

the plague extends

On Veteran1, expect to visit new areas of our world, such as the Vasperiath nests, go on weird new quests such as one about collecting Queen Moggoth larvae, and many more. If you’re a classic Killsquad player, here you will meet the Nightbringers (which are gone from Recruit, if you noticed it), the Feds (same story), and the Omens of the Plague. So Veteran is gonna feel super distinct and unique.

So again expect more quests, more unique locations, more Momma (she’s a blast, isn’t she?). And of course being Veteran, this is all going to come in a more challenging form factor, so get your gear ready: crossing one of these contracts is not gonna be a walk in the park.
Oh, I am happy to announce that following many requests from the community, we’re also working on an all-new boss, the biggest one we’ve done yet. She’s related to the Plague, so expect an epic boss battle. I don’t want to show anything yet, I want to save the surprise for you guys. But expect a very challenging boss with some really cool mechanics that feel fresh and old-school at the same time.

more plague mayhem

We expect Vet 1 (which is still missing a commercial name) to drop second half of April, and of course about one week sooner for Beta members, so make sure you sign up.
Giving you a sneak peek of what comes afterwards, you're gonna fly into Skua, our 4th planet. Turns out, you’ve only met the light infantry of the Federation Forces. Skua is their battlestation, full of heavily armored robot soldiers. This is going to bring more content into Veteran, and a high-challenge zone.

So as you can see we’re gonna make sure each and every contract feels special and unique. We want players to get a rock-solid game world full of hidden corners to explore.
Progression will come post-June. I don’t want to get into too much detail as it’s still under discussion, but suffice to say we’re listening to you guys. We feel our current approach has some pros, but also lots of cons: you get the feeling heroes don’t grow, no sense of true progression. And we want to give you guys the solid hero journey you desire and love. A journey where your hero becomes stronger, gains new skills, and finds loot along his quests. We will move into this area once we can guarantee your hours of gameplay are filled with content and variety, so expect a more “classic RPG” system that keeps you coming back to earn new loot and skills.

a mechanized bridge crosses Kemmekh

So as you can see we DO have a plan. It seems, based on reviews, that the plan is making an impact on your perception of the game, so we’re confident we’re on track.
All we need from you is three very basic things:

• First, be patient. We all want games here and now, but this is a live development, and we can only progress so fast.
  
• Second, support us. We love to read stuff on forums. We love positive reviews. We love Twitter followers. Being indie is tough. But you guys make it all worth it.
  
• Third, tell your friends about us. We feel we’re beginning to turn the tide, Killsquad is growing day by day. And we need you guys over there pushing us and motivating us.
  

That’s it for now! Gotta go back to the trenches. See you in the Outer Reach guys, Dani out!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Genesis replaces the whole first act of Killsquad. It affects all the Recruit contracts. It's our biggest update so far, so I wanted to take a moment to explain the vision behind it, and what comes next. You know we've been very open about our development process before, and this time it's not going to be any different.

2019 brought the release of Killsquad, a good amount of sales, and a game we could iterate from. Killsquad was a lot of fun to play, but it was a small game.

2020 for us is all about VARIETY and PROGRESSION. By variety, we mean we want you to visit more places, meet more enemies, enjoy more game experiences, all of this providing a sense of journey & adventure through the Killsquad world. By progression, we mean we want you to slowly build up your hero, see him/her get stronger, learn new skills & get new gear. And, all of this, keeping the core action & online loop intact.

So, let's start with variety. With Genesis, you're going to feel a very different game experience from 2 months ago. Here's the highlights you can go play TODAY:

• Quest system, where you receive and fulfill specific missions to progress through the recruit act. Gone is the time when you didn't know what to do next.
  
• Less contracts, but each more carefully crafted, so each mission does feel unique and special. There's no 2 contracts where you're doing the same stuff.
  
• New enemies & enemy progression. Each mission brings new foes for you to encounter, including 2 brand new semi-bosses.
  
• New locations for you to visit, we'll let you discover those.
  
• New gameplay mechanics so you get more of the stuff you already loved
  
• Voice acting & storyline
  

As a systems upgrade, we also added an in-lobby chat, so finding partners is now easier than ever. Or you can just hang out there and make new friends.

With all this, the game should now feel very different. We can't wait to get your feedback, please do so in the forums. Because, guess what? we have 2 more variety-oriented updates lined up, let's call them Veteran Part 1 and Veteran Part 2.

Veteran 1 comes April and upgrades the first half of our veteran contracts. Visit the Vasperiath Nest. Meet Helldörren in his throne room. Watch as the Plague infects a planet. Meet the Federation in their crusade to control the galaxy.

Veteran 2 comes June and is the second part of our veteran experience. As announced, this takes place in an all-new planet, Skua, the military base of the Federation. So it's a brand new world, 100% new enemies, etc.

In parallel to this, we're working on a big Progression re-imagining. We're hard at work designing the new progression system. Our goal is to implement that sense of growth and power you guys desire, so expect deep changes to be announced soon here as well.

For those of you who are veterans, don't worry, your progress isn't wiped: your weapons, your vector and your progress are stored. As the Quest system is brand new, you'll still face the first quest, as if you were a rookie. So I recommend equipping just basic gear, and jumping in on the new Quests with the new guys to have fun together. We hope you have a blast. And don't worry, we're preparing stuff for you guys as well. Watch this space for news regarding depth and progression sooner than you think.

That's it for today, have fun, and expect a roadmap update with details about Vet1 and Vet2 soon.

If you want our classic patch notes with all the nitty-gritty, they are here:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/910490/discussions/0/1742268065070110507/

Dani out!

[h3]Hello again, bounty hunters, welcome to 2020!
[/h3]
Sorry we have been silent for some time: we have been really busy. After the New Year break, we took 2 weeks to discuss internally the future of Killsquad, so we could present it to our community. I am happy to say we're ready to share it today. But before we begin, a bit of context:

Killsquad is a self-funded game: there’s no publisher or secret corporation behind us: it’s just us, Novarama, a bunch of game veterans, doing what we feel is right to build a great game. We are lucky to be able to fund it via sales, so every euro or dollar we make goes back into improving the game. We're in Early Access, so the game is still growing. We don’t intend to get rich with this game: Killsquad was born and still is a passion project & a tool to learn about Steam & Unreal for us. As such, our design process is very reactive: instead of thinking "we are always right and we know it all", we read each and every negative review, and use those comments to drive our design process forward.

First, you guys complained about bugs. So we focused on fixing stability. Then, about not finding people to play. That's why we dropped 2 updates in a row to fix that. If you look at our negative reviews today, a lot of them admit the game is fun to play, but complain it feels repetitive and lacks progression. Which does make sense: as an Early Access game, we focused on the experience first, to then extend the size of the game. So, that's going to be our driving force for the first half of 2020: give you more variety, a richer game world and a deeper lore.

How are we gonna do this? As it’s a huge undertaking, we’ll split the process in 2 big updates: the first one will come during February, and it will revamp the Recruit experience. The second one will come around April, focusing on Veteran.

So, today, I’d like to show you all that’s coming to Recruit next month.

First of all, we are reducing the number of contracts, so we can devote more time to make each one unique. So, we will offer 12 (down from 20) contracts on Recruit. By having less contracts, we can have more carefully designed ones and a better overall experience.

Contracts on Recruit will be unlocked progressively, so you’re not overwhelmed by the whole game. To do so, we will use our Quest System, which you saw a glimpse of in our Christmas Event. Quests will give you goals to fulfill, and a way to slowly unfold the world of Killsquad. These quests will also serve as a tutorial of sorts, making sure game systems are presented properly.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Then, contracts will be story driven, have voice acting, and will deliver a unique experience. So, whether you play solo, or with a squad, expect a more polished “campaign”.

Of course, to fill these contracts we will need more baddies, so there’s more stuff to discover. You’ve seen some of them already on Twitter. We’re bringing two new semibosses to the game. The first one is Rex Guerrilla, a servant of Helldörren:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

The second one is a fugitive from Biosystems Labs that you may encounter in your adventures on Wasteland7:

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

Needless to say, we’ll need artwork to make those contracts feel different. We’re working on a big number of set pieces, so our universe feels richer. No big reveal today, you’ll have to wait til the update to check it all out, but expect new locations, NPCs, and so on. Here's a glimpse of things to come:



Of course expect new gameplay constructs so there’s more stuff going on and more ways to have fun. Here’s some insider clips of random stuff we’re working on, from exploding barrels, to switches, to killing blades, shield areas, and many more.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

By the way, all this work won’t prevent us from working on other game areas that also need some loving and care. So, on this same update in February, you guys are getting a lobby chat, to make the social aspect better and make finding team mates even simpler.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

We’re now working to have all of this ready for the update. We hope we will continue to get your invaluable support. We’ll reveal the new Veteran section soon, which will bring a whole new planet & faction among a lot of other cool things. But we’ll talk about that when the time comes.

For now, all we can ask for is your patience and support. Great stuff is coming.
Novarama

As we enter Chrismas season, I wanted to pause for a moment and share with you guys, our fans, a lot of cool Killsquad news.

First of all, as many of you have found out, our Christmas in-game event is live. So go play Killsquad now. If you enjoyed our Halloween bash, this is much more bizarre, silly and fun! Embark on a quest to find goodies hidden across our contracts, and decorate the game lobby with seasons' items. Earn exclusive rewards and discover a more festive side of Bounty Hunting.



This update also brings two very important items. First of all, a list of bug fixes like never before. We told you guys we were focusing on stability, and boy we did. Here is a full article with the bug fixes, all +100 of them, that Erich has published:

https://steamcommunity.com/app/910490/discussions/0/1735506744735593253/

Additionally, the Christmas event will be used to test drive our super duper Quest engine, with which the Event has been produced. So yes, those cool missions are a sneak peek of what's to come. But more about this in a bit.

Also, you'll notice we're part of Steam's Winter sale, so if you still have to grab your copy, better do it now. You'll get what we feel is a great game for a really nice price.

Now, let's talk 2020. I'm gonna tell you all about our next two updates, coming Jan and Feb.

January, we will deliver the rest of this update, which means, the 2 new semibosses that have appeared in our Gathering video, and the full Quest system. We had to separate this from the Christmas update to reduce risk of something basically breaking down. So expect new monsters for you to kill, and Quests for you to enjoy with your friends.

Come February, we are going to focus exclusively on gameplay variety, and you guys are gonna get our first contract pack. Remember what we added with Spec ops, with traps and all that? Expect much more along that line, so gameplay is richer and more varied: more content and assets, new gameplay mechanics, which combined with the Quest engine should make a huge impact.

Last, but not least, just an update to tell you guys Killsquad is already running on PS4 at the office. There's still a TON of work to do, as we don't even have network code just yet. But we're aiming at Summer release, and we wanted you guys to hear it from us first. No news about Xbox just yet, sorry, but we hope to update you guys on that front soon.

2019 has been an amazing year for us at Novarama. We released our first self-published game ever, met a lot of interesting people, and learned a ton of stuff that's making Killsquad better every day. We high expectations for 2020, make sure you are there!

We wish you all a Merry Christmas, and a fantastic 2020. Please be aware that community support will wind down during the Christmas break, as we all spend a bit of quality time with friends and family. But do not worry, we'll be back after the new year, recharged and ready for more.



Take care guys!

Hello Bounty Hunters!

Here is a quick update on where things are at on the Killsquad development, we have a few things we want to discuss, so let's get things started!


If you follow Killsquad, you'll see we have lowered our price to 19.99 (or equivalent) from 24.99 on a permanent basis. This has been a decision we haven't taken lightly, and we want to share with you, our fans. We want you to understand what we've done, and why we feel this is right for Killsquad and us all:

First of all, during Early Access we want as many people as possible playing the game. Multiplayer games require more players than a single player experience: this is so matchmaking is not an issue. If you're playing say Outer Worlds, one copy gives you a great experience. But with Killsquad, more people means more squads. We have noticed and discussed with many of you how price is a stopper, and we have decided to make it a bit easier for you all. We want more of you playing Killsquad. And we're happy taking a bit of a revenue hit if that helps get you guys playing.

Second, we have noticed the game sells much better when it's on sale on Steam... more than 90% of our copies have been sold on those special occasions when the game was indeed cheaper. So more arguments for a slightly lower price point.

Of course, this has the downside of those of you who bought it at 24.99. Here's how we look into this. YES, you paid a bit more, and we are truly sorry for having made that mistake. But we have two options, being blunt: stay at 24.99, and give you guys a smaller community and a worse experience, or go 19.99, and your game will immediately get more players due to the new price point. What do we prefer? So we feel even in this case (which affects again less than 10% of our players, luckily) we all win with a lower price point.

Our plan is to keep this new price for the rest of Early Access. Seen in hindsight, maybe we should have had this price from the start. But we are not perfect, it's our first Early Access game, and we simply didn't know enough. This has been a learning experience for all of us, and we are very sorry if we have disappointed any of you. But we feel the community at large will benefit from this decision, where the upsides definitely outsize the downsides.


So we need to compensate you all for the pricing mishap, and we're going to do it right away. How about some Trading Cards?

Yes, you read it right! The Killsquad Steam trading cards are live since Saturday, so if you're into collecting stuff, now you have another reason to love the Killsquad universe. You have 8 cards to collect, custom backgrounds, emoticons, badges... the whole package. This is all included with your purchase, so they should appear right away. It's the first time we implement these so, if you spot any defects, just fire us an email at [email protected] or answer below and we'll look into it right away.


We're working full speed on our Christmas update. It's coming together nicely, expect seasonal surprises as we did on our Halloween update with the game lobby takeover. Want a teaser? We have one! How's this for a game lobby? We expect this to be in your hands sometime next week, and a bit earlier for our Beta users, so make sure you swing by. We're gonna give you something very very special.



Expect Christmas-themed missions, exclusive rewards, and gifts for everyone.

That's it for today! We're very happy reviews have risen, thanks so much guys. If you didn't review us, that's the best Christmas present you can give us. With our new price point, tell your friends about us, now it's easier than ever to join the fray.

And remember to follow us in our usual social media channels, repeated here for your convenience:

• Killsquad on Twitter
• Novarama on Instagram
• Killsquad on Facebook
• Killsquad Official Youtube Channel
• Official Killsquad Discord Server

Thank you all for your continuous support. We're here because you're there. See you in the Outer Reach guys!