Cepheus Protocol News

A mysterious virus of alien origin is sweeping through San Francisco. It is up to the Center for Epidemic Research and Control (CERC) to track down and find Patient Zero before it is forced to enact the Cepheus Protocol. Command your squad, save civilians, and stop the Pangu Virus before it is too late.

Main Objectives:

• Train and level a single squad of up to 8 members as you search the city for Patient Zero.
  
• Build, train defenders, and safeguard your base from the Pangu Virus’ victims.
  
• Manage your squad as you attempt to control the spread of the virus.
  

Before we get into our monthly dev update, we wanted to announce that we've decided that in order to provide you with the best game possible, we need a little bit more time to work on it.
Our team members all around the world are working diligently to put in all the finishing touches. Thank you for all of you support and we can't wait for you to play it!



We're also super excited to tell you more about the game mode you'll be able to play during Early Access. In Free Roam, you'll battle Chelsey Trader (Patient Zero) as she tries to overtake Treasure Island. In a back and forth, chess-like battle, you'll fight the infected as Chelsey gets stronger.

In this mode, you'll be able to take advantage of the open world by fighting Chelsey and her infected whichever way you'd like. Continually upgrade your squad and their equipment in order to eventually face off against Patient Zero herself.

The map is split up by "grids" in which you'll have to keep the infection at bay. Depending on your fight style, the infection AI changes based on how you're playing the game - it'll always keep you on your toes.

We'll share more information as we get closer to the Early Access release, but know that saving Treasure Island and capturing Chelsey will be no easy task.



In late February, we attended Dreamhack Anaheim to show off the game! It was such a wonderful time meeting people - seeing everyone play the game was such a great feeling! Check out a couple of pics below from our booth!




Our Art team has been working really hard on a new version of Chelsey Trader (Patient Zero) on Reallusion's Character Creator. She's looking really amazing!




Lots of progress has been made on the UI including new icons on the command widget (bottom right) and on the soldiers so that you can easily tell the Sniper over the Assault class. What do you think?


New icons have been added to the command widget as well!




Our Level Designers have been knocking it out of the park with some amazing buildings and structures. Since it’s an open-world, you’ll be able to see these for yourself in May!



Thank you for joining us on our development journey! Make sure to wishlist us and join our Discord to stay in touch with us. See you in the next dev update! 👋🏽

Come say hi and meet our team at booth #I-626 at Dreamhack Anaheim! You'll be able to find us in the Indie Playground near the Halo Tournament Area.

Below are the Expo Hall hours:

• Fri: Noon–8PM
  
• Sat: Noon–8PM
  
• Sunday: 11AM-7PM
  

We have a jam packed demo that we'll be showcasing in which you'll have the chance to get a feel of the mechanics in the game, meet some of the characters, and get a taste of what it's like to battle the Pangu virus!

We look forward to seeing you!

A mysterious virus of alien origin is sweeping through San Francisco. It is up to the Center for Epidemic Research and Control (CERC) to track down and find Patient Zero before it is forced to enact the Cepheus Protocol. Command your squad, save civilians, and stop the Pangu Virus before it is too late.

Main Objectives:

• Train and level a single squad of up to 8 members as you search the city for Patient Zero.
  
• Build, train defenders, and safeguard your base from the Pangu Virus’ victims.
  
• Manage your squad as you attempt to control the spread of the virus.
  

We’re excited to announce that we're moving up the Early Access release date to April 17 of this year!

The team has worked day and night to get all the features, mechanics, characters, and more into the build and can’t wait to see you all playing it. We have some amazing playtesters currently giving us a ton of feedback and suggestions which we are already implementing and will be in the Early Access build.

Check out some of the latest features, mechanics, and more below!



We're also super excited to announce that we will be attending Dreamhack Anaheim! You'll be able to meet a couple us at the convention, but most importantly you'll get a chance to play a demo of our game! More info like booth number and other important details will be shared closer to the date. Make sure to follow our social media channels to stay up to date on the latest news!


We're also extremely happy to announce we are partnering with Reallusion and using one of their many amazing products like Character Creator!



We've got some amazing progress shots of Captain Winter all created on Reallusion's Character Creator:



The renders below are still a WIP, but we're happy with how Chelsey is coming along (also made in Character Creator):



We also have a render of the Scientist unit members:




We've got a first look at the patrol flags! You can set these for your unit members at your base to follow certain patterns (with the one shown being a more extreme example) but will ensure your base are is completely secured:




The team has been hard at work on finalizing what the UI will look like. Although these are still WIP, we're really happy with how it's looking:




The concept artists have been killing it once again, and although we weren't able to submit the shot below for the Gallery at Dreamhack Anaheim, we thought it was way too good not to show it off!





Our level designers have also been hitting it out of the park and the city/map is looking better than ever. In case you're wondering, almost all of our assets were made by our team!



Thank you for joining us on our development journey! Stay tuned here and on our social media channels for more info on Dreamhack Anaheim and make sure you wishlist us!

A mysterious virus of alien origin is sweeping through San Francisco. It is up to the Center for Epidemic Research and Control (CERC) to track down and find Patient Zero before it is forced to enact the Cepheus Protocol. Command your squad, save civilians, and stop the Pangu Virus before it is too late.

Main Objectives:

• Train and level a single squad of up to 8 members as you search the city for Patient Zero.
  
• Build, train defenders, and safeguard your base from the Pangu Virus’ victims.
  
• Manage your squad as you attempt to control the spread of the virus.
  

This month, we had the pleasure of attending our first convention: Sac Gamers Expo! A big shout-out to ess_lita on Instagram for sharing this amazing moment of a convention-goer enjoying our game!



Although we’re adding this next part of the update under modeling, the character customization has been a total team effort! You’ll now be able to customize your squad and change everything from the hair to the goggles.

An early view of the beginning of eye customization:


Whether you’re going for a realistic look or your best try at making a waifu, you’ll have a ton of colour options for the eyes:


Our first crack at what will become the customization screen:


Although the UI is still a WIP, we discussed several options as to how we could display all the different categories you could choose from:


We even played around with the camera viewpoint on this screen and added the different camo options you can pick from! Although still a WIP, it's looking good so far. We're excited to work on it once we get to the polish phase:


Are you excited to create your own characters? Let us know what kind of character you'll create in the comments!


We’ve been working really hard on trying to find a balance with our Fog of War (FoW) – we’re trying to figure out how much to show so that it’s challenging but also not too little where you can’t see the infected coming at you! Here’s some of the work Derek has done on it:


Green lines are tiles that registered as visible, but you can see that the actual visibility is offset now. Red tiles are tiles within vision range, but not within peripheral vision.


Finished product!


We've also gone back and forth between different Selection rings and have finally landed on a colour and look!


Quick shot of one of the missions...don’t want to show too much!



Big month for our animators! Here’s one of the amazing animations Tyler worked on – smooth as butter!


Here’s a quick look at more textured version of the squad with some animations:



Major updates on the level design front! Dimitry and Efrain continue their meticulous work on adding as many details as possible to bring the world to life.



This is usually the place we'll share funny bugs or an extra little nugget of info for those of you that read all the way down here! For this month, we just wanted to wish everyone a happy holiday season! Hope you are able to get some extra gaming in!


If you want to show your support, make sure to click on the image below and vote for us on IndieDB for Indie of the Year!