Update: patch is now live for everyone. Feel free to stay on the nextversion branch if you're happy to get changes early!

In a rare case of us doing a thing exactly when we said we would,* we did indeed release our demo on June 3rd. Now we have a patch for it that we'd love for you to try, so we can check it works before we force it on everyone. Here's how to access it:

• Right click the demo in your Library and go to Properties > Betas
  
• Click the dropdown list and choose 'nextversion'
  
• The game should update, and you'll see patch notes in-game to confirm it

As always, you can hit Esc any time in game to report a bug or give us some feedback.

Here's what we hope we've fixed:

• Fixed a volume issue and an animation desync on our main titles, after the prologue.
  
• Did you know you can re-play earlier levels with your current perks? Well you couldn't, because it caused a black screen. Fixed that.
  
• Our credits were a) spilling off the screen due to Unity adding extra line breaks to them every time the file was saved, and b) ugly as sin. We've made them nice now, they even have tabs!
  
• Using Chain Shock would create a redundant rewind state where nothing had actually changed. Now it doesn't!
  
• We made the Wishlist button on the end screen look 400% more clickable, cos it is clickable.

While we're here, sure, let's clarify this. Generally if we do a news post announcing the date of something, with an actual date, you can expect us to hit that - we only really do it if the thing itself is basically ready.

But when we casually refer to something as 'The February beta' or 'a two year project', then yes, you can laugh in our faces, due to our track record with such things. Test change.

The first playable demo of Tactical Breach Wizards will be in the June Next Fest, sneaking out a little early on June 3rd. Then at 10am Pacific on June 12th, special guest hbomberguy will be livestreaming the full game on our store page, continuing on from roughly where the demo leaves off.

Tom, designer, writing this, hi, will also be on stream to answer his & your questions, and desperately try not to backseat-game.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1043810/Tactical_Breach_Wizards/

If anyone's not familiar, Harry makes meticulously-researched deep dive videos on games-adjacent stories that you think you're not going to watch all of but then somehow you have and you don't regret it.

Obviously, a collaboration of this magnitude has been years in the making, and some day Ben Affleck will direct a movie dramatising the untold story. But briefly, it was like:

Him: Can I play your game?
Me: Sure.
Me: Actually, can we stream that?
Him: Sure.

(I actually quite liked Air, for what that's worth.)

Tactical Breach Wizards will be in the June Next Fest, which starts on the 10th. So why is our demo releasing at 10am Pacific on June 3rd? Because a good breach (launch) takes your enemies (customers) by surprise, and nothing's more surprising than your door exploding a full week before your door was scheduled to explode.

Given that, why are we telling you a week in advance? Sorry, but you already used up your one question in the intro. We have quotas for a reason, it wouldn't be fair to the others to let your agenda dominate this announcement.

• The first 3-ish of 21-ish missions in the full game
  
• A little something extra at the end that's demo-exclusive
  
• Takes around 1.5 to 2 hours to play
  
• When the full game comes out later this year, your progress will carry over if you like

If you'd like to be notified when the demo comes out, why not Follow the game on our store page? Does that change what kind of updates you see even if you've already Wishlisted it? No-one knows, and we're not going to check because it's in our interests to pressure you to express enthusiasm for the game on every axis you can.

And that's four questions now, we've called security.

This being May, you might reasonably assume that if you didn't hear back about the "February" Beta yet, you didn't get in. But that's small brain thinking. Not only has the February Beta (launched in March) not ended, multiple other betas are being juggled recklessly around.

What's going on, you ask? You will regret you asked. Because it takes slightly longer to explain than anyone's interest level in this topic really warrants.

500 people admitted, 2,500 more will be let in

Really, this is an ongoing beta that'll last until we think the game is ready. However, we admit people in batches, and we're doing that very slowly so far. The point of batching is to fix stuff, then get fresh eyes on the fixes. But we've had very little time to fix stuff reported by the first 500 people we let into this beta in March, so it hasn't made sense to let in the next batch yet.

If you wanna be in on a future batch, you need to be on our mailing list and check the appropriate box.

The Feb beta comes in two parts: you get the first 3 acts of the game right away, then if you give us feedback on those, we invite you in to the full beta featuring the final act.

Why have we been busy? Because of the...




For Reasons, we need a demo ready by a certain deadline, so we've been scrambling to make that and get it tested fast. If you played the Gunpoint demo way back in the day, you know we like to add something a little extra on the end, so it wasn't as simple as just truncating the game. We've done two rounds of testing here:

Demo 1 test
We let in 1,500 mailing list members who'd signed up to test the full game, and bribed them to test the demo first, by pledging to jump them straight into the full version of the February beta if they gave us feedback. Lots of them did!

Unfortunately, this feedback revealed that my wildly high-concept idea for the 'something extra' was confusing and frustrating a great many players, so we had to rethink.

Demo 2 test
For this, I re-opened our old Steam Playtest - that's the thing where you were able to sign up on our store page and get let in automatically, rather than having to redeem a Steam key. So around 3,000 people who played the game a few years ago suddenly got access to the demo beta, and a few of them even noticed and played it.

Now that we've checked it didn't completely break, and early feedback on the new 'something extra' is great, I've let in another 1,000 new folks who signed up for that long ago, so we'll see where that gets us. If it all goes well, there won't be any further demo testing.

We won't be using Steam Playtest for anything else - we're not ready to give the full game to 4,000 people, and you can't remove testers you let in via the public Playtest signup system, so it's sort of a dead end for us now.




If you're on our mailing list and opted in to the beta, you're still in the running to be included in a future batch of the Feb Beta - no action needed. It might be a while before we get to you, though, since the demo 1 testers who gave us feedback will form the next batch of folks we let in.

If you don't get in, the above mentioned Reasons mean it shouldn't be too long before you get to play a chunk of the game anyhow, and maybe a little something extra.

We've just sent out the first 500 keys for the increasingly inaccurately named February Beta!

If you're not on our mailing list or haven't opted in yet, there's still time. We plan to send out 2,500 more keys, in batches, over the next month or so.

Just sign up and make sure to check the relevant boxes. If you're already on there, we won't add you twice.

The full game is ready to test now, but we're doing things a little differently this time. If you get an invite, you'll first get access to the first 75% of the campaign. We'll then wait to see who fills in their feedback forms on what they've played, and periodically invite those folks into a beta that includes the game's final act.

Most testers don't give feedback, so we just wanna make sure we don't give the full game to too many people without getting what we need in return.

Cheers!

Tom

For anyone who didn't see our recent tweet yet, here's how you opt in to our new beta:

https://twitter.com/BreachWizards/status/1538198269524049921

This next batch of testers we let in will be the last, and it might be a long time before our next beta.

We've also recently released a new trailer, and updated our Steam page to better reflect what you do in between missions.



Cheers!

Tom

We have a new beta ready for testing, and this time it should be extra-easy to sign up and get playing. We're using Steam's new Playtest feature, where you just click a button on our store page to tell us you're up for it, and when we're ready we click a button to let a random selection of you in.

The beta's ready now and we plan to let a small batch in first, to make sure our analytics stuff is working OK, then we'll open it up to about 1,000 testers.

If you fancy it, head to our store page now and click 'Request Access'. When we start letting people in, Steam will choose folks randomly and notify them. You won't need a Steam key, it'll just pop up in your games library if you get in.

If you're on the fence, here's a new trailer! If you've already decided you want in, you might want to skip it - we don't spoil any story, but we play through some puzzles you'll face.



As mentioned, we're looking for a composer - here are the details if you're interested.

In about 3 weeks' time!

We'll be letting people in in several waves, so if the beta hasn't ended yet, you still might!

Windows only I'm afraid.

Yep! You also have our permission to monetize the video content you make.

Yes, if you want in! This is separate.

That's right, she's a private investigator now. Jen's the one we previously referred to as 'Witch Cop', though she was an ex-cop from the moment the game began. There's never been a version of the game where your team are working for any kind of enforcement organisation, but the name and look of that character were making it hard to get that across.

The cop version of her story had other problems: if her issues with her department had no bearing on real world ones, it felt evasive and uncritical. If they did relate to real world issues, it became an unpleasantly real reminder of traumatic stuff that felt out of place with the lighter elements of the game.



So in the latest draft of the story, she's a PI who's never worked for the police, and she has a new backstory about how she got into that line of work. The job change affects a few things about where she is emotionally at the start of the game, but aside from that she's the same character: the one you don't know or love because we never actually showed any story stuff before now.

Obviously there's been a million other changes, but since this one relates to something visible, we thought it was worth giving the full context for it.

Dunno! Make sure you've got it wishlisted, then you can be as chill as we are about the towering cloud of uncertainty looming over our working lives.

Update: the keys are all gone now - if you missed all three batches, follow us on Twitter and get on our mailing list, we'll announce any future tests in both places. Or if you just want to be told when the game's out, wishlist it!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1043810/Tactical_Breach_Wizards/

Original post:
We've just opened sign-ups for our second batch of keys to our ongoing beta. To opt-in, you need to be on our mailing list. If you're already on it, you'll have a link to 'Update your preferences' in any recent mail from us - we sent one on Monday, or you'll also have it in your sign-up confirmation. Click that and you'll see a new option to opt-in.

If you're just signing up now, you'll see the option to opt-in on the sign-up page.



The beta is Windows-only. We'll remove this option once all the keys are taken, so if you don't see it, that's why.

If you missed this batch, we'll be giving out one last batch soon, and this time we'll put the notice out on Twitter, so follow us there for your best shot: @BreachWizards

If you did manage to opt-in, and it was before we ran out of keys, you should receive it in about a day. The beta will last around two weeks.

More info on what's in the beta in our original announcement.

Update: the keys are all gone now - if you missed all three batches, follow us on Twitter and get on our mailing list, we'll announce any future tests in both places. Or if you just want to be told when the game's out, wishlist it!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1043810/Tactical_Breach_Wizards/

Original post:
We're about to start our first ever test of Tactical Breach Wizards outside of the dev team, and we're going to give out Steam keys for it in three batches, so that followers in different places all get a chance.

• The first batch will go to folks on our mailing list; you need to be on this anyway to get a key
  
• For the second, we'll be telling those who Follow the game on Steam first - you'll get an e-mail with instructions if you are
  
• And for the last, we'll be tweeting when they're available from @BreachWizards on Twitter

In each case, it'll be first-come first-served, and if you're on all three you've got three chances to grab one before they're gone. A few more details about how it'll work at the bottom of this post.



This test is a short, spoiler-free prototype with 3 missions of combat that let you play with various combinations of 3 different wizards. The early encounters are small and puzzle-y - we present you with a tricky situation, and you figure out how to use your character's unique talents to solve it. Later encounters become messier and a little more dynamic, with new enemies arriving each turn. One of the main goals of this test is to learn what kinds of encounters players like and want to see more of. The only dialogue is silly placeholder stuff, just to show where the real dialogue will go.

This prototype also comes with a level editor and Steam Workshop support, because why not. The level editor is the same one we use, and it's very quick and simple to build a room and test it. Workshop support is something we'll want eventually anyway, so we did it early to let us also see what kinds of player-created stuff people make and like most.

So, when we have a batch of keys ready, we'll announce it on the relevant channel, and you'll be told how to opt in. All keys will ultimately be sent via our mailing list, so you need to be on that to participate. We won't give one person more than one key. Beta keys don't get you the final game. It's Windows only for now. We'll probably close down the beta at some point, not sure when, we'll see how it goes.

While you wait, perhaps you should wishlist the game!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1043810/Tactical_Breach_Wizards/

At the start of the video we put up yesterday I said you'd be breaching 'drug dens and terrorist hideouts' - that's actually not a great characterisation of what we have planned, and a few comments made me realise it might have given the wrong impression. So I thought I'd go into some more detail about our current ideas for who you'll be fighting and why. It's all very likely to change, of course, but it might give a better sense of the tone we're going for.

You're a team of rogue agents - you don't work for any government or organisation, and you've all left your various jobs to deal with urgent personal crises by breaking into rooms and knocking people through windows. The two characters we've shown are the cop-like ones, but the other four have backgrounds in guerilla resistance, military, medicine, and 'ambiguous', respectively.

These are the ideas we have for who you might be fighting:

My favourite idea so far for a main antagonist is not one villain but a whole rogue team just like yours, but more ruthless. They do kill, and the bloody wake of their operations is what motivates some of your characters to join your team and help track them.

A major global power, a state with a strictly enforced national religion, which has invaded and occupied various other countries around the world. Riot Priests are their enforcers, and yours turned on them to save her (adult) daughter in a protest. Her daughter survived but was captured, so she joins your team to get your help fighting the Chapel to break her out.

Witch Cop comes from a less oppressive nation than the Chapel, but the realities of the police force she joined there left her conflicted. 'By the book' vs not was probably not the right term for their differences - I think it'll be more that their book does not fit her own ethics. You'll sometimes be fighting her former colleagues to bust someone out of jail, and sometimes because, you know, everything you do in the game is illegal.

This one is still in flux, but I like the idea of druids in expensive suits using their plant magic to out-produce rival drug cartels, cutting their cocaine with unicorn bone and corn starch. What's your beef with the Druid Mafia? I don't know yet, but it won't just be to stop their operations - you're not law enforcement, your missions are more personal.

The enemies shown in the video, by the way, aren't from these factions (except the Riot Priest obviously). We just needed to start making enemies before we had any concrete concepts nailed down.

In general we want to pit you against people who have power, and abuse it. Your team, of course, are inherently powerful, and questions of whether you're abusing that power are something I'd like to feature - if you've played Gunpoint, you've got an idea of how complicit I like the player to feel.

But we'll need to be careful, when borrowing the trappings of real-world armed authorities, that we don't glamourise real-world violence with how we depict it in our dumb game about wizards. We'll be keeping that in mind more as we make the game, and in how we choose to show it.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1043810/Tactical_Breach_Wizards/