Mar 31, 2021
Cyber Knights: Flashpoint - Trese Brothers
With March coming to a close, the year is getting into full swing. It’s amazing looking back -- one year ago, we were still putting the administrative wrap on the Kickstarter and the Backerkit surveys went out on March 13th. By March 24th, over 75% of you had completed them and now we’re at a very happy 98%!
In this monthly progress update, you can check out:
- an important schedule change
- the month’s 4 major focus areas
- the exciting reveal of the targeted jobs list for the alpha
- a video clip from the 5th Executive Producers meeting
- a video demonstration of the Kickstarter faces reward we're now delivering
2021 Schedule Update
Andrew and I are heads down on Cyber Knights: Flashpoint every week, making constant progress towards alpha. In our timeline update in January we ruled out the possibility that the CK:F alpha would be ready within Q1. We know many of you were optimistic that that was a roundabout way of saying the alpha test would begin in April, but we want to be upfront: we are still months away from being ready.As you'll see below, it's not from a lack of progress. Major milestones continue to be hit each month, with most of the core systems of the game coming online on schedule. Our challenge in giving a specific ETA for the alpha has been two-fold:
1) Generally, we estimate development time on features pretty accurately. However, our game dev process is iterative and flexible, allowing us to evolve, add or cut certain features during development. Until all the alpha-required features are complete, we can’t review the overall game experience and content required to fill those systems to make sure the alpha isn't just "playable", but providing the intended experience. We anticipate time beyond our "feature-complete" date for further review and content creation/tuning to ensure the alpha is actually ready for your feedback.
2) For personal reasons, we're expecting a 4 week period sometime this summer that I'll be unavailable (I'm moving across the country). The timing isn't pinned down but it's something we need to schedule around.
So, with those caveats in mind, the timeline we can commit to is that the alpha will be launched in Q4 2021 at the absolute, very latest. It is possible it will come earlier, but we want you to know that within this year is a guarantee. As you know, we want to get this in your hands as soon as possible as much you do (and not just so we can release and pay the bills 😅).
In the meantime, we appreciate your patience, and hope that these updates and all the additional behind-the-scenes we're offering on Twitch and in Discord are helping you feel part of this game even before you get the chance to play it. Because as one of our backers, you are.
March Progress Update
As we explained in the January update, each week we dedicate ourselves to a particular aspect of the game and put all our energies into bringing that to alpha readiness. During March, we worked on these major features each week: (1) integrated storyteller control to allow level scripts to control doors, security devices, monsters, matrix hosts and alarms (2) designed the melee and support jobs Cybersword, Warmachine and Medic and made major improvements to how nano-blades will function in the game to be an exciting weapon type (3) redesigned the ranged combat jobs Agent Ex, Gunslinger, Sniper, Soldier (4) added rules for carrying medkits, grenades and combat stims and enabled Jobs to train to increase certain types of item effectiveness (a Medic heals for more health, stims for more duration while a Soldier can train for more grenade boom!)
While building out the tactical gameplay of the Matrix, we've been iterating on visual concepts
March has been a very busy month. Every week we’re chipping away at a dozen smaller task lists while we smash the bigger goals. We’ve re-engaged with our audio partners at Studio Viking and they’re now building out the soundstage and moodboards for the game’s audio environment -- from ambients to gunfire to the UI and back again. We’re working with the art team to test new character customization features the team has developed that will yield a “build slider” letting you customize the thickness of your character’s 3d model.
If you'd like to check out some of the current progress on the character outfit and style options, we just broadcast an in-depth Twitch stream on it this week.
Jobs and Cyberjob Designs
Our new Job and Cyberjob system is a core component of the Cyber Knights: Flashpoint design. We spent considerable time this month on the Job system and specific Job implementations. In contrast to Star Traders: Frontiers, each Job in Cyber Knights has a unique tree of Job Nodes that contains buffs, Attribute points, Talents and triggered Passive Talents. Within each Job’s tree of Job Nodes, thousands of possible combinations exist. Each Job will have multiple roles that can be configured based on the paths you train in your Job tree.
Each Job is unique, for example the Cyber Knight Job has support, tactician and tank roles while the Agent EX has mobility, stealth and damage roles.
Relying on the quantum computer riding in their spine, your Cyber Knight is a master tactician, always one step ahead of the enemy while streaming sensory data and battle awareness between the entire team. Their unique brand of support allows the Cyber Knight to manipulate the turn order to the team’s advantage and focus their quantum power against both enemy drones and security. Your Cyber Knight is perfectly positioned for training a second Job -- such as adding Cyberblade or Gunslinger to bring a killing style to their powerful support build.
Part of the work of reaching alpha is deciding the scope and progression of what we will include in alpha, Steam Early Access and beyond and we nailed that list down in March. The alpha will include the game’s 10 core Jobs:
- Cyber Knight
- Vanguard
- Hacker
- Sniper
- Soldier
- Gunslinger
- Cybersword
- AgentEX
- Medic
- Drone Pilot
During the alpha, we plan to release additional jobs including the Cyber Knights: Flashpoint version of the Shock Trooper and the Hunder.
- Assault
- Hunder
Stalking the field as the alpha of a pack of cybernetically enhanced war dogs, the Hunder brings the fight to the enemy -- close enough for chomping jaw and shotgun. Deploying area-of-effect pack buffs and single-target surge buffs, the Hunder stands out from other companion Jobs as a powerful short ranged and melee-focused build that works in close coordination with their pack to bring down even the toughest armored opponents.
Then, during Steam Early Access we are aiming to round out the catalog with 3 more Job adds:
- Assassin (w/ cybercat)
- Warmachine
- Toxkit
Executive Producers #5
In early March, we met with the Executive Producers for the 5th time for another behind-the-scenes reveal and Q&A session about how we are approaching the design for the game’s pacing and progression. We shared the internal metadata scheme we are using to tag and organize different game elements for progression and reviewed some of the progression charts we’ve developed to help sequence game elements, challenges and player decisions -- ranging across tactical combat, safehouse team management, story narratives and down to the level of specific job types.We’ve included a 4 minute excerpt excerpt from this Executive Producers session which ran over an hour in length. In the clip, we were detailing our breakdown and approach to pacing, challenge and systems introduction in the Tutorial, Early Game, Mid Game and Late Game. If you’re eager more details about what we’re cooking, this is a great listen! Enjoy.
From now until the alpha release, we are scheduling monthly meetings with the Executive Producers so they will have a constant pulse on our progress and our design decisions. We hope you’re enjoying the clips shared in the Kickstarter, as we’ll keep up that practice so every backer can get a sneak peak into the EP reward tier!
Reward and Stretch Goal Progress
As always, we include the infographic of our progress to ensure it is clear where all of our commitments on stretch goals and rewards stand. We are excited to announce that we have completed the final rewards that were slated to be finished before alpha -- every backer’s 3D face, hair and beard are now complete. There are 62 backers at this level, so that will take some time to gather every screenshot and record multiple videos for each, but the first 7 emails have gone out this week (11%) so it should not be long before you'll get yours! You can check out one of the pieces of the reward below -- a video showing off the backer's designed face and hair and then multiple different variations on that style. If the video is coming through blurry, be sure to play it on YouTube!
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