Aug 21, 2024

Section 13 - ODS Kangaroo

Hello, this is Jaeeun Park, Creative Director of Blackout Protocol.

Today, we announced the game’s official release under a new title: “Section 13”. In this post, we’d like to share more detail on the thinking behind this decision.

We believe that the new logo and key art above represent the new direction of Section 13 very well. As previously shared by ODS_Jungsoo here, Section 13 will offer significantly different gameplay from the previous version of the game. While Blackout Protocol’s key pillars were tactical gameplay and co-op multiplayer, Section 13 is being developed with some new points of focus: action-driven gameplay, single-player, and narrative/storytelling.

Players who have spent extensive time with previous builds might not notice significant changes at first glance, when it comes to things like overall map design or visuals. But we believe they will feel a massive difference when they actually sit down with the game.

In today's devlog, we want to cover three main points:

The evolution process from Blackout Protocol to Section 13, and the reasons behind it
The differences between what the game was and what it is now
The demo test and future plans

#1. From Blackout Protocol to Section 13

For a little over a year now (since the Early Access release of Blackout Protocol in July of 2023) the development team has been continuously collecting feedback and working around the clock to improve the game.

During that process, we’ve gained a lot of feedback that was different from what we had anticipated – particularly, negative reviews focused on the high difficulty level and curve, and the fact that three-player co-op was essential to the core experience.

These reviews made us seriously reconsider the future of the project. However, thanks to the support of our players, who had an endless stream of great suggestions for improvement, we continued our efforts to enhance the game. Specifically, we addressed the game’s difficulty level and the absence of a single-player mode, while also improving the overall controls as a twin-stick shooter.

These updates received a positive response, and based on this feedback, we were able to announce a new development roadmap and plans in March of this year. (Link)

Subsequently, as we continued the development process and prepared for the production of additional content, we concluded that these adjustments alone, while needed, would not suffice for the task of improving the core gameplay itself in a major, substantial way.

We realized that we needed to move away from the tactical and co-op aspects as our primary design goals, and focus more deeply on satisfying single-player action. We also aimed to significantly enhance the narrative aspects of the game, to provide a proper single-player experience from end to end. Thus, we made the decision to overhaul the game, and began development with these focuses. This led to the official announcement of the new key art, logo, and console release, along with the unveiling of new footage at Gamescom and the Future Games Show.

Please understand that this is not just some tiny superficial improvement to provide a slightly better single-player experience. We’re rebuilding the game from the ground up as an action roguelite twin-stick shooter. We’ve reviewed and redesigned all existing elements to create a better final product that satisfies those goals.

With that said: when Section 13 goes live, it’s likely that multiplayer will be temporarily disabled, as many of the changes we’re making to single-player will require some time to balance and integrate. As of now, our plan is to finish that work and reactivate multiplayer sometime before the official release.

However, in the interest of transparency, we would like to be up-front about the fact that this aspect of the game requires significant time and development resources, which is a particular challenge in the midst of such a huge, ambitious pivot. What that means is, our plans for the exact timing of multiplayer’s return to the game may see some adjustments down the road.

We apologize to those of you who love the game’s multiplayer, and we appreciate your patience as we work to brings its quality up to a new level of greatness that we can stand proudly behind.

#2. Blackout Protocol vs. Section 13

As we transition from Blackout Protocol to Section 13, many elements have been redesigned and remade, resulting in significant differences as outlined below. More detailed plans will be explained in upcoming devlogs.

Today we’d like to give you an overview of the four main areas we’ve been focused on.

2.1. Enhanced Action
2.2. Changes in Level Design
2.3. Evolution of the Progression Systems
2.4. More and Better Storytelling

2.1. Enhanced Action

The original Blackout Protocol aimed to be a tactical shooter, imposing a number of restrictions on things like movement speed and available resources. While these were intended to create a game with a tense, methodical pace, what we found was that by requiring players to be constantly vigilant and cautious with their ammo, the game created a significant barrier for new players, which was reflected in reviews and feedback.

To improve accessibility in Section 13, the following mechanics have been implemented:

Increased movement speed
Removal of count and cooldown for dodge-rolls
Ammo is now unlimited for all weapons (but they still require reloading)

We believe that these three elements have allowed us to simplify the controls while emphasizing tighter, more responsive action. Our hope is that Section 13 feels smooth and intuitive to pick up, but still deep and exciting to master.

However, for players who still want intricate controls or a higher level of challenge, we’ll be providing this through optional settings and adjustable difficulty.

2.2. Changes in Level Design

The early part of the game retains almost the exact same layout as before. However, we’ve threaded some additional paths between levels (instead of just a single, linear path), as well as adding some areas that are procedurally generated. The hope is to create moments of interesting decision-making that break up the pacing and let players shape their own experience a bit more.

You can check out the plans we’ve shared about this previously here.

2.3. Evolution of the Progression Systems

This aspect of the game has also undergone significant changes.

Previously, single-run progression was primarily focused on maximizing DPS. And to that end, certain weapons had a clear and definite advantage. In Section 13, we’ve restructured things to make a variety of playstyles and builds more fun and viable.

Notably, many of the pillars of growth that were previously only possible through Synaptic Enhancements have now been divided amongst three elements:

Synaptic Enhancements: Although still an essential element of the game, we’ve redesigned how many work, removed many, and added a bunch more. In addition, Synaptics were previously tied to unlocking weapon perks; this has been removed. Finally, Synaptics can now be obtained more often and reliably, including at various specific points in the level maps, where they’re now guaranteed to appear.
Weapon Perks: These were previously unlocked through a system relating to the color of acquired Synaptics. That’s been simplified. Perks are now obtained more directly through gameplay. During a run, players will obtain Perk Vouchers, which can be turned in at a Weapons Bench (located in every safe room) to customize their weapons.
Body Mods: Players can also experiment with various playstyles by using Body Mod Vouchers, acquired during gameplay, to augment their agent’s stats. We’ve talked about this system a bit previously, which you can read more on here.

In addition to these areas, we’ve also made changes to the balance of enemy damage and the player’s HP, across the board. The game is now far less one-hit-kill, but HP recovery items are also far scarcer. As a result, when picking up items or Synaptics, players will now often find themselves in the position of choosing between restoring some life or gaining some strength.

The permanent growth system in Section 13 will retain a similar structure to its previous iteration. The most significant difference is that instead of losing Data Nugs after every run, they’re now a permanent currency you will always hold onto – and instead of spending them in the safe rooms between levels, players will now spend them at the hub location they return to after each session ends.

We’ve also changed how weapons are unlocked. Instead of blueprints that drop based mostly on RNG, players will now regularly collect a new dedicated currency, STAR Pins, that they can spend to unlock new weapons at the hub.

2.4. Storytelling

One of the most significant changes in Section 13 is the addition of major new story elements, to provide a proper single-player game experience.

To achieve this, we have made HUGE changes to the game’s overall launch flow, transforming the start menu into a hub area that acts as the player’s command center. We’ve also been engaged in extensive development work on the story, which will be told largely through a 2D visual novel interface, and we’re creating beautiful new character portraits to support that.

While we unfortunately can’t share a lot more at this time (as we plan to reveal most of the new story elements closer to the official release, when they’re more complete), the general plan is to give the player some optional ways to truly delve into the mysteries of Section 13. They’ll do this by gathering a new dedicated currency during gameplay (the data-laden USB drives of zombified Section 13 employees), and then spend those at the hub to unlock story content unique to each character.

At this time, we’re announcing the release of a demo we’ve prepared, in order to let you experience all these changes for yourself. (Link) Our plan is to use this demo to gather feedback from players and validate that the game is moving in the right direction, before we update the live app itself.

We encourage you to participate in the test and share your honest opinions. If the demo test is successful, we aim to implement a major patch (updating the existing Blackout Protocol build to Section 13) as soon as possible -- most likely between September and October.

Finally, I would like to address some aspects of the demo that have not yet been disclosed.

In the current live version of Blackout Protocol, there is a system called “Panic”. Both players and enemies have Panic Gauges, which are depleted by Psionic Damage, triggering various effects and tying in with various game systems. However, we’ve decided to remove this element from enemies, and adjust how it works for the player. Here is our thinking:

The ultimate goal of weapons that do Psionic Damage is to deplete enemies’ Panic Gauge, in order to then deal normal damage to HP. At the end of the day, that’s just functionally not very different from regular weapons, so it’s never really provided a substantially different gameplay experience that we were totally satisfied with.
Conceptually, it just never made a lot of sense for enemies to have a panic stat like the player does. The player is a terrified agent fighting for survival; the enemies are an infected zombie hive-mind. It’s always felt like a bit of an odd fit.

For these reasons, we’ve removed the Panic mechanic from enemies, and removed Panic-related attributes from all weapons and perks.

The player’s version of the stat is now called Fear. You gain it when you spend time in dark areas or take damage from specific enemies. When it fills up all the way, you have a panic attack that creates some negative stat penalties, like lowered attack and defense.

While it’s painful to make changes that cut so deep, especially after all the work that was put into these systems, the prevailing feedback we received from players was clear: “I don’t understand this or feel a significant difference.”

By simplifying these mechanics, we believe we’ve maintained the game’s fun while making it a little more straightforward and intuitive. We also plan to provide more Synaptics that are triggered by entering the Panicked state, allowing the player to make some exciting clutch moves in tense moments.

As this is a significant change for our project, it’s taken us a while to discuss everything and get the game to a state we feel ready to share. We want to express our gratitude to everyone who has supported Blackout Protocol, and we hope you’ll continue to support Section 13 with the same passion and enthusiasm.

We will continue to provide frequent devlogs and new content patches from now until the official release.

Thank you.

Sincerely,
Jaeeun Park