Rulers!
The final pre-release Stream is almost here! Join us as we share whatās next and move closer to release. š¦ This November, November 6 at 14:00 CEST!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3976440/Age_of_Wonders_4_Expansion_Pass_3/Meanwhile, our players on Discord can discuss what will happen during the stream - join our Discord to join the discussion!
What time is the stream for me?
PDT: 5am
MDT: 6am
CDT: 7am
EDT: 8 am
GMT: 12pm
GMT+3: 3pm
GMT+7: 7pm
GMT+8: 8pm
GMT+9: 9pm
GMT+11: 11pm
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The first Open Alpha (Single Player) event is happening this weekend ā your chance to experience real Exoshock combat for the very first time.
Select your contract, deploy, and push deeper through the Resistance line, one mission at a time.
These Open Alpha sessions help our dev team fine-tune core systems while letting you jump straight into the action, test gameplay, and share feedback.
Keep in mind, this is an early build ā some features are missing, others are still in progress, and bugs and frustrations are expected.
Thatās exactly what this phase is for: helping us shape Exoshock ahead of its Early Access release.
Join the Open Alpha by downloading the Exoshock Playtest App (free) for Steam VR ā if you havenāt already.
Once installed, it grants access to all upcoming Open Events (starting with this one) plus immediate entry to the Staging Area, where you can:
š« Test all available weapons
š§© Explore the environment
šŖ Experience Exoshockās gunplay before the event begins
š„ Download the Playtest App:
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Donāt wait ā prepare for deployment before November 7!
To celebrate the first Open Alpha, weāre launching a content contest with real rewards ā game keys and exclusive perks!
During the Open Alpha event, record and share your best moments.
š£ More info available on Discord.
Flashpoint Campaigns: Cold War releases 20th of November 2025, read all the updates and wish list the game here
Hello Commanders!
Actually, hang on just a minute, I need to hop in this helo to ride out to the front. Or wait, was it the truck to the far flank? Hold up, let me check my plan.
In all seriousness though, transport plans are an incredibly complex thing. One of the biggest challenges is creating a system that gives players the versatility to do weird, wacky things but which also has the simplicity to be understood. Letās start with a reference look at what the Pros use when they are planning this stuff.
Figure 1: What the Pros use to plan these things
Wellā¦ thatās a lot. How can we make that easier for players to fill out quickly? Fortunately, some of that is pretty easy. Players donāt have control over individual squads, so the game will handle which squad or vehicle gets carried by whichever vehicle is most appropriate. And while timings are important, in general in our game everything is done ASAP. So the units need to know the timings, but the player just needs to know that the units will do things without delay.
Another thing we can do is to break this up a bit. The table above is for what is called a Lift, which is the plan for all the units involved and will take the different units to multiple locations from multiple locations. Weāve broken this down into the players only needing to plan a single Serial at a time. A Serial has a single, specific pickup location and a single, specific drop-off location. With those changes in mind let us see what we have left.
Figure 2: Sample Plan
This is a pretty simple plan as all things go, but it serves as a good example for looking at the various elements at your fingertips. The top section is pretty similar to the Air Movement Table above, showing us which transport unit is carrying which passengers. Below that we can see the path the transport will take, where itās going to pick up the passengers and where it will drop them off. I have utilized the ability to set six waypoints to have the transport helicopter do some exfil as well. In the next section we can see which units have been attached as escort duty to this plan. Issuing this plan will give the respective orders to all of our units involved.
Escorts and Transports will move in formation with each other, great for keeping your transports under the protection of any escorts and avoiding having your troops arrive one at a time where they can be easily be picked off. If you already saw our pre-release stream then you know these plans can involve many more units of course, but in case you didnāt and want to check it out:
YouTubeā¢ Video: Flashpoint Campaigns: Cold War | Air Assault First Look
Views: 1,678
Andrew Spearin producer at OTS showcases the new tactical transport and air assault feature in Flashpoint Campaigns: Cold War. Cold War release 20th November.
Now, I think itās great being able to do this sort of thing. But I promised you versatility, didnāt I? So letās see what that can look like.
Figure 3: Now it gets weird
Since itās probably not immediately obvious, let me explain the madness I have concocted here. We have a transport unit consisting of a couple of Chinook helicopters. Inside each of those Chinooks is a platoon of Americaās brave men and some friends. But the transport mission those Chinooks are going to undertake is to go pick up a couple of Kiowa helicopters. How are they going to do that? Well the Kiowas will get sling-loaded underneath the Chinooks. Now thatās a bit strange, but why stop there? If youāre not familiar with the Kiowa, on the outside of it are a couple of benches that Joe Smith and a few buddies can ride on. So while the Kiowa is getting strapped in weāve got a couple of mortar teams lashing themselves to the side of these Kiowas. Why are they riding the Kiowas instead of the Chinooks? I donāt know, I guess they just want to feel the wind in their hair. Or maybe itās ācuz I told them to for this arbitrary example.
Alright, you probably donāt want to do that, but what might you actually use this for? You could use this for transporting some wheeled units with some infantry that can use the wheeled transport to sneak close to an objective or observation point. With any luck we can expand this to cover other transport types like amphibious landings in future updates and content.
There are a lot of nuances that Tactical Transport lets us utilize and explore in the game. An entire new range of possible scenarios we can develop and add to the game as we continue to support it and expand the series in the future. For any wily users who want to make their own scenarios or even edit the unit data the potential here is immense. If youāre as excited as I am about this, post your favorite picture of an unlikely military transport in action. Hereās mine:
Figure 4: Ok, so the chopper isn't being carried, but it's still funny.
We've just updated a demo of Grim. It now includes an FPS Quest Chapter - a surreal, first-person fragment where the boundaries between fear and reflection dissolve. Step into the depths of protagonist's subconscious, where each corridor hides a symbol, each shadow a memory.
Do you have the courage to face what waits behind the trigger?
Hi everyone,
This is a very important moment for our small company.
Our second game, Of Lies and Rain, is now out of early access and ready for the public.
A Little Backstory: Castello Inc was founded in March 2021. None of us came from the video game industry. I was creating 3D renderings for advertising and architecture, our coder worked at an industrial refrigeration company while programming PLCs, our sound designer was part of a folk band, and our 3D modeler and narrative designer were both employed in a warehouse.
Given this background, you can understand why we struggled to find a publisher or investor who believed in our team when we pitched ou second game "Of Lies and Rain". We were told things like: "Too big for your studio, try something smaller" "It ticks all our risk categories" "You need more people and a huge budget" "You donāt have any experience in story-driven games" and "Youāll need to hire someone to write the story"
Two and a half years later, here we are. Of Lies and Rain is a reality.
It came at a cost though... Weāve been working without compensation for the past two years. For the game to be successful, it needs to cover our two years of development costs and generate enough revenue to give us time to create another game, a very difficult task. If it doesn't the company will not survive. During the entire early access period, the game sold just over 3,000 copies, not nearly enough to cover even a few months of development. The publishers and investors might have been right after all.
But none of that matters now. During the brief seven week early access period, we rolled out one update per week. We addressed every major issue with the game, fixed bugs, and added features requested by our community of players.
Of Lies and Rain is now in great shape, still at a 90% positive score on Steam and a 4.5 rating on Meta, with the PSVR2 version out now.
Being game developers for the past five years has been the time of our lives. Weāre five friends working together every day on something we love, and itās been incredible. Weāre proud of the game weāve created against all odds, we couldnāt have made a better game than this.
If this journey ends here, these memories will stay with us forever and will be amazing to remember "that time when we made games" as we grow older.
We want to thank everyone who helped us during development: our playtesters who spent countless hours testing the game, the content creators who helped spread the word, and everyone who purchased the early access version. Truly, thank you to everyone who played our game!
Of Lies and Rain is out now. We hope you enjoy playing it as much as we loved making it!
Best,
Castello Inc Team
