Christmas Eve Post!
over 10 years ago – Thu, Dec 24, 2015 at 08:36:15 PM

Happy Holidays!

Hopefully you're all enjoying the season (like we totally are) and you aren't rushing around finishing last minute shopping (like we totally are) and you are, maybe, partaking in an eggnog or two (like we totally are).

If you missed it on the forums or Twitter, we posted some alien portraits. These are some characters that you meet as you explore the universe and encounter all the different factions/races of Halcyon 6. We've even been toying with a little intergalatic smack talk between 'friends'.

Also, we got you Alpha and Beta backers a little something for your stockings: we expect we'll be reaching out in January to get you all squared away to start ACTUALLY PLAYING EARLY VERSIONS OF HALYCON 6. Fair warning, there's some housekeeping that has to happen first, like we're still working through distribution channels and setting up closed forum access for your feedback. But you should hear from us early in the new year via BackerKit. In the interim, if you haven't already, make sure you've created an account on our fourms (forums.pleasestaycalm.com) so you're ready to take advantage.

Our shout out this week goes to Star Wars The Force Awakens. If you haven't seen it yet, go. We all went for our office holiday party and it was amazeballs! #NoSpoilers

 From all of us at MDI, happy holidays everyone! See you on the other side!

CVA FanFest + New Officer Menu + Combat Loop!
over 10 years ago – Thu, Dec 10, 2015 at 11:01:29 PM

Yet again, it's been a busy couple of weeks in Halcyon 6-Land!

As we get closer to having the underpinnings of the systems nailed down, we're working more and more on the polish and UI elements of our little space baby. We've even taken the ever-gestating tot out to see the world! (But more on that later.)

(Actually, more on that now.)

CVA Fanfest!

The Canadian Videogame Awards went down this past weekend, conveniently held a couple blocks from our office! We were invited to showcase Halcyon 6 and hang out with other Canadian indie studios at the weekend long CVA FanFest. We handed out some stickers, talked to a bunch of people, and went slowly deaf from the far-too-loud CounterStrike competition.

 It was a fun experience overall and it was really the first time we had people playing Halcyon 6 that weren't us, our friends, or our families. We also learned a lot while watching people play. It inspired a couple changes we immediately incorporated into the game. Like what, you say?

Like...

The All New Officer Roster

Sure, we all love that slow pan shot of the Enterprise at the beginning of every Star Trek episode - the swell of the intro music, the whole "where no man/one has gone before" thing - but the ship wouldn't be half as interesting without her crew. Serenity is just space junk without Mal et al, Moya would be a lonely space whale without her crazy inhabitants, and we all remember what happened to Holly after three million years on Red Dwarf with no crew.

Suffice to say, we knew that the officer system was going to be the beating heart of Halcyon 6 as well. We've got this great roster of super cool officers with quirky personalities, and special powers and traits ...

Then we realized, hey! We're not giving nearly enough love to these amazing characters. So we've switched up the core UI to bring your crew front and centre.

TA DaAAa! Your officers will now hang out with you on most of the screens in game, giving advice, commenting on actions, letting you know when ships are finished or they've arrived at a sector. Plus, you can lord over them and order them around like the Glorious Commander you are. In space, no one can hear you lodge HR complaints!

Cool Downs Versus Power Ups: a Study in Vice-Versa

Watching people play also highlighted some changes we had been mulling over recently. Should a ship's super cool attacks power up over time then attack, or should you launch an attack then cool down, awaiting your next move? Both are really similar, but they have a distinct impact on the "feel" of combat and the pacing of battle. After downing a million-billion ships in our playtesting, we think we've found a combination that really works for the game.

This chart shows how we’ve tightened the combat loop by having you target immediately and in the case of most weapons (except for the EPIC ones), they fire IMMEDIATELY. This tight feedback loop creates a much better sense of control over combat and we’ve found it to be much more satisfying overall. 

Your ship has an overall cooldown before you can launch your next attack, while some powerful individual attacks have a short casting-time to add some interest and intricacy to battle. It's feeling really zippy, you guys. There's an urgency and action to your choices, but there's still time to consider the best strategy. We think you're gonna like it. 

"... Alpha Testing Update?"

Oh, dear. We know, we know! We hinted that it might be available in November. We really thought we'd have playable builds out to our alpha testers already too! When you take a cup of refactoring and three tablespoons of the office kennel cough/plague, and you mix it with some really cool late stage inspiration, you get the joy of software delivery.

We're hoping to have more concrete information for you guys in an upcoming update, we pinky swear! 

Forum Registry!

Be sure to register for our forums (http://forums.pleasestaycalm.com) for exclusive details and other various and sundry shenanigans!

Next update is scheduled for the 24th - It’s Christmas already?! It'll be a short one, but we'll be sure to check in. :)

Progress Update + Unit Class Types W/ Video + Shout Out
over 10 years ago – Thu, Nov 26, 2015 at 09:51:32 PM

So…

There comes a time in every game studio’s life where things are going really well: the game they’re working on is fun, the designers are charged-up, the art’s looking great.

But then, a developer has to ruin everyone’s fun and say the R-word.

 That R-word is "refactor".

I guess what we're saying is:

"uh... we're not going to have a public build ready this week."

Now, things aren’t bad, by any means! The work is, fingers crossed, pretty much done, and it’s not as though it’s held up much of the design team, but it did hold up some of the implementation of ground combat.

Long story short: we knew it would come, we planned for it, it came, aaaand it took us a bit longer than we expected.

The good news is that we’re back on track now, and the delay should be measured in weeks, and not any, you know, larger unit of measurement.

 So things are still going well! We’ll update you soon on what kind of time frame we’re looking at for a proper external build.

New Video!

We’ve got a new video today! Yippee!

 In it, Peter breaks down unit types, our rock-paper-scissors mechanic AND in-combat combos. Enjoy!

On Ship And Officer Types

So this is a little bit a recap as to what’s in the video, but we realized we never gave much detail as to our unit concept design, and how we’re folding the tactical/engineering/science archetypes into both officer and starship units. So here goes!

It’s been lost to time, but in sci-fi media, blue uniforms mean science, yellow uniforms mean engineering and red uniforms mean tactical. We’re pretty sure that’s inscribed on the reliefs in the tombs of at least 3 - 5 Assyrian kings, and the principle forms the foundations of modern society.

 We’re taking that to the next step, and we’re saying the concepts of Science/Engineering/Tactical are important enough that in the future, EVERYTHING will break down along those lines. So that means that ships, as well.

It also really helps with game balancing in combat.

But without further ado, this is the breakdown of the ship archetypes in Halcyon 6.

Tactical

Fantasy Equivalent: Rogue

Basic Attack Types:

• Tactical Beam - this targeted beam attack are extremely useful at singling out and disabling enemy ship systems, as long as you have the accuracy to hit them.
• Auxiliary Gun Turret - fast-firing, non system-targeting attacks. Cannot be disabled. 

Advantage Against:

• Science Ships - Science ships have an over-reliance on systems, and these systems can be targeted and crippled by tactical ship targeted attacks. 

Disadvantage Against:

• Engineering ships - have bulkier hulls that protect their ship systems from targeted beam attacks and help shrug off regular tactical ship turret attacks.

Engineering

 Fantasy Equivalent: Paladin

Basic Attack Types:

• Flak Cannons - a massive barrage of flak fired in the general direction of the selected enemy. Good against maneuverable tactical ships.
• Ram - engineering ships can take advantage of their thick, impenetrable hulls to ram other enemies. It’s as awesome as it sounds. 

Advantage Against:

• Tactical Ships - tactical ships crumple in the face of powerful engineering ship attacks.

• Science Ships - Able to momentarily phase themselves in and out of existence, science ships can avoid a portion of engineering attacks, and can retaliate with devastating warp portals, which tear off and shred the huge, engineering ship armor. 

Science

Fantasy Equivalent: Mage 

Basic Attack Types:

• Warp Hull - science ships can open transdimensional portals for the purposes of travel and research, and this has only recently been discovered as a viable combat strategy. Portals, strategically placed, can drag and warp large and bulky enemy ships, damaging them over time.
• Scan - a detailed scan can reveal an enemy’s weakness, which can drastically improve physical damage against them.

Advantage Against:

• Engineering Ships - the bulky hulls of engineering ships make them particularly vulnerable to the science ship’s warp attacks.

Disadvantage Against:

• Tactical Ships - Tactical ships can easily avoid warp attacks, and can retaliate with crippling targeted attacks against the science ship’s high tech systems.

Now, if you’re an amateur numerologist, like everyone at this officer, you’ll notice that we’re a little fixated on the number 3.

• 3 v 3 combat 
• 3 unit category types 
• The station has distinct segments 
• a 3 act structure

MY GOD, WHAT DOES IT MEAN?

As far as we can tell, this came out of ENDLESS amounts of experimentation that the design team was able to do by playing around with the lua scripts. It’s a super fun system now, while also being juuuust simple enough for new players to get their head around.

 Love our irreverent update shenanigans? You should see the forums!

Be sure to register at our forums (http://forums.pleasestaycalm.com) to see exclusive content updates and to chat with us and other like-minded space enthusiasts! Also, before you register, prepare yourself. If you’re a bot and not a human, you’ll need a crafty lie to evade our impressive anti-spam detection. Fair warning.

Shout Out: The Last Shore

By Pulpo Games

 A lot of buzz is coming out of this game’s Pax Prime appearance a few months back. Check out their video!

Another Update! + Health! + Oh The Humanity!
over 10 years ago – Thu, Nov 12, 2015 at 11:40:53 PM

What?? It’s an ‘Other Thursday” again?? OHMyGOdINeedTOSLamMyFIngErsOntothEKEyboardAbunchAaghah#+~~~ASDFG!

But seriously, folks, hello!

We’re gearing up for some big reveals in the coming weeks, but we’re not quite there yet! So instead, this week we’re giving a little breakdown of our design and development processes and how each continuously influence the other, as well as touching on the lua/mod stuff. Hope you like it! 

But first off, let’s check in with what and how everyone’s handling the plague ship maelstrom that Canadians like to call November!

Kenneth

Health: Ear infection, on antibiotics.

Activity: just birthed a massive spreadsheet calculator for balancing purposes, which is where we’re going to be housing all of our magic numbers for enemy unit difficulty, progression balance, base building/ship costs, officer progression, power stats, etc. Spreadsheets are the greatest invention of the 20th century, so we’re pretty excited.

Felicity

Health: some kind of mysterious flu/cold, on antibiotics, sowing seeds of decay in the name of Papa Nurgle.

Activity: lua-ing like a crazy person, hooking up the tech tree we have planned! Super great!

Linda

Health: feeling fine, but her cat Gremlin is under the weather. We’ll keep you up to date.

 Activity: hooking up base screens like a fiend, taking Peter’s miserable napkin scribbles and turning them into juicy pixel UI masterpieces.

Peter

Health: Girlfriend has some kind of hell plague. He has a sore throat, but is preeeeetty sure he didn’t get it from her. He's probably just kidding himself, though. It's kind of sad to watch.

Activity: With the game careening towards feature completedness, Peter’s hovering on the sidelines coming up with tweaks, drawing red circles around things and writing “try harder” like a severe and unloved English teacher.

Lucky

Health: Miraculously good. Whichever Outer God he’s sacrificing to is clearly going to win come doomsday.

Activity: Building the all-important officer avatar/ground combat animation system. This is the real final hurdle for us, so we’re really excited.

JC

Health: So far, so good. He sits next to Peter though, so he’s probably next.

Activity: Working with Lucky to provide the necessary art asset library for the officer avatar/animation system.

Jeff

Health: Has kids, so hasn’t been healthy for the last decade.

Activity: As always, recalibrating the event system, updating the script manager, etc.

Process Generalities + Resource System!

Working on H6 is a dream come true. Like many dreams, the chronology is infuriatingly vague and when you try to describe the narrative of it to someone, their eyes glaze over until you mention them specifically and even then they’re kind of underwhelmed.

Okay, maybe the second part doesn’t really work, but we stand by the first part. Basically, because we want the game to be as moddable and customizable as possible, we first need to approach the design of each game feature from a general and flexible concept, then build that concept before we start tweaking. 

BUT THEN, by the time we’ve built it and integrated it with lua, we’ve come up with a way more awesome idea! So we circle around and make it way more compelling!

Fortunately, having built the lua tools, it’s easy to make those changes really quickly.

EXAMPLE: RESOURCE SYSTEM

It may not seem very sexy, but the resource system really exemplifies what we mean by this. As part of our ‘4x-lite’ design concept, we knew from the start that we needed some kind of resource system to regulate things like building rooms and ships.

So we built it, and we called those placeholder resources “eXotic metals”, “Yttronium and “Zero-Matter”.

X, Y, Z! Get it? Placeholder humour, everyone! Ah, we have fun here.

(wipes single tear of laughter from eye)

We knew that some modders would want to build scenarios with dozens of different resources, Endless Space-style, while others might want to keep things simple with a single resource for, say, a more mercantile setting with a single currency.

 Our scenario (which we’re pretentiously calling “the main campaign”) has the whole “humanity on the verge of extinction” thing going on, so we thought a monetary currency didn’t make a whole ton of sense. Near-extinction has a wicked tendency to crash the market.

 So we thought “what kind of resource would best exemplify the human race on the brink of extinction”?

The answer: humans. 

 That’s right. The main resource of the game is going to be crew, meaning human beings. Now, they won’t be the only resource - ships and rooms, for example, will require chunkier stuff in addition to crew - but the primary source of friction in the main campaign will be the number of humans under your command.

Unlike other resources, you cannot gain these crew as a reliable income source (people-mines were outlawed in the 2300s). Rather, they are gained from events, such as encountering and rescuing ruined colonies or by saving refugees fleeing the Chruul onslaught.

On the other side of things, losing a ship in combat will shrink your overall pool of crew, though you will recover some and even more if you’re victorious. You may want to keep your suicidal ram attacks to a minimum, though.

Forums!

Join them! They contain exotic tales, majestic works of art, and only the finest vintage of completely ordinary but moderately important text updates!

Shout Out!

Memoranda

By Bit Byterz

 Wow, not sure how we missed this one! There’s only 3 days to go, but this project looks downright astonishing. Check it out!

Dev Blog: Game Balance!
over 10 years ago – Fri, Oct 30, 2015 at 12:12:23 AM

We’ve got a special treat this week, with Felicity giving you a run-down on some of the balancing design that’s been going on! Along with that, she’ll also give an early sneak-peak of a lua script mechanism, specifically one that powers one of our favourite combat mechanics: system hits.

Enjoy!

Balance And Combat Design

Hi, Kickstarter Backers!!! 

If you’ve been reading these updates, you might remember Kenneth and I as the junior developers and designers of Halcyon 6, and the most recent additions to the team. In theory, this means that while Lucky and Jeff work on major building blocks of the game, Kenneth and I fill in details, mechanics, smaller bits of code, and content. In practice, this means that we have strong feelings about spreadsheets and are probably really uninteresting to sit next to on the bus.

Anyways, I’ve been released from the oubliette they keep us in for my yearly foray into the blinding sunlight of the Internet! Here’s a quick version of the story of how one of our beloved spreadsheets became our current system for critical hits.

Stage 1 - Explosions!

Waaaay back in the first iteration of space combat, a git card popped up in my bucket: Critical Hits. The text can be summarized as, "should be a thing".

The first round of criticals was as straightforward as it comes. When a blow connected, the engine rolled to see if the hit was critical. If so, it multiplied the damage by two. It was the critical hit system your grandmother would use, unless your grandmother uses knitting needles as blowgun darts and shoots for the eyes, in which case she sounds like a super cool lady and also a criminal.

Anyways, it filled the card, but it wasn’t our favourite. So we changed it!

Stage 2 - Explosions and Ships: The Early Years

More damage was all well and good, but the essence of a critical hit isn’t in how much extra damage your landmine does, it’s in the childish giggling that occurs when you see which of your enemy’s extremities were blown off by said landmine.

 We solved this by having certain critical hits disable certain ship powers. Each ship had a set of five targets: Hull, Weapons, Engines, Bridge, and Reactor. The Bridge controlled buffs, the Weapons controlled attacks, and so on, so that by targeting carefully you could stun­lock certain enemy abilities. Systems were harder to hit than the hull, though, so they needed to be targeted strategically.

You may notice that unlike Fallout meat­people, ships do not all have a regulation set of hominid limbs. You may also notice that there was absolutely no point in NOT hitting the weapons right away and never hitting anything else.

We'll come back to that.

Stage 3 ­ What Measure Is A Fireball?

This model stuck around for a long time while we worked on other things. Eventually Kenneth and I came back to space combat with the intention of balancing some woefully over­and­underpowered ships. It went okay, but we were having a hard time coming up with a coherent way of organizing the different sizes and specialties. We needed inspiration. It was time to go back to the Masked Lords of Spreadsheets.

 Instead of thinking of ships in terms of tech trees, we started thinking of them in terms of RPG classes. Tactical ships started to focus on critical hits, speed, and evasion, which are the classic rogue stats. Engineering ships turned into paladins, with thick armour and drones that could repair other ships. Science ships were squishy in terms of health, but carried powerful debuffs, DOT and AOE attacks, making them space wizards.

 What does this have to do with the crit system? Well, going back to tabletop RPGs also gave us a chance to use the greatest spreadsheet ever made: the Dark Heresy critical hit tables. Dark Heresy is a roleplaying game for Warhammer 40K and with the correct application of rendering damage to the head, your enemy's blood can become an oil slick for his friends.

 What's really cool about this crit system (aside from all the exploding femurs turning into shrapnel) is that crit effects are different by both location and damage type. That seemed like it would be fun in H6. If a laser blast hits a missile bay, stuff should explode, but if a firebomb hits a missile bay, e​verything​ should explode.

Stage 4 ­ Explosions and Ships, Together At Last

As soon as we started thinking of hilarious ways for ships to careen into the hereafter, we realized that our ships needed more flexible targets. The Weapons/Bridge/Engines/Reactor model wasn't terrible, but Halcyon 6 has floating space monsters and biological monstrosities in it. They shouldn't have the same targets as a run­-of-­the-­mill cruiser. You should be able to punch them right in the mutated teeth.

I went back to the code, and a new function was born!

AddSystem(params["ship"], "missile_bay")

The AddSystem function adds a 'system' script to a ship. Powers rely on systems, and if one of the systems a power needs is disabled, the power can't be used ­ but different attacks could rely on different things, instead of all using generic 'weapons'. Best of all, instead of a centralized crit table for all ships, EACH SYSTEM has its very own crit table that can have different crit rolls for each damage type.

Basically, powers rely on systems to work, but systems can be targeted by enemies. Here's a sample script we're using right now for the repair bay:

 As you can see, for most attacks, if the repair bay is targeted, it rolls to see if the bay becomes disabled or is just damaged. If you use a hacking effect, though, the repair drones can go crazy and start attacking the ship and demanding union representation. System scripts and critical hit tables and effects are all on the Lua side of the code, meaning they're 100% moddable and new ones can be added by whoever thinks of a new way to smear your foes into a pulpy mess on the windshield. All of this will probably keep changing as time goes on, but we like our current version pretty well.

That's all my stuff for now ­ thank you for reading! Here's a video of Lt. Margot Bukowicz using her special Backstab Maneuver on a Chruul Titan’s brood pods and making it throw up.

 Shout out! 

Pankapu: the Dreamkeeper

By Too Kind Studios

 A gorgeous, hand-drawn 2d platformer with an emotionally resonant Princess Bride narrative device. Also, they're with Square Enix Collective, so check them out!