Issue 6: System Overcharge
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1. We've Been Greenlit!
2. Jon And Ted’s Excellent Gamecast
3. Making Functions More...Um...Functional
4. Twitch Streams For The Month
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Hi all,
Welcome to issue 6 of the Failure Newsletter. What a month this has been! We spent several months preparing for Steam Greenlight only for us to smash through the process and get Greenlit in just 9 days!!! Read more about it in our first topic below.
Don't forget that if you've missed previous issues you can read up on them by heading here.
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Greenlight was an intense few days and we had no idea that we'd manage to smash through the process as quick as we did.
So what does this mean? Well, most importantly, it means that we are now able to sell Failure through the Steam Store when we finally finish the game. Secondly, it allows us to integrate many of the cool Steam features that Valve offer to their SteamWorks developers including skill based match making and workshop integration - Whether we make use of these services is still being decided and there's a lot of documentation that we all need to go through to determine how these services could work with Failure but we'll keep you all updated as we move forward.
Your probably asking "So when is Failure going to be released?". Well, the plan has always been to hit Early Access sometime in Q2 2016 and we're still on track to deliver, but do take into account that releases do slip and we've got some major changes coming up; one of which is described in another segment in this newsletter and the other being our need to change our networking / multiplayer solution.
We've been using Unity's troublesome (And that's being kind) UNet which is still in Beta. This has caused no end of issues as more features have been added to the game. There is a total lack of documentation and things just don't work sometimes for no apparent reason, its buggy and not currently fit for purpose and its caused development of new features to be halted in it's tracks while we attempt to determine what is going on.
So, we're switching to Photon; a well trusted, proven platform that provides a multiplayer, in game chat and anti-cheat solution that other developers trust. This is a big task in itself requiring much of our netcode to be rewritten and being such a small team this will mean that Sven or Milcho, our two programmers, will need to be taken off another element they're working on in order to get Photon up and running.
We'll keep you updated if release does slip and if you've got any questions we now have a brand new Official Failure Steam User Group that you can join. We're in the chat room most days so feel free to ask us anything that might be on your mind:
http://steamcommunity.com/groups/FailureOfficial
Lastly here are our final stats for Greenlight:
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Jon and Ted's Excellent Gamecast
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Last week we were contacted by Ted Edwards, CEO of RaptorCow and part of the two man team behind Jon and Ted's Excellent Gamecast.
Jon and Ted's Excellent GameCast, or "JTEG" for short, is a podcast about video games discussed from the unique perspectives of a blind programmer/developer (Jon) and an ex-NFL coach/entrepreneur (Ted). They interview game developers and other interesting characters from the industry all while having a good time and bunch of laughs.
Justin (Thats me, the guy writing this) was invited to partake in their latest podcast which was recorded on Tuesday. It was a good laugh and I got the chance to discuss gaming culture, Fallout 4 and of course our game Failure. The episode should go live on Thursday and you can check out previous podcasts and when Episode 7 goes live Here.
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Making Functions More....um.....Functional
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A big change to the way that Functions work is one of our latest focal points over the next month or so for Milcho and the design team. But first let me explain why we're making the change and quickly go over the mechanics behind the function scripts.
Functions are one of two types of script types that you can place into your decks, the other being Constructs. Decks are made up of a total of 6 scripts in early levels and will be expanded with up to 10 scripts as you progress. (These numbers might change)
Functions are the abilities that allow you to change the world in different ways as well as the behaviours of you and your opponents units, constructs and counter the functions that they have played.
At the moment when you play a Function on the board it will trigger instantly and effect a certain area, last for a certain amount of time and then dissipate (all depending on the type of Function). It’s a simple mechanic that allows you to very quickly understand how each Function can be used in a tactical way, but it’s a bit simple and has one major flaw associated with another mechanic in our game, territory.
In order for you to play a Script, whether a Function or a Construct, you must "own" the territory on the cell that you select. What we realised was this leads to functions only really being played defensively; you would set-up a bomb as you saw your opponents units coming towards you or you would trigger a shield when your units got into a fire-fight in your territory - there was no way to use functions offensively or set-up plays once your units entered the enemies territory, all your tactical decisions would be made on your territory and then it would be up to your units to destroy or capture enemy constructs in order for you to gain more territory, something that you have little control over. Not only was this reducing the "fun factor" it could lead to stalemate when two skilled players fought against each other.
There had to be a solution.
We sat down one afternoon and discussed the problem in detail and came up with a way to make Functions more functional; not just abilities that can be used to protect your territory but to also push your units further into enemy territory. Something that would allow you to plan further ahead and create little tactical plays that would give you, the players, and more options to fight against your opponents and ultimately win.
The plan is to have a timer on every function; a moment before they trigger on the board after being placed, enough time for one of your units or enemy units to pick up the function giving them and the units around them the ability of the function to take into enemy territory. The function would then trigger after a secondary timer allowing for planned attacks carried out by your units or protecting your units as they enter the areas of the map that you can’t normally play scripts in. Each Function would have a secondary way of working when used by a unit rather than being triggered on the board leading to an even more interesting way of planning and playing the game.
We're just starting to implement this system and it’s a big job for Milcho to add the basic mechanic and then make all the changes to each Function that we've designed. But I'm quite sure that it will lead to an overall better experience in the end.
As always we can’t wait to get the game in your hands for you to let us know what you think. In the meantime tune into our twitch on Wednesday nights at 9PM GMT to see us playtest the game as we build it.
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Twitch Schedule November / December
Moving forward we're going to be Streaming Failure Every Wednesday at 9PM GMT so you have a chance to watch as the game is built and ask us questions.
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That's it for Issue 6. Hope you enjoyed some of the info we shared and dont forget to follow us on twitter and Facebook and feel free to send your thoughts and ideas to us at social@dreamharvest.co.uk
Moving forward, and in order for us to concentrate on the development of the game, these newsletters will be moving from a bi-weekly thing to a monthly thing. The next issue will be out on the 10th October.
Speak Soon
Justin French
Creative Director
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