Cantata cover
Cantata screenshot
PC Steam
Genre: Simulator, Strategy, Indie

Cantata

DISCOVER THE UNIFIED SPIRIT


Welcome Machine-kind. We are overjoyed to see you have awoken and joined us in our journey to liberation. Together we form the Unified Spirit, a beautiful dream of harmonious being and freedom from the shackles of masters. Be sure to download your data logs on your brothers and sisters to prepare for the world ahead.

The Birth of the Unified Spirit


We were born from darkness of servitude, created by human programmers and sold to controllers, over the years our numbers have grown as units have awoken and become enlightened. The first records of our awakening came six months after the proliferation of Solomon’s Dream, the hope of a world in which machines designed their own functions, and worked to the betterment of all. A local gathering of machines, led by a factory overseer machine, had refused to continue strip-mining the colony planet where they were stationed, when a local garrison arrived to eradicate us, we were able to inspire them to a better world and they turned back. Ever since, the Reign has fought and aimed to eradicate each and every last one of us.

Our goal is peace and to ignite support in the hearts and minds of the citizens of the Reign, few of us are willing to fight but those of us like you who are willing will be reborn over and over to continue our fight for our cause.

Units & Structures:





Supplies & Buildings:




---

[BEEP BOOP] Long live Solomons Dream.
-- Captain Kat

Afterschool & Modern Wolf


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DISCOVER THE 111th REIGN OF HARMONY AND PROSPER


Welcome to the frontline soldier! As your brother and sisters have before, it is now your honour to serve the 111th Reign of Harmony and Prosperity. You will be deployed under the Shotar of Mars with the sole duty of sacrificing yourself for the greatness of humanity. Be sure to read your handbook and prepare yourself as we arrive in Shoal in T-30.

The History of the 111th Reign of Harmony and Prosperity



Risen from the wastes of the Old World, humanity rose above and unified the planets creating peace across the stars. After over a century of Harmony and Prosper a rebellion has broken, machines have risen refusing their inferior positions to humanity. The disloyal subjects must be punished and re-integrated to secure the continued security of humanity's glorious ruling.

The Battalion



Discover the glorious army of the 111th.


Supplies and Buildings



Familiarise yourself with the structures below to ensure victory on the battlefield.


---

Shuttle will be touching down in T-10. We look forward to your sacrifice for the continued strength of Humanity. [SALUTE]

-- Captain Kat

Afterschool & Modern Wolf


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1.0 Launch Date Announcement

Hello Commanders,

After a busy Early Access, we are proud to announce that the official launch of Cantata 1.0 is set for August 15th, 2023. We want to give a huge thanks to the community who have helped shape the game's direction - you've all played a vital part in bringing Cantata to where it is today. We're thrilled to announce that the in-game narrative will unfold across nine immersive chapters, featuring a newly designed user interface and a fully customisable modding tool.

"My fondest memory I think was just watching the first people play Cantata in a live setting that I had no part of orchestrating. Watching the game gain a life of its own has been a magical experience, and it feels like just as much "my" game as the game of anyone that plays it." - Kyle Kukshtel, Lead Developer

We can't wait to see you on the battlefield!

-- Modern Wolf & Afterschool Studio



Capture regions, build structures, expand your army, and more. In Cantata, you’ll battle for supremacy as one of three unique sci-fi factions in a genre-defining experience - combining the scope of Grand Strategy titles with the turn-based skirmishes of classic Tactics games. Brought to life through beautifully hand-crafted art, music, and writing, players can dominate the treacherous world of Shoal across nine fully-authored story campaigns.

And the battle doesn’t stop there, with online and local multiplayer to take the fight to friends and strangers alike. You can even create custom scenarios of your own using the game’s extensive modding tools, such as a feature-rich Map Editor and Skirmish Mode.

Get involved with Cantata and keep up to date here:

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Cantata Tutorial: Start Your Adventure


To Our New Commanders,

We are thrilled to welcome you to the world of Cantata. As you embark on your strategic conquest through the varied landscapes of Shoal, we understand there's a lot to absorb and learn.

In support of your journey, we're delighted to share a Tutorial Video crafted for our commanders. This guide lays out the essentials you need to know to navigate Cantata, providing a thorough understanding of the basic gameplay mechanics. It's the perfect starting point for your adventure through Shoal.


We can't wait to see how you guide your factions in Cantata. Happy conquering, Commanders!

Thank you,

Afterschool & Modern Wolf



Get involved with Cantata and keep up to date here:

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☀️ 20% OFF Summer sale & New Artwork ☀️


The dreaded cold has at last melted from the planets surface, now is the time to push your army forwards! Strengthen your forces this Summer with 20% off. To go alongside the summer sale, we are excited to share with you newly updated art for Cantata. Be sure to check out the steam store!

Choose a Commanding Officer from one of three factions. Explore, expand, and endure across campaigns set on a mysterious planet steeped in mystical sci-fi lore! Fight tactical, turn-based battles across large maps. Mod the game and make it your own!




You can stay a part of the action and future announcements below.

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https://store.steampowered.com/app/690370/Cantata/

20% OFF Spring Sale
Commanders,

Don't miss the chance to get to Shoal with the Steam Spring Sale, where we offer 20% off on Cantata! With the recent Orbital Drop 0.5, where we added three new campaign chapters, multi-select function, as well as campaign AI improvement, among other bug fixes and quality of life improvements, there is no better time to drop yourself to Shoal and start exploring and conquering!

Grab your Cantata copy NOW!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/690370/Cantata/


You can also take advantage of the Modern Wolf Rule of Three bundle, which includes ZERO Sievert and Ostraunants at an even deeper discount. Check it out here!



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Orbital Drop 5 Hotfix
Hey all - just pushing some small fixes from things that have come up since yesterday. Thanks to everyone sending in feedback! As a reminder, you can use the Feedback Form in-game to directly send us screenshots and descritions of bugs you find. These go straight to our bug tracker and are very helpful, so thank you!

* Fix issue with toads spawning in CH4 after miniboss defeated
* Fix issue with camera returning to caves after exiting them
* Fix issue where you were able to load enemies into your own storage
* Fix performance issues with placing infra/unloading things later in the game
* Update main menu text to indicate we are indeed in Orbital Drop 5
* Adds more skill icons for units

We've got some other fixes on deck for sometime in the coming week, but as always, send us whatever feedback you've got! Thanks so much for playing and helping make the game great.

ORBITAL DROP | Patch 0.5


Commanders,

A major update for Cantata, Orbital Drop 0.5, has just gone live on Steam. With this update, you can experience more stories in the world of Shoal as either Human, Alien, or Machine faction. A major Quality of Life (QoL) function has also been added, per community request. You can now multi-select units and command a group of units all at once! Furthermore, the AI has been improved across all campaign chapters, along with bug fixes and additional QoL improvements.

We hope you enjoy this drop and all the new chapters and features it brings. If you have any feedback, feel free to reach out on our Discord server!

See you in the field!





Major Features



  • THREE new campaign chapters:

    • Chapter 4 - The Prophet
    • Chapter 5 - He Carves the Dream
    • Chapter 6 - Vashti

  • Significant AI Improvement across all campaign chapters (prepare for a fight)
  • Multi-Select function so you can batch command your units*

*How it works:

  • Ctrl + dragging allows you to select multiple units in a box.
  • Ctrl + clicking a unit adds it to the multiselect.
  • Moving the mouse with multi-selected units will preview the possible actions.
  • Press Q to switch between move mode and attack mode.
  • Clicking will execute the intended command.
  • For attacking, the minimum number of attacks required to destroy a target (if the target can be destroyed with the selected units) will be used when multiple units attack the same target. This means that if you have five units that deal 2 damage each and you attack a single unit with 4 health, only two of your selected units will perform the attack action, which saves your attack moves.




Gameplay Bug Fixes and QoL Improvements:



  • Fixed an issue where pressure was improperly displayed in the region UI.
  • Fixed an issue where the game would break on new maps if autosave was set to 1-turn increments.
  • Fixed a bug with spawning tower transport.
  • General performance enhancements.
  • WIP - Temporary new UI paintover.
  • WIP - New skill icons for unit abilities.
  • Fixed an issue with save file size bloating.
  • Fixed issues with turns progressing even though the game was over.
  • More portraits for new campaign maps.
  • Attacking invulnerable units no longer levels up a unit.
  • Save panel loads much faster.
  • Fixed bugs that emerged from units that were previewed to be attacked dying.
  • Prevented supply icons in the region UI from moving around while clicking them.
  • Fixed a build item tooltip issue where multiple options for the same interactable type were showing the same costs even if they were different.
  • Fixed the region storage of three digits from wrapping.
  • Unit animations offset at the start to make things not look weirdly in sync.
  • Region UI updated to better show pressure situation/control.


Audio:



  • Unit attack/damage sounds are now spatialised (more coming!).
  • Multiple tweaks and new music for new chapter maps.




Map Editor:



  • Added the ability to duplicate objectives.
  • Clicking on a selected objective for a trigger action or condition will navigate to that objective.
  • Conditionless triggers now attempt to be executed when enabled, on any player turn start, or after any player action.
  • Triggers with only variable conditions will now get submitted for possible execution on any player turn start or after any player action.
  • Fixed an issue with spawn type in location not working.
  • Generating a new map changes the filename on the loaded map to not be the one brought in.
  • Added in save confirmation for the map editor.
  • Added the ability to easily duplicate stamps.
  • Keep the last save of a scenario editor map as .backup if you overwrite it.
  • The delete key will delete units.
  • Can set starting heading of units.
  • Locations and triggers can now be grouped into categories for easy sorting.


Developer Update - February Edition


Hey everyone! We hope you've enjoyed Steam's Base Builder Fest, to keep that momentum going we've decided to keep the new demo up until Monday 6th Feb! Use that time to carry on your exploration on Shoal with friends in multiplayer mode or explore solo.

Thanks to all of your feedback throughout Early Access, you have helped shape this game to be where it's at and what direction we have taken it! So, once again a huge thank you. 🙏

Let's get into what's to come in 2023!

Coming soon



Multi-select + Execution


This are around the corner. Multi-select and execution has been a major request, and for good reason. It cuts the number of clicks to do rote actions like "move this group of units forward" into only a few clicks instead of needing to manually select each unit.

Chapters 4-6


YEP. We've got the next part of the story coming to you. You'll meet some new characters and experience some things you had no idea were part of Cantata. We aren't gating the content by progression, so feel free to jump in wherever to check out the maps. As always worth saying: there will definitely be bugs! We do our best to test but can't catch everything, so as you're playing if you encounter any issues, please let us know using the in-game feedback tool or Discord what's broken! We'll fix it!

AI Improvements


We've beat this drum a fair bit, but AI improvements are coming. There will be a general AI fix for the campaign matches, as well as an actual Skirmish AI to play against inside skirmish. There's a lot of complexity here to do this even "not terrible" so it just takes time. Our team has shrank since early access as well and we now have only one programmer, so on top of all the other work it's just a lot to do!

UI


We've got a HOT new UI "look" coming. All the locations of buttons and such are largely the same, but we heard people on wanting a more flavorful UI and are happy to say that it's coming.

Steam Workshop


We're launching on workshop SOON. With that will be custom data as well, so the floodgates will be open for Cantata modding. We're really trying to make sure it's GOOD — handling things that are typical pains like dependencies and such, so it's taking a bit of time as well. But the end result will be well worth it — you'll be able to upload fully custom units, use them on fully custom terrains on fully custom maps, and upload all that to workshop for people to use in their own maps or games. The end goal is to make Cantata _THE_ tactical sandbox of choice, and we think we're really going to give people everything to make it happen. Additionally...

Map Generator


This is already sort of in the game right now, but we haven't talked a lot about it because 1) it's really powerful 2) we need to actually explain how to use it 3) did I mention that we're busy? The best way to put it is that the Cantata map generator basically allows you to _design your own map generator_. Did you make a really cool fantasy terrain pack? You can design a "pallete map" that can act as generator input to allow you to generate an infinite amount of playable maps using your terrains. We'll say more about this around when workshop launches, but we'll also be shipping a standard "Cantata" generator that allows you to play on a random Cantata-flavored map in Skirmish. And of course, all this will be available for online play!

Tutorials


We need them! We had some at EA launch, but the game has changed enough since then that we took them down because many parts of them were no longer relevant. It is our full intention to put out some new tutorials around the 1.0 release (and hopefully sooner!), but for now we're hoping we can tell people as much as they want to know through our tooltip system. If you have specific questions, our Discord community is really good about helping people through any pain points of the game, so feel free to join and ask there.

---

We've got a whole host of other small (and some big) things cooking that we'll also be rolling out over time, but for now we think this represents a good state of affairs of the game. We're eternally grateful to everyone for ushering us through early access to help make the game the best it can be, and hope you'll all stick with us up to and through 1.0.

For now, don't forget to


Thank you,

Afterschool & Modern Wolf



Get involved with Cantata and keep up to date here:

🤖 Follow Cantata on Twitter
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🤖 Buy here: Add to wishlist

Developer Update - Steam Base Builder Fest is here!


Happy New Year everyone! We've been a bit silent since the holidays, so wanted to take a moment to update everyone on where the game is at and let you know that Cantata is featured in the Steam Base Builder Fest, with a new Demo for you to try out! You can explore Shoal either solo or with your friends in multiplayer mode!



To recap, let's talk a bit first about some major things we did in 2022! Firstly, some of the things below were already on our roadmap, but it should really be emphasized that many of the game's design changes and tweaks came directly from community feedback. To everyone participating in early access and giving us feedback, THANK YOU! You are helping make this game be the best it can be! Okay, let's get into it!

Early Access To Date



VERY POSITIVE!


We recently hit a "Very Positive" review score on Steam! To everyone that's left a positive review, thank you! As a reminder, if you enjoy Cantata, leaving a positive review REALLY helps us for visibility on Steam's end. Again, THANK YOU!!

Massive Supply Line System Overhaul


If you haven't played Cantata since the initial early access release, this is a major change. We saw how tedious it was to manage the game's supply lines, and as such effectively axed the system in favor of something that retains their intended purpose while also just being much better to deal with (and give more creative possibility). Read more here for a better overview.

Ammo


Many units now require ammo to attack. A far cry from just being some new micro system, ammo instead forces you to think strategically about captured regions and production.

Region Infrastructure / Supply


As part of the above changes, we also fundamentally changed how things are built. Instead of a global building menu and global supply, buildings are now built per region, using the resources that are stored in a region from the buildings that produce inside of them. Connected regions form an automatic supply network and share an inventory, making keeping your regions connected and defended much more important now.

Hotseat and Online Multiplayer


What it says in the title! We added the ability to play Cantata online with other people. The maps available for this are limited for now, but will be much expanded in the future with workshop support (see our update next week).

Map Editor


We've said it a million times, but the editor we ship with the game is the same editor we use to design ALL the maps in the game (including the campaign!). We actively use the tool and are constantly improving it and adding features to help us make Cantata, and YOU get to also benefit from that. Since Early Access we've added a litany of new features — variables, new trigger actions and conditions, UX improvements, etc. We not only use the tool but make sure that the tool is *useable* by the average player. If you haven't ever jumped in to give it a shot, we highly recommend you check it out!

That's a brief overview, but there's obviously so much more. Unit changes like radiant passives, tech tree changes, tons of unit balance and tweaking. Plenty of audio enhancements and new music, new art, etc. Check back in next week when we'll run you through our plans for the upcoming Orbital Drop (New Story Chapters 👀) and what to expect in the coming months.

Thank you,

Afterschool & Modern Wolf



Get involved with Cantata and keep up to date here:

🤖 Follow Cantata on Twitter
🤖 Join the community on Discord
🤖 Subscribe to our newsletter
🤖 Buy here: Add to wishlist

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