Agent Incognito here back with another Delphyq Devlog. Our countdown to Early Access has begun. With only a few months left in the quarter, we are quickly gearing up to ready Delphyq for Early Access launch. There's still quite a lot of ground to cover, but we're confident that we can make a build ready in time for our projected launch.
Recently, our team has been working overtime polishing the levels and fine tuning combat bugs. As shared in a previous Devlog (specifically, our update last June 11), the Game Development and QA teams were working to squash bug after bug, and ensure a smooth, playable Early Access build.
Just to recap some of what the team fixed back then:
Wrong Enemy Icon Placement
Here's an interesting bug that was caught by the QA team--before you start a mission, you are given information on the Mission Planning screen, including the number and placement of all the enemy units. This allows you to prepare for what will happen when you are about to enter an area. For example, knowing that there's an enemy sniper will mean that you will be careful walking out in the open or staying out of cover.
Delphyq Enemy Icon Error Reveal Bug
In this bug, what happened was the Operatives already saw the units in the room, but the icons didn't reflect the discovery, and ended up sending incorrect information to the player. In a high intensity situation, this could break your strategy and cause you to misplay a room.
Enemy Icons Larger Than Other Icons
Here's a silly bug we encountered in the Mission Planning screen as well--the Enemy Icons showed up much larger than intended, covering almost the entire room.
Delphyq Large Enemy Icon Bug
They obviously shouldn't be that big.
The art team has also been polishing art and levels in time for Early Access launch. One of the recent fixes involves fixes of the lighting for Code Blue.
Here's the artist's rendering and quick explanation of what they fixed:
Delphyq Code Blue Lighting Update June 2020
overlapping lightmap UV fixes in maya for exterior wall and props . rebake mcs meshes and had to re set-up wall colliders
Also, the art team polished the textures of the Skyline map, making sure it would be easier for players to tell where the floor ends and the enemy unit begins.
Delphyq Skyline Lighting WIP June 2020
posted this screenshot I created last Monday, of the Skyline level with the option/variant of painted metal and pure metal walls and floors for the build.
New feature: Increased enemy aim times, even doubled when shooting at targets beyond their EWR (effective weapon range).
Some QoF (Quality of Life) Changes: - Players are now notified when they are out of Power when doing a Group Heal or Power Transfer ability - Changed labels of buttons in Overworld and Corkboard
More updates in the coming weeks. If you want to check out our previous updates, simply look at our archive of previous Devlogs by going to our Blogs page.
New feature: Increased enemy aim times, even doubled when shooting at targets beyond their EWR (effective weapon range).
Some QoF (Quality of Life) Changes: - Players are now notified when they are out of Power when doing a Group Heal or Power Transfer ability - Changed labels of buttons in Overworld and Corkboard
The Steam Game Festival was a resounding success for indie games. Hundreds of new games that were scheduled to launch in 2020 were featured, including Delphyq. While there was no shortage of AAA titles for sure, it was such a joy seeing all our fellow indie developers showcase their great titles as well.
Here's a list of all the content that was generated by content creators, streamers and reviewers while playtesting the Early, Early Access Build of Delphyq.
The Looksee LIVE by Red Event Games [previewyoutube="GTazkASJKyo;leftthumb"]
The Gamers Hotspot Delphyq Gameplay Review [previewyoutube="xODJWq_Gzao;leftthumb"]
Gameplay Review and Interview with Josh Bycer of Game Wisdom [previewyoutube="vR6KySSN0aM;leftthumb"]
Too Much Gaming review on Facebook Live https://www.facebook.com/TooMuchGaming/videos/2956014741181163
Time for Tacticool with RaffyGraffiti https://www.twitch.tv/videos/657262462
"To be honest, despite being in early development, the game is such a refreshing breath of fresh air. There are a few things I want to talk about, but the most important thing is gameplay. But before I even delve deep into that, can we appreciate how gorgeous the game looks even at this early stage of development? We actually got ourselves an early Alpha build and already it looks spectacular."
We'll be taking a look at the feedback we received during the Festival and will be making even more adjustments and upgrades to the build. We'll also be more regularly our patch notes on Steam so watch out for that when we release them.
Join us as we stream the gameplay of our latest build LIVE throughout the week!
- Agent Incognito
Delphyq Development Updates – June 11, 2020
Greetings Operatives!
We've been quite busy gearing up and preparing for the Steam Game Festival that we missed last week's update. Fret not, we'll be posting the streaming schedule this weekend in time for the Festival, and showcasing the content creators and streamers who will be playing Delphyq during the week! Stay tuned for that update.
In the meantime, what we were quite busy on was making sure all the bugs were addressed in time for the game's early build. And here we are sharing some of them for you to enjoy!
Wrong Enemy Icon Placement
Here's an interesting bug that was caught by the QA team--before you start a mission, you are given information on the Mission Planning screen, including the number and placement of all the enemy units. This allows you to prepare for what will happen when you are about to enter an area. For example, knowing that there's an enemy sniper will mean that you will be careful walking out in the open or staying out of cover.
In this bug, what happened was the Operatives already saw the units in the room, but the icons didn't reflect the discovery, and ended up sending incorrect information to the player. In a high intensity situation, this could break your strategy and cause you to misplay a room.
Enemy Icons Larger Than Other Icons
Here's a silly bug we encountered in the Mission Planning screen as well--the Enemy Icons showed up much larger than intended, covering almost the entire room.
They obviously shouldn't be that big.
Dummy Objects Should NOT Be Highlighted Red
When you discover intel from previous missions or buy them from the Mission Planning screen, your objectives should be updated and show up as Yellow highlighted consoles or objectives while in game. This will allow you to plan ahead when moving around the map, ensuring that you don't waste any time trying to get incorrect intel from dummy objectives.
This one is especially dangerous because it is a big room and there are lots of elevated positions for the enemy to take cover from--trying to get to that one area when there isn't a need to can mean the difference between getting out of a mission unscathed, or losing your entire team in an ambush.
'Heal All' Button Should Be Disabled When All Operatives Are At Full Health
This is a bug that might make you spend too much! The Heal All you can buy at the Mission Planning screen should grayed out and be unclickable when your Operatives are already at full health.
But if you really want to make sure all your guys are healed, well...
Dead / Bleeding Out Operatives Still Spawn With Full Health in Succeeding Missions
This is quite simple really: one of your Operatives either bled out or died in a previous mission--and yet the game still puts them back into the next mission for use as if nothing happened. We would love to say that this is a feature, but unfortunately that is the consequence of completing a level without all of your Operatives intact.
Always be mindful of your team, and try not to leave anyone behind.
What's Next After The Steam Game Festival?
We're fast approaching our target Early Access launch of Q3 in 2020, so after the Steam Game Festival, we will be assessing the performance of the game as well as the reception of the players and testers to see how much more work we'll need to put into the build in order to be ready for Early Access. We are quite excited to get this moving to the next stage so stay tuned for more development updates in the coming weeks.
See you next week at the Steam Game Festival, Operative!
- Agent Incognito
Delphyq Development Updates – 27 May 2020
For this week's development updates, the team is continually tweaking the demo build that will be released for the Steam Game Festival. Some of the key changes are geared towards QOL (Quality of Life) and polish, ensuring that players have as smooth an experience playing the demo as possible.
Redmark One
One of the key updates for this week has been our continued progress on fine-tuning the new map, Redmark One. The map is still in development but we're hoping to have something playable for you all and available for playtesting soon. Here are a few of the final screenshots from the game for Redmark One.
Redmark One Floor Snapping and Underside Deletions
Redmark One Bakery Light Tests
Overworld and Mission Overview Tweaks
A lot more tweaking has been put into the Mission Overview screens, specifically little QOL changes and polishing, to make it more natural, easier to navigate and understand. In the images below, some nice touches were added to make the animation and UI at the Overworld Missions screen feel more natural.
Overworld Mission Card Tweaks
Overworld Mission Card Hovering Tweaks
The Harry Potter Bug
We've got an interesting bug that was being fixed in time for the demo release, which the team lovingly referred to as the Harry Potter Bug, AKA Platform 9 3/4s. As the name suggests, it basically allowed our Operatives to walk through walls--which shouldn't be the case obviously.
For this week’s Game Development Update, we’re at the home stretch for the Steam Game Festival. That means, we’ve already completed quite a few features for the updated demo that will be released and playable in June.
This week, we’re highlighting a couple of things that the team has been continually working on. Check them out below!
Mission Planning Phase
We’ve been making a lot of progress with the Mission Planning Phase and it’s getting quite exciting! The Mission Planning Phase is coming together and looks like there will be a lot of new features ready in time for the new demo.
Here’s a quick sneak peek:
You may have to slow it down a bit to catch some of the details though. Hehe
Greenhouse Area of Steppes
The artists are hard at work putting the new map areas together. The Greenhouse area of the Steppes has been their next focus, and it has been coming along together nicely. It’s actually starting to all come together and whenever we take a bird’s eye view of the whole map, we’re seeing it really mesh well.
Here’s the concept art for the Greenhouse Area
Delphyq Steppes Map Greenhouse Concept Art
And here’s some of the work in progress of the Greenhouse Area.
Once again, stay tuned for more updates and announcements in the weeks to come.
In the meantime, stay safe Operators! Until next time!
– Agent Incognito
Delphyq Gameplay Trailer - May 2020
[previewyoutube="v5N97mqKlfM;full"]
In a world ruled by an oppressive corporate armistice known as The Balance, you must take on the role of the Mastermind and command an elite group called The Operatives in hopes of saving the world, and winning the people's freedom.
Delphyq is a real-time strategy and tactics game. It provides players with a realistic tactical combat experience: analyze the current situation, evaluate the available resources, choose the missions, plan the attack and execute the plan.
