We are happy to announce the release of the Beta of our next major update, titled Killsquad: CORE. CORE brings deep changes to all internal game systems, making a huge impact on your Killsquad experience. Our vision throughout this year has been: which core systems make Killsquad fun, and which systems should be improved? We vowed to fix all of them in a single, mega-update. Welcome to CORE, we hope you like it.
Here is a summary of the main changes:
New Vector system
Before CORE, enemies levelled up: you levelled up, so did they. This felt like not-progression: why keep playing, if enemies level up with you and the ratio stays the same? This full system is gone. Now, enemies have a static vector, which represents their level. So yes, when you vector up, you rise above their vector. And crush them. And feel pleasure in doing so.
New enemies & enemy generations
Of course, if you out-level enemies, it means we need more of them, to keep the experience fresh. CORE brings new enemies across all the Veteran section of the game. Be ready to face new foes with new powerful battle tactics. Additionally, CORE brings Enemy Generations: to diversify your enemy encounters with the new vector system, we have created 30 new enemy variations: new behaviours, new color schemes, so there’s much more to hunt and destroy.
Elemental resistance
CORE introduces elemental damage and elemental resistance on all enemies, enemy attacks and weapons. So be ready to invest your hard earned cash on the right tool for the right contract. Don’t use a freeze gun on an ice monster, you fool! This also affects the gear system: now there’s specific gears that bring resistance to certain types of damage. So if Helldörren is frying you, gear up to counter that.
Dual weapons
With elemental resistance, picking the right weapon was more important than ever. That’s why you now have the possibility of carrying two weapons, with different damage profiles. Let’s call these the mob clearing and the boss buster weapon. Choose them wisely: both influence your vector and your chances of survival.
Gadget system
You guys wanted more character build options. And we agree. In Killsquad your character build is not static (for example a RPG-style skill tree): it’s dynamic, and it emanates from your currently equipped gear. That’s why we expanded on this system, introducing the Gadget system. Gadgets are consumable power-ups you can carry with you and unbalance the battle. Life pools. Poison areas. As you rank up, you get more gadget slots, up to 6. These allow for an unprecedented layer of customization, and mean life or death on the harder mission, especially Colosseum and Plague. More Gadgets are coming in future updates.
Shop & reward system
Of course if we give you dual weapons, gears with elemental resistances & gadgets we need a place to go shopping, right? Enter the new shop! And also, pay attention to the contract end screens, these have all been revamped and now do a much better job at getting you excited about the new equipment you just earned.
New campaign map
This one is self-explanatory. Yes, a campaign map. A lovely one indeed. Go check it out! And, while we are at it, new tutorials so all game systems are explained. Of course tutorials will make a difference if you’re a new player only. But they are massively important.
Checkpoints
You have been crossing a perilous land for 45 minutes. Only to reach the final boss who, as bosses do, kills you in one strike. Back to the start! So unfair. We have fixed that. The game now automatically saves progress at key moments, so you can restart from there. More fun. Less frustration.
New rendering
We have replaced all the lighting code. Expect dark nights. Red sunsets. Rainy days. The kind of atmosphere that would feel extremely romantic, if it wasn’t because a ten ton monster is crushing your guts. So yeah, do kill the monster. But enjoy the views along the way.
FAQ
Joining the Beta
To join the beta, Please join https://discord.com/invite/killsquad. You can find the steps in the #beta-instructions channel.
Save games
The Beta uses a branch of your save game. So you’ll start beta with your existing save game, but to avoid contamination once the Beta period expires, when we release the full version, the progress made during Beta won’t transfer to your main branch save game.
Backing up your save game
As with any Beta, there could be bugs. Please do back up your main branch save game following these instructions:
Backup everything that it’s inside the “SaveGames Folder, which can be located here:
Inside Steam’s “userdata” folder, you can find a couple of numbered ones. In here, you have to find Killsquad’s folder (910490) and backup these folders.
Program Files (x86)\\Steam\\userdata
And at last, please backup the files inside steamapp’s SaveGames folder.
We expect this Beta to be up for approximately two weeks. Then we will release the game with all the fixes we encounter during the Beta phase.
Streaming the Beta
You can stream the beta, but please do not do it to showcase bugs or broken systems: we are constantly working on Killsquad and of course Betas *do* have bugs. That’s precisely their purpose, to find and fix bugs.
Reporting bugs
The most efficient way is by joining our Discord community. Please do so here:
https://discord.com/invite/killsquad
You can report bugs on the #beta-bug-report channel. Please be specific describing the bug: the easier for us to trigger the bug, the faster we solve it.
Roadmap
CORE is not the end: CORE is the beginning. We needed these 6 months to fix many internal things. But now comes the fun part, which is expanding the game on top of these new systems. We are happy to announce our Roadmap update, which includes 3 more updates after CORE. Please see them in these two images. We will do a more detailed update on roadmaps soon, in a Gathering video. But we wanted to share this right away. So yes, Christmas will bring cosmetics and Talismans. Q1 next year will take us on a journey to Skua, the base of the Feds. And summer next year we will unleash our endgame features and, yes, finally release a fifth hero so the team building options expand.
We need your help!
We hope you enjoy CORE. If you do, let us reiterate the following: we are not any sort of huge corporation. We are just a Barcelona-based indie studio self-funding a game. We have said it a few times, and we’ll say it again: we won’t stop until the game is perfect. We’re now more than one year into Early Access. Wanted commitment? Here’s commitment.
Now, if you like our work, and would like to lend a hand, here’s what you can do:
Reviews!
Do you like Killsquad? Haven’t written a review? This is THE single most important thing you can do. Reviews do magic to the Steam algorithm. And, even better, if you wrote a negative review back in the day, and came back to the game and feel we’ve done a good job, do you know you can update your review? Reviews are the blood that keeps us alive!
Social media follow:
Discord: https://discord.com/invite/killsquad Twitter: @Killsquadgame And on the Steam forums
Streaming!
Yes, do stream Killsquad. Tell the world about it, on Twitch, on Youtube, anywhere. If you have a significant following, contact us at killsquad@novarama.com, and we’ll try to support you in any way we can.
And now, go play. The universe needs heroes. We need heroes. Heroes like you.
Dev Diary - Beta Date Announcement
Welcome to our Dev diary!
Today is a fantastic day. The Jotun on Kemmekh are working out. Helldörren the Cruel is cleaning up his Palace of Pain with a Roomba. Vasperiaths are sharpening their claws. They are waiting for their prey:
YOU
And you all know why. The Beta is coming. Yes. All the hard work of these last months is coming to an end. Very soon.
I am very happy to announce all the features are in place, and team is just doing final QA and balancing.
If all goes well, the Beta of the new Killsquad update will be live...
Friday, October 9th
Yes. We are seven days away.
Remember this update restructures the full game, and is the result of six months of work. Here is a high-level feature list:
Update Features
- Rework the vector system, which affects all weapons, enemies and contracts - New enemies for veteran, which we have been showcasing these last few weeks - New enemy generations / new behaviours for existing enemies - New item system: consummable power-ups to use mid-battle - Elemental damage and resistance on all enemies, weapons - Dual weapons, so you can carry a mob clearing weapon and a boss weapon - New in game shops for weapons, gears, items - New campaign map - Tutorial system for new players - New weapon + gear skins for collectability: 3 skins per weapon - New lighting engine - Save Checkpoint system, so no more dying on a Boss Battle.
This update fixes many game systems we discussed with the community. We honestly hope you like it.
Here is a short FAQ, more cool stuff below:
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I join the Beta?
If you already are a Killsquad Beta member, you should get the build right away. If you are not, please send us an email to killsquad@novarama.com with "Beta Signup" as the subject line.
How does this affect my savegame?
It doesn't, with some caveats.
1) As we announced, gears now belong to the hero, and cannot be shared anymore. This has to do with the Vector rework. What we have done to keep everyone happy is to give existing players a copy of each gear for each hero, so you don't miss anything with the update. Just be aware that, in the future, each gear you buy is unique to that hero. Once the build drops, you won't be able to move gears to a new hero anymore.
2) The new build fixes things throughout the whole game. This means that be heaviest impact will be felt if you start from scratch. We won't wipe savegames, as we don't need to. But we will provide instructions on how to delete your save game and start over if you want to start from scratch.
3) The Beta uses a copy of your save game. So, if you were vector 70 prior to the Beta, and you enter the Beta, you will be vector 70. Now, once the final build drops, all progress done during Beta will be lost, so if you managed to go to vector 75 during Beta, and the master build drops, you will revert to your vector 70 save game and carry on from there. We do this to prevent a Beta save game from contaminating your progress.
4) As usual with Betas, please back-up your save game prior to downloading the Beta, just in case. We will give instructions next Friday on how to do this.
When will the final version go live?
If all goes well, 1-3 weeks after Beta, with 2 being the most likely number.
Remember a Beta is a version designed for testing and tweaking. We share it to get feedback and polish. Things can be broken, bugs can exist.
Roadmap update
Now, more cool stuff: next week, along with the Beta, you will get a Roadmap update for the next 9 months. We get asked all the time "what comes next?". Ok, worry no more. We are gonna give you an open, clear vision of how do our next 3 updates look like.
We have said many times: we will never stop working until the game is top-notch. I think this next update is yet another proof of that. It's our 14th update since launch July last year. Want commitment? We have commitment. So yes, every time someone buys a copy of Killsquad during Early Access they are helping us fund development, showing support for indie game development, and helping us make the game better.
We can't wait to share with you what comes next. We'll talk about cosmetics. New planets. Talismans. You name it. Be here next week.
This completes our Dev Diary for today. See you next week. And yes, at last, see you in the Outer Reach.
Dev Diary Update
Hello all! Welcome to today's dev diary. Beta status? yes! New enemies? yes! Here we go!
I'm happy to announce our next major update is weeks away. We're doing final touches to the feature set, then will release it as a Beta, and then a stable build. You know we've spent a good amount of time fixing many core game systems, so we hope all the hard work will be worth it!
To make the wait easier, today we're gonna update you on the last enemies to enter production. We've got cool videos from 2 of them, so we hope you like them!
First we have the RhinoSnail. This is another deformity you'll encounter on Wasteland7A. He's got a pretty large life pool, and so he's quite tough to beat. Combine that with charging attacks, and you're in for a nasty treat, especially of you're a melee player. Here's a short clip of this new creature in action:
[previewyoutube="HvHh_elHaro;full"]
Second, we have the RazorSnake. This slitherine creature was crafted by Helldörren to defend his living quarters. Fast and sneaky, RazorSnakes detect visitors with their electro-bionic eyes, and stalk them from the dark. Here we show you some animations from this new monstrosity:
[previewyoutube="eeceCSvWqaM;full"]
And here's an attack sequence:
[previewyoutube="UgndRcOLupM;full"]
Of course, remember each of these guys is going to appear in different generations, with unique behaviours and stats.
So for example on the next update you'll get 4 types of each of our "classic" enemies, plus these new enemies, in 2 generations each. The new enemies all go into the veteran section of the game, with different skin patterns. Check some of them out below:
I'm happy to inform you that all our new quest system is in place now. This is on top of the contracts, so you get additional goals to fulfill and rewards to unlock.
So as you can see, basically we're 90% done with the update, we hope to be able to announce the Beta date soon. If all goes well, next week. Please bear with us, one final push and we'll be able to enjoy all the new game features together.
See you in the Outer Reach!
Dev Diary Update
Today's dev diary is pretty much self-explanatory: a video. We bring you 10 minutes of raw gameplay of the new update, where you can see a lot of the systems in place. Here's the clip, and we've put notes right below explaining several interesting bits and bobs:
[previewyoutube="REn6x9nLGrA;full"]
0 : 18 here you can see the first new enemy, currently called SkullGun. He's tiny, but packs quite a punch: he can shoot massive fireballs that slowly cross the terrain, forcing heroes to avoid them
0 : 21 right of the screen you can see our 2nd guest today, CrocoHand. He throws bouncing projectiles that then explode in a lot of different sub-munitions
You can see the new power-up widget (bottom, left of the main widget). You can carry up to 6 power-ups to your contract, which you can buy in a specific store.
More stuff: right of your life bar, you see an element. That's your currently equipped weapon's elements. You need to adapt your weapons to each planet and creature to maximize your chances of success. Also, see bottom-right of the main widget your twin weapons that you can swap anytime. Use twin weapons to balance the elements, so for example a mob-clearing and a boss weapon.
1 : 10 : here's a BatPotato. BatPotatoes have mental powers, so their area attack jams our heroes' brains. in a nutshell, your controls are reversed while you are under the influence of a BatPotato. Sounds evil, but it's helluva lot of fun.
1 : 34 onwards: large battle involving many monsters. Here you can see different generations of enemies, which are coded by color and each has unique behaviours for you to learn. Each enemy on Recruit typically has 3-4 generations, plus 2 more for the Veteran enemies, so there's much more depth. In this battle, near the end, you can see a weapon swap, pay attention to the different sound FX, when Troy tries to kill the final Vasperiath with an ice weapon.
2 : 00 : freeze power-up
2 : 46 new level up widget, so you never miss that again
5 : 20 : video section using Kosmo, so you notice the different playstyle between a Melee and a Ranged hero.
5 : 40 to 6 : 30 : watch the top of the screen, the CrocoHand messing up with his projectiles and freezing the terrain
And all along the video, notice the beautiful night lighting, which is part of our new light system.
I hope you guys like it. We think we have 1 more week for features, then QA. See you next week!
Dev Diary Update
This dev diary comes one day late, as yesterday was a holiday here.
As we move closer to our next update, work focuses mostly on the new enemies you'll encounter scattered through the game. Today, we're gonna present the progress we're making in two of them:
First, here's the lovely BatPotato. The name is placeholder, in case you're wondering. BatPotatoes will roam the surface of Kemmekh, and their sonic attack has the ability to jam the controls of the players, so you need to be very careful to avoid their area of damage. Here you can see two animations and a WIP version of this fella attacking our heroes:
[previewyoutube="xlZ5xk-jKMM;full"]
[previewyoutube="vo17CzMCvhs;full"]
[previewyoutube="s64e4yvsXzM;full"]
BatPotatoes will appear in different generations, with unique behaviours to each. Here's the two color schemes you'll be seeing from them:
Second today is the mighty CrocoHand, which also dwells on the icy plains of Kemmekh. This one is being animated as we speak, here's some cool cycles:
[previewyoutube="kWTraEPEFlA;full"]
[previewyoutube="nc92gI4F8Dk;full"]
As with the BatPotato, we're working on 2 variations of the CrocoHand with unique behaviours, here's their coloration:
In both cases, the Crocohand will attack by inflating the energy orb on his back and using it as a ranged weapon.
So with these we have 3 enemies now in full production, the rest will join next week.
Last, but not least, this week we spent significant time doing a survey with many of you about our balancing. We got all the responses we hoped for and more, so thank you to all the people who took part in it. Our goal is to implement a lot of this feedback on this next update, by adjusting skills to make the game more fair and balanced, both among heroes and within the individual skills of each hero.
If you didn't complete the survey, but would still love to contribute, please do so now by clicking this link:
Remember we are still aiming at Beta end of this month, so make sure you join by emailing us at killsquad@novarama.com and we'll get you sorted. And, if you like our work, make sure you add Killsquad to your wishlist to be in the loop when we release the next update.
So that's it for today.
See you in the Outer Reach!
Dev Diary Update
Oh boy. So many videos to show you in this dev diary update, as the team dives deep into enemy behaviours, old a new. So let's get cracking!
We're working on new behaviours for existing enemies: we want you to encounter generations which behave differently, and pose different challenge levels. Today, I bring a few of those, in no particular order. We're working on about 14-16 new behaviours, so expect the game to get much richer and varied soon!
Here's the 2nd Gen Jotun, that rises exploding pillars of ice:
[previewyoutube="o3mZDaszYcg;full"]
Here's an invisibility-cloak variation of our lovely Kemmekh wormies:
[previewyoutube="HOfFxx0Lay8;full"]
Here's a shield-enabled variation of the Executioner from Helldörren's Palace, so he's not only deadly, but also hard to kill and generates smaller windows of opportunity:
[previewyoutube="qWSPFIs4ONI;full"]
And many more yet to come. But of course we're also hard at work on the new enemies. Two of them are rigged and being programmed as we speak, rest enter the process next week. So here's a sneak peek at the Spider-like cannon-like creature that will soon be joining Helldörren's army. We like the fact that he sends a huge but slow fireball, so you need to manoeuvre carefully to stay out of reach. Here is it, in action:
[previewyoutube="4gOq3SNOsWg;full"]
If you guys want a close up, here's the attack sequence:
[previewyoutube="3qi-eL2dlBs;full"]
We'll have many more next week as the coders begin delivering their behaviours for the different enemies. As we announced last week, we expect to be in Beta late Sept/very Early Oct, and then release the full update Oct. So that's literally less than a month away for you Beta supporters.
We know it's still weeks away. But we'll try to keep you guys entertained with these weekly upates. Rest assured, it's the largest update ever, for a good reason. And we want to give you guys the absolute best.
See you in the Outer Reach!
Dev Diary Update
Hello all!
Enemies. These are the spice of life. And the more, the better: we want tons of enemies, with unique behaviours, in Killsquad. So today I'm happy to show you 4 new enemies in their final glory. These all come on our next update, so you'll be facing them soon.
Helldörren is continuously working on new guardians for his Palace of Pain. In this case, he's come up with a devious invention: a spider-legged skull with a Gatling gun? Why not! These guys will appear on Veteran, and will pack quite a punch, despite being rather small in size:
[previewyoutube="UOuMn-j4CRo;full"]
Next down Helldörren's Gallery of Horrors is this cute fella: this one is built for agility and maximum melee damage with omni-directional eyes and claws.
[previewyoutube="L0tBugw1Z1A;full"]
Kemmekh is also going to receive new hordes of destruction. First one to enter the arena is this nasty guy. Keep an eye on his back: that orb is going to inflate with energy and use it to attack unwelcome visitors from afar:
[previewyoutube="ZhoAKhpd-x0;full"]
And last, but not least, we have another Kemmekh deformed beast, in this case, a flying, annoying, disgusting guy. [previewyoutube="jkiPh9YzF9Q;full"]
This completes our showcase for today. Behaviours for all these guys are now being worked on. Remember these are not bosses, but standard enemies, so you're going to be facing quite a few of them in the Veteran contracts:
There are 2 more enemies coming soon, which we're doing final touches to. So the next update includes new enemies for all 3 worlds for you guys to battle as you progress into Veteran. In the next few weeks we will update you guys with videos of these guys in motion, as they are added to our levels. We hope you like them, these are all part of the next update, our biggest one yet.
Wanna contribute? How about you give them some names?
And, as usual, see you in the Outer Reach!
Dev Diary Update
Hello all!
Time for another dev diary. This week is a bit on the softer side, it's holiday season here in Spain so teams are slowed down a bit due to employees taking some well deserved rest.
This week a lot of work has gone into usability: tutorials, hovering information panels... tools so all the new systems are easy to understand. So for example here you can see some in-game tutorials:
In this case, these tells you about the importance of game elements. This second tutorial will make sure nobody ever asks again "what is the vector?"
Looking at everything we've done already for this update, the list is beginning to look quite good, here's all the new features:
- Dual weapons - Weapons have elements - Enemies have weakeness, elements and resistances - Enemy generations with new behaviours - Visible gears - 6 consummable item slots to do per-contract builds for your heroes - Checkpoints to save progress - Shop to buy weapons and gears and consummables - New contract browser - Shorter contracts, more focused on new stuff - New contract end screens with rewards - Re-done the game Codex - Re-done all the internal vector logic
So this is the "game logic" part of the build. The second part is the new enemies, which may or may not come on the next update. Here's the final mesh of one of them. If all goes well, these guys will be textured next week, so this is the last time you see their gray skin, we hope to show them fully textured in the next Dev Diary.
Last, but not least, here's some new art assets. These are ships you're going to see in Skua, our 4th planet, coming late this year. I hope to be able to do a major update about it soon, it's coming together nicely!
That is it for today. Next week it's enemy texture week, VFX, and more bug-fixing. And all our team will be back at work, so expect much more cool stuff then!
See y'all in the Outer Reach!!!
Dev Diary Update
Hello all!
Welcome to another dev diary. This week we are bringing you two playtest videos, so you can see some of the systems we are working on in action. These are raw clips taken from gameplay sessions, so they are quite long, but full of interesting stuff.
On the first clip, you're going to see all the new UI systems: shop, contract map, equipment screens, gear on your heroes, etc. From there you'll see the squad embark in 2 contracts in a row. There, you're going to see checkpoints in action (in both instances the team gets killed by the boss and needs a second attempt to beat it). You'll also see the new reward screen at the end of the contract. During the battle, you'll see dual weapons and elemental damage. We're working to make these way more obvious visually, please keep in mind these videos are work in progress! Last, but not least, you'll see the new difficulty setting: the game is now way more challenging, as you have checkpoints and power-ups to counter the enemy strength:
[previewyoutube="WbVzghukYFY;full"]
The second clip is taken from a Kemmekh mission. On this one, we're showcasing the new lighting engine, with a beatiful night scene thanks to Unreal 4.25. Secondly, you are going to see a lot of power-up work, as Kosmo unleashes his power-ups on the enemies. Some of these are working as intended (Poison Area is a good example), while others are still WIP, but we hope you guys will get the idea behind this: to give players many more options to build up their hero for each contract.
[previewyoutube="tWYA0GqBwHo;full"]
That is it for today. We really hope you see we're making solid progress, and you like the new systems. Work now focuses on VFX/SFX, balancing and bug fixing. Stay tuned for more cool stuff next week!
See y'all in the Outer Reach!!!
Dev Diary Update
Hello all!
So this week's Dev Diary comes a bit late. We know, we promised "every Friday", but last Friday we had one of those gamedev-style work traffic jams, which made it impossible to post our weekly update. We're so sorry to be late!
Anyhow, here we are, once again, reporting to you, our fans.
We're happy to report the next update of Killsquad is already into playtesting. We have the following features in place:
Checkpoints on all bosses
Twin weapons
Shorter, tighter contracts. Missions are now around 15 minutes, to maximize fun and reduce repetition
Elemental damage on enemies, weapons
Visible gears on heroes
New contract browser
New lighting system
And work still remains on:
Items & Power-ups (this has 2 weeks to go)
Permanent talismans (same-y timing)
Tutorials
On a more visual note, we've been hard at work doing enemy generations. You know: the classic RPG mechanic where you get variations of an enemy with different behaviours and stats. So expect champions/elite versions, coming with the new enemies we've been showcasing in the last few weeks. All of this, together, will vastly expand the range of enemies and behaviours you'll encounter in your adventures in the Outer Reach. Here's some photos for your viewing pleasure:
This week, we hope to be able to share with you all a video showing you a full contract, with all the new stuff in place. Come by next Friday, we hope you'll like it!
