Mars Tactics
Capitalism vs Labor
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1727760/
Steam Next Fest Patch + Mini Tutorial Video
Also I know it's not a substitute for a proper tutorial (which is coming!) but for now I made a little video explaining the most important mechanic in the game: suppression. I hope it helps you make make sense of the demo.
Thank you again for all your feedback and patience.
Patch Notes - Version 0.2.26
New Stuff
đEscaping the battlefield now works differently. When you are at the edge of the map, you can spend AP to make progress toward fleeing. After spending 4 AP, you can then escape. Ending the turn on anything but an edge tile will reset your progress.
đŹYou can now use airstrikes on Forlorn Hope mission. (therewolfmb)
Balance
đĽŞJailbreak Express is now a little easier as reinforcements only come from one side, instead of sandwiching you.
đŤĄOutpost Assault is now harder with two additional reinforcement waves in the later stages of the battle.
đ¤šââď¸Caliver suppression reduced by half. (PressureLine, therewolfmb)
đ§Removed cheesing the aim cone. Now the size of the cone doesn't change over distance. (nyanarchist, CaptKufy777, therewolfmb)
QoL
đIcons above units now scale with zoom. (SwfDelicious, Kirrim)
â¨ď¸Added keybind to remove UI from the screen when taking screenshots and thumbnails. (JDee)
â¨Various UX and UI improvements -- too many to list! (SwfDelicious, Billy Lee, raynecloud, CaptKufy777, James)
đĽCamera will now follow thrown enemy grenades. (arth)
Bugs
đFixed major bug where moving units simultaneously would sometimes eat your AP without doing anything. (Warclops)
đFixed bug only affecting gigachads: if you killed everyone instead of running away on Jailbreak Express, game will count it as a win. (Tiruin, Drumheller)
đFixed bug preventing Hunter trait from working with melee. (PressureLine)
đFixed various other bugs.
- Yuji (Manhole)
Next Fest Demo now available!
In this demo specifically for Next Fest, you can try three exclusive new scenarios â Jail Break, Jet Set, and Outpost Assault â along with key improvements across the game, including new weather effects, smoother graphics, and improved suppression systems. Next Fest runs from October 9 - 16.
In Mars Tactics, the Red Planet is entirely at war. Lead Capital's corporate army or Labor's worker revolutionaries and wage war across a vast strategic map, then assume direct control in turn-based tactical battles featuring artillery, vehicles, and fully destructible environments.
Join the Discord here: https://discord.gg/F6wjAh9B4S
Thank you for trying out Mars Tactics during Next Fest!
Hooded Horse Strategy Publisher Sale
Hooded Horse Strategy Publisher Sale
Steam Next Fest Demo
Hooded Horse is celebrating its first ever publisher sale on Steam â you can go here to check out all of the other games in the portfolio and pick up some of their released titles at a discount.
We're also excited to let you know that a new demo of Mars Tactics will be available for Steam Next Fest, which starts next week on October 9. The demo will feature three new interlinked missions that showcase the different kinds of battles youâll be fighting in your war for control of Mars. Each mission highlights a unique aspect of the strategy layer design -- prisoners of war, stealing resources, and battles against large numbers of enemies.
In addition, the demo includes many new features completed in recent months: the full destruction engine, airstrikes, unit traits, smarter enemy AI, an LMG-buddy system, melee attacks, unique grenade-scramble mechanics, and graphical improvements.
Be sure to check it out and stay tuned for more details coming soon on the strategy layer. We wonât spoil too much for now â but we can share that outposts will be a major focus. Your squads are always assigned to an outpost now; from there, you send them out on missions. Supply and logistics will become more important because the further away the mission is, the harder it is to keep your troops supplied unless you devote a ton of strategic resources (like jets).
We canât wait to show you more!
Steam Next Fest demo + Hooded Horse publisher sale!
Hooded Horse is celebrating its first ever publisher sale on Steam â you can go here to check out all of the other games in the portfolio and pick up some of their released titles at a discount.
We're also excited to let you know that a new demo of Mars Tactics will be available for Steam Next Fest, which starts next week on October 9. The demo will feature three new interlinked missions that showcase the different kinds of battles youâll be fighting in your war for control of Mars. Each mission highlights a unique aspect of the strategy layer design -- prisoners of war, stealing resources, and battles against large numbers of enemies.
In addition, the demo includes many new features completed in recent months: the full destruction engine, airstrikes, unit traits, smarter enemy AI, an LMG-buddy system, melee attacks, unique grenade-scramble mechanics, and graphical improvements.
Be sure to check it out and stay tuned for more details coming soon on the strategy layer. We wonât spoil too much for now â but we can share that outposts will be a major focus. Your squads are always assigned to an outpost now; from there, you send them out on missions. Supply and logistics will become more important because the further away the mission is, the harder it is to keep your troops supplied unless you devote a ton of strategic resources (like jets).
We canât wait to show you more!
New Trailer!
Very special thank you to the two talented artists helping me make this game: ahintoflime and RealShortGuy13. And a big shoutout to the team at Hooded Horse working hard behind the scenes to make Mars Tactics the best game it can be.
June 1st marks exactly two years since I began this project. I keep pushing back the release date, but I think it will be worth it. More cool features added every month (including things not even in this new trailer). Excited to share more so stay tuned!
Discord is by far the most active place where I post updates daily, but going forward I will also start posting to the game's subreddit.
- Yuji Nakamura (manhole)
Dev Log #03: Personality System
Hi everyone! It's been an intense few months preparing a demo for various game festivals, but with that out of the way I'm excited to get back to our usual schedule. This month I'll talk about the unique characters that will populate your squads in every playthrough of Mars Tactics.
I mentioned in the first dev log that creating memorable stories is one of the three pillars of this game. And to me a good story begins with good characters. That's why all members of your campaign -- soldiers, researchers, engineers -- will have unique faces and personalities. And the same goes for enemies and NPCs too.
There Are Billions
Both the Labor and Capital campaigns are procedural, and my hope is you'll play them many times. It would be boring to see the same mugs over and over, so I've put a lot of work into creating visual variety and authenticity in how each character looks.
The result is a procedural portrait system which contextually combines facial features and shades them for each skin pigment. The current pre-alpha build already supports 12 billion unique faces. When adding skin-tone and hair-color variations, that jumps to 1.9 trillion. Of course, a huge number is meaningless if the faces look similar. My hope is you'll feel a tinge of personality in every portrait.
With the click of a button, a hundred souls were born for this dev log.
More Than Just a Pretty Face
Besides unique faces, every character is created with a bio. A Canadian college dropout who came to Mars looking for adventure. A Japanese construction worker hoping to make a quick buck to pay off gambling debts. A South African mercenary trying to escape her past and her demons.
These backstories are more than just window dressing. By default, every character is created with the same stats, but their nationalities and personality quirks will affect their progression and generate unique events during every campaign. Expect more details about this in an upcoming dev log about unit progression.
The allure of adventure and a fat paycheck brought people from all walks of life to Mars.
Life on Mars
Personalities aren't static. Each character will evolve depending on your actions during the campaign. As soldiers get injured, their faces will reflect every bruise, gash, tear, and wound. Over time, some injuries will become permanent scars. What's more, pulling off special achievements will unlock special accessories such as tattoos, hats, jewelry, augmentations and others. And as each unit gains seniority, their looks will upgrade in-line with their rank and occupation.
Life is hard on Mars, and then you die. (Unless you develop augmentations, overthrow the elites and establish a new vision for humanity on the red planet.)
Tactics RPG?
Mars Tactics isn't really designed as role-playing game, but for those who want to follow every character's progress in detail they can do so through the Story screen. Here you can see each person's achievements and jot down additional notes if you want. After each playthrough, you can review stories of your entire roster (both dead and alive) to relive the memories.
This UI is still a WIP. Expect more icons and details in the final design to liven up the Story screen.
And of course I know players like to fill their squads with friends, family and their favorite politicians. Mars Tactics let's you tweak each face, name, nationality and gender to your liking. (However, merit-based accessories and facial features will be limited to characters who have unlocked them.)
Animations
Last but not least, expect each face to be animated. Below is a preview made by manipulating sprite positions and rotations, but the next step is hand-drawn frame animations to bring each character to life.
Faces react to in-game actions (missing a shot, discovering an enemy, etc) but also to your mouse movements.
None of this would have been possible without Han Pham Nguyen, the artist drawing these portraits for me. Working within my tight requirement of just 48 by 48 pixels per profile, Han has created attractive faces that span the globe and cover every race. Check out his Twitter for more of his work.
Well, that's it for this month. Thanks for reading! If you're looking for more regular updates, check out my Twitter and Discord for more WIP screenshots and videos.
Yuji Nakamura
Streaming on Store Page
If you'd like to discuss Mars Tactics, come join us at Discord! https://discord.gg/F6wjAh9B4S
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1727760
Dev Log #02: Death & Second Chances
Hi everyone, it's Yuji again for a monthly dev log update. Today I'll talk about permadeath in Mars Tactics and how it differs from other games in the genre.
I'm designing Mars Tactics to be a difficult game. On Mars, death can strike anyone at any moment; none of your units -- not even veterans decked out in the best armor -- should ever truly feel 100% safe. However, losing a unit is especially punishing in Mars Tactics because of the game's unique progression system that creates special one-of-a-kind units. (More on the progression system in a future log.)
So in designing how death works, I wanted to balance the tension of possibly having your units taken from you on any turn while still giving players recourse so that they don't feel cheated by a bad dice roll.
How it works
When a unit's HP drops to 0, they fall to the ground and all their weapons (including throwables such as grenades) are knocked from their hands. During this downed-but-not-out (DBNO) state the unit has just 1 AP limiting their mobility, but they still can:
- Lay still and wait to be rescued
- Crawl to safety to be revived by teammates
- Crawl to grab a weapon and fire it from a prone position (or grab and throw a grenade)
Marketa probably won't make it out alive. But at least she will take a baddy down with her.
The key thing is the enemy AI will only target DBNO player units who performed an action in the prior turn. That means if your downed unit lays still they will not be fired upon, and at present there is no death timer for DBNO units.
During my playtesting this has created interesting situations. For example, I kept a downed unit laying still behind enemy lines. Then when the opportunity was right, she crawled to grab a rifle and shot an enemy unit in the back. She was ultimately finished off, but it was an epic moment.
Pollice Verso
Enemy units follow the same rules after being downed. Most will try to crawl to safety. Others will be more brave. As the player, you're free to deal with them as you wish and you can shoot them at any time -- not just after they performed an action. You have many tactical and strategic choices, such as:
- Finish them off and earn experience for your units
- Bait other enemy units to come to their rescue, creating ambush opportunities
- Keep downed enemy units alive until the end of battle and take them prisoner
Finishing off an enemy gains your units big experience points. But taking prisoners can also bring benefits.
DBNO
Crucially, DBNO units cannot flee from battle. A unit downed near the edge of the map cannot crawl out of the battlefield, and if your squad flees the battle without reviving your DBNO units, they might become available for rescue in a later mission.
Lastly, when your units are permanently killed, depending on their rank their deaths can be "spent" to acquire various long-term bonuses after battle to help with your campaign. This is another way to reinforce the link between the tactical and strategy layers that I explained in last month's dev log. More on this in future when I go over the strategy layer in detail.
As always, things are subject to change based on feedback during playtesting, but my hope is that giving players options after a unit is downed will create room for interesting decisions and deter save scumming.
That's all for today's dev log - thanks for reading! See you in a month for the next log, and if you're looking for more regular updates, check out my Twitter or join our Discord for WIP screenshots and videos.