Members of the press, influencers as well as Steam curators will be able to preview the Rough Justice: ’84 Alpha Demo starting on June 3rd.
In order to gain access to the build, simply follow this link. The Alpha Demo will be made publicly available during the Steam Next Fest from June 13-20th 2022.
This build is a WIP and many things will inevitably change throughout the rest of the development process. Although this build is neither feature nor content complete, the majority of the mechanics are already integrated.
TLDR; It is a brief glimpse of what to expect in the final product.
WHAT TO EXPECT
This build is a WIP (work in progress) and many things will inevitably change throughout the rest of the development process. Many of those changes will be based on the feedback derived from streamers like UrbanBravo, and individuals such as yourself that have tried out the demo and have taken the time to give us critical feedback.
Although this build is neither feature nor content complete, the majority of the mechanics are already integrated. Some case types are not available in this build, whereas other case types that are available in this build will be significantly rehauled before release. Additionally, many new cases will be added in the release build, with well over 500 unique cases in total.
Gamma Minus is proud to announce that the Rough Justice: ’84 Alpha Demo will be available during the Steam Next Fest, a multi-day celebration of upcoming games. During the event, you’ll get to explore and play hundreds of game demos, watch developer livestreams, and chat with teams about their games in progress, coming soon to Steam.
LIVE EVENT SCHEDULE
Join Dutch streamer PapaXilion as he checks out the Rough Justice: ’84 Alpha Demo during the Steam NEXT Festival on Tuesday, June 14th, 2022 @ 20:00 – 23:00 CEST. More info on the live stream event can be found here.
Join Canadian streamer UrbanBravo, on Tuesday, June 17th, 2022 @ 19:00 – 21:00 CEST Prepare yourself to be inundated with Canadian kindness and be overwhelmed with an EPIC MOUSTACHE. More info on the live stream event can be found here.
WHAT TO EXPECT
This build is a WIP (work in progress) and many things will inevitably change throughout the rest of the development process. Many of those changes will be based on the feedback derived from streamers like UrbanBravo, and individuals such as yourself that have tried out the demo and have taken the time to give us critical feedback. Although this build is neither feature nor content complete, the majority of the mechanics are already integrated. Some case types are not available in this build, whereas other case types that are available in this build will be significantly rehauled before release. Additionally, many new cases will be added in the release build, with well over 500 unique cases in total.
Representatives of Gamma Minus will be attending the Nordic Game Conference from May 17-20 in Malmö, Sweden. Nordic Game is one of the leading games conferences in Europe, and 2022 will mark its twenty-second edition. Gathering thousands of industry professionals in the spring and autumn each year, Nordic Game is the one and only “home turf” meeting place for the highly successful game developers of Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway, and Sweden.
During the event, Gamma Minus will be presenting the Rough Justice: ’84 Alpha Demo. Our participation in the conference has been made possible with the help of Medianetwork.NRW, which supports the development of the digital media industry in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany through sustainable networking and placement activities.
Additionally, the industry association games.nrw which strengthens the general conditions for the games industry in the state in close cooperation with local and regional institutions and networks, industry associations, and in dialogue with politics, also was supportive in making our participation in the event possible.
Join Canadian streamer UrbanBravo, as he checks out the Rough Justice: '84 Alpha Demo during the Steam NEXT Festival on Tuesday, June 17th, 2022 @ 19:00 - 21:00 CEST
Prepare yourself to be inundated with Canadian kindness and be overwhelmed with an EPIC MOUSTACHE. (oh, and ofc, a nice overview of our Alpha Demo):
WHAT TO EXPECT
This build is a WIP (work in progress) and many things will inevitably change throughout the rest of the development process. Many of those changes will be based on the feedback derived from streamers like UrbanBravo, and individuals such as yourself that have tried out the demo and have taken the time to give us critical feedback.
Although this build is neither feature nor content complete, the majority of the mechanics are already integrated. Some case types are not available in this build, whereas other case types that are available in this build will be significantly rehauled before release. Additionally, many new cases will be added in the release build, with well over 500 unique cases in total.
Alpha Demo Live Stream @ Steam NEXT Fest
Join Dutch streamer PapaXilion as he checks out the Rough Justice: '84 Alpha Demo during the Steam NEXT Festival on Tuesday, June 14th, 2022 @ 20:00 - 23:00 CEST
Prepare yourself for sensible chuckles, zany one-liners, and top-notch "Dad Jokes" (oh, and ofc, a nice overview of our Alpha Demo):
WHAT TO EXPECT
This build is a WIP (work in progress) and many things will inevitably change throughout the rest of the development process. Many of those changes will be based on the feedback derived from streamers like PapaXilion, and individuals such as yourself that have tried out the demo and have taken the time to give us critical feedback.
Although this build is neither feature nor content complete, the majority of the mechanics are already integrated. Some case types are not available in this build, whereas other case types that are available in this build will be significantly rehauled before release. Additionally, many new cases will be added in the release build, with well over 500 unique cases in total.
Rough Justice: '84 is awarded an Epic MegaGrant
Gamma Minus is extremely grateful to be named an Epic MegaGrant recipient as it will help us improve our experiences using Unreal Engine and add exciting new features moving forward. We would like to thank Epic Games for this opportunity.
The Epic Games team has been incredibly supportive and these funds will go directly into making Rough Justice: '84 the best game it can be.
ABOUT EPIC MEGAGRANTS
Epic MegaGrants is a $100 million program designed to service and assist game developers, enterprise professionals, media and entertainment creators, students, educators, and tool developers doing outstanding work with Unreal Engine or enhancing open-source capabilities for the 3D graphics community.
Join Art Lead Damien, Associate Producer/Game Designer Tom, A.K.A. "Wolfspeer" and Lead Jeremiah, A.K.A. "Jezza" as they fumble their way through the janky build, but have a blast all the same.
Quite often when developing, the theoretical design may seem legit, but when it comes down to the nitty-gritty, it could be that said features need to be tweaked or simply cut. At the end of the day, it's an iterative and most importantly, a collaborative process. That's why we've started doing these devs play sessions!
That wasn't always the case with our team, however. Initially, we had a very structured hierarchy which we strictly adhered to. There's something to be said about hunkering down and just "gettin' it done", but this removes ownership of features and is not the ideal method of collaborating. We have so many brilliant and talented people on the team, and it was a major mishap that we didn't take all of their ideas into consideration initially.
Our biggest fear with the thought of having a flat hierarchy was that there'd be simply too many cooks in the kitchen, and the thought of being slogged down by lack of decision, or coming up with a "meh" solution that no one is happy with could be the death blow to a project.
Moving forward we are a lot less structured when it comes down to input. If one of us can't reasonably convince the rest of the team to add a feature or remove it, then hey, it is what it is. We are all trying our best to make something unique and fun for players. Are we there yet? Heck no! BUT, we are most assuredly on the right path. :)
WRAP UP
It goes without saying that Rough Justice: '84 is currently in development and the info as well as the above-showcased videos, images, and GIFs are representations of the current state and are subject to change.
Our discord server is alive! You can join the conversation and hang out with other fans on the discord server and talk directly to us regarding your thoughts and ideas about Rough Justice.
Nordic Game Discovery Contest
We are happy to announce that Rough Justice: ’84 won the recent Nordic Game Discovery Contest qualifier; which was the sixth season of the event Nordic with a digital qualifier during the Global Games Pitch event week. You can find further info on the event here.
ABOUT THE CONTEST
Building on fourteen years of organizing successful games industry activities, including the annual Nordic Game conference, regional funding programs, overseas networking events, and other developer support initiatives, Nordic Game launched the Nordic Game Discovery Contest (NGDC) in 2016 – an exciting, competitive challenge where selected game projects are showcased live in pitch competitions at partner events across Europe and around the globe.
The acclaimed industry publication 80lv recently sat down with our Project Lead, Jeremiah Costello. We are thrilled that 80lv gave us the opportunity to talk a bit about Rough Justice: '84.
A lot has changed over the course of the last few weeks, and we here at Gamma Minus would like to show a bit of our progress and the iterations Rough Justice: ‘84 has gone through. Check out the video below to get an overview.
INFORMATION SECTION
Now that a lot of the core mechanics are in the game we realized that it was kind of important to let players know how it’s all interconnected. With our new informative tutorial system, players can scroll through each section and read more about them in detail. This information is readily available at any time when on the main map by clicking on the i button. The information provided is not extremely verbose, but if you’re ever stumped as to how something works, or the reasoning behind a particular mechanic, it helps to give the information section a gander.
DIALOGUE SYSTEM
The first Operation Lead utilizing our dialogue system is now implemented. It’s still not 100%, but it’s getting there. This is essentially how all of the story elements will be displayed. These are branching dialogs with choices to make as well as challenges to overcome.
CASE OFFICERS
Previously known as “informants”, case officers provide you with bundles of cases, which are referred to as caseloads. Each case officer offers a specific type of case.
The caseloads are only available for a certain amount of time. If they are not accepted, then they expire and you’ll have to wait until they offer a new caseload. We are experimenting with reputation loss when not accepting caseloads. Some team members think that would be too punishing, but again, it could be a great incentive for all those completionists out there
CASELOAD OVERVIEW
When caseloads are completed, reputation with the individual Case Officer is either gained or lost.
CASELOAD REWARDS
As previously mentioned, reputation is defined for each individual case officer. The more caseloads that are completed for a particular case officer, the more potential reputation there is to gain. This individual case officer's reputation is directly correlated to their specific reward set. Action Points in regards to Distance One of the biggest mechanics that we’ve added is how distance determines the total amount of action points required to send an agent to a location.
Previously, regardless of the distance, it always cost 1 action point, now, depending on the proximity, it can take between 1 and 3 action points.
This may seem like a minor detail, but it really requires you to plan out your cases accordingly, and even plot out a planned course of action in order to optimize action point usage.
CRITICALS
When it comes to stat rolls, it is possible to get a critical success now. Luckily for the testers, we have yet to implement critical failures! Obtaining a critical success means that two 6’s have been rolled, and by doing so, the player is presented with optional bonus cards to choose from.
TRAINING CENTER
With the addition of the training center as a location on the map, it gives players an opportunity to try out their skill at any time and prepare themselves for the various puzzles that are associated with cases. This is a simple, and free way to hone those skills, so when you’re faced with a puzzle, you’ll be prepared. As each puzzle has 3 tiers of difficulty that are directly associated with the case tier difficulty, knowing what you’re potentially up against from the get-go is a safe bet.
SIDE PANEL NOTIFICATIONS
With the addition of side panel notification, you’ll always be well informed of what’s going on. Whether it’s an agent requesting your input, or them notifying you that they’ve completed a case, or are heading off, you’ll get a notification on the upper right-hand side of the screen.
REPOSSESSION CASES
Although not completely fleshed out, repossession cases are now available in the current build. They are similar in nature to the presently available Security Cases, however, these actually have a few specific puzzles available, namely hotwire and lockpick.
PUZZLE TWEAKING & BALANCING
Even though all of our puzzles are “done” some of them still need some love! We’ve been busy tweaking them and working on the balancing. As we’ve previously mentioned, puzzles have three different tiers of difficulties, so making sure that each tier, of each puzzle, is well balanced is quite the challenge when dealing with 20 puzzles as you can imagine.
ZERO STATS In one of our many recent efforts to begin tackling balancing, we’ve now added “zero stats”. Initially, each agent has a value of 1-5 per for each of the 5 stats, which didn’t give us too much wiggle room in regards to variation.
Also, having certain agents with zero stat values doesn’t necessarily negate their effectiveness, as it is still possible to rely on Action Points or Gear Card usage. As we’ve mentioned before Action Points define the number of actions that an agent can do.
DEMO PREPERATION
We’re busy preparing our demo. This will initially be accessible to the press and influencers and steam curators, but we are planning on making the demo publicly available shortly after. Follow us on social media, or hop on our discord for more details. If you’re a member of the press or an influencer, feel free to get in touch directly.
CHECK OUT THE RECENT DEVS PLAY VIDEO
WRAP UP
It goes without saying that Rough Justice: '84 is currently in development and the info as well as the above-showcased videos, images, and GIFs are representations of the current state and are subject to change.
Our discord server is alive! You can join the conversation and hang out with other fans on the discord server and talk directly to us regarding your thoughts and ideas about Rough Justice.
