Hi everyone,
Take a look at our new trailer showcasing combat gameplay:
This debuted at the recent Realms Deep event and we made it to celebrate our upcoming Next Fest demo - we'll have some exciting news on that shortly!
Sentry
Check out our Combat Gameplay Trailer!
Hi everyone,
Take a look at our new trailer showcasing combat gameplay:
This debuted at the recent Realms Deep event and we made it to celebrate our upcoming Next Fest demo - we'll have some exciting news on that shortly!
Call for Playtesters!
Hi everyone, if you're interested in helping us playtest SENTRY we've just opened up a call for Next Fest demo testers.
Just head to our Discord and check out the Announcements page for more details.
We'll be running continuous playtests for both the demo and main game from now on, so there'll be lots of testing opportunities going forward. Of course the October Next Fest is just around the corner and with our Early Access release due late this year, one way or another you'll be able to join the SENTRY Defense Progam before you know it :)
Dev Transmission! (August 2023)
Hi everyone, this monthly update is a little late because I was away at the end of August and have been catching up! Anyway, here's what we've worked on during that time:
New Trailer!
We created a new trailer that we’ll be debuting during Realms Deep on the 30th September. In case you weren’t aware, this event is hosted by 3D Realms and if you’re partial to a FPS and other cool indie games it’s definitely worth tuning in.
It was fantastic to see all our work pulled together in this fashion and we can’t wait for you to see it!
New Enemy!
…Or more like an old enemy polished up. The Heavy (placeholder name) is slightly larger and bulkier than your standard soldier-type and carries a plasma-based minigun that lays down a withering hail of fire. We prototyped this enemy very early on – in fact you can see him in our Announcement Trailer - but switched focus to other enemy types while we worked on the rest of the game, so it’s been good to bring this big guy up to the same standard as his peers.
Loadout Screen!
When entering a level to commence your defence a SENTRY is deposited via a pod transport system. During this sequence you are presented with a loadout screen that allows you to choose which weapons, deployables and abilities you want to use in the coming battle.
We created a loadout menu a long time ago, but it wasn’t efficient to use and was visually outdated compared to our more recent Upgrade and Unlock menu system, so we’ve completed a rework to bring it up to scratch.
New Level!
Our latest new level is one with lots of high walkways, ideal for throwing enemies into bottomless pits!
Other stuff!
Every month we do loads of smaller changes that don’t necessarily warrant a section to themselves. Besides tons of little fixes and polish tasks, we also did:
- More co-op work, we’re at the stage where we have a long list of individual features that need to be networked. Co-op is in a pretty good place but there’s still a huge amount of work left to make it shippable.
- Fixing up a bunch of co-op sound effects where you could hear the audio your player made but not the sounds the co-op player was making.
- The start of a save system
Just for fun!
At the start of the month we took part in Tiny Teams, a festival dedicated to games created by small teams. We have just one programmer, artist and designer, with some part time music and sound-design and myself handling non-core-dev work (QA, Community, Production, boring business stuff) and because we’re choosing to self-publish it’s great to have events like this that shine a light on the little guys!
Tell us what you think about the latest additions! If you want to reach out we’re active on all these platforms:
See you next time...
Dev Transmission! (July 2023)
Hi everyone, time marches on and we're back with our monthly update! Here's what we've worked on in July:
WIP Co-op!
During the first phase of the project we ensured co-op worked with every feature we created. This was proving very time consuming so we eventually switched to prioritizing singleplayer so we could hit certain project milestones. This month we’ve been going back and patching up any new features that weren’t working properly over the network. In addition to this we’ve added a swathe of player animations to improve how the co-op player looks.
Co-op is a huge task and while the basic gameplay is working well, there’s a lot of mission and campaign specific work to come! With only one programmer we need to switch focus in August onto other areas but it’s been good to play co-op again.
New Enemy!
If you keep an eye on all our posts you may have seen a recent video explaining the theory behind why we add certain enemies to the game – it’s well worth a watch if you’re interested in design, so if you haven’t watched it you can do so here.
One area we were lacking was an enemy that took up a large amount of the screen and moved slowly but was heavy hitting. This month we’ve filled that slot with this bad boy:
This enemy stomps toward their target, shooting rockets from either arm at distance, flamethrower jets up close and can also do a ground stomp if you’re trying to run past and take advantage of his slow turning to attack his weak area.
Oh, and if you’re thinking of shooting out a nearby window to quickly take care of this beast you can forget it – he’s immune to venting!
Completed Level!
Last month we talked about Air Exchange, a greybox level we’d created with large fans that could suck enemies into them. This month Alex completed the environment art so we have a new finished level to add to the ship:
Navigator!
We’re continuously working on the Navigator, one of the layers that drives the game. This month there was a large focus on creating the sectors you escape through on your run, including a special sector that will become an optional tutorial for first time players.
We also spent time on how the research currency is represented and accrued in this part of the game and how it all ties into our upgrade system.
Other stuff!
Every month we do loads of smaller changes that don’t necessarily warrant a section to themselves, so ordinarily this is where we mention some other interesting/noteworthy stuff – however there was a lot of focus on the headline items above this month, anything else was SUPER boring stuff like updating the engine, fixing bugs etc. :)
Just for fun!
Our composer Barry Topping was back this month, he delivered a new set of tracks for our current ship and is starting to work on music for our away missions. Barry's music is awesome so this is always a treat.
Tell us what you think about the latest additions! If you want to reach out we’re active on all these platforms:
Until next time...
SENTRY Video Devlog: New weapon and enemy breakdown!
Hi, we've made a new Devlog that shows the SMG and Needlejack enemy. This delves into the theory of adding weapons and enemies to the game and how they fit into our roster.
These take a while to make so if you like it and want more, please let us know!
Dev Transmission! (June 2023)
Hi everyone, here's what we've worked on this month:
Upgrade System!
Our top priority in June has been to create the Upgrade system, which is responsible for unlocking and upgrading weapons, deployables (our name for traps & turrets) and abilities.
This is an extremely important feature that involves a lot of user-interface tasks as well as setting up how the economy works. This is one of the critical systems that will help drive how engaged people are when playing the game long-term, and we’re confident we’ve made something cool!
While we’ve set up our existing unlocks and implemented three weapon’s upgrade paths, over the coming months we’ll be rolling this out to all other weapons, deployables and abilities.
New Weapons!
As part of proving out the upgrade system, we expanded our pistol roster by two. We already had a Burst Pistol (the left-most gun in the concept image below), the secondary fire for that switches between single shots and burst mode:
The two new pistols have upgrades that allow them to either have remotely detonated explosive rounds or an optical zoom mode.
New Level!
Sean has finished the latest level in greybox form, which is called ‘Air Exchange’ and is a convoy-based level where you must prevent the enemies from escaping.
As it’s based on a giant air-conditioning and circulation theme, this area has giant rotating fans which are an ideal place to locate some push-traps and utilise your Vortex Glove ability (which throws enemies back):
Now that the greybox part is done, it’s handed over to Alex so she can do the environment art for it (most likely in July).
New Enemy!
A while ago we made an enemy archetype called ‘Drone’ (placeholder name!) – this idea was based on an enemy that is very zombie-like, with a melee-only attack and able to sustain a decent amount of damage unless you hit it in a weak spot, which is ordinarily the head on most enemies, but for this creature would be on a cyst that is spawned in different parts of the body.
Originally we created something literally zombie like based on infected colonists (something you may have seen in the odd video we posted on social media), but this didn’t feel right alongside the enemy roster, so we revised the model into something more appropriate as this concept shows:
We also implemented their cyst behavior, which expands in size as it gets shot; ultimately gibbing the enemy once the cyst has received enough damage.
Navigator!
Last month we talked about the Navigator, one of the layers that drives the campaign. We spent time implementing some additional visuals to communicate ship movement, planet rotation and other aesthetic niceties. We also created a Fog of War system and some homing missiles, which hunt your vessel and provide some impetus on your escape.
We’ll show both this and the Overview modes later down the line – they really help structurally differentiate SENTRY from other FPS and Tower Defense games :)
Other stuff!
Every month we do tons of smaller changes that don’t necessarily warrant a section to themselves, so this is where we list some other interesting/noteworthy stuff!
- New kill indicator audio – super early in the project we made sound effects to indicate when you were hitting and killing enemies. At that point in development we lacked sufficient feedback so the kill sound overcompensated – but now we have a host of systems providing a strong sense of combat feedback, we finally got round to revising the kill sound. The old sound effect was something that we tended to ignore after hearing for so long, but it’s good to have this much more appropriate new one (and we added options to disable these for those that want to).
- We also added different footstep sound effects while moving through vents. This was always on our to-do list, but with a part-time sound designer other audio had taken priority up until now. Can we call ourselves a FPS if we don’t have the iconic vent footstep audio?!
- We continued expanding our basic soldier class enemy (see the May update for more details), this time with a variant that carries a personal energy field. This needs to be destroyed before you can harm the enemy, the shield staggering them as it breaks, before recharging after a period. This all helps provide interesting target prioritisation as well as making an enemy that has some initial resistance to deployable damage.
Just for fun!
In our new level with the giant fans we thought it would be cool to have them controlled by panels accessible by the player. While they spin constantly and are lethal for anything that falls (or is pushed!) into them, for a small cost you can activate an overdrive mode which drags anything walking nearby into the fan. Sucks to be this guy:
Tell us what you think about the latest updates! If you want to reach out we’re active on all these platforms:
See you in the next update!
Dev Transmission! (May 2023)
Hi everyone, here's what we've been up to in May:
New Weapon!
In the last update we mentioned that we’d just started work on a new weapon which is now implemented. The SMG sits roughly between the pistol and assault rifle so is a lower-tier weapon, but we’ve been having a fantastic time spraying enemies with it (or more measured bursts of fire in its dual-shot alternate fire mode).
New Enemy!
We’ve also created a new ‘Wasp’ enemy (placeholder name btw!)
In our enemy roster we have aliens that occupy the lower-and-middle thirds of the screen, but were lacking something that would draw the players aim to the upper portion.
The wasp helps fulfill that space and we’ve made it a small target with low health, low damage but high speed that has already helped mix up combat in a positive way.
When we’re thinking about enemy archetypes we also need to consider how they gel with deployables (our term for traps and turrets) so the ceiling mounted Steam trap is essential in dealing with them.
We’ll do a video devlog soon where you can see both the SMG and the Wasp in action.
Dynamic Campaign!
Last month we commenced work on our Navigator mode, which sits above the Ship Overview (which in turn is above the level-based FPS/TD gameplay). These collectively form our dynamic campaign and is a substantial part of what differentiates SENTRY from other FPS and TD games, so is something we continue to spend a lot of time working on.
This month we’ve been putting together several sectors of space you travel through, as well as implementing some basic sound effects, music and camera controls to improve the experience.
We’ve also been refining the ‘boarding parties’, which are the alien forces that move around your ship trying to take over different levels. Because SENTRY isn’t a linear game, we need to ensure that when enemies attack they are comprised of different waves emerging from different breaching locations, so that should the same level be attacked a subsequent time, the gameplay will be different. This is one aspect that is already working particularly well!
While we’re holding off showing a bunch of this stuff until it’s ready, here’s some concept art of what the current ship class (called “The Roughneck”) looks like:
Other stuff!
- Our recent playtests highlighted issues where our AI had a habit of piling onto the player, so we’ve been implementing additional AI target prioritization systems to ensure that there is a better balance between the level objective and fighting the player. This is an area that will undoubtedly continue to be refined the more we test.
- We did an additional art pass on Fuel Exchange, Alex has been having fun adding incidental signage around the level:
- This next item falls under one of those “not very exciting but still essential” features, but we’ve implemented a Control Rebinding menu for both keyboard and gamepad-based control schemes.
- Our enemies have different coloured versions that denote an increase in their power and behavior. We took one enemy type and created some model variations to further differentiate them. As this has proven successful we’ll roll this out onto other enemies that have these variants:
Just for fun!
In May we attended Format, a nightclub and gaming event based in Manchester. Here’s our demo station set up and ready to go, and you can see a short video of the event in full swing here.
It was great fun but my voice was destroyed from talking to people above the music for several hours!
Hope you enjoy hearing about the latest updates, if you want to reach out to us we’re active on all these platforms:
See you in the next update!
SENTRY Video Devlog: New level, enemy + 50k Wishlists!
Hi, just a quick update to share a video Devlog we've created that shows some of our work in the last month or so. Enjoy!
Dev Transmission! (April 2023)
Hi everyone, here's what we've been working on this month:
Navigator Mode!
We have a dynamic campaign in SENTRY. This takes the form of two layers that sit above the moment-to-moment level-based gameplay. The first of these is the Ship Overview, a map of the ship that enemy forces move around and you choose when and where to fight them. Above the Ship Overview is the Navigator mode. This is a map of space that you choose a route through on your escape run.
We've spent the majority of our time in April working on this Navigator mode, taking it from a prototype to something suitable for a released game. That includes systems that populate the enemy boarding parties that move around the Ship Overview (and you thus fight in the levels).
We've still got lots of work to do on it but it's shaping up very nicely (and we'll share visuals at the right time!)
New Level!
The latest level we've added is "Engineering". This started off as one of our early prototype levels that we felt was strong, so we made some adjustments and did an art pass. Here's how it's shaping up:
New Enemy!
During March we created a new dog enemy. This charges toward the player and lunges at them, encouraging them to prioritise shooting them first, or strafing out of the way of their attack.
We felt like there was a good opportunity to make a variant of this enemy type, so created a dog with a ranged attack. This holds back and spits acid at you which causes damage over time, with the enemy performing occasional side-hops to throw off your aim.
Other stuff!
- In early April we smashed through the 50,000 Wishlist barrier. For reference, that puts us at around the 370th most wishlisted game on Steam. This is an important achievement, thanks to all those that have Wishlisted thus far, it's a massive help!
- We've started work on our next weapon, the SMG. We'll show you how it ended up in our May update, but until then here's the concept art of it:
And just for fun!
It seems like a long time ago now, but the start of April we were still demo-ing the game, this time in London for the WASD event. Here's the stand, along with the game being played:
This event was interesting in that there was a remote setup (the right-hand monitor). This meant that if I needed a break, Sean could connect and talk people through the demo. It's the first time I've seen this remote demo-ing and it worked well, so I imagine it'll become more prevalent in future shows.
We hope you enjoyed this latest update, we’re active on the following platforms if you want to see sneak peeks of the game or reach out to us:
See you in the next update!
Dev Transmission! (March 2023)
Hi everyone, here's what we've been up to recently:
Physical Demo!
As we had several events we were attending at the end of March, the majority of our time was focused on polishing and bug-fixing a physical demo we were putting together.
This involved watching a lot of local people play the game, making notes and carrying out improvements, then repeating the process until we had to catch our flights :)
New Level!
We felt like a new level with a lot of windows would be a good thing for demo-players to enjoy, so we created "Fuel Exchange". Here is an in-editor work-in-progress shot:
And the same level after a weeks more work:
It's not quite finished yet as we'd like to do an additional art pass, but it worked well for the purposes of the demo.
New Enemies!
We had four enemies planned for the demo, and last month took two of these to the right level of quality. This month we took the additional two - nicknamed "Dog" and "Leech" - to that same quality level. Their behaviour is quite different from the bipedal enemies we've made thus far, so it provides a good mix in combat. We love making enemies, we've got loads more in-progress that we'll continue adding later!
Other stuff!
- We added gamepad support! Doing this meant including a bunch of gamepad specific controls to adjust to do with deadzones, look acceleration, aim assist and more.
- We set up auto-control switching so it's easy to switch between control methods
- We also expanded some other settings for the visuals plus keyboard & mouse.
And just for fun!
The events I mentioned earlier included two press-focused ones at GDC in San Francisco across the 20th and 21st March:
One of them had a feature on Steam which got us a load of Wishlists, which is always good :)
Then on Wednesday the 22nd I flew to meet our artist Alex in Boston. We set up our booth ready to commence PAX East the following day:
This was four amazing days of players enjoying the demo and we even got to meet a few from our Discord which was a personal highlight. People loved how the game felt and the venting was a big hit! It was exhausting though, this is pretty much what our booth looked like across Thursday to Sunday:
Being selected by judges to gain entry to the GDC events plus the PAX Rising Showcase was really cool to have our hard work recognised :)
Once PAX East finished on Sunday we caught an overnight flight back to the UK, had a couple of days working before heading to WASD (a 3-day event in London) so we're pretty tired!
WASD is part of the larger London Games Festival and we're honoured to have been selected as part of the "Best of British" category:
We hope you enjoyed this latest update, we’re active on the following platforms if you want to see sneak peeks of the game or reach out to us:
See you next month!