WHERE THE FUCK HAVE YOU BEEN AND WHY WAS THERE NO NEWS FOR SO LONG?!
We were very lazy doing nothing all year. We just played video games and watched Twitch streamers play I am Jesus. Please do not tell our moms. Thanks. No but jokes aside. This year was not easy at all for us. As some of you know our tiny team was directly affected by the war crimes of russian terrorists in Ukraine. And some of us also needed to relocate to a safer place. Because of that the production of the game was on hold for around 2 months at the beginning of the year. Obviously this impacted our previously announced release window for the Closed Alpha, which was originally planned for the end of 2022. But this is not something we could have foreseen, nor was it possible to plan ahead. The new release date for the Closed Alpha is the 28th of April 2023.
ALTERA? WHAT IS GOING ON?! DID YOU CANCEL GAMING!?
Alright so let's address the big elephant in the room. The game's name is ALTERA now. And yes we know this might be confusing. But to us the old name always was just a temporary project name. Even if that was not really communicated publicly. After all ALTERA[b] is a much nicer name and much easier to pronounce and remember. And most importantly it's much shorter which makes it easier for us to design marketing materials for the game. Also this name was kinda teased in the past. Naming the game based on the planet it's based on only makes sense. Even more so now than ever before.
[b]SETTING EXPECTATIONS
Before we showcase the amazing new things and changes that came to the game we need to make sure that you all have realistic expectations. The Closed Alpha will not be treated as some kind of launch and it will be under strict NDA. However releasing the Alpha will still be a big milestone for us. With the newest release of Unreal Engine 5 the engine itself is stable enough now. And so is the game hopefully. Hopefully because there is only a limited amount of bugs we can even track ourselves. So obviously things will break and new bugs will appear. AND WE ARE READY TO TRACK EM ALL AND KILL EM ALL! Ehm I mean fix em!
So you might be wondering: "Okay Alpha will be out but what's after that?". Well well… the Closed Alpha branch on Steam will be updated alongside our internal dev branch. Which means whenever there is a new version we are testing internally you will be able to play and test that one too! So yes the Closed Alpha will be updated regularly and there will also be new content every now and then. However, this also needs to be mentioned: we still have a lot of work to do until we can release the Alpha version of the game.
WHAT'S IN THAT ALPHA?
The Closed Alpha will be released with the first act of the Intrusion campaign. Act 1 also acts as a prologue at the same time. Meaning it will introduce you to the story, lore and characters of ALTERA. This is also a great time to explain what the hack that Intrusion campaign actually is. So you see there will be two game modes: Intrusion and at some point later in Closed Alpha, Terra Control. Both game modes connected via gameplay but also narratively. Items, units and progress obtained will be shared through the entire game. Meaning no matter if you decide to play against AI only in Intrusion with your friends or Terra Control which is PvPvE. Everything is shared.
However while both game modes are part of the narrative only Intrusion will feature cut scenes. Overall the design of the game naturally progressed and changed especially in this year. The great thing about the design is that both Intrusion and Terra Control are built on the same principles.
In both game modes the goal is to clear enemy outposts and capture territory so that a tower facility can be placed. If the tower is played the Intrusion cycle will start. While it is running players need to fight incoming waves of enemies and protect the command tower. Whenever an Intrusion cycle is successfully survived the players will be rewarded. :)
Both Intrusion and the Terra Control game modes exactly share the same design principles with the only difference being that there are also real players in Terra Control. We designed the game and its two core game modes with its two very unique player groups in mind. There are a lot of people out there that like to play FPS games but do not really enjoy PvP so much. This means no matter what you enjoy more PvE or PvP or both you will find exactly the experience you want.
WHAT CONTENT CAN WE EXPECT TO GET WITH NEW UPDATES IN CLOSED ALPHA
A big focus in the closed Alpha will be to collect as much feedback as possible. But also to get the game out there and fix as many issues as possible before the Early Access release.
This includes: bug fixes, balancing updates, gameplay tweaks and stability updates. However, this is only one side of the coin. The other one is to introduce and update the game with meaningful content up until the point of the Early Access release. These updates will target both game modes.
SOME FINAL WORDS
We are very proud of what we have created and it was not easy to get to this point. This is a testament of our craft. There is no magic or luck in game development. Making games requires a lot of hard work, talent, skill as well as time. We worked very hard and passionately up until this point and we are going to do so in the future. Thanks for reading and we hope we will see you soon in the game! <3
You can check the overview of the new features in this video.
[previewyoutube=X1zUh7DeqmA;full][/previewyoutube]
CHANGES IN 0.13.8-prealpha:
- Updated project to Unreal Engine 5. Currently using version 5.1.
- Implemented base version of open Intrusion.
- Added 5 new robot units. Every robot has a unique weapon with its own damage model.
- Updated AI system and implemented AI ranged behavior.
- -mproved targeting and perception system for AI.
- Fixed various issues with navigation.
- Optimized navigation system and fixed an issue with navigating heavily affecting performance.
- Implemented base troop mechanics and switching units.
- Implemented friendly AI behavior.
- Implemented Sleepdealer weapon.
- Implemented unit stunning mechanic.
- Implemented unit hacking.
- Implemented host/join session feature for the Intrusion coop campaign.
- Implemented shared inventory.
- Implemented characters appear and dissolve effects.
- Rewritten inventory/shop in C++.
- Implemented Item system.
- Increased maximum number of items a character can hold to 10.
- Added unit shrinking feature.
- Added unit grenade feature.
- Added commands for troop units.
- Updated and optimized building system.
- Updated building parts models.
- Updated building system UI.
- Updated Interaction system.
- Added UI for troop management.
- Added UI for inventory and shop.
- Updated game UI.
- Added respawn system for troop units.
- Improved companion system.
- Reworked Haven island terrain.
- Updated biomes and lighting.
- Added icons for all enemy outposts.
- Updated mechanic for discovering enemy outposts.
- Changed beacon mechanic (it now acts as a tower facility).
- Updated beacon model.
- Reworked the algorithm of detecting a character's current area.
- Reworked and added the leaning mechanic back to the game.
- Added landing animation.
- Various animation improvements.
- Added graphic settings related to UE 5.1 performance update.
- Added AMD FSR 2.0 support.
- Added Nvidia DLSS support.
Deprecated:
- Real 24 hour day and night cycle (was replaced by time of day system with heavy focus on weather simulation and events).
