#failuregame | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

dreamharvestgames · 8 years

Text

The Many Faces Of UI and UX Design

One of our first design goals for Failure: NeuroSlicers was to create a User Interface (UI) that was streamlined, clean and gave the player just the information that they’d need at a given moment without cluttering or overwhelming them.

Looking To The Past

Other RTS games often, at least in the past, had UI’s that would take up 1/3rd of the screen with unnecessary elements or over the top art that, in our opinion, added little to the immersion and took away the player’s ability to see the bigger picture. This is also why we allow full camera movement rather than fixed angle and zoom.

Very little has changed in terms of UI design for RTS games over the past 20 years; we still see the mini-map, info panel, areas for Resources, Tooltip box and a number of other elements as seen in below screens from 3 of the most popular RTS games from the past few years:

As you can see from the above examples the designs are almost identical and all have 1 very annoying problem; their size and the amount of information being displayed means that only 2/3rds of the screen are viewable to the player and this restricted view means the player will have to move the camera around more in order to keep focused on the action. This is compounded by the limited camera zoom, rotation and tilt that players have access to.

With Failure, we have made it our mission to remove or at least reduce this screen clutter while still giving as much information to the player.

First Iterations At Minimal UI Design

UI design is endlessly complex; there’s an incredible number of things to think about when it comes to the thing that you’re going to be interacting with throughout your time with a game; element positions, fonts and sizes, what happens when you press a button, how shortcut keys are linked to elements, sequences of actions, animations of elements, input methods (i.e. touch, mouse/keyboard, controller, motion, eyes, voice, etc.). The list is almost endless and it’s been the biggest discussion point over the past couple of months. Before I go into details about our plans for Failure’s UI, I’d like to show you how it’s changed over the past couple of years:

The above version of the UI was one of the earliest iterations and boy was it ugly!

Here we used the top left section to show the available Scripts and their costs. When you had enough Data to play one it would light up. Below this was the data resource pool… no idea what we were thinking with that design. And finally, in the center of the screen was a radial menu design. This appeared when you selected a cell and you would slide you mouse over to the script you wanted to use.

Several issues were evident quite early with this design. Firstly, you needed to memorize the icons for each Script and what they did (and some we didn’t even have icons for!), the Data Pool section looked really out of place and the overuse of colour really didn’t help things. Also, as we continued to develop the game the layout didn’t fit with the new mechanics that we designed.

This circular menu never actually made it into the game, it was just a mock-up to see how we could integrate the elements from the top left section from the previous iteration into the placement UI. What was quite nice about this UI was that we could see when a Script might be ready; as you gained more data the segments of each script would fill up, though one issue was that you'd only see this menu when clicking on a cell, and once you'd clicked on a cell the UI would occlude your view of the level, so not ideal.

Experiments In UI Overlays

Here's another mock-up UI that never made the cut. Though this time it's an overlay. We felt we wanted to integrate a chat system and mini-map and make the Data Resource a bit more prominent, though through play-testing we very quickly realized that there was little need for a minimap due to Failure having small arena based maps and no fog of war. It was space that could be better used. The other issue we found was that due to the Data Resource Positioning some players never looked in the top left corner.

This was a second mockup that we actually integrated and tested in game, though once again we realised it wasn't the best use of space. It also still relied on the cell selection based menu for Script placement, meaning you had no idea whether you had enough Data to play your Scripts until you selected a cell. Not ideal.

Going Clean with UI

This in-game UI was the first version designed by Ryan Klaverweide (UI Artist from Bungie) when we brought him on board.

Here we have the Data in the center, Function scripts to the right and building Scripts on the right. All scripts displayed their cost in the top right and over on the Building side you can see the units that were associated with each building.

Several things changed here from the previous iterations. We realised how important it was to be able to see each of your scripts at all times along with their associated costs; one thing you can't see in the above is that scripts were given a dark overlay when you didn't have enough data to play them and then became lit when you did. With this layout, we also allowed shortcut keys to be used to trigger each of the Scripts, bound to the numerical keys 1 - 6 (though they could be bound to any keys you want).

With this design, we still had a few issues. Firstly, players still needed to learn the icons in order to decipher each script. We also couldn't find a good way to display the upgrade menus for each script.

At this point, several key design changes happened. First, we decided to separate units from buildings, in effect making them their own Scripts. Previous to this you would build a building and then units would spawn automatically from them at certain intervals; we wanted players to have more control over units, at least in terms of placement, so the change was necessary.

The second major change came from the load-out/deck building - we moved away from the 6 Script Deck onto a 9 Script Deck. The idea being; you would build a deck of 9 scripts in the deck builder before a match and then, using a new resource called Tech, unlock up to 6 during a match.

This allowed for more strategies during a match, allowing you to build a Deck that could work for a number of scenarios and also helped with match pacing.

You'll see the Tech resource here to the left of the Data UI Element. You can earn up to 3 Tech and Script / Upgrades cost between 1 - 3 Tech each.

NOTE: Tech is earned through secondary objectives and over time, its used for both unlocking and upgrading your scripts during a match. Data is then used to then play your Scripts.

We were really liking this layout but we soon realized that we had failed to resolve one major issue - understandability and learning for new players. You see, although an icon-centric interface might look super nice and clean it still has a very steep learning curve requiring players to learn each and every icon before being able to easily understand what each refer to. In addition, we found that more hardcore players wanted more information from each of their Scripts before playing them. Things such as health, attack power, territory gain, movement speed and the core abilities needed to be displayed in order for players to truly understand how a script played, what they were good and not so good for. Some scripts even have multiple behaviors or complex abilities that just weren't easily placed on an icon based UI system.

We had to find a better solution.

Re-Purposing Card Based UI Design

So the idea was to take a CCG approach, using cards with additional elements to display each of our Scripts. It seemed like a natural progression from the icon-based approach and allowed for considerably more information to be displayed while still keeping the UI minimal... well in theory.

Above was our first mock-up of how the new Card based system could work. This screen showed your Scripts in a Mini Card format at the bottom. A larger card format with additional stats would be displayed on mouse-over or right-click which would also show the Script Upgrade menu. For Slots that didn't have a Script installed yet you would click (or use the corresponding shortcut key) to open the purchase menu where you could install one of your 9 available scripts. In addition we saw a redesign of the Resource UI elements on the left.

With this first version of the Large (Above) and Small (Below) versions of the cards we were suddenly able to add a tonne of additional information. On the large card we had Attack Power, Attack Range, Health and Armour on the left. At the top left was an icon to say what kind of card it was (Unit, Building or Function power), the name, Data Cost, a box for additional details and context sensitive info when hovering your mouse over one of the three ability slots at the bottom. Then we had a large area at the bottom to explain the Script’s specialty and finally a button on the far right to open the upgrade menu for that card. The mini card version was just a compact version of the larger card with slightly less information.

The issue we then had was trying to determine exactly what information players would want at any given moment while also attempting to simplify the way we give the player information in order to reduce the learning curve and time players need to be looking at their cards - Failure is pretty fast paced with matches lasting around 5 - 10 minutes each; you don’t want to be spending half that time looking at the UI, you want to be actually spending that time trying to defeat your opponent so it’s crucial that the information on the cards is presented in such a way that you can understand at a glance and make informed choices without having to spend too much time reading through a bunch of stats.

Here’s how we started to prioritize information based on Script Type:

As you can see, not all Script types need the same information on them and with this in mind we had to try to determine how to present each in a clever way.

Here are some other iterations we went through - pretty much everyone on the team had a try at different layouts and feels for the cards as well as information/stat layouts:

This last one is how our Scripts look in-game right now but over the coming weeks we’re going to be taking much of our findings and research and creating something much cleaner that will hopefully meet our design goal of minimal UI that conveys just the information a player needs at a given moment without overwhelming them while also offering the details that hardcore players want from an RTS.

We are still finding ideas to compress information in a smarter way, and the Card-based UI system isn’t the only UI element we’re trying to be innovative with.

We imagine that throughout the development process we will be tackling a number of design challenges in regards to information and readability, we’ve really thrown ourselves into the deep end with the development of an RTS game, but this process is really showing what the team are capable of and we cant wait to conduct some proper player research with the new UI systems to see how things have improved.

Justin French - Creative Director

#failuregame #rts #real time strategy #cyberpunk #indie dev

1 note · View note

neuro-slicers · 8 years

Text

NeuroSlicers: Issue 3

Entry

I'm in the shit, Simone.” Isaac said while pushing open the main entrance door to Tesseract HQ.

“Let’s see… whose fault 's that?” The voice of Simone came, as if just from behind him.

Isaac turned around, but there was no one there – Simone was using the brand new sub-cortical neural implant to communicate with him. He was far from used to it. Implants were common technology for the upper class, but the only connection that Isaac had with them was watching the overly grandeur visual feeds televised on every holoboard laid across the city of Nexus.

"Let beauty be in the hand of the beholder, release the beauty from within with our latest synthetic skin tech, as soft and as delicate as the day you were born – stop the aging process" the adverts would say. Issac imagined that in the past, before the great Nano Plague that similar tactics were used to sell high fashion. Brands selling an unattainable lifestyle wrapped up in a moving image that says "Buy", then you'd see the price "just 350,000 credits for your first 4 sessions" - that was more than most people in Nexus City would make in a lifetime. It was opulent and only helped to truly show the divide between the outlandish and often insecure wealthy and the impoverish, those that had little to their name in the city.

“You, of all people, should know that the risk I took was necessary. I couldn’t bare living in the slums for another moment longer.” Isaac replied, while trying to look for any indication of how to navigate the winding pathways that made up the public areas of the building.

Issac had managed to secure himself an interview. An interview for the most powerful corporation in the whole of the City no less; someone or something was looking down on him. He had no idea how he'd managed to land himself this opportunity and he was far from qualified for it.

The truth is, this was his last hope of being able to repay a debt, a debt that he now regret taking on, but in an act of blind foolishness and a desire to find a way out of the slums he decided to borrow credits from a loan shark that happened to be a member of Bit.Crash. Issac had the idea that if he could just get himself a simple Slicer Deck and start getting some contracts he'd be able to make enough to get out of this hell hole. After all, most people of Nexus dreamed of becoming a Slicer, lured by the tales of these infamous hackers.

Things didn't work out exactly as planned...

“You're the one that decided to invest in being a Slicer of all things?” Simone retorted and Isaac could hear the smile in her words.

“Fuck You Simone” Issac said in retaliation.

“Are you serious?” Simone’s voice came from behind again. “ I'm here trying to help you, through no mistake of my own. Yet it seems like I'm babysitting a grown man, who can’t even take care of his own problems. I'm supposed to be at the height of my career, now look what you've got me doing!” She sighed. "I don’t want to argue, I'm here to help, but try to show a bit of gratitude".

"Fine, I'm sorry. Thank you Simone, I do appreciate what your doing for me." Issac said, in a soft tone. He had no desire to exacerbate the situation, and he was truly thankful he had a friend to help him through this.

After a moment, Isaac heard the "clickity click" as Simone typed on the other end of the feed. Her voice came back a few moments later “Here, this should help you out…”

A yellow line appeared a few inches above the ground, leading to one of the side corridors on the ground floor.

“Hell yeah! Augmented Reality, baby!” Simone exclaimed.

“How did you do that?!” Isaac asked in confusion.

“The chip in your brain can make you see things that aren’t really there – like these navigation lines, leading to the interview room for example. You just need to know what to touch.”

“Should I be as disturbed as I feel right now?”

“Oh yeah. Anyone with access to your chip can do some nasty things to you. It just so happens that in this situation, that anyone is me.” Simone sounded pleased with herself.

"Now just to release the access code onto the NeuroNet for all to see....."

"What! Don’t do that!" Isaac said in a panic.

"Just kidding, don’t worry, the connection is secure"

Isaac was already starting to regret giving Simone full access to his neural chip. Unfortunately, if she was to help him get this job, she needed as much freedom as possible.

The lines on the ground led him through the maze of corridors, decorated with almost nothing, but the occasional abstract painting and pretentious quotes one typically sees when walking the halls of big corporations, not that he'd done such a thing in the past. Such delights as “Connecting the world to the future” or “Dreams + Work = Success”, it was all rather Orwellian and sent a shudder down Isaacs spine.

Isaac finally arrived at a white door with no label, handle or indication of what was on the other side. Just as he was about to knock the door opened and a smartly dressed woman almost collided with him on her way out. The first thing Isaac noticed about her were the intricate lines under her skin on the left side of her face, partially covered by her red hair, its like a computer PCB had been used as a stencil for a overly complex tattoo, only this tattoo had the addition of glowing lines and little LED's attached.

“Wow, a Sentry.” Simone’s voice was filled with awe. “These are extremely experienced Slicers that have so much hardware embedded in them, that they can barely be considered human. Most Sentries try to hide what they are, but apparently not this one.” It was known by many that Tesseract had a habit of hiring and nurturing Slicers caught in the act of breaking into their beloved NeuroNet; often training them way beyond the abilities of normal street Slicers or those from the other Corps. They had the budget and the necessity to protect their systems more so than any other, but when you see what their Slicers become at the hand of Tesseract it didn’t seem much better than Xanctuary's cultist tech infused following.

“Do you plan to get out of my way, or is staring at me part of your job description?” The Sentry said and Isaac realized that he was standing in the door frame. He moved aside, not wanting to cause any trouble – after all, first impressions count.

She took off through one of the corridors while shaking her head and murmuring something under her nose.

Isaac took a moment to regain his fleeing confidence and entered the interview room. It was noticeably messier than what he had seen so far from the rest of the building – there were shelves filled with what appeared to be junk hardware. On top of one of the shelves, a strange giant clock was stuck with it's hands showing 13:37. In one corner, multiple boxes were stacked in a heap.

“Oh, crap. Is that…” Simone’s voice.

Isaac looked back as the door slid closed behind him. His eyes focused on the smiling figure behind the only desk in the room and his confidence evaporated, quickly replaced by absolute horror followed by the boiling anger he was so used to for most of his life.

“Welcome Isaac, how’s my boy doing?” said Francis, the one person who Isaac didn’t want to see in that room – his step father.

"Oh, hell no." Isaac almost screamed while trying to keep his shaking body under control. "I'm not going to be part of your games. Not again." He barely managed to keep his voice level from all the emotions that were seething through him.

Turning around, Isaac reached for the door, but there was no handle, and the door didn’t open.

"Isaac, please think about this..." Simone's voice. "If you run away now, you'll be finished – this is your best bet to pay Bit.Crash back." She sounded concerned "I know the things that this man has done to you and your family, but there has to be a way set your differences aside."

"You can't even begin to comprehend the monster that Francis is, Simone." Isaac whispered to try and keep his connection a secret. "There is no future for me where that man is." He continued while resting his hand against the door, mainly to try keep his body under control.

Isaac knew that he couldn't spend much longer with Francis without his anger or fear getting the better of him. Just as he was about to start kicking at the door, the voice of Francis came from the other side of the room.

"Ah, you haven't changed a bit, Isaac – your mother would've been so disappointed..." He said while slowly getting up and walking around the desk "If she wasn't lying in a mass grave somewhere, of course." His voice was filled with glee. Seeing that Isaac had stopped moving, he continued... "I still remember her last words - 'I wish my son had turned out better.'" Francis said in a faux old ladies voice

"Liar!" Isaac shouted and before he knew it he was charging the still smiling Francis with the full intention of ending him right there and then. Unfortunately, Isaac knew even before he started that this act was as futile as were the countless ones he had tried in the past. The fight ended almost as soon as it began – Francis stepped out of the way of the charge almost casually and met Isaac with a knee to the chest, sending him straight to the floor, paralyzed.

"You know what the problem with scum like you and your mother is, Isaac? You can't seem to get it into your thick skulls that the class system exists for a reason – to keep filth like you away from anyone important. And do you know what happens to people who try to bypass the system, Isaac? I HAPPEN TO THEM!" Francis, shouted the last sentence in Isaac's face before delivering a kick in his midriff. Isaac managed to shift slightly and take it on the side, where it would do the least damage – he had learned a thing or two about fighting after many sessions just like this one. The pain still left him out of breath.

Francis grabbed Isaac by his shirt and put him upright so he could speak in his face. "And the thing is, Isaac, the only reason we allow you to pollute our city is to serve us. Our little dogs. Doing all the filthy work that suits their position. YOU... GOT... THAT?!" Francis punctuated each word with slamming Isaac in one of the shelves, rattling everything on them dangerously.

Francis took his hands off Isaac and started to walk to his desk. The beating was bad, but Isaac had taken much worse before. He wasn't done yet.

"Is that right?" Isaac said in a rasping, out-of-breath voice. "I think you've forgotten where you come from, old man." If Isaac knew anything about Francis, it was his absolute hatred toward the lower class and by extension – his family.

"Oh, now you'll have it." Came a whisper from Francis, who turned around and charged at Isaac, but Isaac was already braced for the impact. The two men collided and the shelves behind Isaac shook so violently that the giant clock on the top slid off.

It crashed into Francis's forehead, forcing him to the ground, unmoving.

"He's dead." Was the first thought in Isaac's mind while he tried to recover from the shock of what had just happened. A sudden voice almost made him jump:

"Isaac, are you ok?" Simone asked. "Can you hear me? Damn it, why isn't this thing working!?"

The adrenaline was quickly fleeing his body, but he had to check for himself. Turning the body over, Isaac felt for a pulse. It was there – the son of a bitch was still alive.

"I finally returned the favor. You're going to pay for all those years of torture you bastard." Isaac whispered and grabbed a broken piece of sharp metal, which had broken off the clock. He brought the piece high, aiming at the neck of his step father.

"Isaac! What are you doing?!" Simone screamed. "What's going on with you?! You're not a killer!".

Isaac tried to pay her no mind, but it was getting harder and harder to hold that piece of metal over Francis's throat with most of his adrenaline gone already.

"Please, Isaac, don't do this..." He could hear her voice beginning to tremble. "I thought... no... I still think that you're one of the decent people in this rotting city. Don't let him take that away from you too, damn it!"

Isaac heard a loud bang as Simone must have hit something in frustration of her helplessness.

The words rang too close to the truth however and the piece of metal dropped from Isaac's hand.

Francis had taken too much from him already – his childhood, his home, his family – not his morals though, at least not today.

"Ok..." Isaac's voice was horse and shaky from all the excitement "I'll let the bastard live. Though the injustice of it all sickens me."

"You've made the right decision Isaac..." She sighed with relief.

"I hope so." Issac responded.

"But now, we need to deal with this mess."

Isaac was trying to asses the situation, "Yeah, this looks quite bad, doesn't it?"

"What? The unconscious body of a Tesseract employee with you as the only witness? Maybe they'll think you convinced him to take an impromptu nap." Simone's tone was beginning to get back to normal, which reassured him.

"They won't stop until they get me – one way or another."

"Bet on it."

"I guess it's time for plan B then." Isaac said and started going through Francis's pockets.

"Why am I only now hearing that there is such a plan?"

"Didn't want to bore you with the details... Aha, here we go." And he took out a shining translucent card with a black strip going across it from one of the pockets "Behold our key to success."

"And you're planning to do what exactly?" Simone questioned "I may be smart, but far from mad enough to understand you."

"Well, Bit.Crash want their credits back right?"

"And..."

"What is even more important to Bit.Crash than credits?" Isaac had a grin on his face now.

"Son of a bitch..." She said as it dawned on her "You're going to try and steal private data from the inside. And I'm guessing you'll want my help?"

"Well, you're here already."

"Why am I not surprised?"

Isaac put the card in his pocket and said "We need to neutralize Francis, we don't want him waking up in 5 minutes and sounding the alarm."

"I know what we'll do. Go and look into his eyes." Simone said with excitement.

"What?!"

"Trust me now. Go, open his eyes and stare deeply."

He did as he was told with a reasonable amount of skepticism. At first Isaac saw nothing in Francis's eyes, but then he felt his own eyes starting to warm up. The sensation was not pleasant.

"Closer, get closer to him!" Simone almost shouted, while typing furiously on her keyboard.

Isaac got even closer and the sensation of heat in his eyes intensified.

"Simone, I am not sure that this is a good idea."

"Just give me 5 more seconds.."

The next few seconds were the worst, with his body screaming that something was definitely wrong with his eyes. Suddenly, Francis's body lurched up and came back down again. With that, Isaac's eyes returned to normal.

"What the hell was that, Simone?" Isaac was more than a little bit disturbed and confused with what just happened.

"It's called CUP - Close up Paralysis. It's an old Xanctuary technique I'd been dying to try out." Simone's voice was filled with excitement. "When you show your brain a certain sequence of moving patterns, they make it freezes up completely." She lectured "We've known this for a while of course, but the brilliance of Xanctuary is that their implants allow them to change their own eyes to recreate those patterns."

"So, Francis, even though unconscious was able to see these patterns imprinted on my own eyes?!" Isaac was starting to get a little but sick.

"Brilliant, isn't it?" Simone asked.

"Sounds pretty useless to me."

"Aha, and that's the thing – no one expects it. This is the main trick Xanctuary adepts use to impress and gather followers. They show you the shifting image of their eyes, letting you think that it's part of the Keeper himself in there and then they let you 'experience' his power by completely paralyzing you body."

"As creepy as that is, Xanctuary is the least of my worries right now. I need to get out of here."

"Ah yes, where do you want to go? The ground floor won't hold any valuable data."

"Up we go then, find me the closest elevator."

"Roger." Simone's voice was accompanied with a few dozen clicks and the yellow lines on the floor returned. Isaac closed the door behind him on the interview room and followed the lines, trying to look as unsuspicious as possible. There was an open elevator at the end of the corridor and thankfully he was the only one there. Scanning Francis's security card over the console, he mashed the highest floor his security clearance allowed.

"Here we go..." Isaac said, as the doors closed and the machine began the long ascend.

End of part 1.

#failure #neuroslicers #short story #video game #narrative #cyberpunk #failuregame

1 note · View note

manriquesanabria · 8 years

Photo

Failure is the condiment that gives success its flavor. - Truman Capote 👊🏻💥 #coachmanriquesanabria #humanperformance #failuregame #success #hustle #mondaymorning #motivation #gallopintoyhuevos #puravida #fitness #healthylifestyle #trainyourmind #mindfulness

#motivation #failuregame #coachmanriquesanabria #mondaymorning #success #mindfulness #trainyourmind #gallopintoyhuevos #healthylifestyle #fitness #puravida #humanperformance #hustle

0 notes

dreamharvestgames · 7 years

Text

FAILURE: NEUROSLICERS demoing during Intel® Buzz Workshop 2017

We're demoing Failure: NeuroSlicers at Intel Buzz Workshop in London this Saturday 8th April, during the #indiedev showcase - http://intelbuzz.bemyapp.com/2017/london/ come along and meet the team if you're about.

#indiedev #cyberpunk #failuregame #neuroslicers

0 notes

dreamharvestgames · 8 years

Video

youtube

Watch our latest dev video with Art Director, Loic Bramoulle as he talks about his previous body of work and how he’s shaping the art and design of Failure: NeroSlicers.

#failuregame #rts #cyberpunk #indiedev #art #concept

0 notes

dreamharvestgames · 8 years

Text

January 2017 Dev Blog

Justin - Creative Director

Not an incredible amount of things to talk about on my side this month. I've spent much of the month working on streamlining our processes and making sure that we're hitting our key milestones over the next few months. Unfortunately, a lack of funding continues to hindering our full team working full time; this of course means that scheduling tasks and getting features implemented by certain dates incredibly hard, but rest assured things are still moving forward at reasonable pace considering these funding hiccups. We're hoping that by the end of March these will be a thing of the past as we're still in talks with several people about getting the cash flow needed to bring our vision for the game together.

I've also been doing some system design to try and streamline some of our development processes to prepare for complex integration systems such as our dialogue and in game events which are used to trigger everything from sound effects to animations.

I'm hoping to be able to get back to some sound design over the coming weeks as we have several new Scripts to integrated which are going to need some sounds to bring them to life.

One last thing; on Tuesday 31st January I attended the WeGeek event in London Old Street at the WeWork campus and got another chance to show of Failure and get some much needed feedback from gamers and other tech professionals; it was a great evening and we’re going to try and do this monthly. If your based in or around London and want a chance to come and check out Failure and have a go at playing it yourself head over to http://www.wegeekninja.com/ and grab yourself a ticket. I’m looking forward to meeting as many of you as possible.

Anyway, until next month.

Justin

Loic - Art Director / Designer

Following the art advancements of last month, I kept on designing new units and constructs, polish shape language, animation style and the final look of the 3d models. I’m blending robotics code with nature inspired shapes.

Some of this inspiration comes from the latest advancements in robotics from Boston dynamics for example, and researches on neural network-based AI and combining this inspiration to mimicking nature, and giving us a new artistic paradigm of what will be our modern take on cyberpunk.

The next step will be to test this design in-game and research new directions to improve it further, before we start producing the rest of the scripts at higher pace.

Railgun by Dream_Harvest on Sketchfab

Pylon by Dream_Harvest on Sketchfab

Brute ANIMATED by Dream_Harvest on Sketchfab

FireWall by Dream_Harvest on Sketchfab

At the beginning of the month Justin also tasked me with prototyping a new design for the Failure logo that encapsulated our mantra for the game - that it’s about the players, each of which are going to be entering the game as trainee Slicers and who will become super powerful throughout their journey. This is still very much a wip but gives a good idea of the direction we’re taking it. Loic

Milcho - Lead Designer / Programmer

Good Evening…

Yes, I don’t respect time zones, thanks for asking J

Anyway, it’s time for my monthly report which enlightens so many. A lot has happened in the last month, and there’s a lot to come, so stick around or regret it forever. For example, the world is burning, but that doesn’t stop us at Dream Harvest to pump out the good stuff – like this beauty:

For anyone interested in this marvel, it shows the struggles of trying to communicate with a remote team. Since we don’t have an office, and a physical white board, we use a virtual one (www.realtimeboard.com). What I am trying to explain there is a new mechanic called “Invade” which takes effect each time you get new territory. It’s still in the works, but in theory it would open up quite a few new options in terms of empowering your buildings beyond their base stats as well as create more effective ways of gaining territory, making each time you place a building something that needs to be carefully considered. We’ll be sharing more details in regards to this system over the coming weeks and months.

On another note, we’ve been dealing with our main in-game progression mechanic this month. It’s to do with how quickly you unlock your abilities, which then gives you certain advantages at certain stages of the game. For example, do I want to invest my time and energy into getting more powerful/interesting stuff? Or do I want lots and lots of resource which will help me spread all over the map, giving me positional advantage?

There are all sorts of choices to be made in Failure and the thing that we’re most proud of is that we’re going to be teaching players about them in detail with gameplay tools. For me, personally, this is extremely exciting, since very few competitive games take the time to teach their players about the depth of their game and leave them to roam the forums. Not with us, we will have a lot of learning tools already in game. At least that’s the plan.

I won’t hold you any longer, you’re probably hungry. Oh, what’s that? Not everyone feels the same as I do right now? Well, that’s quite fortunate, because I am starving. Time for some Yogurt + Biscuits (don’t judge me).

Until the end of time.

Milcho

Richard - QA and Design

Hello again! Let’s get straight into it shall we? The past month has seen a succinct rise in ponderous beard stroking, mostly due to our work on Tech generation and how to make it fit smoothly with the current state of the game.

Our main goals were to allow the player to have more autonomy over his match progression, this was always going to add complexity to the game but our first iteration... It went too far! Introducing the “Tech Bank”, a Script which loaned the player a tech fragment (4 of which made a tech point) but if destroyed takes it back, crashing your “techonomy”, the banking system at its finest! However, it was somewhat difficult to understand, especially so for a new player, with Tech being a key system we had to stick it in a vault and come up with something new.

The Current iteration is the Temple, on construction you’ll gain 40% of your tech point progress, once the player hits 100% they’ll gain their tech point. This is much easier to explain and whilst it does have less interaction and isn’t as punishable by the opposing player it does simplify tech generation. I’m also happy with how it satisfies our goals of giving the player access to different strategic timings and allowing them the choice of when to expand their Script options (the most important part). We’ll see how this pans out in testing, I’m feeling positive about our direction and the amount of choice the player has with this new addition.

Here’s to another month, I hope you’re all well and I look forward to how we progress. Until then… oh the sign off phrase… Mochtest du mit mir tanzen? I’ll think of a better one next time… Just you wait.

Rich

#gamedev #devblog #failuregame #rts #videogames #gamesdeveloper #games developer #indie

0 notes

animaliok · 7 years

Photo

Player's portrait style research for #FailureGame You can support the game on: https://www.brightlocker.com/games/failure-neuroslicers

#failuregame

0 notes

dreamharvestgames · 8 years

Video

undefined

tumblr

Access Node (Base) explosion VFX and new unit type, the Spectre and it’s EMP attack and cloaking ability. All still WIP. Sign up to our newsletter for more info www.failuregame.com

#vfx #vfxartist #failuregame #dreamharvest #rts #real time strategy

0 notes

neuro-slicers · 8 years

Text

NeuroSlicers: Issue 2

From Neon Light and Into Darkness Pt.1

The heavy warm air soon gave way to a localized shower throughout the sector, the smell of purified ozone a refreshing taste of cleanliness that would be far out of reach for Amelie under normal circumstances. Her home was after all in the slums of the Shin Seikatsu Sector, a hovel at the edge of Nexus City, and had been for most of her short life.

Amelie’s parents had both died five years ago when she was only twelve, hunted down and slaughtered like so many others in a night raid carried out by a government clean-up squad.

Amelie had managed to escape the gunfire by hiding buried under the bodies of the people who fell around her, the heat sensors on the drones unable to distinguish her from the gore and faeces that permeated the fallen.

She lay there for over six hours while the foot soldiers and flying machines swept through the area, cleaning up whoever was left. The assault was quick, brutal, and left no survivors. None, save for Amelie.

It was only later in her life that she began to understand. It didn’t matter why they were slaughtered, or even that she survived.

The government wasn’t kind to those that lived outside their grid, those that weren’t in their eyes part of their society, weren’t subservient to the machine that drove it all forward; The NeuroNet.

In the end, those outside of their sphere of influence were nothing more than scapegoats, convenient to blame for the shortfalls of an unsustainable economy. Rats to be exterminated when the public complains of the stink.

Amelie wandered the slums for several weeks, broken and lost, living off what scraps she could find. Eventually, she was stumbled upon by Nona, a kind-hearted old lady who saw a broken child and decided to take her in.

Nona was well known throughout the slums as a matriarch to many of the forgotten. A nurse and Midwife in her early years when pregnancy was still a basic human right. But as soon as medical systems became automated and laws were brought in to control population growth, she lost her job and with it her standing in society. She would soon after lose everything else she held dear.

Nona had gradually accumulated an entourage of the disenfranchised that sought to help from within the Slums. One such person was Doctor Trestle, who ran a triage out of a small dilapidated warehouse and helped as much as he could with the limited supplies he had.

Then there was Solomon…

Amelie wiped the drops of rain water from her face, reaching up to tie her hair back to keep it out of her eyes, stepping out of the alleyway and walked slowly towards Gonzo, the Red-Light District.

She was going to stick out like a sore thumb here, a mere child among the sordid delights of the one of the most dangerous parts of the whole city. Here, the only thing that was worth less than your money was your morals.

Thankfully, Solomon had prepared her for this, providing her with a cheap Holo unit; a versatile gadget that would allow her to convincingly project the look of someone else, so long as no one bumped into or otherwise touched her. The holographic layer was thin, but not that thin. Best not to draw attention by letting anything seemingly warp through her arm.

As she approached Gonzo she slipped the Holo out of her pocket, carefully angling it towards a smartly dressed woman in a burgundy suite who had her hair tied up much like Amelie’s, then clicked the capture button. The device quietly scanned the woman as she walked past. Amelie waited until she’d walked far enough away, then, after glancing around to make sure no one could see her, activated the device. In an instant she was enveloped by the hologram, and went from being a seventeen year old girl to a carbon copy of the beautiful woman.

Amelie quietly hoped she looked this pretty if she were to really live to be this old, though if she were honest with herself the titanium alloy augmented legs were not really her thing. She shook a leg a little to remind herself that it was not in fact now made of metal. The image was convincing even to her own eyes. A good sign, she hoped.

She then placed the Vox Modulator on her neck, and twisted the dial while murmuring to herself until she found a tone that sounded about right for the age and build of the woman whose appearance she’d just borrowed. The batteries on both would last about twenty minutes, just enough time for what was planned. In theory.

Amelie walked out into the street and was immediately bombarded by a sensory overload of neon lights, gaudy shop windows and cascading auditory stimuli from every possible angle.

The reflection of the lights on the puddles that had formed along the street slabs made the chaotic scene feel like a sordid daylight pantomime, acted out by a hellish cast of prostitutes, greasy businessmen and suspicious street peddlers. It was far from family friendly.

She could see the Chop Shop from where she was standing, placed innocently between Fuzz Box, a sports bar showing what could only be described as murder sports on monitors at the back, and Sweet Treats, a NeuroChem shop claiming to sell “cleaner than the shit you’d buy on the streets” HypoStims, NeuralPacks and other assorted “Candy”. Amelie could hardly believe they were brazen enough to put that on the shop front underneath the sign.

‘I guess anything goes in Gonzo…’ Amelie mused. ‘Keep the citizens Jacked up or Jacked in and they'll be blind to everything else. Willingly.’

Shaking her head, Amelie refocused her attention on her mission.

She walked up to the front door of the Chop Shop, avoiding eye contact with everyone she passed. Even moving with confidence, she still felt like she was sticking out. It was only the second time she’d made use of a Holo, and it seemed strange that the way she perceived herself could be different to how other people were seeing her.

She pressed the buzzer on the front door and shops AI came to life on the screen before her;

“Greetings, valued customer! Please enter your customer ID.”

The Ai's voice was excessively perky. "Never trust a happy AI" Amelie thought to herself, and for good reason. She shifted her eyes upwards and noticed the security turrets above her pointing directly at her head. She felt the need run away but she stood fast and grit her teeth.

This was the moment of truth… had Solomon’s Slicers managed to upload the altered ID in time? She had no way of checking, not now at any rate, and the window under which they were operating to avoid their hacks being discovered in time was too narrow for any real warning anyway.

It was now or never.

Amelie held her breath and keyed in the code, then put her eye up against the biometric reader. If the code was wrong or her biometrics not recognised, there was a high chance that the automated security turrets would swing into life, swiftly ending hers. Amelie doubted she could outrun them.

“Accessing database for verification, please stand by…”

Her hands felt clammy, she could feel herself shaking. Running now might save her life, but it might also trigger the guns.

Searching for a distraction from her potential imminent death, she subtly checked the Holo to see how much battery was left; sixteen minutes and counting. Plenty of time, so long as she wasn’t a stain of bloody gore on the sidewalk after this first hurdle.

"Welcome to The Chop Shop" The AI finally announced, oblivious to her exhaling in relief.

"Please make your way down the stairs, and ensure you check in any weapons before proceeding to the lower levels. Enjoy your stay."

The door slid open with a dramatic "whoosh" and Amelie stepped across the threshold, walking away from neon lights of Gonzo and descending into the darkness.

Once inside, she took a quick look around. She was now in a box shaped reception room, with a stairway leading down further into deeper darkness, dim lights visible in the distance. No-one else appeared to be here.

She pressed her earpiece.

"I'm in. What now?"

She heard a click followed by brief static before Solomon responded. "Just as we planned Amelie; head down the stairs into the main lobby and head towards the bar."

Solomon spoke with a slight air of gentility; It had always made her wonder how he ended up in the Slums; he'd obviously had a well to do upbringing, but he’d never shared his past with Amelie, or anyone else for that matter.

Amelie began to descend cautiously down the stairwell.

"Once you're there, look for Teabo. He’ll get you access to the sub-levels. He’s a large chap, balding, and he’s got a Xanctuary tattoo on the left side of his head. Oh, and he’s got Oculi v2's, very classy. Hard to miss.” Solomon explained. Stumbling on an uneven surface and clutching at the concerningly slippery guardrail, Amelia paused.

“Oculi…?” She queried. Amelie’s home turf was more than a little behind when it came to technology, and it had taken her some time to catch up with the latest innovations. Even now there was so much she still didn’t know. “Ocular implants, impressively frequency range. And more importantly, they glow purple". He quipped.

“Great.” Amelie groused.

That would narrow down her search to him and probably thirty others in this hellhole.

At least until she happened to get close enough to spot that tattoo. Hopefully that particular quirk wasn’t going to be inconveniently common here too.

Solomon continued, undeterred. "Once you make it to the lower levels, you need to look for Dr. Gantra. We need his access key in order to enter the data storage area of the facility. Once there you'll need to find the terminal and get him to use his voice print to access the files we talked about.”

“You make it sound so easy,” Amelia snapped, getting annoyed at how uneven these stairs were.

Poor maintenance she understood, but they could at least light the damn thing properly. “It’s not as if he’s just going to give me what I want because I asked nicely.”

“Bit Crash are relying on you to complete this mission Amelie, I have faith in you." Solomon reassured.

This time she really did roll her eyes. "What's in those files anyway?" Amelie asked.

"Our future, and that of the rest of this god forsaken city. The locations of every Xanctuary zealot embedded within the government and the corporate data bank linking their involvement in driving public opinion in their favour for a start. Data that shows how they've been manipulating the tech market and how they've been influencing Tesseract without their knowledge.

If it goes public there will be chaos up top, and it will be our chance to put an end to all of them.

The corrupt government, the corporations…

It will be our chance to regain a semblance of control, and maybe rebuild this city into what it was supposed to be."

She should have expected him to wax lyrical, but this did sound pretty damn important.

"Why would they be crazy enough to keep records on all of that?" She asked.

"no, idea – though possibly in order for their chain of command to keep tabs on everything. Anyway, who cares, it’s an opportunity for us to crash the system, rewrite the code of society and reboot!

"…..Well that’s the idea anyway."

She could practically hear the smile on his face.

"You sound convinced this is all going to play out" Amelie said, without any real conviction.

"We all have our small part to play. Anyway, You should hurry, clock is ticking."

Growling to herself, Amelie quickened her pace, reaching the first of the distant lights at the foot of the stairs. Ignoring the cloakroom and weapons drop off point on the right, she moved towards the lobby doors. A camera tracked her movement, but no one checked to see if she was holding. Security seemed to be oddly lax.

The soundproofing in the hallway was excellent. So much so that she didn’t even realise there was music playing at all until she reached the door at the bottom and pushed it open, immediately assailed by a thundering wave of bass that put her off balance for a second.

Steeling herself, she stepped forward and let the door swing shut behind her.

The club was a vast cavernous room, much larger than one might have guessed. The front of the building had been deceptively inconspicuous.

As Amelie looked around she saw that It was lined with complex geometrically shaped lighting, all in white and crystal like ornaments hanging from the ceiling that seemed to reflect the light into mind bending patterns on the floor.

The bar at the far end, past a captivating trio of highly modified and almost alien looking dancers and tech ridden business types, was placed like an altar. Above it, Xanctuary's logo and the name of the establishment hung like a clear and bold statement as to who owned and run the place. It all lent itself to give the club the feeling of a cathedral to the gods of white neon, the reality of it was that wasn’t that far from the truth.

Xanctuary were a complex and cryptic group, part highly successful bio medical and nano-tech corporation specializing in human modification and nanotech gene optimization, and part Church.

They were obsessed with humans becoming more like machines, and this coupled with the corporate ideology proved strangely to be a match made in heaven. They made the most advanced and sought after body modification technology, the latest of which was conspicuously exclusively available to their devout followers.

The temptation of this benefit quickly led to obscene numbers of people fervently signing the dotted line and becoming "Brothers and Sisters" of Xanctuary.

The allure of exclusive access to the latest technology was too great for many common folk, especially as it almost always guaranteed that they could outperform anyone else in their job who hadn't access to the same level of augmentation.

There was, of course, one minor caveat…

If you decided to leave Xanctuary, then they lawfully had a right to remove any of their hardware from your body - no matter how deeply entwined it might be with your other organs or nervous system. The Chop Shop was one of the places this would happen. Not only was it an enclave, but within the lower levels there was a full medical facility, and Amelie needed to get down there.

The place wasn’t at it's peak yet, too early in the evening, and this would make it harder to go unnoticed.

Weaving between the few patrons in her way, she approached the bar, taking a seat on a stool and discreetly checking her Holo again. Thirteen minutes left. Cutting it close.

A barman approached. Not Teabo. Too much hair.

"What can I get you?" He shouted, barely audible over the din.

"I'm not here to drink!" Amelie responded. She was worried the voice modulator might waver with her having to shout so loud over the music, but it seemed to hold.

"What you here for then? Taking in the sights?" He inquired, undeterred.

"I'm here to see Teabo. he around?"

"Nope, He doesn’t work here anymore, we let him go last week.” He replied.

Amelie's stomach sank, the plan relied on Teabo letting her into the lower levels. Now it had gone to shit.

“So… what’ll it be?” He repeated. She took a deep breath, then conceded. "I'll have a soda lime."

The barman swiftly whipped up the concoction, sliding it over in front of her where it would sit untouched.

Amelie needed to let Solomon know that the plan had fallen apart and find out whether there was another way down into the facility, but there was no way he’d be able to hear her in here, even if she could contact him discreetly enough. She scanned her surroundings, looking for a bathroom. Just as she was getting up, she knocked over her drink and it fell to the ground with a smash. Wincing, she looked around to see who was looking. The barman hadn't noticed but as she looked up, a man in a very expensive looking suit walked towards her with a wide grin splitting his face.

Amelie didn’t know whether to get up and run out of the place or play dumb. It was too late either way.

"Can I get you another, that didn’t seem to be to your taste" he spoke softly, still smiling.

He must have been fitted with a Speech Spear enhancement; it had the ability to focus his voice directly towards a target via controlled ultrasound waves, which, when hitting a solid object reconfigured into normal soundwaves. He could have been standing at the other side of the room and Amelie would have still been able to hear him crystal clear over the sound of the music. A neat trick.

"I'm ok thanks, I'm not staying. I was here to meet someone, but they're not coming." She shouted back.

"Are you sure, it looks like you could do with one."

‘Ugh… why did I have to pick an attractive guise.’ Amelie lamented. He reached out to put his hand on Amelie's, but she quickly drew back before they could make contact.

"Thank you but no thank you.” She yelled, hopefully more firmly.

Amelie dodged past the bemused man and made her way to the bathroom without looking back. The clock was still ticking, and she had little time to be chatted up by a greasy slick with more tech than meat between his ear-lobes.

As she approached the archway towards the toilets she noticed that a couple of people were staring at her, whispering to each other with smirks on their faces. She was starting to feel quite uncomfortable.

She entered the restroom and checked the stalls to make sure no one else was in there with her.

She could still make out the dull thumping sound of the music even in here, but it was nonetheless a significant improvement.

"Solomon, you there?"

"Yes, my dear, reading you loud and clear." Solomon answered wearily.

"I'm running out of time, and as you probably heard things aren't going to plan!" She leaned down hard on the sink counter and stared into the unfamiliar face in the mirror, hands flickering slightly from where the holo wasn’t consistently holding up due to the contact.

“I’m just going through their public records now – apparently Teabo was caught smuggling spirits from the bar out of hours. They’ve already laid him off and stripped his tech.” Amelie put her head in her hands, ignoring what it must be doing to her projection.

"Fuck… What am I supposed to do now?"

"Well,” he ventured, “as luck would have it, the gentleman you were talking to at the bar happens to be the proprietor of this little taste of heaven. Damien Legato himself."

Amelie grimaced. "Oh god, no wonder people were staring at me when I ditched him like that, everyone probably knows him here."

"…You’re going to need to get back out there and somehow convince him to show you the lower levels himself. I leave it in your capable hands, I'm sure you can work some magic."

Amelie winced once more, dreading the idea.

She walked back towards the doorway, imagining what distasteful acts of depravity she'd need to perform to turn around the conversation that she’d ended so dismissively. How was she going to get his confidence and trust after the scene she'd just pulled?

She wrenched the door open, still pre-occupied by unwelcome thoughts, and stepped right into someone’s arms. Damien.

As his hands gripped her shoulders to stop their collision, the Holo glitched and flashed off showing her true form underneath.

As if in slow motion, Damian’s smile morphed into an expression of shock, and Amelie reacted. In one smooth motion, Amelia stepped sharply back, pulling her six-inch hidden blade from it's holder on her upper arm and slashing Damien's throat.

His expression shifted between anger and agony, as he gargled something incomprehensible through his speech enhancer, before crumpling like a paper towel. Amelie managed to grab him before he hit the ground, quickly sheathing her knife and dragging his limp body back into the restroom. Things had just gone from bad to worse.

She had no idea if anyone had seen the altercation, but she had to think quick. Damien had passed out from shock, or blood loss. He was losing rather a lot through the neatly carved smile his throat now wore.

"That was NOT part of the plan." Solomon hissed in her ear.

"Well we're going to have to make do." Amelie resisted the urge to laugh in desperation.

At least with the guns at the entrance she had had a decent chance of getting away scot-free. No matter what she did here now, there would be consequences.

Thinking fast, Amelie checked his pockets and found what she was looking for; a Key card that would get her down to the lower levels.

Ignoring Solomon’s griping and muttering, she dragged Damien's body into one of the stalls and slumped him over the toilet seat, before stepping back out and shutting the stall door.

The amazingly large puddle of blood on the floor wasn’t something she was going to be able to cover up. She would never get used to seeing how much a human being seemed to hold. This wasn’t the first time or the last that she would see this though.

Amelie quickly checked herself in the mirror to see if any had got onto her, switching off her holo unit briefly. Luckily she was wearing black, so whatever had splashed on her wasn’t easily visible, especially in the low light of the club.

The holo unit would have to handle the rest.

Switching it back on, she moved back towards the door, heart racing. "Where do I go now?"

"Ok,” Solomon composed himself, clearly rattled, “so leave the restroom and take a left down the hallway. There should be an access lift just past an office on your right. The cameras will see you, so you’re going to have to be quick.”

Amelie left the restroom and sneaked a glimpse to her right back into the club. The patrons still seemed to be engrossed in their indulgences and small talk. No-one had noticed her incident with Damien, or at least it seemed that way. She didn’t see the women who were watching her earlier either.

She took a left as Solomon had suggested and continued down the hallway, through the dim light.

The office on her right had large windows that allowed her to see right in, but there was nobody there. However, she noticed that the security screens had a camera feed in the bathroom, and her breath caught in her throat.

The whole deed had been captured, her face and everything, she could even see the big crimson puddle trailing in through the door from where she’d done the deed on one of the monitors. Was she going to have at least some luck this evening or was the whole operation doomed from the start?

No matter what happened now, she herself was rumbled. The cameras had caught her releasing her hologram, had seen who was underneath. If there was one thing she had learned about this city, it was that the moment a problem arises the wealthy throw money at it until someone produces a technological solution, which often comes within mere days. The next intruder that dared set foot in this facility would find rather different security at the door. The same trick wouldn’t work twice. She couldn’t risk showing her face around here again, or anywhere Xanctuary affiliated for that matter. That lot held grudges like nobody’s business.

Clenching her hands into fists hard enough to hurt, Amelie forced herself to move on. Trying to break in to steal the footage would take too long, and she was practically on borrowed time as it was.

The lift itself looked rather inconspicuous, a big steel set of doors with just a single key card reader and nothing more. Amelie placed the key card against the reader, and with an audible beep the doorway opened and she stepped inside....

THE STORY CONTINUES NEXT MONTH.

Dont forget to sign up to our newsletter at

www.failuregame.com

Failure is an Online Competitive Arena based Cyberpunk RTS that emphasises macro tactics over micro management.

Become the most powerful Slicer in the Network known as the NeuroNet, battle other Slicers in 1v1, 2v2 and 1v1v1 pvp matches, customize your deck of abilities made from units, buildings and hacking powers.

Learn the truth behind the 3 Factions through a true multiplayer driven narrative and ultimately choose sides in all out digital war.

Do you have what it takes to master the NeuroNet and become the ultimate Slicer?

#failuregame #Dream Harvest #video games #short story #RTS #gamedev #indiedev

2 notes · View notes