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Author Topic: Skyless City - Frozen Synapse meets XCOM in a cyberpunk world  (Read 1735 times)

lordcooper

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Skyless City - Frozen Synapse meets XCOM in a cyberpunk world
« on: November 12, 2016, 05:58:19 pm »

I just had a chance to test out a pre-alpha version of this game with one of the devs and figured more than a couple of people would find it interesting.

Skyless City is an in-development multiplayer focused turn based strategy/tactics game where two teams face off in battle.  Turns are simultaneous a la Frozen Synapse and there is no RNG mechanic, making it purely a game of tactics where victory hinges on outplaying and anticipating the moves of your opponent.  Movement and actions require points drawn from the same pool (with actions like shooting and overwatch ending the characters turn), which regenerates partially each round (currently of a maximum 5 points), rewarding those who plan ahead rather than spending them frivolously.

It's intended to be a f2p game with purely cosmetic microtransactions, although there will be a founders pack available for purchase pre-release.

The core gameplay loop is already pretty damn fun IMO and I'm really looking forward to seeing how development progresses.

Official Website: http://www.skylesscity.com/

Steam Greenlight: http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=796141774
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Retropunch

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Re: Skyless City - Frozen Synapse meets XCOM in a cyberpunk world
« Reply #1 on: November 13, 2016, 06:39:33 am »

This looks awesome! I love games like this, and I've been waiting for something that explores the theme of simultaneous turns in more detail.

Just a few questions if you please m'lord:
  • Is there any chance to miss in certain situations or is it 100% hits all the time?
  • How much character customisation (in a non-cosmetic sense) is planned? I imagine this could benefit a lot from heavy customisation
  • Will it be all small maps like that with randomly placed energy shields, or will there be some that are a bit more natural and spacious with more room for tactical manoeuvres?

I realise you might not have a lot of the answers at this stage, but I guess I'm trying to work out if it'll be largish skirmishes a-la X-COM, or more arcadey gameplay.
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Yoink

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Re: Skyless City - Frozen Synapse meets XCOM in a cyberpunk world
« Reply #2 on: November 13, 2016, 07:08:21 am »

Haven't watched any videos of it yet, but from the brief description you gave it sounds dope as hell.
Main reason I never got into Frozen Synapse was the "preview possible opponent moves and outcomes" mechanic... that meant, at least in my mind, that one had to spend what felt like hours setting up and running possible moves for every single turn. That got tiresome fast.

...Now that I think of it, hopefully this isn't one of those "multiplayer" games that are like some kind of online chess, where players come back every few days to contemplate for a while before taking another turn. If it's actually played in single sessions I am very interested.
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Retropunch

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Re: Skyless City - Frozen Synapse meets XCOM in a cyberpunk world
« Reply #3 on: November 13, 2016, 07:39:30 am »

...Now that I think of it, hopefully this isn't one of those "multiplayer" games that are like some kind of online chess, where players come back every few days to contemplate for a while before taking another turn. If it's actually played in single sessions I am very interested.

From the trailer, I can't imagine that being the case, although maybe on large maps with bigger squads it would be. It would be good if they implemented a turn time limit though - it can get boring pretty fast waiting for the other player to resolve their turn.
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With enough work and polish, it could have been a forgettable flash game on Kongregate.

lordcooper

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Re: Skyless City - Frozen Synapse meets XCOM in a cyberpunk world
« Reply #4 on: November 13, 2016, 08:18:10 pm »

This looks awesome! I love games like this, and I've been waiting for something that explores the theme of simultaneous turns in more detail.

Just a few questions if you please m'lord:
  • Is there any chance to miss in certain situations or is it 100% hits all the time?
  • How much character customisation (in a non-cosmetic sense) is planned? I imagine this could benefit a lot from heavy customisation
  • Will it be all small maps like that with randomly placed energy shields, or will there be some that are a bit more natural and spacious with more room for tactical manoeuvres?

I realise you might not have a lot of the answers at this stage, but I guess I'm trying to work out if it'll be largish skirmishes a-la X-COM, or more arcadey gameplay.

There's no RNG whatsoever.  If you shoot where an enemy is, you hit them 100% of the time.  They're working on different abilities, but the aim is to keep RNG out of it.  For example, a grenade could have a 100% chance to hit anyone within a certain range, but would only explode after they've taken their next turn, allowing area denial and further mind games.

I think the customisation is still pretty up in the air.  The dev was asking for input on whether I'd prefer a class based system or specific characters like you'd find in a MOBA.  Personally, I'm strongly hoping for the former with the possibility for character development.

I have no idea about your third question, sorry.

Now that I think of it, hopefully this isn't one of those "multiplayer" games that are like some kind of online chess, where players come back every few days to contemplate for a while before taking another turn. If it's actually played in single sessions I am very interested.

The build I played had time limits on turns.  60 seconds IIRC, which seemed plenty.
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Retropunch

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Re: Skyless City - Frozen Synapse meets XCOM in a cyberpunk world
« Reply #5 on: November 14, 2016, 05:32:09 am »

-snip-

Thanks for all that - clears it up! I'm also really hoping it doesn't go down the MOBA route on characters - customisation is key in giving these games longevity.

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SharpKris

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Re: Skyless City - Frozen Synapse meets XCOM in a cyberpunk world
« Reply #6 on: November 14, 2016, 03:43:47 pm »

how do you guys see this and not immediately think of Atlas Reactor?
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GameDevNet

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Re: Skyless City - Frozen Synapse meets XCOM in a cyberpunk world
« Reply #7 on: November 15, 2016, 11:06:55 am »

Hey guys, I'm one of the devs on Skyless City. lordcooper has done a very solid job with answering your questions, I'm just here to fill some gaps and answer some more questions if you got 'em. :)

Will it be all small maps like that with randomly placed energy shields, or will there be some that are a bit more natural and spacious with more room for tactical manoeuvres?

We will be hitting Early Access with one map and sticking with only having one map for a while. However, we are still playing around with the map dimensions, shield placements, how the shields work, and even the unit count. We want to make full use of our Early Access process and find the best possible design with our community, rather than sticking with the first thing that works!

Main reason I never got into Frozen Synapse was the "preview possible opponent moves and outcomes" mechanic... that meant, at least in my mind, that one had to spend what felt like hours setting up and running possible moves for every single turn. That got tiresome fast.

lordcooper is right, we currently have a turn timer of 1m15s, and we do intend to keep the timer! In fact, with the next iteration of the game we will be experimenting with a much shorter timer. We want a timer short enough to keep players thinking on their feet, but also long enough to ensure that people are not constrained by the mechanics of mapping actions.

Thanks for all that - clears it up! I'm also really hoping it doesn't go down the MOBA route on characters - customisation is key in giving these games longevity.

Gameplay customization is a huge point for us, so even if we were to go with MOBA-esque characters, we'd be making sure there are meaningful customization options. :) We hope to experiment with the customization while the game is in Early Access.

how do you guys see this and not immediately think of Atlas Reactor?

The first time we've ever heard of Atlas Reactor was about 3-4 months into the development of Skyless City. We were worried at first, but we became much less concerned when we saw that their game was heavily MOBA inspired. Their target audience is the MOBA crowd, whereas we are making a game for tactics gamers.

Being tactics gamers ourselves, we recognize gameplay customization as one of the most important things in the genre and during Early Access we really want to nail that down. Being a 1v1 game is pretty important too, it's crucial for the player to feel that they fully deserve their wins/losses instead of feeling like they got unlucky with the matchmaking.
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Retropunch

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Re: Skyless City - Frozen Synapse meets XCOM in a cyberpunk world
« Reply #8 on: November 15, 2016, 03:29:37 pm »

-snip-

Awesome - thanks for dropping by and for all the info!

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Yoink

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Re: Skyless City - Frozen Synapse meets XCOM in a cyberpunk world
« Reply #9 on: November 18, 2016, 03:28:38 am »

Everything sounds great so far! Well, maybe apart from the one map thing, given that said map looks rather simplistic.

I would love to play the pre-alpha, but after watching the trailer again I'm unsure my laptop could run the game.
That would be rather embarrassing, haha. Hopefully I get my hands on a more powerful machine at some point. :)
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GameDevNet

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Re: Skyless City - Frozen Synapse meets XCOM in a cyberpunk world
« Reply #10 on: November 19, 2016, 02:21:41 am »

We haven't had the opportunity to have long-term testers, so no one got a chance to get bored of any of the map iterations we've tried! This upcoming (soon™) First Access release will start getting us some players that are in it for the long run. If it does become a point of concern, we'll be sure to address it! :)

And thank you for the kind words on our Greenlight page, Yoink. It is much appreciated! :)

I'll keep checking in on here so if anyone has any questions, comments, or suggestions feel free to shout 'em out!
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