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.