Progress Report November 2023

CyberTD content updates, Tri6: Infinite on ID@Xbox and a new project in the making? This and more in this month’s progress report!

This report covers Crime Mails, CyberTD, Elemental War, Elemental War 2, Spine and Tri6: Infinite.

Another busy month is over and we have quite a few updates. As already mentioned last month I was guest at the Podcast of DieStrategen. You can find the episode with me talking about Clockwork Origins, Elemental War and of course CyberTD via their link tree.

Then I was at CloudPlay also talking about Clockwork Origins and CyberTD and other cloud gaming topics.

And we started prototyping a new game idea. So far we have the awesome name “Secret Project” for it:

Secret Project

Our new game prototype is again a turn-based strategy game based on board game mechanics. You place hex tiles to expand the influence of the core of cyberspace and eventually connect to various power generators scattered around the map.

If you know Dorfromantik or the board game Carcassonne, you will immediately know how to play the game. But we have some special features that make gameplay extra spicy:

On some of the tiles you connect to your map, enemies will spawn. The gameplay is turn-based: You expand your influence until you place a spawner. Placing a spawner triggers a wave of viruses from all the (active) spawners. So with each wave, more viruses spawn and the core becomes harder to defend…
You can buff your towers by placing buff tiles around them, AND you can complete quests to upgrade and specialize your tower.
When you connect your map to one of the generators, a powerful boss will spawn. When you defeat the boss, you get access to new tower upgrades (e.g. like splash damage).

What do you think? That’s the basic concept. We have many ideas on how to deepen the experience, but we also want to know what YOU would like to see in a game like this:

Would you like a demanding difficulty level where strategic planning is key? Or would you like us to emphasize casual world-building so you can discover its secrets step by step?
What would you prefer: an endless mode where everything is possible? Or a campaign with different scenarios where you face different challenges? Or both?
Would you like an easy-to-use editor to create your own scenarios?

We only have a small prototype right now, so we’re open to your suggestions. This doesn’t mean that we can implement all of your (and our) ideas and wishes. But now is the time to dream – and maybe your dreams will come true! Join our Discord to stay up-to-date and discuss the idea with us!

Crime Mails

In October we finalized the third case, “Der verlorene Sohn”. It’s available since November 1st and if you haven’t subscribed you still can get it through the archive case. The fourth case is also in progress now and will be available on December 1st.

We also prepared a demo version for the Crime Mails in October. The demo allows you to play the first email of the first case for free to get a feeling how the whole thing works.

CyberTD

Since the last progress report in October we launched the second patch for CyberTD to fix a few more things and improve on others. Since then we focussed on the content updates.

The first content update will go live next week and feature the new endless and strategy modes including new scoreboards for them. There are also several small improvements like mutators also working in multiplayer and some text improvements.

The endless mode will be able to be played after finishing a wave 100 run. You then get your score and can decide to just continue playing until your integrity falls to 0 to see how long your build lasts.

The strategy mode will be for those of you that want to optimize their build. It will have pre-defined waves and paths, so you can plan your whole strategy and know exactly when what will happen.

Now we’re working on the second content update scheduled for December, around christmas. That update will feature 5 new level-ups with a total of 20 new upgrades. We thought of some nice new mechanics to allow new ways of playing the game and we really hope you’ll like them.

There is one new core mechanic now that allows to shuffle new cards into the deck. These can be some trash cards for good upgrades, so the trash cards are the downside of the good upgrade, or you unlock some new cards by playing special cards before (we call them quests). Completing quests can then for example yield a way better card. And of course you can also get rid of trash cards again or even build your strategy around them by other cards that rely on having many of them in your deck.

There is no concrete plan for the new year yet as we always want to check your feedback what we should go for next. So feel free to join our Discord and share your opinion with us.

https://youtu.be/qu390Z1-kSA

Elemental War

In October we finally released a new patch for Elemental War to fix a few issues that either got reported by someone or we stumbled upon ourselves while playing. These issues contain for example the Looper achievement that was a little harder to unlock than planned, the Water of Life quest that was hard to see and the Griffin event on the grassland maps in hero mode being able to steal you an element.

Those issues are fixed now. If you find anything else, let us know and we probably will take care of it.

And if you’re struggling with the Man of Steel achievement, here’s a short guide how to get it. If you’re struggling with anything else, let me know.

Elemental War 2

Elemental War 2 got a new update in October to fix a few minor issues. Most problematic was the PS4 version that had some shader issue and rendered most stuff in purple. Besides that we also fixed the continue button not being available on PS4 when restarting the game application and Steam invites not being handled properly.

Same as for our other games: if you run into any issues, let us know.

Spine

As for the last months sadly still no news to announce 🙁

As last times, at least mod additions and updates keep flowing. Big thanks here to all the devs managing their releases/updates on their own or at least informing me, when something new is available!

If you still miss mods or have problems, feel free to leave a comment or join our Discord.

Tri6: Infinite

The ID@Xbox launch of Tri6: Infinite is pretty close now. The pre-order is live since October 25th and the game itself will be available on November 15th. Then you get native Xbox versions as well as a better Windows version, the latest fixes and – if you already owned the old Creators Program version – you should get the new version for free!