Breachway News

Hi friends,

things have started to finally settle down, so this is a great moment to reflect on the conclusion of Tacticon, and what a fantastic event it was!



[h2]Breachway Demo[/h2]

Releasing our demo amidst a such exceptional games was both an honor and a slightly nerve-wracking experience. Our initial hope was that our demo would attract a modest number of players and perhaps be overshadowed by the larger games showcased at the festival.

However, the response we received surpassed our wildest expectations! Each day of the event, we witnessed an average of approximately 1,000 new players installing the demo, thanks to the support of our dedicated community and the efforts of both larger (some very large) and smaller YouTube channels that created some amazing playthrough videos of our demo. Thank you so much!

We also want to give a massive shoutout and a huge thank you to all the folks who played our game, sent us feedback, reported bugs, and shared their thoughts on our Discord. Your support and enthusiasm has fueled our determination to make Breachway the absolute best game we can create.


[h2]Looking forward[/h2]

As stated in the demo, what you got to play was just a preview of the core combat loop, there is still a lot we want to add both in and out of combat, as well as fleshing out the universe the game takes place in

At this stage, defining a clear roadmap is difficult, considering there are still many unknowns ahead of us, and many possibilities we want to explore.

Nevertheless, we would like to provide you with a glimpse of what you can potentially expect from Breachway as we move forward.

While we can’t assign dates and a strict order of priority to what we are going to develop, we want to list the things we are planning to work on from now until Early Access.

[h3]Expanding on the meta game[/h3]

• Fully defining and fleshing out the game’s factions
  
• Faction reputation system driven by event outcomes
  
• Quest system
  
• Expanding on non-combat events
  
• Exploring alternate game modes in addition to the “traditional” run-based roguelike game loop
  

[h3]Unlockables and permanent upgrades[/h3]

• Designing and implementing a meta-progression system
  
• Unlockable ships, equipment, subsystems, crew, etc
  
• Unlockable skins (tied to quests and achievements, not grinding)
  

[h3]Combat system[/h3]

• Active crew abilities
  
• Crew experience and levelling
  
• In-combat events
  
• Alternate combat end conditions (player or enemy running away, disarming enemy, convincing him to break off engagement, etc)
  
• Combat range - affecting weapons and various other effects
  
• Combat maneuvers
  
• Player and enemy drones/support ships
  
• Drone fighter squadrons
  

[h3]More diverse content[/h3]

• More characters and crewmembers
  
• More ships, both for the player and enemy
  
• More combat environments, some of which will have an effect on combat: Asteroid fields, Nebulas, Fights in the icy tail of a comet, a planet’s upper atmosphere, etc
  
• More enemy and encounter diversity: Orbital turret emplacements, Space stations(?), Cargo ship raid missions, Capital ships
  

Of course, bear in mind that due to the uncertain nature of designing a game that does not follow a predetermined formula, some of these plans may or may not work out in the end, but we are eager to explore all of these possibilities, and share in the journey with you.

See you next month, Space Cowboy

Victor

During TactiCon, please join us on the store page to check out Wanderbots coverage of the Breachway demo!

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2118810

Hi friends,

It’s time for February’s development recap. What seemed like a month that flew by too fast without much to talk about, actually has some cool stuff when looking back, so let's dig in:

[h2]Equipment targeting[/h2]

The main thing we’ve been working on is refining the Equipment Targeting mechanic. We have changed the way precision attacks work; instead of giving you a percentage chance to damage the equipment based on hull damage dealt, to dealing 1 durability damage per point of hull damage dealt.

AoE attacks like Flak and missiles still have a percentage chance to damage random equipment durability based on damage dealt. This makes damaging and disabling enemy equipment more predictable and just feels better when playing.

We also added a targeting reticule highlighting the equipment on the ship when firing on it with precision attacks.

You can see the change in action below



[h2]Bugs and testing[/h2]

We also started putting out test builds a couple of week ago, first internally, and one to a small early tester group, and we immediately saw how unstable the builds are at the moment.

We acquired a lot of technical debt as we were changing the game’s design to find what works and what feels fun to play, and now that we've found a formula we really like, it’s time to do some bug hunting.

This will be our main focus for March - a feature freeze, and making sure what we already have is stable and balanced.

We should be able to put out some stable builds soon, and let testers get to play the game more than 5 minutes at a time. Once that is done, we can also slowly add new people to our Discord tester group to get more feedback

[h2]New ship and a new skin[/h2]

We finalized another ship this month, a small industrial Tug ship that has both a compact and an extended form (for carrying cargo).



The one you see below belongs to our industrial space mining faction, but you will see it with different paint jobs and components for the other factions as well.

Designed to work either alone, in pairs, or in a formation depending on the size of the payload, you will be fighting these guys mainly in raiding and piracy missions. It might look small and relatively harmless, but it can still pack a punch thanks to having two weapon hardpoints.



Talking about piracy, we also played around with a pirate skin for your starting player ship. Additions like these are really fun to do, and don't take all that much time. We'll look into doing more skins in the future, and other small things that will work well as a meta-game progression unlock, or when finishing a certain quest line, FTL style.



[h2]Other cool stuff[/h2]

Oh ,we also added small astronauts to the hangar, representing your crew, as well as people tinkering on the ship.



Gives a nice scale reference to the ships (we design them with human scale in mind), and we can also send some of these little guys tumbling into space as you unleash some devastating combos on the enemy.

Lastly, we’d like to show you a preview of another one of the factions you will meet in Breachway, the Numen. Seeing the inadequacy and frailty of the human body in space, they aim to transcend flesh and merge their consciousness with their ships.



This is it for this Devlog, if you’d like to discuss anything that is presented here (or just want to show your support,), feel free to do so in the comment section, or on our [Discord Server](https://steamcommunity.com/linkfilter/?url=https://t.co/fQbyj1ENoo)

See you next month, Space Cowboy

Victor

Hello friends!

To accompany our recent January development recap, we also thought we’d share a quick breakdown on the evolution of Breachway since we started the project. Fun fact: the game was originally called ‘Warlike’.

These dev diaries were all posted on our website. We’re not going to repost them all to Steam individually, but if you were interested in looking back through the game’s evolution up to the end of 2022, here are some links:

Devlog #10: Ways of World-building
The final devlog before signing with Hooded Horse, this entry looks at the various ways Breachway builds its world.

Devlog #9: Status update
This update is focused on recapping all of the improvements the game had been through since last time, as there was a bit of a break. It was also at this point that the project was officially renamed to Breachway.

Devlog #8: Laser burns, planets, and keywords
Details and images on a range of systems, as the project starts coming to together.

Devlog #7: Narrative events, shader tests, and images galore
This entry is mainly devoted to visual improvements.

Devlog #6: Music
Breachway’s composer takes over the devlog to talk about the game’s scoring and soundtrack.

Devlog #5: Meta-game
A look at Breachway’s early meta-game, as well as the first finished render of an enemy ship.

Devlog #4: One Year Later
After a break, the team shares how the game has developed, with a specific look at events and card keywords.

Devlog #3: Ups and Downs
A quick look at the various “gameplay loops” that are planned for the project.

Devlog #2: Updates and Subsystems
An early look at the hangar scene, as well as more details on how the team thought about subsystems and equipment at the time.

Devlog #1: Ships and Hardpoints
The first look at ships and how the concept of ‘hardpoints’ works in Breachway.

We hope you enjoy this trip down memory lane. See you for the next regular update!

Hi Friends, and welcome to our first monthly development recap, going forward we’ll write one of these updates every month so you can keep up with our progress on Breachway.

January has seen some important additions for Breachway, we finished a new ship, defined more of the meta-game, and the most exciting addition: we added a feature we’ve been talking about for months - Equipment targeting.

We’ve always defined our game by being a mix of Slay the Spire’s card combat with it’s synergies, deckbuilding elements and turn by turn decision making, and FTL’s combat, ship upgrade system and equipment. Up until now, the FTL part was only reflected in the meta-game by the ship upgrade and equipment , and various events that happen as you traverse the map. Combat played mostly like any regular card battler, and it didn’t feel right.

Now with the integration of Equipment targeting, I'm happy to say that combat feels a lot more like FTL’s. So besides managing your hand and resources, you also have to consider what equipment you want to target on the enemy ship.

The way this works in our game is that each piece of equipment on the enemy ship plays one card at a time, and depending on the equipment and the card’s power, it can take anywhere from one to three turns to play the card.

If you manage to damage and disable the equipment associated with that card, it will no longer be played for the duration the equipment is disabled, and potentially the countdown to playing that card will be reset.

You can see it in action below:


An important distinction here, as displayed in the gif, some weapons (like the laser) have precision attacks that are able to target specific pieces of equipment , while others like the Flak cannon and explosive damage from missiles, are considered area of effect weapons that have a chance to damage random pieces of equipment on the enemy ship.

The chance to damage a point of equipment durability is based off of how much hull damage you deal with an attack from a specific weapon. This allows us to further differentiate the weapon types, by giving each weapon a percentage chance to damage equipment for each point of damage, making weapons like the Rail-gun specialize in disabling enemy equipment while dealing lower damage , and the Flak dealing high amounts of damage, but not reliably being able to disable enemy equipment.

[h2]Visual updates:[/h2]

One of the main perks of doing a space game, is having the chance to create spaceship models and have it count as actual work.

The latest ship we finished in January is a small patrol and intervention vessel belonging to the Starkin, one of our game’s main factions. It’s a small vessel measuring 35 meters in length, crewed by 4 people, and has 2 PDC turrets as well as 2 main weapon hardpoints.

Check it out below:




Talking about PDC turrets, we made a system that has the turrets on player and enemy ships actually track and destroy missiles whenever a point defense card is played:



We also finished some new character portraits, belonging to another one of our factions (and I use that term loosely here, as they are mostly independent, not belonging to any of the major factions), the Free-roamers.



This is it for this Devlog, if you’d like to be part of the discussion about what is presented here (or just want to show your support, which matters a lot), feel free to do so in the comment section, or on our Discord Server.

Thanks for reading, and see you next time for some details about the meta-game, more ships, and other things we'll be doing in the meantime

Victor