Development Update: April 6, 2015

[Bigfoot]

Hello folks!

 

It's now been 2.5 months since our last game update. At a high level, we’ve worked hard to utilize Early Access to realize the vision of Invisible, Inc. With your help, we’ve been able to determine how the core mechanics of the game interacts with players, patch systemic flaws, and expand the parts that are really working. After a few months of tuning, it was clear the core mechanics were working as intended, and what the game really needed was a whole lot of polish.

 

We’re now closing in on launch date. We have a few loose ends to figure out before we nail down the exact date, but there are some things that we’re pretty sure about:

 

First, we’re going to be launching sometime in May. It’s not completely nailed down yet, but we’ll be announcing it once we’ve worked it out with all the involved parties. This marks about a 9 month Early-Access cycle and, as always, we’ve been pretty adamant to make sure the game is in a solid, playable state the entire way through. We want our launch update to go out with a bang, and we’ve been working tirelessly toward that.

 

Second, once we announce the launch date, we’ll be turning off Early-Access sales. We want to make sure that as we start talking about this in as many places as possible, new players have the best experience possible, rather than play the interim build. We’ve done a ton of work on helping new players ramp up -- once again, thanks for giving us the feedback to make this happen.

 

As always, Early Access players will continue to have access to the current development build, and you’ll get the full game at launch.

 

So, what have we been working on? Here are but a few things, in a deliberately vague list:

• Fully realized story and world, with 2 fully-animated cinematics.


• All new voice over (over 1000 lines).


• A massive balance pass on all the items and programs, and a few new items, augments and programs to round off the suite.


• The Final Mission (dun dun dun).


• 3 new starting programs which vastly change your playstyle.


• 4 new agents, and a balance pass on existing agents, each with their own special augments and items.


• A daemonic new enemy, in the new Plastech corporation.


• World generation and gameplay options screen, where you can set the game up as you see fit.


• Expert Plus mode -- for those who want the ultimate Invisible, Inc. challenge.


• A revamped Endless mode with increasing difficulty as the days progress, up to difficulty 10 missions.


• New music for every corporation, final mission, and more.


• A giant upgrade to the UI, sound, FX and visuals.

 

We're uh… basically polishing everything in the game, so there’s a lot here we haven’t covered.

 

So here we are, about a 6-8 weeks from launch. This is Klei’s 9th game in 10 years, and it’s a real pleasure to keep making these games with you folks. Thank you once again for your patience, feedback, and support over the years. It’s greatly appreciated.

 

[KidneyBeanBoy]

Dang, the Leeks thread's got nothing on this expletive. Consider me pumped.

[WilliamGreywind]

Ah the wealth of information is finally here! It's so good to finally see an update after a few months of silence. I honestly can't wait, and 4 new agents instead of 2?

 

Why do I think they're going to be M0nst3r and Central?

[KidneyBeanBoy]

Ah the wealth of information is finally here! It's so good to finally see an update after a few months of silence. I honestly can't wait, and 4 new agents instead of 2?

Why do I think they're going to be M0nst3r and Central?

Didn't they post a picture of Central in-game a while back?

[leonseye]

Can.  Not.  Wait.

[Zillvr]

This'll definitely eat a huge chunk out of my free-time, but that will definitely be time well-spent! Thanks for all the hard work Klei, Can't wait to hear all the new voices, new agents...Ah, It'll be glorious!
Cheers!

[5thHorseman]

Didn't they post a picture of Central in-game a while back?

I actually saved Central from a detention center, though it only happened the one time and I didn't get to play with her as an agent. I suspected it was a test for a mid-career mission where Central gets captured and you have to save her.

I was surprised nobody else mentioned they'd had it happen to them.

I'm jazzed about the update. Looking forward to playing the "real" game when it comes out!

[KidneyBeanBoy]

I actually saved Central from a detention center, though it only happened the one time and I didn't get to play with her as an agent. I suspected it was a test for a mid-career mission where Central gets captured and you have to save her.

I was surprised nobody else mentioned they'd had it happen to them.

It hasn't really happened to me, but then again I'm a noob so I'm not the best person to ask. Did she have any special augments/stats?

[TAPETRVE]

My brain cells are fiercely masturbating in eager anticipation  .

[RizzleQ]

So much hype!

[Cyberboy2000]

Ah the wealth of information is finally here! It's so good to finally see an update after a few months of silence. I honestly can't wait, and 4 new agents instead of 2?

 

Why do I think they're going to be M0nst3r and Central?

 

I Think it is two normal and two archived agents

[5thHorseman]

It hasn't really happened to me, but then again I'm a noob so I'm not the best person to ask. Did she have any special augments/stats?

I'm dropping the "spoiler" tags, considering we're discussing something that was shown in a picture like a month ago.

I honestly don't remember the specifics, but IIRC she was like the rich dude. No bonuses, one inventory slot, couldn't run.

[MycoLogical]

Looking forward!

 

[yossarian]

That all sounds beautiful.

 

Please don't forget to include some sort of competitive, balanced scoring stuff!

[Bigfoot]

That all sounds beautiful.

 

Please don't forget to include some sort of competitive, balanced scoring stuff!

We went back and forth about this quite a bit in-house, and discussed it pretty intensely. Alas, in the end, we removed the score because it kept causing players to play in weird ways. Mostly, we found it caused players to act in ways that work against the player (e.g. find every single console in the level, hack every single thing in the level, etc).

 

I think it's possible to come up with an interesting scoring mechanism, but in the end we wanted to focus all our energy on creating a game the rewarded any play style rather than tell them it wasn't "good" because their score wasn't high.

 

We also think it would work as a separate game mode, like Endless is. But as development goes, we have limited time before shipping the game and we were only able to work on one, so we focused on Endless.

 

Hope that makes sense!

[WilliamGreywind]

Well I do hope that after this game is fully released that it gets the attention and appreciation it deserves and lots and lots of people play it so that hopefully Klei could continue working on this. A game like this is so amazing, with so much potential, and although what Klei has managed to make so far is truly astounding, I wish to see Klei to be able to take this game even further.

[5thHorseman]

We went back and forth about this quite a bit in-house, and discussed it pretty intensely. Alas, in the end, we removed the score because it kept causing players to play in weird ways. Mostly, we found it caused players to act in ways that work against the player (e.g. find every single console in the level, hack every single thing in the level, etc).

Or my favorite, sell all your stuff in the nanofab in the final mission, especially when said machine is right next to the elevator

I agree though. Score doesn't mean anything, really. It's all about having a fun experience.

[Cyberboy2000]

Yeah, the score system was a bit silly.

 

Speaking of scores, what will happen to the experience system?

Previously, experience was used to unlock new agents and programs. However I find the system unbalanced, because you can unlock every character in the game in just one walkthrough. New stuff should be earned, and right now there's no challenge in unlocking rewards.

Look how other games like FTL does it. In that game you can unlock ships in two ways. You can either find a specific event, that if done correctly unlocks the ship, or you can beat the game with the previous ship. There are also type B layouts, similar to archived agents, that can be unlocked by earning special achievments for the type A layout.

 

Not saying that the same should be done for Invisible inc, but you might want to consider something similar.

[InvisibleThunder]

I'm dropping the "spoiler" tags, considering we're discussing something that was shown in a picture like a month ago.

I honestly don't remember the specifics, but IIRC she was like the rich dude. No bonuses, one inventory slot, couldn't run.

 

Well, I'm not.

Both Central and Monst3r will be playable characters in the final mission.

I could also release a Major spoiler about one of these characters, but I hold off on that one for now.

[KidneyBeanBoy]

Well, I'm not.

Both Central and Monst3r will be playable characters in the final mission.

I could also release a Major spoiler about one of these characters, but I hold off on that one for now.

Aw.

[yossarian]

 

We went back and forth about this quite a bit in-house, and discussed it pretty intensely. Alas, in the end, we removed the score because it kept causing players to play in weird ways. Mostly, we found it caused players to act in ways that work against the player (e.g. find every single console in the level, hack every single thing in the level, etc).

 

I think it's possible to come up with an interesting scoring mechanism, but in the end we wanted to focus all our energy on creating a game the rewarded any play style rather than tell them it wasn't "good" because their score wasn't high.

 

We also think it would work as a separate game mode, like Endless is. But as development goes, we have limited time before shipping the game and we were only able to work on one, so we focused on Endless.

 

Hope that makes sense!

 

 

I'm a little disappointed, but the reasoning makes sense and Endless is preferable over a scored mode. I'm just conscious that with roguelikes, or roguelike-likes, a lot of the longevity is driven by comparing your performance against others, or just trying to better your last run.

 

But I do understand. Thanks for the detailed response.

 

[InvisibleThunder]

So basically one of the major reasons or re-playability factor of games, like Hitman, Dishonored, uhm... platformers... any other kind of game, doesn't matter, has been removed?

 

This does not make any sense at all! Also since most of it was already in place.

 

Yet, there are Achievements (which apparently can detect how a player does) that will also "force" (who is forcing who?) players to play missions in a certain way. Player are only forced if they are required to reach a certain score to progress in the game, but that has never been the case as far as I know.

 

So the game can, for example, detect if all safes in a mission are looted, but it can't, at the same time, add a score for that?

[Shirsh]

I hope there will be option to choose from 1 to 4 agents for mission (and rescue everyone in one play), to play "one agent challenge" without sacrificing others

[leonseye]

So basically one of the major reasons or re-playability factor of games, like Hitman, Dishonored, uhm... platformers... any other kind of game, doesn't matter, has been removed?

 

This does not make any sense at all! Also since most of it was already in place.

 

Yet, there are Achievements (which apparently can detect how a player does) that will also "force" (who is forcing who?) players to play missions in a certain way. Player are only forced if they are required to reach a certain score to progress in the game, but that has never been the case as far as I know.

 

So the game can, for example, detect if all safes in a mission are looted, but it can't, at the same time, add a score for that?

 

Well, there were a lot of players who posted about feeling "forced" into a situation where they could not play the game they really wanted to due to trying to beat a high score.

 

The going sentiment was basically "you need Banks for her Econ Chip, Xu to crack safes, other choices are invalid if you want to get highest scores possible".  

 

Same for playing through the levels; the game is designed to be played how YOU feel comfortable, but to get the highest score how you WANT to play was tossed to the wayside for "hit every console w/ econ chip, sell everything in last mission, etc".

 

I think it makes sense to remove the factor that was driving players to feel railroaded into certain play styles if freedom to do things how you like was the design intent.

[jamesl]

I love score too and I'm a huge advocate for having a score system in games. However, between all the items, augments, programs, starting agents and difficulties (and custom stuff) there's a lot of replayability in Invisible Inc. The real problem was that our score system just plain sucked. Score systems only add extra replayability if they offer a deep and nuanced challenge, otherwise they have the point the game in a genuinely unfun direction. 

 

There are lots of examples of this -- hours and hours of dull ghost mining because of Spelunky's poor scoring system, FTL's downright confusing and completely irrelevant scores, etc etc. 

 

I worked hard to try to make a good scoring system for Invisible Inc, but it turned out to pose some unique problems that were going to take awhile to solve, and we've got a small team that's been focusing instead on stuff like game breaking AI bugs. So rather than leave our lazy, first pass scoring system in, we decided to remove it. Even as someone who loves scoring and competition, I think this is for the best -- our game has a ton of inherent replayability, so I believe that the scoring system would not really have added to it, it would have only pointed it in a less interesting direction.