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Telepath Tactics


Mr. Sinister
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You guys! We've hit our third stretch goal, and are less than $3,000 away from the fourth, "branching campaign" stretch goal with 62 hours left in the campaign. (Think Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones.)

I've posted a new update talking about this and answering backer questions concerning the lore of the Telepath universe, including info about its geography and the various races of the world. Check it out! cool.gif

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  • 4 weeks later...

Thanks! I appreciate the congrats, and I likewise definitely appreciate the write-up. :Sain:

I very much like your idea of doing a flashier "Level Up" effect. I've put it in The List! (Already in The List: more attack effects and an optimized enemy AI that takes its turn faster--though of course, AI optimization won't happen until the AI is otherwise fully programmed.)

So, here's the deal with the turn speed thing. I've gotten this complaint a few times, and partially I think it's partially because I've compared this game to Fire Emblem a lot without explaining some of the subtler differences between the games. A big part of the reason the player's turn takes longer in Telepath Tactics than in Fire Emblem is because you have a lot more options with each character. For example: there's no click-to-attack because characters can have eight or more unique attacks with varying ranges, costs and AOE. The player needs to be able to easily browse and select from among those: so we trade off a little speed (one-click attacking) for more tactical depth (a lot more unique attacks).

Similarly, it actually wouldn't work very well to use a Fire Emblem style menu after characters move in Telepath Tactics because the game gives you a lot more options for character movement. Fire Emblem requires every character to take its entire turn in one go; Telepath Tactics doesn't. So you can move a character, go off and do other things, then come back to that character later, maybe move it again, maybe use an item, maybe attack; and even then the character doesn't have to be done (unless you want it to be). If I were to automatically force the player to hit Done or Attack after moving, it would crush that flexible turn structure! As with the attacks, I opted for more flexibility and tactical depth over greater speed.

With all that said, though, I will definitely keep adding in little convenience options as players request them. If you have other suggestions for speeding up the turn, I'm all ears. (Oh, also, quick tip: try using hotkeys. Most actions have 'em, and they're faster than clicking buttons! You can find them on page 4 of the manual.) :Pent:

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  • 5 months later...

Hey guys! I haven't been here in a few months, but I thought I'd drop by to let you guys know about how the game is coming along. There are close to a half-dozen monthly updates to recap, so I won't try to do all of that here (you can read through them individually here if you like), but here are some highlights:

We now have dozens of awesome character portraits! Here, for instance, are a lizardman matriarch and lizardman child:

Lizardman-Matriarch-and-Child.png

Loads of new attack animations. We now have unique attack animations for 19 of the 22 base character classes! Here's the Stone Golem's grab-and-throw animation, and the Spriggat's claw dive animation:

StoneGolem_ThrowR.gifSpriggat_ClawR.gif

The engine features I needed to program in are now done, and we're making great progress on getting all the art assets we need done, so I've started hunkering down to work on the main campaign. In short, I'm feeling very good about progress on the game.

Interested in helping out Telepath Tactics? The best thing you can do right now is upvote the game on Steam Greenlight. (Getting onto Steam is really important to ensuring this game's success!)

Thanks for reading--and as always, I'm eager to hear thoughts and feedback. Until next time! :Lute:

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  • 2 months later...

Hey guys! I just wanted to pop in and say hello. The game has improved a lot over the past couple of months--we have lots of new animations, attack effects, and other goodies. I'm really really looking forward to finishing it up and releasing it this year!

Here's a little video showing how things look now:

I've written in some detail about everything that's new, so check out these posts for more:

http://sinisterdesign.net/telepath-tactics-january-2014-update/

http://sinisterdesign.net/telepath-tactics-december-2013-update/

I hope you guys like it! :Roy:

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  • 3 months later...

Hey guys! I'm just dropping in to say hello and offer another update on Telepath Tactics. I'm going full steam ahead with the single player campaign. I just finished up a battle where you can talk to, recruit, and save the lives of a couple of NPC characters, and I'm now working on getting a shop system set up where you can buy weapons, armor and equipment.

I just released a new trailer today--this is the first trailer to go out with 100% finished in-game graphics and animations, and I'm really proud of how it turned out. (Also, it features some really awesome original music from the game's composer.) Check it out!

Trailer%20Img.png

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  • 1 month later...
  • 2 months later...

Hey guys! It's been a couple of months since I last posted, and there have been a couple of months' worth of progress on the game.

The list of changes is long, but here are a few tidbits:

--class promotions are now in-game and working! The August update has a full, detailed list of what characters promote to what, and what changes they undergo in the process.

Promotions.png

--the game now supports both normal (permadeath) mode and casual (characters don't die, but get a permanent -1 to max health if they fall in battle) mode.

--new characters!

--new battles!

--new cut scenes!

--new items!

--new attacks!

--AI improvements!

--map editor improvements, and new scripting capabilities!

Go here and here for more! :Lyn:

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  • 4 months later...

Greetings, folks! In case you haven't been keeping track, here's the latest on Telepath Tactics:

  1. The main campaign is finished! It currently weighs in at 24 battles and 26 unique recruitable characters.
  2. The game is getting released in March. That's, like, less than 2 months from now! (I'm spending the intervening time adding little things here and there, polishing, and fixing bugs.)

My last few monthly updates are here, here, here, and here if you want more details. I'm really excited, and can't wait for you all to give it a try! :Sain:

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 months later...

Hello everyone! It is my pleasure to announce that Telepath Tactics has now been released.

It is available on GOG.com (Windows and Mac) and Steam (Windows only), as well as direct from me. It costs $14.99, though GOG and Steam are selling it for 10% off during its release week.

In addition, the map editor has been released for free to anyone who wants to use it. There's an ongoing tutorial series teaching you how to make your own Telepath Tactics campaigns starting here. I hope you guys like the game!

Edited by Mr. Sinister
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  • 3 weeks later...

I give the game a definitive thumbs up personally. I haven't completed it yet (didn't have the occasion for too much PC gaming lately), but it's a very decent offering so far (I believe I'm at around half). Similar enough for FE fans to be familiar, different enough for it to have it's own identity. Decent storyline and characters, really interesting class roster. Give it a try!

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I give the game a definitive thumbs up personally. I haven't completed it yet (didn't have the occasion for too much PC gaming lately), but it's a very decent offering so far (I believe I'm at around half). Similar enough for FE fans to be familiar, different enough for it to have it's own identity. Decent storyline and characters, really interesting class roster. Give it a try!

Thanks Ayra! I'm glad you're liking it. :)

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