[h3]Hello Steel Dragons![/h3] You heard right! [b]Project Haven's Demo is now available to download and play[/b] until the 3rd of October as part of the [url=https://store.steampowered.com/sale/TactiCon]TactiCon [/url] event! It's been a long time coming, but it's now possible to test out all the new features we're been working on these past months. We'd be super grateful if you could play it and gives us feedback on what you like, what you don't like and how we could make it better! [b]So what's new since our last update?[/b] We're glad you asked! We've continued with backend updates we've mentioned in the previous update, this time focused on AI and the perception system (hearing and visibility). We've also done some art and animation updates, and finally a new Skill system. Let's break it down! [h3]AI[/h3] Our main goal with a new AI system was to make it more dynamic and better behaved in a range of situations, after careful planning we decided to change from using [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behavior_tree_(artificial_intelligence,_robotics_and_control)]Behavior Trees[/url] to [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Utility_system]Utility AI[/url]. We feel Utility AI suited our intended goals much better, also allowing us to more easily add additional AI actions. After some testing and tweaking the AI is already in a much better place than it was before, and there's still more we want to do it with! [b]CALLING REINFORCEMENTS:[/b] One of the new actions we added to the AI was calling for reinforcements, which better explains a mechanic that was part of the game for a long time, but was pretty much invisible to the player. You can now see when an AI intends to call for reinforcements, and they will actually sprint over to some location to do so. Although not currently in the Demo, we intend to also add some AI banter to add further notice to their actions. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35829305/1ea68beab8e6dfe236cd7bcac7bad024f10b265d.gif[/img] [h3]Skills[/h3] We've went through a few iterations of the skill system but we feel like we finally reached the correct one for Project Haven. It's a modified version of our previous one, but that should add more freedom in leveling up your mercenaries. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35829305/4690cbae7019c8231ad2c9e3180bf30e3fa390cb.png[/img] Each of the 6 attributes, Constitution, Strength, Agility, Marksmanship, Technical and Wisdom has its own Skill tree. Spending a point in one of those skill trees increases the relevant attribute value, which in turn unlocks an additional perk (e.g. Increased Maximum Carried Weight in Strength). You can spend a maximum of 10 points per tree. Skills are gated by attribute level and some have other skills as a prerequisite, but otherwise you can spend your points in any fashion you'd like. We've tried to add a mix of passive and active skills per tree although some trees lend themselves more towards one of the two. We're aiming to have over 20 skills per tree so what you see in the Demo are not the final available skills/perks. [h3]Art[/h3] We've redone the downed animation which finally replaces the funny butt dragging animation we had for the longest time :D [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35829305/284059297066935e0b50f901da5720971f797025.gif[/img] We've also continued our improvement of environmental art with some new props and graphic design (in things like arcades, computer screens, posters, fictional Ad's) to flesh out the world. And finally we've continued with set dressing and design of the very final missions of the game, but we can't spoil those. :) [b]All in all we feel the game is in a great place, we're very near to completing the full 45+ campaign missions, and we can't wait for you to see them![/b] All this of course is pending any feedback you all give us. As we've mentioned before we want Project Haven to be a game you really like, and as such any suggestions you may have are truly appreciated. Which brings us to the final point of this update. [h3]Release date?[/h3] Being transparent with you guys is very important to us, so we'll just tell you that finishing the game for a 2022 release is not very feasible at this point. Although we hope to be content complete before the end of the year, we want to properly test and tune the game to make sure your experience is as good as it can be from day one. It's a large game made by a truly tiny team. We ended up doing more work on replacing large systems of the game than we had planned, but they ended up being necessary to improve the game to the standard we want to achieve. We hope you understand and bear with us just a little longer and we hope to bring you something special in return. [img]{STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/35829305/96b7c62de1db6bc20e9915bcad8f4b2201444963.gif[/img] We also hope with your feedback we can bring to light all remaining gameplay issues we need to tackle. But just a Demo is not enough, so we're going to have a [b]Closed Beta Test[/b] coming soon, please stay tuned for more details on that! And that's it for this update! As always, thank you! And see you next time! Code Three Fifty One https://store.steampowered.com/app/443190/Project_Haven/