It turns out that if you cleverly combine major elements of Diablo and Left 4 Dead, you may attract some attention.

Novarama’s Killsquad is a Steam Early Access action RPG that debuted at the top of the Steam charts last month and got major traction on Twitch as well. The game combines ultra-fast shooting and slashing with RPG tropes like character progression, within a co-op framework.

Novarama director (and one-time Gamasutra contributor) Dani Sánchez-Crespo told us, “The key idea for Killsquad was, can we do something that feels similar to an RPG, but that you can really enjoy in shorter bursts? What started like an intellectual design challenge turned into a game where we blend techniques we have learned through the years, and channels influences from Heroes of the Storm to Left 4 Dead or Diablo.”

Sánchez-Crespo​ answered more our design and development questions about the action-packed Killsquad.

On its surface, the basic twin-stick action gameplay of Killsquad harkens back to other RPG/action games like Diablo, and ultimately to Robotron: 2084. Where does Killsquad improve upon its now-ancient forebears?

I’m old enough (45) to have played Robotron, Smash TV…so many classics paved the way to us. We feel in the end there were two “routes” designers generally followed to do these kinds of games: on one hand, the classic RPG genre, with examples such as Diablo, Fallout, Baldur’s Gate, where you invest long periods of time to see your heroes slowly evolve.

On the other end, you have the frantic twin stick shooters such as Smash TV, which feel more like an arcade experience. What no one had thought before is, there’s a space in between those two, of games where you can enjoy fast paced action like in a Twin Stick Shooter, with RPG-style progression (similar to Heroes of the Storm, for example). That’s Killsquad. We like to say it’s the RPG you can enjoy in 30 minutes.

Part of the core tension in the design of all action RPGs is the line between skill and stats. How far can a level 1 character get? Is a max-level character invulnerable? Are there statistic-based miss chances, or skill-based critical hits? Where does Killsquad draw that line?

Killsquad, being an action game, is first and foremost skill based, in terms of animations, timing, windows of opportunity, dodging mechanics, etc. So our battle system is less D&D and more Doom, so to say. Then on top of that we layer a classic RPG class and progression system, so those skill-based actions are unlocked as in an RPG. We reached this formula via heavy playtesting, and so far we are very happy with the reception so far.

Killsquad evolves with the player. We’d say that, as a starting player, you’ll encounter the skill-oriented layer first. In your initial missions, being good with controls is what is going to make a difference. Then, as you progress into the game, you’re going to unlock permanent benefits through an upgradeable weapon and gear system, which is more like in a classic RPG: here, specific weapons give you specific benefits which do not rely on skill so much. So configuring your equipment, and investing into improving it, is going to make a huge success on your chances of success.

Killsquad has some interesting and welcome player aids: some enemy attacks have red fields on the ground showing where their damage range is, projectiles are shown brightly in a way that sticks out, and walkable terrain is, for the most part, easy to pick out. What prompted these easily-readable tells? Was there any fear that they’d make the game too easy?

Here at Novarama we playtest a lot, and the red threat areas are part of that process. Every top-down game is in the end an exercise of spatial patterns: the way your hero moves causes spatial changes, different enemies occupy space in very different ways, and the arena changes at a certain velocity, so your goal as the player is to know where to place yourself at all times. So, in that respect, Killsquad has a lot of Capcom’s classic 1942: forecasting where each game object will move in very little time, and reacting accordingly under pressure.

We felt that, especially at the pacing of our game, the red areas were very useful. They do make the game more accessible, but on the higher difficulty settings the game is still very challenging as you need to be controlling more elements at once.

In fact, on higher levels of difficulty the red areas can be used as a design weapon to make the game harder: if they weren’t there, we would be concerned about putting too many enemies or too much pressure on the players. As we do have red areas, we can always rely on players seeing those, and avoiding them. And, because of that, we can spawn even more enemies.

It appears to me that Killsquad attempts to meld MOBA-style, each-map-is-a-game concepts (fewer maps, intense action, starting from level 1 with each map) with a more traditional PvE action RPGs like Diablo (advancing through terrain over the course of a map, skill trees, bosses, equipment as progression). How accurate would you say this is?

You are spot on. The reference we use, and few people see, is Left4Dead. I know the camera is different, but that was a game we discussed a lot while designing Killsquad, from the procedural map generator, to the AI Director that is analyzing the player behavior to generate interesting challenges to the party of heroes.

In that respect, we are now working on the concept of “career paths,” so we can offer persistent progression to each hero as you do more missions with him. So the heroes will still have in-session progression as currently implemented, but that will have a second layer of complexity in the form of a career which you will slowly unfold as you play more and more with each one of your heroes.

Characters start each map at level 1 and advancing through to level 10 throughout, letting players explore different branches of the skill tree each time and customizing their abilities for the mission they’re on. Was there any fear that this would be repetitive? How do characters advance between missions?

Well, being an Early Access, we wanted to get the core experience spot on, and grow from there. We feel we have succeeded in that respect. We’re now expanding the game to make it bigger and more varied.

I’m 45 now, having spent 20 years in this industry (starting as a writer for Gamasutra!). Many times I see games which are big, but badly planned. We wanted to go small but well executed, and grow from there once the concept is proven.

For example, we’re now analyzing the skills people choose the most, to re-balance the game and make sure the decision of which skills you use is as meaningful as possible, and also is more tied to specific types of contracts: maybe a contract favors a skill tree progression, while a different contract needs a whole different choice of skills.

Some players have complained that play rewards come more in the form of getting crafting materials and currency than explicit randomized loot, even though it means the can buy and/or make what they want rather than sell a ton of what they don’t. What is your design thinking behind this?

You are absolutely right: we prefer the player to choose what they will be spending their reward on. Choice is something you can never take away from the player. As Sid Meier used to say, “a game is a series of interesting choices,” and spending your loot in whatever way you see fit is one of them.

I feel what our audience really wants is more types of rewards, so the game feels bigger, deeper, broader. You look at games like Path of Exile or Diablo and their inventories are immense. I’m happy to say that, thanks to our initial success, we’re now producing a ton of more art, from collectible character portraits, weapons, hero skins…you name it. RPGs have always been about amassing cool treasures, and Killsquad is going to get those soon.

Killsquad has been worked on for a couple of years, and is now in early access; where does the game go from here?

We did publish our roadmap, which you can see here. As you can see, we’re going to do four major updates this year, to make the game much larger. New heroes, new game areas…I think we now have over 280 pieces of art in production. That is the benefit of a strong first week: it makes wind blow strongly in our sails and it pushes us harder to create the game our fans deserve.

Today’s Deal: Save up to 90% during the Digital Tribe Games Publisher Sale!*

Look for the deals each day on the front page of Steam. Or follow us on twitter or Facebook for instant notifications wherever you are!

*Offer ends August 9 at 10AM Pacific Time

Pull up your comfiest chair, grab some snacks and check your connection settings – QuakeCon 2019: Year of Doom is underway! Even if you can’t attend the QuakeCon festivities in person, you can still celebrate North America’s biggest LAN party with new releases on Xbox One, sales on Bethesda titles, fresh details on Doom Eternal and more.

Wolfenstein: Youngblood – Out Now

The time has come to liberate Paris in Wolfenstein: Youngblood – available now on Xbox One. Join Jess and Soph, twin daughters of legendary Nazi killer BJ Blazkowicz, as they fight together to find their father and save an alternate history 1980s Paris from Nazi occupation.

Fighting for freedom is better together. Team up with a friend or an AI companion as you use your powerful arsenal of weapons, gear and customizable power armor to dismantle the Nazi regime in the first modern Wolfenstein co-op adventure.

Purchase the Wolfenstein: Youngblood Deluxe Edition today and receive the Buddy Pass, allowing you and a friend to partner up and play the entire game together – even if that friend doesn’t own their own copy of the game!

Play classic Doom titles on Xbox One today

Celebrate over 25 years of Doom with the release of the original Doom, Doom II, and Doom 3 available now on the Microsoft Store.

Whether it’s your first time enjoying these classics or you’re a longtime id Software veteran, experience the games that defined first-person shooters and prepare yourself for the next generation of demon-slaying action when Doom Eternal launches on Xbox One on November 22.

Save big on Bethesda games during the QuakeCon Sale

Check out the QuakeCon Sale on the Microsoft Store for savings of up to 50% off on Bethesda titles like Doom (2016) and The Elder Scrolls Online: Elsweyr. The QuakeCon Sale lasts until July 30, so act fast before these deals are gone!

Slay or be Slayed in Doom Eternal’s BattleMode

Designed from the ground up by id Software alongside Doom Eternal’s single-player campaign, BattleMode is an all-new multiplayer mode where a team of two player-controlled demons use their cunning (and demon reinforcements) to take down their opponent – a player in the boots of a fully armed Doom Slayer.

New details were revealed during this year’s QuakeCon, including a look at BattleMode’s arenas, playable demons, and their special abilities. Visit slayersclub.com to learn more and pre-order Doom Eternal today to receive the Rip and Tear Pack, which features bonus content including the Doot Revenant Skin to wield in BattleMode.

The Season of the Dragon continues in The Elder Scrolls Online: Elsweyr

Defeat the dragon threat alone or with friends in The Elder Scrolls Online: Elsweyr – now 35% off during the QuakeCon Sale. Additionally, save big on crowns and stock up on in-game homes, mounts, pets and more with our Crown Pack Sale.

Keep your eyes to the sky as the Season of the Dragon rages on with Scalebreaker, the latest DLC game pack. Scalebreaker adds two new challenging dungeons for all heroes to conquer later this Summer.

New to ESO? Pick up the Standard Edition for 50% off and begin your epic adventure throughout Tamriel.

Ready to go another round with Rage 2?

Rage 2’s latest update is now available, it adds three new ways to play: New Game +, Ironman Mode, and Ultra Nightmare Difficulty to make your next playthrough even more insane.

Haven’t felt the thrill of blasting your way through a bunch of sunburnt goons with crazy powers and badass guns yet? Pick up the Rage 2 Deluxe Edition for less during the Xbox Super Game Sale on the Microsoft Store and get the full game, some digital goodies, and access to the upcoming Rise of the Ghosts expansion later this year.

Thanks for reading and stay tuned to Xbox Wire for the latest news on these Bethesda titles and others here on Xbox Wire.

Hey everyone,

As we get closer and closer to serving up Shadowkeep and New Light, it has become increasingly clear to us that our releases for this Fall would benefit from a bit more time in the oven.

Being independent means that the future of Destiny 2 is entirely on our team. It also means that we’re agile enough to choose to do what’s best for the game and our players, even if it’s the hard choice.

We wanted to let you—our Community—know first that we’re changing the date for Shadowkeep and New Light from September 17 to October 1.

This Fall is the first step on a journey for what our team wants Destiny 2 to become – a place for you and your friends to play anytime, anywhere; owning the action MMO and RPG elements that we love about the game; and crushing barriers to entry for friends. We just need a bit of extra time to take the first step.

We didn’t make this decision lightly. We know for some of you (us too), Destiny releases are events where you take time off of work or develop a sudden sickness that keeps you from school or work (we get it, a bunch of our team takes some time off to go on their own Destiny Jacket Quest). We’re sorry for screwing up your plans and we wanted to share this information as quickly as we could.

Here’s some more date housecleaning:

More to come next week. Thanks for playing and see you soon,

Luke & Mark

It could certainly be argued that Fire Emblem: Three Houses is the most complex release yet in the long-running strategy series, which is no mean feat considering the intimidating barrier to entry many previous games have had. It’s extremely rewarding, of course, but juggling time in the Monastery, building relationships with the various students and staff, and making the hard decisions over how you want to shape the growth of each unit in your squad can appear to be overwhelming to many newcomers.

Bearing this in mind, we’ve put together a guide with some pointers and suggestions that should help to ensure your first dozen hours or so are best spent.

Make the Most of Your Monastery Visits

One of the biggest new features in Three Houses is the free-roaming locale of Garreg Mach Monastery, which lets you pick up various sidequests and activities to bolster your character and team. You only get four visits max before the next big battle in any given month, so making your trips here count will be hugely important. Starting out, you’ll only have a couple of Professor Points to work with, but if you use your time here wisely, that cap can be raised reasonably quickly.

The first thing we’d suggest is that you always pay a visit to the Greenhouse (found on the south end of the map). You’ll naturally find yourself with a mountain of seeds between enemy drops, shop availability, and just finding them around the monastery, and using those seeds as much as possible will make your life a lot easier. The greenhouse can net you food for cooking, flowers for gifting, and stat-boosting items, along with granting you a nice bonus to your professor level after every harvest. Considering that this activity costs you no professor points and next to no money, there’s really no good reason not to visit each time you come to the monastery, and the rewards only increase further as you raise your professor level and unlock access to better yields.

After this, we’d suggest you invest your professor points into social activities that can raise the most possible stats at once. For example, if you choose to eat a meal with students, try to eat with students who both need the motivation bump and stand to gain a boost in their support levels with each other. Or, if you’re going to do an activity like singing with the choir, try to ask students who will benefit from the extra ‘Faith’ stat points and area compatible with each other in support conversations. It may not seem like much at first, but as the months roll by and you fall into a routine with these activities, the little extra bumps in stats will add up to some pretty substantial differences than if you just blew all your points on your favorite character whether they need the attention or not.

Also, remember to hand out gifts whenever possible. Not only does this raise your support level with the student, but it’ll also bump up their motivation for your next class. Even if it’s not something they’re overly fond of, you’ll still at least get a fixed uptick in motivation and support each time and, considering that there’s no limit on gift-giving, this is a reliable way to max out motivation. If you’ve been keeping up on your gardening, for example, you can have a stockpile of flowers to hand out to everyone and top off their motivation.

Don’t Forget to Update Character Arts and Abilities

Three Houses features a wonderfully flexible class system that allows any character to be any class (with a few exceptions) and master any weapon, but the real strength of this feature comes in how you’re able to carry over the benefits from your mastery regardless of how you might change the course of that character’s growth later on.

The caveat to this, however, is that you can only have three Combat Arts and five Abilities equipped at any given point. The game never explains this to you, but any new Arts or Abilities will simply go into storage if the character that learned them is already full, so make a habit of checking up on those via the inventory screen when they come in. Later Weapon Arts are often better than the ones learned earlier, and some Abilities (such as the ‘Faith’ skill) are literally useless to some classes. You can always re-equip anything you take off of a character, too, so don’t be afraid to experiment with new builds and see what works best for how you’re using that character.

The Basics of Monster Takedown

Relatively early in the story, you’ll be faced with a new ‘Monster’ enemy type that takes up four grid spaces at a time and has multiple health bars. These enemies are among some of the toughest foes you’ll do battle with and they require some slightly different tactics to take down. First, bear in mind that each monster has a ‘shield’ which needs to be broken before you can do full damage to it. The gold colour of each tile the monster is standing on will denote the shield status for that tile; if it’s streaked with white, that means the shield on that tile is almost broken, and if it’s gone, that means the monster takes full damage on that tile.

The monster will be stunned once the shield is broken, which will keep it from counterattacking against the next unit to fight it. In addition to this, bear in mind that Gambit attacks will not only target multiple tiles, but will also stun the monster so you can get in a free hit. Also, if you can manage to shatter every shield tile in one phase, the monster will be stunned for a full phase and you’ll be given a rare material for forging weapons with.

Keep Your Rusted Weapons

If you have the online features turned on, you’ll no doubt find yourself soon amassing a huge amount of seemingly useless rusted weapons out on the battlefield. While it’s easy to see these as little more than money fodder, make sure you check the descriptions for weapons before throwing them away. Though many of the weapons actually are garbage, some of them can be repaired into substantially powerful or rare equipment that you otherwise wouldn’t have had access to or would’ve had to pay mountains of cash for.

Be Decisive in Establishing Each Character’s Role

Three Houses features the most flexible class system in the series yet, but it’s still one that requires some time and investment to get the most out of. While we won’t say that you have to use each character as they’re clearly intended to be used from the start, we would advise that you have an endgame for each of them in mind, as later classes often have two or three minimum requirements for passing the certification exam.

For example, if you’re training up a female character in their sword skill, make sure you train up their flying skill along the way so you can eventually have them be a Falcon Knight or Wyvern Lord. You can, of course, change directions with a character at any time, but it’ll require some substantial extra investment to get their ‘E’ skills up to snuff, and you don’t want to have a character eligible for a Mastery class upgrade only to realize you hadn’t trained up one of the weapon skills necessary for a promotion.

Don’t Forget the Motion Controls

You may have already found this one, but it certainly bears mentioning. On the loading screens, a sprite of your character runs back and forth seemingly at random, but this is actually a little mini-game that the developers included to pass the time while the game loads. You can make the sprite run left and right depending on how far you tilt the controller to that side and if you tap ‘B’, the character will jump.

The Unity game engine just got another stable version release, Unity 2019.2.   As always it is available for download right now using the Unity Hub.  Unity 2019.2 contains over 170 new features and enhancements including updates to the ProBuilder and PolyShape plugins, a new 2D lightweight renderer supporting dynamic 2D lights, ShaderGraph updates and much more.

In this release we got much more comprehensive release notes, split across several files.

Or you can watch the video below to learn more about this release.  If you want to experiment with the new lightweight 2D renderer and lighting options you can start by cloning this project that was used in the video.

GameDev News Unity

Everyone is understandably eager for more Halo: Reach flighting. And understandably getting frustrated and impatient. We are eager and frustrated, too. We all want to get this into players’ hands as soon as possible. When it’s ready, it’s ready. Thanks for your support ?

— Brian Jarrard (@ske7ch) August 1, 2019

Here we are at the end of yet another week. The last few days brought us the inclusion of Dragon Quest’s Hero in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, the final major update for Splatoon 2, and a gas canister that has its very own profile on Wii Fit (just another ordinary week, then).

Now, though, it’s time to relax and chat about our weekend gaming plans. As is tradition, the Nintendo Life team has done just that below and we’d love for you to get involved via our poll and comment sections below. Enjoy!

Ollie Reynolds, reviewer

With the UK weather being so unpredictable at the moment, I won’t be taking any chances this weekend. I’ll be staying indoors and killing time with the delightful Forager, a game that has stolen my heart and simply won’t give it back!

I also recently purchased the original DOOM trilogy on Switch, so I’ll likely spend some time in the latter hours of the day blasting demons away in anticipation for DOOM Eternal later this year.

Liam Doolan, news reporter

After struggling to track down a physical copy of Fire Emblem: Three Houses last weekend, this weekend my plan is to finally spend some quality time getting to know my new friends in the Blue Lions house. I’ll also be taking some time to familiarise myself with the Hero’s moveset in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate while I wait for Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age – Definitive Edition to arrive on the Switch.

When I’m not playing either of these games, I expect to be returning to Hell in DOOM II and racing about in Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled. That’s it for me!

Gonçalo Lopes, contributing writer

Another weekend blissfully spent in the Summer of Switch. No massive new games out this week but when you have such a deluxe backlog, this is hardly a problem. I will have my doses of Fire Emblem: Three Houses, The Messenger, Blazing Chrome, Fantasy Strike, Vasara Collection and an incredible gem by the name of Zombie Driver: Immortal Edition.

My game of the week goes to the unexpected release of Saboteur II: Avenging Angel. Many years before I even knew what a Metroid was, this superior ZX Spectrum sequel introduced me to the ‘Metroidvania’ genre and I have been a fan ever since. It is fondly familiar to find this game again, 34 years later on the ultimate games console. Wonder if I still know the building layout from memory…

Austin Voigt, contributing writer

This weekend, I think I’ll finally be picking up Fire Emblem: Three Houses. It’s a bit of a game drought for me right now, so it seems to be a good time to get into something new. I’ll also be plugging away at Dragon Quest Builders 2, of course – and I’ve been back on a GameCube kick as well, so I’m sure a few of those throwback titles will be making their way into my plans this weekend.

Gavin Lane, staff writer

This weekend I shall be continuing to explore the charms of Omega Labyrinth Life. The list of exclamation points on the ‘Manual’ menu has grown very long and I’m still getting tool tips popping up with new information after several hours with the game. First impressions? It’s certainly colourful and these girls sure have some unorthodox ways of tending a garden. I’ve got a multitude of bugs to shoo, seeds to sow and dungeons to crawl ahead of me, so look out for the review next week.

Ryan Craddock, staff writer

It might sound weird to some, but I actually wanted Super Mario Maker 2 for the story more than for the whole playing levels made by strangers and making them myself. I managed to 100% build the castle a couple of weeks back, but I never got around to completing all of Toad’s jobs.

So, this weekend I’ll use any free time doing just that – I don’t think there are too many left to do now, but it’s actually left me wanting more Nintendo-designed levels rather than custom ones. Perhaps I should pick up a copy of New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe at some point?

Zion Grassl, video producer

Well, this weekend is a tough one for me as I’ve got quite a bit of free time (for once) but I also have too many games on my docket. I’m still powering my way slowly through Fire Emblem: Three Houses with my team of Golden Deer! Although, I’ve been slacking on my playthrough of Earthbound too. So hopefully, I’ll be able to give Ness and his pals some attention too!

I also just picked up the physical bundle for Starlink on Switch, as the deal was too good to pass up. So maybe I’ll take a break from strategizing my units to play with some toys!

As always, thanks for reading! Make sure to leave a vote in the poll above and a comment below with your gaming choices over the next few days…