Silence of the Siren - EA update #3 is out!

Hi everybody, the third patch of Silence of the Siren is now live on Steam! The update brings the usual round of improvements and fixes of issues we gathered from reports on Discord and also here in Discussions. We're mostly done with our roadmap update, at this point we can tease that you can look forward to more features and big balance changes before holidays, then it will be time for more map content and the first big Early Access expansion/update with UNSS as playable faction #4 and their whole campaign. More details coming soon!

Release notes:

Silence of the Siren version 0b78c099.

Content and changes

- Added a version of the Josefin font that includes Cyrillic characters - Unified which cursor shows and what clicking on a base does when all commanders are garrisoned: clicking on any tile open the base - Updated academy ability selection so at least one ability for each skill is ensured at each base, made the academy panel more compact - Implemented ordering commanders by drag and drop also in the list on the right, cleaned up the prefab a bit - Implemented canceling unit move by pressing escape in the commander card, commander meeting, neutral army join panel and at bases - Added close button to both options panels so the reset options button is not the one big thing you're bound to accidentally click on - Implemented closing of conquest window and its map info panel by pressing escape - Switched save screenshot background in load dialog so it doesn't show the community translations banner but a 'standard siren logo' - Added limit to base camera FOV to ensure all buildings stay on screen in 16:10 and narrower aspect ratios, updated all base graphics to correctly fill the screen all the way to ultra-ultrawide (32:9)

Fixes

- Fixed an exploit that allowed unit multiplication by disabling unit movement undo button while moving a unit - Fixed an exploit caused by the slave camp panel not correctly reset (not for the right base) when switching bases while the panel is still open - Fixed dismissing war machines from unit info/split panel didn't work - Fixed integrated Radeon graphics starting with 4K textures by default - Fixed active commander marker not rendered over bridges, for example at the very start of Fossorian Campaign map 4 - Fixed both levels of pirates mortar building had the same lore text - Fixed neutral base names not randomized when starting a scenario - Fixed the "all" filter in inventory not resetting backpack to the default view with empty slots, implemented automatic compaction/removal of empty slots in backpack and consumables when switching between commanders in commander card - Disabled on hover reactions of skill icons in combat ability book and in the level up dialog

Audio

- Increased overall max audio volume - Implemented a short audio fadeout when exiting the game to prevent audio from being abruptly cut off, disabled audio when the game window loses focus - Added a few missing death sounds (Bright ones and Liberators)

[ 2024-11-05 13:16:24 CET ] [ Original post ]

Silence of the Siren - the second EA update!

Hi everybody, the second patch of Silence of the Siren is now live on Steam! While this update contains mostly fixes of issues we gathered from reports on Discord and also here in Discussions, the art and design team have also been busy in the meantime, working on content for the upcoming major updates: new UNSS units, Sovereign Fleet campaign and also new skirmish maps. Also, following feedback we received and some of our own observations, we're also working on a balance update of skills, abilities and items. Last, but not least, we're preparing a detailed plan for the bigger updates that will arrive during the first stage of the Early Access development. Stay tuned! Release notes - version 84d98610:

Features and changes

- Implemented selectable starting commanders for all players in custom scenario/hotseat setup, more improvements to come! - Disabled retreat from bases - Disabled 'neutral army join' dialog buttons while moving a unit - Pirates Captain unit: added custom shoot up and down animations - Blast wave cannon attack now has proper vfx - Updated Capt. Holester's lore shown in the commander card - Improved AI estimate losses on enemy turrets and outposts - Unified how clicking on commander portraits works in the right panel and in the gateway panel - Added QLoc and QLoc translators to credits/language tooltips, switched Chinese to '' in the language list in options

Fixes

- Hotfixed a rare crash that happens when showing the tooltip which calculates enemy hazard - Fixed corrupted save prevents other saves from loading in the load dialog - Fixed events on commanders not triggered on AI heroes attacking the player, this is a possible cause of some progress blockers reported in the campaign - Fixed inventory still remembering last consumable slot when a consumable is used on commanders portrait, other items would then be returned to this slot even if they're from another class - Disabled switching of unit stacks after splitting a stack by dropping one unit by right clicking. This could lead to a situation where the unit on the cursor wouldn't have a place to return to and could cause the player to get extra units when closing the panel while still holding the unit - Fixed switching from moles' base slave camp to other panels using the buttons/keyboard shortcuts didn't save which units have been hired so allowing the player to hire infinite units - Fixed admiral's portraits in Campaign 3 and 4 - Fixed 'Lure local beast' bio ability doesn't take into account daytime for monsters that transform - Fixed lights from turrets stuck on after the turret has been destroyed - Fixed commander list not scaling correctly with "narrow" resolutions like 16:10 or 5:4 and causing a gap in the panel on the right - Fixed wrong font used in headings of black market and boot camp - Fixed unit can sometime move after it is stopped by a turret in siege - Fixed wrong tooltip on fusion core icon in resources in dialog panel - Fixed a few reported issues on the following maps: Confluence, Fossorian campaign 3, Bridges too far - Fixed commanders moved in the campaign via scripted events weren't correctly removed from the base they were visiting - Fixed heavy turret missing its lore text and had wrong image - Fixed training commanders were getting selected by the next commander button - Fixed wrong hit positioning on turrets - Fixed commanders starting with the collector skill do not have extra equipment slot, fix error when forgetting collector at altar of clean slate - Fixed broken layout in unit tooltip (the one shown over unit icons under buildings in building catalog) - Fixed most of unit attribute icons wouldn't show tooltips in the smaller unit hiring panels - A lot of fixes in English texts (typos, use of elipses, ...) - A lot of fixes in Hungarian texts

[ 2024-10-15 12:41:25 CET ] [ Original post ]

Silence of the Siren - first EA update!

Hi everybody, First, thanks to all of you who bought the game on launch and also for all the positive reviews, much appreciated! Today we have the first "regular patch" for you, an update that fixes most of the recently reported issues. We are also updating the Chinese and French texts, especially for Chinese this should mean a big improvement in quality. Here are full release notes - version 122f5cb3

[BLOCKER] Hotfixed a rare case of equipment in consumable slots breaking load
Updated Chinese and French translations
Fixed a few typos in the English texts
Fixed list of objectives not refreshed on map load
Fixed campaign music triggered in campaign level start screen not interrupted when going straight to combat at the beginning of a level
Fixed escape not closing slavers panel in Fossorian base but the whole base, making hired units available again
Fixed panels for units without an upgraded version erroring out when trying to open their unit details panel in slavers panel in Fossorian bases
Fixed recently built building stuck highlighted when quickly switching between bases of similar type
Fixed "debug tile" texts showing in the first loaded level until the player moves the mouse (in campaign it was there until dialogs finish)
Removed unclocalized 'consumable' tooltip on empty consumable slots
Fixed garrisoned hero not automatically selected in base item markets
Fixed Worm doesn't get buried if it's upgraded via field promotion
Fixed side quests in Gold Fever and Confluence scenarios

[ 2024-10-03 11:22:10 CET ] [ Original post ]

Silence of the Siren Early Access

Hi everybody, exciting times! Silence of the Siren launches in Early Access on Monday! For us this marks an important point of a ~4 year development journey and you can imagine how excited we are to finally see our game released into the wild! :) For all the HoMM fans on the team, this has been a bit of a dream project and we hope you'll enjoy the game, just like we have had a great time working on it and allowing ourselves to get creative with the weird sci-fi settings and related game mechanics. The development wasn't without its challenges, like running pre-production during lockdown, but that makes us even more proud that we've reached this important milestone.

What you can look forward to in the EA Build

A quick recap: Three playable factions, one of them, the Fossorians, also come with a story campaign. Then there are 9 custom skirmish maps, lots of buildings, skills, abilities and equipment! From our testing it looks like the overall playtime is already way over 30 hours (or even more, if you like to explore every nook and cranny like some of us do). :) Some interesting and helpful features:

Day-night cycle affecting not only graphics, but also some units
Building mechanics on the map
A lot of useful shortcuts in the UI, like highlighting interactive objects, enemy movement range and more
Orbital layer, dangerous zones, teleports, shortcuts and side quests to spice up the maps

More about some of the UI features and graphical features.

Road ahead

From the last few rounds of testing the game looks very stable, but we of course anticipate some rare issues to pop up after release, so we'll pay proper attention to fixing these first. Then, what you're all looking for, the updates: we have been able to update the game regularly, so this will continue and you'll see the remaining branches of the story campaign arrive, accompanied by the two remaining factions and the main features for the full game, like the map editor and scripting system. We aim to stay in EA for roughly a year to complete all the content and features on our list:

Join our community!

First, let us take this opportunity to thank everybody who joined us in the different testing stages over last year. We can tell how much better the game is and how stable it has become thanks to all the feedback and bug reports. We're looking forward to listening to and working with you during the Early Access stage to make the game even better as it approaches its full release. Feel free to join our Discord server! Also, for any content creators out there, we'd love to see you make videos/stream the game. Feel free to reach out, we are happy to provide keys to reasonably-sized channels aimed at similar games and genres! Now let us compile one last build of the game with latest fixes and fingers crossed everything goes smoothly on Monday! :)

[ 2024-09-27 14:28:57 CET ] [ Original post ]

Early Access Trailer!

Only 4 days left until Silence of the Siren launches in Early Access! We are excited to show you a brand new trailer made for the occasion. Give it a watch and tell us what you think! :) [previewyoutube=-wUXy2DJ5QU;full][/previewyoutube]

[ 2024-09-26 15:56:51 CET ] [ Original post ]

The Sovereign Fleet has landed!

Sit close to the fire, my young friends! Take a sip of beer and listen to what I have to say to those young ears of yours, because the story of Sovereign Fleet is about old men and even older grudges. And about crazy aliens, yes, about those too. So listen up, now. It will be really shiny.
You all know the Sovereign Fleet of today. They call us space pirates and see us as smugglers from rim colonies who accept any fugitive and weirdo who stray among us. Ha! Those empty kegs! We are so much more! Primo, we are family. The ever-fighting, bickering, and annoyingly loud kind, but a family nevertheless. We care for each other and have one another's back like a family and it makes us strong. Secundo, we are warriors. Warriors born both of necessity and lust for an adventurous life. A colorful rebellion against the UNSS, its oppression, and its artificial way of life, bound and governed by corporate greed. And those crazy aliens. The Sovereign Fleet is like a wild weed. It sprouts in places unfit for life, turns to blossom against all odds, and then withers away only to grow again just a few feet away. This weed cannot be eradicated by any elaborate poison. If you stomp it down it will rise again, and trust me, my friend, it will leave some long thorns in your boots sole.
But why the metaphor: poisons and heavy boots? The answer is once again the UNSS - and there would be no UNSS without the crazy aliens. The Earth as their predecessor and the Sovereign Colonies, our ancestors, had their fair share of animosity before, but only when the cursed aliens called Hesperidians arrived in the Solar System and stuck their ugly insect faces out of their mothership, an immense interstellar ark, the real ugly business started to happen. I don't know why the Hesperidians chose the Earth over the Sovereigns, but they did. Together they started to build the UNSS establishment and Earth received all the alien technology and know-how. That was the beginning of the end for the Sovereign Colonies. What happened then, you ask? You know what always happens when two possess all the power and have no common goal. The war happened. It does not matter which incident kindled the fights but they spread like wildfire and quickly as one, too. The war started by clashes between starships, but the Sovereign fleet was quickly scattered. We had no idea the Hesperidians had the shield technology and without it, the fights quickly moved to our space stations, asteroid mining facilities, and under the crystal bubbles of planetary colonies. We gave them a hell of a fight, but they fought dirty and did not shy away from using any new technology.
Then the governors arrived and established a protectorate. Labor camps, prison colonies, repopulation. Name any atrocity, you wont be wrong. But in those dark times, the Sovereign fleet began its return. The small acts of heroism, inconsequential sabotages, and ambushes in the rim territories. Masked as transport ships, we began our fight against tyranny. A desperate fight, fed by grief and vengeance. Over the years, most of the old captains fell to the UNSS hunt, one by one. The Hesperidians used all the dirty tricks they had, but a handful of those old spacewolves managed to survive to this day. That is good because they are the backbone of the Sovereign Fleet now. The body and muscles. You lot. The young generation became Sovereigns for different reasons. You hot-headed devils seek adventure, wealth, and the most glittering currency of them all, fame. The usual expiration date of the new sovereign captains back in the Solar System was a year or two, depending on their talent for evasion. But despite the number of exemplary cases, new captains always appeared.
The Solar system is only so big and it can only hide so many ships. A balance was kept for some time. But everything changed the moment a path to a new world opened. The Siren System became our promised land. And then a miracle came. We were cut from the Solar System. The remnants of the UNSS fleet that moved here with us lost their advantage of superior numbers. Forgotten settlers from rim colonies, Fossorian deserters, and renegade Children of the Source, all came to join our way of life.
The UNSS already lost the Siren system, because they lost the most important war. The war for people's hearts. Step by step, heart by heart, we will take everything they have and return nothing. We will build this place wild and beautiful. We will take the old dream about sovereignty and make it into reality in our new home. And one day, who knows? Perhaps there will be enough strength to kick the UNSS and their crazy alien friends from the Solar System too!

[ 2024-09-05 13:21:18 CET ] [ Original post ]

Dev Diary: Fog, Lights and Nights

In today's post we'd like to go just a tiny bit more technical than usually. Let's peek a bit behind the scenes and let's have a look at a few features we're particularly happy with how they turned out. And we'll of course also mention why they're interesting when you actually play the game! :)

The Day-night cycle

Matching a day-night cycle to the cycle that controls when the units get replenished at your bases works so well! Especially the bases themselves can look quite beautiful at night.

But we're not only talking about visual spice that adds to the atmosphere. We've already started enabling some gameplay features built on top of this, like monsters changing between day and night.

Different days (cycles) will also often trigger different global effects. Some of these will give you a bonus, some will impede your production or limit your visibility range on the map.

Lights

In realtime graphics (unless you use the so-called deferred rendering, which is not suitable for our graphics style with a lot of transparency and hand-drawn sprites) there's usually a limit to how many dynamic lights the engine allows you to use - in Unity it's 4. We use these for the main light that casts shadows and for an ambient light, but we needed much more. The solution? A custom 2D light map.

We render sprites that represent lights of different shapes to a texture, which is then accessed by shaders that draw all the different types of objects, monsters and terrain. And what are these lights actually used for?

There are colored lights to subtly highlight which player owns which structure.
There are directional lights from your commander's 'torchlights'.
And a lot of custom pointlights placed by the map designers to highlight objects or locations.

Fog of war

The Fog of War system has been one of the most complicated features to implement, as it affects almost everything else in the game. There are three levels of the starry 'fog' as you explore the map: undiscovered, 'remembered' and of course areas currently visible to your commanders and structures. As you leave an area, the game must remember the state of everything when you've seen it last and this is for example used when a path is planned for your commanders. The game will also give you a [!] notification and sometimes pause your commander's movement if you return to a discovered area and something has changed, like when the treasure you're going to pick up has been already taken or a monster already defeated.

Now, let's have a quick look at the graphical side. A starry sky with some light nebulosity works well for the sci-fi settings. To make things more complicated for ourselves, we also added a little paradox: Notice that the Fog of War texture looks like it is above the terrain (this is quite subtle, but look at some stars on the left or on the right next to the discovered area)!

One more little detail is that objects right at the edge of the undiscovered territory don't just pop up, but they get rendered as their silhouettes first, so they can nicely fade-in!

Let us know if you enjoyed this kind of a technical post! We might do one about scripting the campaign, if you're interested. The next post though should be a proper introduction of the Sovereign Fleet, the third playable faction included in the Early Access build coming in September! https://store.steampowered.com/app/2147380/Silence_of_the_Siren/

[ 2024-08-29 13:07:47 CET ] [ Original post ]

Dev Diary: Building on the World Map

In Silence of the Siren you're not limited to taking over the existing buildings on the map. There are a few useful structures that your commanders can construct to defend your territory, boost your income or surprise your enemies.

The Rules

Any commander can use their movement points once per round to construct something. The objects cost some resources and usually take a short while to activate, but if you so desire, you can spend a little bit extra to power them up immediately.

There are also special points on each map, building zones, that allow you to construct these structures with a big discount.

If one of your structures isn't needed anymore, you can always take it down. You will even reclaim some of the materials that were used to build it. Some of your commanders will learn the Builder skill. It allows them to construct more powerful versions of the buildings and gives some nice discounts for various actions on the map, including upgrading your mines!

The Structures

First, let's list them all, then we'll have a closer look at three examples!

Mining probes,
Automatic turrets,
Outposts,
Drone dogs,
Cybersnares, traps that catch enemy commanders - available to commanders with maxed-out Builder skill.

Drone Dogs are small stationary bots that extend the visibility in the fog of war. It's always nice to leave one behind when returning from an expedition to see if somebody is following in your steps. :)

Outposts let you leave guards at your chosen location - and provide a few special perks.

Most importantly, if you have a gateway-type building in your base, you can send troops to your outposts directly!

Also, when some enemy units want to join you during negotiations, but there's no space in your army, no problem! The nearest outpost can accept the recruits instead! Then, on the economy side of things, there are Mining Probes. Here, we're talking about a classic risk/reward mechanic. A probe will mine some resources each round, until somebody pays it a visit and empties it. Do you need the resources right now? Oh, somebody else left an unguarded mining probe nearby! And so on. :)

While we still have some work ahead especially when it comes to game balance, you should now have a pretty good idea about the options your commanders have at hand when they're out in the wild. Which one did you find most interesting? Have you tried any of these in the demo? Let us know in the discussion!

[ 2024-06-20 13:21:10 CET ] [ Original post ]

Silence of the Siren Saturday Developer Stream

In this (pre-recorded) one hour stream we play a skirmish map and show a couple of playable factions from the distant Siren star system. Come check out some of the interesting mechanics and features in this upcoming turn-based strategy game with RPG elements.

[ 2024-06-07 12:04:32 CET ] [ Original post ]

Silence of the Siren Developer Stream

[ 2024-06-07 11:56:43 CET ] [ Original post ]

The big Next Fest Demo update!

Hi, we're happy to announce that a big update of the Silence of the Siren demo is already up for everybody to try and it brings a new map which is not only fun to play, but also showcases quite a few new features. Let's have a look:

Going up!

The maps in Silence of the Siren will have different layers and this is the new Orbital layer you can visit if you find a working space port. Or, like in the demo, if you get kicked out there for your actions against the Fossorian military. O_o

Story, scripted events and quests!

Trying not to spoil anything, but... :) The demo level starts with a bit of story and has some more character interactions that can give you a bit of a picture of how the campaign planned for EA is going to work. Don't forget to visit the Keeper for a little side quest!

Building new buildings!

Exploiting the territory for more resources? Guarding it passively or with automatic turrets? Any commander can build a selection of structures and commanders with the Builder skill get access to more powerful version of each.

General's new clothes?

Ok, you know how game development works: iterations. This is, if we remember correctly, the fifth version of the commander card - but it's getting better and better! :)

So, these are some of the main changes in the demo introduced over the last few months. if you'd like to give the game a try yourself, the demo is already up on Steam. And as always, we'll be grateful for any feedback, bug reports, wishlists - and let's hope the game does well during the Next Fest event. And then, the next milestone is already the EA release at the end of September. Fingers crossed!

[ 2024-06-06 13:08:56 CET ] [ Original post ]

Silence of the Siren: We have a date for the EA release!

Hi everybody, big news today! We have set the official date for the EA release! The game will be out on the 30th of September this autumn.
It's been a long journey through all the different milestones, from alpha and first showcases at different events, through a beta test and a public demo release early this year. The game has been getting more and more polished, we've been steadily adding more content and features and we've been implementing feedback from the community. In September, everything should be ready and we hope you'll have a lot of fun with the game and join us on the rest of the journey! :)

[ 2024-05-30 15:17:02 CET ] [ Original post ]

A Brief History of Children of the Source

"The militant religious order of fanatical man-size insectoid full-body cyborgs" is the most compact description of the Children of the Source. Of course, it is not the same answer as the typical member of the order would give you. And the one you would receive today isn't what you would hear from them some thousand years ago. Therefore sit comfortably, bring a drink, and dive with us into the deep and murky waters of history, evolution, and the present of the Children of the Source. The story of the order reaches into the ancient biological time of the founder race. Many researchers believe that the founders lived in a typical eusocial society with a caste system and roles given by specialization of the body type on the concrete hierarchical level. But researchers tend to overcomplicate things, so instead, imagine a beehive with the queen, workers, warriors, and so on, and let them evolve into a space-faring civilization.
Somewhere along the way, the species must have lost the ability to reproduce. Maybe the queens died or were overthrown by a lesser cast or another species. Your guess is as good as mine. But one thing is certain: facing extinction, the members of the species began to prolong their lifespan at the cost of their biological bodies, and in the end, only the full-body cyborgs remained. The effort exhausted their home planet which was the cause and the very beginning of the interstellar crusades.
Yes, there is the official liturgy that claims the reason for the crusades was seeking the lost goddess-queen the Allmother and she sleeps somewhere in the Siren System. Speaking of Allmother, the unforgiving, bloodthirsty, malevolent creature demanding absolute subservience, usually depicted as 20ft tall, steel statue with sharp spiky limbs and the kind smile of an Asian giant hornet, one can only hope they will never find her. But back to the crusades.

Shaped by evolution?

Regarding the look and limb count of the Children of the Source, the crusades must have targeted more insect parts of the galaxy or by that time the order considered assimilating the non-insectoid species inappropriate. In short, they followed the rule If you have less than 6 limbs you probably have no soul and cannot play with us. That mirrors even the constitution and look of today's Children of the Source warriors. Shiny metal armor substitutes the chitin exoskeleton, tiny multi-lens cameras are in the same places as the compound eyes would be, and even the ceramic mandibles are present despite the cyborgs rarely needing to cut the food to bites.

The story continued like that for quite some time, till the Children, now possessing a gargantuan fleet and endless numbers of warriors, reached the Siren System. There, an irresistible force met an immovable object. Ancient Primals, with their superb crystal-based technology and deep understanding of psionic powers, were the bite the Children could not swallow. Even though the warriors of the order were far from the mass swarm attacks, so usual for insectoid species, and relied heavily on smart tactics, technology, and the quality and strength of each warrior, Primals were more than capable of resisting. The momentum of the whole crusade discharged on the single solar system. The price both sides paid was enormous, the entire race of Primals perished, their cities in ruin, planets emptied, and ecosystems broken, but Children of the Source were stopped, their fleet turned into derelicts orbiting the planets and the order was reduced to a fraction of its former power. Yet not all the Children were destroyed.

The Children today

The last millennium went in a spirit of restoration. Unable to assimilate more members, the Children's only means of replenishing numbers was to roam the old battlefield, and starship derelicts while looking for anyone they could repair and re-awake. Despite the circumstances, their numbers steadily grew and the wonder of the Temple City emerged from the desert as the last bastion of hope for the order. The Children have even found new enemies. The Tumori tribes, a race of parasitic aliens, arose from the toxic jungles like a twisted joke in the high culture of Primals expense. The last topic we will cover in this article is the present situation of the Children of the Source. It is difficult. After a series of defeats and without the means of reproduction the order stands on the verge of extinction. Paradoxically though, the most severe defenders of old ways perished in the last years, and the arrival of the two organic species to the Siren system started the process of change. Children opened their religion to the newcomers and swiftly persuaded the UNSS and the Fossorians to form an alliance. They have even opened some parts of the Temple City to outsiders.

A new era has begun. The Children of the Source are trying to assume the role of defenders of peace and while facing extinction show a kinder face to the world. And we all truly hope that they will stay on their new path and will not stray to the old one. Now, before you enter the Temple City, forget all you have just read! The Zieregals, the order inquisitors, will ask you many uncomfortable questions and they dislike biological creatures knowing too much from the secret history of the order.

[ 2024-05-23 12:53:28 CET ] [ Original post ]

First Silence of the Siren Demo update!

Hi everybody, We're happy to introduce the first update to the demo version of Silence of the Siren. This is mostly a patch with some important fixes but it also brings a couple of features that were most requested on Discord and Steam forums: the option to have larger texts and to disable some possibly uncomfortable effects in battles. Silence of the Siren Demo update 1 (version a83aabb4) Changes & fixes

Implemented first version of UI/text scaling
Added an option to disable screen shake/screen flashing in combat
Improved tutorial flow and texts
Improved memory management during game startup (this should help with rare crashes on machines with 8 GB and according to some reports even 16 GB of RAM)
Fixed commander card couldn't be open if the commander had a blocked route
Fixed cursor in combat not updating with ranged units taking turns after each other

[ 2024-03-14 15:06:18 CET ] [ Original post ]

Silence of the Siren Demo is out now!

Hi, we're excited to announce that a public demo of Silence of the Siren is now available on Steam! Go give the game a try yourselves and lead a group of Fossorians (Space Moles) to victory on one of the most colorful maps we made so far!

[ 2024-02-01 14:40:26 CET ] [ Original post ]

Happy Holidays from Oxymoron Games!

Hello everybody, It looks like it's time to slowly wrap up 2023 and like every year, let us take this opportunity to wish you a Merry Holiday and a Happy New Year! Also, we would like to thank everybody who bought Project Hospital during the last 12 months or participated in the currently running beta test of Silence of the Siren, our upcoming turn based strategy game. Welcome to the community! For us, the year was mostly consumed by Silence of the Siren, as we're getting closer and closer to its planned release in Early Access. We visited several conferences across Europe including Gamescom and EGX and had a great time showing the game to a lot of you. With Project Hospital, we were mostly helping players with the occasional technical issue and some compatibility problems on the Steam Deck. Also thanks for a few very nice messages with feedback and ideas we received during the year! The team will now be mostly off until January 2nd, which means we might not be available on our social channels. If you encounter any issues, dont hesitate to ask our amazing community here on the Steam forum, otherwise we should be able to get back to you at the beginning of January. For now enjoy the holidays and the upcoming Winter Sale!

[ 2023-12-21 13:09:57 CET ] [ Original post ]

Join the Silence of the Siren Beta!

Hi everybody! We started the closed beta for Silence of the Siren with our discord community members last week and after three updates and a lot of bugfixes we are ready to invite more people! So, if you'd like to try out an early but already quite playable version of the game and tell us what you think, please join our discord and fill in a short registration form. We will then be able to email you the Steam keys for the beta build in the next round. https://discord.com/invite/CBmbwXETuU https://forms.gle/JWwB3gc8YiGxEX5RA We're looking forward to seeing you on the discord and to all the feedback and bug reports!

[ 2023-12-15 13:13:16 CET ] [ Original post ]

First developer stream of Silence of the Siren (pre-recorded)

Join us today at 19:00 CET for the first developer stream of our upcoming turn-based strategy game Silence of the Siren. Our PR and Community Manager Vojta will guide you through the game mechanics, providing insights gained from months of testing. https://store.steampowered.com/app/2147380/Silence_of_the_Siren/

[ 2023-11-16 16:10:45 CET ] [ Original post ]

10 friendly features in Silence of the Siren

In todays development update were going to have a look at some nifty features and quality of life improvements weve already added to Silence of the Siren in the early stages of development. Lets start once again at a Fossorian base.

1. Dependencies

When expanding the base, there are various dependencies between the different upgrades. In the catalog, we directly highlight these when youre browsing through the options. You can also see them all listed in the building details window of course, but that would mean opening another panel every time.

2. Shortcuts

Next, lets have a look at how easy it is to recruit units: there are shortcuts to hire all units of each type and even to recruit the full army at once. If you dont have enough resources, the two white buttons allow you to automatically hire as many units as you can afford, starting from the weakest or from the strongest type.

3. Mini shortcuts!

We can go one step further though, some buildings have a mini version of their shortcut panel that appears if you hover over them, so you can save one more click. :)

4. Trading

The final place well visit at the base will be our Trading Post. Sometimes youll need to exchange resources to be able to afford units or buildings, sometimes youll need to exchange a lot of them. We found out that giving a few options of how many to trade is more convenient than trying to fine-tune a slider.

5. Reorder your commanders!

Now, were out in the desert with Bulletproof Benni and Captain Holester. Sometimes youll realize that your commanders might have switched roles and theyre not in the order youd like them to be in - no problem, lets just swap them!

6. One by one!

Army management also allows quite a few options. You can split a unit stack in half or in any ratio, but for distributing for example your starting ranged units into several slots, you can drop them one by one by right clicking.

7. Outlines everywhere!

While all the interactable and pickable objects on the map have quite distinct graphics, were finding ourselves quite capable of missing one from time to time - not if you press [Alt] though!

8. Dialogs in check

The next two are closely related, so lets keep them under #8: some dialogs will have a shortcut button for the most common action, saving you for example going to your commanders inventory and using or equipping an item.

Clicking the end of turn button will check if you still have any available actions at your bases or any commanders that can still move. Still, if these dialogs dont make sense for your playstyle or for example in the late game, any dialog with the eye icon can be disabled and for example all picked items will just go to the commanders inventory.

9. Mini me?

For the last two, lets go into a battle! When big armies clash and the situation becomes a bit hectic, feel free to hold the [Ctrl] key.

10. Tactical knowledge!

At the start of the battle, you often want to move as close to your enemies as possible without letting them reach you - no need to check their movement number in the unit info panel and count hexes, just hold [Shift] while hovering over them with your mouse cursor.

So, these have been some of the ideas we had and have implemented in the game (that wed already find hard to live without). :) [previewyoutube=d_WUy7NRRR8;full][/previewyoutube] Do you have any other suggestions of for example features youve missed in other games or found useful when added by the modding community? Let us know in the comments! https://store.steampowered.com/app/2147380/Silence_of_the_Siren/

[ 2023-11-02 15:55:15 CET ] [ Original post ]

Introduction to Fossorians

If somebody wrote a Fossorian Encyclopedia, the cover of the book would display cute space moles dressed in ornate uniforms in front of a pompous military parade in the background. Row after row of soldiers marching in tight formations through the vast, clean streets lined with crowds of cheering workers dressed in colorful overalls.
The introduction of the book would speak about their impressive army relying mainly on the overwhelming numbers and brute strength of the ground forces. High morale, uplifted by watchful officers of the Commissars Core and inspired by stories about the brave deeds of heroic commanders. Despite their undisputed ground force dominance, there is a small chance that the author would mention some vague information about the relatively unsatisfactory state of the factions Space Navy and the dismal technical condition of most of their ships still recovering after a rather dramatic escape from the Fossorian homeworld, long journey to the Siren System and the unfortunate clash with the much more technologically advanced fleet of the UNSS (United Nations of the Solar System).
Another few pages of the very verbose encyclopedia would be addressing underground bases. These fortified marvels of brutalist engineering sprawl in gargantuan caverns. Flipping through the pages, the next section would elaborate on the steadily growing network of tunnels used for safe and quick transportation of units and materials. Fossorian colonies are capable of producing a seemingly endless stream of goods far below the Fairtrade prices, but to unveil the secrets behind their economic efficiency the reader must wait for the later chapters.
If we overlook the aforementioned military dominance and economic strength, the end of the book's introduction would surely list a few other good reasons why the other factions trapped in the Siren System fear, tolerate, and even like to cooperate with Fosorians. Let's discuss at least some of them here. Metaphorically speaking, all factions are stranded on an island surrounded by a sea of hostile natives, alien and mostly dangerous wildlife. Unstable ecosystems are always ready to wipe out whole colonies with ravaging storms, and remnants of the Holy War are an active threat even after centuries. Under such harsh conditions, striving for peaceful cooperation seems to be a much smarter option than risking an open conflict with the neighboring faction.
The Fossorians are also known for their successful land conquest, biting chunk after chunk from the tribal territories. This slow but steady effort is expanding the amount of land secured against the raids of natives while helping to export the danger far from the most populated areas. Every now and then a courageous Fossorian explorer uncovers another piece of mysterious technology hidden amid the dangerous ruins of the ancient Primals. Thanks to the fact that the overseeing organizations of the Fossorian command are prone to look aside (usually for a reasonable contribution to someone's "pension fund"), many of the artifacts and rare technologies end up on the black market and subsequently in research facilities of other more technologically advanced factions.
Now if it wasn't Fossorians themselves, but researchers from one of the other races who wrote this book, it would also list items like Totalitarian fanaticism, Sadistic junta, Slaver business, Pathological traitor syndrome, or Endless spiral of revolutions after which you slowly begin to realize that maybe, just maybe, the Fossorians are not the nicest or the fairest players in the Siren System. But as the Fossorian ambassador has stated on the last peace summit: Even if a small fraction of those unsupported claims would reflect reality (which it certainly DOES NOT, my Goodfellas), it would be classified as a inner state business of the Fosorian nation, with absolutely no impact on the international politics of the Siren System and unworthy of your concerns. Now, gentlemen, if you excuse me, I have spotted an unattended bowl of Tunnel worm caviar over there. Of course, the whole idea of a Fossorian Encyclopedia is absolutely ludicrous. Nobody is dumb enough to write such a book and mark himself as the next target of the Fossorian death commando.

[ 2023-09-21 13:02:08 CET ] [ Original post ]

First gameplay video of Silence of the Siren

We are happy to show you the first commented gameplay video of Silence of the Siren. In this playthrough we focus on the main features - exploration, base management and battles. We hope it will give you more insight about what to expect from the game. If you have any questions, of course dont hesitate to let us know in the comments. We plan to release the game in Early Access sometime next year. If you are interested in playing the game sooner, we plan to run a closed beta test a few months earlier. The best way not to miss it is to join our Discord: https://discord.gg/qaQQat2dbC If you are a content creator or journalist who is interested in the game, make sure to contact us by email: pr@oxymoron.games. We might have a demo for you very soon. [previewyoutube=30IusBEAVaQ;full][/previewyoutube]

[ 2023-08-17 08:00:37 CET ] [ Original post ]

Managing bases in Silence of the Siren

The base is the main center of your operations as we shared in a previous Steam post showcasing the Fossorian base. But how do you control it? Lets have a look at the UI and all the useful features.
When you enter the base, you can see all the constructed buildings. You can simply click on any structure to use it or access its most common functions via a small shortcut panel. Get new units in the Recruitment Center, hire new commanders in the Fossorian Tavern or trade resources at the Trading Center. All units which are defending the base are visible in the garrison panel. Also notice the right panel with detailed information about income, unit growth, list of all bases, location of the base on the minimap, current day cycle and also a row of quick access buttons which give you another quick way to access the different functions.
The Structures panel shows all buildings which have been or can be constructed at the base. There are several categories of buildings from the economically focused ones like the Tax Bureau and Replicator to the seven upgradeable recruitment buildings like Ratling Slum or the Hammerite Tower. When your base is strong enough, youll of course want to protect it and the structures attached to your Fossorian Stronghold like Defensive Tower or a floating Minefield are the best for that. And if you want to teach your commanders new abilities, make sure to construct and upgrade the Academy. As you can see on the screenshots, if there are dependencies between different buildings, we highlight them with a slight glow so its clear which buildings you need for your next upgrade.
If you have enough resources, you can build a new building once per turn. Many buildings can be upgraded to unlock new functions or the second tier of the unit they produce. If you lack resources, make sure to use the Trading Post, where you can exchange your surplus resources for what you actually need. Unfortunately, the prices are quite unfavorable for you and only get better when you have more bases and more Trading Posts.
Each cycle every base and its buildings produce a limited number of units for hire. You can have a look at your new units in the Recruitment Center. The interface gives you detailed info about every unit in the base, its statistics and capabilities like which units have a ranged attack.
You can also read a bit about their role in the lore. If you are in a hurry, there are shortcut buttons available for all the most common hiring actions.
When you recruit units, you of course also need a commander to lead them. Although individual units can defend the base by themselves, they cannot leave it without a commander. If there are two commanders in the base, you can also activate their meeting panel. That will allow you to not only exchange units, but also equipment or consumables, helping you to manage the strength of specific armies. This panel is still deeply work in progress, but the functionality will remain the same. [previewyoutube=eZ7NS2tmqHc;full][/previewyoutube] Capturing and upgrading your bases is crucial for your economy, but it must always be balanced with other elements to ensure victory. Never underestimate the need to explore. Good usage of all advantages the map gives you can be just as important, but that is something we will show you more about in the future. How do you like the UI and features we have shown you so far?

[ 2023-08-03 08:00:39 CET ] [ Original post ]

Upgrading of units in Silence of the Siren

The power of your army is not only in the numbers, what is just as important are the actions available to your units. In Silence of the Siren, every unit can be upgraded to a stronger and more capable version. All you need is the second tier of their recruitment building at your base. Of course, upgrading will increase the units stats and give them a cooler look, but it doesnt end with that, it always unlocks more options. These can be passive skills that give the unit some advantage which works automatically. Or, what is even more fun: special attacks. There are a lot of variations from powerful area attacks to triggering actions which will change the units behavior. To demonstrate this, lets have a look at several units from the Fossorian faction as examples.
Ratling Goon is the weakest unit of the Fossorians. His pathetic equipment matches the command's trust in his fighting abilities. Normally all he can do is to hit one unit with his hoe in close combat. But if we upgrade him to Ratling Gunner, he is changed into a ranged unit.
This huge guy is a Hammerite, tier 3 unit. Only one of ten adepts will survive the extensive cybernetic augmentation required to operate a Hammerite power armor. Thanks to the armor, the unit hits so hard that it can strike three units standing next to each other. If you upgrade it into a Hammerite Honor Guard, it will get a mighty weapon called the rocket hammer. Now the unit has unlocked a special ability which makes the hits so strong that they will cause a seismic wave hitting all enemies in its way.
Commissar Cadet is one of the fastest units in the game and can cross almost the entire battlefield. In his basic form, he is a close combat cavalry unit, very useful for attacking ranged units. But if you upgrade him, he will turn into Seasoned Commissar. Once in a few turns he can throw his new javelin, causing an explosion that can hit multiple units in a small area. [previewyoutube=9TtWTjguQNU;full][/previewyoutube] Upgrading your units can change the entire gameplay and using them properly gives tremendous advantage on the battlefield. We plan to introduce more units and their special abilities in the future. How do you like this game mechanic?

[ 2023-06-15 08:49:46 CET ] [ Original post ]

The first look at base building

Every faction needs its center of operations and that is what we are here to share with you today. As an example, we will be taking a closer look at the Fossorian outpost to demonstrate the mechanics of base building. [previewyoutube=CBQ1k_LL72c;full][/previewyoutube] And who are the Fossorians, you may ask? Other factions call them moles for their similarity to little furry animals from the Earth - it is true that some ancestors in Fossorian evolution probably occupied a similar niche. Still, be careful not to use this name in their presence, you really do not want any of those furry bastards for an enemy. Centuries prior to the space age, the Fossorians escaped from the polluted wasteland of the planetary surface to the colder but much safer embrace of underground cities. They also brought this architectural tradition to the Siren System as it provides additional protection against bombardment, infiltration, and also citizen emigration. The brutalist style mirrors the overgrown ego of its creators and complements the need for living in the safety of a bunker.
Theyre capable of building huge underground structures which can host thousands of warriors and war machines. At the beginning there are only the essentials: a base core to control all operations from, basic fortifications and of course a space bar where bored commanders are looking for a next job.
After a few planetary cycles the base has grown quite a bit. The core building has been expanded and provides more income each turn. It is possible to recruit many more units and they have access to a trading hub so if they lack some resources, they can easily buy them or sell them if they are overstocked. At this stage the Academy has come online and can teach commanders new abilities that can provide a huge advantage in battle.
The Base is now fully upgraded. It is possible to recruit the strongest units in their second upgraded form and teach commanders some of the most powerful special abilities. Other important upgrades increase visibility range around the base, allow heroes to travel from base to base and the fully developed defenses help to defeat even much stronger opponents.
Of course base is just a small part of everything that is needed to conquer the Siren system. There are many structures on the map which provide important resources or even units you can use. But never underestimate the importance of the center of your operations. We are now working on UI and soon we will show you the different ways how you can interact with your base and with individual buildings. How do you like the design so far?

[ 2023-04-27 12:00:51 CET ] [ Original post ]

Happy Holiday from Oxymoron Games!

Hello everyone! With the year 2022 almost at the end, we would like to take this opportunity to wish you a Merry Holiday and a Happy New Year. We know it was a difficult year for many of you and new challenges didnt miss our studio as well. But in the end we are excited about what awaits us in 2023. Even though active development of Project Hospital has ended and no more DLC is planned, we continue to support the game. We added Steam Deck support so you can play the game everywhere. With new patches we tried to improve the game with recent patch 40 being the last one of this year. Our biggest event though was the announcement of Silence of the Siren, a sci-fi turn-based strategy game. For us it is an opportunity to try something new and we hope many of you will join Early Access which we plan to release next year. The team will now need to recharge a little bit and will be taking a holiday until January 2nd, which means we might not be available on our social channels. If you encounter any issues, dont hesitate to ask our amazing community on the Steam forum, if they cant help, we should be able to get back to you at the beginning of January. We hope the start of your Holiday will be more enjoyable with the Steam Winter Sale where Project Hospital will be available with a 50% discount and 20% discount for all DLCs. Merry Holiday and Happy New Year!

[ 2022-12-20 15:36:48 CET ] [ Original post ]

Silence of the Siren
Oxymoron Games

Developer

Oxymoron Games

Publisher

Coming soon

Release

Action Indie Strategy Casual RPG Adventure Simulation F2P Sports MMO Racing Singleplayer Multiplayer Coop EA