This year we have had the opportunity to show DHMC off at local game development conferences (such as COSI – Game Masters Series, and GDX Edmonton), as well as trade shows and games events such as K Days and ReplayFX. The benefit of demoing DHMC at these events are immense. Not only does it allow us to show DHMC to new sets of eyes who might not be aware of it (after all Indie teams such as ourselves do not have much in the way of marketing budgets to promote our games), but we are also able to show off "in development" content that we haven't put live, and most importantly we can gather feedback first hand as we witness and interact with totally new players trying it out the game for the first time.
While we totally appreciate all of the great feedback that our community does for us here on Steam, there is something uniquely special about being able to watch people play a game that you have made and see the immense smile on their faces from the enjoyment that they get from playing DHMC. Some of the best examples of this that we witness are when parents and their children sit down and play DHMC together at these shows and get to experience the game together (sometimes at the same screen if the child is very young, but often they would play at different stations at a networked setup we have had at these shows).
Obviously having hundreds of people a day check out DHMC and potentially creating new fans is a huge boon for us, however what is most valuable towards the future development of DHMC comes through our observations and interactions with these players (either online through forums like Steam, or in person at these shows). This, combined with analytics data, allows us to get a clearer idea of where our "pain points" are and what we need to do more of to craft DHMC to be a better experience right out of the box.
Some of you might be curious what type of information a casual player shares with us. Here are some snippets of the data that we collected from the last event we were at.
As you can guess people really want customization in DHMC with the majority wanting at bare minimum what we have now in the game, and many asking for even more levels of customization beyond that. This is something that we have talked about at internal meetings, but we feel is certainly worth more discussion from the community as a whole.
We were a bit surprised by this level of feedback, as we would have expected players to want more unique controllers. But it looks to be that keyboard and mouse are still the dominant input controls that people want.
Not a lot of hatred here for the 3^rd person controls, although interestingly enough we didn’t get any feedback on whether the cameras were too close to the mechs (something that we have sometimes internally discussed at our meetings).
In this question sample, we were somewhat surprised to find out that people at these shows didn’t even bother to look to see if there was a 1^st person camera option, but that is likely the difference between a “casual” player who just picked up the game, and a hard core stompy bot mech fan. So what does this all mean? Well it means these live events are important for us to attend (obviously) but it also tells us that we have been going the right direction with DHMC, and that we also have to go further in that direction to deliver more of the experience that players want to see in DHMC. If you have an opportunity to see DHMC at an event near you (or really any other independently created game), please stop by and let us know what you think. If you don't get the chance to see us live that is okay too. What is important to us is that we interact with players and learn your thoughts and feelings (both positive and negative) about the game so that we can craft better experiences. We are also appreciative of your input and thank you for being fans of DHMC. Stay tuned for more upcoming insight into the next release…. To join the conversation hit the forums: http://steamcommunity.com/app/266470/discussions To keep up to date join the official game group: http://steamcommunity.com/games/dhmc Logan “Lfoz” Art director Max Gaming Studios

[ 2016-08-05 19:39:48 CET ] [ Original post ]

This year we have had the opportunity to show DHMC off at local game development conferences (such as COSI Game Masters Series, and GDX Edmonton), as well as trade shows and games events such as K Days and ReplayFX. The benefit of demoing DHMC at these events are immense. Not only does it allow us to show DHMC to new sets of eyes who might not be aware of it (after all Indie teams such as ourselves do not have much in the way of marketing budgets to promote our games), but we are also able to show off "in development" content that we haven't put live, and most importantly we can gather feedback first hand as we witness and interact with totally new players trying it out the game for the first time.
While we totally appreciate all of the great feedback that our community does for us here on Steam, there is something uniquely special about being able to watch people play a game that you have made and see the immense smile on their faces from the enjoyment that they get from playing DHMC. Some of the best examples of this that we witness are when parents and their children sit down and play DHMC together at these shows and get to experience the game together (sometimes at the same screen if the child is very young, but often they would play at different stations at a networked setup we have had at these shows).
Obviously having hundreds of people a day check out DHMC and potentially creating new fans is a huge boon for us, however what is most valuable towards the future development of DHMC comes through our observations and interactions with these players (either online through forums like Steam, or in person at these shows). This, combined with analytics data, allows us to get a clearer idea of where our "pain points" are and what we need to do more of to craft DHMC to be a better experience right out of the box.
Some of you might be curious what type of information a casual player shares with us. Here are some snippets of the data that we collected from the last event we were at.
As you can guess people really want customization in DHMC with the majority wanting at bare minimum what we have now in the game, and many asking for even more levels of customization beyond that. This is something that we have talked about at internal meetings, but we feel is certainly worth more discussion from the community as a whole.
We were a bit surprised by this level of feedback, as we would have expected players to want more unique controllers. But it looks to be that keyboard and mouse are still the dominant input controls that people want.
Not a lot of hatred here for the 3^rd person controls, although interestingly enough we didnt get any feedback on whether the cameras were too close to the mechs (something that we have sometimes internally discussed at our meetings).
In this question sample, we were somewhat surprised to find out that people at these shows didnt even bother to look to see if there was a 1^st person camera option, but that is likely the difference between a casual player who just picked up the game, and a hard core stompy bot mech fan. So what does this all mean? Well it means these live events are important for us to attend (obviously) but it also tells us that we have been going the right direction with DHMC, and that we also have to go further in that direction to deliver more of the experience that players want to see in DHMC. If you have an opportunity to see DHMC at an event near you (or really any other independently created game), please stop by and let us know what you think. If you don't get the chance to see us live that is okay too. What is important to us is that we interact with players and learn your thoughts and feelings (both positive and negative) about the game so that we can craft better experiences. We are also appreciative of your input and thank you for being fans of DHMC. Stay tuned for more upcoming insight into the next release. To join the conversation hit the forums: http://steamcommunity.com/app/266470/discussions To keep up to date join the official game group: http://steamcommunity.com/games/dhmc Logan Lfoz Art director Max Gaming Studios

[ 2016-08-05 19:39:48 CET ] [ Original post ]

WARNING: THIS GAME IS CURRENTLY IN EARLY ACCESS AND IS CONSIDERED IN ALPHA. IF YOU DO NOT WISH TO PARTICIPATE IN ACTIVE DEVELOPMENT OF A GAME, PLEASE DO NOT PURCHASE THIS ITEM. YOU WILL EXPERIENCE POSSIBLE BUGS, GAME RE-BALANCING AND PERSISTENT STAT RESETS DURING THE DEVELOPMENT PERIOD OF THIS GAME.

In the year 2210, fifty years after the start of the machine wars, the battle mech is the premier weapon of war. Standing over 35 feet tall and weighing up to 40 tons, these hulking behemoths are walking arsenals of firepower and armor that have no other rival in a theatre of war. As part of your factions Mechanized Corps, you will need to utilize your intellect to custom configure battle mechs that suits both your play style and the mission parameters as well as hone your skills and cunning as a pilot to survive

Play on your own or join the action online in a persistent warzone called “Faction Wars” that enables you to not only fight for domination over mission zones to earn unique unlocks and achievements, but also create and manage squadrons, and tracks player and squadron stats.

Dark Horizons : Mechanized Corps is the sequel to the 2005 Independent Games Festival Finalist “Dark Horizons Lore” reviewed on The Junkyard http://legacy.the-junkyard.net/reviews.php?action=viewreview&id=46.

Currently Implemented Features:

• Intense mech based combat. Unleash your firepower and tactics on your opponents. focus your attacks to localize damage to destroy weapons, equipment or even cripple and more readily destroy enemy mechs.
  
• Customize multiple mechs to suit different styles of play or mission types. Choose from 4 different mech classes, 41 different weapons and pieces of equipment, custom paint styles and colors and more. You can employ any of these saved configurations in-game as you play.
  
• Play any mission offline versus bots, in instant action mode.
  
• Or get into the action online against up to 16 other players (per mission)! NOTE: 32 players being worked on.
  
• Earn stats for leaderboards and achievement unlocks in a persistent game environment.
  
• Faction Wars, persistent online battle.
  
• Multiple mission environments, with 6 zones currently available.
  
• 4 games modes including Attrition, Team Death Match, Free for All, and Mini-nuke.
  
• Create or join a squad and fight together to take control of various mission zones online.
  
• Pilot progression through military ranks that also unlock faction bonuses.
  
• Implementation of 3 main factions (Federated States, Eastern Confederation, Overload Mercenary Guild).

NOTE: The Faction Wars system is currently still in development, but out first order of business after EA launch is to work on getting the persistent stats feeding into the online war map system.

Features that are in development

• 32 players for online missions.
  
• Addition of dozens of new and unique weapons and equipment to configure your mech with.
  
• More mechs for each class, providing additional unique configuration options to try out.
  
• Faction Wars, the persistent online war component will be implemented on a ongoing basis with features like:
  
  • Variable spawn points per mission based on which faction has control over that mission online and other factors.
    
  • Contract missions for mercenaries and faction pilots.
    
  • Co-op missions with special raid and recon missions.
• Deploy equipment in-game at various locations throughout each mission to construct bases that will help secure key locations and enable your team to take control of the mission against your opponents.
  
• Additional Game play modes like Siege, Raids, and Arena mode.
  
• Addition of new missions through out Early Access.
  
• Support for additional platforms (Linux/SteamOS/Mac).