Happy holidays and happy new year. We are here with a quick update outlining the next steps for our alpha community, sharing some of the progress updates from our crazy December and getting a good laugh at ourselves.

Laughing at Our August-Selves

Sometime back in August, there must have been a discussion that went something like this: Cory: Were going to need every minute we can get in 2021 for this alpha to fly. Andrew: Right up to the end of the year? Thats going to be rough with the holidays. Cory: OK -- we cant do that to ourselves. Lets make a more reasonable plan. Andrew: Ive got it. Three days after the holidays! Cory: Thats it! Hahaha, that was a great meeting. Were glad we made that choice. Things are good. Were fine.

Alpha Phases and Duration

As the alpha kicks off in less than a week, we want to make sure everyones on the same page about how this will work. We have planned a series of Alpha Phases, starting with a Phase 0 tech demo app that will help us identify bugs on different hardware combinations. Then youll move on to Phase 1, a limited version of the game that is completely focused on the core player experience (tactical missions). We will provide prompts and seek feedback on this core gameplay loop, then start the process of expanding the available content and systems in the game with new Alpha Phases. With each new Phase, we will provide new prompts and gameplay areas where we are specifically seeking feedback. From our previous alpha experiences, this entire process will take 6-12 months, 10+ Alpha Phases and possibly 100+ updates. This is a marathon process that includes you in the games development, not a quick sprint or stress test. Your feedback shapes the game as it grows from the central kernel of tactical missions to the full game experience by the end of the alpha.

Alpha Next Steps

On January 4th, the alpha will start with invitations to download, install and launch a tech demo build for Cyber Knights: Flashpoint. The tech demo build is not the game itself but an app that contains and tests everything required (graphics, sound & music, game engine player, all the code libraries, bug reporting, analytics) to play the game on your computer. Starting the alpha with this tech demo build will accomplish a few things:

• Find any critical bugs in launching our new game engine on your platforms and allow us to focus solely on fixing these issues.
• Get all alpha players setup with accounts on the distribution system, so you can receive each new version as we go.
• Help all alpha players (who havent yet) get logged into our Discord and get their alpha roles.

While weve tested with the platforms the majority of you have reported youll be playing on (thank you for your quick survey responses!), the many combinations of operating systems, processors, graphics cards, and more from the 1,000+ of you means there will inevitably be some combinations producing bugs we havent yet encountered. Its not the most fun part of the process, but we need to start the alpha by identifying and fixing these while we can easily isolate them -- before theyre mixed in with any gameplay issues that might come up. We expect this Alpha Phase 0 to go quickly though. Well be all hands-on deck to follow-up on your reports -- the more devices you can help us test on, the better. Then once this first round of critical bugs has been fixed, hopefully by that weekend, well give you access to the first playable levels, and Alpha Phase 1 will begin! The alpha will initially only be available on desktop. In our December survey, we saw there were a handful of you (2.3%) who were not planning to play on desktop. We want to make sure you know your time will come! Our development and alpha process focuses on foundations first, using the platforms the vast majority of backers will be playing on, but in a later phase of the alpha we will release an early build of the eventual Android & iOS ports, and ask all who are able to help us test them.

Please Join the Discord

Especially if youre in the Alpha, please be sure to join our Discord. Once youve joined up, type the command max!addrole in #bot_talk to get MercerBot to add your special Kickstarter role, granting you access to private channels on the server. The hub for the Alpha will be our Discord, so getting everyone on board and ready before the launch date will help everything run smoothly and get all Discord roles setup before January 4th :D If you havent used Discord before, its easy, we almost never (0 in the last year) send @everyone notifications, and weve got a friendly server full of gamers like you -- come hang out and make this Discord community your first.

December Progress

Every moment not spent wrapping presents this month has been spent wrapping up things for the alpha. Cory has been working on the tech demo, distribution, bug reporting, and analytics systems. Early in the month Andrew finalized game content for alpha phase 1, and our internal teams been testing and iterating on it ever since. Were making sure issues you encounter are ones we have not been able to find (/reproduce) on our own and adding a layer of polish and improvements not always present to the I know exactly what that blank, un-animated icon Ive been using for three months does, what do you mean it needs a label? developers.
Yepppppp, that's bug. The "Iron Grip" Talent kills everything. Expected Damage is from 100-300. Our internal tests identified three major classes of bugs that locked up or created hangs in the game; weve fixed those and significantly improved the pace and smoothness of play. Mid-December we encountered a font corruption bug that by itself ate a few days of our schedule -- these are the kind of unpredictable delays we dread when setting deadlines, but we are back on track now.
We spent a few days fighting the AI "F0nt Sm4sh3r" but deployed our Cyber Knights and eventually won. Last but not least, were continuing to build toward more than just the next few weeks. Work continues on stories & missions for the later phases of the alpha, additional classes and their abilities, etc. Looking back at all the monthly updates weve sent out this year, its been a tremendous climb to get this rollercoaster ready to go. Were holding our breath as it approaches this first summit, and as always, so grateful youve come along for the ride. Have a happy New Year, knights. Well see you at the drop.

Reward and Stretch Goal Progress

For completeness, we have included the progress bar infographic in this update even though nothing in it has changed. If you have any questions about rewards or stretch goals, check out the graphic or reach out to us.
We are extremely excited to be taking the next steps on this project in just a few days!