It has been a busy 3 months since we launched the alpha in January. With 5 Phases and 12 updates under our belt, hundreds of Knights have tested out these early versions of the game. Were getting daily input, suggestions and bug reports and are working constantly to improve Flashpoint. Now, on to this months progress update!

Public Studio Chat

We are excited to announce that we will be doing a public Studio Chat Tuesday, April 5th, 2022 at 9pm EDT. Studio Chats are our version of a Reddit AMA -- post your questions in advance and we'll answer them live that evening! Cory and I will be chatting in a voice channel on our Discord to answer your questions, hang out and talk about CKF, STF and all things Trese Brothers. If youre able join us, the voice channel will open shortly before 9:00 pm Eastern. The Studio Chat will run about 1 hour and will be recorded so we will post a link in a future Kickstarter update. If you have a question youd like answered during the chat, post it in the #studio_chat channel on our Discord beforehand (start it with studio chat q: please, and feel free to add react emojis to other questions you like). Hope to see you there!

PAX Rising Showcase at PAX East

Speaking of hope to see you there! -- were going to PAX East 2022! We are thrilled to announce that were one of 12 indie games being featured in the PAX Rising Showcase at PAX East this April. Were very excited to be back at PAX again. Its been too long! We'll be in the PAX Rising booth and you can come and play the demo any day of the show. Come hang out, we can't wait to see you there. You can learn more about the PAX Rising Showcase and all of the games that will be a part of it at http://www.paxeast22.com/Rising

Alpha Phase 5

Over 3 months, weve cranked through 5 major phases of the alpha -- initial gameplay, training your mercs, buying and modding weapons, death and recruiting and finally with Phase 5 we added a new class the Cybersword. Weve received hundreds of in-game bug reports and thousands of pieces of feedback from the community of players. If you havent joined in yet but backed at the Alpha Tier ($60 or higher), let us know! Reach out to us here, on Kickstarter or on our Discord (type max!addrole after joining if you included your Discord username in the Kickstarter survey, or DM @Liviana for help getting set up).

Matrix Mk2 Prototype

As we approach Alpha Phase 6, we have completed the first Matrix Mk2 prototype. This prototype hits a number of our key goals for Matrix Mk2:

• Digital Battleground -- a completely new tactical challenge awaits your hacker in the matrix. Terminals across the RL map lead to small and large computer hosts, tasked with everything from controlling a door to storing trade secrets. Your hacker must load up their programs to scan, search, slice through quantum nodes, override security and battle potentially deadly IC to find the target -- priceless paydata, control over security systems, doors or even the AIs Alarm system.
• Extensive Hacker Build Options -- your hacker will be building out a deck, hand-picking programs, installing cyberware add-ons and training on a class tree that compliments and improves their use of entire families of programs. Mix programs and class training to build a hyper-aggro hacker who smashes enemy IC or an ultra stealth hacker who ghosts through quantum nodes unseen. Decks are linked in loadouts, allowing multiple decks per hacker and multiple hackers per team.
• Multi-turn hacks -- Hackers may slice into a terminal and hack across the Matrix while their meat body sleeps. If the hack is hard enough it will take multiple turns so it is up to the team to keep the hacker safe by distracting or fending off security in a gunfight. Your Soldier may be screaming, Jack out now -- We cant hold them! but does the slumped hacker even really hear him?

The UI is clunky and you have to know exactly what you are doing to get through it right now, but that is rapidly improving as we approach Phase 6 of the alpha, which will be the debut of the fully operational Matrix Mk2 system!

Ultra Edition: Naming Surveys

For those backers who pledged at the Ultra Edition or higher, youve been receiving emails including surveys to add your names to the game. While we initially thought wed source 10 names from each backer, weve increased our ambitions to 50 names by breaking it out into 5 surveys focusing on a wider range of name types, such as characters, codenames, drones, dogs, cats, weapons, items of different types, locations and more. Weve sent 3 of 5 surveys so far and will wrap this reward up in a few weeks.

Reward and Stretch Goal Progress

For completeness, we have included the progress bar infographic in this update. The Matrix Mk2 Prototype is now complete and the Naming Reward is on-going and will soon be wrapped up. Always exciting to see motion on this multi-year delivery plan! If you have any questions about rewards or stretch goals, check out the graphic or reach out to us.