[h2][h2]We are so happy to be taking part in Gamescom 2022 (24-28 Aug).[/h2][/h2]

[h3]If you happen to be there too, please come and say hi to us, we will be very happy to meet you in person.

We are in IAHol area!!![/h3]



Greetings,
Artur

Hi Pilots,

We will be taking part in Save&Sound festival! I will be live streaming so there is a chance to talk / ask question.

Artur

Good day everyone,

First of all, I would like to apologize to every one of you who expected me to be sending my devlog more regularly, shame on me as I realized it has been nearly half a year since my last Dev Diary.

These past 5 months have been a mixture of some time off, due to Xmas and Easter, and focusing on implementing new ideas to the Prologue that I really would like to release ASAP.

So what have I been doing except for resting, you may ask???

[h2]New resources[/h2]

Game will have three main resources you can get after the battle, but they will be exclusive and you will have to think carefully which ones are most important to your current situation.
You will be able to get: spare parts, credits, and experience points.

• Spare parts are used to change mech loadout and repair body parts.
  
• Credits will allow you to purchase items from orbital trade platforms.
  
• Experience Points will contribute to the pilot level and will allow you to earn skill points. Skill points are necessary to unlock new skills or update current ones.
  

• Plain deserts.
  
• Military bases.
  
• Mines & industrial areas.
  
• Pirate bases.
  

A little piece of us

One of Rock&Bushes team members is Agnieszka, privately Arturs (developer) wife.
She has two jobs:

• First - mom, payment method - love, usually
  
• Second - marketing support - payment method - real money.
  

[h2]Release notes[/h2]
Simplified Chinese localization.
[h3]Improvments[/h3]

• GJM-432 Chinese localization
  

Good day everyone,

I'm sorry for double post if you saw previous one, Valve changed my previous post to cross promotion post, which is pretty much hidden. I fixed problems and I'm reposting it as proper news

Another 2 months have passed, so time to tell you what was going on in October and November.
I have to admit that those 2 months have been very busy, but also very different from each other.

[h2]Bug family[/h2]
I will start with my latest updates to the game as they are fresh, and I wanted to share with you the effects. Currently, I am working on new mechs that will not only visually differ from each other, but will also have unique attributes. Here is a Bug Family:



If you look closely, you will notice that their names suggest what their role is.

Assault Bug - this mechs special feature is increasing the attack's power. What it means is that he will spend 1-2 turns to increase its attack power so that when it finally attacks you, its laser will cause more damage than the initial value.



Gamma Bug - Comes equipped with Gamma Laser, which will heat up your Mech.



Support Bug - Its role is healing up his companions. This enemy is usually not attacking you as its weapon is not that effective, but it is helping the other allied mechs to heal.



[h2]Prologue release date & planned features[/h2]
I currently plan to release the prologue around January 2022, the exact day is still to be determined.
Current features roadmap for prologue:

• Equipment shop.
  
• Deck size perks for Mechs frame.
  
• Pilots archetypes and skills.
  
• More enemies archetypes.
  
• New effects, cards and items.
  
• Reworked action points and heat mechanics.
  
• New battle arenas.
  

Pixel Heaven was one of them and took place on October 8-10, 2021 in Warsaw.
My indie basement booth was modest, but it was not a very big event, so most of the small exhibitors looked similar to our booth.

PGA 2021 event took place in October (21-23) in Pozna.
The route to get there was not easy. We met a sandstorm and driving to Pozna was quite a challenge. Fortunately, we finally managed to arrive in the evening the day before and prepare our booth for the event. I think it turned out pretty well, don't you think?



Greetings,

Artur

Good day everyone,

Another 2 months have passed, so time to tell you what was going on in October and November.
I have to admit that those 2 months have been very busy, but also very different from each other.

[h2]Bug family[/h2]
I will start with my latest updates to the game as they are fresh, and I wanted to share with you the effects. Currently, I am working on new mechs that will not only visually differ from each other, but will also have unique attributes. Here is a Bug Family:



If you look closely, you will notice that their names suggest what their role is.

Assault Bug - this mechs special feature is increasing the attack's power. What it means is that he will spend 1-2 turns to increase its attack power so that when it finally attacks you, its laser will cause more damage than the initial value.



Gamma Bug - Comes equipped with Gamma Laser, which will heat up your Mech.



Support Bug - Its role is healing up his companions. This enemy is usually not attacking you as its weapon is not that effective, but it is helping the other allied mechs to heal.



[h2]Prologue release date & planned features[/h2]
I currently plan to release the prologue around January 2022, the exact day is still to be determined.
Current features roadmap for prologue:

• Equipment shop.
  
• Deck size perks for Mechs frame.
  
• Pilots archetypes and skills.
  
• More enemies archetypes.
  
• New effects, cards and items.
  
• Reworked action points and heat mechanics.
  
• New battle arenas.
  

Pixel Heaven was one of them and took place on October 8-10, 2021 in Warsaw.
My indie basement booth was modest, but it was not a very big event, so most of the small exhibitors looked similar to our booth.

PGA 2021 event took place in October (21-23) in Pozna.
The route to get there was not easy. We met a sandstorm and driving to Pozna was quite a challenge. Fortunately, we finally managed to arrive in the evening the day before and prepare our booth for the event. I think it turned out pretty well, don't you think?



Greetings,

Artur

We just game back from PGA in Pozna, first big physical event since ancient times.
Big thanks to all that tried our demo on the site or stopped to chat!

I will be live-streaming at 14:00 CEST today, a new demo build with some tweaks to UI.
Please jump in and provide feedback!

Dev.Play 2021 conference also started today where I will be showcasing our demo!



[h3]Please also vote for Jupiter Moons: Mecha for Most Popular Game on Dev.Play conference: Vote Form
[/h3]

[h2]Tabletop Fest RE-BROADCAST 2021[/h2]
As I am going to be at a physical event (GIC 2021) at this time, I will not be able to perform a live stream, however, I invite you to watch the re-broadcast of the updated demo. I hope you enjoy it! steamthumbsup
Stream date: 23.10.2021 around 5:00 pm CEST.

[h2]TableTop Fest RE-BROADCAST 2021[/h2]
As I am going to be at a physical event (GIC 2021) at this time, I will not be able to perform a live stream, however, I invite you to watch the re-broadcast of the updated demo. I hope you enjoy it! steamthumbsup
Stream date: 21.10.2021 around 7:30 pm CEST.

[h2]Release notes[/h2]
This demo version should fix most of the crash / hanging problems with the demo.
[h3]Bug[/h3]

• GJM-415 Card draw bad sync can cause "Collection was modified; enumeration operation may not execute."
  
• GJM-414 Card can be played twice accidentally? (double drag or something)
  
• GJM-413 Player should properly die in the inventory screen, battle hangs when this happens
  
• GJM-412 Dragging card when battle or turn ends, don't clear drag status
  
• GJM-411 Card can stay in hand and cause phantom movements (cancel when battle ends or turn ends)
  
• GJM-410 Item tooltips sometimes don't hide when taking loot
  
• GJM-407 Item can hang when you try to equip it - disabled limb?
  
• GJM-406 Card can hang when you try to play them
  
• GJM-404 When cards are queued to play, they will be cancelled when battle ends but are not properly discarded
  
• GJM-257 If you draw cards, in same moment as End turn than cards will not be discarded properly
  

Demo update 2021-10-04
- new enemy: small spider & big spider,
- new tooltips and card descriptions,
- new tactics card,
- mech selection - preview, you can only play default mech frame

Hello, my dearest followers,

It's about time to share the latest news about August/Septembers work, events, and everything else that has happened to JMM.

In the coming weeks, I will release two demo updates. The first one will focus mostly on the quality of life changes like additional tooltips, text updates, and some bug fixes.
A second larger update will introduce new mechanics and more varied enemies.

When the second demo update is out, we will start preparing for beta release for free Prologue, you should expect closed beta signups for prologue around November.

Details of the changes.

New and improved tooltips

• Cards - explanation of keywords and mechanics,
  
• Statuses - explanation of statuses that affects player and enemies,
  
• Intentions - you will get a full breakdown of enemies' actions, including the body part from which enemy action is coming from.
  
• Body parts stats - full details stats for each body part on player and enemy mechs.
  

[h2]Gamescom RE-BROADCAST[/h2]
I will not be able to live stream on Saturday, but I maybe in chat to answer any questions. If you missed Friday stream, you will have a chance to watch it again.

[h2]Gamescom RE-BROADCAST[/h2]
I will not be able to live stream on Saturday, but I maybe in chat to answer any questions. If you missed Friday stream, you will have a chance to watch it again.

[h2]Gamescom RE-BROADCAST[/h2]
I will not be able to live stream on Saturday, but I maybe in chat to answer any questions. If you missed Friday stream, you will have a chance to watch it again.
Stream date: 28.08.2021 around 11:00 am CEST.

[h2]Gamescom live stream[/h2]
I will be live-streaming a development build and maybe show some features I'm working on. Stream date: 27.08.2021 around 10:00 am CEST.

-- I had to move stream to an earlier hour, because of personal issues --

[h2]Gamescom live stream[/h2]
I will be live-streaming a demo build and maybe show some features I'm working on. Stream date: 26.08.2021 around 2 pm CEST.

Hello folks,

This year's August is full of great opportunities for Indiedevs like me.

[h3]Tiny Teams has been so great! [/h3]
My game Jupiter Moons: Mecha got the highest number of wishlists in its history (increase during a week by 2,713). Thank you, everyone, that is a huge motivation for me, I really appreciate every single wishlist!

Speaking of wishlist go checkout & add to wishlist game from our indie friends
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1296610

[h3]Gamescom & IGN[/h3]
Next on the list is Gamescom/Indie Arena Booth (25-29th August) that Jupiter Moons: Mecha is taking part in.

IMPORTANT!!! My game will be featured in Awesome Indies on Thursday, August 26th at 12:27 pm PT (21:27 pm CEST).



During Gamescom, there will be a new trailer revealed featuring a new quadruped/ spider mech family and refreshed skins for old mechs models!
A little foretaste just for You, hush hush



[h3]Indie cup[/h3]
Furthermore, my game has also been nominated as one of the 20 indie games in Indie Cup in BEST UNITY GAME category. The results of the Indie Cup summer season will be announced on September 14th, so fingers crossed!



Greetings,

Artur

Hello everyone again,

I have not realized that it has been 2 months since my last devlog, my deepest apologies! I'll try not to let it happen again, I promise!

So let me show you what I have been working on during this time and what is going to happen in August:

Mech selection screen - this new feature will allow the player to see a preview of his/her mech as a wireframe. The base of the mech is a frame, and afterward there will be a selection of armaments to choose from.

Take a look at the gif below, I am still improving some details, but more or less that will look like this.

DreamHack Beyond took place from Jul 24th to Jul 31st of 2021 and Jupiter Moons: Mecha took part in it.



This festival was pretty successful in terms of collecting new wishlists on Steam, as they increased by 1,300!

In this place I would like to thank all of you who wishlisted my game during this event and not only, of course, I am so happy because my game has recently crossed the magical line of 10k wishlists, yey!

Update from Developer - June

During the last month, we worked very hard to add localization support to the game. You will be able to judge our results in a few days when we release a Demo update that will feature localization to 9 languages:

• French
  
• German
  
• Spanish - Spain
  
• Japanese
  
• Korean
  
• Polish
  
• Russian
  
• Simplified Chinese
  
• Portuguese - Brazil
  

We took part in Indie Expo 2021 - https://store.steampowered.com/sale/indieliveexpo2021

Last but not least, we also continued working on the campaign map, here is how it looks at the moment:



If you find any mistakes or better expressions to use in our localizations, you are very welcome to share them with us, so that the game meets your expectations!
We want YOU players to be happy, keep it in mind! steamhappy

Please join our Discord to provide feedback to localization:

News from Developer - May

It has been another 3 weeks spent on game development, time goes really fast, I have to admit

We are in the middle of designing campaign maps for Prologue. For the prologue, there will not be any procedural generation for campaign maps, just two fixed maps but with random encounters. Prologue will feature two mini-adventures:

1. Tutorial - introduction to game mechanics.

2. Story prologue - how nano corruption started. (pssst. I wont spoil more of the story...)

Work in progress screenshots for the campaign map:



Creating assets is very time-consuming and this process sometimes gets monotonous, so what a nice variety to the everyday work was a video of Splattercat playing Jupiter Moons: Mecha!

I have to say that I got very excited as I am his follower and I really like what he does on his channel.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jep2J6-f0NQ


[h3]Please remember to wishlist both, our prologue and main game:[/h3]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1286690/Jupiter_Moons_Mecha__Prologue/?curator_clanid=37617607
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1288540/Jupiter_Moons_Mecha/

I got some questions and feedback about inventory/slots systems. So it's a good time to explain how it will work in the final game. You will be able to choose from a number of starting mech frames and customize it a little.
Mech frames will have different types of body parts and different sizes. For example, there will be frames with shoulder mounts or knee mounts.
Two examples:

1. Melee frame -> tall arm slots to fit melee weapons and shields.



2. Range frame -> long arm slots to fit range weapons.



[h3]If you have any suggestions, please feel free to tell us about them.[/h3]
The game is for you - the players - so your voice is the most precious. Please, keep that in mind!

This time the dev diary is later than usual. Unfortunately, not much progress has been made with the game in March. We mostly worked on the graphic side of things. I hope next I will be able to show more new features we are working on, like the campaign map.

Let me introduce you to the new Mech line: Gendai Spec. Those are Mech that specializes in surprise attacks, covered operations, and stealth. They are equipped with melee weapons but one of Gendai's frames supports sniper rifles.

We have discord, join us for some exclusive development news!

[h3]The first one is Shadow, and his cloak animation.[/h3]


[h3]Blade master. Mech frame equipped with an energy blade.[/h3]


[h3]Death Archangel. Mech frame with wings for a glider surprise attack and energy whip.[/h3]


[h3]Eagle Eye. Support Mech frame that stays hidden until the target is engaged and exposed.[/h3]


[h3]Grim Reaper. Heavy frame, that can withstand prolonged melee combat.[/h3]

[h3]Meet your new nemesis, knights of Furry Kingdom![/h3]

Wormhole to pocket dimension opened near Saturn, it was our first contact with new species: intelligent rabbit-like creatures.

We were surprised by their technological advancements, they were very open to trade their secrets with us. We welcomed them with open arms.

They were so cute and we were so naive! We were not prepared for what came next...

Pilots!

[h3]Emergency broadcast[/h3]

We are about to crash on class M planet.
Pre-warp civilization detected.

Prime directive must be upheld at all costs!
Please leave your Mech suits and change into pirate costumes.

Find us on Hourglass Island, it's the only way to leave this planet.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1422300/IWOCon_2021/

[h2]Jupiter Moons: Mecha - March Developer Update[/h2]

Hello future pilots,

Its been an incredibly exciting 2 months for Jupiter Moons: Mecha. As many of you know, we featured as part of the Steam Festival back at the beginning of February, which offered players the first public opportunity to buckle into the mech action of Jupiter Moons: Mecha. This update will be sharing some of the key numbers from the demo, as well as introducing you to the first group of mechs youll be fighting against, Taka Constructions.


The Steam Festival was out of this world!

Being part of the recent Steam Festival was no easy feat. I spent a lot of long days getting the demo ready for public use, and going into the festival, I was a little worried with the depth and gameplay it offered. So, its fair to say I was blown away by the incredibly positive response the demo received.

On a feature basis, some leading content creators from the deck building genre played the game, and enjoyed the game. The most notable piece of content created was from Wanderbot, which can be found here.

On a more (dry) statistics level, featuring of the demo in the Steam Festival really helped give Jupiter Moons: Mechas Steam numbers a hefty boost. The festival saw over 1,800 players play the demo, with an average play time of 49 minutes. There were also 1,690 wishlists during the festival period, which, broken down equals an average of 241 wishlists a day throughout the festival. I cant lie, these numbers are amazing. Were still a way off release, but the platform we now have from this boost means the daily average is up by a respectable amount.

I owe everyone who played the demo, wishlisted the game, joined the Discord or reading this a huge thank you, so thank you.


Building an army



Im really excited to introduce you to the first (finished) group of mechs for Jupiter Moons: Mecha, Taka Constructions.

Taka Constructions are an army of ex-construction mechs, repurposed for war. Their industrial design is emphasized through the use of heavy duty lasers, impactful hammers and gigantic shields. Youll meet Taka Construction mechs throughout the story of Jupiter Moon: Mecha.

In the final version of the game there will be a variety of mech groups/identities, all of which will be contrasting from each other, in both a visual and gameplay aspect. Im not ready to share any of the other factions yet, but they are currently in the works - more info soon.


Lots too look forward too

The demo provided a lot of feedback for me to work on. Currently, Im playing with different updates to the tutorial, mainly with thematic tool tips to help with in-game interactions for new players.

Im also working on getting the entire Taka Construction army in the game, as well as the design for the other mechs. With the design and development of the different mechs, the lore of Jupiter Moons: Mecha is growing and I look forward to sharing more of this with you in the coming months.

Once again, a huge thank you to everyone for their support with Jupiter Moons: Mecha.

Artur

Dear Steam Players,

The February Festival has been an amazing experience for our upcoming project. steamhappy

We have released demo of Jupiter Moons: Mecha - Prologue and we would like to say a
BIG THANK YOU to all of you, who have downloaded and played it.

Here is what Steam statistics say:



So now, being so motivated by you, we continue the hard work to release the full version of the Jupiter Moons: Mecha.

Lets keep our fingers crossed for success!

Best regards,
JM:M Team

Demo

This time around there is no development diary. I worked hard last month to try to prepare a demo for the steam festival.

The demo is not perfect but it shows the main game mechanics and how the game will look like in the future.

So go here and give it a try.

Jupiter Moons: Mecha Devblog January

Let me start by saying Happy New Year!

I hope you all had a wonderful holiday period and took some time to relax. While I did manage to squeeze in needed family time, I was also continuing with work on the Jupiter Moon: Mecha demo, which is nearly here (I know, I say that every month).

Throughout December I focused a lot on the (boring) back-end of the game, which isnt the most exciting but is extremely important. This mainly included finding and patching bugs that kept popping up with the addition of new content. On the visual front, I managed to get some UI work done (the start screen (below) is now in the game), item tool-tips, a game over screen, and some design work on the nano corrupted arenas youll be fighting in.




Battles need a worthy arena
A few months back I shared the random arena generator, which is working really well. However, as you venture through the story of Jupiter Moons: Mecha I wanted the growing presence of the corrupted mechs to become apparent. For this, I decided to manipulate all the current arenas to become corrupt. You can see a preview of the new nano corrupted arenas below.



A Powerful mech deserves some powerful items
In December I shared the new post-battle reward screen where youll be received powerful items. I spent the last month updating these items and making them more cohesive with my final vision of the game. The balance of the items will no doubt change once the demo is available and I can see whats potentially too powerful or slightly underwhelming.

Heres a shot of all the items currently in the game.



So, how far away is the demo?
As I keep saying, the demo is nearly ready. I want to be transparent with you and let you know exactly whats missing, which is what Im going to be focusing on in January and February.

At its core, the demo build needs more content, mainly in the form of campaign generators. This will allow the demo to offer a scaling difficulty with progression, cards and items that scale with rarity, and an increase in the variety of post-battle rewards. Included in my more content list is also the addition of 3-4 more card mechanics. I would love to introduce a new card type for every 5 minutes of gameplay, with the whole demo aiming for a 20-25 minutes play through.

Finally, the demo needs a shop. This will not reflect the shop in the final game, but, as I write this, any currency earned in the demo is about as useful as a destroyed corrupt mech! The in-game shop will provide a little bit of variety to playthroughs, allowing you to experiment with different items and mech builds.

Its pretty safe to say that not all of this will be done before February. Ive had an overwhelming number of offers to test the game/alpha demo. Its possible I have an alpha build ready very soon, but this will be missing some of the features mentioned above.

Once again, I want to take a moment to say a massive thank you to everyone who has read this/these developer blogs, interacted with me in Discord, shared any of my content on social media, or even shown an interest in Jupiter Moons: Mecha. The progress I made as a game developer in 2020 was amazing, and a big part of that was down to knowing people are interested in Jupiter Moons: Mecha.

I hope you all have a wonderful start to the year.

Take care,

Artur

To all Mecha fans out there. Ho ho ho, Mecha Christmas!

[h2]Hello pilots![/h2]

November has been a very productive month for Jupiter Moons: Mecha. Not so much on the flashy front end of the game, but more so in tidying up the back end of the game. There are three main areas Ive been focusing my time this month; updating the items and graphics with a new UI, finishing a full game loop, and implementing an overall UI to the game including the start screen, credits, and the main menu.

[h2]Updated items and weapon graphics[/h2]

You may remember a few months back I spoke about how the loadout for your mech works as a mini-puzzle, in the fact that you need to manage Tetris style shape in your inventory. Well, the placeholder art for the weapons and items youll take into battle has been updated with shiny new ones. Not all these assets have been updated, but its the start of a big step to having a fully polished loadout screen.


[h2]Full gameplay loop...it works![/h2]

This has ultimately been the main goal for a long time (since I started the project 9 months ago!). Im so pleased to share the news that Jupiter Moons: Mecha works! You can load in from a start screen, win a battle, collect some rewards, change your loadout, and then dive back into battle.

The development build of this gameplay loop is not fully polished, but it works - which is the main thing right?! In all seriousness, its the biggest step Ive taken with the development of Jupiter Moons: Mecha, and a giant step towards having a playable demo for you to pilot through.



[h2]Its really starting to look like a game![/h2]

Off the back of finishing the full gameplay loop I wanted to polish up the UI, giving the game a sense of being a real game. There is now a working start screen, setting screen, and credits. The setting screen isnt fully functional, but its in there, as is the main menu. The UI currently in the game isnt final, but its unlikely to drastically change, honestly, Im really happy with how it looks and the tone it brings when loading up Jupiter Moons: Mecha...which you can all do soon!


[h2]Whats next?[/h2]

The main focus now is finishing up the programming of some of the other card options and UI. At the time of writing only the attack cards are fully working. I have all the art finished for the other cards, I just need to program them.

Finishing the cards will ultimately result in the completion of the demo. Im hoping for Jupiter Moons: Mecha to feature in some indie game focused expos next year, for which I will need a playable demo.

I want to finish up with another huge thank you. Whether youve like a Twitter post, shared a gameplay video, comment in Discord, or upvoted on Reddit, every bit of support does not go unappreciated. Im so grateful for the positive response Jupiter Moons: Mecha is receiving and I cant wait for you to be able to play the demo soon.

I wish you and your family a wonderful holiday, stay safe and Ill see you all in the New Year.

Artur

[h3]Consider joining our Discord for some bonus wallpaper pack![/h3]
https://discord.gg/jHsGh3a472

[h2]Update progress[/h2]
[h3]Arena generator[/h3]
Ill kick off with the arena generator. This is something Ive been working on for the past few months. Its not the flashiest piece of content in the game, but I wanted to get it right to prevent the repetition of the same battle screen over and over again. The arena generator will now generate (the clues in the title) a new arena for each encounter. This may be a desolate desert, a fallen ruin, or a galactic landscape. Not only will the setting of each area alter but also the content make-up of the scene.


[h3]Rewards UI[/h3]
Once I had managed to get each battle looking different I wanted to work on rewarding players, literally. The end of battle reward screen is now in the game, there isnt much to be rewarded at the moment, but you can still indulge in a sense of victory upon overcoming the corrupt mechs of Ganymede.

Going forward I will be working on both the inclusion and balancing of rewards in regards to player progression. With Jupiter Moons: Mecha offering a rouge-like experience, the player progression, especially from rewards is something I want to get right.


[h3]Inventory[/h3]
The final, new inclusion to the game is a really big one, the inventory screen. Jupiter Moons: Mecha works with your deck taking place as your loadout, so this was a screen/element of the game I had to get right, both visually and mechanically. As you can see in the image below, your loadout is represented with Tetris style shapes. The management of your loadout and inventory acts as a mini-puzzle, encouraging you to play around with different builds by juggling puzzle pieces into place.

The balance of the weapons and their puzzle shapes isnt final yet, as the current build of the game grows Ill be able to test what works best. Out of all the inclusion in the game this month, the inventory screen is the most progressive in Jupiter Moons: Mecha becoming a fully playable experience.


[h2]Battle mechanics[/h2]
[h3]Heat[/h3]
Almost each attack card will produce some heat that will accumulate inside Mech. Each Mech has a statistic: Heat Capacity, which tells us how much heat the Mech can accumulate before a negative effect will appear.
Heat produced by attack depends on weapon type for example:
Energy weapons like laser or plasma will produce large amounts of heat.
Kinetic or missile weapons will produce moderate or small heat.
Melee weapons produce small or zero heat.

Heat can be weaponized by using special weapon types like flamethrower or gamma emitters that main purpose is to generate heat in target Mech.

When Mech Heat > Heat Capacity (HC) it starts taking health damage at turn start to random body part
When Mech Heat > 1.5 * HC Mech shuts down for one turn for emergency cooling, cant do any action. At the start of the next turn, its heat is lowered to HC - 1 and can start to act again.

Heat is decreasing naturally by 10% at turn start. There will be special card effects available if the Mech is equipped with heat sink equipment that will allow removal of heat at a quicker rate.


[h3]Stability[/h3]
Stability describes how well Mech is currently balanced and resistant to staggering or being knocked over.
Most kinetic weapons have recoil when fired with lowers firing Mech stability. Because of kinetic impact, they will also lower target Mech stability.
The most effective way to reduce target stability is to attack it with melee weapons. Melee weapons are a very effective tool to stagger or knockdown enemies.

At 50% Stability Mech is staggered, and will lose 1 Action Point and take 25% more damage.
At 0% Stability Mech is knockdown, and will lose 2 Action Points and take 50% more damage.
Some weapons/cards will very effective at finishing staggered or knockdown enemies and will do double bonus damage (+50% staggered and +100% knockdown)

Stability is increasing naturally by 10% at turn start. Special items: Kinetic stabilizers will provide defense against lowering stability and increase stability recovery.


[h3]Shields[/h3]
Shield is produced by mobile shield emitters equipped on Mechs. Shield emitter traces incoming attacks and focuses energy at impact points to deflect attacks.

The shield emitter is activated by playing a special support card that will regenerate the Mech shield at turn start. Shield emitters also produces large amounts of heat each turn. Shield can be deactivated by playing a special ability card.

From the game mechanics perspective shield can be described as an additional global health pool that is decrease before any damage to armor or health. If the shield is reduced to 0 remaining damage is applied to armor or health for the attacked body part.

Shields have some weak spots. They cant prevent damage from overheating. Shield cant prevent damage from explosion based attacks like missiles: explosion energy is spread on a large area that cant be effectively mitigated by shield emitter.


[h2]Final thoughts[/h2]
These past couple of months have been incredibly productive for the game. From the new UI to the smoother mech animations, as well as everything I mentioned in this update. Im still planning on having a playable build for you ready by the end of the year/beginning of next year. Im not too sure if this build will be a playable demo or offer a canon experience to the full game - more on that next month.

I want to wrap this months update up with a big thank you to all of you. The support for Jupiter Moons: Mecha has been amazing, ever since I announced the project. I hope you, your family, and friends are well and safe in these unprecedented times.

Hey everyone,

What a month it has been for Jupiter Moons: Mecha!

Throughout August I have been working hard with Wojtek Krolik (JM:Ms freelance artist and animator) to pave the way for future game development. This months focus was mainly on sprite design and cleaning up animations.

[h3]Our new animations are explosive![/h3]
Almost all of the battle screen animations have been updated. Focussing on making the battles feel more immersive and tense was an essential job for me, especially for moving forward with the demo build.

The animations that have been overhauled are:

-Mech idle animations (theyre now fidgety mechs)
-Taking damage animation (Your mechs screen now takes damage)
-Destroying your opponents now results in a triumphant explosion.

All this work can be seen in a 10-month progress video, which shows just how far the game has come this year. [previewyoutube=eDbUhYkoGDc;full]Watch the video here[/previewyoutube].

With the new animations in place, I can start focussing on piecing together the prologue for Jupiter Moons: Mecha, which Im aiming to release by the end of this year.

[h3]Im a REAL mech now[/h3]
The animations werent the only overhaul to the game this month, the mech UI also got a colourful update.

As mentioned above, I really wanted to bring a sense of immersion to the battlefields of Ganymede, and I felt like the old UI just didnt hit the right notes. The new UI went through several iterations, but, as you can see, the new mech interior is not only more colourful but also brings the sense of actually piloting a mech.


[h3]Full speed to Ganymede![/h3]
With these cosmetic changes now in place, I (almost) have everything I need to really get to work on the prologue for Jupiter Moons: Mecha. I would love to have the demo available by the end of the year, and the way things are shaping up, thats definitely a possibility.
A lot of September and Octobers work will be more backend programming, working on getting the demo build running smoothly while offering you a meaningful chunk of gameplay.

As always, thank you so much for your support. My vision for the final game is really starting to come into sight. I cant wait for you to become a mech pilot yourself, we need your help in fighting the corruption on Ganymede!

Stay safe pilot!

Introduction
This dev diary will be mostly about art and the Mech design we are currently working on.

The game campaign will be split into two distinct parts. The first part will be about typical bounty hunter missions until a new threat emerges. The second part will start with the first appearance of corrupted Mechs. This will affect the types of missions you can perform and change battles in a very drastic way. New card and game mechanics specific to nano corruption will start to appear forcing you to adapt to new situations.

Story
War between corporations almost destroyed most of the infrastructure on Sol's outer planets and moons. Most battles took place on Jupiter moons. War triggered an alien device that awakens from a long hibernation.
Few decades after the war ended colonies around Jupiter started to prosper again. Aliens device finally awaken and started to follow it's mysterious agenda. Nanobots started to corrupt machines and change them into autonomous drones.

Art
[h2]Corrupted Mechs[/h2]





[h2]Alient artifacts concepts[/h2]


[h2]Corrupted environment[/h2]

Introduction
The last dev diary was almost two months ago. I couldn't make much progress with game development because of personal situation. Hopefully, the coming days will be more productive and dev diaries more regular. I'm planning to write one every two weeks on Wednesdays.

Body parts and damage


[h2]General rules[/h2]

• Each Mech body parts has it's own health and armor pool.
  
• Mech has a global health pool. Mech is destroyed when global health is 0.
  
• Armor behaves like bonus health. Each damage lowers armor by damage amount on the given body part.
  
• Armor regenerates after battle. Health needs to be "healed" by spending resources in the Mech workshop.
  
• When body part armor is 0 then all damage to this body part lowers both body part health pool and global Mech health pool.
  
• If body part health is 0 then the body part is disabled. All items placed on this body part stop working. Cards are disabled and are dead weight in your deck.
  
• If Mech has more than 50% body parts disabled than it is destroyed even if global health is more than 0.
  

• Aim - Aiming effect allows attack card to choose which body part is hit. This is powerful effects reserved for specialized weapons like sniper rifles.
  
• x4,x5,x6 - High damage multiplier on attack card allows to hit almost all body part on enemy Mech, stripping its armor and draining global health pool more easily.
  
• Piercing - Attack that ignores armor, works best if you don't combine normal and piercing attack cards together.
  
• Armor / Health Regeneration - stacking effect that regenerates armor and health each turn.
  
• Armor / Health Repair - instant effect to regain some lost armor or health.
  

[h2]Introduction[/h2]
One thing I don't really like in some deck building games is you can't control randomness. It really frustrating when you lose a game because of bad luck, bad rewards, etc.

For Jupiter Moons I decided to give players more options in crafting and adapting the card deck. Randomness will still be a factor but you will have more options to counter its effects.

One of the rewards players will earn are items like weapons, armor, shields, support equipment, hacking software, drones, etc. Each equipped item will add 1 to 5 cards to your deck. You will be able to change your Mech load-out - rebuild deck to adapt strategy to changing circumstances.

[h2]Equipment[/h2]

Not used items will be stored in the Stash. This will allow players to keep items that could offer some synergies in the future. Stash size will be limited, you will have to prioritize what items to sell and what is worth keeping.

Each item will have size on grid for example small laser 3x1, large laser 3x2. Each Mech equipment slot is also a grid, that limits how much equipment can be put on given Mech model. Larger items will also take more space in Stash.

The player will be able to unlock new Mech models. Each will have different starting equipment and different grid sizes for body parts.

[h2]Items[/h2]

Items will be randomized when they drop as rewards. For example if you find "Small Laser I" it will be generated with 3-5 weak laser cards. If you find Small Laser IV it can give you 2 rare laser cards.

Game will feature different types of items: weapons, armor, utility, software, drones, etc. Final content is not yet decided but the plan is to give players lots of possible options in equipment and deck building.

On the screenshot you can see items & weapons that will be part of the prologue. The final game should have a much larger selection!

In the next dev diary I will describe some of the weapons and their effects/cards.