We're very happy to announce that Moonshot - The Great Espionage is now available. It's been a real roller coaster ride for us since we started in December. While we are incredibly good at creating good games for Game Jams in a short period of time, a longer-term project was a new challenge that we took on. We are very happy to have now reached an important milestone on our journey into unknown territory, namely the release of "Moonshot - The Great Espionage". We hope that you can spend a few enjoyable hours with our game. Thank you very much for everyone who has accompanied us on our journey so far. Thank you for all the feedback and constructive criticism. And of course, thank you if you buy our game.

[ 2021-07-30 16:10:12 CET ] [ Original post ]

Hello, good news everyone! We haven't posted in a while, but there's a reason for that: Beta 1 is now available. Unfortunately we had to deal with the loss of one of our level designers, so many tasks were pushed back and forth in order not to endanger the planned release. But enough "bad" news. We are pretty much feature complete now. The only slightly bigger chunk will be the localizations and the implementation of the choices that decide the outcome of the story. Currently we have 10 of 32 levels in a good beta state. The graphics are largely implemented and will be polished further. The sounds and music are still missing a few small things. Participate in Beta and Win! The really good news is that we have finished our Beta 1 and are still looking for testers. Those who play through the levels and answer a small questionnaire can also participate in the giveaway of 3x Amazon vouchers. If you want to take part in the beta, just contact us in Discord or write a short email to nimblebeasts+beta@gmail.com.
What`s next We are working with high pressure on the open issues and missing levels. With beta 2 we want to be feature complete as well as level complete. This will be ready in about 4 weeks. The remaining time until the release we plan to spend with bugfixing and polishing. Thank you for reading!
Support us Links: Moonshot Game Jam Version | Discuss with us on Discord | Follow us on Twitter

[ 2021-04-17 10:49:40 CET ] [ Original post ]

In this issue of the Devlog we want to give you some insights into our level design process as well as talk about world design in general.

World Design

Moonshot is set in three different cultures. Besides the music, this should also be reflected in the level designs. A simple way to do this are the skyboxes, which represent the different cultures. The rural Ustria, the bluish US metropolis and the red Soviet metropolis. The color mood together with the music, the western and eastern guards and the objects distributed over the level, some of which are unique, should hide the fact that the same textures are often used. In addition to the cultural groups, the lighting design plays a big role not only in the visuals. The visibility of the player has an influence on whether he is seen by the security cameras or guards. For this purpose, a distinction is made between 3 visibility levels: Full light, barely visible and darkness. For example, a guard will sound an alarm if the player is in full light and within the guard's field of view. While a guard who sees the player in barely visible light only becomes suspicious. To enhance the light effect, all missions are set at night and the level is artificially darkened. To create a little variety there are three different levels: Dusk, Night and Dawn.

Level Design

To keep the level design consistent, we have developed a "Puzzle Mechanic Playbook". Here are some extracts from it and insights into the level creation process. A level at Moonshot consists of three main building blocks at the beginning of the design process: - The Goal - The Challenge - Losing Conditions The Goal or Mission Objective is derived from the story background. We currently support the following variants: information gathering missions (safe-cracking and photo missions), sabotage, kidnapping and theft missions. Challenges are the obstacles the player has to overcome in order to fulfil the mission goal. To make the obstacles a bit harder and add some pressure on the player there are some losing constraints in the form of player detections - e.g. Security cameras or guards. Every level shall rely on two main puzzle mechanics only. This gives the player a better feeling on how to handle situations, does not overload the level and make the levels overall more diverse. Level designs shall be designed form follow function approach in contrast to what we had in the game jam. Design the puzzles first and afterwards design the rooms. Example:
In the screenshot from the Godot Editor we will show how an puzzle could be designed. In this example the player wants to reach the room 9. In order to that the has to overcome the guard first by stunning him. After that the player will find out that door 4 is locked and must be opened by a switch. To do this, he can climb up on position 2 and press switch 3. Switch 3 in turn opens door 4. At position 5 there is a pressure plate button. As long as a weight is on it, door 6 is open. If the weight is removed, the door closes again. To get to switch 7, which opens the last door, the player must lay the tased guards body on the pressure plate button. Typically such a puzzle design is put on paper first. Thank you for reading!
Support us Links: Moonshot Game Jam Version | Survey & Win! | Discuss with us on Discord | Follow us on Twitter

[ 2021-02-06 14:04:23 CET ] [ Original post ]

Welcome to our second devlog post. Due to the holidays and the associated vacation, our new DevLog post was delayed. We hope you had some nice days with your families and a good start into the new year.

Mission Objectives

Currently, we are planning five different mission objectives in addition to the information gathering missions (safe-cracking and photo missions) already known from the Game Jam version, as well as sabotage, kidnapping and theft missions. This way we want to make sure that the levels are more varied. To keep the whole storyline less linear, there are certain degrees of freedom in the higher levels which have an impact on the Space Race. Leading to different game endings.

Body Hiding

Guards and also surveillance cameras now react to stunned guards and civilians and sound the alarm. That is why in some situations it is necessary to carry tased people and hide the bodies in the dark or closets. Of course, this also affects the player character. The player will move much slower and of course can't climb ladders or shafts.

Internal Beta

To test all the new features in combination with each other, we are currently working on the first beta release version since the Game Jam. The goal is to have the first 8 levels playable. Also we are always looking for beta testers to test our features and levels and give feedback. If you want to participate, just join our Discord server. Thank you for reading!
Support us Links: Moonshot Game Jam Version | Survey & Win! | Discuss with us on Discord | Follow us on Twitter

[ 2021-01-16 13:27:46 CET ] [ Original post ]

Welcome to our first devlog entry! Our goal is to report to you once a week about the current status of the project and fundamental game design changes. This was the first week we could actually start working. In the weeks before we mainly took care of the game design document and contractual things that are needed for the collaborative work. Besides the already known team, we were able to win Sehgel, a level designer, who will take care of the new missions together with Kodkuce. Each team member comes from a different country from four different continents.

New Guards

To make the level design more varied, we decided to add new guards. Besides the elite guard, which cannot be tased, there is also the guard dog. Of course, the guard dog can't be tased either, we are animal lovers. Instead, he can be bribed with treats.

Updating the Dialogue System

During GameJam, the Dialogue System also fell far short of meeting our current needs. Which is why we have now integrated a new system that supports branches. We need this because the story will only be linear to a certain extent. We are currently planning three possible outcomes for who wins the Moon Race. The USA, USSR or Ustria. Depending on how the player decides. Also the diagloue system will get an graphical update including portraits for the player and NPCs.

Web Monetization Challenge 2020

We are very happy to announce that we won the first place in the 'Web Monetization Challenge 2020'! We were able to beat games like 'Relic Splatter' and 'Earth`s Secret'. Both are great games. What is Web Monetization? Web Monetization is an open technology that allows someone viewing a webpage or playing a web game to stream very small payments (micropayments) to the creator in real time. It is an exciting new and non-intrusive way for game developers to monetize their web games while at the same time offering premium content to their paying players. Web Monetization is being proposed as a W3C standard. It is based on the Interledger protocol which is an open, neutral protocol for transferring money of any currency, including digital currencies such as Bitcoin. (Source: https://itch.io/jam/the-web-monetization-challenge-2020) Feedback Our goal was to try new ways to monetize our games and were surprised how easy it is with the Web Monetization Standard. All you need is a meta tag on the homepage that contains a so-called payment pointer. A payment pointer is a unique wallet address. When a Coil.com user visits the homepage, micropayments are made. Through a simple JavaScript query, it can now be determined whether the user pays. However, you run into a chicken egg problem. Since hardly anyone uses Coil.com, the amounts are negligibly small and thus, at least currently, no alternative to classic payment methods. Thank you for reading!
Support us Links: Moonshot Game Jam Version | Survey & Win! | Discuss with us on Discord | Follow us on Twitter

[ 2020-12-19 19:28:03 CET ] [ Original post ]

We are really happy to announce our new game "Moonshot - The Great Espionage" on Steam. This will be our first full commercial game. Roots It all started with the Github GameOff Jam 2020. We wanted to participate in the jam and decided to do it together. So we formed a multicultural team that spans the globe from the USA to India. Already during the Game Jam it was clear to us that we absolutely want to continue this game after the jam is over. In the meantime a little more than a week has passed and we decided to make Moonshot a full game including going on Steam. Content is King! We believe that high quality content will always prevail. That's why the full version will not just be a simple port for Steam. Our goal is to have at least 20, but rather 30, varied and versatile levels. The aim of the level design is also to offer more than one solutions for the player to make the game less linear and to challenge the player to come up with new solution. Open Source and DRM We benefit a lot from open source tools like the Godot Engine and therefore want to give something back. That's why we decided to keep large parts of Moonshot open source. More detailed information will follow. Besides the Steam version there will be, of course, a DRM-free Itch.io version.
Support us Links: Moonshot Game Jam Version | Survey & Win! | Discuss with us on Discord | Follow us on Twitter

[ 2020-12-10 20:51:41 CET ] [ Original post ]