Hey, welcome to our new forums! I'm Stefan Bachmann of Robotality, an independent game studio I founded in 2013 with my brother, Simon. We've been making games together for quite awhile, but Halfway is our first title as a "proper" studio. We've just announced that Halfway will be released on Steam and the Humble Store next Tuesday, 22 July 2014 at $12.99/£9.99 (with -10% off at launch)! The game will be available for Windows, Mac and Linux. We'll be adding modding support in the form of a campaign editor, and we're hoping to release that soon after launch. About the game Halfway is a turn-based strategy RPG taking place a few hundred years into the future. Humanity has begun to colonise new worlds and until now, they were alone… In Halfway you take control of a small team of survivors faced with a violent invasion onboard the colonial vessel Goliath. As their leader you will guide them through the dark and cramped corridors of the ship to slowly take back control. If you have any hope of surviving, you’ll have to fight, face your fears and outsmart the enemy! Key features Tactical turn-based battles: Strategic turn-based battles are at the core of Halfway. Use cover, position, equipment and skills to your advantage in your battles. Unique characters: Your team is formed by unique characters you pick up along the way. Each one of them brings their own story, skills and experiences to the journey. Atmospheric storyline: Find yourself in the middle of an engrossing story-line. Step by step you'll uncover the mysterious events that took place and what it means for you and all of humanity. Mod support coming soon: Map and campaign editor soon to be released allowing a great amount of custom scenarios and/or campaigns. To give you an idea what the game looks like, here are some screenshots and animated gifs: I hope that's piqued your interest a little You can find out more about our game here. Oh and here's our launch trailer: I'm here if you've got any questions, comments, feedback, etc! We're SUPER excited to hear your thoughts. Stefan aka Bach Coder
Yesssss! I've been following you guys for awhile now bugging you on twitter, I'm super stoked to finally be getting my hands on this soon! Day 1 purchase
I've only seen a few of those pictures, and I can already say, this is something I am going to buy as soon as I can. Looks amazing.
I too have been following the blog and every other media pretty much. I can't wait for this next week!
I wish it was cheaper, I really want to get this but can't. Oh well, I'll wait until a flash sale or something.
Congrats!!! I wish you to make good profit from this game. I like turn based games like this. In fact, in terms of game theory, the only legitimate format for any game is turn based. That's why I don't like the XCOM Enemy Unknown air combat mini game because in fact is real time mini game. The turn based ground battles a great but... Another example is Jagged Alliance, turn based combat but outside of the combat-real time. And when you see the enemy on the mini map moving in real time, this is in fact real time game. So these games are not real games. Try to play chess in real time... No. It is absurd. I will stop here, I just hope your game is fully turn based, and don't have to ''move the queen as faster as you can and checkmate the opponent''... (What do you think about these my thoughts?) Thank You, best regards Rossitto I am asking you - Bach, from the perspective of game developer.
I've been waiting for this announcement for a long time. I'm so stoked about this. Happy for you guys and I'll definitely be making a purchase.
Thanks guys for the love! Well .. we are enormous XCOM fans, so I think you'll enjoy it We also have real-time parts. In fact it's very similar to how JA2 does it. There's a simple reason for that: Exploration in real-time is a majorly time consuming task (endless move, finish turn for no reason). It simply doesn't work (we've tried it!!), nor is it fun. Personally I've never felt like it made the game any less enjoyable or less strategic. I think you'll agree it's much nicer to explore the world in RT once you've tried our implementation
In Jagged Alliance you see enemies on the mini map like tiny little dots moving in real time as you explore. I agree that when you explore the map outside of the battle maybe is acceptable to be in real time, but then immediately rise the problem with the encounters with the enemies(!) - are they random, are they predefined, if the player sees the enemies on mini map(aka JA) or doesn't know where they are, all this contribute to the question whether the game is legitimate turn based game and the real time is only for exploration and does not contribute to the turn based gameplay. Real Time means that you use your reflexes via hand-eye-coordination and if you win via reflexes, not by tactics, this is game for retarded children under three years old with the purpose of healing their condition. Well, I think real time games doesn't suit even these circumstances but that's another question. So, you don't answer my question with a depth that the problem required, but after all we will see the end result on 22 july if the real time portion of the game mess with the fundamental game play which has to be in turn based mode. Thank you! fundamental
Rossitto, I think your fears are largely unfounded. Also, I am not sure why you are fussing about this issue? You are hung up on ONE aspect of any given game. I cannot think of many games that are 100% turn based with absolutely NO exceptions. As far as I can tell the Devs gave you a clear and concise answer, which is commendable because I wasn't sure what you were really trying to say in the first place. Is English not your native language? Because that could explain that particular issue for me. I'm just blown away by the way you are speaking to the devs. I don't feel like there is respect there, your tone is condescending and you're attempting to tell a game developer the differences between real time and turn based games. Maybe you ought to read back over what you said, clean it up a little and try a new approach. Because if you don't get the answer you want, maybe you didn't ask a clear and concise question. I'm not trying to be an asshole about this or anything, it is just my opinion that you went about this the wrong way.
You won't need to worry about reflexes in our game No aspect of the game encounters are determined by correct timing. The only reason we have RT is to take away pain, it doesn't change any of the game mechanics. Bach
