Development Update & FAQ news

It’s been quite some time since we last updated you guys on the status of development, which is why we wanted to take a moment to give a quick update and answer any questions that you might have.

In short, we’re still working on development by the day. Whilst we’re still not ready to commit to a final release date for the upcoming demo, we can say with confidence that we’re a hell of a lot closer than we were before!

Over the past months, we’ve been working a lot on polishing gameplay mechanics and UI elements such as the in-game HUD, building assets for use in multiplayer levels, as well as polishing combat animations.

Since you've last heard from us we've implemented the following (among many other things):

• A fully functional class system, each class with their own equipment selections and traits.
• Various deployable equipment types including teleporters and medical bots.
• Tanks and Hoverbikes galore!
• Atmospheric entry and exit VFX.
• Multiple Playable Vori races.
• Homing missiles for Fighters.
• Destroyed ship debris.
• Anti-Infantry and Anti-Air turrets.
• And much more...

We’ve also taken the time to throw together a long overdue FAQ which we hope will give appropriately in-depth answers to whatever other questions you might have about the status of the conceptual demo or just about our plans for Galaxy in Turmoil in general.

So, without further ado:

Galaxy in Turmoil: Frequently Asked Questions.
What is Galaxy in Turmoil?

• Galaxy in Turmoil is a space-faring, scenario-based multiplayer game in the Combined Arms genre. Set in a Cyberpunk-flavored universe with a little bit of Fantasy thrown into the mix, the game features seamless space-to-ground combat, both in and out of vehicles.
  
  Need to take down a shield generator to advance your team's objective? Sneak in on foot and plant some remote explosives or hop in a starfighter and carry out bombing runs. If you're so inclined, you can even grab a tank and storm right into the enemy base. Want to disable that pesky capital ship that's scraping the upper atmosphere? Strap into a pilot seat and soar up through the clouds. The choice is yours!
  
  Being an eclectic lot of gamers ourselves, we've drawn artistic, thematic, and gameplay-related inspiration from a wide range of titles, including the classic Star Wars: Battlefront, Warhawk and Starhawk, Bioshock, Star Fox, Mass Effect, Dark Souls, and even a few quirkier gems like Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee. We've enjoyed creating our own unique universe and can't wait to share it with the world.

Is Galaxy in Turmoil still in development?

• Yes, work on Galaxy in Turmoil continues by the day. You can keep track of our progress in real time by joining our Discord server where we have made our internal commit logs public for all to see!
  
  Please note that the commit log only displays direct updates made to the playable build. It does not record more behind-the-scenes work, such as asset creation or developer tests run on local computers.

Is Galaxy in Turmoil a Star Wars game?

• No. While it’s true that the project started out as a Star Wars fan game, we have long since pivoted away from that to instead build something of our own design, set in a universe of our own making. Doing so has given us the opportunity to exercise full creative freedom and work to create something new.

When will Galaxy in Turmoil be released?

• We’re currently working on an upcoming demo to give you guys a glimpse of what we have planned for Galaxy in Turmoil. We plan to launch this demo alongside a Kickstarter campaign to fund the development of the game. There is no current ETA on the upcoming Demo or the full game.

How much will Galaxy in Turmoil cost?

• The multiplayer release of Galaxy in Turmoil, just like the upcoming demo, will be free! The pricing of the singleplayer release will be announced later down the line.

What will the upcoming Demo Contain?

• There are currently 4 multiplayer game modes planned for the upcoming demo, along with several maps. Please note that game modes featured in this demo are not the only experiences we hope to offer in the full game.
  
  
  • Team Deathmatch:
    You know the drill. What shooter game would be complete without a little team-based mayhem? 2 teams square off against each other. Your objective? Destroy all enemies!
  • Domination:
    In Domination Mode, opposing factions compete for control of the area. By capturing nodes on the map, players boost their team’s total capture score and open up additional team spawn locations for further conquest. On larger maps, players may utilize an assortment of vehicles, from tanks to aerial fighters, and access defensive tech, such as anti-aircraft turrets. The longer a team holds a control node, the more domination points it earns. Victory goes to the team that first reaches the target points threshold.
  • Siege:
    In Siege Mode, the defending team’s base houses a rare and valuable artifact. The attacking team must break through all security before they can take the payload for themselves. Security defenses may include shields and antipersonnel turrets. In the most common derivation of Siege, attackers must hack through three security consoles to lower the defending team’s shields. Defenders must prevent or intercept hacks to cancel the hack before it completes. Once all consoles are hacked, the shield protecting the artifact vanishes, leaving it vulnerable to a full-on assault. To achieve victory, attackers must carry the artifact to one of their Extraction Zones, while defenders try to stop them until the timer runs out.
  • Invasion:
    A Comm Industries Tower Ship has launched an assault on a Vori-controlled world, aiming its most dangerous weapon at the ground far below. However, the Vori Legion never comes to the battle unprepared, having previously installed powerful shields that dissipate energy from Comm weaponry. Until the Vori shield generators are destroyed, the ship’s cannon will be unable to target its primary objectives. From their starting point in the Tower Ship, Comm starfighters must descend through the planet’s atmosphere to target Vori shield generators on the ground. This may not be an easy task, as Vori bases are host to powerful anti-aircraft turrets that can shred a ship in seconds. Should the Comm succeed in taking down all Vori shields, their cannon will begin warming up to fire. Successfully firing the cannon results in victory for the Comm. For the Vori, losing shields isn’t automatically the end. Before the cannon fires, Vori starfighters may fly into space, work their way up through multiple levels of the Tower Ship to take out the Comm’s own internal shield generators, and finally target the cannon itself. Even with no shields left on the ground, the Vori will have a few precious minutes to launch an all-out assault on the Tower Ship and steal victory from the Comm. Winning Invasion mode requires each team to carefully balance offense and defense. This includes capturing control nodes both on the ground and in space to provide team members with additional spawn locations that may be closer to objectives than the default deployment zones.

There has been talk of a gameplay teaser, what’s going on with that?

• While we have released a teaser on our YouTube channel, we’re currently at a stage in development where visual changes can still happen. If, for example, we had released footage of these maps months earlier, it would have been vastly inferior to what we ended up publishing. Because of this, we don’t want to rush into making any more teasers until the game’s visuals are more stable.

Are there plans for splitscreen “instant action”-esque bot battles?

• There are no plans for bots or splitscreen gameplay in the upcoming demo, but it’s something we’re more than open to exploring in the full game if there is demand for it.

Will there be Heroes or any kind of similar Elite Classes?

• Galaxy in Turmoil does indeed feature an as-yet-unnamed elite system. In most multiplayer modes, players will be able to spawn as named characters from our story campaign and beyond, and it goes without saying that they’ll be tough to take down alone!

Will there be a singleplayer campaign? What will it be about?

• The singleplayer campaign gives us a view of the burgeoning war between Comm Industries and the Vori Federation, the two most powerful factions in the known galaxy. Told through the eyes of Roka, a plucky mercenary with a history of taking on the most dangerous jobs, the story leads us through branching scenarios driven by player action and choice.
  
  While Roka may seem devil-may-care at times, her motivations run deep. We hope players will enjoy not only learning details of Roka's backstory, but also helping her carve out a future for herself during a tumultuous moment in history.

What type of gameplay can we expect in the singleplayer campaign?

• Given our desire for consistency between game modes, singleplayer gameplay will be fundamentally similar to multiplayer, only with a few twists. It takes a real force of nature to go up against an army, so Roka and her companions have access to powers and techniques that go well beyond what standard infantry can achieve.
  
  While multiplayer characters are class-based, each with their own specialities, Roka plays more like a Swiss Army knife, and the missions she takes are designed to challenge her flexible skill set.

How is Galaxy in Turmoil funded?

• As of right now, we’re operating on an entirely volunteer basis. We plan to fund development of the full game with a Kickstarter campaign launched alongside the release of the upcoming demo. When the full multiplayer game is released, we’ll support further development with cosmetic microtransactions.
  
  Unlike the multiplayer release, we’ll take a more traditional “pay-to-own” approach with the singleplayer campaign.

Wait, wasn’t the singleplayer campaign meant to be free too?

• We initially planned for both the multiplayer and singleplayer releases to be free. However, after much deliberation, we concluded that, while it would be practical to sustain a free multiplayer game through the sale of cosmetics, singleplayer games along the lines of what we have in mind are much more suited to a more traditional monetization model.

And what about those microtransactions?

• There are no plans for any microtransactions in the upcoming demo. However, we do plan to monetize the multiplayer release of Galaxy in Turmoil with optional directly-purchasable cosmetics.
  
  The singleplayer release will most likely be sold for a one-time fee, allowing us to offer a complete narrative experience unblemished by further monetization. The extent to which we’ll offer post-launch content in singleplayer has yet to be determined, but our goal is for any hypothetical singleplayer DLC to enhance, not interfere with, the vanilla experience. None of those insufferable pop-up screens demanding a credit card number before you can reload your frag launcher!

What about lootboxes?

• We’re open to the idea of including something like a “lootbox” in the multiplayer release of Galaxy in Turmoil as an optional cheaper alternative to directly purchasable cosmetics. That said, we don’t believe players gracious enough to support us by purchasing skins should be forced to grind their teeth on an RNG system. If you want a specific skin, you should be able to buy it directly!

Are you planning on releasing DLC beyond the launch of the full game?

• This depends entirely on funding and player demand. If there’s demand for campaign expansions and the like - and we have the resources to provide them - we’d love to continue expanding our universe. However, when it comes to multiplayer, we don’t intend to do anything that would split our player base. If we release new multiplayer weapons, vehicles, elite characters, maps, or game modes, we believe they must be equally accessible to all players.

Will there be a beta?

• While we ourselves have been known to confuse terms in casual conversation, do note that there’s a difference between “beta” and “demo.” Based on our projected development cycle, the upcoming demo still qualifies as a glorified pre-alpha, meaning that, while it already has enough features to give you a taste of where we intend to go with the full game, and while it might have a bit more visual polish than you might expect from a pre-alpha, it is not “feature-complete” enough to qualify as an alpha. We won’t get into alpha or beta until we have funding to do this full-time.

Who can play the demo?

• Everyone (apart from Ned)! The upcoming demo will be completely free for all to play!

How many players are allowed in multiplayer?

• Our largest multiplayer game modes will support up to 64 players.
  
  That said, we’re more than eager to increase that number in the full game if technical limitations allow and we have the funding to pull it off!

Will Galaxy in Turmoil support dedicated servers?

• Yes, we’ll release server binaries to allow players to host their own servers.

Will there be controller support?

• Controller support is planned for both the upcoming demo and full game.

What platforms will Galaxy in Turmoil be released on?

• The upcoming demo will be a Windows PC release only. The full game is planned to release on PC and PS4.
  
  We are in talks with Microsoft about the possibility of bringing the full game to Xbox as well, but we can’t make any promises on that front just yet.

Will Linux and Mac OS be supported?

• Both are on the table for the full game and definitely something we’d like to do. That said, this is something that will largely come down to player demand and funding.

Will my PC be able to run it?

• There are no official estimated system requirements at this moment in time. This is something we’ll release later down the line.

Will Galaxy in Turmoil have a first person view?

• While the upcoming demo will be third person only, we’re more than open to including first person in the full game as well. Ultimately, this comes down to player demand and funding.

Will there be mod support?

• Some form of mod support is planned for the full release of Galaxy in Turmoil, but it’s too soon to offer details on the extent to which modding will be possible.

What ESRB/PEGI age rating will Galaxy in Turmoil be?

• We do not currently have an age rating for the game.

Can I help test development builds of Galaxy in Turmoil?

• We occasionally put out calls for volunteer playtesters on our Facebook, Twitter, and Discord.

When will the next call for playtesters be?

• Whenever we need more playtesters than we currently have. We don’t have a schedule for this, and every call has a limited amount of slots, so keep your eyes peeled!

If you feel there’s a question we’ve missed, feel free to hit us up on our Discord server over at Discord.gg or let us know in the comments below!