About:

Vigilantes is a crime themed turn based tactical RPG, and the second game by Timeslip Softworks. An early alpha demo is available in the files section, and the complete game can be purchased direct from the developer or on Steam.

The city’s going to hell. On the streets and behind closed doors, the Mafia infiltrates and corrupts the civic power structure. Gun crazy paramilitary survivalists wreak havoc, while packs of flat out crazy Churchers roam, stealing anything that isn’t bolted down, and burning anything that is. Enter Sam Contino.

Features:

  • Lead a vigilante team in tense, deep, turn based battles against 3 distinct gangs.
  • Turn based tactics in a fresh crime setting. No mages or sci-fi warriors need apply.
  • Run surveillance and interrogate enemies to locate each gang's leadership and facilities.
  • Build a base of operations, comprised of 5 upgradeable structures.
  • Develop your team with the deep UPLIFT system, choosing stats, skills, and many perks.
  • Take down foes with choreographed, bone shattering melee, firearms, and explosives.
  • Craft special items, such as hotloaded ammo, armour, weapons and medical items.
  • Experience a compelling story, supported by quality artwork and voice acting.

Stay In Touch!

If you'd like to stay in touch with development, you are most welcome to stop by my Facebook page, Forum or Twitter or watch on Indie DB for all the latest updates.

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Welcome to the first development log for Prometheus Wept, a turn based RPG set on a near future earth in which virtually all computerised technology has been rendered inoperable by a virus, casting mankind into a new dark age.

Prometheus Wept uses the code from Vigilantes, the studio's second game, as a starting point, a base camp from which to reach for greater altitude. This development log covers around half of the key areas Prometheus Wept aims to improve on its predecessor. While most of these have been realised to some degree and all are feasible, it's too early to guarantee everything outlined will be included in the game or exactly as envisioned.

Prometheus Wept has a Steam Page with some early visuals here, and if you've never heard of Vigilantes, you can find out more about it here.

A Brief Summary

Prometheus Wept will move from the combat focused gameplay of Vigilantes towards a traditional RPG, with improved gameplay variety and overall depth. There will be significant consequences for player choices, more emphasis on plot, character and game world development. There will be less combat, but battles will be more varied and the combat system will be more feature rich.

Less, but more varied combat

One of the main criticisms of Vigilantes is an over-reliance on combat. Vigilantes has a game loop similar to Xcom: fight → return to base/sell loot/upgrade → fight. I was aware of the potential downsides of this emphasis on combat during development, and a lot of time was spent adding variation to the game loop through crafting, base facilities, different mission types, pre-combat dialogue with skill checks, interrogation and surveillance. These additions worked for the majority of players, as Vigilantes currently has 82% positive reviews on Steam, but de-emphasizing combat will create a stronger, more varied base to build on.

Prometheus Wept will depart from Vigilantes' potentially infinite number of generated battles, to a smaller number of hand crafted encounters. Less emphasis on combat will make room for greater gameplay variety and player choice will replace combat as the key mechanism for driving the story and gameplay. Further, the shift away from generated battles will allow for the creation of more varied and interesting combat challenges.

Strong consequences for player choice

Player choice in Vigilantes didn't extend far beyond pre-combat skill checks, and whether to kill or incapacitate enemies, which determined the ending. Vigilantes is a combat focused tactical game, but even in many RPGs, there's a tendency for main quests to be a series of checkpoints, with only token effects on later gameplay and plot.

The aim with Prometheus Wept is to build more connective tissue than is typical in RPGs, between player choice, gameplay and plot development. The main quests in each act of Prometheus Wept build towards a finale. The intention is that the majority of main quests will provide the player with choices which can tip the scales in their favour (or against) in the finale, and that the resolution of the finale will affect the level of support the faction you sided with provides in the following act.

More emphasis on plot, character development and world-building.

The play area in Vigilantes is divided into gang-held city tiles, which could be attacked at any point in the game. However, since pre-combat dialogue was linked to a specific map and gang, there was no way to know when or if the player would hit the required combination. This lead to an abandonment of a strongly interconnected plot for a number of self contained encounters.

Prometheus Wept will move away from this open-ended gameplay to a branching narrative which is more suited to developing a deeper plot, character and world.

Deeper Combat

If you were dismayed by the phrase “less emphasis on combat” - don't be concerned! One significant benefit of Vigilantes' focus on combat is that there's a fairly feature rich combat system in place, which will be further developed for Prometheus Wept. So, while you'll spend a lower percentage of playtime fighting, the combat will have deeper mechanics and be more varied.

The below list of improvements is far from exhaustive. To date, the first two points have been implemented:

  • Destructible Cover: this will introduce an additional tactical layer in choosing cover and destroying the enemy's. Explosives will be very good at this.

  • Interactions between fire, water, and electricity: water extinguishes fire, but increases the damage taken from electrical attacks. Deeper water will also slow movement, which can be exploited when facing melee enemies.

  • Environment weapons: Vigilantes had the good ol' staples of gas cans and oil barrels. The intention is to greatly increase the number of environment weapons and to increase the complexity interactions with them. For example, throwing an explosive into a fire could result in an added incendiary effect, or water containers could be destroyed to put out fires, slow enemies, or make them more vulnerable to electrical attacks.

Prometheus Wept is still relatively early in development, so please share your thoughts and feedback on the design. If you have any questions, fire away, and I'll get back to you!

Vigilantes V1.06 Released

Vigilantes V1.06 Released

News

The final and definitive version of Vigilantes is now available.

Vigilantes Version 1.04 Now Available

Vigilantes Version 1.04 Now Available

News

Take down the criminal underworld with powerful new perks, equipment and weapons!

Neo-Noir Turn-Based Tactical RPG, Vigilantes, Launches on Steam Today!

Neo-Noir Turn-Based Tactical RPG, Vigilantes, Launches on Steam Today!

News

Timeslip Softworks LTD is pleased to announce that Vigilantes, the neo-noir turn-based tactical RPG has launched for Windows, Mac, and Linux via Steam...

Vigilantes Version 29 Released!

Vigilantes Version 29 Released!

News

Vigilantes version 29 is now available for download from Steam and Humble. Version 29 represents the biggest content and balance update so far, introducing...

RSS Files
Vigilantes Alpha 10 [Windows]

Vigilantes Alpha 10 [Windows]

Demo

Vigilantes is a neo noir turn based, tactical RPG. Alpha 10 is the official version for the upcoming Kickstarter and Greenlight campaigns. It features...

Vigilantes Alpha 10 [Linux]

Vigilantes Alpha 10 [Linux]

Demo

Linux release of Vigilantes. Unzip, and run x86 or x64 version. Note: Changing texture quality requires restart.

Vigilantes Alpha 10 [Mac]

Vigilantes Alpha 10 [Mac]

Demo

Latest alpha release of Vigilantes for Mac. Note: Changing texture quality requires restart for mac version of Vigilantes. This appears to be a Unity...

Vigilantes Alpha 9

Vigilantes Alpha 9

Demo

Alpha 9 includes a new enemy: the fanatic, a new mission: the poisoned crucible, post mission looting, visibility improvements and a number of fixes.

Vigilantes Alpha 8

Vigilantes Alpha 8

Demo

Vigilantes alpha release 8 adds a new enemy, new AI behaviours, a new combat area, and incendiary grenades. Armour can now be upgraded to new types, and...

Vigilantes Alpha 7

Vigilantes Alpha 7

Demo

IMPORTANT: Update: The issue with starting a new game has now been fixed - Added new vigilante: Ray Case - Added new encounter: Too Many Questions - Added...

Post comment Comments  (0 - 10 of 13)
Guest
Guest

- 学生向け就職活動(就活)・就職情報サイト

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Omegakill
Omegakill

Congrats on getting the game into early access!

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TimeSlip Creator
TimeSlip

Thanks OmegaKill :) Just released the first post ea update.

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G_Fest
G_Fest

Very interesting theme for a game of this type. Would love to see how it looks later on.

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TimeSlip Creator
TimeSlip

Thanks G_Fest. Glad you like the theme, made a decision quite early to avoid more commonly used settings. The alpha levels are quite polished, but later on there will be much more content. I hope you well check back later : )

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wilk1000
wilk1000

Looks good.

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TimeSlip Creator
TimeSlip

Thank you wilk1000! Appreciate the kind words. In case you've tried to download the latest build, there is an issue with it, I'm currently re-uploading it, and it should be available in an hour or so!

Reply Good karma+2 votes
Omegakill
Omegakill

I'd like to give some feedback if I may. Although i'll start off by saying great job so far, looks very promising. Also while I know that this is still early days and what I suggest may be in the pipe line already I'd still like to say the following:

1. The animation for running, especially when it is an enemies turn isn't very fluid.

2. It would be nice to have an end turn shortcut key.

3. When there are no enemies about it would be good to go into real time, I don't like having to click 3 or 4 times to get to the other side of the map.

4. Speaking of the maps, they're so tiny. Again I know that this is early but I really hope the maps are going to be much bigger.

5. weapons, are there just going to generic, pistol, SMG, assault rifle, shotgun types or are you going to include a few different types?

6. What will the replay value be in the final version of the game? Would I be able to get a different ending or quests depending on how I play?

7. It is hard to see the difference between 8 and 0 because with the ingame font 0 looks like an 8

8. The animation for shooting around corners needs to be better, for example if you do a snap shot, you could just have the character point the weapon round the corner\cover and pop off a shot, and with an aimed attack, they could lean out and shoulder fire.

9. It would be pretty cool if for example my characters close combat skill was high enough that they could not only dodge but counter attack (maybe with the help of a perk). The animations are pretty good for this stage in the game though.

10. Consider an overflow system for AP, for example you can use 50% of your max AP that same turn (on top of your current AP) but you lose your next turn for that character.

Again I very much appreciate that this is a game in it's early stages and i'm giving you a lot of feedback here, but it's only because I feel a Jagged Alliance which is one of my all time favourite games. Please feel free to PM me if you'd like to discuss any of this.

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TimeSlip Creator
TimeSlip

Hi OmegaKill. Glad you are enjoying Vigilantes and thanks for the feedback, it's very helpful and helps me plan what to add in future updates. Please see answers below

1/8: I agree that the animations could do with some extra work. While it's unlikely I can bring the overall animation to xcom levels of polish, it will be possible to improve them.

2: Agreed. Will add this for next update.

3: Will look into this. The loot all button makes moving around the map unneccessary, so to date, I've been inclined to develop other aspects of the game. Any thoughts on this?

4: There will be some bigger maps, but not vastly so. With an emphasis on combat rather the exploration, and the fact that all enemies become hostile and aware of you when you enter the map, it would seem that larger maps will have a limited impact on gameplay.

5: Between weapons, equipment, and armour, there will probably be around 60-70 items, so lots more to come :)

6: Hoping to have 2 separate endings depending on the level of chaos you cause. It's unlikely there will be quests per se, outside the main quest of tracking down and dismantling the gangs. There will also be difficulty levels, and quite a bit of scope in terms of how you build your character, so that should help with replayability. I have quite a few other ideas on factors which could be added to increase the variety in the game. I'll do my best with these, but it's going to be impossible to do everything. Hoping to launch a kick starter soon, which I'm hoping I can use to increase the development time.

7: Will have a look at this.

9: I like the idea. Am considering interupts, both for ranged and melee, but can't make any guarantees as I have to cover the bases first.

10: That's a good idea. It probably won't make it into update 4, but I'll give this some serious thought.

Thanks again for the feedback, there are a lot of useful observations here. Likewise, the turn based genre is very dear to me, and I'm going to do my best bring Vigilantes as far as I can.

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Omegakill
Omegakill

Hey thanks for replying to me, after thinking about what you said in point 3 I do see what you mean in the fact that there isn't much need to walk around after combat is finished.

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TimeSlip Creator
TimeSlip

Not at all, happy to. I'm hoping to add a post mission looting screen, where you can find additional items based on your surveillance and bypass skill. Pretty good chance this will happen.

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