Announcing Keep the Peace: in-depth law enforcement strategy
Update: Kickstarter Launch Date Set for Wednesday, May 18th, 2018
I'm very excited to announce Keep the Peace, a passion project that has been more than 15 years in the making. Though it still has a ways to go, I need your help to provide feedback, ideas, and help spread the word. Thank you for your support!
Keep the Peace is an in-depth police strategy game under development for the PC. The game sets you up as Chief of Police, responsible for the safety and security of a town, campus, city, or region. In Keep the Peace, you will:
- Hire officers, based on dozens of skills and characteristics, and keep them healthy, happy, and well-trained
- Customize vehicles, equipment, and units to give your officers the tools they need to get the job done
- Deploy your units strategically around your city, based on where their skills are needed the most
- Respond to dangerous emergencies, such as robberies, hostage situations, high-speed pursuits, car accidents, natural disasters, and much more
- Choose your tactics and strategies to help your team resolve every incident successfully
- Manage the long-term consequences of your actions on your community, your government, and your officers
- And much more...
Check out our IndieDB page for more features, screenshots, and videos!
Keep the Peace is currently a prototype -- I need your feedback, ideas, and support to make it a reality, and to make it the high-quality game you deserve to play. Though the video and screenshots are still rough around the edges, I would love to get your feedback about the overall game. For example:
- Are there features you see here that excite you?
- Are there things you see here that you do not like, or feel could be improved/changed?
- Are there things you'd like to see that seem to be missing?
If you like it so far, please share it among your friends - we need broad support in order to proceed with development. For those who want to get involved in the development from the very beginning, including those interested in alpha/beta testing, a Kickstarter will be launching in May.
Thanks to everyone here for your ongoing support -- it means the world.
Just to confirm something, the IndieDB page has Linux listed as a platform will it indeed be on Linux?
If so, when the Kickstarter launches, reach out to us at GamingOnLinux Gamingonlinux.com :)
Thanks for your comment liamdawe, and that's the plan. I'll definitely reach out!
This is so awesome. I have played many other Emergency service management games. Many of them are either too complex, (where you have to tell the officer to equip a gun, or a fireman to grab a fire hose) or pretty simple without depth and full of repetitive gameplay. (deploy units, send them back to base, and do it all over again) I "studied" your video, I really liked the customization of the vehicles, I have not seen that it other types of police/emergency service games.
Do you have some sort of timeline? Price range?
Really excited and looking forward to it.
Thanks DaEricPink, I think you've hit the nail on the head with regard to the balance we're trying to achieve. You shouldn't have to micromanage every action of your officers -- if you've hired smart ones, they can handle themselves. At the same time, you should be able to make big tactical and strategic decisions that could dramatically change the outcome of an incident. And every single incident you're faced with should be different enough that those decisions are never obvious -- you have to look at the nuances of each situation to determine what's the "right" course of action.
I won't lie, we're early in development. The purpose of the upcoming Kickstarter (later this month!) is to fund expanding the team so we can make the game right, with the level of quality it deserves. But the game's quality will also depend on extensive testing from players like you, so I will want to get alpha/beta versions into the hands of people ASAP. The Kickstarter will be one way to get on the alpha/beta lists.
Pricing is TBD, but the Kickstarter reward tiers will be discounted versus what we expect to charge upon release, and will have a bunch of extra goodies (like opportunities to play the game earlier in Alpha).
Thank you so much for your support!
is there a kickstarter link already??
Thanks :D
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Time to post feedback. I sent you message on FB earlier :).
I am sending this feedback based solely from watching the trailer so I might be wrong on some facts! Also, I would like to post some suggestions as well if possible :).
Let's start with the feedback!
FEEDBACK:
Hiring Process:
I liked the hiring officer menu and all such stuff but one negative thing is: Hiring SWAT Commanders candidates and other high ranking. I mean, this is impossible to happen in real life. You hire rookies and all of them have to actually climb to higher ranks (upon your approval for promotion).
What I am saying is, the only candidate you should be able to hire is rookie and there should be plentiful of them. As for high ranking and experienced officers.. They will have to pass through TRANSFER but should be rare to see, depending your department's reputation.
Example
Your department's reputation is good. You should have a small chance to encounter an experienced candidate transfering to your department (This should be separated from "CANDIDATES" - Perhaps add "TRANSFERING CANDIDATES".
Your department's reputation is poor therefore chances for transfers are near zero.
Vehicles:
I love how you made them customizable. Please add more options to customize, including rotating lights (style 1980 or style from Mafia II :P).
However, the choices on vehicles should be strictly limited when you begin the game until you progress on. Namely, initially (I think) you should have access only to fixed vehicles (As in, not customized ones) until later on.
Patrol routes:
I like it but you might want to add tooltips literally to everything. Such as, what is area supervision?
Aside of that, only SERGEANTS+ can do area supervision. Officers shouldnt be able to do area supervision at all.
Sending units to crimes:
I liked that, it's pretty simple compared to other police strategy games. The con is, the officers drive maniacally, disregarding the traffic law it seems. I mean, if they are responding to a crime scene, they should 100% stick to the road at all times and make turns carefully unless the crime scene is very close then they can disregard it. Also, A.I needs to learn where to park :c
Vehicular pursuits:
I liked it. But please add (I am not sure if you did) options on pursuits. Such as:
1) Open fire at the suspect's car (drive-by shoot) - Can definitely damage the department's reputation significantly if there was no reason justified to do that (ie. The suspect didn't murder anyone, the suspect did not run over someone, the suspect (passenger) did not drive-by shoot at cop cars first).
2) Follow the suspect car. This is boring but safer and less damaging the reputation. All patrol cars will follow the suspect car until the suspect's car fuel runs out or gives up.
3) Pit maneuver. This is a neutral option and should largely depend where you are pit maneuvering it. For example:
If you order the pursuing unit to pit the suspect's car in POPULATED AREA (Not on highway or sort but inside the city) then it should damage the department's reputation. If the pit resulted in civilian injury or death, then it should damage the department's reputation significantly and may result to lawsuits for reckless.
However, if you order to pit the suspect on HIGHWAYS or LESS populated areas (rural), perhaps in this case in the video, then it's highly unlikely it would affect the department's reputation. However if it injures a civilian, it could affect the reputation.
Realism? :D - That's how its done IRL
4) Box in. Only available when the suspect's car speed is slow or halted completely. This causes all units to box into the suspect, preventing them from ever escaping again on vehicle.
Absolutely do not use it if the suspect is confirmed armed, they could have good shot on close officers...
OTHER:
I liked the coverage of police visibility, crime and the fear to police.
What I disliked is.. The flashing police lights have short range, therefore does not flash its surroundings (buildings, walls, etc) properly.
1) Ranks and promotions.
I would like to suggest ranks and its unique icons.
Officer I (Rookie - No icon)
Officer II (Passed Probationary period - Experienced/Inexperienced - No icon)
Officer III (Experienced - Two chevrons facing upwards - Field Training Officer)
Officer III+I (Experienced - Sgt applicant - Two chevrons facing upwards with a star)
Sergeant (Experienced - Supervisor - Can affect nearby officers morale - Three chevrons facing upwards)
Staff Sergeant (Like above with more effect - Three chevrons facing upwards with a star)
Lieutenant (Gold badge - Huge effect - Rarely to be seen on patrol unless truly required such as area supervision, barricaded suspect situation, supervisory request, etc)
The rest ranks up to you.
Officer I to Officer II should be done automatically without requiring your attention unless it's necessary (Such as, the officer did something bad or sort of).
Officer II to Officer III shouldnt require your attention and is done automatically unless if he done something bad.
Officer III to Officer III+I should require your attention. It should give you a DETAILED list what they did so far in the department and then you are given two options: Grant Sergeant exam or not? If not, they stay as Officer III but may lose morale if the reason is not justified. If granted, they get promoted to Officer III+I.
Officer III+I to Sergeant should happen randomly. It may happen early or longer after. You are then asked how they performed on their exam long with their personnel file (if they did miscoduct, etc). The instructor will state that they passed/failed their exam. If failed, they are demoted to Officer III and lose morale. You can veto the decision and promote him but this will damage the reputation.
Sergeant to Staff Sergeant would require long time and skills in order to happen. You are then given option to promote or not.
Staff Sergeant to Lieutenant. They have to pass command exam which is even harder and unlikely to happen.
Anyway, promoting shouldnt be done like.. piece of cake. Players must think this:
Promotion means higher wage pay which means more expenses. If the expenses are more than income (Really, how we get income aside from city hall? Tickets?).
While Field Staff (Officers) would be relative cheap, Supervisory staff would be the most expensive rank to afford because they have more pros than cons (aside from wage increase). Namely, experience, effect on officers (Positive), etc.
Command staff would be the most expensive staff you could afford as they are responsible for bureaucratic stuff (Please add bureaucracy such as, unlock stuff, etc). They should have effect on Sgts as well.
2) Bureaucracy
Want to turn a blind eye? Want to get stuff done? Want to veto decisions? Want to unlock tasers? Want to unlock assault rifles? Want to authorize assault rifles on regular officers? Want to crackdown gangs? Want to crackdown drugs? Ask your Lieutenant (or for realistic reasons, your Deputy/Assistant Chiefs) to do the paperwork for you.
There should be a tree of bureaucracy. Initially, you can unlock SWAT, unlock customizable vehicles, unlock training, unlock field training officer role and unlock tasers.
Then on next level you should be able to unlock shotguns, spike trips, some small form of roadblocks and promotions Officers to Sgt.
On next level: Assault rifles (SWAT), crackdown gangs, detectives bureau, SWAT.
And so on. I need to know what we have before suggesting more lol.
A bureaucracy should cost either money or your department's reputation. I am not sure but bureaucracy, aside from taking long time (depending what you trying to unlock) should cost something. You can unlock as many stuff as you want long as you got people to do that (at the expense of the wage cos Chiefs will kill your budget..)
Once an unlock is finished, you are then given a paper of statement (the statement can be just lined, no need to actually type English lol), your chief's signature and your signature (indicating you approved the research).
3) Gangs
Gangs man. No gangs means no fun!!!!!!! No gangs means no drugs! No gangs means no.. detective!
Obviously this will be hard for you.
If you negliglent an area too much (ie. Crime rate is way too high and the visibility is low) then the chance of a gang to be formed should increase (you shouldnt be informed of that unless you got detectives unlocked and/or hired snitches).
Once the progression goes 100%, you are then informed by a random officer that they heard gunshots, victims of drug abuse, extortion, etc coming from only an area: The area you was negliglent of.
Officers (Particularly Officers I and Officers II) will now refuse to patrol in that area unless if they are equipped with shotgun or assault rifle (if the danger in that area has progressed too much from civilian/officer deaths) or a supervisor is doing an area supervision there.
But there can be a chance a Sergeant may refuse to go there after some time if you fail to assign an another patrol car. You are essentially doomed at that point.
Now, there are two choices which both can affect the department reputation and may incite protests. SWAT patrols (Can damage reputation slowly overtime if overused) or get Detectives to work on it. SWAT patrols boosts confidence on officers and you can now assign any officer there.
Lone officers are at particular risk when they are in gang infested areas. They have higher chance to get shot and killed (especially if they are in traffic stop or just patrolling). Pursuing units on suspect's cars unrelated to the gang should never get shot, after all it's not worth to bring all the heat on you for no reason. Partnered units still can get shot but that would be unlikely. They should also unlikely to a great extend to get shot if they are equipped with a shotgun or an assault rifle.
I will post more about this once this idea is actually implemented.
4) Salaries
You should be able to increase and decrease salaries, both have different cons and pros.
Increasing salaries will boost the officer's morale significantly and may even patrol in gang infested areas temporarily. Decreasing salaries will struck the morale significantly and may incite police protest if they are not getting their salary properly too long. They may also resign if nothing happens - further damaging your reputation as you may be unable to recruit new officers as they will refuse to join your department.
Decreased sallaries will also make officers resort to briberies and overlooking crimes. (I hope this will happen, it would be awesome).
5) Corruption / Miscoduct / Internal Affairs
Inexperienced and/or Officer with low salary should prone to corruption / miscoduct. Let me go in details.
Inexperienced but well paid officer may commit a miscoduct such as excessive force on a person (civilian, gang member, doesnt matter), harassing a civilian, disrespectful and general unprofessionalism.
In this case, a civilian may dial 991 (Non emergency) requesting for Police Supervisor (Sergeant+ only) to attend on scene. If one is available, you should be able to send one or refuse. If sending, then the police supervisor will handle everything - you dont have to do anything. The officer is then reprimanded and you are notified why they got reprimanded. You can do whatever you want. Fire him or let him go for now?
As for corruption, this should happen only if the officer is recruited directly from a gang (ie. Paperwork error showing the gang member being an ordinary good civilian) and/or officers with low/poor salaries.
In this case, they will resort to getting bribes, overlook crimes and on some cases, kill unjustified. In this case you get an alert and given the option to fire him and arrest him (if the act has been witnessed and PROVED) or launch IA investigation.
Internal Affairs. All Chiefs are automatically investigators. You dont have to do much, it should be just a progression. once it goes 100% you are given the outcome and two choices: Fire and arrest or ignore. Ignoring can seriously damage the reputation and you will definitely get sacked from the city hall if civilians protest with valid proof.
5) Reputation
Certain actions have positive and negative reputations. Pursuit options can have netraul or negative reputations.
I mentioned a lot about it above :c
More suggestions to come once the game is released as pre-alpha test or something. :)
Thanks thekillergreece! Absolutely love the detailed feedback and I'm excited to say I think we're on the same wavelength in many respects!
Regarding promotions, that's largely what we're thinking too. The type of promotions that happen relatively frequently will be somewhat automatic, but as they get higher, you have to make difficult decisions about who to promote and who not to promote, based on the department's needs and which officers are most appropriate. And due to resources and other variables, you'll be limited in who and how many people you can promote.
On the bureaucracy side - love all of that. There'll be a couple different angles. On one hand you'll be able to invest in new "capabilities" -- such as setting up a motor pool which lets you support new types of vehicles, and improves operating costs. On another hand you'll be able to implement various "programs" -- like an FTO program -- which will grant various bonuses or unlocks. On another hand you can launch "initiatives" -- like a buy-bust program, or other forms of proactive policing. And finally, set "policies" -- e.g. for use of force.
While still making for good game mechanics, we'll try to make these as realistic as possible, so that players don't feel like they're being prevented from doing what they want because of arbitrary barriers (after all, it's a sandbox!). This'll take testing and feedback from the community for sure.
As for costs: agreed. There will be a few types of "resources" in the game, including money, government influence, and community influence, and these things could cost any of them. Also, choices can have an effect on other variables too, like morale, perceived security in the community, fear of police, etc.
Love all the ideas around organized crime, and excited to chat more about that going forward! There's a lot of opportunity there, and for traditional strategy gamers that are used to having a defined "enemy" and controlling "territory", organized crime would actually make the game seem more familiar for them.
Salaries, indeed, and we're also thinking about how incorporating union relations could affect this as well.
I like the idea about immediate on-scene civilian complaints. A complaint/inquiry system is definitely planned, but complaints coming in the form of an additional call for service (from a supervisor) could make the impact of officer misconduct even more immediate.
Internal Affairs can be an interesting dynamic too, almost like counterespionage in a game of Civilization.
Thanks again for all the feedback and for your support! If the upcoming Kickstarter goes well (fingers crossed!) looking forward to being able to build on these discussions in the future!
By the way, missed a couple of your first points in my last reply, so I wanted to also say:
-- Hiring: Agreed about candidates. We want players to feel they've invested a lot in their officers (so God forbid something bad happen to them), so most will indeed start junior and take time and investment to grow.
-- Tooltips: Definite yes! This'll be a complex game, so we'll try to do everything possible from a UI standpoint to make it easy and intuitive to interact with.
-- Pathfinding: Lane-keeping and traffic hasn't been implemented at all yet, but is on the roadmap for sure.
-- Vehicle pursuits: Agreed on all those points. You'll have to make difficult decisions about what's the best tactic based on things like...how dangerously the suspect is driving, where you are (populated/not), whether they're armed, whether you have any other alternatives, etc. The availability of some tactics (like firing at the vehicle) may depend on what policies you've established, or what equipment you have (e.g. deploying spike strips).
Thanks again!
One of the most impressive things(the video) I have seen on indiedb and I have been looking at this website for many years now.
The potential for this game is unlimited, Im looking forward to seeing more of this game.
Thanks @ozzyr! Though we still have a long way to go, we're extremely excited that this is resonating with folks! Your support really means a lot!
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It may seem harsh, but I don't think you'll get your kickstarter goal in 12 days.
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