New Early Access Release Date, Dreamhack Anaheim, Playtesting, and New UI! - Dev Update #33 news

Game Beats

A lethal virus has infected Treasure Island, San Francisco. It is up to Captain Winter, a U.S. Army soldier working with the Center for Epidemic Research and Control (CERC), to stop the mysterious and deadly Pangu Virus from spreading to the mainland. The Cepheus Protocol is an independently developed top-down RTS inspired by XCOM, Company of Heroes, and Parasite Eve.

In Cepheus Protocol, you will make decisions that will force civilians to either rally behind you or attack you outright. How you decide to combat the virus is entirely up to you. You can fire bombs and leave no trace of human life behind or you can try and save everyone at the cost of your squad's safety. The game features a full day and night cycle and will adapt over time to make the Infected more dangerous as the days progress. The Infected will mutate and adapt to the player, creating a challenge at every turn.

You will control fully customizable teams that you will send into the infection zones to do CEDA Missions, help civilians, or just seek out Patient 0. You will lose men if you aren’t careful and be forced to train and recruit from your player base. Each solider will be unique to a point with randomly generated traits and skills allowing you to tailor them with specific tactics.

You will have to use all the tools in your arsenal and research the plague to discover its origins. You will use your knowledge to cure it to stop the virus before it causes everything to spiral out of control. You will hunt Patient 0, a unique carrier with special abilities that gets stronger as the days progress. You will be confronting and fighting her over a span of main missions and side objectives riddled across the island.

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Make sure to follow us below for the latest updates, funny bugs, or simply come chat with us:

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Our Steam page is live! You can now wishlist us - click on the link below:

Want to be a playtester and help shape our game? Applications are now open!

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Release Date Change: Early Access April 17, 2020

We’re excited to announce that we're moving up the Early Access release date to April 17 of this year! The team has worked day and night to get all the features, mechanics, characters, and more into the build and can’t wait to see you all playing it. We have some amazing playtesters currently giving us a ton of feedback and suggestions which we are already implementing and will be in the Early Access build. Check out the dev update below to see where we are in our development journey!

Dreamhack Anaheim

We're also super excited to announce that we will be attending Dreamhack Anaheim! You'll be able to meet a couple us at the convention, but most importantly you'll get a chance to play a demo of our game! More info like booth number and other important details will be shared closer to the date. Make sure to follow our social media channels to stay up to date on the latest news!

Modeling

We're happy to be partnering with Reallusion using Character Creator!

Check out our early versions of Captain Winter:

We also have a WIP shot of Chelsey using Character Creator:

Andrew was tasked with creating a severed arm, here's his progress so far!

Programming

Here's an early look at our tutorial system we'll be using at Dreamhack Anaheim. Early progress shots but happy with where it's going!

We also wanted to give you several options when it comes to Fire Doctorine and things like training duration and enemy icon display:

We've also added a feature where you can buy unit members at higher levels but you'll have to wait a bit more time for them to be ready to be "trained":

New rally points! Your unit members will automatically go to that rally point:

Here's a first look at the patrol flags! You can set these for your unit members at your base and set them to patrol in certain areas and/or patterns.

The new targeting bounty system is live! In the case that you're fighting a bounty and they run away, you can track it down easier!

Now you can also preview how far your unit members can see and shoot! These vary based on class and weapons.

Derek began work on adding car alarms to the game! We wanted to add an extra level of strategy when you’re playing. There will be areas where you’ll have to decide whether to throw a grenade for example and turn on all the car alarms in the vicinity or lure the infected out of the area and take care of them elsewhere.

Here it is in action:

Derek also added a progress bar widget to buildings so you know how long until it’s brought in:

In a complete team effort, we got some really cool icons working that will help you know where to go or who to defend:

Here it is in action!

Derek testing out the new dialogue boxes (WIP)! 😂

Here’s an early command window preview. In this example, the squad has been commanded to “run”:

We also got key binds activated on the command window for easier toggles:

How about some base building using the key bind commands!

Suppressor toggling is now active! One of the many ways we want to provide you with options on how you want to play the game – go in stealthily or guns blazing!

Here’s an example of toggling the flashlights and suppressors using the key binds. Nice and easy so you focus on the battle at hand!

Concept Art

We’ve started some work on concept for how the UI might look like – still a WIP but we’re excited with the direction of it! Let us know in the comments what you think!

Another version of the UI we were considering was this one but we agreed that it might seem a little too busy (specially when you're in the middle of a big battle!):

In collaboration with our Animators, our Art team has been working on some gallery submissions for Dreamhack Anaheim. Check it out!

One of the shots we were going to submit but thought it was too cool NOT to share with you:

Our concept artists continue to outdo themselves with creations like this:

Some amazing splash screens:

This month we had a few new members join the team - a big welcome to Camilo! Check out his concept art below:

Here are the unit concept art and full renders that took about a week to create!

Level Design

Dimitry’s methodical work shines bright in these screenshots showing one of the largest buildings/assets we have in the game:

Dimitry then worked on new seawall texture materials:

He also remodeled one of the work trailers with new materials but it’s still a WIP:

Welcome to the team, Myles! He joins our Level Design department and has already started making an impact on the team:

Efrain continues his amazing work on the city!

Funny Tidbits

You made it all the way here! Your prize? This hilariously, super broken Captain Winter dancing 😂

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Recruitment:

We’re currently seeking talented individuals in the various roles. It should be noted the project is post launch compensation and we’re open to flexible schedules depending on each individual. Please apply with the links below (Please note that roles where you need to show work requires you to provide us with a portfolio or website. Submissions without proof of work will be dismissed).

• 3DMax Animators: Forms.gle
• Modelers/Environmental Artists: Forms.gle
• Level Designers: Forms.gle
• Concept Artists: Forms.gle
• Character Modelers: Forms.gle
• UI Artists: Forms.gle

Questions? Email us here: recruitment@halcyonwinds.com

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Community Discord Server

Got questions, suggestions, or just want to chat about the game? Come join us on our official Discord!