Hi everyone,

There have been three main areas we’ve been progressing this month.

The first is continued gamepad support and we now have full coverage across all of our menus. We’ve also implemented vibration, so along with our planned improvement of combat controls we’re on track to tick the “full controller support” option when we launch the next Major Update.

The second area has been expanding the tiered Scrapper, Raider and Warden work we outlined last month – if you’d like to read up on those check out the post here. In that post I mentioned some examples of the general changes along with a breakdown on the new Scrapper behaviour, so this time let’s look at some of the other new actions...

The shotgun-toting Elite Raiders now toss EMP grenades instead of the usual explosive ones. These function in a similar way as the Ghost’s aura, so temporarily power-down deployables within its radius. Here’s some concept art where we were developing the idea (the bottom one was the version we progressed into the game):

Regarding the Veteran and Elite Storm Wardens, these can now perform a charge with their shields, so if you see them slammed down get ready to dodge out of the way. The Elite tier can also perform a rallying cry that buffs nearby allies, preventing them from being staggered.

We also took the opportunity to add some crosshair feedback when hitting the shield so it’s more obvious that it isn’t doing any damage.

The changes we’ve made across January and February combine to make the Scrappers, Raiders and Wardens a lot more interesting to fight across a campaign – and we’re not finished yet; the early part of March will both improve the amount of dialogue the Raiders use in combat situations, and we’re further differentiating their visual appearance based on the weapons they carry, so they’re quicker to identify in battle:

The top row would be pistol carriers, the second row shotgun wielders and the bottom row (which is currently in the game) would be equipped with the burst weapons. The alien assault rifle is carried by the special Raider present in the hunter ship that chases you.

The final main area we’ve been focusing on in February has been the new game introduction. Last Dev Transmission I mentioned we’d started work on this, which was heavy on documentation and planning. This month we’ve blocked out the entire flow across a new level and are ready to commence setting up logic.

This opening level takes place on a “Listening Post”, which is an orbital station around Earth. You’ll play through the level as the alien invasion commences, working your way through the damaged station until you’re able to complete your objective, which leads nicely into navigator gameplay. Not only will this fit with our eventual narrative goals for the campaigns, it’ll also serve as a much better introduction to the game that’ll teach new players the game mechanics in a more measured and sequential manner.

Here’s concept art for the Listening Post, which you’ll not only see portions of when looking out the window, but you’ll also see other versions in the distance under attack:

Long-time community members may remember a little side project I run: The Steam event page for the Guildford Games Festival, which collates all of the games made in and close to the GU postcode area.

The physical event commenced in 2019, and a year later with pandemic lockdowns preventing conventions I had the idea to run an event on Steam – and I’ve done this six times since, each lucky enough to be granted front page featuring by Valve.

Although the discounts and featuring have come to an end, check out the event here.

All the artwork was done by our very own Alex. She did a wonderful job combining local landmarks with nods to our gaming heritage – there are even a couple of references to SENTRY in there too :)

It’s a personal highlight when we see some lovingly created fan art of SENTRY, so it was a pleasure to receive this piece from Discord user Wrack:

We love seeing this kind of thing, so please send any cool videos/fan art to us and we may feature it in a future Dev Transmission.

Providing feedback is really important in helping us shape the game. Here’s a bunch of useful links to where you can reach us:

• Steam forums
  
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• Discord[discord.com]
  
• Newsletter signup[sentrygame.com]

Thanks for the support!