I’m glad to announce that Titanium Hound demo will be expanded to two missions. This will be done in two steps. First of all, I’m going to release demo version 0.2.0 that will have fully functional second mission and have some improvements for the first mission. However, this version will lack new sound effects and new music. Then I’m going to prepare version 0.2.1 with new sounds and music as well as more improvements to both missions.
As for the dialogue voice overs, they are planned, but it’s too early to start making them, as the story isn’t 100% finalized yet. But when voice overs will be made and put into the game, they will be put into its demo version as well with one more update.
Titanium Hound demo version 0.2.0 is finally here, and I’d like to explain what you can expect from this update.
First of all, the demo now has two playable missions. The story continues as the protagonist needs to infiltrate Arc Recycling facility to follow the investigation clue. You are going to face new enemies and obstacles, find new secrets, solve new puzzle, and fight huge boss in the end. Also, if you gathered all intel on the first mission, you will be able to select new equipment before the second mission and use one more crafted item type upon it.
Secondly, I’ve implemented hidden dialogue mechanic that was planned long ago. One of dialogues on each mission is hidden and optional, so you will need to explore the missions more carefully. When your character is approaching such hidden dialogue you will see small question mark that will indicate dialogue proximity. Eventually this will be tied to one of the game’s achievements that will require all hidden dialogues to be found.
I’ve updated the video in the original post - now it shows second mission gameplay. Version 0.2.0 still has some amount of bugs and lacks new music tracks and new sound effects. Those things will be addressed in next version of the demo, that I’m already working on. Also, next demo (version 0.2.1) will have balance and overall improvements for both missions.
You can already download and play Titanium Hound demo version 0.2.0 on Steam and Indie DB (see links in the first post).
This video demonstrates the game’s new tutorial called Training Ground, which acts as separate mission that is not tied to the story. Training Ground mission will not replace tips that you can open on real mission to recall some things you may have forgotten. Training Ground will be included into the upcoming demo 0.2.1.
I’m really happy that new demo version in fact has more content than I’ve initially planned. But on the other hand, it lacks new music tracks, which I had to move to version 0.2.2 (that I hope to release next week). Now, let’s move straight to the current update details.
I’ve added full-scale tutorial to the game. It starts with small introduction about equipment basics and continues with training mission that explains everything you need to know about the combat. This training mission is not tied to the story and won’t need much time to be completed. When you start the game for the first time it will give you prompt about tutorial. Once tutorial is complete, or if you refused to start it, this prompt will stop appearing later even if you reset your save by starting new game. But you still can start tutorial any time by pressing “?” button on the Map or Equipment screen.
I’ve added time measurement feature that will be very interesting for speed runners. It measures only actual gameplay time, ignoring time you spend in menus, pauses and dialogues. However, it still counts all boss fights attempts if you failed to defeat a boss in the first attempt to do so. You can check your current playthrough time in settings section of the main menu. If it will be possible, later I’ll make a ladder based on different players playthrough times.
Sound and visual improvements are also here. There is bunch of new sound effects implemented along with improvements for some particular sounds. As for the visual part it was improved in general and has one principal fix that I planned long ago. The game is now free of asset rotation usage. Previously I used it for the things with fast rotation speed, like wheels or vents. Now all such things have animated sprites instead of rotation, which is critical for pixel art visual style.
I also couldn’t avoid some balance changes. I’ve tweaked a lot of things here, from turrets rate of fire to mini-bosses health. As a result – gameplay became a bit harder and more interesting. But here I’d like to warn you about non-lethal attack and Shock Stabilizer device that improves it. From now non-lethal attack has much worse range and requires more energy to be used, and Shock Stabilizer device improves the attack to pre-0.2.1 state, and even improves its range further. Also I’d like to mention the crafting system improvement that allows you to craft items much more often.
New demo is already available on Steam and IndieDB:
Thank you for keeping us up to date with your work in progress, “Titanium Hound.” I’ve had the chance to explore your posts and can see that development has come a long way since you’ve started a little over a year ago! The game itself looks spectacular, and features such as “time measurement” for speedrunners are genius! Kudos again on releasing demo version 0.2.1, and I look forward to seeing further gameplay in the future.
I’d like to test if this drawing will be automatically used to create the thread’s thumbnail
Edit: nope, this isn’t working. Still don’t understand how a thread thumbnail is generated. It would be great if the thumbnail with recommended image size could be just uploaded via thread settings.
I’m glad to announce that Titanium Hound is in the middle of the final UI rework. This has to be done for several reasons.
First of all, the game now uses amazing pixel art font (LanaPixel) made by eishiya (see profile link below). The font supports all major languages, including very complicated ones like Chinese and Japanese. This opens a lot of localization possibilities as well as simplifies everything tied to texts, including much easier possibility of implementing controls customization. Previously I used hand-drawn texts, which wasn’t quite handy.
Secondly, new UI now works with mouse in addition to keyboard and gamepad. Spoiler - default combat controls will use mouse too
Finally, this UI will definitely become better visually, and will not use chromatic aberration transitions anymore.
Thank you so much for keeping us updated on the progress of Titanium Hound! It has been a great experience seeing your progress and how far you’ve come since your first post! Your retro style is reminiscent of Metroid! The cityscape background is incredible!
The new UI looks great, btw! Including different languages is a very thoughtful addition to attract a wider gamer audience and such a great marketing tool! It’s not lost on me your mention of Neuralink in-game. I take it that you’re very much into tech! Do you plan on using future tech in all of your future game endeavors?
Thank you for using UE to bring your game to life! You’ve definitely created something Unreal!
Thanks! I’m glad you like this game Yeah, cyberpunk genre is very much about technology as an important part of modern society. I hope that story I’m going to tell in this game will be not just interesting, but also instructive.
Yes, my interest is really piqued! Will the instructive aspect of your game lead to a discovery of how to “rage against the machine”?
Just from the videos that you have shared with us, using cyberpunk as a vehicle of antiestablishment heroics is extremely intriguing! I’m looking forward to how you reveal such a thought-provoking concept! Are you into cyberpunk anime? Have you seen Gunslinger Girl or Ghost in the Shell: Standalone Complex? They share a common theme with your game with the use of cybernetics in future government control. What about cybernetics interests you?
What inspired the name “Titanium Hound” (was it GoT)? BTW, I added Titanium Hound to my Steam Wishlist!
Movies like Ghost in the Shell and Appleseed, and games like Deus Ex and Huntdown are my source of inspiration Cybernetics in the world of Titanium Hound is as advanced as in Deus Ex: Human Revolution and became almost natural part of the environment. But the key idea of the story will be the teleportation technology that has properties which allow only non-organic materials to be transported intact. Organics, however, undertake fast and deep mutations through the teleportation process, no matter if this is bacteria or a human being. The story will be about the abuse of such technology in a dystopian society.
The name “Titanium Hound” was just a logical result of thinking about how would I call an exoskeleton or a mech that can move at very high speeds - titanium easily associates with strong armor, and hound associates with high movement speed when we are talking about legs instead of wheels.
Thank you, @RedSpotSylphina , for such a thorough and knowledgeable answer! I can definitely see the Appleseed and other inspiration. Beam me up, RedSpot! Your answer gave me a Star Trek flashback. (LOL) I totally concur with your explanation of teleportation. In your dystopian society, it seems that teleportation breaks down matter molecularly for transport, and then reassembles it on the other side. This is why inorganic materials are transported in tact. Although the technology advanced enough to not kill organic material in transport, the tech is still in its infancy stages, thus creating organic abominations. Am I correct? In my studies, today’s reality aligns with quantum teleportation, which is only used to teleport quantum information. Although this is exciting for quantum computing and a quantum internet, here in this reality, were still stuck in “quantum entanglement” , LOL! Out of curiosity, have you ever considered writing sci-fi novels or have you ever written a sci-fi novel or short story?
The mysterious Get-Dovah is going to give away my age here, have you ever heard of Popular Science magazine or the show Quantum Leap?
@Get_DOVAH_it I’ve heard about Popular Science and Quantum Leap, but din’t have a chance to read and watch them. I hope that after the release I’ll have more free time to take a look
Well, Titanium Hound story will be the first story that I’ll write. I’m not a scientist, but I have some theories about teleportation and time. The idea is that relation between the matter and the time is like relation between the child asset and the parent asset. Matter has its own laws that determine everything within its volume and cannot affect the time volume (with its own laws) in which matter just flows. And the idea of teleportation is the idea of a device that pushes the matter apart in a small volume, leaving nothing, not even vacuum or light, inside, and creating a hole in the matter. Object that is placed in this hole is now in time volume and is affected by its laws. What scientists in the world of Titanium Hound managed to achieve is to make objects instantly travel between two such holes, but didn’t manage to keep organic material intact during such transition.
The idea of breaking down the matter molecularly for transport, and then reassembles it on the other side looks a bit strange to me, because such teleportation looks like a destruction and creating a clone of an object afterwards, so I tried to imagine something completely different.
@RedSpotSylphina , With your keen interest in science, when you have the time, of course, I believe that you would find interesting concepts in Popular Science, and you may find some paradoxes in Quantum Leap.
Thank you for such a thought-provoking response! I love how in Titanium Hound, you are redefining and reimagining existing science! Your game shall destroy the 7 octillion dilemma. Within the game, will we get a backstory of the enemy and what led to the dystopian society?
In Titanium Hound, is there a limitation to the types of objects (weight, size, substance, state) that are sent via teleportation? Is there a possibility that an organic being in a mech suit (such as Titanium Hound) can be teleported in tact (i.e. protected by the mech)? If so, I can imagine the devious establishment cloning Titanium Hound, employing programming, conditioning, or mind control tactics, and releasing the dark Titanium Hound clone as the ultimate enemy in an attempt to stop the original. Don’t mind me - you have my imagination running! LOL!
@Get_DOVAH_it The idea is that teleporters in this game’s world can create holes of limited sizes. Most powerful teleporters can transport objects with the size of a truck, but such teleporters are to expensive and consume too much power. The vast majority of teleporters are just infrastructure objects that transport non-organic raw resources or goods. There are also tactical teleporters installed on combat drones, that can create hole around them and another hole nearby to make a fast jump - this devices have very limited distance.
There is no way to protect human being from such holes, even inside the mech. If Titanium Hound will be teleported with the pilot inside, we will have an abomination as a result. Teleportation process is instant, but preparing the holes is not, and there are devices that allow such hole detection, so Titanium Hound pilot can avoid the holes should anyone try to use a teleporter as a weapon.
The idea is that any abuse of teleportation technology is declared illegal in the world of Titanium Hound, but this doesn’t stop greedy and powerful people from breaking this low in secret. And this idea will be the part of Titanium Hound story.
And regarding of what led to the dystopian society - this will be covered in the game as well as already covered in its description (in the part about power generating bacteria): “Dark and not so distant future. Scientific breakthrough led to usage of microbe colonies as power sources in all aspects of life. Corporations that control these living batteries development and production became very weightful political powers in the world. Crime, inequality and corruption under their influence reached levels unimaginable before. In attempt to take this chaos under control governments reorganized their police forces and boosted them with top notch military gear.”
I’ve finally released Titanium Hound demo 0.3.0 and already updated gameplay video in the original post!
This update development took longer than I expected, but it’s finally here! User interface was completely reworked, and now it’s not just looks better, but also allows using mouse as part of controls on PC (you can always access controls tips on mission by opening tips from pause menu). New UI uses awesome pixel art font called LanaPixel created by eishiya, and will allow impressive localization options in the full version of game. New music tracks are here too – each mission dynamically switches between three different tracks depending on current situation during the playthrough. Neutral theme is used when there is no immediate danger. Combat theme is used when there are traced enemies nearby and during car pursuit. Boss theme is used for boss fights.
After receiving feedback about energy system I’ve decided to change the way energy is represented. Instead of spending indication is now looks like accumulating indication – energy indicator starts at zero, and then increases as you keep firing until reaching the maximum amount. In addition to this, minimum energy value has energy icon and maximum energy value has shield icon, so energy indicator looks more like a slider between shield and gun now. Also, I’d like to notice that failed boss fights now reset smoother and also allow you to regain the amount of crafting parts that you had on the moment of boss fight start. There are also number of small improvements tied to visuals and storyline representation.
My plan includes releasing demo version 0.3.1 soon. Main focus of this update will be controls customization – you will be able to redefine controls for keyboard+mouse as well as for gamepad.
This video demonstrates controls options for keyboard+mouse and gamepad on PC. The feature is implemented in Titanium Hound demo version 0.3.1, which is already available on Steam and IndieDB!
Have you ever wondered how the Special Thanks section in a game’s credits is formed? There are people who’s help had significant positive impact on a game project but who were not participating in actual development process nor making one-time work related to the production of this game.
I want to inform you that there is Special Thanks section in the credits of the Titanium Hound game now, and you can get your name inside it in two different ways:
(1) Draw large amount of attention to the game (or its demo version), using posts in various social networks or forums. What could these posts be? For example, a video or an article with a game guide or review, a beautiful video or a screenshot. The main thing is not to try to impose such a post aggressively, but collect a lot of likes and comments in such post. Whether the help to the project will be significant will be clear, if the number of fans of the game increases noticeably soon after the post was made.
(2) Find a critical bug in the game (or its demo version), and describe the steps to reproduce it in as much detail as possible. If I didn’t know about such bug at all, or was aware of it, but did not know under what conditions it arises, then your detailed description will be considered a significant help to the project. Different people evaluate the criticality of errors in different ways, so send everything that you consider critical, and I will sort each individual case out separately.
At the time of publication of this post, there is only one person in the Special Thanks section. I hope that over time the size of the section will increase.
New demo version is now live and here is what you are going to see in it in addition to some bug fixes.
After some of your responses about the energy indication, I decided to improve it so the gun and the shield bars became separate identities and got larger size. Now the energy flow is perfectly visible. This indication occupies much more space now, but I think it’s worth it.
Playing around the controls brought me to the conclusion that I have to change combo-blast controls from up + jump to primary shot + secondary shot, and assign jump to stick buttons for gamepads (right stick button when it’s assigned to aim or left stick button when it’s assigned to aim instead).
Due to request from someone, who can’t play using mouse, I had to duplicate mouse controls on the keyboard. Primary shot now also can be used by pressing z or left arrow, shield - by pressing x or down arrow and secondary shot - by pressing c or right arrow. Because of this I had to move craft binding to r key and interact to f key.
Beam me up, RedSpot! Your answer gave me a Star Trek flashback. (LOL) I totally concur with your explanation of teleportation. In your dystopian society, it seems that teleportation breaks down matter molecularly for transport, and then reassembles it on the other side. This is why inorganic materials are transported in tact. Although the technology advanced enough to not kill organic material in transport, the tech is still in its infancy stages, thus creating organic abominations. Am I correct? In my studies, today’s reality aligns with quantum teleportation, which is only used to teleport quantum information. Although this is exciting for quantum computing and a quantum internet, here in this reality, were still stuck in “quantum entanglement” 
, LOL! Out of curiosity, have you ever considered writing sci-fi novels or have you ever written a sci-fi novel or short story?
I love how in Titanium Hound, you are redefining and reimagining existing science! Your game shall destroy the 7 octillion dilemma. Within the game, will we get a backstory of the enemy and what led to the dystopian society?
