Hello everyone!
In this devlog we go over the current development of Midnight Heist, planned features, and a timeframe for a playable demo!
Hideout Computer
The computer in the hideout serves as an operations center to launch missions. We have extensively reworked this and made the interface simpler and more appropriate to fit the theme of the game. Each player will have a computer in his hideout to connect with other players. However, it can also do a lot more and there will be a lot more features added over time. In the emails, you will receive jobs from large organizations, which will earn you reputation points and larger rewards for completing them. There are also a lot of statistics to constantly monitor your game progress and compare it with others. Currently, we are also planning to introduce a black market, where you can sell valuables that constantly fluctuate in price and demand. These valuables can be found during heists.
Power and Light
During heists in the companies, monitoring of electricity usage will be available. To avoid drawing too much attention, this will be greatly reduced for your own protection. It will be possible to turn on lights in various rooms, with the risk of being exposed to greater danger. If more lights are turned on than the power limit allows, the automatic security system will create a blackout, so the power will have to be restored. We are also planning more fun ways to be able to use the electricity.
Horror and AI
To keep the horror factor as high as possible, we're adding a large amount of visual and audio elements that constantly change and provide ever-changing experiences in each round. The ghost will be able to hear and see you, so you'll always have to be careful, as well as sneaky to avoid making too much noise. You'll also be able to hide in closets and behind objects, but the AI can interact with them if it wants to. In order to introduce as much dynamics as possible, the AI will minimally adapt its abilities in each round. Thus, it remains relatively unpredictable, but can be studied with patience.
UI Elements
We want the experience of Midnight Heist to be very visually appealing, so there are animations and custom UI elements for most interactions and things to elevate the game experience. You get feedback for a lot of things that accompany the gameplay experience, taking the player by the hand with it to better immerse themselves in the game.
Midnight Heist Demo
Steam Next Fest will take place again in June 2023, where numerous developers will showcase their upcoming titles and promote them using a playable demo. We also want to participate in the Next Fest and therefore plan to present a playable demo of Midnight Heist. However, it is not yet clear whether this demo will be playable in singleplayer or in multiplayer. The basic functions are already there and work solidly, but there are still a lot of features to be added and for this reason we have to see which of them will make it into the demo and which will not. The demo will be very important for us to gather feedback.
There are some very interesting things coming up. We will keep you up to date, until the next devlog!
Until then,
Dan and Andreas