Into the Breach Design Postmortem 

A good exemple that it's more important to have someone who knows and love what he's talking about that, than a generic placeholder speaker who's only good at speaking.

@@randomrandom450 I hate the high rising terminal that is pervading speech these days.

Thing about speeches is it has to be organic than sounding scripted. He really did like a speech of a pro.

Came here to say this. He was quite nervous to start but blew it away before long.

It is ! , it adds more strategy in terms of not being "kill everything" but rather resist and try to save the most important things

My most memorable run was with Abe Ishmalu as pilot and the laser squad. It was the second last round of the last battle and i had to reset the turn because i messed up. I realized that in order to win i had to sacrifice Abe by using him under a falling rock.

Ikr. It feels so shitty when you don't have any other option but to let a building get destroyed. On the final island level there are those power generator thingies which are basically a substitute for buildings, and when they get destroyed you don't feel as bad, because people didn't die.

@@bratprica6383 Which makes sense within a gameplay context, because you don't have to defend them as stringently when it's the last mission of the run. this game is so darn **smart**.

Agreed 1000%

It was water. One of those "Boxed Water Is Better" things.

@@BackfallGenius Awww. I was enjoying the expanded horizon.

That post-swallow wince though, maybe it's vodka............... or esophageal ulcers. 🙃

@@CodeOptimism what, just because a man has a certain hairline and talks about chess that means he's Russian and therefore has a drinking problem? I mean, I believe it.

@@CodeOptimism or it's chilled?

I think they meant that it takes 40 hours to finish one campaign-type of game.

I have 200+ hours on FTL, and 40h on into the breach. I stopped playing once I got all the achievements, because the game was "done" for me. While in FTL I still enjoy launching a game and try something with a random ship.

It's the difference between 40+ hours of content and 40+ hours of replay-ability.

Haha honestly. I haven't even unlocked the third island and I'm at least 50 hours in.

Right? Though something like Into the Breach is sorta like a mix of Solitary and Chess with progression elements, it's a delightful brain exercise.

True! Could you share your top, please? :)

What other talks make up your top 5?

I mean they are just two dudes. And this is the SOLE programmer to boot.

Hey, we are building a new game, would you mind checking it out? it's in our website

didn't expect to see you here :D

make video game vids please! would love to see more content from you besides MTG!

Absolutely. Will make my nephew play that shit.

I would have bet money that the AI was purposely directed. I thought it placed enemies in ways to take advantage of the load out I was currently running, or taunt me with set ups for weapons and upgrades that I didn't take. Wow indeed.

It's the minecraft music design philosophy.

@@OnyDeus it kind of is directed, I think, with the enemies choosing randomly from thier move and attack options, never stepping on a pod, giving you room to always find a solution to the puzzle and stuff

3 and 4 are most fun for me, but I completed 2 with one squad (blitzkrieg)

Silverkingx2 yeah i agree entirely, i think it was a great design decision

This! I fully agree on the ability to choose and it works so well in all scenarios. (This topic came up around 43:00)

From the game design point of view it was a clear fail as it led to no reward. That's where they had an opportunity to extend the story/progress. If you would have managed to finish the boss with two islands you'd be teleported to some very final island with a real final boss to get rid of the threat once and for all.

@@yrussq but how would that work with replayability? and some squads work best at 2 islands done, some at 3 or 4, meaning each squad has an easier time with their own island preference. Each island you do also makes the final one slightly harder (with more vek, and more elites) I agree that it is strange story wise for there to be an option of 2/3/4 islands, but gameplay wise the reward is the rewards from the islands if you play them well, the risk is if you dont get good things from the next island

They are probably too humble to ever realize it.

I wouldn't say THE but their divinity os unquestionable

I thought that it maintained some kind of defense around the island that prevents Vek from entering because when grid fails, a bunch of enemies spawns.

The mistake they made was to not realise early on the similarities to Chess which is itself about telegraphic strategic gameplay. While you don't know which piece will move you do know how they'll move which is the fundamental line drawn between the two games. By adding unit progression, more varied behaviours, tech trees, damage types and layer upon layer of complexity the clearly broadcasted strategy became obfuscated by "noise" that made the game harder to predict. Other games like Slay The Spire are showing that it's more satisfying to be presented with a clear problem and being offered clear solutions to choose from rather than being subject to RNG or something so complex that you're just muddling through. This telegraphic strategy is the perfect antidote to TRPGs which are bogged down in the problems inherited from old PnP d20 RPGs where a carefully planned strategy is undone by rolling a 18 against a 19 skill check. It feels cheap to lose like that and worse still is that its not even that satisfying to roll a 20.

The big mistake made was to have progression on the mechs rather than progression on the buildings or defenses. The expectation of players was already on preserving units but the game itself only reinforced that problematic mindset. Consequently players who misunderstood found it hard while the ones who realised that units were disposable found it easier.

I just started a game where my 2 first damages were resisted and I was 100% the game was cheating to go easy on me. Damn it's so good to know it's completely random. :)

Yeah it always seemed to me that the game would likely give me a resistance if I played perfectly in the battle and could still not prevent the attack. One of my favourite things about this game is that it's unfair

To be fair, answering that the chance is totally random is still the right thing to do if it's actually manipulated. Manufacturing close calls is worthless if everyone knows you're doing it.

Well, I can't say I understand enjoying it, but it's far more preferable to cut out the cancer than spend more time suffering by trying to piece together a hopeless mess. I experienced this when writing some code and getting to the degbugging stage.

@@nomoturtle1788 Just imagine being able to get rid of a regret that keeps you up at night. Feels pretty good.

I was just playing it few days ago and realized maps are not procedural generated.

Coming from 2 years in the future, your statement is even more true now than it was when you made it. I am constantly amazed by how jaw dropping and innovative indie games are becoming as AAA continue to get worse.

I seriously think you guys are some of the most respectable and capable design teams around. I will without a doubt purchase whatever your next creation is. This video was a wonderful look into what makes you guys so good. As mentioned, "Design a 4 turn limit game." sounds hard. But following your process gets you these kinds of complexities naturally. I had so many issues with FTL, but recognized all of its brilliance at the same time. I hope you guys keep doing these retrospectives and developing your development process, because the things you've mined go well beyond game design truths.

I can't put ITB down but sadly FTL doesn't grab me. I find the combat system confusing with all the charging and pausing and targeting. But i'll try again and it wouldn't surprise me so much to be hooked for 100 hours just because a mechanic clicked.

@@keratubes Like Matthew said in the presentation (if I recall correctly?), FTL is significantly harder and more random. I would argue it is randomness made as good as it gets though.

System doesn't necessary need to be complex to have complexity. Get Rock, paper, scissors; tic-tac-toe; coin-flip and dices, combine them together with decent rules and dependencies keeping each stage separated but influenced by others and you'll get a complexity some strategic/tactical games would envy of. Is it complex? No. Any of these games are well known to anyone. Would it have complexity? Hell yeah it would.

@@yrussq That sounds reasonable, but perhaps because I'm weak with that kind of games (chess, go etc.) I'm drawn to one or two complexities on top, which exhibit more chaotic evolutions.

@@FreeScience If we are talking about game design in my opinion total randomness means that you've failed in your design of a complex system. Complex on the other hand usually means it's hard to forecast the consequences but if you have invested time to study how the system works you can predict and manipulate it to your own use. Random has nothing to master - pure chance. What you are talking about is kinda mixture like a max 95% hit chance. Or that 15% building resist in ITB. Or event cards in Monopoly. I like that too :)

Hoplite is the best phone game ever IMO. Check out Antiyoy, it's also a good turn-based strategy for Android.

Fully agreed, I love that he gave Hoplite a glowing shoutout. It’s really a perfect phone game. So easy to pick up and play but packs a surprising amount of complexity. Can definitely see the influence in Into The Breach.

Paradox's "game design by landfill" approach is a great example of a terrible philosophy that frequently produces strangely compelling games.

Not just yours. It won PC Gamer's Best Game award. :)

​@@mattolstein2999 Well, I don't read english press but between that and their interest in Mount & Blade, I like those people !