Superhero strategy game Capes has a big new demo up

You got sponsored by mozilla? Cool!

Just to clarify here (for anybody who didn't know, I'm working on this game), this is an iteration on the previous demo - the four missions are the same ones we had in the previous version of the demo back in February, and there aren't really any mechanical changes that I can think of off the top of my head.

We've added stuff like voice acting, localisation, difficulty settings, quicksave/load, a fast forward option during enemy turns, and a bunch of misc stuff like optimisations, UI tweaks, minor balancing improvements, some better animations for ultimate attacks, etc.. I think this demo does a better job of representing the current state of the game and what the release version is going to be like, and there are some nice QOL improvements that I hope will ease players' friction points, but anybody expecting a completely new demo is going to be disappointed.

They're not super noteworthy, but I managed to wrangle a few Linux-specific fixes, most notably a crash when a hero who has just been revived receives a push attack (this was a tough one to track down!) and gamepad input not working for gamepads that don't have write permissions (an SDL bug that I was able to pull in an upstream fix for). We've sorted out a few Vulkan materials that weren't behaving properly (not sure if those were really visible in the previous demo), and some other minor bits and pieces that I hope will make my fellow Linux users have a more comfortable experience.

Now I just need to find time to sort out the publisher logo audio only playing in the left channel -_-

Quoting: CheesenessJust to clarify here (for anybody who didn't know, I'm working on this game)

I've had this on my wishlist for a while and really looking forward to getting it for my Deck. I loved Freedom Force when I was younger and have been playing that on my Deck. Good luck with the release!

Quoting: Supay

Quoting: CheesenessJust to clarify here (for anybody who didn't know, I'm working on this game)

I've had this on my wishlist for a while and really looking forward to getting it for my Deck. I loved Freedom Force when I was younger and have been playing that on my Deck. Good luck with the release!

Thanks!

I never got to play Freedom Force myself, but one of our writers, Morgan Jaffit, worked on that game too. From what I understand, Freedom Force was very different in style and tone from Capes, but I figure it's a nice connection to note for anybody who played it.

Quoting: GuestI tried the demo but found it unplayable due to mouse tracking issues. Mouse clicks were registering in the wrong places and it was near impossible to click on anything. Graphical setting for choosing the resolution was blank and I think that that may have been the issue.

Sorry to hear you're having troubles. Did the game do this from the start, or had you toggled fullscreen/windowed or changed resolution, and is the offset amount vertical by the height of your WM's title bars? I think I might know what's going on (if it's what I think it is, then as a workaround for now, the game should be fine next time you launch it).


Last edited by Cheeseness on 5 October 2023 at 2:57 am UTC

Quoting: GuestNo I did not change resolution or window mode. Resolution box was actually empty. I closed the game and restarted it a couple of times and the problem did not go away. I tried changing the window mode too, to no avail.

Thanks for the extra info. Sounds like it's not quite what I was expecting it to be. The resolution field being black while borderless or fullscreen are selected is a known issue and not likely to be relevant (both are technically "borderless fullscreen windows" on Linux since we don't do FSEM, and so changing resolution there wouldn't do anything anyway).

I'd love to get some more details of your system (window manager and video driver in particular) and get a copy of the game log, which should be located in: ~/.local/share/Daedalic Entertainment GmbH/Capes/Saved
If you're feeling super keen, a video would help make sure I'm understanding what you're seeing. Feel free to shoot that stuff to me via DM!


Last edited by Cheeseness on 5 October 2023 at 10:52 pm UTC

Quoting: GuestHow do I send you the file?
I'm running Fedora 38 with all the latest updates.

You can DM me a pastebin (or whatever) link here on GOL. Keen to know what window manager and driver/driver version you're using as well. If you're not sure on how to find that, I can talk you through it via DMs.

I played the Capes demo months ago and enjoyed it a good amount. It felt pretty tough; I thought I was going to be frustrated and have to reload and retry multiple times, which happened to me in XCOM 2 a lot, but I was able to barely salvage the fights. Whew! It's been on my wishlist since then. I probably don't need to play the tweaked demo because I already want it. :)

Cool to know you're involved, Cheeseness. I feel like I know you a little stalker style since I see your Mastodon posts all the time.

Quoting: 14I played the Capes demo months ago and enjoyed it a good amount. It felt pretty tough; I thought I was going to be frustrated and have to reload and retry multiple times, which happened to me in XCOM 2 a lot, but I was able to barely salvage the fights. Whew!

That's cool to hear - I love those tense moments! Things are a bit more predictable/consistent than XCOM, and once you've "solved" a level once, difficulty feels very different coming in again later. I think it helps make it easier to learn what works and what doesn't, so it also ends up being easier to get a sense of skill progression as a player separately from your characters levelling up.

Quoting: 14Cool to know you're involved, Cheeseness. I feel like I know you a little stalker style since I see your Mastodon posts all the time.

I hope you like birds! :D