What has been going on in Precipice this week? Mostly work on Open Alpha v1.2, our next big update. This update will be landing very soon, but in the mean time, we have some other news, including…

November draws close, but before October ends, we have Halloween. And to celebrate the last big hurrah of spooky season, we have a special Halloween fiction! Plus, a fiction primer on why people enter the Precipice and a quick update on Open Alpha v1.2 and its adjustment to terrain elements!

Precipice development continues! This week, we’re excited to present a new fiction primer on communications systems, a mechanics update on the Input-Action system’s past and future, and an overview of some of the changes to look forward to in the forthcoming Open Alpha v1.2!

Precipice is a game of balancing control and friction (or perhaps more accurately, balancing the friction of control). And the primary means of control is your Input cards. Provided by your chosen pilot, your Input cards are the means by which you direct them to take action on the battlefield. Generally, this means operating the mech they inhabit.

What’s new in world of Precipice development this week? There’s a new introductory encounter (featuring a new mech we hinted at last week) to test, interview questions and an article from Timothy Linward of Wargamer, and a new fiction primer. Read on for details!

The full text of the Wargamer interview with Timothy Linward!

Chapter 4 of Harness brings the (first part) of the story to a dramatic close! Plus, the genesis of the L-Trak, a machine seemingly created to make Arbelos pilot trainees suffer.

A new Fiction Primer on control systems, an update on encounters, and a preview of things to come on TTS! Plus, Aaron’s vendetta against infrastruture.

In this week’s update, learn about a battle for survival on the Peninsula in our latest fiction, a list of the most burning requests from playtesters (so far), and an update on Preview Kits!

Today, I’ll discuss the most requested mechanical updates to Precipice as of Open Alpha v1.1, why I think they stand out to people, and why I haven’t implemented them yet (plus, how likely they to appear in the forthcoming v1.2 update).

In this week’s Dev update, we return to the world of Harness. Plus, what’s going on with encounter and mission design?

Last week’s Mechanics Update got into some of the ways the initial and rather barebones take on Encounters in Precipice have been straining under the needs of the system, along with some thoughts on how they will be evolving. This includes specific elements, like the use of a standard poker deck for certain randomization to allow for unequal information (a player whose mech scouts an enigma can discover and record its nature without telling their opponent). It also includes a higher-level evaluation of what an encounter represents, and how it should present incentives to players that influence their decisions.

Precipice design moves ahead, and this time, the main focus is the forthcoming revamp of encounters! Plus, two kinds of primer: a new Fiction Primer about a few ways the Precipice may manifest on various worlds, and new shots of primed miniatures from the Arbelos setting!

From the start, unpredictability has been key to the scenarios (called “encounters” in the game) within Precipice. In the early stages of design, these included various rollable tables of results for both scavengeable resources and for enigmas, tokens representing strangeness within the Precipice. After all, a domain that touches countless worlds could contain nearly anything. For this aspect of the game to land, exploration needs to be exciting, risky, and potentially rewarding. Uncertainty is key.

This week in the Precipice Dev Update, we dive into the Renaissance-inspired world of Harness. Plus, updates on the Preview Kit to help you Bring Your Own Mech to the table very soon!

When I set out to make Precipice, the first person I approached for world design was my longtime collaborator and Star Trek: Into the Unknown co-designer Michael Gernes.

A bit of an update on weather in Minnesota. Oh, and robots. Lots and lots of robots!

Mechs don’t have to have heads, but humans love to see faces in things, and heads often follow. While the legs may give the machine a humanlike gait, a head is a space to express personality.

This week, we’ve got news on Robot Arms, a catch-up on the fiction of Arbelos and Swarmworld Arcturus before we dive into the world of Harness, and an update on the status of Precipice Preview Kits.

Arms can be an important aspect of mech design. Through its arms, a mech interacts with the world. And so the choice of what to put on those arms signals a great deal about the mech’s history, purpose, and role.