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.

The machine keeps moving forward as we bring you the fourth Swarmworld Arcturus story (the capstone of this arc), an update on how mech cores have evolved through playtesting, and a preview of an upcoming world!

In Precipice, a mech's core is the bulk of its body. It provides connections for the mech's limbs, which determine how much power the limb receives from the core and in which arcs the limb is exposed.

Notes on the Update to Open Alpha v1.1, Swarmworld Arcturus Story 3, and more!

Precipice Preview Packs, Swarmworld Arcturus Chapter 2, and a Game Jam (/Jelly)!

In which I draw a lot of stick figures.

Between the launch of Swarmworld Arcturus and its first story, the Arbelos Part 1 finale, and a key update on robot legs, it has been a big week for Precipice: Mech Miniatures Combat. For more information, read on!

Read about what Alpha v1.0 has taught me about Robot Legs, and what to expect in v1.1!

This week has some very exciting announcements for Precipice. Today, we move toward the conclusion of the first five Arbelos stories and introduce Brandon Perdue and his world Swarmworld Arcturus in preparation for the first of his stories next week!

Today, I have the privilege of introducing one of those people: Brandon Perdue, author of Swarmworld Arcturus!

Read Arbelos Story 3, learn about artist Tim Taylor’s process designing robots, and more!