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Rob Zacny

Episode 306: Invisible, Inc.

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Rob and Troy talk to Jamie Cheng and James Lance of Klei Entertainment, developers of Invisible, Inc, a turn-based tactical game that focuses on stealthy people doing stealthy things. 

 

Listen here.

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Really enjoyed this discussion! I've had this game in my wishlist for a while just because I liked the game's aesthetic, I didn't realize that it was developed by Klei.

 

I thought it was interesting that they were planning for the player to learn a lot of the game via the UI and tooltips. That was the same design philosophy behind EU4, which cut the game's tutorial by about 90%, but had helpful tooltips for pretty much every section of the UI. I guess this isn't a surprising trend, because strategy games have traditionally relied heavily on "Play it until you grock it", but I think it's interesting that developers are more saying that tutorials are for getting your feet wet and not totally necessary, paying attention to tooltips while playing the game is the best way to learn it, manuals and trial-and-error are how to internalize the game's rules or learn the nitty-gritty details. 

 

I'm always surprised by the games coming from Klei, I'm glad you guys touched on that at the end of the podcast. I hope they spill the beans on some of their discarded projects at some point.

 

Off-topic: I remember Rob mentioning a space strategy game in development that didn't have players building/customizing their own ships. I think it was during the end of year podcast? Anyone remember what that was?

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Invisible Inc. is a pretty spectacular game, and as someone who picked up an early access copy early on I'm really happy with how the game shaped up for the most part.

 

I question the value of the unlock system in this game. I'm not sure why I have to grind out a few games before I get access to use more of the agents. That part is kind of a bummer, and just feels like a really artificial way to pad out the game length. I guess maybe the inspiration here was FTL, but I think it worked better with FTL where the unlock system was tied to exploring specific side quests. In FTL it acts as an incentive to engage with what is cool about the game, whereas this is tied to a more abstract and nebulous XP system.

 

I also was ever so slightly disappointed with how the game evolved into its more cyberpunk aesthetic. I guess I am just still holding out for that sweet heist game that feels like a Jean-Pierre Melville flick.

 

Also curiously as the story developed it became less and less interesting.

 

These are all nitpicks though, as I said earlier I think Klei basically knocked this out of the park. Being inspired by the hunger mechanic was a stroke of genius, and just a reminder that a lot of the classic roguelikes still have so many useful design ideas to explore. The ever increasing security count totally solves the problem that you encounter in a traditional stealth game where as you choke out more and more of the guards the tension in the level actually decreases rather than increasing.

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Everything Klei do is class.  I loved Don't Starve and to a lesser extent, Mark of the Ninja.  Invisible Inc. seems to be yet another superb addition to their impressive back-catalogue.

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