INSIGHT | Arena FPS

INSIGHT has been Greenlit by the Steam community in under 2 weeks with over 5000 YES votes

Trailer

Watch the INSIGHT Greenlight Trailer

Being Greenlit means that INSIGHT is able to integrate the Steam API, allowing the use of Steam features such as the server browser, friends list, invites, and advanced user statistics for ranking / matchmaking. It also allows the game to be sold on Steam when ready, including being available on “Early Access” during the open beta.

Click here to view all comments on Steam Greenlight

Concept

Each time a player makes a sound they become briefly visible through all walls throughout the level. You must utilize the advanced movement techniques in order to stay silent and remain hidden

To move faster than the standard running speed you must perform consecutive jumps, also known as bunnyhopping. However, this comes at the cost of revealing your location to other players as each time you land from a jump uncrouched you make a sound.

You are also able to perform wallslides and walljumps, giving you vertical freedom and the ability to reach places otherwise inaccessible. Wallsliding and walljumping is silent, which means you can combine them with crouchslides to string together complex and fluid movement sequences, without making a sound.

The game strikes an organic balance between the two types of movement, and generally you will make frequent switches between loud movement to gain speed, and silent movement to obscure your exact location

Game Modes & Features

1 v 1 (Standard)

Standard 1 v 1 duels will be a standard game type which will feature the 3 core weapons along with possible additional weapons included by the map maker.

5 v 5, 2 v 2, X v X (Standard)

Team game modes (with varying team sizes) will be included. Allowing your team to challenge another team either directly or using the matchmaking system.

Free For All (Standard)

A standard Free For All game mode will be included which will use the same game mechanics but have more casual features and pickups included, such as damage multipliers, "stealth movement" pickups, additional weapons and more.

Capture The Flag (Standard)

A team based capture the flag mode which utilizes the advanced movement system will be included. This will be similar to CTF from other arena FPS games except it will be more focused on stealth / creative movements in order to reach and escape with the flag.

KZ & Chase & Speed Challenges (Experimental)

Along with a typical speed run based game mode, there will be a multiplayer version that includes "Hide & Seek" style chasing gameplay (as seen in the HNS CS 1.6 mod). Also, an automatic speed run map generator will be included which will allow you to plot a course on the fly for your enemy to attempt to follow.

Singleplayer / Co-operative (Experimental)

Movement and aim practice modes will be included, allowing you to improve your skill with different weapons and movement techniques before challenging real players. Other various movement based single player and co-operative modes will be included, such as a "floor is lava" style mode, and maps incorporating basic AI enemies.

Weapon Specific (Experimental)

Specific weapon game modes will be added including a one-shot-kill mode using the ricochet railgun. Different styles of aim and training maps will be created for all weapons (eg. air rocket only), all utilising the INSIGHT movement and sound system.

Build & Destruction (Experimental)

INSIGHT will include a mode where you play Capture the Flag in teams, except both teams build their own "base" at the start of the game. This will use a very basic map builder (block positioning) that will allow each team to make a small defensive base around their flag. You will be given a short "build time" where you cannot cross to the other teams sides, then "fight time" where your goal is to capture the enemies flag and bring it back into your base. Objects you have created can be destroyed if they receive enough damage, and throughout the game you will have intermittent "rebuild" times where you can fix damaged areas or add more to your base.

Multi-dimension / multi-gravity (Experimental)

In the multi-dimension mode you will have the ability to switch between two versions of the current map. You will be able to escape and "hide" in the other dimension, as well as reach areas otherwise inaccessible using the differences between the two worlds. The multi-gravity arena will replace the standard wallsliding with a gravity change when you jump and crouch onto a wall. This will be locked to 90 degree intervals and rotate your view and gravity (as well as the projectiles you fire). Map design will be smaller but more intricate, as all surfaces will be "walkable".

Casual and Competitive

INSIGHT has been designed to work equally well for both fun casual play and more serious competitive games. The fundamentals of the game have been designed to be "minutes to learn, a lifetime to master", allowing new players to quickly play and have fun, but in an environment that is suitable for progression which also works for higher skill level matches. Different game modes will naturally attract a variety of skill levels, for example, 1v1 duels will most likely cater to the more serious players, whilst a team based building mode would be more likely to be adopted by a casual audience.

Unique Concept

The concept of sound being displayed visually will feature throughout all game modes. As well as loud movement (landing from jumps uncrouched) any other time a player makes a sound such as taking damage or firing they will also be made visible throughout all walls. This adds an extra dimension to the game where players need to decide how they play based on whether or not they should reveal their position. As the main weapons will all have an indirect attack (through walls, or around corners), the sound system is important to prevent excess spamming (shooting through walls or prediction shots). It may seem like camping would be more prominent due to the sound visualisation feature, and there will be more aspects of tense / silent gameplay, however, item timing and map control will ensure players are constantly on the move.

Movement System

The custom movement system ties directly into the sound visualisation. The extra movement methods are not simply gimmicks or redundant features, they all allow the player to move around silently. A balance is found between fast loud movement (bunnyhopping) and silent movement (crouchslides, wallslides, walljumps) to create interesting and fluid movement mechanics. Players will be deterred from moving as fast as possible at all times as this will be revealing their position, leading to a higher depth of gameplay with a more dynamic flow. The player is able to decide when and when not to use the silent movement. For example, if a player must reach an item in a short amount of time and they have enough weapons and health to defend themselves, they may choose to bunnyhop and gain speed in order to get to the item quickly at the cost of revealing their position each time they jump. The movement system also leads to various techniques used to confuse the enemy, such as faking the direction you are taking by purposefully making noise. The movement is designed to work in standalone competitive game modes (speed run challenges, races, chase/escape gameplay, etc) and is a solid basis for various types of game rules (see: game modes for a more detailed list of examples).

Varied Weapons

The game will feature 3 basic weapons, and unlimited additional weapons based on the map and gamemode. The 3 core weapons will feature in many game modes, and they each have a method of indirect attack (able to shoot players not directly visible). For example, the alternate fire of the lightning gun fires a projectile which penetrates walls (and deals lower damage for each surfaces it passes). Similarly, the railgun can be "charged" to allow the beam to reflect off of surfaces. These indirect methods of attack allow you to damage enemies who are not directly visible, which places more importance on the sound system and the need to stay quiet when possible. There will also feature various weapons that can be used in maps or gamemodes, including a tripmine weapon, teleporter gun, time displacement weapon, and more. The goal is to avoid any redundancy with any of the main weapons (not simply different rates of fire and damages, but each should have a unique purpose, eg long range, close range, area denial, prediction based, etc).

Full Customization & Scalability

All visuals and sounds will be fully customizable, with the exception of allowing any unfair advantage (large/spiked models, transparent walls). All visual effects such as post processing, bloom, lens flares, lighting and more can be customised or disabled, and eventually map models will be replaceable. Detail meshes (models which do not affect gameplay such as debris and small fixtures) can also be removed. This will allow players to edit the visuals of the game to their preference, or to simplify it to make it easier to see enemies and items. INSIGHT is developed using Unreal Engine 4 which is highly scalable and can be run on most modern systems to ensure a consistent framerate.

Matchmaking

A matchmaking system will be included which will allow you to search for a match with similarly skilled players. This will include 1v1 duels, team games, and all other custom game modes. The initial implementation of the matchmaking system will be basic, but as the game gains players and more accurate ranking statistics are gathered the matchmaking system will become more advanced.

Anti-cheat

INSIGHT will use VAC as a general purpose anti-cheat but will also feature inbuilt techniques to catch or reduce the number of cheaters. For example, an experimental anti-cheat method where the server doesn't send enemy position data if they are not visible to the player, this prevents any type of 'wallhack' or ESP, or at least reduces their effectiveness. Also, there are heuristic aimbot detection methods that have been shown to be effective at recognising some of the more obvious aimbots (which use predictable, consistent aim smoothing patterns), as well as techniques to catch triggerbots and other more subtle forms of aim assistance.

Spectator Friendly

The game is simplified so that it can be watched by any audience who may not be familiar with INSIGHT or other arena FPSs. A simple to use spectator interface will be added which will allow you to watch games in realtime or from recorded replays. Information overlays will be added (as a togglable "help" option) that explain the game you are spectating, allowing new players to simply spectate a live or recorded match to get an understanding of the game mechanics.

Fragmovie Friendly

It is important for an arena FPS game to have solid support for fragmovies and compilation videos as they can help to attract new players to the game. Server and clientside demos can be recorded, edited and captured. You are able to make use of the Unreal Engine Sequencer tool to edit the playback of a demo, allowing you to create custom camera paths, alter depth of field and field of view settings, manipulate post processing settings and more.

Latest News & Progress

Below is the latest INSIGHT promotional video created shortly after the Greenlight campaign ended. Various elements have been worked on over the past 3 months based on the community feedback and comments, primarily sound and level design (model/textures). This video was originally intended to be used for the intro to the Kickstarter trailer, however, since many elements have been improved recently it has been released and a new intro is being created for the campaign.

Latest Video Update

View the latest INSIGHT promotional video

Kickstarter

A Kickstarter campaign is being worked on and will be launched soon. If successful, the funding will be used to further develop INSIGHT into a commercial-ready game. Current placeholder assets (levels, materials, models, animations, UI, sound, particles) will be re-created and replaced by artists who specialise in each field. The game code will also be revamped to fully support competitive online play. Further gameplay and non-gameplay elements will be added such as a matchmaking system, AI enemies (including bots) and more.

$150 Contest

Click the image above to open the FPS Showdown contest page. The contest is now closed for entries and is being judged. Winners will be announced along with a compilation video featuring the frag scene entries.

Alpha/Beta Access

There is currently no public beta version available, however, occasionally followers of the project will be chosen on an individual basis to help test the game or to give feedback. If you are following the project and interacting (eg. giving feedback in comments or on Twitter) on different platforms you are more likely to be noticed and asked to test a limited build of the game. To increase your chance of being involved with alpha playtesting:

Follow on Twitter – Engage with Tweets by giving feedback, retweeting and commenting when appropriate
Subscribe to the newsletter – You will receive info about upcoming builds, beta giveaways and contests, as well as general INSIGHT news updates
Subscribe on YouTube – All public videos are posted to this YouTube channel, sharing and commenting will help you to be noticed and chosen to beta test
Join the Discord channel – If you use Discord you can join the INSIGHT channel, where you can get involved with discussions about the game and see unreleased videos / screenshots and information.
Spread the word – If you know of any communities or friends that would be interested in INSIGHT, share the website URL or YouTube links