Spy DNA

Spy DNA, a tactical squad RPG that combines turn-based game mechanics with realistic combat simulation, is now on Steam Greenlight.



The game plays about 70 years in the future, and the player controls a squad of genetically-enhanced super-spies with unique talents.

When the genetic enhancement research is stolen from the lab, it is the player's task to recover it and prevent a rogue nation from creating an army of super-soldiers. In the course of the game, you will face a variety of opponents, such as endangered animal traffickers, unethical researchers, and rogue military organizations.

How we’re different
Our goal is to bring a new level of intensity to gameplay by creating a believable and realistic world. We started by creating a combat system that feels as much as real combat as possible.

Weapons behave like in the real world.
We’ve created a physics-based model of the weapons. The projectiles lose damage and armor penetration over distance as you would expect.

Accuracy.
The most important thing in a firefight is figuring out what you hit when you shoot. We built a virtual firing range for the developers to use to dial in the accuracy. We even dug up a bunch of shooting records and guidelines from the real world to use as benchmarks for our virtual weapons.

Armor works as it does in reality.
In real life armor is rated for the type of bullets it STOPS. Buy a piece of armor, get hit with a round it’s rated for, and you’ll end up with nothing worse than a (bad) bruise. However, if the bullet isn’t stopped, it’s still going to hurt, a lot.

Getting shot, stabbed, blown up, or set on fire are Really Bad Things™.
It’s far better to avoid them than to try to “tank” them.

What's next?
Shy Snake, the two-person team developing Spy DNA, are already working on the Early Access version, slated to release in Q2 2017. The team's immediate focus is on getting the game through Steam Greenlight to be ready to distribute the Early Access release.

The full release of Spy DNA is slated for Fall 2017 and will be localized into Russian and German.

Want to try it today? Download Alpha Demo of Spy DNA!

What's inside?

As we are getting close to the first public demo of Spy DNA, we wanted to give you a quick overview of what will be included in the demo release, and where we are with development. Let’s start with some of the major features we want to show.

The demo starts with character creation. On the first play-through, character creation starts with a personality questionnaire. We use the questionnaire to help the players get a set of attributes which are best suited to their play-style. In the shipping game there will be other options for character creation to give the player more direct control over the creation process, but not in the demo. After picking your attributes you are taken to the base.

Upon arrival, the tutorial will start, covering the basics of camera control, character management, and combat.

The base is where you spend your time between missions. It is located on a small island and features the medical facility, an intel/ops center, scientific research offices, the cryogenic storage vault, and extensive training grounds with a 1000m shooting range and a breach-and-clear area.

Between missions you can use the facilities at the base to heal and train your characters. This is also where you can view and accept available missions and pick the team you will take with you. Each team member has at least two outfits, field and casual, and some (including the Commander) will also have a fancy outfit for blending in with a posher crowd.

For the loners among you, we allow the player not to take any other squad members on the missions and go it alone for an added challenge.

Aside from the base map, all mission maps in the demo will be procedurally generated, to allow for high replayabilty. The demo will include a minimum of five missions, covering several terrain types and times of day.

In summary, here’s what you can expect from the demo release:

• Character creation

• UI and HUD tutorial

• Shooting range to try all the weapons outside of combat situation

• A minimum of five missions with procedural maps for higher replay value

• Four playable team member characters to accompany the Commander on missions

Where and how will you get the demo?

When the demo is ready (some time this month!), we will announce it here on the blog, as well as on Twitter, Facebook, GooglePlus, and Tumblr.

The download will be available here on RPGmaker.net, so subscribe if you want to be the first to know.

The demo will be free to download and play, and we’d love your help in spreading the word about it.

What then?

Once the demo is out the door, and the feedback we get from the community is coming in, we’ll be going to Steam Greenlight. The date of the Greenlight campaign is not yet set in stone, because it’ll depend on whether our demo players will discover any issues that need fixing beforehand.

As we’ve been known to say on more than one occasion, we want Spy DNA combat to feel very realistic, and by extension this means that the weapons also need to work like you’d expect them to in real life.

On one hand, weapons need to work realistically, in the sense that they should have a range and damage specifications similar to the ones in real life. Sniper rifles are best used at ranges over 100 meters (and we’ll make sure there are maps big enough for that to matter), and handguns are a good choice for concealed weapons or closed-quarters combat, where you’d have difficulty wielding a long-barreled assault rifle.



If you’ve been following us for a while, you know that that’s a given, and a premise of our whole game, really. When we set out to build Spy DNA, we wanted to provide the player with as realistic a combat simulation as possible, while still making it a game.

The main implication is that the realism makes for a slightly different set of perks and challenges than a typical shooter. We want for the player to be able to use the common sense and knowledge of how things work in the real world to navigate the game. Basically, if you think doing something would get you (or the opponent) hurt or killed in the real world, it should be the same in Spy DNA. Case in point, head shots. Best to avoid them. Or land them on your enemies.

But on top of that, the weapons also need to look the part. If we gave our soldiers guns that look like they’d be hard to get through an ordinary doorway, or were too heavy to even lift, the realism and the immersion go out the window. Don’t get me wrong folks, there ain’t a thing in the world wrong with games that do that, but it’s just not where we chose to take Spy DNA.

So while designing the weapons, working together, Jason, Denis and I have been periodically taking a step back to check whether the weapon still looks usable, practical, and like something that you could imagine the military of 2075 using. You could overhear us having conversations about making sure that we don’t eject brass into the user’s face or hands, or make the shiny trim reveal the position of our sniper.

We put a lot of thought into the ammo feed position, grips, and how easy would it be to reload or unjam in a firefight, what accessories the owner may want to add and where, and so on. Denis put immense attention to detail into each weapon, and as a result we have game guns in which the sights align when you’re looking at them like you’d be aiming. The fact that it’s a 3rd person game where the player will most likely never see these little details doesn’t mean that we don’t pay attention to them.

Most weapons in our game will have a range of accessories/extensions such as scopes, sights, grips, bipods, and extended ammo clips that the player can choose to equip to add a touch of personalization to their kit.
If our Early Access really takes off, we should have the funds to make more customizable parts for the guns, including rare mods, color schemes, and accessories that can only be gained by completing certain missions.

Stay tuned for the announcement of our Greenlight campaign!