Invisible Inc is currently 75% off on Steam for the next 30 hours.

Game of the month June at RPS is Invisible Inc.:

Magazines have front covers, RPS has Game Of The Month. It’s our attempt at whittling down the thick backlog of videogames growing around you into a single, manageable game. The one game you should play if you’ve only time to play one game in the month of June. The one game you must play, even if you have no time to play games at all, because otherwise your peers will laugh at you, your romantic interests will sneer at you, and your trousers will fall down at an inopportune moment like in a bad BBC One comedy.

This month: Invisible, Inc. [official site].

Invisible, Inc. is a procedural stealth game made by Klei Entertainment, they of Don’t Starve and Mark of the Ninja. It pairs XCOM-style turn-based squad management with Spelunky-style world generation, item system and risk/reward mechanics. It is superb, for reasons we’ll explain in greater detail when our RPS Verdict goes up later tonight. In the meantime, why not read Quintin’s Invisible, Inc. review for us or his COGWATCH examining why its level generation is so good.

Arthureloi reviewed Invisible Inc. for us, resulting in a favorable review mentioning some draw backs.

Once a mission begins, the turn-based action takes place in an isometric perspective. The agents must complete the objectives or give up before getting caught. Successful or not, a teleporter must be reached in order to finish the level and go back to the world map.

At the beginning of each turn the agents get AP (action points) allocated according to their speed stat. These APs are used to move and perform actions such as walking, sprinting, taking a peek, using items and so on. The agents must explore the unknown with extreme caution, lest they be caught unaware - the game, even in the lower difficulties, is pretty challenging. Enemies can sense sound and movement so sprinting only when necessary and optimal use of cover is essential. Obstacles include an assortment of enemy guards, traps, surveillance cameras, the laser barriers mentioned above, drones and so on. One thing I found particularly lacking is that after some time these obstacles start getting repetitive because really there's not that much variety. The player might get bored easily with the lack of options here but the mechanics are so tight and the tactical aspect so solid I really did not care so much about that. I'm sure further improvements such as DLCs and mods will contribute do adding new challenges

It's not getting a lot of attention, but reviews for this little stealth game have remained very good.

Destructoid: 10/10

All the systems are at odds with each other and it is exhilarating. You want to find the exit quickly, before things get too difficult to handle, yet the whole point of your infiltration to to quickly prepare for a big standoff, which means it's better to steal all the credits and gear that you can, to explore every room ... But not doing enough, not filching everything, feels like it will do you in in the long run, too. Credits buy you new gear ... It's elegant as hell. A commensurate arms race. 

Game Planet: 9/10

By lifting and mixing the best parts of Syndicate, Splinter Cell, and XCOM, Klei has managed to create something familiar yet totally unique with this stealth-focused isometric strategy game. 

As with every Klei game, Invisible Inc. is beautiful. ... The cartoonish cyber-noir aesthetic is some of the art team’s best work to date.

IGN: 8.5/10

It’s all tied together by a loose story of rebellion against a corporate-dominated world, but it’s disappointing that the fiction is so static in a game that’s meant to be repeated. ... while I love the sleek cartoon art style, that makes up most of Invisible Inc’s personality. 

But I did keep replaying, because I know every run through will throw some new combination of obstacles at me, and ask me to overcome them with a different set of tools.

PC Gamer: 80/100

It all feels too effortless, at first, as your agents trade off turns with the enemy guards. And then a momentary lapse forces your hand and you kill a guard, which raises the alarm level, which activates a new camera, which catches one of your characters dead to rights, which calls in heavier armored guards right next to your first character, who just used their last bullet to kill that first guard, and you know what? Let’s just hit the rewind button before this gets really out of hand.

Game Revolution: 3.5/5

The start of each campaign comes with a warning: “You will fail. Repeatedly.” 

Even on the most mundane missions I was constantly on edge while guards patrolled surrounding areas. It doesn't feel like a complete experience in some specific areas, but the combination of challenge and stealth gameplay provides a refreshing change of pace for the beloved genre.

The new cyberpunk game Invisible, Inc. gets some very positive reviews - some snippets:

Mark Brown (Pocket Gamer):

Ultimately, I think it can sometimes work even better than the traditional stealth games that inspired it, like Splinter Cell and Hitman, because you get time to think. You can plan your attack, and when your infiltration goes perfectly you feel amazing.

<no score>

Roger Hargreaves (Metro):

Regardless of its clever structure Invisible, Inc. is simply a well designed and addictive strategy game. We’re not great fans of randomly-generated levels but here they work well to ensure you never get complacent and you can’t win simply by learning the levels – even if some are more interesting than others and you do eventually get used to the basic building blocks of each. The other downside is the weak artificial intelligence for guards, who are far too mechanical in their movements and reactions and, predictably, appear to be stone deaf and severely short-sighted.

<8/10>

Rick Lane (BitGamer):

Yet even if your team is quieter than a shadow wearing plimsolls, your presence won't go entirely unnoticed. With every turn, the building's "Alarm counter" increases slightly, and at each new alarm level the game becomes slightly more difficult. New enemies are introduced, more cameras are switched on. The game gradually piles on the pressure, increasing your obstacles and reducing your resources.
This is a brilliant way of imbuing the tension of a heist movie into a turn-based game. Combined with the procedurally generated building layouts, Invisible, Inc transforms into an emergent delight. There'll be times when you're madly searching for the exit teleporter with a swarm of guards nipping at your heels. In other missions you'll find the teleporter within the first couple of turns, and then it becomes about how deep into the complex you're willing to go, how much you need to rescue that extra operative or raid those safes you pass on the way out. Invisible, Inc strikes that risk/reward balance perfectly. Playing it safe might work in the short term, but come that final mission, you might yourself lacking the necessary equipment to survive.

<90%>

Jon Newcombe (Gamereactor)

Invisible, Inc. has earned comparisons to Xcom, a game we're very fond of here at Gamereactor, and in a lot of ways the comparison is apt. Gameplay and presentation are similar, both are isometric, turn based strategy games. Both require careful planning and inventory management. Failure is a realistic possibility in both. But where Xcom was largely about combat, Invisible, Inc. is mostly about stealth, and where Xcom required a significant investment of time, Invisible, Inc. is snappy and can be run through in a few hours per campaign.

...

Both animation and audio are impressive. The voice acting is good. The swishes of doors, electronic hums of machinery, explosions, and thuds of falling guards all contribute to well-rounded audio presentation. The soundtrack, though a bit repetitive, suits the atmosphere and bops away completely unobtrusively. Animation and aesthetic design are sharp, angular and cartoonish. It's fair to compare it with some of the better television animation of the last three decades. Unfortunately environments do look a bit too similar. At one point a character called Decker commented: "All these buildings look the same." We don't disagree.

<8/10>

Metacritic user reviews are positive as well.

Pladio mentioned Invisible Inc from Keli Entertainment is available now (actually yesterday already) from Steam and from GoG.

There is also a review out of the game at RPS.

Everything’s this sweet. The voice acting, writing, music and art design is all held to the same high standard. You end up looking forward to everything. From starting a mission with no idea of what surrounds you, to discovering the reward at the end, to escaping via the exit teleporter, to hearing the chatter between your team on the world map. It’s all satisfying, surprising, colourful and utterly devoid of friction, letting you lose yourself in the puzzle, yes, but also the evocative imagery the game thrills in. Your agents plotting daring heists, working like a well-oiled machine to rob a vault, and leaving with as much high-tech equipment as they can stagger under.

Or the other side of the coin – your plans coming crashing down around you and your agents abandoning one another, each sprinting around the level, heedless of cameras and sound bugs and just looking for a way out, before one comes face to faceplate with a six foot tall, weaponised security drone.

Klei Entertainment released a new trailer for Invisible, Inc that has information the game will finally be taken off Steam Early Access, and released on May 12th.

About Invisibile, Inc: Take control of Invisible's agents in the field and infiltrate the world's most dangerous corporations. Stealth, precision, and teamwork are essential in high-stakes, high-profit missions, where every move may cost an agent her life.

James Lantz of Klei Entertainment is the next developer to have his video panel from GDC 205 uploaded to the vault, and he talked about designing procedural stealth.

Developing genuinely novel mechanics means navigating more problems than you'd ever anticipated. In this talk, Klei designer James Lantz discusses the design of Invisible Inc's procedural stealth from its conception to its conclusion. You'll get a good idea of how Klei approaches new mechanics and how to fall into every single hidden pitfall, climb your way out, and come out on the other side with something fun.

The next game to get another preview this week is Invisible, Inc , and this time a small site called GodisaGeek shared a new video preview of the game on Early Access.

Colm had the chance to play Klei Entertainment's released, but not released, Invisible Inc. over the last few days and it's shaping up nicely.

It has been a while since I posted anything about Klei Entertainment's Invisible, Inc, and that ends now as the game revived a new Early Access Update on Steam.

I hope you had a great season. Looks like some people were able to spend some time on Invisible, Inc. over the holidays as there were several articles about it, like this article from www.destructoid.com and this one over at www.rockpapershotgun.com (scroll down). Tom Francis, the creator of Gun Point, did a great dissection article about it here (Many of you may have already seen it from JonathanEpp's post about it here in the forum).

We've just come back from the holidays ourselves and are now gearing up for the push to the end of the Beta. we've got several more 2 week updates before we setup for the final big one.

Update 9 brings you Tony Xu's alternate build. Being on the cutting edge of augment technology, he breaks the rule of no augments in the archive loadouts. This early augment prototype allows him to use any piece of equipment regardless of skill requirement. Hit the Security Dispatch locations to get some high end equipment he'll be able to use right from the start. He also brings an EMP with him, which helps in dealing with early Sankaku locations.

Couple of new Daemons will show up, adding more terror to the mainframe's terroir. "Felix" and "Mask", which will drain agency cash and hide Daemons for a duration respectively.

The new "Scan Chip" is a cheap way to identify Daemons and can also combat the new Mask Daemon. "Skeletal Suspension", an augment, will be great for people who want to hide incapacitated guards more easily.

Coming up soon will be key rebinding and the Sandbox mode we've mentioned a couple times in the weekly Klei twitch stream "Rhymes with Play". The Sandbox mode will allow you to tweak some dials on the level generation and gameplay rules. As an example the ability to turn the auto increasing alarm off, one of the more requested features.

Pixels for Breakfast posted a new twenty five minute video preview of them playing the Early Access version of Invisible, Inc. So if your short on time skip it.

Kyle tries to be super sneaky in Invisible Inc., the turn-based espionage epic from Klei Entertainment. It's currently in alpha right now, but it's looking pretty polished.

Klei Entertainment has released the third patch for the Early Access version of Invisible, Inc on Steam. The update fixes a few issues from the alpha.

Early Access Update 3: Patch Notes

Update 3 brings you l33t w4r3z! An arsenal of new programs to choose from when you access the Server Farm. There are some completely new programs as well as several more powerful versions of existing ones. The new team selection unlocks offer a couple of new build ideas to mess with as well.

New Features

• New programs for Incognita
• New programs added to starting loadout screen to unlock
• 2.0 versions of several existing programs. More powerful yet costly.
• New Chief Executive Suite location. Used to get Vault Door Codes to get the most out of Vault trips
• Variations of the location specific rooms (Server Farm, Executive terminals, etc)
• New Daemon. Hope you don't find it.
• In-game speech is occluded.

For a full list of changes and a cool poster, check out our patch notes on our official forum! Official Patch Notes.

Matt Whittaker of Hardcore Gamer posted a new preview of Invisible, Inc based on the games early beta on Steam Early Access. Here is his conclusion.

Invisible, Inc. is a fresh take on two age-old genres, perfectly blending stealth and top-down strategy. It’s a thinking man’s game that requires patience, intellect, and a general sense of purpose. While it’s great to play mindless beat-‘em-ups, hilarious RPGs (read: South Park: The Stick of Truth), and pointless platformers, it’s great to use one’s brain every now and again. If you’re seeking a deeply strategic game with fresh ideas, then look no further, as Invisible, Inc. is the title for you.

CGM Online posted a new preview of Invisible, Inc based on the Early Access beta. The game reminds me of XCOM , and the new Shadowrun gtames. What do you all think?

Klei Entertainment previously used the Early Access model to release survival simulator Don’t Starve, steadily adding new features onto a solid foundation that was enjoyable enough in its own, unfinished right. There’s every sign that Invisible, Inc. is following the same path. Though it’s easy to see where additional elements can be introduced to make for a richer experience—more agents and inventory items and a greater variety in guard types would help—there’s already a unique and well-polished game to play at this early stage

Klei Entertainment has released the first patch for the Early Access version of Invisible, Inc on Steam. The update fixes a few issues from the alpha.

Early Access Update 1: PWR Play - Patch Notes

It's the first update of Invisible, Inc since hitting Early Access. @jamesl, @Bigfoot, the crew and I have been really grateful for the enthusiastic response from all of you. Reading about your strategies is endlessly interesting, and we're looking forward to layer more and more interesting options and challenges as we continue development.

 In addition, we've thought a lot about the difficulty, and obviously read the myriad of comments regarding it. Invisible Inc is meant to be a challenging, tight, thrilling experience. You are a skilled yet vulnerable spy in a hostile environment, always riding the razors edge with each move being a crucial decision. We want to retain that experience, even for beginning players.
 
With that in mind, we've now split the difficulty into two settings:

Easy mode gives a bit more breathing room. Agents earn more money from guards and safes, each knock out lasts an extra turn, and crucially there alarm level 1 is now a warning level and doesn't increase the danger.
 
Normal mode tightens the belt. We've beefed up the game to make it more challenging: money comes in slower, and the firewalls increase more steeply as you go further in.

What this should do is allow beginner players to ease into the game, and gives expert players even more interesting decisions, especially later in the game, where currently a strong build can overrun the corporations.

Teaser for the next update:

The corporations are learning. They've had their top security complexes compromised more times than they admit on their monthly reports and had more of their secrets exposed than the budget was allowing for. New training facilities and security protocols have begun even as we speak.

Rock, Paper, Shotgun's Alec Meer gives his impression of the Early Access version of Invisible, Inc , and it seems he loves the tactful stuff as he put it.

Underneath the Bond-does-cyberpunk skin – visually it’s a meeting of Shadowrun Returns and Evil Genius – it’s primarily a resource management game. How to best spend your movement points and your precious and slow-to-recharge attacks, or how to obtain more PWR, the hacking resource. While you can pick up a little more of this during missions, really once it’s gone it’s gone, so there’s an ongoing dilemma over whether to spend it on hacking cash-filled safes or deactivating security cameras and turrets.

Every decision has consequences, because you’re locking off other opportunities and invariably attracting the attention of the guards. Time too is a resource: ‘spend’ too much of it and you’re faced with a base in lockdown. High stakes, high stress, big old butterfly effect. It all coalesces into a fiercely compelling juggling act, but crucially one where you always feel there’s at least a possibility of recovering before the balls all tumble to the floor.

This is wonderful stuff: tactical, tense, characterful, confident enough to never depart from the realm of stealth, and so far with a random map generator that’s kept me on my toes rather than see me turn away from over-familiarity. Even going on just this alpha/beta/whatever you want to call it build, I’m certain that I’ll be revisiting Invisible Inc often as the year wears on.

Emanuel Maiberg of PC Gamer has posted a new preview of the Early Access version of Invisible, Inc, and in the end enjoyed the alpha version.

Verdict

Invisible, Inc. borrows from X-COM wisely while adding enough of its own flavor to make it more than just a copycat. It's not as big or as accessible of a game, but the stealth and turn-based strategy mashup is new, and highlights what's most fun about both genres.

Outlook

Good. Klei has made another great stealth game and it's so committed to keep improving on what it already has, it made the brave move of displaying a countdown to the next build on the game's main menu. It'd be great if it got a bigger scale, with more to do between missions and a more accessible difficulty, but it's already good.

IncGamers has a new preview of the Early Access version of Invisible, Inc.

Right now, Invisible, Inc.‘s biggest problem is its lack of content, but that’s not something I expect to remain a problem for long. The placeholder final level introduces a boatload of enemies I hadn’t seen before, with all sorts of unique attributes that made them radically different to deal with, which implies that there are a lot of abilities and pieces of equipment still to come – along with those new enemy types. I’d like to see a few refinements to the interface and the visuals, as when rooms are clustered close together it can be hard to tell where walls actually are without rotating the view five or six times. I’d also like to see more of a metagame, as mentioned, but that might be outside the scope of the game – and if it is, that’s not too big a shame. The focus is clearly on the tactical stealth, and the tactical stealth already shines.

Invisible, Inc is now available on Steam Early Access with a special discount of 20% off.

Invisible, Inc. is a mercenary espionage agency operating in the late 21st century. Powerful corporations have taken over the world, enforcing an uneasy peace after long decades of war. The armies may have disbanded, but a shadow conflict rages on in corporate towers and industrial parks of a ravaged world. This is where Invisible thrives.

You are the Operator, and you direct Invisible’s agents in the field. Infiltrate procedurally generated corporate facilities in tense, turn-based missions where every move could be your last. Find profit in chaos as you guide your team around the world in search of lucrative contracts. Infiltrate the corps directly when they are least expecting it, and use the proceeds to upgrade and outfit your agents.

Play in either endless or campaign modes. You’ll need deadly tactical skills to survive long enough to uncover the secrets behind Invisible’s founder and her mysterious AI assistant.

It’s your move, Operator. *Offer ends August 26 at 10AM Pacific Time

Klei Entertainment posted a new trailer for Invisible, Inc which will be released on Steam Early Access on August 19 for buyers to test out the beta version.

Invisible, Inc. is a procedural turn-based stealth game from Klei Entertainment. Steam Early-Access begins August 19th.

Rock, Paper, Shotgun has posted a new interview with Klei founder, and Lead Programmer Jamie Cheng about Invisible, Inc.

RPS: Do you have a plan in Early Access, for how often you’re going to release updates and update the community?

Cheng: We definitely do the planning thing, although it usually it goes right into the garbage as soon as it touches people. That’s what we’ve found.

Yeah, we have plans. We have plans for new agents, we have plans for a new corporation, we have plans for new missions, a plan for daily challenges. We’re not exactly sure how long it’ll take us to build those things. Currently I think it’s going to be around monthly. For Don’t Starve it was every two weeks and that was a pretty intense pace. I also think that works better in Don’t Starve because it’s more agreeable to adding things that don’t quite work yet. In a stealth game, it’s really, really obvious that it’s broken, and it totally doesn’t work. At all. The whole game falls apart if something doesn’t work. We’ve got to be a little more careful about that, and we definitely want the game to be solid the entire way through.

So I think it’s going to be about once a month, but when it hits the public we’ll see.

RPS: You mentioned when we spoke to you back in January that you didn’t know yet whether it would have mod support. Do you know now?

Cheng: We don’t have it there right now. It’s not implemented right now. That’s about all– I don’t know. I actually still don’t know.

What happened in Don’t Starve was that the game was working, so now let’s look at what other things we might want to do and mod support is one of them. So we went ahead and implemented basic mod support and slowly built from there.

[Invisible, Inc] has taken everything that we got, basically. [laughs] Just to make the game really solid has taken everything we’ve got. Maybe after that, we can think about what else we might want to add, but right now there’s no mod support.

The developers for this game are informing us that this game will be available on August 19th on Steam Early Access.

Alright, we're almost there! Invisible, Inc. is coming out on Steam Early Access on August 19. For those of you new here, Invisible, Inc. is a procedural turn-based stealth game where you control an elite group of spies, infiltrating into corporate locations for information and financial gain. The game features procedurally generated levels, permadeath, and is a stealth game through and through. We've spent almost 2 years working hard and iterating with these fundamental principles, and we're finally ready to show our work to wide world of Steam. We hope you enjoy it, too!

The N4G News Blog has a new preview of Klei Entertainment's Invisible, Inc.

I can't say I gave Invisible, Inc. a fair chance the first time I loaded up the alpha. My foolhardy ways said, “This should be no problem, I'll succeed with grace and make it through all ten floors, learning everything I need to know along the way.” What a dummy. I stumbled my way through the first floor only to find myself on the second floor deader than a really dead thing. This game is not all that forgiving and does not reward foolishly brave behavior. Invisible, Inc. is a game built for critical thinking and tactical planning and is incredibly beneficial to those that give their time and patience to it.

Although the title is just now out of alpha and has many changes to go through before it even enters its beta, the fundamentals are clear in what might be considered a “proof of concept” of mechanics. Invisible, Inc. is on course to be one of the most interesting tactical titles with a stealth focus to be available to players and should garner plenty of attention when it's fully available. Just remember... Don't skip the tutorial.

Klei Entertainment shares information on the games forum that Invisible, Inc will be one of the next games to use Steam Early Access for Beta testing.

Invisible Inc. Next up: Early Access

When we released the Invisible Inc. Alpha, we wanted to know if the core mechanics of the game were working as planned. We knew the game had a long way to go, but our philosophy is that we'd rather have more feedback, earlier.

Months later, we've gotten thousands of players and a ridiculous amount of great feedback (both qualitative and quantitative). We also updated the game on a rather speedy schedule of about once a month, sometimes much faster.

Right now we're working on some major features that just need some more time in the oven before we show it off. The builds that we're playing in-house are diverging quite a bit from the public version, but is also still in progress -- because of that, we're going disable new Alpha purchases for now and give us some breathing room to fully implement the changes. Current players will still be able to play the game in its current state, of course, and automatically get access to new builds once they're ready.

The next time we come up for air, the game will be available on Steam in Early Access, and it's going to be ready for Prime Time. Our ETA for the drop is later this summer. I'll also pop in here every once in a while to post my current thoughts on the state of the game, and of course participate in the discussions. 

Thank you so much for the feedback so far!

Klei Entertainment has posted a new thread on the Invisible, Inc forums about a new patch for the game, and shares a few details on what is changed.

The eleventh update for Invisible, Inc.

The two key changes this time are a more focused progression to the game and an iteration of the action/movement system added last update.

Game Progression

Up until now, it's been a little unclear where someone is along the path to wining a game of Invisible, Inc. It wasn't clear how many buildings or floors one was going to have to complete before the end of the game. The experience has been streamlined from 3 buildings into one large underground mega-complex that is run by all three of our friends the corporations. There's a screen showing you how close you are to the end.

Along with that, each floor (except the first) has an objective to complete that will allow your team to use the elevator. Vets will be familiar with these objectives as the ones used to finish a building from the earlier builds. `

Action / Movement System

The action point system added in the last update was much more consistent and thus easier to chew on than previous systems, but one thing we didn't like was how it forced us to be crunching a lot of trivial math before we did anything.  One of the goals of our earlier movement systems was to move the thinking to a higher level by removing the fiddly bits. What we have now could be a good fusion of the old and the new. 

Basically, all actions by default are free. A few (those shown in the lower left of the screen next to the agents portrait) have a cost associated with them. So peeking still costs one and using a scanner costs one. 

Hiding becomes automatic. When an agent is next to cover, they are hiding from guards on the other side of the object as default. The crouch animation is now an indication that the agent is hiding.

This all means you don't need to be crunching numbers in your head before you move to ensure you will be able to say..open a safe and hide before your turn is finished. The intent is to free up your mind to be thinking about your plan on a more intuitive level.

We want to bring some more significance to the those actions that are now free such as hijacking consoles and opening safes. We have some ideas of features for that, but they have not been implemented yet.

Select Button has posted a new preview that's on the short side for Invisible, Inc.

Klei Entertainment does not seem to stick to any particular genre or gameplay. Instead, they seem content to continually bring new experiences to the fold, expanding their own horizons, and for those who play their games. Their upcoming title, Invisible, Inc., is a turn-based tactics title that focuses heavily on stealth and espionage similar to both X-COM and Syndicate.

I was not fully sure what to expect going into Invisible, Inc., as I have not had much experience with the genre previously. However, I was pleasantly surprised at the gameplay, enough so that I’d like to try my hand at the game again to work on improving my espionage abilities.

Here are two more previews from Pax East 2014 for Invisible, Inc.

TwoDashStash

Overall Invisible Inc. was one of my favorites games at PAX East and left me wanting more. The final version of the game will feature additional characters and numerous other features that were not shown during the demo. Invisible Inc. can be pre-ordered now via the games micro-site. The pre-order will get you access to the Alpha, future Beta, and of course the final game once it is released.

Front Towards Gamer

My overall impression of Invisible Inc: I’m going to lose days to this game! Everything about this game appeals to my speed-running, high score gathering, zero-detection, and tactical sides. Concentrating on one style each time would offer the best results, and each run is procedurally generated so you’ll never know what to expect beyond some minor standards. Once again, Klei has mashed multiple genres together to create a uniquely “Klei-style” Frankenstein and I can’t wait to dance “Puttin’ on the Ritz” (that’s a Young Frankenstein reference for you kids).

Game Designer Jason Dreger is interviewed by Indie Game Insider about his game Invisible, Inc. Some of the topics include the games name change, and stealth tactics.

Can you tell me a little bit about the basic premise of the game and what has changed since showing Invisible, Inc. at PAX Prime?

So when we started it we knew we wanted to make a stealth game, like a stealth tactics game — tactical espionage as we call it. It’s really easy to put a lot of combat features into a tactical game, even if you mean it to be stealth; I feel like it is probably overdone. So we’ve been spending a few months trying to really double down on stealth. The current build that we are working on is even more extreme in the stealth aspect [than the playable build at PAX East]. Things like there is no more health, one hit and you are down. We are really focusing in on that and seeing if we can push it that far.

Last time I saw the game it was known as Incognita. Now it is Invisible, Inc. Can you tell me about the rebranding of the game?

Sure, so whenever we would talk about it with our friends and media 80% of the time they would forget what the name was. They’d be like, “What is it that you’re working in?” and we’d have to remind them. The other 20% that would remember would say something like “Incognito” or something similar so it was just too much trouble that we were dealing with in marketing to get that straight. Coming up with a name that was easier for people to remember was important for us.

What is the background and lore behind Invisible, Inc. right now?

So Incognita is still in the game. It’s this artificial intelligence. It’s this dystopian, corporate future and you’re working for an agency that is investigating the corporations, and it’s been really hard to get in. You get this message that’s from the inside; someone has information they want to give you. So you bust in and you rescue them, but it turns out it’s this hard drive, this AI, and you install it and it takes over your base computer. It’s sort of holding you hostage and telling you it knows how to deal with the corporations and it is sending you on these missions to complete its main mission. That is the start of the game.

Twinfinite has twon new video from PAX East 2014 for Invisible, Inc, The first video is an interview with Klei’s Jason Dreger were he talks about gameplay.

The tactical espionage game Invisible Inc. from Klei easily won one of Twinfinite’s Game of Show awards for PAX East 2014. It’s only fitting then that we took some time to talk to Klei’s Jason Dreger to talk about just what made this alpha demo Invisible Inc. so great. From a focus on espionage and stealth to the expertly crafted turn based gameplay, Invisible Inc. is a game that will stay on Twinfinite’s radar all the way through development

And the second video is their impression of the game based on a new demo.

At PAX East this past weekend, Alissa and I got a chance to play the alpha version of Klei Entertainment’s upcoming turn-based, tactical espionage game Invisible, Inc. The game played like a stealth version of XCOM and showed surprising polish for a game that’s still a month or two out from beta. We both enjoyed whatever limited time we had with the game and took a few minutes to record our thoughts. Spoiler alert: We liked it. A lot.

Dual Shockers had the chance to interview Klei Entertainment’s Matthew Marteinsson at Pax East 2014 to talk about his game Invisible, Inc.

With games like Mark of the Ninja, Dishonored, and Splinter Cell: Blacklist bringing back stealth in a big way, Klei Entertainment is set to return with a new game revolving around sleuthing and action with Invisible, Inc.

DualShockers had the chance to chat with Klei Entertainment’s Matthew Marteinsson in Boston at PAX East 2014, where Marteinsson and DualShockers’ Joel Taveras (Deputy Editor) talked about what’s to come from the studio’s next title following Don’t Starve. As a mix of tactical action with a little dose of espionage, fans of both the studio and stealth-action games will have much to look forward to from Klei’s next title.

You can check out the full interview with Matthew Marteinsson for a sneak peek (no pun intended) at Klei’s Invisible Inc.:

Canada.com interviewed Klei’s founder Jamie Cheng in a phone conversation about what is was like showing off their game Invisible Inc. at GDC 2014.

So what’s Invisible Inc. all about?

Jamie Cheng: It’s a game about tactical espionage. Most games about espionage are actually about combat. You’re going in and as a spy end up killing everybody. From our perspective that’s not what espionage is about. We wanted something where your skill training and the best spies are the ones that get in and out and nobody even knew they were there – and you work as a team to do that.

So that’s the kind of game we’re building, where this group of super spies are operating in the most dangerous places in the world.

I could be totally off base with this one, but when I watched the trailer, the game reminded me of old school mid-90s XCOM games. 

Jamie Cheng: Absolutely, I mean XCOM is a huge inspiration for us. Again, XCOM is about positioning – if you position your guys properly you’ll defeat your enemy – and it’s super fun and interesting. We decided to take their approach on turn-based combat and see if we can add some life to it through espionage.

What was it like to be a Canadian developer down at a big gaming event like GDC? 

Jamie Cheng: It was kind of amazing. We were part of the independent games festival and were nominated for best design and actually out of five [nominations], three were from Vancouver. So there’s definitely a huge Canadian and specifically B.C. contingent going on at GDC. I saw people from B.C that I don’t normally see at GDC every year so that’s pretty fun too.

Polygon has a new recorded live stream with new gameplay footage for Invisible, Inc from GDC 2014. So if your curious to see how the game looks now is your chance.

Klei Entertainment have released a video trailer based on the new alpha version update. Make sure to read the link for the changes, and fixes.

The ninth update for the Invisible, Inc. Alpha.  Initiation.

In general, this update focuses on new depth for agents in the form of augments while creating greater challenges by forcing the agents to be more careful in their play. Guards are tougher, but you have more options to deal with them.

Klei Entertainment announces a new alpha update is available for Invisible, Inc.

We altered a lot of the previous systems in the game this update, more so than others.  As well, we fleshed out the third corporation some more. Plastech's art has been updated and they now have one of their core threats: the Psi Corp.

Rock, Paper, Shotgun interviews Game Designers James Lantz and Jason Dreger.

RPS: First off, why the name change? Incognita was a pretty solid title. Why switch to Invisible Inc? Will there eventually be a prequel called Invisible Inc University?

Klei: As cool as Incognita was, there were a lot of times people would get it wrong in the media or people would struggle to remember exactly what it was. We would get lots of “what’s the name again? ‘In’ something?”. We wanted an easier name to remember and say, and when we talked to our close friends in the industry and other tactics fans, we found them far more likely to ask more about our game using Invisible, Inc.

RPS: How long do you think you’ll be doing Early Access for Invisible, Inc? Will it be comparable to Don’t Starve?

Klei: Our goal is to launch sometime this year, so yeah, similar to Don’t Starve. We’ve found the entire process of Early Access hugely beneficial to our development process to really test our theories, but we also like to release our games and keep experimenting with new design ideas.

RPS: How much content do you want in the game when it’s all said and done? Will a single playthrough (that is, finishing it once) be enough for most players, or do you think Invisible Inc’s main appeal hinges on its replayability?

Klei: We see two types of players for Invisible, Inc. One group will play the game 15 to 20 hours, become experienced enough to beat the game and then be satisfied. The other group will reach the same point but then carry on to beat the game with the many other different teams and team combo possibilities.

RPS: Are you planning mod support for Invisible, Inc to the same degree as with Don’t Starve? As in, on Steam Workshop and whatnot? If so, when do you think you’ll roll that out, and what all will you allow players to change, alter, and create?

Klei: We aren’t sure yet. It’s still too early in the project for us to make a call on that, unfortunately.

Klei Entertainment announces on the forums for Incognita that the game is now called Invisible, Inc. They even released a new alpha update.

We have changed the name of the game to Invisible, Inc.  

After some focus testing, Invisible, Inc. was better received than the old "Incognita". Our focus of the design does not change in that it will still be a game of turn based tactical espionage. 

So please enjoy your future infiltrating as an elite member of the super spy agency: Invisible, Inc.

I also have a new trailer with some new footage.

Incognita has a new Alpha update available based on this post from the games forum.

The sixth update for the Incognita Alpha.

The sixth update advances the agents another stage in their development. Agents become unique individuals along with a new skill system. The build for the girl is in so several new lady agents have been added. A couple of temporary new starting teams were created so you can see how the new agents play.

New Skill System

Agents now get to choose from a selection of skills when they level up. The skills they can choose from are random, but pulled from a list tailored to each agent. In other words, agents are partially defined by what skills they can be presented with when they level up. Our intent is that the agents will have a theme to each of them, but also play a little differently from play session to play session.

The kinds of skills you will find offer attribute bonuses and some passive abilities, such as: a chance disposable items won't be consumed on use.

New XP System

The new XP system is based around the safes. Each time you see a safe, everyone on the team earns some XP, and when an agent opens a safe they will get an individual boost.  Our intent here is to have more incentive for exploration. Also, the previous system was moving towards boring optimal play in that the need to use specific agents for specific tasks was too restricting. We still have some concern of that with the current system, so we will be looking for feedback, as usual.

Incognita has a new Alpha update available based on this post from the games forums. You can also check out this link for a new Twitch.tv developer Q&A video.

The second update for the Incognita alpha is out!

The biggest element with this update is the start of the improvable agent skills. Each class has one skill now that can be improved during the game.

There is also a new security system that can be found in the levels. If your agent's sound ring crosses a "sound bug" it will raise the alarm and alert nearby guards similar to a camera. Hijacking a sound bug will allow you to hear what it does.

The wall rendering has been modified slightly. It's one of our steps to improving visibility of the levels.

We have been iterating on the information provided by the agent hud a fair amount. It will have a lot of temporary art until we reach a level of information and interaction we are satisfied with.

A team preview screen has been inserted after you start a new game. You can preview your starting agents and, in the future, choose between different teams.

We have also added a "color blind" setting to the options menu. They have not been thoroughly tested, so we would love to hear some feedback on it.

And lastly, player's agents will talk now similar to guards

Change list notes:

• Agents have improvable skills
• New security item - sound bug
• Refined wall rendering
• Iteration on the agent hud elements
• Team preview screen and agent character sheet
• Color blind correction filters. 
• Agent dialogue

BUG FIX - 10/10/13

The game can be continued properly after finishing the first floor and quitting.

TotalBiscuit has posted his video preview of the alpha version of Incognita.

GameFront has a new preview for Incognita the spy based TBS/RPG game.

With the glorious return of XCOM and the revival of Shadowrun, grid-based tactics games seem to be experiencing a new awakening.

Once a genre only for those willing to devote the time and energy to theorycrafting and careful strategy, new advancements in design and technology have opened the way for the modern gamer to experience the thrill of commanding a squad through an intense firefight. This doesn’t mean that everyone has forgotten the old ways, though. There are people out there making games with old-school tactical sensibilities.

Incognita is one of those games. It serves as a suitable bridge between old and new, and does so with developer Klei Entertainment’s characteristic style.

It’s not the most visually stunning title around, but Klei knows how to build a game in which you forget about the visuals and focus almost entirely on the execution. While there was nothing as iconic as Wilson from Don’t Starve in Incognita, there doesn’t need to be.

And the writer ends the article with this. It should be enough to get your interest.

Incognita is a fantastic offspring of the sensibilities of games such as XCOM and FTL. It combines resource management, procedural generation, careful squad-based tactics, and engaging cyberpunk themes into a tightly-wrapped package. If you’re looking for your next fix of games like Shadowrun Returns, Incognita will no doubt slake your thirst.

Klei Entertainment announces  that Icognita is now available for pre-order with immediate access to the alpha. They have also released a new alpha trailer.

What Does "Early Alpha Access" Mean?

Incognita is currently in ALPHA, which means that we are still in the early stages of development. At this time, we have the core mechanic of turn-based espionage, but the major features and content of the game are still being implemented. We expect the game to change significantly as we test and release new updates, and as much as we try to keep them out, we’re expecting bugs along the way.

For more info on what we mean by "Alpha" and estimates system requirements, please check out this post on the Klei Community Forums.

By pre-ordering Incognita you’ll also get access to all future Alpha and Beta builds as well as a copy of the final released game. Keeping this in mind, we’d love to hear your thoughts on the game as we work towards release in 2014!

Please note, the Alpha is currently only available for Windows PC. Other platform details to come.

Incognita is a XCOM-Inspired Espionage Tactics Game from Klei entertainment. The makers of Shank 1/2, Mark of ninja, and Don't Starve. To go with this announcement I have a developer Q&A, and a interview on IGN.

Thanks go to Nameless one for bringing this to my attention.