Tactical Breach Wizards - Detailed Information

What's in the Special Edition?

In-game developer commentary, the WIZ-TAC outfits set, the full soundtrack, and an overly high-concept demo we never released! Full details:

Developer commentary throughout the whole game

With this enabled, you'll find tape recorders lying around the levels. Pick one up and listen to us discussing the thinking behind the level you're playing, the character your controlling, this moment in the story, or whatever else is relevant. See the trailer for a look at this in action.

There are 52 of these recordings to find, totaling over 3 hours of commentary, spread across the game's 15 hour campaign. They're a mix of designer/writer Tom Francis talking through his own thinking, and interviewing each other member of the team about their work.

We get into the reasoning behind design and story decisions, ideas we tried that didn't work out, the hardest challenges we had to solve, and get a little closer to understanding why this game took forever make.

And when you're tired of listening to us, you can throw the tape recorder at an enemy to deal 1 knockback.

Two notes to be aware of:

• The commentary does contain spoilers, so it's not intended for a first playthrough - we can't really give full insight on the thinking behind something without referring to how it plays out later.
  
• The commentary is audio only, no subtitles. Volume is independently adjustable.

The WIZ-TAC Outfits

We made a little pack of cosmetic outfits to say thanks to folks who supported us most: either by buying the game in launch week, or getting this Special Edition. They look like this!



They're not automatically granted to you at the start of the game - we think it feels kinda sleazy to have gifts heaped on your character in-game because of a purchasing decision you made out-of-game. Instead they're just added to the normal outfits menu, and unlocked the same way the rest of them are: by spending Confidence points.

And just like all the other outfits, they're purely cosmetic.

The full soundtrack

2 hours and 10 minutes of original music over 47 tracks by composer Robert Arzola, in high quality mp3 format. This is integrated into Steam soundtrack system, as well as just being in a folder on disk.

The Lost Demo

Before we settled on the demo we eventually released, we tried an overly ambitious concept: after defeating the Traffic Warlock in the campaign, Jen and Zan would start glitching forwards in time, glimpsing future content. It culminates in a level where they get to decide both how much of their future they want to see, and also the difficulty of the encounter, by choosing when to seal doors that are spawning enemies and allies from deeper into the game. All while those characters announce their arrival by making meta commentaries on their role in the story or game design.

Shockingly, this proved too complicated and weird for new players to grasp in the space of two levels, so we ended up building something much simpler. But we think the bespoke levels for the complex version might be fun to play once you do know the game, so we're including them here.

About the Game

Tactical Breach Wizards is a turn-based tactics game in which you lead a team of renegade wizards in kevlar, as they unravel a modern conspiracy plot and/or find the most stylish way to punch a Traffic Warlock through a 4th story window.

It's a story-driven campaign of about 14 hours, in which you...

Combo spells for satisfying results

Each of your wizards has a unique set of abilities, from a straightforward lightning bolt to transforming into a rabid dog.

Experiment freely, rewind your mistakes

When you hit a tricky situation, try every wild idea you have - you can always rewind if it didn't pan out. It could work beautifully, fail spectacularly, or screw up in a way that gives you new ideas. Either way, free rewinds mean you play it out in-game instead of scratching your head.

Fight the (various) power(s)

Your team are a motley crew of misfits on the wrong side of the law, fighting against:

• The Rushwater PD and their rising star: Steve Clark, the Traffic Warlock
  
• An oppressive religious dictatorship who rule the streets with Riot Priests
  
• A private military corporation meddling with magic to enhance their troops
  
• And the most deadly operative the trade has ever seen: the Black Ops Chronomancer

Upgrade your magical arsenal

Every ability for every wizard has a set of unique perks to unlock as they level up, tailoring their powers to your playstyle, and enabling ridiculous ways they can combo with each other.

Get to know these loveable idiots

Travel the world, meet interesting wizards, and find out what's wrong with them. Each of your team has their own personal struggles, and between missions you can choose how much to dig into them, overcome them, and guide these oddballs to become friends.

Unravel a conspiracy, stop a war

As the enemy plot thickens, key players and their relationships are added to your conspiracy map to keep track of the important bits. You can read more about anything you're fuzzy on, arrange them in a way that makes sense to you, and keep a visual overview of what's going on.

Build confidence to wear fancier outfits

Each character already owns all their unlockable outfits - they just don't have the confidence to wear them. Characters earn confidence by accomplishing optional extra objectives that reflect their strengths and values.

Fine-tune the difficulty

We want everyone to be able to finish the game, so as well as Easy, Medium & Hard modes, you can customise each variable individually for the kind of challenge you like.

What is it not?

As always, we don't want you to buy the game if it's not for you. Here are some things it isn't!

• It's not a branching story. You do make choices in your conversations, but they don't cause major deviations in the course of the plot. They're more about deciding how you want this character to treat people, and how much you want to dig into or push back at what the other person is saying.
  
• It's not a roguelike. Every now and then someone will call it that and we don't know why! Every level is handcrafted.
  
• It's not XCOM. This is a much shorter, story-driven experience about a cast of unique characters. There's no base-building or equivalent.
  
• It's not Into the Breach. This is more forgiving, but the ceiling on how many different things you can do in a turn is higher.

What is it?

Come on, we just went over this with gifs and everything.

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