Happy Wednesday, folks! How's your week going so far?

I've had a hectic past few days, but my weekend was quite action-packed!

Like I mentioned in my latest Print Day issue, I spent a couple of days piloting my mech in Steel Whisper, Radek's latest print-and-play.

I'm still new to the game, given it's only been a couple of days, so I'll share my thoughts once I've played it at least a few more times. In the meantime, a day before the launch of its Kickstarter campaign, I reached out to Radek to learn about the journey behind Steel Whisper.

This time, alongside the story behind the game, I also wanted to know why he went for this theme in particular.

Like, I already know my guy builds machines. I wanted to know why he wanted to build this particular machine around the idea of manning a mech.

So here we are folks, with my 14th Behind the Scenes issue! And here's what Radek had to say:

I have always enjoyed designing combat systems. In fact, I would say they are one of the elements that appear most often in my games and one of the areas I usually spend the most time developing. The way conflicts are resolved has always been especially important to me. I like combat to be more than just an addition to the game. I want it to be a complete system in which every decision matters and the outcome does not come down to a single die roll.

That is why the idea of controlling a giant mech immediately seemed perfect for creating a deeper and more tactical combat system. A mech offers enormous design possibilities. It is not simply a soldier who moves forward, aims, and fires. It is a massive machine made up of multiple systems, weapons, sensors, cooling mechanisms, and components responsible for movement. I wanted the player to actually feel like they were controlling such a machine.

From the beginning, I also knew exactly what I did not want to make. I was not interested in creating another generic game where you move a miniature across a hex map, approach an enemy, roll a die, and check whether you hit. I also did not want to add exploration simply because many games of this type include it. In Steel Whisper, I decided to focus primarily on the battle itself. No unnecessary interruptions and no additional systems that distract from the core of the game.

The goal was pure tactical action.

One of the things that has always fascinated me most in games, films, and books about mechs is the actual process of controlling such a machine. I have never imagined it as something as simple as "I move here and shoot." Piloting a giant combat mech should require much more than that. You need to position it correctly, control your distance from the enemy, manage your weapons, watch your heat levels, respond to damage, and constantly decide which systems are the most important at that particular moment.

That is why, in Steel Whisper, attacking enemies is only one part of operating your mech. Movement, rotation, heat management, energy, sensors, and active weapons are just as important. Sometimes the best decision will be to unleash a powerful attack. At other times, it may be better to reposition, change your facing, cool the mech down, or spend resources repairing damaged systems.

The narrative concept is also a very important part of this design. The player does not begin with a perfect, fully operational war machine. Instead, you take control of an extremely powerful but heavily damaged mech. Many of its systems are malfunctioning, and the available energy is not enough to keep everything operating at full capacity.

This forces you to make difficult choices constantly.

You simply cannot have everything working at once. If you want to boost one system, you may have to weaken another. If you need additional firepower, you might risk overheating the mech. If you focus on repairs, you may not have enough resources left to launch an effective attack. Almost every decision therefore involves some kind of compromise.

And that is the heart of Steel Whisper for me. It is not simply about destroying enemies. It is about managing a powerful but imperfect machine and constantly trying to get the most out of it in a situation where you never have access to everything you want or need.

That push and pull Radek is referring to, that constant tradeoff where pushing one system harder means giving something up somewhere else, is a concept known as opportunity cost, and I’m a big fan of it! Definitely felt it while playing Steel Whisper.

Can’t wait to share my take with you folks!

Steel Whisper just went live on Kickstarter, and it’s off to quite the start already.

Clickity-Click to check it out.

- Tas.

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