RECONNECT - The Heart of Darkness
Release date: Jun 10, 2021
Developers: RobotHeart Lab
Publishers: RobotHeart Lab
Genres: Casual, Indie, Strategy, Early Access
Categories: Single-player, Steam Achievements, Full controller support, Steam Cloud, Family Sharing
Supported languages: English

DISCLAIMER: This is a relaxed game. This game requires creativity to beat it and wants you to think outside the box. The artificial intelligence of this game is not pre-trained and develops into your individual enemy. This game becomes more challenging with each new round as the AI attacks faster each time and some functions are only unlocked later in the game. The reconnection is only the beginning… The fate of the cosmos lies in your hands as an evil A.I. has infested the cosmos. It is your mission to restore balance in the cosmos and reconnect the Heart of Darkness to the Light. As soon as the connection is restored, drone data can be extracted to defeat the AI with its own weapons. Command your own swarm of AI drones and strategically maneuver to take control of all malicious AI drones and win the game. Key Features BUILD your base as a grid-free light network. With RECONNECT’s simple and intuitive web building algorithm all you need is two buttons and your creativity to protect your light source from the hostile AI. (Controller highly recommended) WATCH the AI learn how to see, move, and attack. The artificial neural networks in RECONNECT start from scratch and evolve as you play. You create your own personal enemy as your gaming behavior has a direct impact on the development of the AI. PREPARE your defenses using five different towers with offensive, defensive and tactical features. (See detailed description below) SURVIVE the attack waves of the AI swarm. With every wave a new, more intelligent generation of drones is being spawned. EXPAND your territory to reach the AI’s base before it destroys yours. RECONNECT the Heart of Darkness to extract drone data from the AI core and weaken the AI’s crusade through the cosmos. TRAIN your own AI drones as Light Knights in an epic battle of dark vs. light. INCREASE your troop size with every reconnection and strategically maneuver them around the map. TAKE OVER the control of all hostile drones in order to defeat the AI for good. Win the game by converting 100% of the Ai drones to the light. IMMERSE in the flow state of creative yet strategic building while your every move makes music – ranging from calm to driving. The first few rounds of RECONNECT can be calm, almost Zen-like relaxing and give you the chance to settle in. Your upgrade decisions will allow you to customize the characteristics of each round (focus on a faster overall game speed, base build, or reconnect process). With every new round the game becomes faster and more challenging as the AI has access to its experiences from the previous fights - just like you. It will be more intelligent from the start and launch its attacks earlier each time. You will need all your tactical and creative skills to keep up with its development. The fate of the cosmos lies in your hands… This game does not save your building process (rogue-lite), but the artificial neural networks that can be used in the next round. The building process cannot be saved as each new round has its own setup based on the map topology, completed reconnections, LightKnights, saved AI data and your own base building expertise. Five tactical towers RED crystal towers form your laser defense system and are triggered automatically. YELLOW towers serve as an energy storage and as an early warning system at the same time. GREEN towers form stable wall structures that withstand the AI attacks much longer than regular links. BLUE crystal towers can be connected to one another in an extended radius and form a network of express conveyor belts for the light quants. Additional Features Optional tutorial The tutorial in RECONNECT is a reward system for your curiosity. Instead of dictating how you experience our game we want to encourage the extremely satisfying feeling of having figured something out by yourself. Or do you prefer to explore the cosmos of RECONNECT on your own and all the adventures that await you there? Then you can disable the tutorial system at the beginning of the first game and no one and no text will disturb you while you immerse in this experience. At the same time, we want to spare you the frustration of feeling completely lost. Therefore, we prepared a full step-by-step tutorial pdf that you can check here, anytime. Interactive Sound Design The interactive, dynamic sound design makes RECONNECT a multi-sensory flow experience. The music and sound effects are not put on top of the game action, but instead your interactions forms both sounds and music. RECONNECT plays like an instrument, if you want to. Benchmark Run + Automatic quality setting Your first game start with a graphic quality benchmark run to guarantee optimal quality and resolution for your experience. Depending on your hardware the self-learning AI and colorful light base can place a significant strain on your CPU once they reached a good size / level of development. You can keep an eye on the performance yourself by checking the FPS meter on screen. The game automatically downgrades the quality setting if the FPS stay in the critical area. Artificial Intelligence The self-learning A.I. in the form of a swarm of drones is the antagonist in 'RECONNECT' and is the focus of the game. To be precise, we use artificial neural networks (ANN) trained with “deep learning” algorithms. In other words, digital modeling of biological neural networks, such as the human brain. Numerous intermediate layers and context neurons that store past values create an extensive internal structure of the ANN that can simulate a multi-layered memory. The A.I. from RobotHeart Lab has a complex memory. This creates a capacity for abstraction that enables the ANNs to find their way around ever new environments. The A.I. starts completely randomly without any preliminary training and learns during the game. At the beginning of the learning phase when the game starts, the ANNs in RECONNECT are just a useless bunch of random neural connections. Generation after generation they learn to move, find their way around and defend themselves. The learning curve of the A.I. swarm thus runs parallel to the player's learning experience. In addition, players are in direct contact with the A.I. and can directly participate in the evolution of the ANN by observing the learning process. Even direct communication takes place through the targeted changing of the environment by the player. The Team Hi, we are Max and Insea, first time self-publishing game dev couple from Germany. Max did all the designing and programming by himself. Even the AI’s architecture is his brain child alone. Meanwhile, Insea takes care of all the communication and the management of RobotHeart Lab, our visionary game laboratory. Developing and releasing RECONNECT has been a massive adventure for us. Now, we are extremely happy and excited to finally share our work with you! We know that for the last finishing touches until the full release we need the support of the community and are very much looking forward to hear your feedback! Come talk to us on discord!

Press reviews: “RECONNECT is definitely a unique and eclectic experience that I personally have never had before and it’s worth following the development of these ideas.” That Videogame Blog