Kickstarter

Some of the team has answered questions asked on our forums in a video blog update. With almost fifteen people now contributing to the game, we thought we'd introduce you to a few more faces behind the development of Dead State.

We've also answered a few questions that didn't make the cut on our forums. We'll have more info on Dead State and more from the developers in the near future - thanks for watching!

Our video update is still coming at the end of the month, but I just wanted to announce that we have been Greenlit on Steam and can confirm our availability on the platform. We will still be offering DRM-free versions, but for those who want to activate on Steam, that option will now be available. Thanks again to everyone who voted for us!

Most of you have probably seen our combat video by now. This was an early build of our combat which has taught us a lot about what is working and what isn’t in the design. The biggest change that we have recently made is the following – you can now control your whole party in combat.

We did this for a few reasons, namely to eliminate the wait for the player’s turn and to cut down on the frustration the player might feel from an ally AI’s tactical decision. With party control, you can also switch to characters that have the skills you might immediately need, which comes in handy when you want your mechanically-inclined ally to lockpick a door or your medic to prioritize a certain character’s health. 

However, we still want to make them feel like individuals. In the shelter, they very much have their own agenda and dialogue has a big impact on who they are. In combat situations, you will still have to worry about your squad panicking. We are adding more panic conditions, such as an ally worrying about a loved one if they are low on health. The presence of zombies or combat strain can still trigger a panic episode in most of your teammates. Having full control over allies, you can now try to reduce the likelihood of ally placement causing a panic episode. You still need to use your ally’s skills wisely and know what their weaknesses are. 

We’ve got a very early build that we’re fine-tuning, but expect to see more of full-party control in the future. We think it’s very much an improvement, and for fans of Jagged Alliance or X-Com, it’s going to offer a lot of the tactical options of those games. Our build is getting new features all the time, so we will demonstrate some of the new material when we have a more polished version of the new combat features. 

Also, for anyone following us that did not get a chance to back us on Kickstarter, we now have a pre-order site up for the regular version of the game and the digital deluxe version with the digital soundtrack and digital version of “The Making of Dead State”. 

Remember, if you have questions for the development team for the video QA, ask them here or on our forum by Friday!

Dead State is now on Steam Greenlight, which means that you can vote to see Dead State added to Steam when it is released. If you have a Steam account, all you need to do is go to the Community tab and enter the Greenlight section. The more people that vote for Dead State, the higher chance we have of getting approval to release on Steam, so don’t forget to tell your friends too.

Why would we like to be on Steam?

1. We will launch on Steam.

2. We will be able to provide Steam keys to activate Dead State on Steam to all backers who want them.

3. It's one of the largest distribution platforms and it would really help our game a lot.

Of course, we are still providing DRM-free copies for those who backed us, so don’t worry – we’re not going to force anyone to use a service exclusively. 

For those who missed out on the Kickstarter but have still been following the progress of Dead State, we now have pre-orders available for our digital copies and digital deluxe copy (which is the game plus MP3s and digital “Making of Dead State” book). For more information, go to our Dead State website or click on this link for more details:

http://www.irontowerstudio.com/forum/index.php/topic,3248.0.html

For our next update, we will be doing a video QA with the developers. We’ll be taking the top 10-15 questions from the community and answering them on camera. Ask us about Dead State, DoubleBear, the developers, or even our previous games, but understand that we will be most likely to answer the questions we haven’t already answered somewhere else. In other words, make your questions as clever or creative as you can. 

For example, if you’ve ever wondered how an art lead manages the art team or what a producer does or how a composer gets an idea for a piece of music – these are great questions to ask. Or maybe everyone just wants to know what our favorite recipes are. We’ll find out what the community wants and give it to them next month. You can ask questions in the comments to this update or at our forums. Make them count!

What you’re about to see is our work-in-progress combat demo. It shouldn’t be seen as a preview of a final game, but as a milestone that shows a lot of our basic systems coming online as a playable whole. There’s still a lot to create and balance, but the basics of the game that you helped fund is taking shape. Let’s take a first look:

Couple of notes on the video:

-Everything you’re seeing is real-time, no editing tricks, no pre-scripted behavior. AI reacts to noise and zombies will spawn to the map if you make too much noise. They spawn at the blue exit zones.

-All our map pieces are built in a modular fashion. Creating pieces or structures once allows us to easily drop them down on a grid and arrange them to create a new map.

-Llano is one of the first areas, and it’s fairly forgiving. Both Vic and the player character were slightly more buff than they would be for the final game. They are using lower level equipment and have no armor on.

-Although I didn’t loot every container, collecting supplies is really important. Combat is dangerous, but sometimes unavoidable. Killing enemies doesn’t give skill points - gathering resources or meeting objectives does – but all the same it’s a good idea to stay well-equipped and alert.

-You may notice guns are noisy but powerful. It may be easier to clear out zombies with them, but you will constantly alert area zombies or summon new zombies to the map, which will chew up your ammo. Ammo is pretty scarce in our game. Enemies are dipping into their ammo on hand – if they use it up on you, they won’t have any when you loot them.

-Pathfinding is unoptimized, which will explain some slowdown in narrow areas/near doorways. 

-The looter is reloading on her turn. Since there’s no animation, it might seem like she’s not doing anything, but that’s what she’s doing. You may notice it when Vic just stands there on his turn too.

-Zombie noises are placeholder. A final sound pass will happen closer to beta. 

-Ally implementation is still being fine-tuned.

-Zombies have a grapple attack that is not featured here. The only attack they have in the video is their basic claw attack. They are a lot more dangerous when they have their full set of bites/takedowns, which are being fine-tuned right now. 

-Loot containers are getting a visual tweak so that they can be spotted by sight alone.

-There will eventually be a musical stinger to notify you that someone can see a new enemy.

-Weapons have multiple attacks. We're still working on alt animations and effects, so we didn't show them off.

-We are working on trying out a “zombie turn” where all the zombies move at once. 

One of the difficulties of filming was that because our game is so reactive to what you do, it took us quite a few runs to get everything to play to the demonstration. You can see the difference with the noise in the last segment. Had we gone in with no prior knowledge of the area, the player and Vic could have a much harder time with the map.

Please feel free to drop by our forums and join the discussion about the trailer. We would love to hear your feedback or have the team answer questions about mechanics or planned features for the next build. In a future update, we’ll be showing you the other two major components we’ve been working on – dialogue/reactivity and Shelter management. Thanks again for all your support!

Starting this month, backers won’t be the only ones reading our updates. By popular request, we will start making new Kickstarter posts accessible to everyone who wants to follow Dead State. And in the next few months, expect a lot information and footage on the game. It’s going to be an exciting (and busy) year ahead for our team.

After a brief break for the holidays, we’re back at work on a new build for the game. We’re in the process of getting our systems up to alpha level – some of the systems on deck or done include looting, equipment, combat (for some melee and ranged weapon sets), noise, and AI. Work continues on story-related writing and design, plus lots of new art and animation to breathe even more life into our areas and their inhabitants.
Here’s a shot of the near-final medium store frame:

This building is a Diamondback Hardware Store, one of many you’ll come across and one of the first places you’ll be heading to in the game (gotta get tools and materials if you want to keep that fence up!)

No zombies or looters in there yet, but something tells me it’s going to be a bit more dangerous the next time we head in there. 

As we mentioned in the last update, we construct stores with a set of basic pre-fab components that can be moved around to create new areas. In addition to the medium stores, we’re working on a basic set for all the fast food stores, restaurants, bars, and diners. 

Programming continues to implement GUIs for all the major menus and systems in the game – equipment, looting, character, goals and allies, and shelter management - while art and design tweak them slightly for ease of use. This is the basic framework that makes the game feel more functional and final. While we may continue to iterate at the testing stage, we’ve already worked out small kinks in the ease of use and presentation of each menu. 

In the next few weeks, we’re going to try to show you all the first post-KS footage of the game so you can take a look at our combat, AI, and one of the near-final areas in the game. Keep watching our Facebook and Twitter for info on the video release, as well as for new developments here on Kickstarter. We’re grateful to all of you for your continued support and enthusiasm for Dead State and we look forward to bringing you closer to the zombie apocalypse in 2013.