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KickStarter Dead State Pre-Release Discussion [GAME RELEASED, GO TO NEW THREAD]

Roguey

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I tried playing the demo but this thing is in early development and it shows. I think all the dialogue is placeholder.
It's supposed to be out in "late-summer/early fall" so they have three-four months to salvage it. :lol:

If I were being really pessimistic I'd say that's when their Kickstarter/EA money-well runs dry. But most likely they'll just move the potential release date by a few more months like they've been doing.
 

StaticSpine

Arcane
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Shadorwun: Hong Kong
I'm thinking about supporting the project but the banned dude/negative review removal being the main discussion point in this thread kinda disappoints me. So, basically the game is moving forward very slowly and there are no proper news to discuss.
 

Abu Antar

Turn-based Poster
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Messages
13,512
Enjoy the Revolution! Another revolution around the sun that is. Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Where did you hear/read that? I'm not distrusting you, it's just a very interesting comment.
 

Infinitron

I post news
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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
Update: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/70755535/dead-state-the-zombie-survival-rpg/posts/891368

Today, we’ve updated the First Seven Days build for the last time. Before you panic (man, I hope you kept reading), what we mean is future updates will open up the build beyond the first week. Internally, we have been working on creating content, implementing progression, and refining or fixing systems. The system changes are reflected in the 7 Days build. Some of you have written to us (or shouted at us in all caps) about why we limited the build to 7 Days and the simple answer for why we didn’t open it up more is this: You would hate us. A lot.

What I mean is that a lot of testing and polish goes into “final” content before it’s ready to be released to the general gaming public. With a big game like Dead State, this is especially true. While there seems to be this prevailing idea that developers create games pretty quickly and then piece them out or sit on finished work until they see fit to distribute it, the truth is that much of this content is constantly in flux between the original idea to a basic first pass on the design to a kind of okay but buggy version and finally to a state where it feels like it belongs in a game you would actually want to play. Some of the content in the Early Access build is still unpolished, but many of the levels, encounters, and game events that you will eventually experience can be in an entirely too early state to release to the public. For example, a map without enemies… or loot… or exits. Encounters that may be too hard for the first week, might be way too easy 30 days in. NPCs will die… and then show up alive again in places they weren’t supposed to. It’s like watching a rough cut of a movie – the pacing isn’t quite right, you can still see the wires in stunt shots, and instead of CGI, there’s a guy holding up a mark to show the actors where the dinosaur will eventually be.

While there’s still a lot of work to do and some of the future content will still be rough around the edges when the time limit is lifted, rather than focus on two separate builds, we’re going to focus all our attention on our Beta progression build for the next update. This means a lot of pieces are being assembled as a whole for the first time and there are likely to be mechanical problems. But, we’re going to be taking a lot of time to get as much of it right for the next update as possible (design has mostly been focused on this for the last few weeks). It’s been something we’ve been planning to do, but we wanted to make sure that we took care of system priorities before we tackled the bulk of progression testing.

But more on progression next time. For now, please check out the new features in the current update – we’ve added tweaks to statuses and armor, AC/Resistance info on the equipment screen, a whole lot more thrown weapons, and many bug fixes. We would appreciate any feedback you have on the build. If you still want more info, you can keep up with the latest from design in our Monday Design update series on the forums. We are also able to answer your questions right on the Steam forum. As always, thanks for your continued patience and support.

(On a more personal note, development during Beta implementation can be highly stressful for the devs and many of us are working 10+ hours a day to get Dead State in the best shape we can. We would greatly appreciate if some of you don’t read this and post “where’s the Beta?!” every day until we release it. We tend to not give dates on the off chance that something goes horribly wrong on the day of an update and we’re forced to push it back, which tends to ruffle a large constituency of our forum-going public. So, please, bear with us while we assemble this big ball of scripting logic that is progression testing. Thanks!)
 

Infinitron

I post news
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Codex Year of the Donut Serpent in the Staglands Dead State Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Wasteland 2 Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth
http://www.enthusiacs.com/population-dead-an-interview-with-doublebear-productions/
POPULATION DEAD: AN INTERVIEW WITH DOUBLEBEAR PRODUCTIONS




My Fellow Gamers;

Imagine yourself experiencing not the aftermath of an apocalypse, but actual the state of. That life-changing, world-ending tribulation event that signals the final rasping breath of the old world you once knew, for a much more terrifying and more sinister one that replaces it. A world where the restless dead freely walk the earth, and the neighbor you once knew, the friend you once trusted, is now a gun-wielding scavenger willing to end your life if it meant he could live for one more day. Sounds like the perfect setting for a game, doesn’t it? Well, that’s exactly the kind of story the team at DoubleBear Productions wants to tell in their upcoming title, Dead State.

In the game, you play as a man or woman trying simply to survive an unnatural disaster of biblical proportions. Taking shelter in a nearby school house, you and a handful of refugees must brave this now-hostile world for the tools needed to simply see another day. Food. Water. Medicine. Items and supplies needed to protect your parcel of the world from the undead. And from other humans.

I had the chance to sit down with Dead State’s Project Lead Designer (and Writer) Brian Mitsoda to try to find out more about the game, and what players can expect to experience in the not too distant future.

Enjoy.



Wastelander75: This may just be coincidence but: Double Bear, isometric gameplay, apocalyptic setting; I’m going to go out on a limb here and guess that the team members are big fans of the original Fallout games.

Brian Mitsoda: Fallout was the game that inspired me to get into the game industry and apply to Interplay, so yes, there’s definitely a lot of the original Fallout influence in Dead State. We loved playing those kinds of RPGs and with so many retro-RPGs coming out in the next year, it seems like we’re not the only ones. I have a personal connection to Fallout in that I worked at Black Isle and later went on to work at Troika, which was founded by the core members of the Fallout team.

Dead State is definitely an old-school RPG first, although we’ve used that Black Isle RPG base and incorporated survival gameplay, base-building , and personality management. The game’s a healthy mix of Fallout, Suikoden, and Jagged Alliance/X-Com.

Wastey: So how did the team meet? What drew you all together?

Brian: The team was assembled slowly and a lot of it was by luck. Annie (writer/designer) and I formed a partnership with Iron Tower Studios to try and use their tech and team to build an RPG. However, since we had no funding, most of the early work that went into the game came from fans of the idea/RPGs, modding contacts, and friends of friends. This is over the course of years when it was a side project for many of us, although I mentioned “luck” earlier because almost everyone who contributed ended up staying with the project through now. Our common bond is that we’re all gamers and huge RPG fans.

The thing about side projects is that they don’t really have a schedule and without a good workflow, game production becomes stagnant quickly. When we finally reached the point when we knew we had to secure funding if we had any hope of finishing the game, we ramped up to the Kickstarter and that success allowed us to essentially reboot the game’s production. The leads – me, Oscar, and Nick – were able to switch to full-time production, we brought on many long-time contributors to the team officially, and over time, we hired another lead (Christina, our producer), additional programmers, and QA. We’re now at about 15 people – still an incredibly small number of people for RPG development, but a pretty large team by indie standards.

Wastey: There seem to be a lot of elements that the player will have to contend with on a regular basis to keep his group happy. Food, morale, rest. Other humans. If you had to, what element would you say players should watch out for the most?

Brian: This game is all about the human threat, both internally and externally. It’s pretty easy to look at the game and write us off as another zombie game, but if you play the game, you’ll learn that the zombies really aren’t that huge of a threat, but other humans scavenging for the same resources or allies that are at each other’s throats? Yeah, they can cause problems in the shelter. Maybe even for you. You’re a group of strangers all trying to survive – you’re not questing for the sake of loot or to fight a common enemy, you are normal people thrown together by chance.

You’re not all going to be friends at the end. You will make decisions that will make other people mad. You will find other survivors and realize that if you want to eat tonight, you may have to kill people that pose no threat to you. You can’t win the game by merely killing a boss – you’ve got to play politics (even if it’s despotism), make tough decisions, and keep your people happy enough to not want to get rid of you or leave.



Wastey: Will all humans be hostile? I mean, could a player effectively work out a tentative peace between the two surviving factions so that they work together to watch each others backs (or leave each other alone), or something similar?

Brian: Not all of the other humans are hostile. Many humans are hostile while you’re out scavenging – either they kill as a rule or they’ve been ambushed so many times by other humans that they shoot on sight now. You’ll find more organized factions that might be willing to talk, but you’ll find that most people don’t trust you and only want to interact with you out of necessity. When you do find someone who wants to talk, they may be a potential ally, a potential threat, or just another person trying to get through their day without dying. You may be able to keep the peace with some of the other groups, but there are lots of individuals out in the world with no connection to an organization, and they have most likely stayed alive by preying on the weak.

Wastey: Will the player experience a day/night cycle in the game?

Brian: Yes. The game starts in the morning and ends in the evening. You go to sleep to start a new day. Night combat is an option, but it’s much harder to see and hit your enemies. Time passes while traveling or working in the shelter. Over time, allies will get fatigued, so keeping them out for too long is not advised. Every day, each ally needs food. Allies get injuries that sometimes require rest. Sometimes they get sick, sometimes they get depressed, and sometimes they just don’t want to go out. Some mornings, strangers might arrive at the gate of the shelter.

Occasionally, something at the shelter becomes such a big issue that a major decision must be made, such as figuring out a policy to handle low morale in the shelter. Every day brings new challenges in Dead State. If you’ve played the first 7 Days, that’s the tutorial week, and the easiest week you will have in the game.

Wastey: Loot and items, it’s assumed, will be finite resources, correct? Will players be able to do anything to alleviate that concern? i.e. Growing their own food, using more natural resources and so on.

Brian: Yes, constructing upgrades to the shelter can offset morale and food loss. You can build a garden and grow food. You can build a watchtower and assign allies to guard the shelter, which makes people feel safer. You can upgrade your car to use less fuel. You can look for wild sources of food or fish. There’s a whole lot of ways to boost your supplies aside from scavenging, but it’s impossible to get by without having to occasionally brave a hostile area, because that’s the easiest way to get the resources you need. You won’t be able to just hunker down in the shelter 100% – you’re just delaying the inevitable really bad day out in the field.



Wastey: What’s been the most rewarding aspect of video game development so far?

Brian: That the majority of Kickstarter backers and Early Access adopters have received the game positively. Which is to say, they like the basic mechanics and we don’t have to throw it all out and start again, so we still have a shot at making the final product something amazing for RPG fans. Of course, the Kickstarter campaign was a thrilling experience for us and we wouldn’t be here without it. But right now, the most rewarding aspect is that the end is finally in sight.

Wastey: And the most trying?

Brian: Work issues that come from not everyone having everyone on the team on the same time zone and in the same office. It takes a lot of patience and adjustment.

The message boards can be a bit much. I don’t usually comment on them, but I read the feedback, both good and bad (and horribly misinformed). Since I’ve seen an interview where even the writers from Game of Thrones say they have to stay away from message boards because of the negative comments, I’ve felt a lot better about ignoring the worst of it.

But one of the worst things that can happen to you as an indie developer and business owner is for you to do a Google search for your game and get pages of pirate sites. I know people pirate games and I know there are many reasons they do, but it still sucks to see years of your hard work being easily downloaded.

Wastey: Now, will the game have a defined narrative (beginning, middle, end), or a continuous flow of survival until the inevitable end?

Brian: There’s definitely story beats spread throughout the months in the shelter, but we’re more open in structure like the original Fallout. Most people have only played the first week so far, which is a tutorial week and is much more linear than the final game so that we can teach the player the basics of running the shelter and scavenging.

Much of the game depends on the allies you have, the people you meet, how many supplies you have, and what decisions you make. There are some events that everyone will have to face, some that will only occur as a result of your choices, and then there are some that are random and may happen at different times to each player. The best thing to do in our game is to carefully monitor your allies and supplies, explore as much as possible, and be sure not to piss off your subleaders too much.



Wastey: Say a year after the game releases, are there plans to expand the Dead State experience? DLC, expansion packs and so on.

Brian: We will keep on adding content, polishing the game, and fixing any issues that come up for at least a year after the release. If 99% players tell us “X feature would make the game the best thing ever”, we will most likely add it. If there’s the demand and sales support for major amounts of expanded content, we would gladly do it. We don’t want to do DLC along the lines of “Joel and Vic beach patrol skins!” or anything stupid, even if we know it would probably sell. We have some ideas for post-release content, but we’re more concerned about finishing Dead State. Ultimately, we love making games, but we have a decent-sized team and we will need the sales to be there for us to truly add a significant amount of new content to the game.

Wastey: What other genres would the team like to explore in the future?

Brian: That’s up for debate. We have a lot of ideas for games, but other than supporting Dead State post-release, I think it would kill me to move on to another RPG right away. I know which one I’m most excited to do, so let’s hope sales of Dead State allows to make more games.

Wastey: Honestly, say it’s a week after the real zombie apocalypse; what would you be, victim or survivor?

Brian: A week? I’m still alive probably, in my basement. Once I run out of booze, that’s when I leave the house and probably get shot.. or eaten… or fall into a ravine.

***

I want to thank Mr. Mitsoda for taking the time to speak with us. If you’d like to find out more about the upcoming Dead State, please feel free to visit there site HERE. Currently in production, Dead State has just announced their third Early Access update which you can read about in detail HERE. And finally, you can try your hand at the game’s tutorial, Dead State: The First Seven Days at their Steam Page HERE.

The full Dead State experience is on track for a Summer 2014 release for PC.
 
Self-Ejected

Excidium

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Third World
The message boards can be a bit much. I don’t usually comment on them, but I read the feedback, both good and bad (and horribly misinformed). Since I’ve seen an interview where even the writers from Game of Thrones say they have to stay away from message boards because of the negative comments, I’ve felt a lot better about ignoring the worst of it.

But one of the worst things that can happen to you as an indie developer and business owner is for you to do a Google search for your game and get pages of pirate sites. I know people pirate games and I know there are many reasons they do, but it still sucks to see years of your hard work being easily downloaded.
boo fucking hoo
 

Roguey

Codex Staff
Staff Member
Sawyerite
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Messages
35,653
I'm sure Jynxx is thrilled with the acknowledgment, I know I always am.
 

DarKPenguiN

Arcane
Joined
Oct 6, 2012
Messages
1,323
Location
Inside the Hollow Earth
This really does look pretty cool-

Turn based? Zombies? Strife among your survivors? Good stuff in theory.

I will probably be buying this once its released. Something a bit different to play.

Is this trial/alpha only for pre purchases (I hate that shit) or will it soon be available for everyone to try? I know currently there is nowhere to try this without buying it first but I am more wondering if there are plans to expand this soon. Would certainly sway me to pre purchase if I have a chance to try what already there...
 

tuluse

Arcane
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Messages
11,400
Serpent in the Staglands Divinity: Original Sin Project: Eternity Torment: Tides of Numenera Shadorwun: Hong Kong
Wastey: Will the player experience a day/night cycle in the game?

Brian: Yes. The game starts in the morning and ends in the evening. You go to sleep to start a new day. Night combat is an option, but it’s much harder to see and hit your enemies. Time passes while traveling or working in the shelter. Over time, allies will get fatigued, so keeping them out for too long is not advised. Every day, each ally needs food. Allies get injuries that sometimes require rest. Sometimes they get sick, sometimes they get depressed, and sometimes they just don’t want to go out. Some mornings, strangers might arrive at the gate of the shelter.

Occasionally, something at the shelter becomes such a big issue that a major decision must be made, such as figuring out a policy to handle low morale in the shelter. Every day brings new challenges in Dead State. If you’ve played the first 7 Days, that’s the tutorial week, and the easiest week you will have in the game.
I'm pretty sure in the first version of early access, it was just instant death if you were out too late.
 

majestik12

Arcane
Joined
Aug 2, 2007
Messages
2,196
dst2.jpg


Should I tell her that I'll worry about him, or that I'll take care of the matter? Or maybe I should phrase that in a harsher way? Difficult choices abound, morally grey areas everywhere.
 

Roguey

Codex Staff
Staff Member
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Messages
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Brian Mitsoda is so upset over all the Vapor State accusations that he's written two posts about it.

http://www.irontowerstudio.com/forum/index.php/topic,4235.0.html

I’ve never discussed this before, but there was a point where we nearly canceled Dead State. In 2011, we had to face the facts: without a budget, there was really no way to make an RPG. We had talked about Kickstarter back then, but I felt it wasn’t fair to ask for funding with just a good idea or screen mockups. My biggest concern for a Kickstarter was that we needed to get a basic version of the game together to show our work to potential backers, and we would only have a few months to do it.
This would have made me overjoyed for a brief moment.

http://www.irontowerstudio.com/forum/index.php/topic,4242.0.html

Before I wrap this up, I want to mention that when Troika released Bloodlines, several dozen people had poured years of development time into that game, and while we did not get the time we wanted to polish it, we all knew we were working on a great RPG and were proud of our (incredibly hard) work on it. The thing is: financially, it bombed.
Like the thing Roguey talked about in the other thread.

Also it wasn't great and Troika employees are delusional (as expected.) :)

What we've shown off in the 7 Days build is different from what we have in the internal build. Most of the allies, enemy factions, and many dozens of maps have been hooked up in a first pass state within our build. The plan is still to try and shoot for public Beta in August, and have the game out in September or October, but again, we're likely to hold the build to polish the game, especially if Beta reveals any new major issues for players.
So much for a late summer release. Keep pushing that release date a few months at a time. :lol:

There's is no possible way financially or psychologically we could push out release for another year.
Early Access dud imminent..?

Incidentally that's a far cry from the initial "Right now, our release date is 'done when it won't give us a reputation as another buggy RPG studio.'" Financial realities do it again.
 
Last edited:

Roguey

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Annie wrote an update about a bunch of dialogue crap I don't particularly care about, but more importantly, revealed her inability to play two-handed warriors in DA:O.
Annie said:
even though personally, I got amazingly frustrated with how Sten in Dragon Age always got his butt kicked in combat even though he was supposed to be a huge powerful Quinari dude I MEAN COME ON STEN
Yeah, it's true that two-handed warriors in DA:O weren't as good as they should have been, but I think perhaps the problem was with you.
14341z8.jpg


Hh. So here we have a Dead State designer who can't figure out how to play well in Dragon Age: Origins of all things (Roguey suggestions: Get loads of strength and stunning blows and bravery asap, wear the most massive armor you can find, set up health potion drinking at 50% or maybe even 75% of his health). This might mean trouble ahead for the tactical acuity required in this zombie thing.
 

ColCol

Arcane
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Jul 12, 2012
Messages
1,731
Dragon age origins steps to doing good with two handed weapon warriors.

1.get that move that knocks someone down
2.win
 

likaq

Arcane
Joined
Dec 28, 2009
Messages
1,198
Apologies for the late update - worked through yesterday and running on fumes. Anyhow, here is what's been happening with the Dead State build:

-All of the allies and their many, many dialogues are in and scripted, with most able to join the shelter with no issues. There are still some bugs with randoms not showing up and neutral AI where combat breaks out.
-Multiple Crisis Events are in, including a "tutorial" event.
-Combat barks for allies are done and being hooked up/tested in the game.
-All shelter info systems - data system, for example - are in and need remaining text plugged in.
-95% of the final maps are in the game, though some of the bigger locations are still being adjusted and polished. (A small location can be done in 3-6 hours, bigger ones take days of art/design time)
-Perks are being set up and tested for allies, enemies, and players.
-Armors, factions have models now. (We could still use more generic NPCs)
-Character creation "make your own portrait" done on the art side.
-Adjusting/fixing various bits of the game based on internal testing.
-More first week reactivity/events.
-Dialogue gesture animations starting to go in.

Next up:

-AI work
-More dialogue events in the world.
-Additional random encounter maps.
-Map combat and loot passes for new maps/large maps.
-Intro map/art work
-Remaining factions or world NPCs getting hooked up on their maps/hooks at the shelter. (These are more complex on the scripting side due to the fact they can start neutral with dialogue/triggers and go hostile based on flags player has set, easy to break if the player does something we weren't expecting.)
-Combat pass/balance.
-Supply/Shelter balance.
-Tutorial text. (Yes, including teaching people how to use map exit grids)
-Hooking up Endings with maps/scripting.
-A lot more testing/fixing including spicing up maps/NPCs where necessary.
-More ally interaction/conversation based on feedback where possible.
-Beta testing/adjustment.
-Bug fixes 'til it's done.

Implementation is being done at a rapid pace with every team member ticking items off their list daily. While there's still a lot of items that need proper implementation and the occasional game-breaking bug to derail testing, the game is really being hammered into its final form. Feedback from Beta will go a long way in determining much of our polish focus. We are still planning to release the Public Beta on Early Access this month. Like many RPG Betas (like Wasteland 2 and Divinity), it will not allow for 100% content completion, but it will allow us to collect a lot of feedback on maps, weapons, allies, supply balance, experience, and other items that will affect the final game.

There's a few other tasks that are grabbing some of our time, but I'll mention those next week. Feel free to wildly speculate below in the meantime.


http://www.irontowerstudio.com/forum/index.php/topic,4375.msg118965.html#new



:thumbsup:
 
Self-Ejected

Bubbles

I'm forever blowing
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Public beta next week? Good luck getting anybody to play it with PoE beta and Risen 3 just released.
 

likaq

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Messages
1,198
Some of us are more interested in DS than yet another high fantasy + rtwp abomination.
 

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