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RTS They Are Billions - steampunk/zombie RTS from Lords of Xulima dev

Alienman

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Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire Make the Codex Great Again! Grab the Codex by the pussy Codex Year of the Donut Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Well, I have been replaying the same map now for the tenth time, and there is 4 more I believe. The map is also randomly generated. I guess it depends if you like buildings walls and defenses, aka being a turtle in other RTS games.
 

LESS T_T

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Codex 2014
http://steamcommunity.com/games/644930/announcements/detail/1593577406767864376

Multi-language Support: Spanish Available

aa820587d2d78a847d3eabc367f21d2f7deacc59.jpg


Greetings!

First, thanks for all this wonderful support! The amount of comments, feedback, videos, twitchs... is simply amazing! There are players that are making colonies that we have never seen in our play testing. Just look this one with almost 16K colonists!

b56f490a0ec3a921fba0c21739ef259ebd7eab84.jpg


We are glad to see our game engine moving softly these huge scenes with thousands of colonists, hundred of buildings and dozens of thousands of zombies.

And here goes a quick update to inform you of the game’s development progress.

Since the release on December 12th, we have been very busy working on several important technical aspects of the game:


Solving Installation Issues

With so many players and computers, sometimes some components required by the game are not correctly installed. Therefore, some players have had problems starting the game.

DirectX: It seems the Microsoft install is not always the correctly installed version, so we have added the exact libraries to the game folder and DirectX is no longer needed.

Visual C++ Runtime 2017: The same issue here. This has been the source of a lot of problems, giving the error HRESULT: 0x8007000B (thanks, Microsoft). Now the libraries are compiled statically, so that installer is no longer needed anymore.

There are a few more technical issues that we are studying such as problems with some monitor refresh rates.


Solving Bugs and Crashes

We have fixed a lot of small bugs detected by the players and refactored some parts of the code to avoid random crashes. This new version should be the most stable one.


Multi-language Support

As They Are Billions is being played massively in all parts of the world, we have worked on implementing the multi-language support. And furthermore, we have implemented an automatic system that allows the translators to update the game with their changes very easily. So, all the languages will always be up to date and won't delay the development at all.


Spanish Available

73fa8576c71a4bbf2cbbd2a559010fad854a2d32.jpg


Spanish is the first language added and is now available on the options screen. It is available in the Version 0.5.


New Languages Coming

We expect in two or three weeks to have the next languages: Chinese (simplified and traditional), Korean, Japanese, German, French, and Russian. We are also trying to add Brazilian Portuguese and Italian.


New Content Delayed

Unfortunately, because of all the work related to the technical aspects we have delayed the development a few weeks for the new building The Tavern and the feature Challenge of the Week. But don't worry, it will be ready very soon. All the developers want to test our skills against all the players playing the same map. That is going to be very fun!

Thanks for all the support! I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday break and a happy start to 2018.

See you soon!

Almost 200K per Steamspy: http://steamspy.com/app/644930

Daily players are also increasing every week.

Well, I thought this could be selling well but never thought it to be this much. I hope this success doesn't overshadow Xulima 2 much though.
 

Ezeekiel

Liturgist
Joined
Dec 19, 2016
Messages
1,783
How's the replay value? Worth it for EA?

Little to none if you are competent at figuring out game mechanics and strategies/tactics... Quite a bit of replay value if you're bad at it.
May change once they add the campaign, though. Survival is a total one-trick pony.
 
Self-Ejected

IncendiaryDevice

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http://steamcommunity.com/games/644930/announcements/detail/1593577406767864376

Multi-language Support: Spanish Available

aa820587d2d78a847d3eabc367f21d2f7deacc59.jpg


Greetings!

First, thanks for all this wonderful support! The amount of comments, feedback, videos, twitchs... is simply amazing! There are players that are making colonies that we have never seen in our play testing. Just look this one with almost 16K colonists!

b56f490a0ec3a921fba0c21739ef259ebd7eab84.jpg


We are glad to see our game engine moving softly these huge scenes with thousands of colonists, hundred of buildings and dozens of thousands of zombies.

And here goes a quick update to inform you of the game’s development progress.

Since the release on December 12th, we have been very busy working on several important technical aspects of the game:


Solving Installation Issues

With so many players and computers, sometimes some components required by the game are not correctly installed. Therefore, some players have had problems starting the game.

DirectX: It seems the Microsoft install is not always the correctly installed version, so we have added the exact libraries to the game folder and DirectX is no longer needed.

Visual C++ Runtime 2017: The same issue here. This has been the source of a lot of problems, giving the error HRESULT: 0x8007000B (thanks, Microsoft). Now the libraries are compiled statically, so that installer is no longer needed anymore.

There are a few more technical issues that we are studying such as problems with some monitor refresh rates.


Solving Bugs and Crashes

We have fixed a lot of small bugs detected by the players and refactored some parts of the code to avoid random crashes. This new version should be the most stable one.


Multi-language Support

As They Are Billions is being played massively in all parts of the world, we have worked on implementing the multi-language support. And furthermore, we have implemented an automatic system that allows the translators to update the game with their changes very easily. So, all the languages will always be up to date and won't delay the development at all.


Spanish Available

73fa8576c71a4bbf2cbbd2a559010fad854a2d32.jpg


Spanish is the first language added and is now available on the options screen. It is available in the Version 0.5.


New Languages Coming

We expect in two or three weeks to have the next languages: Chinese (simplified and traditional), Korean, Japanese, German, French, and Russian. We are also trying to add Brazilian Portuguese and Italian.


New Content Delayed

Unfortunately, because of all the work related to the technical aspects we have delayed the development a few weeks for the new building The Tavern and the feature Challenge of the Week. But don't worry, it will be ready very soon. All the developers want to test our skills against all the players playing the same map. That is going to be very fun!

Thanks for all the support! I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday break and a happy start to 2018.

See you soon!

Almost 200K per Steamspy: http://steamspy.com/app/644930

Daily players are also increasing every week.

Well, I thought this could be selling well but never thought it to be this much. I hope this success doesn't overshadow Xulima 2 much though.

I'm not at all surprised by this. I thought the game looked great from the first time I saw it. I watched a bit more recently and it made me want to buy it even more. I've recommended it to people and they instantly liked the look of it as well. It has an attractive art style, nice sharp colours that all blend with each other cohesively, excellent sound design with both amusing and fitting quips, lots of detail in the UI which itself is suitably complicated without appearing daunting or over-fussy or an impediment to the game-screen, has great pacing with constant and varied threats. And, AFAICT, it blends the best of both of the worlds of Real Time Strategy and Tower Defence rather than the worst of both, which is a lot harder to do that one might imagine.

With a game like this its more a case of "what's not to like?". I guess for people who have been playing strategy games for 10-30 years then, sure, it might be a bit easy at this stage, but then that's why I'm waiting for the full release before purchase rather than shooting my load before the clothes are even properly off.
 

Agesilaus

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Grab the Codex by the pussy Codex USB, 2014 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
It's just not fair!!


20180101200741_1.jpg


Here's my base:
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The end itself:

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Made the same mistake as last time, rested on my laurels. There came I point where I had reached the Eastern and Western extremities of the map, so I just stopped improving my economy and started building endless layers of stone wall. What I should have done is upgraded all my farms and quarries, built a bunch of power plants, tried making more houses, and then just spammed executor cannons and scorch towers over every square inch of my base.
 

Agesilaus

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Grab the Codex by the pussy Codex USB, 2014 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
And that was not the final wave, right?

It was the final wave.

The final wave consists of seemingly endless streams of zombies from all sides. As you can see in the pics, the final attack is preceded by a special announcement, "THEY ARE BILLIONS!!!"
 

Alienman

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Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire Make the Codex Great Again! Grab the Codex by the pussy Codex Year of the Donut Shadorwun: Hong Kong Divinity: Original Sin 2 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Final wave gave me PTSD. I want to play the game more, but just thinking about that final wave gives me nam-flashbacks.
 

Jasede

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Insert Title Here RPG Wokedex Codex Year of the Donut I'm very into cock and ball torture
It's a little ... weird to see this game so popular with my Steam friends (all furries).

But I suppose I can see why; people haven't experienced massive numbers attacking them in a 2D game before. 3D game, sure, SupCom, but not 2D. New ideas sell.

Okay, that's wrong. Old ideas redone and promoted well with eye-catching logos and by getting Twitch and Youtubers to play it sell.
 
Last edited:

axx

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Joined
Jan 9, 2017
Messages
804
Do the zombies left in the map participate in the final wave? I've watched Marbozir's LP and he always clears the map of zombies before the final wave.
Also just spam thanathos and executioners at the end. Shocking towers seem to be a waste.
 

Palikka

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Do the zombies left in the map participate in the final wave? I've watched Marbozir's LP and he always clears the map of zombies before the final wave.
Also just spam thanathos and executioners at the end. Shocking towers seem to be a waste.
Yes, they do. It's a very good idea to at least clear all zombie cities of the map before the end.

Agesilaus Way too few snipers, should get four on each tower. Your shocking towers are completely useless if you dont have the sniper support for them. The spitters will destroy the shocking towers from a distance so you need something for them.
Personally, I don't bother with the shocking towers. You can defend yourself with snipers/ballista up 'till day 50 raid and after that you should have Thanatos' building up.
My first succesfull defence was about 50 Snipers, 15 Thanatos and a loads of Ballista and Executors.

Also, your Snipers/Ballista should always have the "shoot highest level"-option ticked, maybe Thanatos as well.
 
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Game's pretty fun, but in its current state it's a one trick pony as someone mentioned above. If they do campaign right and throw in some new tech unlocks (akin to DoW2 and SC2) it would be great.
 

Ezeekiel

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Dec 19, 2016
Messages
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It's just not fair!!
Made the same mistake as last time, rested on my laurels. There came I point where I had reached the Eastern and Western extremities of the map, so I just stopped improving my economy and started building endless layers of stone wall. What I should have done is upgraded all my farms and quarries, built a bunch of power plants, tried making more houses, and then just spammed executor cannons and scorch towers over every square inch of my base.

I wouldn't waste my resources on the electrical towers tbh.
You definitely have too few towers in general though. Either get a lot more as you said, or a fuckload of titans and thanatos units.
There's also better ways to do the walls. If you make a wall at the end of the spitter range, they won't unload on your defenses/guys for a while because they can't get close enough. Executors can shoot them though. I forgot what the range actually was and by how much the executors outrange them, you'll have to experiment or google it.
You can make walls 2 deep generally, then a free space (can use traps in-between but only if you have money to spare).

Course then you win easy and it becomes pointless to play further for now imo.
 

Infinitron

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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
https://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2018/01/03/they-are-billions-early-access-review/

Premature Evaluation: They Are Billions

billions1-620x297.jpg


Premature Evaluation is the weekly column in which we explore the wilds of early access. For the first foray of 2018, Fraser’s been trying to save humanity from hordes of peckish zombies and other undead beasties in survival RTS They Are Billions. It’s a classic New Year tradition from a simpler time.

They Are Billions, at first glance, looks like it might have been the result of a night of video game Mad Libs. It’s a survival strategy game with hints of tower defence, a steampunk aesthetic and waves of zombie enemies. It’s a grab bag of video game tropes and genres slammed together that suggest there might be clumsiness in the way the whole thing hangs together. Thankfully, once the undead hordes start pounding at the gates, that suggestion is eradicated. And so, quite often, is humanity.

Numantian Games have draped a suit of rotten flesh over the skeletons of Age of Empires and Settlers, and that might lull you into a false sense of security. Like them, They Are Billions starts off by letting you expand briskly and kill plenty of things without breaking a sweat, but then it starts putting pressure on you. Resource scarcity, increasingly aggressive enemies, gargantuan 1000-strong hordes of ravenous corpses – the breezy early game is quickly forgotten.

billions2-620x349.jpg


In what is currently the sole mode, Survival, the goal is simply to outlast the clock. Depending on the difficulty settings you pick at the start, you’ll need to survive for between 80 and 150 days (it’s actually easier on the longer settings, as the big undead attacks are spread out allowing time for recovery), and even with the lowest density of zombies, that’s no mean feat. Indeed, the undead have consistently kicked my arse.

Making it until the end requires turning a single HQ and a handful of mercenaries into a sprawling colony protected by thick walls, fancy steampunk turrets and a big army. That’s easier said than done when the resources needed to construct this massive citadel are spread out across a map filled with the undead. And expansion has to be properly planned out, as the settlement can only be built inside the energy grid. You have to actively expand the grid by plonking down pylons known as Tesla Towers before you can start building quarries or homes in a new area.

billions4-620x349.jpg


Expansion has to be done thoughtfully, then, but They Are Billions is ultimately a race. Not only do regular zombies slowly start shuffling towards you, attracted by all the noise and delicious survivors, scripted attacks pit you against ridiculously huge hordes that engulf the screen and lay siege to the colony. Wasting even a minute could mean the difference between getting a shock turret operational and losing the colony entirely.

As it clips along, Billions also manages to cut out a lot of the boring lulls where you’re just waiting for another 100 food or a new batch of iron. I’m especially reminded of tower defence games when I’m frantically laying down traps or repairing wall damage as I get ready for the next zombie onslaught. Another big fight is always just around the corner, another disaster waiting for the colony overseer’s intervention. I confess that I’ve been finding it hard to stop mid-game, and yes, I did forget all about both lunch and dinner more than once. And then with every failure I signed up for more punishment, sure that this would be the time humanity survived. It’s moreish, like a giant bag of Twiglets salvaged from Christmas.

billions7-620x349.jpg


Sometimes it can feel a bit like the road to victory requires finding the one correct build order. The time limit, scripted invasions and limited space – rocks, forests and water are all impassable and common – mean that efficiency is king, nudging you down the path to mechanically constructing the colony according to some perfect plan. The random maps and the speed at which everything can just fall apart, however, makes putting together fool-proof plans tricky. Often I find myself just reacting to another big mess, putting out figurative fires all over the place, but that’s also infinitely more engaging than just trying to solve a single build order conundrum.

Despite being the monster equivalent of beige, They Are Billions’ shambling cadavers have quite a bit of personality, or at least interesting behaviours that set them apart from your typical RTS soldier bloke. When not presented with a tasty human meal, they’re dumb and docile, so sneaky ranger mercenaries can take them out without being spotted. But when a zombie spots a snack or hears a loud noise, they’ll investigate, often bringing pals with them. It perfectly captures that scene you see in almost every undead-themed movie and TV show, where a survivor messes up and a zombie slowly turns and peels away from the group, its moans drawing other zombies until, in a matter of seconds, a whole legion of them are suddenly marching towards their fleshy human prey.

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Most zombies are your slow, lumbering, decayed type, but fresh zombies can run almost as fast as humans, and then you’ve got your spitting zombies, your big, husky zombies and eventually flying harpies to contend with. And just like you’d expect, they’re all incredibly dumb. Like a flood, they don’t need to be smart. They just need to find a crack in the colony’s defences.

That really is all it takes. If a handful of zombies manage to make it inside the colony and get a few seconds to start spreading their virus, a whole new zombie army will be born right inside the walls. The infection spreads fast, and the only way to stop it is either kill the growing number of zombies spreading it, or destroy the buildings its heading towards. Most of my failures went from fine to bad to cataclysmic in about one minute.

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It’s awful. Only when the zombies win, of course. When they try their nonsense and I manage to actually push them back – to hell with the odds – then I’m fine with playing with the deck stacked against me. It makes my few minor victories feel… less minor. But when hours and hours of work get tossed down the drain because one bloody zombie somehow slipped through my impenetrable wall of death, well it’s a bit rubbish, isn’t it?

Bitterness aside, Billions effectively recreates the paranoia that’s so integral to horror, and zombies in particular. How many zombie movies or TV shows delight in revealing just how unsafe a seemingly stalwart sanctuary really is? And while They Are Billions provides survivors with lots of fancy steampunk and retro sci-fi weapons, there are almost always going to be blind spots. If there aren’t, the undead will surely make them. All a zombie has to do is brainlessly take out a Tesla Tower for all the surrounding buildings (and defences) to stop working, allowing the rest of the horde to saunter in.

billions9-620x349.jpg


The steampunk stuff isn’t nearly as considered as the zombies. Sure, it gives the game a whimsical look that combats the oppressive tone of the undead apocalypse, and it also gives us mechanical mercenaries and turrets that can zap whole armies into nothing but gibs, but most of it is window dressing. They Are Billions has been built entirely around the undead, and there’s nothing in here, aside from the aesthetic, that’s inherently steampunk. A story campaign is in the works, so hopefully the steampunk conceit shines through a little better there, but right now it could have been picked out of a hat.

I’ve found myself wondering what are reasonable expectations for the types of rewards you get for failure. There’s no real consensus among roguelikes and survival romps, though there’s frequently some sense of progression even if you fail. You get nothing in They Are Billions. Victory means, if your score is high enough, gaining access to one of the other map types, but dying means starting again from scratch. It’s not even like you can console yourself with the intel gleaned in the previous game, as every map is random. That’s one thing I’d really like to see reconsidered. I can live with random maps, but not being able to replay seeds is frustrating. There are several that I’d like another crack at, so it’s a shame that they’ve all been consigned to the abyss.

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Fending off waves of mindless monsters is a Sisyphean task, and if eight seasons of The Walking Dead have taught us anything, it’s that surviving in the zombie apocalypse gets a bit rote after a while. They Are Billions, like AMC’s cash cow, does become a bit predictable, and going through the motions of establishing fleeting colonies over and over again can sometimes be a bit of a slog. Then again, I just played for another two hours in the middle of writing this (all I wanted was a few more screenshots), so maybe I’m just mad for rolling boulders up hills. I mean, it’s a great workout.

I’m not done yet, either. Last night I had some new ideas for some wall designs that lean more into the tower defence side of things by funnelling zombies down into kill zones, but I’m still not sure how easy it’s going to be for me to draw them in. It will inevitably end in disaster, but I’m numb to failure now.

They Are Billions is out now on Steam for £17.54/$22.49/€20.69, and the Humble Store where it’s £17.09.
 

The Wall

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I knew this game would sell well and unless devs get completely carried away by its success it should, at least in theory, secure funds for much better sequel to Lords of Xulima then initially planned. Who knows, if both They are Billions and Lords of Xulima II find success on the market (They are Billions already has after less then a month with over 5 times bigger sales number then first Lords of Xulima has after three years on Steam) and Lords of Xulima II doesn't get dumbed down significantly but instead expanded, refined and improved I think that we might have here a potential new major player on the RPG scene in the making. At bare minimum in the category of Stygian Software and Iron Tower Studio when it comes to sales and hopefully level of RPG incline as well. I also have a gut feeling that what They are Billions is for Numantian Games will be Copper Dreams for Whalenought Studios. None of my friends believed me when I told them this game would explode and catch attention of so many players, so feel free to be sceptical abot these predictions as well.

Dw4hedW.png

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Tried to beat it on brutal 80 days (380%) and without pauses.

Bad map gens fuck with you so hard, my best run was on the worst map ever (two entrances but one is half-map wide). Died to the last wave because I couldn't get proper tech in time, since I had to cover so many holes in the defense.
 

Infinitron

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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
Interview! http://www.pcgamer.com/how-zombie-plague-rts-they-are-billions-went-viral/

How zombie plague RTS They Are Billions went viral
Indie studio Numantian Games explain how they hit on a winning formula with their survival strategy game.

Death comes as a sudden, unpleasant surprise in They Are Billions. It's a real-time strategy game strongly reminiscent of late-'90s classics like Age of Empires or StarCraft, but rather than a symmetrical battle against other civilizations, you struggle against a horde of mindless zombies. The slightest breach in your defenses can mean that your base is infected, causing an explosive—and usually game-ending—surge as the zombies convert your helpless citizen residents into more zombies. A single shuffling zombie that sneaks past a poorly placed wall or into a new expansion can lead to a snowball that rolls over your entire base before you know it.

Director Jesús Arribas took the time to speak with me about what led Numantian Games to make a game about a zombie plague, as well as how their own viral growth ended up getting out of hand.

Questions and answers have been edited for brevity and clarity.

PC Gamer: They Are Billions is quite a departure from Numantian's previous game, Lords of Xulima. That game was a very traditional role-playing game in the vein of Might & Magic and Wizardry. How did Numantian Games go from straight-laced fantasy to this offbeat survival strategy game?

Jesús Arribas: They are very different themes and genre, but if you play both, you can see the same author’s touch, like the same painter who draws two different scenes.

Real-time strategy games have followed a similar trajectory as RPGs. The classic titles were very challenging and hard to master. You had the freedom to play the missions the way you liked. You were free to lose if you made stupid decisions. But at the same time, when you won, it was very rewarding. We have always been fans of RPGs and strategy games. We tried bringing back that feel of the old-school RPGs to the present with Lords of Xulima.

We have the same goal with the RTS genre and They Are Billions. You have to manage the economy and the resources, expand the colony, build an army, attack your enemies to clear areas, reach new resource sources, and of course, defend your base from the infected hordes. And this is just the Survival Mode. We are working on the Campaign which is a bit more similar to classic RTS, with a big story, tactical missions, and much more content.

Losing in They Are Billions happens very fast. Any failure means zombies convert your built-up resources into more zombies very quickly—and you even warn players about this threat. Why does They Are Billions have such a sharp death spiral into failure and game over?

JA: In this game, the zombies are not just an excuse to have an enemy to fight—they are the central pillar of They Are Billions. This is not about killing enemies. This is about combating the infection—the same infection that destroyed the world and is the main threat to the new survivors. You could have a massive colony and suddenly find it in ruins because of a single infected breaking through. Fear and danger are constant.

The infection is the real threat to the survival of the colony. We know many players can get frustrated because of this. There is no other game like this. So, when a player loses their first colony because of a single decrepit zombie, they can hardly believe it. It is part of the fun. Nevertheless, a full game can last 2-3 hours if you survive all the way to the end. It is a game about surviving and improving your survival skills, not winning. If your score gets higher every time you play, then you are doing great.

Most developers tend to think that they must take care of the players, that they need everything easy and straightforward. But we don't. Players are much smarter than we give them credit for. When they are challenged with a game like this, where there is no hand-holding at all and even losing is fun, they actually love the experience.

Shooting zombies can fit into all sorts of settings, from traditional high fantasy to far-future science fiction. Why steampunk? What about Victorian aesthetics made them feel like a good fit for a survival game?

JA: From a development point of view, we thought that it would be super interesting to mix a steampunk society with their low technology with a zombie apocalypse. Watching the Titan, a steam machine driven by an educated gentleman with Victorian manners, destroying zombies is something worth experiencing.

Because it is set in the future, the 22nd century, one may question, "What has happened to the civilization and the modern world? Why has technology gone backward to a 19th century level? Where did the zombies come from?" You have to play the campaign to find the answers.

A significant departure from Numantian Games' previous work is the shift from crowdfunding on Kickstarter to launching straight to Steam Early Access. Why didn't you head to Kickstarter a second time?

JA: Instead of launching a Kickstarter, which requires months of work and preparation, we decided to do something softer and just to launch a campaign directly from our official Numantian Games website. We thought that it would be a great idea to let the backers play the Survival mode to collect feedback and test the game, [so] we then added Steam beta keys to the rewards and released the [crowdfunding] campaign on Halloween.

And what happened? People started to purchase the game, play it, and upload videos to YouTube. The game went viral very fast. So fast in fact, that we ran out of Steam beta keys in one week for the lower tier, then in a few days the next tier, and so on...

In two weeks, we ran out of beta keys—we originally had 10,000. We asked Valve for more beta keys, but we were unable to acquire any more keys until we released the game on Steam. We ended up in a situation where big YouTubers were playing the game, but people were unable to purchase and play it as well.

We made the decision to release the game with just the Survival Mode on Steam Early Access. Then we could work on the main game mode, Campaign mode, during the Early Access phase. We had to release the game about six months earlier than what we would have liked. Fortunately, the launch on Early Access has been very successful. We are still on the top seller list since the launch, the comments and reviews are very positive.

Where do you plan to go from here? What's your first priority to add (or fix) in the near future? What are your goals before leaving Early Access? And what are your plans once They Are Billions reaches 1.0?

JA: We are working in parallel on two different fronts. First, solving bugs and fixing problems and hardware compatibility issues. And second, making the game multi-language. Our goal is to have the game in eight languages in just a few weeks. The game is selling well all over the world, so we want as many players as possible to enjoy it in their own language.

After that, we are working on more features for the Survival mode, new buildings and zombies. [Another upcoming new mode is] Challenge of the Week. In that challenge, all the players can compete for getting the highest score playing the same survival map. We think it will be very funny as even the developers will participate in the challenge every week.

Finally, we continue working on the campaign. Thanks to the success of the game we can invest more in creating a memorable and epic campaign. Stay tuned!

They Are Billions is currently available on Steam in Early Access.
 

LESS T_T

Arcane
Joined
Oct 5, 2012
Messages
13,582
Codex 2014
I knew this game would sell well and unless devs get completely carried away by its success it should, at least in theory, secure funds for much better sequel to Lords of Xulima then initially planned. Who knows, if both They are Billions and Lords of Xulima II find success on the market (They are Billions already has after less then a month with over 5 times bigger sales number then first Lords of Xulima has after three years on Steam) and Lords of Xulima II doesn't get dumbed down significantly but instead expanded, refined and improved I think that we might have here a potential new major player on the RPG scene in the making.

Well at least it is/was their plan: https://www.kickstarter.com/project...n-epic-story-of-gods-and-humans/posts/1899201

Second, They Are Billions is a much more commercial game. It is truly fun and addictive - even the developers spend hours and hours playing just for fun (with the excuse of finding bugs...of course :) ...). If this game is successful enough, we will be able to make a serious investment in the production of LoX 2. Perhaps then we can make the perfect game we have always envisioned with the quality that it deserves. Imagine what we could do with a high budget.

If you have followed us and our game posts during this time, you will surely know that even if They Are Billions would bring in billions of dollars, we would continue working on the LoX sequel with the same passion and will - because our story with Lords of Xulima is a love story.

But yeah with this much of a big hit (and potentially even more sales from China once Chinese languages are added) I'm not sure. For now just glad to see they're doing well, I guess.
 

Agesilaus

Antiquity Studio
Patron
Developer
Joined
Aug 24, 2013
Messages
4,456
Grab the Codex by the pussy Codex USB, 2014 Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
So... how did you finally do it?
MOAR TOWERS?!

Besides constantly improving the economy, I switched up my defenses.

Early on, I built a lot of snipers and got lucky with a mayor who gave me a thanatos. Therefore, I didn't need any scorch or ballista towers; my army of snipers, soldiers, and the rocket man were able to defeat pretty much everything until late game.

During the late game, I built the following at every entrance:

2 x 2-layer think stone walls.
2 x executioner turret.
2+ towers packed with snipers.
1 x thanatos.

I also had 4 titans and a few left over thanatos units that I deployed when I knew which part of the wall would get hit hardest.

Finally, I cleared the map of all zombies prior to the attack. This is actually a big help; I didn't realise that all the zombies on the map join the attack.


With the above defenses, I really had no problem surviving the final attack. I could have done better and built an even stronger economy with more turrets, but whatever.


Anyone tried the new scenario maps that get unlocked? Anything new in them, other than the layout of the map?
 

Destroid

Arcane
Joined
May 9, 2007
Messages
16,628
Location
Australia
Got to the final wave on my third try (helped a lot by a titan from a mayor), and got crushed. Are the titans really worth it for base defence? They seem great for clearing the map or pulling zombies, but the rocket launcher guys seem better at actually killing zombies. Any use for the flamers?
 

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