Game News DoubleBear Reveals Dead State GUI

[DwarvenFood]

Color shmolor. It's indie. The gameplay mechanics is what will decide the game's fate.

Not funding-wise, there you need the presentation and not the mechanics. Not yet.

 

[Burning Bridges]

I think anyone who likes tactical turn based games should pledge at least twenty dollars here. Unlike Banner Saga, this game should be a big hit on RPGCodex.

And besides Xenonauts this could be the second really promising turn based indie that will eventually be rescued by kickstarter.

Of course with these screenshots they will not ge the level of support as Banner Saga, but they will get the community of tactical gamers behind them, RPGCodex for one of course. I would also advertise this a bit in the wargamer / sim circles, a lot of these guys have also played such games in the past. For a careful estimate Knotanalts 200K sound pretty good. That wouldn't be much, but enough to work 1.5 years full time and finish the game they have in mind. After that they could go completely bro and make Dead State 2 a.k.a. Jagged Zombie Alliance Right now Dead State is already much closer to it than any other game that came up with kickstarter.

I would not beat around the bush, the UI graphics still look a bit amateurish but if you make allowance for it being just a early version / mockup, it's already very good. I mean one could absolutely play it with this UI already but I am sure they will still improve it a lot.

Another little problem I still have is that the project was apparently stalled, and I would like updates on kickstarter who is working on it and assurances that it will be full time effort, unlike before the kickstarter move. A firm release date in 2013 wouldn't hurt. So far I got a certain "when it's done" vibe with this project. But they absolutely have a second chance. Anyone will understand that so far money was the only problem and that's what kickstarter is for.

I also must remind that married couples can be extremely good game developers. For example Mount & Blade was made by such a pair.

 

[curry]

Looks like crap

 

[Burning Bridges]

Mostly everything is there for the very basic game. Everyone has two hands, there is End Turn and APs. No crouching & lying down is a bit of a boner breaker of course.
Since they are obviously aiming for something like Fallout the game will be a lot about the athmosphere and world, not mainly about the combat.

What's still missing imo is an inventory screen, so we can see what companions wear in terms of clothes / armor. If there are backpacks and so on.

 

[Davaris]

Judging by some project that got funded for Kickstarter they only need Annie showing and Brian smiling, add some smooth talk and they will not even need to show concept art.
Couldn't be enough for the hundreds of thousand tho.

Picture Annie and Vince, chased by shambling figures into a school, by the light of a dread moon. Only your cash will save them, from an uncertain fate...

The interface looks great guys. The colors fit the school perfectly.

 

[Burning Bridges]

Photos of Annie with plaits is worth 100,000$ alone.

 

[Burning Bridges]

Wow this lools great. Why don't they keep such a perspective which is a bit farther out? I am almost getting excited.

 

[Achilles]

Yeah I agree. WE know who [...] Mitsoda has done

Yeah, we sure do! :D :giggity:

(I'm, sorry, I just had to make that joke)

 

[A user named cat]

Edit: Better version below.

 

[Burning Bridges]

You're a better UI designer than most people who design UIs.
The noise meter is of course misplaced. Move it somewhere else completely and make it much smaller.
Also what's the point of the hand? I would either use it for a text window or for context information, e.g. when you click on a weapon an explosion view is shown, where you can use attachments, ammo etc.
Similar when you click on an NPC, or item.

 

[Running Fox]

Character managment screen could use more chaose, dirt and details.
More disarray, more torn paper, a pen lying close by, a knife maybe, coffee and or blood splatters.

 

[Running Fox]

Character managment screen could use more chaose, dirt and details.
More disarray, more torn paper, a pen lying close by, a knife maybe, coffee and or blood splatters.

 

[General Maxson]

I would pledge for them. These are the kinds of games I want to fund. And unlike some, I don't think zombie setting is overdone, on the contrary, it think it hasn't yet been done properly (well rogue survivor is good), and I can't wait to see how this turns out.

 

[hiver]

Looks great.

an option to add player portraits would be welcome too. i dont mean to sound abrasive to the artist that made them.
Its just that taking away options from players can turn into a problem by itself.

Similar to how having no or not enough clear option to walk around between quest points and related NPCs turned into a problem for AoD, even if teleporting itself isnt a big problem at all and a welcome addition - especially on eventual consequent replays.

 

[A user named cat]

You're a better UI designer than most people who design UIs.
The noise meter is of course misplaced. Move it somewhere else completely and make it much smaller.
Also what's the point of the hand? I would either use it for a text window or for context information, e.g. when you click on a weapon an explosion view is shown, where you can use attachments, ammo etc.
Similar when you click on an NPC, or item.

Hmmm, alright. How about this? Better?

 

[Burning Bridges]

:masturbates shamelessly over screen content:

 

[A user named cat]

Hah. Registered at Iron Tower just to post it, maybe to motivate them into making some changes. Personally, I like everything at the bottom. Less stuff scattered around.

 

[Burning Bridges]

It is really good, and shows that it's not so hard to make good UIs if you just want to.
And yes, make sure someone from DB sees it, there's absolutely still time to improve the game.

 

[Grunker]

No, as an indie team it's better if they take their time to build up stuff to show. I don't know if Brian Mitsoda has the same star power as Schafer, Fargo or Avellone.

Yeah I agree. WE know who and what Mitsoda has done, the rest will need to be shown a solid presentation.

Will KS fund this the second it's on there.

I heard brutha!

This looks so incredibly fucking awesome. Can't wait to play it.

 

[Volrath]

It looks too... clean. I realise that they're limited in what they can do with that shitty Torque engine but this doesn't scream zombie apocalypse to me.

 

[nihil]

No crouching & lying down is a bit of a boner breaker of course.

I never understood the obsession with that, honestly.

 

[Zed]

What kind of retard lies down in urban combat anyway (besides snipers on rooftops)?

 

[nihil]

Well I would too if it meant I could see one square further if I crouch, and two if I'm lying prone! Not quite realistic but it makes a kind of sense. If I am hiding a bit more than the other guy I should in fact see him first.

Yeah, well, I just think it's a chore to kneel->shoot->stand->walk, stand->shoot->lie down->end turn or whatever all the time in most games I've played with that feature. It's often obvious whether you should kneel, stand or lie down (for some -10%/+5%). It's just a question of reserving action points and doing it. Not as interesting a choice as for example "shoot his weapon out of his hand or shoot him in the leg to slow him down?".

 

[laclongquan]

In zombie games the crouch and prone is not very useful. You are worried about noise, so you got two strategy: shoot then run like hell (or stay to die), AND, silent kill zombie with melee weapon to reduce noise pollution.

So we are looking at Fallout 1 and 2 combat system, not Fallout Tactics or Jagged Alliance 2 system.

So, enough for you guys to masturbate yet?

 

[Mozgoëbstvo]

In zombie games the crouch and prone is not very useful. You are worried about noise, so you got two strategy: shoot then run like hell (or stay to die), AND, silent kill zombie with melee weapon to reduce noise pollution.

So we are looking at Fallout 1 and 2 combat system, not Fallout Tactics or Jagged Alliance 2 system.

So, enough for you guys to masturbate yet?

Ahem, this would be a fine reasoning, if not for the fact that you can get into gunfights with other hostile survivors...