Urban Strife - turn-based zombie survival RPG - now available on Early Access

[Zombra]

A normal old school static map screen with notes on it would be great. Realtime minimap seems too modern/convenient for an apocalypse setting. I will turn it off if I can.

Popup compass that appears while holding down a key is most option imo*, compass on screen 24/7 is cluttery and not needed.

*Out of combat only, representing a character actually pulling a compass out of their pocket. Maybe you would even be required to have the object in game.

 

[Thonius]

Played a game for a bit, it's nice so far. Is there a possibility for env destruction? Also, a wall pen?
Was a bit tired when I tried, got somewhat overwhelmed by the number of containers. The game is set 3 years after X, too much loot lol. Also a bit sad that it's set 2-3 years after the event.

 

[AdolfSatan]

Any chance the game will receive further optimization down the line? My shit rig can't run it

 

[Darth Canoli]

Any chance the game will receive further optimization down the line? My shit rig can't run it

What are your specs?
I was wondering if it was worth installing but knowing demos are rarely optimized, i'm leaning toward no.

 

[AdolfSatan]

I'm on a laptop. i7 with 16Gb RAM and integrated HD520 vga. I can run Colony Ship, ATOM, and Encased, but US was laggy even at 768p with all options turned down.

 

[Darth Canoli]

Wow, i knew it'd be bad when i looked at it and the specs but i didn't think it'd be that bad...

 

[USG_Mucifikatorul]

Well, minimal specs do say you need something more than an integrated video chip. We'll continue adding more customization options but no guarantees.

Interesting point you make about the minimap. So a classic map and maybe a button to reset the camera to a default orientation would suffice?

 

[agris]

Well, minimal specs do say you need something more than an integrated video chip. We'll continue adding more customization options but no guarantees.

Interesting point you make about the minimap. So a classic map and maybe a button to reset the camera to a default orientation would suffice?

Given the world, I would make the classic map look hand drawn or like something out of a guide, not just a zoomed out camera perspective.

 

[Zombra]

So a classic map and maybe a button to reset the camera to a default orientation would suffice?

A button press to reset the camera to face north would work to orient players. I still like my idea better of a button press that pops up a compass for a moment to show you which way is north so you can orient yourself. Also see below.

Important to consider: are landmarks obvious? (The sample zone seems all kind of the same, abandoned houses.)
* If the player can reasonably navigate by looking visually at their surroundings (well here's the big green mansion next to the golden statue so we want to go north from here), that and a compass are all you need and navigation will be a fun mini-challenge parsing landmarks to the map.
* If the map just shows a big residential district with few real landmarks, consider a YOU ARE HERE indicator on the map screen. If the YOU ARE HERE indicator shows which direction the camera is facing, there's no need for an orientation/compass key at all.

My dream is like a gas station street map with clear obvious city landmarks (statue of Superman here, stadium there etc.) printed on it, plus handwritten Sharpie notes as appropriate and no YOU ARE HERE indicator. Whenever a party member or helpful NPC says "the clown college is over there", they will circle it with a Sharpie and write CLOWN COLLEGE. The player can add/remove their own custom map notes too. (OK, it's a magic Sharpie, so sue me.)

 

[udm]

I don't think a minimap is needed, but a compass maybe.

USG_Mucifikatorul Because there's always potential for misunderstanding, I would like to helpfully add that Alienman was referring to a literal compass. Not this:

 

[USG_Mucifikatorul]

By the way, we caught the bug that was generating random crashes.

We are uploading a new build as we speak, in about 2-3 hours it should be up.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

 

[agris]

By the way, we caught the bug that was generating random crashes.

We are uploading a new build as we speak, in about 2-3 hours it should be up.

What's the thinking with making the demo only available on a limited basis? This seems really counter-intuitive to me, almost guaranteed to only get attention from players who (1) are already following the game close and/or (2) lives are structured such that they can get a good amount of play time in the 7 day (or whatever) window of time the demo is available.

What are the down-sides of making the demo available after the end of this steam marketing thing?

 

[Zombra]

By the way, we caught the bug that was generating random crashes.
We are uploading a new build as we speak, in about 2-3 hours it should be up.

What's the thinking with making the demo only available on a limited basis? This seems really counter-intuitive to me, almost guaranteed to only get attention from players who (1) are already following the game close and/or (2) lives are structured such that they can get a good amount of play time in the 7 day (or whatever) window of time the demo is available.
What are the down-sides of making the demo available after the end of this steam marketing thing?

It's not the devs' decision. If they want to get the free PR that goes with this stupid Steam promotion, they have to go by the rules. I've asked many devs about this and they all say the same thing, while being careful not to say too much.

 

[Infinitron]

They absolutely can leave the demo up afterwards if they want to and some games have done that. For example, the Wartales demo has been available continuously since the June Steam Next Fest.

 

[Zombra]

I've asked many devs about this and they all say the same thing

Either that or I completely made this up and was thinking of something else. Thanks Infinitron

 

[USG_Mucifikatorul]

We'll take the demo offline for improvements and upgrading it to a newer Unreal Engine version (after the festival). UE 4.18 has reached it limits in terms of 4k support and seems to have issues with Win11 too.
We're free to do whatever we want with the demo, Steam has no conditions. But we would like to move it to a new phase next time we show it, no point in getting the same feedback and giving the same answers.

Now that we have it it's a great way to engage the players in development and we plan to use it.

Btw, last night we saw a streamer play for 12 hours straight on Ubuntu Linux with Proton Experimental. Apparently it works out of the box so if anyone is curios how it works on Linux, that's an easy way to test.

 

[agris]

USG_Mucifikatorul I hear you, but you seem to be missing the most basic function of a demo: to get people interested in your game. It’s great that you’ve got the feedback you want, and that you’re going to upgrade the demo and engine etc… but what do you *gain* by taking the demo down?

From my perspective, there is no gain. Just the lost opportunity to attract potential customers. Plus if you keep the demo up on steam and integrate some basic metric tracking, you may actually learn a thing or two about how people engage with the game’s systems long term, as well as what type of marketing is driving new demo downloads.

I come back to this position of not understanding how it’s beneficial to you all to take the demo down. Keep it up and update/replace it later. People like free, and the genre you’re operating in isn’t saturated. It will have a tail, people will hear of the game, find out it has a free demo and try it. If you haven’t taken it down, that is.

 

[USG_Mucifikatorul]

Guess we'll evaluate post-festival how much impact the current demo has, it should be clear from the data. We have no desire to shoot ourselves in the foot and decisions like this are taken after consultations with everyone, including the publisher. And whatever is decided, is decided for the good of the game and its future, not against it, trust me.

 

[USG_Mucifikatorul]

Quick update. Initially we wanted to retire the demo 1 day after the festival and move on to the new updated version. Data from the first post-festival day turned out to be so impressive though so looks like it's staying up another week. It won't be patched more than it is, not until we finish with the transition to the new Unreal Engine version (very scary stuff, like doing brain surgery on yourself).

Hopefully with a few rare crashes due to strange hardware, everyone still interested will be able to enjoy it, unbalanced as it is. Enjoy.

 

[Alienman]

Curious what kind of data?

 

[USG_Mucifikatorul]

Store traffic and daily wishlists. Going at about x10 rate compared to pre-festival, so clearly people are getting into the game still.

 

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

Store traffic and daily wishlists. Going at about x10 rate compared to pre-festival, so clearly people are getting into the game still.

Overall good experience with demo, good word of mouth & from what I've seen positive Youtube coverage.
Make sure that "work in progress" -stickers are visible and frankly you don't have reason to time limit this before release.

 

[Harthwain]

Store traffic and daily wishlists. Going at about x10 rate compared to pre-festival, so clearly people are getting into the game still.

I am going to play the game during the weekend (and check out Vagrus too, by the way).

Also, to add what others said already, I wishlisted Potion Craft after checking out its demo on GOG (because GOG had it while Steam didn't!). I played a lot of Conscript (demo), too. Without playing the demo I doubt I would be as eager for that game as I am. And the developer of Conscript updated it, so I am having a blast playing through it again, with new changes.

I would probably get your game after reading some reviews (I wishlisted it after following this thread, because you seem like solid developers), but keeping the demo up as long as possible certainly isn't going to hurt you and could make this for me, provided the game is as good as it sounds by reading about it here. So, yeah, do yourselves a favour and let the demo stay. I believe in you and your ability to deliver a quality product, which is a rare thing for me to say.

 

[lightbane]

How much HDD space will be the full game need? Can you change the inane "body types" for "gender", or would that result in your team being cancelled?I would have thought that in Romania you wouldn't have to care about wokeness.