Dead Frontier 2: Tendril Boss, Concept Art & More!

Boss Teaser
So today I was messing around with some ideas for segments we could use in the Dead Frontier 2 trailer, and this was one of the first things I came up with. I thought it looked fairly neat on it's own so figured I'd post it up here for you guys:

If you're unfamiliar with DF1, this is a Tendril; the second most hated of all enemies due to her rapid speed and hard hitting tentacles. I'm pleased to say that we're bringing back this loathsome creature as a boss in DF2. She is pretty much finished and ready to go into the game. I must admit I'm not looking forward to actually fighting her though!

Release Woes
So I know back in January I gave you guys a bunch of options on what we should do with the planned release date. You wanted me to delay the game until it was properly finished, and not launch as an Early Access title. Giving myself the extra time was a *huge* help, and the game is definitely a lot better for it. However I still don't believe it will now be fully feature complete by our Summer deadline. 

I've weighed up the options and I've decided that I don't want to delay the game any further. The truth is I work so much faster when I have a bit of pressure, and another extension might just allow me to slip back into my usual, slower pace. Not to mention, I'm so hyped about the game that *I* can't wait to let you guys in so I've got someone to play with :-)

So the release will be Early Access on Steam. However that doesn't mean it'll be a broken buggy mess either. We will still have gone through an alpha testing period to iron out most of the problems first. My goal is to have a nice, polished core game game loop for everyone to enjoy at launch. I will then get to work on the less critical features such as clan systems, competitions etc.

Writing Competition Update
A big thanks to everyone who submitted an entry for the writing competition. Unfortunately because we've had so many entries (well over 1000) it's taking Ian (Xaelath) and I longer than expected to go through them all and do the judging. I suspect we'll probably need another week or so to pick the final winners. If you're one of the lucky ones you will receive an email from me with details on how to go about getting your prize.

Patreon

Since I've been bombarded with so many messages from people wanting to support DF2 financially, I've setup a Patreon page here:

https://www.patreon.com/creakycorpse

I don't want you guys to feel obliged to do this, honestly we do already have enough money to complete the game and the most important thing you can do to help us is: play it, write a nice review on Steam, tell your friends about it etc. But if you're still feeling the urge to send us some pennies it would allow us to spend a bit more on launch advertising (which can make a big difference).

Discord
We've recently setup a Discord server for Dead Frontier 2. This is quickly becoming my favourite social platform as it allows me to communicate with players/fans in the most convenient fashion. If you haven't already joined please follow this invite link. I'm online a fair bit there so if you have any questions feel free to drop in and ask.

https://discordapp.com/invite/QwvjvQW

Other Development News

- After making some optimizations to the multiplayer system I've decided to increase the player limit per instance to 8. This should help to make the game feel a bit more like an MMO.

- Our server company recently had a sale at their Singapore data-center,  so I went ahead and snapped up one of their machines. Now anyone from East Asia or Australia should be able to get a decent ping.

- I'm SUPER HYPED about this game now. It's gotten to the point where it's hard to get any actual work done because all I want to do is run around with a shotgun and blow zombie heads off. I can't imagine how awesome this game is going to feel once I've got some of you guys to play with. 

Concept Art

Here is some of our enemy concept art. These pieces were made by Greg Taylor and Milen Kalachev. Please note that not *all* of these designs will be in the the final game. Can you guess which ones will make the cut?

If you'd like to stay up to date with DF2 developments, please sign up to the mailing list, like/follow/subscribe/wishlist us on social media (especially Steam!). All those lovely links can be found here: http://deadfrontier2.com :)

Thanks for reading!
-Neil