Friday 4 October 2019

Dead Frontier: Still Alive

PLEASE NOTE: This game is not being developed by Neil (AdminPwn) so it will not take attention/time away from Dead Frontier 1 & 2 development :)

We’re excited to announce the development of Dead Frontier: Still Alive—a standalone cooperative multiplayer game set within the Dead Frontier 2D (DF2D) era coming to Steam.

Aiming to replicate the experiences of the original DF2D gameplay, there will be a matchmaking system from which to choose various game modes. The overall feel is Dead Frontier Night series meets SAS: Zombie Assault.

Basic Gameplay Overview

Dead Frontier: Still Alive leans into the series’ action-horror elements.
Each match should last anywhere from 10 to 30 minute, but this may vary depending on the mode and the settings you choose. You can play with up to 5 other people (6 total) in any of these modes just like in DF2D.




Kill to your heart’s content
Infected will appear in much greater quantities than originally found in DF2D. The amount varies, but there will be enough to keep up a nice pace and fulfill all of your zombie slaughtering fantasies.



Loot for goods
Scavenge for supplies and equipment by looting objects in certain game modes. They will reward clusters of ammunition, medicine, barricades, other low tier items, and temporary equipment you cannot purchase.

Make big equipment upgrades using the marketplace
The items within here have preset values for buying and selling rather than being player run. You can also mastercraft or godcraft items, repair armour, etc. We're staying true to the Dead Frontier 2D era and limiting items to what existed then (2008-2009). All of the classics will be making a return and will be just as powerful as they were then.



Seamless transition between exterior and interior areas
Maps are seamless areas when it comes to interiors and exteriors if they contain both. So after the initial loading, there are no further load screens or fades. This means barricading doesn’t grant access to temporary outposts, but act as a temporary barrier to steer away and hold back infected until it’s broken. The size of each map varies, but on average is about the same as one or two blocks in DF2D’s Inner City.


Progression

Progression will mostly happen within matches rather than in the MMO-style. With that said, it works the same way as with what you're familiar with. You choose your pre-outbreak profession that grants advantageous passive bonuses. You kill zeds to gain experience; doing that enough will net you a level up. From there you can allocate points into both stat and weapon proficiencies of your choice.



Long term progressions outside of matches will unlock higher-end equipment, professions, maps, mutators (modifies existing game rules for a change of pace), difficulties, and more challenging game modes. Now for the cherry on top, we will also be integrating Steam leaderboards and achievements.


Remastered Visuals and Sound

Thanks to using a game engine over Flash, plus other advancements in graphics rendering, we're remastering the game's visuals giving it major a face-lift. This includes eye-candy such as real-time lighting, shaders that create a unique 2.5D look, and added detail to effects like gore.

http://dfbuddy.com/a67sfsd6.gif 


There will also be improvements to the sound elements. For example, satisfying reverb to weapon firing sound effects while indoors that reflects the size of the area. More excitingly, all of the old soundtracks you know and love will also be getting remastered.

This project is still in active development and an ETA hasn't been settled on just yet. With that said, you can follow our progress in the Official Dead Frontier Discord server. There's a dedicated category for the game there titled DF: Still Alive. Stop by and say hi, ask any questions you have, and share your ideas. :)

https://discord.gg/deadfrontier2 

Sunday 29 September 2019

DF2 Roadmap: Open World & New Content

Recent Updates
As most of you are aware I made a return to Dead Frontier 2 development back in July and since then I feel like the game has come a long way. A lot of old players have returned and thousands of new ones are signing up each day. For those of you who missed it:
  • Outpost Attacks were added
  • 12 new weapons were added
  • A lot of new cosmetic options were added to the shop
  • You can now continue to fill your EXP bar and get rewards at the level cap
  • Auto-Map was added, making buildings far easier to navigate
  • PvP Ranking & Reward system was added
  • EXP gain was increased and levels were adjusted to drastically reduce the amount of grind
  • Ammo loots were doubled making guns a lot more viable for most situations
  • Marketplaces and Account Stashes were linked together
  • We now have weekend events
  • We've translated the game into 8 languages so far and more are on the way
  • A ton of Bug Fixes, Optimisation, Balance and QoL improvements have been made

Whilst I feel like the game has already come a long way in these past couple of months, I think there is still a ton more than needs to be done. At this stage I think the game's biggest weakness is that the world still feels very small/cramped, that there isn't much variety and that there simply isn't enough content of all kinds (building types, weapons, clothing, monsters, bosses etc).

So my plan for the next round of updates is to address these main issues with the following:

Open World
Open World has been suggested a lot, and in the past I resisted the idea mainly because I was honestly a little afraid of the amount of work involved, having been massively burnt-out from the original development. However I'm now feeling better than ever and ready to take on a big challenge such as this. I've already done some preliminary testing and I'm confident that I can make this happen.

To clarify, Open World will mean that you'll be able to walk around the entire outdoor game world without loading points or fade outs. In addition, the game world will be many times larger than what we have currently and have many more buildings. I'll also attempt to expand on the variety of the outdoor scenery, including things like forests, parks and other rural locations.

Buildings themselves will stay the same for now. They will still be broken up into individual rooms that load separately. I may change this in the future, but for now I'm just focusing on the outdoor areas.

I think this will make the game feel a lot more realistic and will add a nice sense of exploration that DF2 currently lacks.

I haven't fully decided how this update will affect cars yet. The most likely situation is that they'll just be used to fast travel between large outposts. I would like to eventually make them properly drivable but I don't want to get too far ahead of myself just yet :)

Barricading
This was always something I wanted to add to DF2, but I always struggled with why players would actually need to do it. Why do you need a personal outpost when you can instantly drive to DPD when you need something? However with the Open World update travelling will actually be something that takes considerable time/resources, which means that Personal Outposts will be far more useful. Therefore I'll aim to get barricading into the game very shortly after completing the Open World update.

Level 30-50 Content
I've already set the ball rolling on getting new zombies and bosses created for the next 20 levels of content. Here are just some of the early concept sketches:













In addition to new enemies, I'll be looking to add another 30+ weapons to the game including assault rifles and chainsaws. New clothing and armour will also be added to the lineup, along with roughly double the number of building types to explore.


World Bosses
Something else I really want to add in the next few months are large scale World Boss battles. In a similar way to the Outpost Attacks, these will require the entire DF2 population to come together to defeat a gargantuan beast that will appear at set times during the day.

Wandering Bosses
I'm currently planning to add two new special boss types. One which will be almost impossible to kill, and will follow you through multiple rooms/locations. You'll almost always need need to run & hide in order to survive the encounter. I'm also planning to add a creature that will actually run and hide from you. You'll need to catch it and kill it to earn a special reward :-)

What's the ETA for all this?
I'm afraid I can't give you any precise times for these. 30-50 content and new bosses require new enemy designs, but those will probably take 2-3 months just to get all the artwork finished so I wouldn't expect that to drop until early next year. While the artists are working I'll be focused on the Open World/Barricading and I hope to at least have a single player version of it to test out within the next 3-4 weeks. Beyond that though it's really hard to say.

Whilst I'm working on all of this in the background I will still try to make small updates/improvements to the game each week so that you guys at least know I'm still alive :)

Here we go
I hope you find all of the above as exciting as I do! I really can't wait to see how the game will evolve over the next year or so and I hope you guys will come along with for me for the ride.

If you want to stay updated on how things progress please consider joining our Discord (30k members and growing): https://discordapp.com/invite/deadfrontier2

Play DF2 on Steam:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/744900/Dead_Frontier_2/

Thanks,
Neil