Arrival: Zero Earth cover
Arrival: Zero Earth screenshot
Steam
Genre: Indie

Arrival: Zero Earth

Hotfix - 0.9.2 - Removed the animated glitch effect on undiscovered areas

Changed in 0.9.2:




  • [Community Feedback] Removed the animated glitch effect from the undiscovered areas and out-of-bounds areas


Regular Update - 0.9.0 - Shorter Runs, Steam Achievements, Continue Runs Later

Changed in 0.9.0



Btw. The early access date is now announced (11 October 2022)!

FEATURE CHANGE: Shorter Runs



The default run now has 12 levels instead of 20 levels. There has not been too much feedback about this, except for a few feedbacks and I was a bit doubtful if the runs should be shorter or not.

Usually players are willing to go the level 20 on a single run, unless they die before it. With longer runs there is more action further you get in a single run.

Now that the boss fight is a bit harder, probably the average runs will be shorter after this change.

The downside with the 20-level run it might feel a bit of a "chore" if you are on level 5 and you see that there is still 15 more levels to go. I think this might stop some players even starting a run.

I think these shorter runs are a positive change, even if there are currently a few downsides.

I'm thinking about ways so that the players could have longer runs if they want. The game could also be tweaked in different ways, so that the action picks up a little earlier.

If you have any feedback about this, I would like to hear your thoughts.


NEW FEATURE: Steam Achievements



The full version now has a Steam Achievement for each unlock.

Achievements are not in Playtest or Demo version, but all unlocks will move between different versions, so if you have unlocks in the Demo version for example, those unlocks will be also unlocked in the full version and you will automatically get those achievements.


NEW FEATURE: Continue abandoned runs later



You can now continue abandoned runs from the main menu. The state of the game is saved at the start of each level, so if you abandon the game and the end of a level, any new items or units you got during that level won't be saved.

So it's best to abandon the runs at the start of each level. The Continue Run button won't be displayed if you abandoned the run on the first level.


FEATURE CHANGE: Flying Chests now do damage to units



The "Flying Chests" now do damage to the units, if the unit members stand under a flying chest when they impact the ground.

I'm not expecting this to make the game much harder, but I hope it adds a little bit of extra excitement and energy to the opening of the chests.


FEATURE CHANGE: Removed the camera rotation feature



Previously the game had a feature where you could rotate the camera, but I think this feature was rarely used, and now that it's easier to tell where the units are, there is not much of use for this feature.


OTHER UPDATES:




  • Show the Steam Early Access date on main menu
  • Disable camera rotation
  • Shorten the runs from 20 levels per loop to 12 levels per loop
  • Small re-adjustment on how stats are shown on the right sidebar on a level
  • Show the loop number on the sidebar and make the level number start from 1 when entering a new loop
  • Flying chests now do damage to units that stand under the chest when they fall
  • [Community Feedback] Fixed "bazooka unit" description to say they are targeting heavier enemies, not heavier units.
  • [Community Feedback] Make the outside of the boss fight ring walkable again, once the boss fight is completed
  • Add the possibility to continue previously abandoned runs from the main menu
  • Add support for Steam Achievements


- jounitus

EARLY ACCESS Release Date Announcement + Steam Next Fest

GREAT NEWS!



ARRIVAL: ZERO EARTH will release to Early Access on 11 October 2022.

The game will also participate on STEAM NEXT FEST starting on October 3rd 2022 and the Early Access release will be after the Steam Next Fest has ended.

The game has been in development for over two years now and it's exciting (and a bit scary) to finally release it to early access!

A year a ago back when the original demo was released, I was definitely surprised with all the attention the game received from Youtubers and all the players that came along. I felt like I got extremely lucky with that and I was not expecting that!

Since that, I've spent a year adding new features and content to the game.

Thanks to all the people who have played the demo and the playtest version and given feedback within the past year.

All the feedback has definitely motivated me to keep going and hopefully I've been able to improve the game with the feedback received!

Thanks to everyone who's been following this journey so far!

See you on October 11th 2022!

- jounitus

Regular Update - 0.8.0 - Reworked Sniper Unit, Difficulty Changes, QoL stuff

Changed in 0.8.0



This update is mostly to focus on issues that have been in the game for a long time and generally to try to make the experience of playing the game nicer.


UNIT UPDATES: Sniper Unit Rework



For a long time, the sniper units have not really been as great as they could be and there has been a lot of feedback about that, which I agree with.

Luckily now there was a good spot to rework the Sniper unit and I think it's a lot better now.


  • Make Sniper rate of fire twice as fast
  • Added sounds
  • Green laser sight is now "always on"
  • Updates on how the laser sight movement is animated
  • Bigger and faster bullets
  • Bullets now can pierce multiple enemies at once
  • Snipers now do more damage than previously



NEW FEATURE: Tips



On the objectives list, there are now "tips" about different aspects of the game.

It has been great to see players figuring out this information themselves. But hopefully the tips will make especially new players familiar with the game quicker.


DIFFICULTY RELATED UPDATES



The difficulty that previously was called "easy" is now called normal and the harder difficulty is now called "hard".

I think it was a mistake to previously call the now-hard difficulty "normal", since in hindsight I think players expect the normal difficulty to be "beginner friendly" (which it wasn't).

The hard difficulty is now unlocked by reaching level 11 on normal difficulty.

The concern is that players "accidentally" choose the hard difficulty and make no progress during their first runs. Although now that the hard difficulty is actually called "hard", players probably will choose it less likely "by accident".


  • Simplified difficulty descriptions
  • Make Hard difficulty unlock when level 11 is reached on normal difficulty
  • Rename difficulties: Easy -> Normal. Normal -> Hard
  • Add a separate difficulty select button to the main menu to set the "default difficulty"
  • Changed the "New Run" button in the main menu to start a new run automatically with the default difficulty



OTHER UPDATES




  • Add separate ambient volume settings for the Wind
  • Pause the game and show the settings dialog when a gamepad is disconnected while in a level
  • Pause the game and show the settings dialog when Steam Overlay is opened while the game is running
  • Added workaround for an issue, where UI elements might lose focus and the UI would become non-navigatable with Gamepad
  • Hide the mouse cursor automatically when switched to gamepad mode
  • Made the dropdown ui elements in settings taller, to work better with the gamepads
  • Fixes for the item list in HUD, now it should have fewer glitches (the item counts showing -1 for example)
  • [Community Feedback] The big "item info notification" that appears when you pick items is now immediately hidden when enemies appear or when a dialog is opened, also no notifications are shown while enemies are on screen
  • [Community Feedback] Units inside the green dome are now protected from damage, even if enemies jump on them for example
  • [Community Feedback] Make the back of the mountains darker, so they stand out better from the ground

Regular Update - 0.7.0 - Difficulty Selection, Elite Enemy Waves

Changed in 0.7.0:



Since the last update, I've been experimenting with new features, but only two new features were ready-enough state to get into this release.

I didn't want to postpone this release just to get more stuff into this release, since I think the difficulty selection feature is a great feature to get out as soon as possible to get feedback.

NEW FEATURE: Difficulty Selection



The game now has "Easy" and "Normal" difficulty modes. The "Easy" difficulty is probably closer to the difficulty the game had a year ago.

The goal is that eventually there would be right amount of challenge for everyone, no matter what the player skill levels or play styles are.

If the game still feels too difficult or too easy, please do give feedback. The difficulty adjustments are an on-going process.


NEW FEATURE: Elite Enemy Waves



On "Normal" difficulty, some enemy waves spawn as "elite" enemy waves. Which means there are more slightly more enemies in a single wave.


FEATURE CHANGE: More random/variable amount of Ale-Pubs/S-Markets/Chest on level



Previously each level had a fixed amount of these buildings on a level. Now the amount of these buildings vary slightly on each level. So instead of each level having exactly two Ale-Pubs, there might now be three or four and in some cases only one.

On average the amount of these buildings are the same as previously, but there is more variation.

The items you get on a level still gives you extra amount of these buildings as previously.

OTHER UPDATES:




  • [Community Feedback] Show an error dialog if game is launched without Steam running
  • [Community Feedback] Add better support for ultra wide screen aspect ratios
  • Made Secret Underground Construction Bunker pit a bit deeper, so that the top of the constructed buildings doesn't glitch out of the bunker doors
  • Restart a run after game over, instead going back to the main screen


Thanks again for all the support and please give feedback about what you think about the game in its current state!

- jounitus

Regular Update - 0.6.0 - Exploding Enemies, Intro/Outro animations, Crematorium

NEW FEATURE: Enemies now explode to pieces when they die!



This is one of the features I've wanted to add for a long time.


NEW FEATURE: There are now "cinematic" level intro and outro animations



The units now arrive and leave with a bang! This is also one of the features I've wanted to implement for a long time.


NEW FEATURE: Audio and Graphics settings are now locally shared across different builds (demo/playtest/full)



NOTE: If you have made changes to the audio or graphics settings, you likely need to change them again (sorry about that!).

The settings are NOT saved to the Steam cloud (since you might want to have different settings on different devices), but the settings are shared locally on your device/pc across different builds (demo/playtest/full).

Your items/unlocks are still saved to the Steam cloud and are shared across the devices and different builds.


NEW BUILDING/FEATURE: Crematorium / full coffins persist across levels



The full coffins now move/persist across the levels. You can cremate/empty the coffins when you find the Crematorium.

Persisting the full coffins across levels gives a bit more suspense across the levels.

This feature also makes it so that the enemies doesn't need to be as aggressive or bullet-spongy as they would need to be, if all the coffins would "need" to be filled on a single level. This feature also gives extra ways to adjust the difficulty (for example how the the Crematoriums appear).

There are more plans and ideas related to coffins/difficulty etc and hopefully together with this update, all will eventually give a little bit extra "depth" to the game!

I'll keep an eye on if this update makes the game TOO difficult and make adjustments in future updates.


DIFFICULTY RELATED:




  • Enemies now have less health, this should make them feel a bit less bullet -spongy
  • Enemies now move a little faster
  • For projectile shooting enemies, the damage area (the circle) is now double the size
  • Enemies now slightly offset their attacks (so they don't attack straight middle into units)
  • The boss level now has more companion enemy types (not just the small projectile shooting enemy)
  • The boss now has more health and the boss level is now more challenging
  • The boss level now (slowly) spawns indefinitely new enemy waves until the boss is dead


Currently, the "long term" goal is that the new players would reach the explosive part of the game somewhat easily (roughly the middle of the run). But also that the more experienced players would find the game challenging enough, especially at the beginning of the run, currently the beginning of the run is a too easy.

Difficulty adjustments are an on-going process and there will be more updates in the future.

OTHER UPDATES:




  • Add enemy wave countdown timer for levels with timed enemy waves
  • Enemies should now get "stuck" less / be in a state where they completely stop moving
  • [Community Feedback] Speedied up the Esson Baari / Items Slots, so there is less waiting
  • Make it so that Item slots/Esson baari appears after level 5 (there are not too many items to double before that)
  • Add dark background to the cooldown number on the items bar
  • Toned down the eye glare on enemies
  • The "Bomb Throwing Enemy" now has its own mesh/model, previously the enemy shared the mesh with the small projectile shooting enemy
  • Fixed a bug where the enemies would constantly try to move outside of the units attack area
  • Tweaked a bit about how walking enemies move their legs


Thanks again for playing this update, please keep sending feedback!

- jounitus

Regular Update - 0.5.0 - Unit Upgrades, Steam Cloud Sync Support

NEW FEATURE: Unit Tier Upgrades



Each unit type now has three tiers. To upgrade a unit to the next tier, you need TWO units of the same type that has reached certain XP level to combine/merge them into a more powerful unit.

You need to reach "The Podium" to upgrade the units that have reached the upgrade level. Currently, The Podium is on levels 4, 9, 14, and 19 (this might change). The podium may also appear on Secret Underground Construction Bunker.

The new upgrade system has some interesting benefits:


  • Because you combine two units into one, the resulting upgraded unit is more powerful than the two individual units, but takes less space on the ground, so the damage area on the ground is smaller if you upgrade the unit.
  • Now the Unit XP has more meaning, previously the unit XP was just an indicator of how much damage the unit has made
  • Since there is a limited amount of XP available on each level, you can upgrade units faster by having fewer of them. Hiring all possible units from Ale-Pub gives you more power up front, but it makes upgrading the units slower.


Currently, the upgraded units have just a one big damage multiplier, but there is more that could be done with this system in the future.

Please send feedback about what you think about this feature!


NEW FEATURE: Steam Cloud Sync support



Your unlocks and game profile information is now stored and synced with Steam Cloud, so you can play on multiple devices and your unlocks etc should be available on all devices.

Your profile info is now also shared between Demo/Playtest/Full version, so you should be able to seamlessly play different versions of the game. For example now if you play Playtest after Demo, your demo unlocks should be available on the Playtest version too. Also the process going from Playtest to the (upcoming) Full version should go seamlessly.

If you have played versions 0.2.0 - 0.4.0, on the first launch the game automatically moves the old profile/your unlocks to use the Steam Cloud Sync.

NOTE: Settings like screen resolution are still saved on Windows registry, since people might use different settings between devices.

Please report if you experience any bugs or issues with this feature.


NEW FEATURE: Enemy Wave Indicators



Below the large enemy health bar there is now "Enemy Wave Indicators" to show status of a specific enemy wave.

This might make it a bit easier to understand how the game works and how the enemies spawn on level.


NEW FEATURES:



  • Unit upgrades
  • Steam Cloud support
  • Enemy Wave Indicators


NEW BUILDINGS:



  • The Podium (to upgrade units)


DIFFICULTY CHANGES:



  • Tripled boss enemy health from 2000 -> 6000
  • [Community Feedback] Made 10th level easier


GAMEPLAY UPDATES:



  • Increase "Esson Baari" win chances
  • Make boss ring area bigger and make it so that most of the buildings don't appear inside boss ring
  • [Community Feedback] Automatically collect green xp points if they land outside of the boss fight ring

Regular Update - 0.4.0
Changed in 0.4.0:

NEW BUILDINGS:



  • Esson Baari
  • Ground Item Doubler


AUDIO UPDATES:



  • Three NEW audio tracks for levels (no more just the same one track all the time)!
  • Changed "heartbeat" sound to be a beep, moved it to the SFX channel so it's audible even with music slider at zero
  • [Community Feedback] Changed how the audio sounds on low health mode
  • Tweaked sfx volumes
  • Added maximum amount of simultaneous voices for specific effects, to make things more clear
  • Added wind/blizzard sound effect for levels
  • Made it so that some UI elements respond to the "heartbeats" when on low health


GAMEPLAY UPDATES:



  • Made it so that the buildings can not be accessed when there are enemies on screen, to make the gameplay more interesting
  • Added green "open indicator" to the teleport
  • Make it so that item purchases spawn to the ground first
  • Made level 7 a lot easier


FIXES:



  • Fixed a glitch where sometimes a tooltip would popup on screen when closing a dialog

Updated DEMO for "Going Rogue" Steam Festival
Hello!

Few days ago I uploaded a new version of demo (version 0.3.0) for the "Going Rogue" Steam Festival.

Although the game and the playtest has had updates, the demo hasn't had any updates since last October's Steam Next Fest about 6 months ago, so it was nice to get the demo updated finally!

I've been keeping the game "under the wraps" so to speak in terms of marketing, since the Next Fest and I hope that once I start to do more marketing again, people would be happy about the updates and new features the game has had!

The development of the game has gone pretty well and I'm happy that a lot of you have participated in the PLAYTEST, which is a "full version" of the upcoming release of the game. I'm also happy a lot of you have also provided a lot of great feedback!

I've changed the playtest to "limited" mode and my plan is to add more playtesters when there is a new update for the game. Those who have already access to the playtest, can still keep playing it normally!

For now, please have fun with the demo and sign-up for the playtest, if you haven't already!

Thanks for following the journey of ARRIVAL: ZERO EARTH so far!

- jounitus

BIG UPDATE - Playtest #2 available!

Hello all!



The PLAYTEST #2 is now here, it's a big update!

Changes briefly:


  • New enemies
  • New Units
  • Big Graphical Update
  • Unlock/Progression system
  • Updates based on your feedback (thanks!)


I was planning to add more items too, but all the other updates took priority over them.


See the specific list of updates in this post: https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1636130/view/3091162528114980835

Sign up for the playtest here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1613580/ARRIVAL_ZERO_EARTH/


I appreciate everyone playing the game so far and I hope to see you testing this playtest too and giving feedback! Thank you so much!

- jounitus
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