Welcome to February, over the last month many changes have been made as well as an additional new map has been added.
With this years major update, I added round based gameplay, as well as 4 additional free maps for you all to play. This month I will be introducing PIT 2. The map was originally planned for DEAD 2, but for those who read our last announcement, all of those features that were planned for that were instead added to this game to continue adding to it rather than making a sequel that could be avoided. The map was originally meant to show off the art direction while I worked out other core features. .
Below, you will see the new maps layout:
The map around the same size as INTRODUX, or HEDGE but more compact, and honestly a more personal favorite than those two. Currently, LAB is my favorite.
If you've read this far, give the post a like :)
Aside from the new map, I also have a few changes, fixes, and additions to the game that you will notice: (Fun note, this list is basically what is added in it's order) *Pit 2 has been added for DEAD+ players. *The Layout of the Score, and Rounds GUI has been changed . *I added a number for remaining enemies for quality of life after requested. *Main menu changes *Weapon Upgrade Station now displays the number before interactions. Weird bug ig. *Layout of death screen has been changed. *Show Buy Text option is properly working again but because there is no literal item text anymore I may change the name. *The Quads starting rounds now play a little faster. *Spawn Rates changed in all levels. *Added new type of barrel that functions as a timer. *Changed the builds uploaded on Steam BETAs for the 2020 Timeline. *Added Super Computer option to the game. This makes all effects permanent. *Introduxes first puzzle now has a better indicator as to what may happen. *Added basic ambient occlusion. *3 New level buttons on the main menu, which enabled vertical menu movement instead of just horizontal. 2 of those levels are coming soon. *The price of the Machine Gun, Shotgun, and Rocket Launcher have been changed. *Fixed random spawn noise issue. *Spitter Enemy is now fully paused on pause, this enemy has caused so much trouble haha. *Updated 3 Store page assets. May revert one of them. *Fixed some enemies not doing damage sometimes. *Fixed some problems block door buys not displaying when 3D is turned off. *Changed the Iteration Sprite. *Changed the Health bar to be sprite based. *Added bomber introduction noise *Various object overlapping issues have been fixed. *Rounds properly end at the desired kill amount. *Bullet location creation has been changed. *Fixed stupid main menu bugs. *Options menu controllers specific rather than universal now. *Changing the overall volume of the game is now in the options menu with updates to come. *Steam Cloud is added. *After watching gameplay from a co-op user I also noticed how horrendous 3D looked to another player besides 1 so I have updated this. Doing this also had a positive effect on the viability of the UI. *Introdux has a new fun surprise. *You can now get rid of the absorber.
Beyond this update
The plan now is to spend February adding a series of quality of life features, and make some larger changes to all of the maps, even pit 2. This includes changing the way enemies will spawn, and adding better lighting to each map.
Everything I have planned for Marches update will make the game 10x better. While the 2024 overhaul update did introduce a lot of very good changes, it also showed me there are some things I really need to fix/change and I should spend the time to do it. The next announcement will outline the march update but know it will feel so much better to play.
With Marches update, also expect DEAD+ (The games expansion) to be reintroduced.
The effects of that update may go up earlier than the post*
Coming Sooner Than Later
There is a slew of quality of life stuff I would like to add into the game, some you may have seen on the last post but this has more description: *Adding a splash screen would to remind players they can use a controller would be great, I have no idea how many people realize they can, it would probably be helpful. *Adding a welcome logo past this would be great to add less of a sudden opening of the game. It does in fact add more immersion. *Adding a Censorship/Graphic Content Warning Enable/Disable on the first initial start. This is important to people who simply never want to see it, or even have options for it. You either never want to see it, or you want options to toggle specific settings. *More Options: Keybindings, Graphic Content Bool, and Auto reloading I would like to add as options, auto reloading would be cool, it may even change the gameplay but I would need to check it out. *With keybindings would also add a new item, the grenade as well as other explosives. I just need to get around to adding that feature. The explosives are easy to make happen as well as already in the game. *I am working on a better health indicator, but it is a bit of a challenge. The game is pixel art, I have made two attempts now at a blood outline for when you get hurt but I can't get it right. It would also have a heavy heart beat with more hits. I have other ideas too, but it's still not an easy task. That, and it would take me a few hours to actually complete for a third time. *Adding better visibility for enemies is also on my mind, I have tried a few things to do this from adding the original colors and looks back, to upgrading the overall look of the game but I am still not sure what else I can do. I even added a glow at one point in testing but it was ugly. Another option is make the colors more intense. with a sort of color only mode just as an option. *This update I added ambient occlusion to make the non-3D gameplay look a lot better, and the 3D look slightly more clear. I need to upgrade it to be less buggy then the next step would be, as I mentioned earlier in this post, is adding lighting and what better way to do that than with a map or two demonstrating light. *Something else I wanted to add into the game is being able to select who exactly you are, a "Who are you" character selection screen. I have different characters you already play in the game and you will randomly change to different people per level but if you were actually allowed to choose what you want to look like that might be nice. In a different version of this game I added at least 30 skins, but maybe like 100. This may be an exaggerations but they were all well thought out as well as fun to make. *Adding a control setup screen is what a fan of mine "Flaming Potato" said may be a good idea, but this was in terms of a bug that was occurring as of a recent update where a keyboard would control all players. What I need to do is incorporate a controller timeout system. There currently is a "Control Disconnect" display as required by Steam but having the game timeout, save/leave, etc. might add a lot more to the game. This would obviously get rid of the initial start controller reminder and start levels sooner. *Speaking of the split screen, rarely do I get sent footage of people playing or clips from YouTube but one person did do this showing me such gameplay. I may add a border to the split screen as it is may be potentially hard to see the game. I could also make this an option. *There are 2 new enemies I have had on my mind including inspiration from the fire dogs/hellhounds from Call of Duty Zombies. My change to the spitter replicates a little bit of this ideology. The other idea referenced an enemy from Dark Souls, and then now I am thinking of something of bio-shock. * I still have to get new store art into the game, but I have replaced a few panels and headers. Adding the trailer will be more annoying and tedious as the current one is simply me playing a way earlier build and it isn't the greatest despite having so many people look at it. *More buy stations will be added. The goal of this game is to reward long term gameplay. It is definitely a fun challenge. *The Quad is expect to get an update to have it so it has an acitivty going on. My current thought is blocking off the last area once entering a new, and then once you "turn on the power" a robot or something rams through these older area blockades. I was also thinking of going some more magical route. *Speaking of magic, I was thinking about having zombies lighting into the map as a sort of spawn effect, that and many other types of radial spawning. *Lab is expected to expand dramatically. *Another thing I am exploring is having enemies come from outside the map rather than only within the map. It would change gameplay a bit, and have it more similar to cod zombies but I don't totally like their system either.
And then I have also been looking into *Weapon Modding *More power pickups.
Someoe mentioned to me that they don't actually know if I want feedback or not, and that they feel bad/socially akward about saying anything in the discussions/these posts. I welcome all feedback, especially if there is a bug. I need to fix those, and I like making sure glaring issues are resolved.
For transparency, this is my current todo list: ToDo Finish Pit2 Make sure all level information for the levels are accurate for Pit2 Add Ambient Noise to Pit2, and other maps Camera System Camera Borders Zoom in, Slow the players down. Lab Multiple Areas, Teleportation from the middle to other areas with timers to re-teleport. Do a pass over each round based level Healing downed friends (Flaming Potato) *Reviving and Helper Bots Unlocking Horde Levels? Confirm Controller Fix player specific hurt sounds Perks: Anti-Explosion Bubble, Power Pickups: They need to have a more unique sound Enemies need to have a unique death sprite. Music should have different occurrences when different enemy types show up as a track layer. Spitter should be bigger or more obvious, slower, and have a grease trail move the spawner code over to the main controller to update faster and change the spawn rates to increase steadily. Apparently we need more variety We also need teaser gameplay for more stuff a round. Maybe spawning barrels? Valentines Day thing (steam play together) new explosive imagry. slime based enemy > puddle reintroduce runner enemy. map effeccts and art per map
Round based spaawning, coming from floor spawn areas that also have wall spawns, as well as other safer but tighter areas with only wall spawns. Wall spawns can be blocked off. arcade shouldnt have multipliers?
Fix The layering of the ammo and such because now it's hard to look at other things.
ui is above the enemies making it slightly hard to see.
January 2024 | Major Gameplay Overhaul
This is the final overhaul of the game. It brings many changes, additions, and fixes.
Over the last few months there has been an update once a month to fix, change, and generally remaster a game that I have had on my mind for the last 4 years. Over those last 4 years, the world has changed dramatically, and with it my life and trajectory.
A lot of my time with the game has been escapism from my actual life. From people who I would think to trust being worthless petty people, to my world view shifting, being overwhelmed by things I have no control over, and dealing with the consequences of being alive in the life I live growing up around people I happened to. It's been a mess, and this project, and some others, have been my distraction.
During development I have been in and out of the military, moved to the opposite side of the country from where I used to live, met many people, been in and out of school, dealt with death threats, moved a few times within the area I live now and plan to leave soon, and have generally just dealt with a lot of nonsense.
I have sat on this game, released a few builds a month in some periods, sometimes dozens, while other periods nothing has come for a month or two because I have a life outside of the internet. Sometimes I was given help, but 99 percent of everything in this game is all me. I've spent a lot of time with this project. I am moving on, at least for the most part.
There will be updates past this point, but mainly focused on fixing anything that I broke by accident, or bugs that are found. A map may come out once a month, or maybe never again. I do plan to add more options. Mainly censorship options, visual options, and more accessibility features but again I am only one dude. There may be more music, I am unsure.
Future wise, I will be working on a VR title. It is the project I have been meaning to make for a while, it'll probably disrupt the way people see VR as a whole and the potential for it. I have to redo the design document (which will not take too long but I will be putting time into) and then start the development. I will be using a new engine on top of that meaning learning a whole new world of development. 3D is a lot easier than 2D. 2D I had to make each asset, animation, and move the UI pixel by pixel in weird but creative ways. 3D is just collisions. 2D is just collisions, but in a very different, more annoying way.
The reason DEAD 2 never came out is that I put everything I was going to put into DEAD 2 into this game instead with the recent updates. Why make a new game when you can fix, or upgrade what was already there? Very much a Valve approach. The only thing left to do is to add the map 'Pit' which you can find in the "Betas" section under the games properties tab in Steam.
DEAD+ will be either totally removed at some point, or be turned into a map pack similar to older call of duty titles as well as include a downloadable version of the soundtrack. Totally removing is not my objective, people bought it and I want to improve it.
This update took about 120 hours of my time, and 40 hours of play time maybe more. It's a soft estimate. This was all in December.
Thanks to my girlfriend for always being there to test my games, and give me feedback.
Anyways, here is all the stuff I did for this final revamp update (give or take):
Updates/Additions: *Added Various Beta Channels so players can play each version of the game that has been released. (This maybe changed to find better builds) *Leaderboard now shows your score, friends scores, and top 30 score instead of just top 30. *Weapon Reloading, Sounds, Additions, and Upgrades. *Hundreds of Sounds. *Entire game Visual Overhaul. *4 Round-Based Levels, with more to come. *New Enemies. *New Blood Interactions. *Better collisions.
Fixes/Tweaks/Optimizations/Changes *Steam SDK Version Change. *Level images being too big and invisible, so you would select all levels at once in some instances. *Hedge spawns changed due to problems. Hedges now lighter. Hedge still sucks as a level. *Main Menu track. *Game Breaking kill 500. *Bombers and Big Boys not pausing. *"Start Game" Text. *Teleport hover messing up GUI layer. *Changes to Steam Store descriptions and summary. *Clearer Magnet Visual. *Bullet, and Money Icon. *Buy Station Images *What you buy and prices. *removed the throwing knife. *Changed weapon upgrades from being terrible, and/or not working. *Fixed some wall collisions. *Removed SPD "upgrade" because it was way too game breaking. *Changed hard-save data to local instead of app. *Steam Overlay being horrible. *Changed collision distances. *Cleaned up the FONT! *Better Controller Support. *controller lock-on option for people who do not want to aim because it is difficult. *Removed a few hundred lines of not needed code/made stuff more efficient because I know more now.
Stuff that will come sooner than later, probably the next post: *More Steam support (Cloud, etc.) *Some other stuff I do not want to promise but will do in due time. *Proper ambient music for the 4 round based levels. Right now it is silence, which means fart noises. *PIT as level 5 for round based gameplay. *More options: Keybindings, Sensitive Content Warning Disable/Enable, Auto reload (idk if i want to). *Weapon Modding *1 New Enemy *Grenade reintroduction (requires keybinding update) *More power pickups. *Start Splash screens for Quality of life reasons. *Probably one more achievement, as well as more achievements per map. *New trailer, and Steam Store art (this is super annoying and tedious so if anyone wants to help hmu lol)
Special Thanks to Flaming Potato, and Trash for helping report a few glaring bugs.
Also, just as a note, this update has been out since the 29th or something... from then till now has been constant updating to make sure it was all proper before it was announced.
December 2023 | DEAD Revamp Part 3
This is part 3 of the final overhaul of the game. This is part 3 of 4 (3/4).
In this update I focused on changing the sprites to be clearer by changing the colors, or updating assets that were literally from my "I made this in a month" build.
Here is the change log listed out: Updates/Changes: - All level selection images. - The hit box of every enemy to feel better. - Bullets look, feel, and speed for each weapon. (Feels better, still arcadey). - Player looks a lot more visually appealing (changed the body, and skin colors) - Various level backgrounds to make the player/enemies look a little clearer (I can only do so much without just re-doing all the art (though a lot of it ended up getting recolored) - Recolored a lot of Assets.... - The weapon holding sprites are a little different. - Walking Sound Effect - Default Gunshot Sound Effect - Music On/Off option - X, not > for exit. - Reorganized all folder structures for open-source release. - Redid all item common item sprites, and buy station sprites. - "Hedge" level and leaderboard.
Tweaks/Bug Fixes: - Pausing properly pauses all enemies. Sorry this was not there before, I basically never pause the game, and only recently added the proper options menu. - Fixed Studio Start-up Crash - Removed a lot of redundant code/old images/old objects to prepare for open-source publish. - Tweaked startup screen button colors/text - Seeing despawn. - Hearing despawn. - Random Player2-4 deaths on some maps causing loud bit noise. - Audio Mixing for Music - Resized all Buy Text - Correct Levels sometimes showing incorrect leaderboard
Future Information as of 11/29/2023 1amish Realistically, DEAD 2 will be great and I am not worried about that.
I am currently spending 3-4 hours a day when I have the time/will to actually work on this. I usually listen to PKA, but this time I was listening to "The Making of an Internet Monster" by Art, or TheGamerFromMars. I've never really looked into Chris Chan aside form know of him and various happenings by him for the last 7 years.
I am enjoying revamping DEAD 1 for the final update and I did a lot in the last few days like re doing all of the coloring to be a lot clearer. I wonder how people will react, if at all. I know this game isn't anything huge but to me: finishing what you have started matters. Quitting when you could do better is what losers do, but knowing when you should move on is important. Sunk Cost Fallacy is very real in the world we live in.
Luckily, I do not make money off this game and enjoy spending my time making this and many other games. Over the last 4 years, my life has been very much a learning experience, but it has also been incredibly depressing in terms of my personal life and past as well as how I have been personally treated by people I thought close, including friends and family members. Treat people well, or have them out of your life.
It is such a pain in the ass to make maps for this game, a very big reason why I am moving onto DEAD 2, that, and having new AI. Part of me (like right now) thinks I should keep DEAD as a singular game and have maps in different categories considering how much this game has evolved on it's own over the years but I am not sure that makes any sense long-term when I could realistically just remake any fan favorites from this game but in a new format.
Call of Duty, and everyone involved are lazy, and have no work ethic. It is not hard to design things, it's actually incredibly easy. It's also easy to make maps, tweak weapons, change IDs, edit anything in your game in general. Those impressed with the very tiny are the reason we have bad games where people are impressed by audio bouncing off walls when if I wanted to have a gritty experience I could very easily have enemy a.i. detect you based off of sound alone and it would take me (took me) about 2 hours to do. "Oh but George, you aren't making Call of Duty!!" it's the same principles, design does not change at it's core, it's not hard to know what is fun, it's not hard to listen to your community, it's not hard to change the price of your 15 year old game, it's not hard to tweak some weapons, it's not hard to add new weapon skins, it's not hard to keep the game not an anime/rapper/invislbe skin fest. It's purely bad management, and bad design.
I fully plan to release this as an open-source thing people can dig through. This is one of the only GameMaker Studio 1, GameMaker Studio 2, and GameMaker Studio 2.3 games that has been not only released on Steam, but consistently updated over a period of many years. I hope that the open source of this project will help people learn the engine if that's what they want to do, or help them in them see what to/not to do for their own projects. Maybe someone will learn something, maybe it'll be universally hated.. at least I tried.
NOVEMBER 2023 | DEAD REVAMP PART 2
This is part 2 of the revamp. there are 2 more parts.
Below is the list of all additions, updates, and changes made to my game DEAD in the past couple of days.
Updates - Changed Path finding for all Enemies as well as their speeds. l. - Level Selection Screen Overhaul 5: There kept being stuff wrong, so I redid it again. - Options Automatically Save to whatever you set them to, and Load Automatically. - Cat Launcher, Aura Bow, Slow Gun, and Ric Gun no longer suck. - Music: Readded Main Menu Music, Changed Ash Level tracks
Minor Tweaks/Bug Fixes - Updated Steam Version - Added "Top 30" text to steam leaderboard. - Redid a lot of code. - Tweaked Location of Bullet Creation (If a zombie is right next to you, it'll actually hit it now). - Fixed Steam Screenshots not working (nobody cared but still) - Options Text was bad, now it's not. (Visually and Alphabetically)
Added Bugs: - Going to the main menu and clicking on a level after already having been in a level will let you instantly click the desired level instead of being able to click to see the map/stats beforehand.
Future Information as of 11/18/2023 Over the next 3 months there will be updates until the steam together event. After that, only bugs will be fixed/looked at. Why? DEAD 2 needs focus. We recently redid the A.I. for DEAD 2 (redoing it for DEAD 1 would break all of the maps to the point of having the game unplayable so we just have to move on).
What I plan to do over the next 3 months is add 2 more maps, maybe more but promising 2 (Hedge, and one other) for free. While more fixes/changes, and overall balancing will go through the game. The leaderboard will not ever be wiped besides removing cheats but the common man can easily see who faked it, and who made it. Revamp 3 will come in December and will include Hedge, as well as update, or redo a few maps (redos do not replace a map, it just adds more maps (think box expanded)).
DEAD 2 will be 100x better as any good sequel would be. The reason it didn't come out last year is because I made it, and then I lost the file (no idea how, blame ADHD and life). It's a lot better than it was anyways but I lost a lot of progress including a lot of art. It would have come out October 15th 2022. You can still play that version of the DEAD 2 under this games Beta Tab under properties via Steam.
2023 Revamp
I have updated the game today, I also plan to go over a few things:
In the last 3 months this is everything changed including stuff changed today: -Main Menu Redone: Leaderboards working properly, navigation working well -Escape Menu Fixed: -Enemy Spawning Tweaked for slower fast-paced gameplay (more tweaks to come with feedback) -Costs reajusted and prices fixed -Enemy Drops Changed -Enemy spawnrates changed -Explosive enemy explosive properly exploding visual
These may seem like stuff that should've been fixed and now they are.
DEAD2023 Revamp
Changelog: -Proper Pausing (Sorry, I didn't have this before) -Revamped Main Menus (Works way better, if you can about the original, change the game version) -Updated Performance.
Quick How-To/Announcement
Blood
2 Months Later
A few things to keep the people updated for those interested:
The Sandbox game is going strong, we switched back to our primary engine simply so we can get things done faster, * Our multiplayer system can hold any amount of players we desire up to 100,000 (basically overkill and unneeded but good to have). * Animations look dope and I am proud of what I have done.
Currently we are building the Inventory system, the building system, and we have just finished up our first pass on a new path finding system that updates automatically with blocks broken. (the ai is 100x harder to break compared to DEAD).
The next thing to do with the A.I is make it more... dynamic? Cooler.
Expect something by April.. probably a private test build and a steam/epic store page.
What's coming in 2023
in 2019 I started work on an idea for a game that revolved around digging and mining underground with your friends. That turned into me writing a 30 page binder in study hall in my highschool about an infinite and dangerous labyrinth where people are sent to die/live out their days.
Well that game faded away and it never got done.
It always stuck in the back of my mind. In fact it got far enough along that it basically had everything but multiplayer so I ended up turning all of those assets into a singleplayer introduction to an idea of what I wanted. Basically a an advanced prototype -
Published Here: https://gamejolt.com/games/gigastructure/506534
- and I left it alone.
I came back to a few projects and even made a post about my history in failures a few months ago.
Now, I am finally coming back to it, from scratch, and with a set time and plan in mind (working with a programmer that is making sure we get this done as well).
The plan for the game is to release it into a private alpha on Steam.
(to get updates and private keys you would need to join us in our discord I just opened https://discord.gg/VHpGTB4MZ6 )
We will have a build out within the next 2 months there. More posts should be made about it.
To be perfectly clear. We have the multiplayer framework and a lot of basic needs done. Now we are on to core functions like a newly designed inventory (almost complete) that should give you more player freedom than seen in any game ever besides maybe Project Zomboid or Dwarf Fortress. We will then move onto our crafting/building system (building is done but we need to advance the system), and then AI. All while that is happening art is being made as well as our future plans.
