we just release version 0.11.0! Below you will find the changes and we’ll also talk about the rough future roadmap.
New (challenging) content!
The last two weeks we worked on some end game content. We came up with the “challenge” specialization. Instead of having your leader boosted (like in other specializations) you will get debuffs on your way. So which each level up this specialization will get harder. But we also added two new powers, 3 new items and a new legendary weapon which you can unlock there. The mode is unlocked as soon as you complete one of the specializations. We are looking forward to your struggle :)
We also added 6 new powers and one new item in the base pool (can be found in any specialization). We hope this gives you many new possibilities to play.
New structured run flow + many new events
We felt the game flow was a bit unfair sometimes. Sometimes you got events and sometimes you got easy conquer missions. Now we have a fixed structure where three times in a run you have a event selection and two times you select from conquer missions. Conquer missions now also got a lot harder since we spawn mini-bosses which you also have to take care of. Another important change is that we now have over 20 different event cards since we tiered the previous events now.
Help system / Tutorial
Since we really settled most mechanics now we added a help system. In the pause menu you can find a help section but in game you will find little “?”-Buttons. Click on these to get (hopefully) useful information. We’d love to hear your feedback if anything is missing or misleading. We didn’t add a fully fledged tutorial since we think most rogue-lite players don’t really like it. What is your opinion on that?
Other changes
Added new graphics for the max level abilities of survivors
Improved that following leader and regrouping is more important now
Rebalanced survivor leveling experience
Fixed duplicator boss dropping to few medicine
Storepage: New trailer (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4S1xHLLqotQ)
What’s next?
As mentioned at the beginning, we would now like to share our thoughts about our future roadmap.
We are confident that the game is fun at the moment, but here and there sounds are missing and bugs are lurking around. That's what we want to work on.
We've also started working on a daily mode where you can fight for a new high score every day. All players will play under the same conditions and there will be negative and positive modifiers, so the dailies will be unique.
An area where we still see potential is new map settings. This would make maps feel even more varied, but we would also like there to be a difference in gameplay. Examples would be forest or industrial areas.
New content like powers, weapons and items are also still very much on the table, but for now will slow down. We first need to make sure everything up to now is balanced.
When we're going to release, we'd like to add some Achievements and Trading Cards to the game, but we have to be unlocked by STEAM for the latter, so we can't promise anything. Otherwise of course polishing and new languages. We do not have an exact release date yet, but are confident it is not too far into the future.
But as always: Your opinion is important to us.
We’d love to hear your ideas and thoughts about the current state and the future outlook of Deadly Days. Whatever it is just drop us a comment here or join the Discord (https://discord.gg/4KCf5zt).
- Your “Deadly Days” team
Update 0.10.8b - Rebalancings & Feedback
Hi survivors,
today we release version 0.10.8b to you. This patch is a bit smaller than the old ones since we put much effort in the next weeks patch - it’ll be great :) But we also hope you like the changes we made for this patch, see below.
Rebalancing and redesigned items
We did some slight rebalancings, since the game got a bit too easy (especially regarding special power energy etc.).
We also redesigned three items: Gasmask, Fire helmet and the broken teleporter. We felt they were quite weak or even useless in their old state. We won’t spoiler the exact changes, so go find out yourself ;)
Item usage feedback
Sometimes it was a bit hard to tell when an item effect took place exactly. So we added the “Item usage feedback”. For chance based items you’ll see either a short flash of the triggered item or if it is more a mechanical thing you’ll see it in a feedback bar at the top of the screen. We are also considering implementing it for non-chance based items, but we have to test that first. Please tell us your opinion. Is the feedback useful to you?
Better feedback of collected loot
Some patches ago we introduces “New” badges for the inventories. We now complemented these with actual weapons, items and powers which fly towards the respective UI position when you are back in base.
Other changes
Added localization to the unlock screen
Added new design for orbital laser
Rebalanced trashbin item
Fixed that item upgrades would still be equipped, even when taken out of slot
Fixed zombies spawning a bit on the map
Fixed bus not returning to base when character exited house in near range to the truck
Fixed that merchant is available on first day
Fixed hook zombie sometimes pulling survivors over whole map
Fixed missing upgrade description for Blue funnel item
Removed glyph bubble on continue button on game over screen
Adjusted the character portrait UI in the base slightly
As always: Please share your suggestions, balancing feedback and bug reports. Whatever it is just drop us a comment or join the Discord ( https://discord.gg/4KCf5zt ). We’d love to hear your opinion!
- Your “Deadly Days” team
Beta 0.10.7a - New home
Hi survivors,
today we release our first beta patch 0.10.7a (in contrast to previous pre-alphas). This means we’ll also release it publicly in Early Access today. With that we also changed the store description and look. We also added a gameplay trailer; a proper trailer will follow. What do you think about the changed store page for now?
Following are the changes of the new patch.
New main menu
We were not super happy with the “new” main menu we introduced in the last patch. So we made something completely new. We liked it so much, that we also adapted it to some of the STEAM graphics.
Rebalancings
With the improved fighting behaviour (see last patch) we made the game much easier. Therefore we added a new mechanism where the zombies get a lot stronger during night. So don’t stay too long.
Leader follow option
Last week we introduces auto following the leader. In order to give you more flexibility you can now disable this behaviour. You can find a toggle below the leader portrait in the survivor sidebar now.
Flavor texts for items
Maybe some of you saw some of them in the last patch already, but now we finalized flavour texts for all items and special powers. Tell us your opinion!
Several new graphics
We overworked / changed several ingame graphics. This includes:
Rain
Leader badge icon
Event cards (like crafting a weapon etc.)
New stuff in the base
New final day UI
New loot progress UI
New back to base UI
New emotes for survivors
Further changes
Added localization for items
Added custom mouse cursor
Rebalanced some of the powers
Fixed missing zombie kill drops in lower loot levels (especially on last day)
Fixed that special powers don’t deactivate your basic abilities anymore
Fixed missing gore when killing zombies
Fixed cards sometimes overshooting display when “newspaper” item is activated and upgraded
Fixed a bug when a survivor died while entering a lootable house
Adjusted sounds of map freeze
Feel free to share your suggestions, balancing feedback and bug reports. Whatever it is just drop us a comment or join the Discord (https://discord.gg/4KCf5zt). We’d love to hear your opinion!
- Your “Deadly Days” team
Pre-Alpha 0.10.6a - Combat Lessons & New Special Power Icons
Hi survivors,
we are coming closer to the public Early Access Release of the “new” Deadly Days. The alpha branch contains the newest version 0.10.6a which includes the following changes.
Overhauled survivor AI
We made some major changes on the AI. The survivors are now able to fight against zombies on their way to another target. Example: You send your survivors to loot a house. On their way they now shoot zombies the encounter while running. This is useful in all kind of situations.
Furthermore we changed that survivors now ignore survivors when sight checking. This makes the survivors much more efficient when fighting in a group. Since we don’t have friendly fire this is fine.
Survivors now automatically pick up parts and common weapons in their vicinity. Furthermore we added some sort of magnetism, so loot slowly is pulled towards survivors.
We also adjusted the pathfinding of our survivors. They no longer look like drunks when walking around corners.
All this makes the survivors more efficient, competent and autonomous thus we need your feedback regarding balance now.
Thanks to GeoffSmites for the suggestions and ideas!
Changed command structure
In the course of changing the AI we also changed the whole command structure. Basically there is now only one command: Focus. It behaves like the previous “Regroup”, but it stays until you remove it. This allows to defend areas (useful in front of conquer buildings). In combination with the other mentioned AI changes you can really have a devastating squad now :)
Another change in this course is that we added auto-following the leader now. Like this your squad will stick together more. We are considering to add a toggle to enable / disable it thus staying in a group reduces loot a bit. What do you think? Is it needed?
For now we also got rid of the “Focus enemy” command since it was rarely used and you can archive the same effect now with setting the “Focus” on the area of the enemy to focus on.
New graphics!
We finalized the special power and basic ability graphics. Now open the game and find them all ;)
Overhauled powers
We also started polishing some of the powers to be more interesting visually. We changed “Invincibility”, “Speed Boost”, “Crossfire”, “Map Freeze” and the “Orbital Laser”.
Improved inventory UI
We made some tweaks to the inventory UI. We made the inventory more consistent, moved the cancel button and changed the sell all buttons. Furthermore we won’t sort your inventory again when you just want to switch to another character. Also the item and weapon inventory got a little header.
New Main Menu
The main menu got a new design. We’d love to hear your opinion!
Energy orb loot feedback
We added an effect that splashes energy orbs into particles that fly to the respective ui position.
Further changes
Added weapon muzzle flash effect
Improved animation when entering / leaving house
Improved color of anti zombie gas
Changed that lootable houses are now just spawned if there is enough space in front of house
Re-balanced railgun to also target enemies through buildings
Fixed speed boost stacking persistently
Fixed that selected progression path wouldn’t be persisted when you leave game during run
Fixed animations breaking, especially energy orbs in final mission
We are eagerly waiting for your suggestions, balancing feedback and maybe bug reports. Whatever it is just drop us a comment or join the Discord (https://discord.gg/4KCf5zt). We’d love to hear your opinion!
- Your “Deadly Days” team
Pre-Alpha 0.10.5a - Merchant has arrived and upcoming price changes
Hi survivors!
We updated our alpha branch to version 0.10.5a. We once again have many changes you can already try for yourself and we hope the to have the official update ready in a few weeks.
Price changes
With these huge changes to our game in our alpha branch, we are confident that we are delivering a much more fun and engaging experience for you all. We spend much more time than we usually intended (and we love it!). While we will not leave early access in the near future, we will hopefully bring our changes over to the main game in the next few weeks. With that our plan is to increase the price of the game from 4.99 $ to 7.99 $. If you are on the fence about buying this game, now would be a great opportunity.
New event: The Merchant
Now you have a chance to find an event card that lets you visit our merchant. While not really human, it will still offer you great items, powers and weapons. But don't forget your scrap. Everything has its price.
New Weapon Modifiers
We added new modifiers that can be found on rare (purple) weapons. Some are unique to weapon types while others can be found on any weapon. Now you can find melee weapons that heal with every kill, assault rifles with infinite magazines and much more.
Start Equipment
You also now start every game with a power and an item. The item you start will depend on your chosen specialization path. This will make your game feel even more different depending on what you choose.
Map sizes
We redid our size calculations for our maps. They will now offer some more variety while making the difference more consistent. You will be easily able to tell the difference between the sizes now.
New Graphics
We added completely new icons for every available base item at the moment. With that also come some name changes. But now it will be much easier to tell them apart. We also added new graphics for:
All superweapons
Scrap
Lootable house indicator (white banner + smoking chimney)
Power and item pickups
Airplane replaced with a drone
We hope you enjoy these as much as we do.
Other Changes
Added: Popup at the start informs now about early access.
Added: STEAM Cloudsave now compatible with alpha.
Added: Camera bound padding. You can now zoom and move much better at the edges of the map.
Adjusted: Pause screen to fit UI style
Removed: unused tactics from tactic menu
Removed: the ability to return to base one selecting missions.
Fixed: Settings font being blurry
Fixed: toggle for windowed mode not working properly
Fixed: Endboss layering. You can now see them properly
Fixed: Medikits having “Pickup” frames
As always: If you find any bugs or if you have any suggestions, balancing feedback or whatever just drop us a comment or join the Discord (https://discord.gg/4KCf5zt). We’d love to hear your opinion!
- Your “Deadly Days” team
Pre-Alpha 0.10.4a - Meta Progression and Rebalancing
Hi survivors!
Today we present you the newest alpha. Version 0.10.4a. It is a huge milestone for us because it somehow completes the set of systems and mechanics for the public launch of the alpha version of the “new” Deadly Days. (You can already play this version by checking out the STEAM “alpha” branch)
The new Meta Progression System
The “new” Deadly Days is definitely a Rogue-lite now. This means you lose your run progress when you die. HOWEVER you will unlock plenty of cool stuff for your subsequent runs! This includes items, special powers, skins and new weapon types.
How does that work? Basically when you die or win your game is rated in points. These points are converted to experience which will level you up. The trick now is that there are three different specialization paths that you can level up. Currently we named them: Research, scavenge and warfare. If you want to find new heal stuff just play the research path. You need more devastating powers? Take the warfare path. Most of the unlocks you make will be available in subsequent runs of any specialization. BUT there will also be signatures which will also be just available in the specialization you are currently playing.
This signature system also includes a leader system. One of your survivors will be appointed leader. This special survivor will get signature buffs that you unlock along the way leveling up. For example in the warfare path your “leader” will get buffs that increase damage and give you an advantage in fights.
Rebalancing
In the state of the last patch the game was really hard. We like it that way, but it was a bit too much. We rebalanced the spawn amount, damage output, etc. to have a more linear difficulty curve. Furthermore we adjusted the threat levels that are rolled on the first day. Just green missions, yaih! We also improved the weapon drop probabilities. Higher loot levels increase the chance for rare or even legendary weapons.
Improved fighting
We adjusted the survivor AI slightly so that the movement around the enemies is reduced. The saved time is invested in shooting lethal bullets. This makes the survivors much more effective in fighting.
New event card
We added a “Training” event card. Play it and all of your characters will be leveled up. Including the refreshing effect of full health!
We also fixed some smaller bugs (and probably introduced some new ;)). If you find any or if you have any suggestions, balancing feedback or whatever just drop us a comment or join the Discord (https://discord.gg/4KCf5zt). We’d love to hear your opinion!
- Your “Deadly Days” team
[Update 3] Pre-Alpha of the "new" Deadly Days!
Dear survivors,
there's something for all brave adventurers today. As you may have noticed, we've been working on a completely new version of "Deadly Days" for a long time.
We think the latest version (Pre-Alpha) is now playable, many new mechanics are included and filled with content. If you dare, switch to the "alpha" branch in the Steam Client.
We ask you to send us your ideas, suggestions and of course bug reports (in the comments or in Discord (https://discord.gg/4KCf5zt)). The game will have bugs, maybe even many. Also many graphics are still missing or old and the content is of course not complete. But we think that some of you might have some fun anyway!
Oh, one more important point: There is no tutorial yet! Therefore possibly a few hints. Otherwise if you have questions, we are there for you on Discord (https://discord.gg/4KCf5zt).
Here the hints:
- If you are on a mission, return to the base by HOLDING the green "Recall to truck" button on the truck
- You can loot the houses above which a treasure chest is displayed (just click on the front of the house, then a survivor will run there).
- There is a crate on every map, you can loot it by clicking on it (like houses).
- In the base you can see on the left side "Special Powers", which you can find in the game (red beam)
- In the base you can see the slots for your items at the bottom of the screen. These replace and extend the upgrades of the old version. Items can be found in the game (green ray)
- On the right side you can see your survivors. Click on one of them and you can assign new weapons to them if you have found any. But you have to repair the weapons first!
Just to be sure it is heard we'll repeat it: Please be aware it is Pre-Alpha, it will be buggy, it is not complete, but it should be fun!
UPDATE3 0.10.3a2 [05. October]
Another week, another patch. This time just minor changes, since we are working on the meta progression system. Here are the changes of version 0.10.3a2:
- Added feedback when abilites or special powers don't have enough energy to be used
- Added feedback when special power was activated
- Added highscore button to game over screen
- Improved UI in base so you can close the inventories when clicking somewhere in the base
- Changed text color on brown weapon comparison bubble
- Fixed a bug where you couldn't use abilites near the edge of the screen
- Fixed fire helmet item not working as intended
- Several small bug fixes
UPDATE2 0.10.3a [28. September]
We just released another update (v0.10.3a), now available on the"alpha" branch. Changelog:
- Added conquer missions (map with a large building where you can expect very good loot)
- Added some first events [example clean the base] (not final, especially graphics)
- Added reload sounds and visualization
- Changed special powers to be activated immediately now (you don't have to click on the screen again)
- Added cemetery to base
- Added new map border visualization (black foggy thing now)
- Alive survivors will be shown in victory screen
- Improved performance on final wave
UPDATE1 0.10.2a [24. September]
We just released a little update (v0.10.2a), now available on the"alpha" branch. Changelog:
- Added modifier system for mission cards (we'll add more content for that in the future)
- Added loot notifications
- Added display for required energy to special powers
- Added red timer when in night
- Some rebalancings of level up skills
- Rebalanced map sizes
- Some UI adjustments
- Fixed bug where game over wouldn't be detected correctly
- Fixed bug where characters could get stuck when returning to truck
- Fixed bug where run rating points would be way to high after several runs
- Fixed bug where scrap wouldn't be reset on new run
- Fixed bug where freeze strike could permanently freeze the zombies
- Some minor fixes
Let's go!
- Your Deadly Days Team
Campfire stories: Make weapons great again
Hi survivors,
today another dev story at the campfire. In the process of changing the game significantly (see our other posts) we are also changing the weapon system. Today we want to explain how this system will look in the future, but let’s start with what was wrong in the previous system.
What was wrong in the previous system?
In the previous system a weapon drop was a normal ability and weapons were destroyed after the clip was empty. What the player normally did was spamming huge amounts at the beginning of a day around the map so characters can easily pick up new weapons. Since we think abilities should be something that you can use often with fun during the game the weapon drops are misrepresented as normal abilities.
Another problem was the progression of weapons. When you upgraded the weapon crate you unlocked new weapon types and later on stronger versions of these weapons. But you could never have a sniper quite at the beginning, since it was a linear upgrade path.
How does the new system work?
We explicitly shifted the weapon stuff in front of sending your survivors to the city. So you equip your survivors individually with a chosen weapon prior to that. But where do weapons come from? You find them while looting the city or in special events and can assign them to your survivors in the next night. But prior to equipping new weapons you have to “repair” them. And now comes the interesting part.
Different weapon rarities and modifiers
Weapons can be found in different rarities, e.g. a pistol can be found in “common”, “enhanced” and “rare” versions. The rarity determines how many modifiers will be applied to these weapons. What is a modifier? It can be as simple as boosting the damage stat. It could also be a rare effect modification that gives your weapon some special ability, like instantly reloading as soon as the survivor killed someone or piercing enemies with your bullets. These modifiers are rolled (chosen) randomly as soon as you “repair” a weapon. There might also appear occasions where you can re-roll weapons in an special event.
Here you can see how the UI for equipping and repairing weapons works:
Comparing weapons looks like the following:
What is coming next?
In the next posts we’ll talk about:
New ability and special power system
New item system (which replaces base upgrades)
Map generation and selection
We still don’t have an ETA for the big update yet, but we are eagerly working on it!
We’d love to hear your feedback to our plans. Feel free to leave us a comment or join our Discord and discuss with us: https://discord.gg/4KCf5zt
- Your Deadly Days Team
Campfire stories: The "new" Deadly Days
Hi survivors,
we just wanted to share with you some details of the ongoing development process of “Deadly Days”. We know the last patch has been a while but like mentioned in the last “Campfire stories” its due to major changes. What does that mean? There are so many changes that you could name it “Deadly Days 2” (but we won’t ;) ).
We were quite vague about the specific changes last time since we were evaluating several approaches, but today we want to tell you more more about concrete plans.
Goals and progression
One real issue we had with the “old” Deadly Days is the endgame and goal orientation. You are hunting for parts but when you get close to having upgraded everything you lose orientation what to do.
Our new approach is going much closer to the Rogue-lite genre. The game will be divided in runs. Each run will force you to start from zero (so no more persistent upgrades). Each run consists of a fix amount of days (we are considering something between 14 and 30 days). During these days you scavenge different maps for loot and scrap to prepare yourself for what is to come. When these days are over you are faced with a final fight (huge zombie wave, dedicated bosses, etc.) - if you win this fight your run is won. Whenever your game is over (won or not) your whole run will be rated and you will be awarded with some sort of points (of course more if you won the run). Based on these points you will unlock new loot which can be dropped in all the next runs.
The new approach is drastic but offers much more replayability and stuff to discover and learn.
Unlockable loot
So what is this loot we mentioned in the previous section? Loot can be special powers (previously known as special abilities which you found in crates [e.g. Map Freeze]) and items. Items are the stuff that you upgrade your base with. After every day you return to your base which is no longer contained in the map (you will travel around with a bus). Your base will have equipment slots and you assign items to them. You will start with about 3 slots and you will be able to unlock more slots with scrap. But you will have to make decisions which items you want to use since the slots are limited. Each item can also be upgraded once, which also costs scrap.
Let’s make an example. During scavenging you find a new item called “Freezer”. When you get back to your base you can put this “Freezer” into one free equipment slot. This item unlocks the “Freeze Airstrike” (airstrike which freezes enemies). For some scrap you can even upgrade this “Freezer” item. The upgraded freeze airstrike not only freezes enemies but also deals damage. During the next days you will find more items and you will have to decide if you spend your scrap for new slots or for upgrading your items.
This system makes the game replayablesince the drops are random and you have to play with the loot (powers,weapons and items) you get and adapt your strategy accordingly. This means every run will be completely different and exciting.
Where to find loot?
Like previously you still find scrap on the maps. The special loot you will find in all new crates. These crates need to be opened on the map itself and will take some time. But if you manage to open it, you are guaranteed at least something cool. There will even be other opportunities like merchants and traders. More infos on that in a later post. But these changes mean our old crate system will be completely replaced. We still think this is the right move, the new system integrates more smoothly into our core game experiences and there is less clutter to manage between rounds.
Random map generation V2
Like mentioned in the last post we are working on a random map generation. However in the course of development we had to scrap our old random map gen approach and replaced it with a new one. The old one was way too “random” and didn’t yield enough lovely detail. We did implement a new approach which is based on hand designed tiles which are put together. This did cost some time but we are happy that we did it, because the results are much better now.
Upcoming
This post is one of many posts that will inform you about the “Deadly Days” evolution. In the next posts we’ll share details about:
the new special power and completely new energy system
the new random weapon system
choosing different maps and events
The first update will be released in the not too distant future (no exact ETA yet), which will already bring many of these changes.
We’d love to hear your feedback to our plans. Feel free to leave us a comment or join our Discord and discuss with us: https://discord.gg/4KCf5zt
- Your Deadly Days Team
Day 8: Keep your eyes open! (Update 0.9.12)
Hi survivors,
today we release the 8th patch for Deadly Days. This patch is some sort of milestone since it will be the last patch before the beginning of the upcoming major changes (see here). So here is what we changed in version 0.9.12.
GORE
This is not the most important change but the most eye catching one - so we put it on top of the change list :D See for yourselves
No more ability tokens
We thought we’d give the game more strategic depth by making players buy different tokens in the night (airstrike, healing and weapons). But in the end our observations revealed that it doesn’t have the desired impact. With this patch we completely got rid of those basic tokens and now abilities are directly consuming scrap. The night mode now is a place to rest, activate special tasks, open your crates and maybe get some reserve survivors for your next day.
Improved special zombies
Deadly Days has many different zombie types. In this patch we wanted to increase the impact and differentiation of the various types. We did the following adjustments:
The Marathon Zombie now runs slower, but when it gets close to a survivor he will start running really fast.
The emitted gas cloud of the Gas Zombie now poisons your survivors instead of continually applying damage to survivors inside. The poison lasts until you heal them or night arrives.
Furthermore we are introducing a new zombie type: The Freeze Zombie. It can get quite dangerous for you by dying in an explosion, freezing everyone caught in the blast. It also has an aura which slows down survivors in the vicinity.
Improved AI of survivors
We received quite many complaints about the survivor AI. We condensed the feedback down to reactiveness in the near surroundings. Now survivors are continuously scanning and checking their near surrounding and check if there is something more important to do, e.g. picking up a medikit, weapon or killing a nearby zombie which comes too close. Furthermore we fixed a big problem with shooting, where characters would shoot the edges of obstacles. We now take the bullet size into account when checking for line of sight, which fixes this problem.
Upgraded to Unity 2018.1
This is nothing visible to you, but important to us since it will allow to utilize multi core CPUs better in the future. We hope this will enable much more zombies in the future. For now we've got some small performance improvements and some optimized programming language features :)
Other changes
Balancing: Weapons now have doubled ammunition (but also cost more). Your decision which weapon to provide should have more of an impact now.
Fixed: Memory leak when using airstrikes.
Fixed: Survivors targeting far away enemies if using “Enemy Focus”.
Fixed: Wrong localization for last special task tutorial.
Fixed: Main Menu zombies' walking direction and order.
Fixed: Double language entries in the language selection drop down.
Thanks to everyone who gave feedback and makes this game possible. Any constructive comment and STEAM review you leave us is really helpful! Feel free to tell us what you think about the newest changes. Feel free to join our Discord Server: https://discord.gg/4KCf5zt
