Genre: Real Time Strategy (RTS), Simulator, Strategy, Indie
Infection Free Zone
Pre-Alpha Demo - Final Round!
Greetings, Survivors!
Today we have a nice portion of good news! Lately, we have received a lot of requests about re-releasing the demo for Infection Free Zone. A lot of players have learned about the game after the Steam Next Fest in February and have regretted not having a chance to play the game. We got you covered - the Demo for Infection Free Zone is available again!
Pre-Alpha Demo
The Pre-Alpha Demo, the very same that was available in February, will be available to you starting today. If you haven't had a chance to play the game yet, now is the perfect time!
Important! After finishing your game, please complete (or edit) the survey for us. We have added an additional question about the features that you are missing the most in Infection Free Zone. We would like you to answer this question honestly as this will help us to reevaluate the priorities for the game.
New Demo - July 2023
Are you already familiar with this demo for Infection Free Zone and craving for more? We have good news for you as well! A new Alpha Demo build is coming your way in the last week of July, during the Games Operators Publisher Sale. You will see several new features in the game - vehicles, gates, bandits - only to name a few. We can't wait to share it with you!
Best regards, Jutsu Games Team
Migrants and Raiders - Behind the Scenes #8
Greetings, Survivors!
During the Steam Next Fest, we have seen a lot of questions about other survivors. Are we going to meet them out there in the world? is there going to be an army out there? Are we going to fight against other humans? The short answer is - yes, you will.
Migrants
It is difficult to predict what may happen to a person in a post-apocalyptic scenario. People can form groups and communities or try to live alone. Build zones and establish hierarchies or prey on the weak.
During gameplay, we will encounter survivors hoping to join our Zone. Early into the game, so-called Migrants are going to be our main source of new citizens.
Raiders
Not only the infected will be a problem during our expansion, but also other, hostile survivors. From the technical perspective, raiders are very similar to our own squads. While infected are going to fight us in the melee range, other survivors can use pistols, rifles, and other weapons.
Few important things to remember:
Unknown survivor groups out in the world will have yellow icons. Mind you, those very same groups can turn red and hostile in a blink of an eye. Always proceed with caution.
While player-based squads can consist of up to 4 survivors, this limit doesn't exist for groups of raiders. Those bandits will sometimes form bigger groups visible under one icon.
Hordes can be spotted mainly during the night. It's the opposite for Raiders, with whom we are going to fight mainly during the day.
Groups of raiders can leave some loot behind them, making them not only a danger but also valuable prey.
Spotting a group of raiders out in the wild might suggest that there is a bandit hideout nearby. Take your strongest squads and pillage the place in order to obtain the resources.
It might be also important to notice that hordes of infected and the raiders are not allied in any way. So there's a huge chance that you will encounter those two groups fighting against each other at some point. Feel free to use it to your advantage.
Video
Check the possible interactions with the migrants and raiders in the video below.
Best regards, Jutsu Games Team
Gates and Walls - Behind the Scenes #7
Greetings, Survivors!
According to Maslow's hierarchy of needs, the two most basic groups of needs for human beings are physiological needs and safety needs. Especially in the post-apocalyptic world, where the infection has taken over the world, the ability to protect your Infection Free Zone becomes crucial. Today we would like to shortly talk to you about the gates and walls for your settlement!
Gates
While seemingly mad and reckless, the infected are smarter than one might think. Hordes are capable of identifying inhabited buildings and are willing to take them down with brute force. That's why focusing on defense - towers, walls, and gates - is important quite early into the game.
While building those structures, you will have the option to use different resources and make them more durable over the course of the game. Mind you, some of them might require investing in the technology tree first, but overall, you will be able to build wooden, metal, and brick defensive structures. If you are curious about how the gates will work in practice, watch the video below:
Walls
In the very same way, walls are also using different resources. We have recently worked on their animations and how they should fall down when destroyed. As we are really happy with the current results, we want to share the second video with you too:
What do you think about those two videos? Do you see anything that raises your attention? We are really interested in getting to know your feedback!
Delivery INC
At the end of this update, we want to provide a quick shoutout to our friends from the DIGIFOX studio. Those guys are working hard on Delivery INC, which is another game based on real-world maps and we think that they do an incredible job. If you're really into the games that allow you to play on your hometown, Delivery INC might be right up your alley!
The demo is officially unavailable right now, including an additional round requested by Steam, and the whole team is working hard on the game in full development mode. Some of you have recently noticed that a new mysterious button has appeared on our Steam Page which has something to do with Playtests.
Playtests
The Playtest feature allows inviting players to play the game on Steam, before the official launch. It's mainly used for beta tests, as it provides an opportunity to invite a bigger group of players to test the game. If you want to join the Infection Free Zone playtests in the future, you can click on the following button on the main Store Page to request access:
At the same time, it's important to know that:
Playtests are going to be used somewhere during the beta phase of the game.
Playtests invitations won't be sent in the nearest future. Requesting access won't result in instant access to Playtests.
We cannot guarantee that every single person who requests access is going to be provided with a playable version of the game. There's a chance that the invitations are going to be sent in batches, depending on our needs.
We hope that this announcement is going to clarify the situation for you and answer the most common questions that we have seen appearing on social media. But if have any other questions regarding the playtests - let us know!
Best regards, Jutsu Games Team
Demo Summary: Steam Next Fest
Greetings, Survivors!
Steam Next Fest is officially over. Infection Free Zone was super popular during the event and we want to thank you for playing the demo. We are currently analyzing over a thousand questionnaires to prioritize the areas that require improvements the most.
Demo availability
The Infection Free Zone Demo was available only during the Steam Next Fest. Currently, it's deactivated and we are working hard on improving the game based on your feedback and bug reports. It's very likely that we will run some playtests in the future, especially somewhere around the beta phase, but it's not something that we can precisely schedule in time yet.
Steam Next Fest - Overview
Infection Free Zone was the second most popular demo during the Steam Next Fest. During the event:
It has reached 3,667 max concurrent players peak,
6,702 new players decided to follow the game,
Over 200,000 players have added the Infection Free Zone demo to their library.
Are we happy with this data? Absolutely. But we also remain focused. We analyze all your feedback and plan to act on it, to deliver a game that will provide you with fun, satisfying gameplay on launch.
Most popular questions from Live Chat
We have also decided to run an interview with the developer and two editions of the Live Chat event during the Steam Next Fest. Below you can see the video from the Live Stream and some answers to the most frequent questions, that were asked on chat:
Can you add multiplayer to the game? At this point, it's not really possible. The game's architecture wasn't made with multiplayer in mind and adding co-op would require at least an additional full year of development. Instead, we want to focus on making the best single-player experience possible.
When is the game launching on Steam? Right now, we are considering launching Infection Free Zone in Early Access somewhere around Q3 2023. But this decision will heavily depend on your feedback. If we are to receive feedback with the general consensus that the game isn't ready yet - we would rather postpone the launch a bit and fix all the important issues.
Is it going to be possible to play on a map of my city? The answer in most cases is - yes! Infection Free Zone is based on the Open Street Map data and if your city is well-mapped in OSM, then you can also expect to be able to play there. But in case it is not - we are working on preparing some modding tools for the players, so they can correct the map on their own and add the missing buildings.
Do you plan on adding different human factions to the game? Yes, we do! We don't want to spoil the story for you, but you can absolutely expect to encounter other groups of survivors in the game. And not all of them are going to be friendly.
Do you plan on adding a weapon swap option for squads? Absolutely! The demo was based on the pre-alpha version of the game, but we certainly plan to add a lot of missing features, including equipment swapping, demolition, repair, gates, and adding reliable ways of acquiring new survivors. Several new things are to meant to be added!
Thank you once again for your incredible support during the Steam Next Fest. We are very proud to have such an active, dedicated community. Now, we will keep on working hard to ensure that Infection Free Zone is going to be even more popular on launch than it was during this event!
Best regards, Jutsu Games Team
Live Stream with the Devs
There will be one more chance to chat with the developers :)
Join us on Sunday 6:00 PM CET ( 9:00 AM PDT, 1AM in China)
If you cannot make it, you can always join our DISCORD server: https://discord.gg/7dRkNDcBYv
Stay tuned!
Infection Free Zone Demo is coming to Steam Next Fest!
Greetings, Survivor!
We have the incredible pleasure to announce that the Infection Free Zone demo is coming to the upcoming Steam Next Fest! The event will take place February 6-13, 2023 @10AM Pacific. If you don't want to miss the Steam Next Event even by a minute, feel free to set a reminder HERE.
Infection Free Zone Demo
Infection Free Zone comes to the Steam Next Fest with around an hour of content! If you always wanted to give this game a try, this is your best chance! In the demo version, you will have a chance to:
Play on three different, recommended real-life maps: - Crofton, USA - Dijon, France - Cambridge, United Kingdom
Go through the first 7 days of gameplay
Solve several dilemmas and answer transmissions from unknown strangers
Extend your Zone through building adaptation, place defensive towers and walls,
Scavenge structures in the abandoned post-apocalyptic world
Fight against the merciless hordes of infected
And what's most important - prove that you have what it takes to lead your own Infection Free Zone!
Live-Stream
We plan to live-stream some Infection Free Zone on Friday, February 10 at 8:00 PM CET! Join us to talk a little bit about the Infection Free Zone development and ask us all the questions that you have always wanted to ask!
Other demos from Games Operators
Games Operators, the publisher behind Infection Free Zone, plans to appear with a few other games on the upcoming Steam Demo Fest. Other than your beloved infected-filled city-builder, you will have a chance to play the demos for the following games:
We truly hope that you're going to have a lot of fun with all those games! And remember - your feedback is super important to us. We extremely appreciate playing our demos and filling out the surveys at the end. Thanks to your remarks, we know which areas require improvements and where we have to put in some additional work. Thank you for your ongoing support!
Best regards, Jutsu Games
PRE-ALPHA MAJOR UPDATE
Greetings, Survivors!
A new update is now available! There is a number of significant graphical improvements, but you will also be able to use cars, machine guns, walls, and a few more things.
What you might find the most interesting is that the map download now works and you can play on a region of your choice ;) Please mind that this is still a pre-alpha, so some errors can be expected: [expand type="details"] - sometimes units get stuck inside the buildings. Just send them to another building to unlock them. - some maps might not be playable due to lack of data. Check with www.openstreetmap.org if the buildings of your region are well mapped. - some maps might be hardly playable due to high density of buildings. The gates inside of the buildings are not yet implemented. - some maps might crash the game on load. If this happens, we will get notified, but please choose another region. [/expand]
Once you try it, please follow the in-game feedback form link and answer a few questions. We wonder how you like the progress!
Kickstarter and BackerKit Pledges
If you missed the Kickstarter campaign, there is still an option to make a late-pledge on BackerKit. Bakcerkit late-pledges will be closed on Jan 8th. A new batch of backers will get access by the end of January.
Screenshot Update
Greetings, Survivors!
As some of you might have already noticed, we updated the screenshots on Steam, as the game has changed a lot visually since we uploaded them. If you want to see them all, we recommend visiting our main Store Page on Steam! A quick overview of the new screenshots from the game:
Crowdfunding continues!
Other than that, we are happy to announce that the crowdfunding for Infection Free Zone continues! If you have missed the last opportunity to obtain your pre-alpha access to the game, visit our community discussions on Steam and check the pinned thread to learn more about it!
Best regards, Jutsu Games Team
Weather and Environment Update
Greetings, Survivors!
Is it snowing in your hometown area yet? Or maybe there's no snow at all for the whole year? It is no coincidence that we are asking these questions right now! We have been recently working hard on improving the way that the game looks throughout all the seasons and today we want to give you a little sneak peek!
Visual changes
What has been changed:
New tree assets have been added. These trees can move in the wind and we spawn the types that fit the selected geographical location.
New grasses and bushes have been added. We are doing our best to make the environment have this wild and post-apocalyptic feeling to it while keeping the optimization in check!
New clouds (visible through shadows on the ground) have been added.
New props on the map have been added to make the environment look more varied - wooden logs, debris, trash containers, and others!
New weather effects have been added. Storm, rain, snow - new sound effects are also on the way!
New season effects have been added. The new trees will not only lose their leaves in the Winter but also have this great golden color in the Autumn now!
Of course, our work here is not over yet! But we thought that you might appreciate us sharing those new visuals for the weather and environment with you!
Timelapse Video
Check all of these newest changes in our short time-lapse video!
How do you like the changes to weather and environment from this update? Do you like them? Or maybe something's missing? Let us know how you feel about all these latest visual changes in Infection Free Zone!
