Category: Development

  • Rebuild 3: Steam Early Access on May 16

    Rebuild: Gangs of Deadsville is set to go live on Steam early access next Friday. That means the beta’s about to begin and you can all play it! I’ve been waiting for this day for about, let me see… about fourteen months!

    Beta? Why isn’t the game finished yet?

    Lovely new mission icons for the many-many things you can send survivors to do
    Lovely new mission icons for the things you can send survivors to do,
    several of which were not, *ahem*, exactly in the original design doc

    Yes, it’s been longer than expected, and I’m cramming more content into this game than I imagined when I first set out. But I was playtesting Rebuild 1 and 2 last month for the Survivalist Edition bonus content, and was shocked at how clumsy and simple both games seem compared to Gangs of Deadsville. This is, like, a real game we’re making here.

    For Early Access launch I’ve decided to raise the price of the game from $10 to $15. So turns out all y’all pre-order-ers got a good deal. One more missed marketing opportunity on Rebuild’s road to success.

    Okay, so why early access?

    Steam logo

    Just ask my awesome alpha testers. I’ve been sending them monthly builds since last November, and their feedback has affected everything from the UI to difficulty balancing, making me rethink survivor skills and zombie attacks. They’re even helping us write random events. Let me tell you as soon as I have a spare minute I want to add Steam Workshop stuff so you can mod the game.

    There will also be a direct-download version for Kickstarter backers and anyone who preorders through the official site, and an Android beta build later this month. But Steam’s a more public, mainstream store, and I’ve found the Early Access community surprisingly cool and forgiving with other beta games I’ve played.

    I’ve been developing this game in public since the beginning, and though it’s been extra work (my stuffed inbox for instance), the motivation alone has been worth it.

    Speaking of that inbox…

    Community Managementarianism

    I do need some help in this department, since I’m about to go from hundreds of playtesters to thousands. So I’m bringing on my good friend Jack Shirai (@Roshirai) as Northway Games’ new community manager. He’ll be haunting the forums as Roshirai, posting here about Rebuild’s development, and taking my place at all the tedious political luncheons that we game developers are often forced to attend.

    One more week to go. Wish us luck!

  • Rebuild 3: The Tech Tree

    My first pass at a research tree in Google Docs
    My first pass at a research tree in Google Docs
    In Rebuild 3, engineers won’t be the silly white-lab-coated scientists of earlier games. They’re gonna have to get out there and get dirty.

    “Tech” isn’t even the right word for what they get up to in those labs. Most of the things you’ll research in Rebuild: Gangs of Deadsville are pretty mundane… Irrigation, for example, is a matter of digging ditches to bring water to your farms, because city water and sprinklers no longer work reliably.

    They’ll be designing medical training programs, rigging up generators to power electric fences, organizing more efficient night watch routines… and of course pulling zombies apart to see what makes them tick. Come to think of it, that may still require white lab coats and safety goggles.

    techtree_v2  techtree_v3  techtree_v4
    Earlier versions of the tech tree in development.

    In Rebuild 2, research was in three linear paths: getting more food, defending against zombies or recruiting and keeping survivors happy (also towers in the mobile version). The Rebuild 3 tree is 3x the size and more meandering. You’ll be hard pressed to research everything in a single game, so choose your path wisely.

    I decided to tie more lategame abilities into the research tree so you could unlock things gradually as you play, for example the ability to craft traps, medkits and fireworks. Policies, building upgrades and workshop missions all need to be unlocked via research now before they’ll appear in the game.

    Other research projects improve your fort defense or reduce your casualties in one way or another. You’ll definitely want a few of those as the zombie hordes start to build up outside your walls.

    Research tree as it appears in alpha version 0.53 (temp art)
    Research tree as it appears in alpha version 0.53 (temp art)

    Getting your first lab will be harder now because you can’t build them initially (you need to research that of course!), but you’ll usually start near one you can reclaim. Events in the game also give you a chance to build labs, and even to get research for free.

    One of the problems in Rebuild 1 and 2 was that you’d run out of thing for scientists (now called engineers) to do. With this much larger research tree, plus a new mission to craft items in workshops, they’ll have plenty to occupy their time inside the fort. Hopefully enough that nobody will send them out to shoot zombies or scavenge or any of that dangerous stuff.

    God forbid they get their white lab coats all dirty!

  • Rebuild 3: Alpha of Deadsville

    Nearly all the buildings are done - recognize that tech company in the middle?
    Adam’s new buildings are nearly all in – recognize that tech company in the middle?
    We’re a couple months and four versions into Rebuild’s early alpha test, and so far so good! Of the 1500 people in the alpha, 500 have logged in, played 3000 cities, and found more bugs and typos than I’d care to think about.

    The forums are hopping, with insightful gameplay discussions and some great suggestions I’m desperate to squeeze in the game. Release date wise… we’re starting to fall behind, but there will be a very playable beta in a few months for backers and anyone who preorders. If you missed the Kickstarter, you can still get into the early alpha if you preorder the $25 deluxe edition.

    Meet the pig farmers. What happened to his legs???
    What happened to Farmer Bucket’s legs?? I needed temp art for the leaders so Sara’s character sketches made it into the game…

    I added factions yesterday with version 0.44. Finally! These are the “gangs” from the game’s name after all. They’re in there in all their temp-art glory, hitting you up for protection money, selling “meat” of dubious heritage, and raiding your fort if you piss them off or just look like an easy target.

    That's more like it: Malik from The Riffs
    That’s more like it: Malik from The Riffs

    You can also trade with them, which will soon be invaluable when I drastically reduce the resources you can scavenge for in the game and create new resource sucking policies (a gun isn’t much good without ammo, and johnny’s gangrenous leg ain’t going to heal itself without proper medicine).

    The faction events are still pretty barebones, but Stephen and I have been working on a heap more content which I’m hoping to get in this month along with fort-wide policies. So much to look forward to!

  • Shader’s First Night Out

    The Images in this post are all things made in Shader by the people at the New Years party. Sorry for the bad quality iPhone videos, no screen-caps for this game!

    Shader is playable! I wrote about this kinda weird project I’ve embarked on here and now it’s a playable thing, it’s not quite done but it’s pretty cool.

    It’s a game that will only ever exist on a single laptop. I’m writing it on a cheap netbook I bought here in Buenos Aires and when it’s done I will destroy the usb/internet/bluetooth capabilities of the netbook and super-glue it’s harddrive in place so Shader can’t get off the netbook (at this moment it’s still un-saobtaged so I’m writing this blog post from it).

    In Shader you manipulate an image to make some specific visual effect using buttons and sliders. It can also be played sandbox-style to make whatever weird, trippy visuals you want. It has about six levels right now that that kind of ease you into the experience. The sandbox mode works really well too, that’s my favorite way to play. I think Daniel Benmurgui and Agustín Cordes both like the levels more, it may depend on how much you’ve had to drink which you prefer.

    Sarah and I celebrated new years 2014 in Buenos Aires at the house of Tembac with his friends. It was a great night and we didn’t get home until 6:00am which is the second time that’s happened to us in Buenos Aires, these people like fun! New Years in BA is a lot like New Years in Canada except that everybody spills into the street because it’s summer and warm then lights off fireworks. It was amazing to see all these little kids running around at 2:00am lighting off explosives. Most of the fireworks people were lighting off are illegal in Canada because kids are always blowing their fingers off, thankfully no one around us was hurt and everyone had a good time. Turns out fireworks can be a really lovely expression of community.

    After the fireworks died down (3am or so?) we headed back inside and I pulled out Shader and nestled it onto a table among the wine and beer bottles. Everybody had a go, we always played in sandbox mode because that’s more fun for the audience of people watching. It worked a lot like the fireworks had, there was always something interesting going on on screen and when someone found a particularly good effect it elicited appreciative oohs and ahhs.

    It was really cool that I was there, right next to Shader, and that I will always be right there. It’s fun to point to a button and tell someone “this makes it go faster”, like it’s a three way conversation between me and the player and the game. When you’re playtesting commercial games you have to never explain or give encouragement to the player because you won’t be there to do those things when it’s released. With shader I can suggest things and laugh appreciatively at the cool things they do, if they get confused I can steer them in the right direction.  It’s like I’m part of the game and I really like that. The joke is often made that you should ship a copy of yourself with every game, with Shader I’m actually doing it.

    Maybe when you get to play it you’ll be able to feel that night when you press the keys, the carefree night of explosives and friends staying up late playing video games.


     

  • Rebuild 3: Relationships & Kids vs Seasons

    I’ve gotten back surveys from most of the Kickstarter backers, and those that I haven’t heard from will be getting a poke today. But I have enough data now to announce the stretch goal vote winner. We were deciding between either adding Relationships & Kids to the game, or Seasons. And the winner is…

    Hold on, first let me tell you about the Alpha test that started today.

    The first of the zombie Kickstarter backer images.
    The first of the zombie Kickstarter backer images.

    The Alpha Playtest Begins

    Backers of tier $15 and up, plus anyone who has preordered the $25 deluxe version of the game from http://rebuildgame.com have been invited to playtest the first very raw version of Rebuild: Gangs of Deadsville. If you should be one of those people but didn’t get the email, let me know.

    It’s an exciting, and terrifying, and sad and joyous occasion for me to finally share this game, which I started just over a year ago when I first set up http://wiki.rebuildgame.com and asked fans for suggestions. Of course none of them said “let us drag survivors’s faces around” or “how about realtime”, which is why I need to test these things first and get some feedback. I’ve been coding the game for six months, which makes it half finished. I hope my alpha testers keep this in mind; things are going to improve with each alpha release!

    Featuring zombie-tier Kickstarter backers.
    Featuring zombie-tier Kickstarter backers.

    Relationships vs Seasons

    Okay, now that’s out of the way, let’s get back to the vote. So, I already added Seasons as an update to Rebuild Mobile last year. It’s neat: snow blankets the world in the winter so you can’t farm. Saving up enough supplies to survive until spring is a big deal, and starvation results in some desperate measures. Snow and rain effects. Also, Santa Claus.

    On the other hand, I only have a rough idea of what I’d do for relationships. I was playing King of Dragon Pass and there was this string of events about a feud between two families. I loved that it kept coming up, these old enemies causing trouble for eachother. Why shouldn’t Rebuild have enemies, people who are made miserable if forced to work together, who drive the fort apart with their disagreements until a trained Leader can reconcile them. And the opposite: friends who get a boost from being together on missions; brothers who show up side by side and stick together until a tragedy forces them apart. Lots of opportunities for events with tough choices and ways to make the characters feel deeper.

    Then the children. After seeing The Road, I thought Rebuild’s lack of kids was pretty conspicuous. Sure they’re mostly useless, they’re always needing protection and rescuing, but they’re such a necessary part of any story about the fall or rebirth of civilization. Kids are what it’s all about… and this from a 34 year old who doesn’t want any of her own. I don’t think you’d see kids on the map, but they’d appear in the scrolling lists so you could check their progress. Maybe I’d find a way for you to watch them grow up and become useful members of society… or maybe they’d be more like pets, just making people happy they’re around. Either way, another good opportunity to generate events that make you care about the lives of the people in your fort.

    I honestly couldn’t choose between the two myself, so I made backers decide. And they voted for…

    Oh wait I have more pictures to show you first.

    Is that... a boomerang?
    Is that… a boomerang?
    This is how I feel about malls, too.
    This is how I feel about malls, too.

    I’m not sure which one’s my favorite, but the boomerang in the neck is a forerunner. More coming soon!

    The vote, for reals this time

    I was going to tease you one more time by talking about the t-shirts, but nah, let’s get on with the show. Winning the stretch goal vote by 998 votes to 720, backers chose….

    *** Relationships & Children! ***

    I was a bit surprised after the fuss made about it before, but the people have spoken and the majority rules. People want to see friends, feuds, and little ankle biters being terrorized by the undead. Hopefully in good taste.

    Cheers everyone and see you on the forums!