Rebuild 3: The Art Book

Adam just put the finishing touches on the Rebuild 3 digital art book, which is included in the deluxe survivalist edition of the game. You can upgrade to the deluxe tier on Steam if you don’t already have it.

Flipping through its pages has been a trip through memory lane for me, remembering the last two and a half years of development and all the people who helped make Rebuild 3 happen.

Hiring an artist

I spent an agonizing eight weeks looking for someone who could do both ui design for Rebuild’s extensive menu system and illustration for the characters and events. My friends told me it would never happen, that I’d need at least two artists because those skills are too different… but I had a romantic indie notion that I’d find someone who was a jack of all trades like me – they’d even help with design and do some of the sound or writing or promotion too. I imagined a team of two taking on Rebuild 3 together. I had no idea I’d end up working with such a big team by the end!

Picking an artist for Rebuild 3 was the toughest decision I’ve made yet in my professional career. Who has the talent and flexibility to do the work, who will care as much as I do, who will stay motivated while working remotely, who can I trust? As the weeks went on, I adjusted my romantic notions – I wasn’t going to find someone as motivated as I was to work on an unsexy sequel where they’d probably have limited creative control. It wasn’t going to be a 50/50 partnership where we bounce game ideas off each other. It would be contract work, and I needed a reliable, professional contractor.

Enter Adam Meyer. When I hired Adam in April 2013, he was juggling work on games with his graphic design company Crystal Clear Art. His interface design was excellent and he constantly pushed me to simplify Rebuild 3’s ui and hide away the ugly numbers and text in favor of more readable elements like dials, icons and color-coding. He defined the clean, angular graphical style for the game and created all the buildings with meticulous detail. But his non-game contracts took priority and he could only work on Rebuild about one week a month. I needed more help.

Hiring more artists

Another sample page — Sara’s sketches and Adam’s characters

I brought Sara Gross on for the Kickstarter in October 2013. I suckered her in for a couple months of part-time concept sketches and illustrations in the hope she could join up for longer, but she evaded my grasp (*shakes fist*). Sara worked in bitmaps and had a tough time with Adam’s vector style, so I found a method to convert her event illustrations into the game that also helped speed up Adam’s work on the characters. He found it faster to sketch something in Photoshop then convert it to vector and tweak than it was to draw from scratch in Illustrator.

Next I roped my friend Pana in for the rest of the event illustrations and she did such a good job of copying Sara’s style that you can’t even tell them apart. At that point we were on our second year of what was supposed to be a year and a half long project. The scale had grown, especially the writing which I hired Stephen Gray to help with, and I underestimated how much work I’d have to do on the art myself to integrate it into the game. I probably spent 40% of my time on the interface and visual polish.

The last mile

Rebuild 3 went over its original schedule by a year. I finally lost Adam to Steamroller Studios where he’s working on Deadwood: the Forgotten Curse. They’ve been prototyping that game for years, and in fact it was a key point in Adam’s portfolio when I hired him. It’s pretty exciting that they’re finally making it happen.

I snagged Lindsay Jorgensen away from Radial Games for a month to help finish up. What a lifesaver! He jumped in to the characters with an excellent imitation of Adam’s style, and can work in Flash which saved me a bunch of integration time. Now he’s working on promotional art, icons and the last few pieces we need. He’s FAST, and we even have the option to work in the same place since we’re both in Vancouver now. I could get used to this…

What I learned

I’m not a good manager. I know it. I’ve worked with talented, awesome people, but I’m no good at motivating them, building relationships, enforcing timelines… and rather than ask for changes I just make them myself, compulsively editing everything they send me. Colin’s much better at working with artists than I am.

So I’d like to try doing the art for my own games in the future. It won’t look as good (I’m terrible at characters) but if I apply myself I’ll improve, and hopefully I can find a style that works. Maybe I’ll hire someone to do concept art then implement it myself. Anyway, once I’m finished the Rebuild 3 mobile port I’m going to give it a try with a few prototypes and we’ll see what happens!

Upcoming release

I’m about to compile Rebuild 3 release build 1.0 for PC – coming out on Steam and GOG in just a few days on Friday May 29. The mobile builds will be another couple months – stay tuned!

Rebuild 3: Research Projects

In a post last year I showed an early version of the tech tree and explained why I’ve renamed scientists to “engineers” and tech to “research” in Rebuild 3. Since then I’ve changed how a few research projects work, added Preemptive Strikes and replaced Fort Policies with Survivor Management. Here’s how the research tree looks in its final form:

Zombies track:

Start on the left tree to kill zed more efficiently and reduce danger on missions.

Level	Research	What does it do?
1	Zombie Vitals	10% more efficient zombie killing – speeds up zombie killing missions
2	Basic Traps	Craftable zombie killing building upgrade – kills 5 unmassed zed per day
2	Zombie Avoidance	25% less danger from mission distance
3	Disease Vectors	Reduced chance of zombie bites – during random events
3	Anti-Zombie Armor	25% better zombie defense – lowers danger rates
4	Zombie Bait	Draw in zed to a building – craftable from food, distracts mobs and roamers
5	Advanced Traps	Better craftable zed traps – kills 10 unmassed zed per day
5	Fort Silence	Fewer hidden zombies spawn beside the fort
7	Improved Defense	Increase building defense by 1% per level, repeat

Buildings track:

Start on the center tree for more options in your fort buildings.

Level	Research	What does it do?
1	Construction	Build bars, schools, churches, labs, etc
2	Watch Towers	Defensive building upgrade – +5 defense to upgraded building and +2.5 to neighboring buildings
2	Generator Power	10% faster workshop crafting – this research is automatically granted if you repair a power plant
3	Bunker Towers	Defensive building upgrade – +10 defense to upgraded building and +5 to neighboring buildings
3	Fertilizer	Extra food from farms – also increases max food storage
4	Improved Walls	Better fort-wide defense – +1 to all buildings
4	Irrigation	Prevent drought – also increases max food storage
5	Advanced Construction	Build and fortify 25% faster
6	Turret Towers	Defensive building upgrade – +15 defense to upgraded building and +15 to neighboring buildings
6	Electrified Walls	Improved fort-wide defense – +1 to all buildings cumulative with Improved Walls
6	Pesticides	Prevent pests, extra food on farming missions – also increases max food storage
7	Improved Farms	1% bonus to food production per level, repeat

Survivor track:

Start on the rightmost tree for management skills that make your survivors stronger.

Level	Research	What does it do?
1	Survivor Management	See happiness, relationships, and talk to survivors – allows awarding level perks
2	Signposts	Attract survivors – in random events
2	Improved Teaching	50% more skill from training
3	Paramedic Training	10% better chance of injury instead of death – for all survivors
3	Improved Scouting	Reveal further when scouting – reveals adjacent buildings
4	Searchlights	Attract more survivors – in random events
4	Medkits & Medicine	Craftable medicine in workshops – use medkits to instantly heal injuries
5	Fireworks	Craftable entertainment – use to improve happiness
5	Doctor Training	Extra 10% chance of injury instead of death – stacks with Paramedic Training
5	Spotting Spies	Saboteur units become visible
6	Preemptive Strikes	Less dangerous to attack enemy units – 30% less danger
7	Increased Skills	Gain skills 1% faster per level, repeat

Rebuild 3: Real-time vs Turn-based

Time for some 90’s game nostalgia!

I LOVE strategy games. My affair must have started with Civ I for the Amiga. I played endless times, obsessed with trying to conquer the world as England with only the one starting city. Then there was X-Com, and Master of Orion, and games like Capture the Flag and Chaos Overloads.

One of my all time favs was Master of Magic, a compelling mix of civilization building and turn-based combat with a magic system that was as much fun to exploit as it was to play properly. There have been some attempts, but I’m still waiting for a true spiritual successor.

I’ve always been in the turn-based camp: thoughtful instead of twitchy, chilling out instead of stressing out. I still play on harder difficulties and get my ass handed to me by the AI, but it’s cool – it’s all about learning systems and finding new strategies. Winning’s just part of the fun. So when I wrote Rebuild 1, naturally it was turn-based and had a “Nightmare” difficulty that even I couldn’t beat.

But what about real-time?

My favorite Starcraft unit, the Zerg Queen, causing trouble. — My favorite unit, the Zerg Queen, causing trouble for some marines.

I think of real-time strategy games as those tending towards intense multiplayer action. I always felt exhausted after a game of Starcraft with friends… fun but oh so stressful. And I’ve never been brave enough to try LoL or DotA, I’m so sure they’ll make me feel old and clumsy. So I didn’t consider real-time for the Rebuild series at first.

The games that drew me back around to real-time were ones like Sim City, Tropico, and Dwarf Fortress: single-player games that tick away in real-time but let you hit a pause button at will. They seem to have more life, some little spark of randomness that makes it feel like I’m interacting with more than a set of rules. For sim games this is especially important, and the Rebuild games are as much sim as strategy.

So for Rebuild 3 I bit the bullet and added a real-time mode. It was both easier and harder than I’d expected: I got the system working in a couple days, but am still finding bugs in it today. It brought up new performance and interface issues too. Some I rocked (letting you switch between real-time and turn-based) and some I flubbed (it’s hard to tell if the STOP button is a command, or the current state).

But it’s been worth it! In fact I like real-time mode so much I was tempted to make it the only mode for Rebuild 3. But I kept turn-based in because it’s much easier to test with, and I knew some fans of Rebuild 1 & 2 would never forgive the change.

These days when I play a game of Rebuild 3, I start out on max speed and try to keep up with survivors coming and going for as long as possible. I take the speed down a notch or two as the game gets busier and my tolerance for mistakes goes down. By the end of a city, danger or no danger, I’ve got one thumb on the space bar at all times nobody spends a moment longer relaxing in the fort than they have to.

I’m pretty happy that the game works with such different styles. Hopefully everybody else will find their favorite mode and speed too!

Rebuild 3: Buildings

I love the buildings in Rebuild. Each one different, like colorful little candies. Some no longer serve a useful function, for example gas stations and grocery stores once all the gas and food has been scavenged out of them. Others are absolutely key to survival and you won’t last without them.

You’ll find more rural buildings like farms and suburbs towards the edge of the map, and ones with lots of scavengeable goods like malls and shops in the center. Some buildings are unique and only appear on a few maps, so keep an eye out for them!

Ones you can create:

Builders can replace other things with these. If replacing a larger building with a smaller one, the rest will turn to rubble.

Building	Why build it?	Produces	Art
Farm	Farms produce food every day and provide valuable vitamins you can’t get from canned SPAM. Farming here increases the yield.	1-3 food per day depending on difficulty
Apartment	Home sweet home for your survivors, if they don’t mind the 70’s decor and avocado-green appliances.	Adds space for 2 survivors
Church	Our churches are multi-faith spiritual centers. Now offering over two dozen afterlives to go to when you die.	Increases happiness
Bar	Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name. Or settle for any place with alcohol left.	Increases happiness
Hospital	Survivors heal faster in hospitals, either due to the placebo effect or because once you’re in there you’ll do anything to get out.	Prevents negative events, survivors heal faster here
School	Survivors can train here to increase their skills. It’s faster and much safer than the usual way.	Change jobs after 2 days training
Laboratory	Here our engineers can research everything from zombie behavior to how they used to get the caramel into all those Caramilk bars.	Research tech projects
Workshop	A place to make things, fix things, and take things apart.	Ammunition, Medicine, Explosives, Zombie Bait, Medkits, Traps, Fireworks
City Hall	A glorious center of government. Civic pride. City must have reached goal size before you can build this.	Makes faction alliances possible

Worth keeping around:

These buildings do something useful so you probably don’t want to replace them… but you can’t build new ones yourself.

Building	Why build it?	Produces	Art
Police Station & Bank	Police stations are the heart of our protection against the outside world. The thick walls can hold out zombies for a long time.	+10 defense, and +5 to adjacent buildings.
Housing	Suburbs, motels, and trailer parks can house our survivors just like apartments.	Space for 2-4 survivors depending on size
Warehouse	You never know what you’ll find in these. Boxes of PVC pipes? A room filled with pillows? Expired dog food? Yum!	+50 max food
Fire Department	Well I’m not on fire so it must be working.	Prevents fires
Other Farms	Bigger farms produce more food.	1-3 food per day per square depending on difficulty
Parks & Woods	Builders can chop wood on these for materials.	3+ wood per week
Rivers & Oceans	Natural boundries can stop zed and other factions.	Natural walls
Power Plant	A small natural gas plant that might be simple enough for a few engineers to operate.	Unique. Increase happiness once fixed
Water Treatment Plant	The city’s running water is dependent on this plant. Important for health and happiness.	Unique. Increase happiness once fixed

Rebuild 3: Release Date Announcement

I’m back in the pacific northwest and moving to Vancouver soon. Not just for a couple months this time… yes, after five years of gallivanting around the world, the Northways are going to stay in one place for awhile. It’s a new adventure, and I’m kind of scared. What if we hate our neighbors? What if we buy the wrong furniture? What if I get bored of Vancouver or hate the weather? What if I get comfortable and don’t want to travel anymore?

Let’s face it, these are dumb things to worry about compared to the upcoming Rebuild 3 release. Yes, release! But first, the crunch. I’m starting to feel vampiric, staring at my computer screen for so many hours a day I’m not sure I remember what the sun looks like. I’m also going bonkers looking at my list of unplayed games on Steam, though does that stop me from buying more? No. Soon my pretties… soon…

I’m going to release Rebuild 3 PC/Mac on May 29th!

OMGee I can’t believe I said it! Three years of SO MUCH WORK is coming to an end. If you’d like to jump in and help me playtest, head over to the Steam Windows testing branch now.

Mobile version

Rebuild 3 for iPhone, iPad and Android will be coming later this summer!

M	T	W	T	F	S	S
				1	2	3
4	5	6	7	8	9	10
11	12	13	14	15	16	17
18	19	20	21	22	23	24
25	26	27	28	29	30