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