You know how you guys like to ask questions? Yeah, I get lots of them. Rather than me reading the same questions 20 times a day, how about we do it this way…

I’ve made a FACT SHEET where you can go for all your information about The Last Stand: Union City. There’s even a section there for stuff that won’t be in the game!

If you make a comment in the future and it’s a question about something that’s already on the sheet, I’ll delete it. If it’s something I’ve missed, I’ll add it to the sheet. If you want to post suggestions, don’t do it here, do it over on the forums in the “I’ve got ideas for Last Stand” thread.

I’m just trying to make the comments relevant to the posts I’m making so I don’t have to trawl through 300 comments to get out the information I need.

Fact sheet last updated Jan 31.

- Con

Small update to the Alpha for you guys. Figured I better start numbering these things so we’re going to start with 0.5. There’s a fair bit of new stuff in here, some important system stuff is sorted out and working well, but do remember there was a 3 week break in there somewhere and not as much got done as I’d hoped.

What’s new:
- Reloading!
- Glock 17 pistol
- Pump-action shotgun
- Revised flashlight appearance
- Lots more main character hair / facial hair
- Day / Night cycle with lighting changes and clock!
- Early HUD designs
- Blood spatter!
- Damage text
- Experience system
- Critical hits system
- Early zombie attacks (only one animation at the moment, more to come)
- Still two whole empty rooms (they just look a bit different! Complete with random zombie spawnage.

What you need to know:
- No death anims / reset in yet. Refresh your browser to reload.
- There will be an option to toggle Damage text and XP text. They will be off by default.
- The character you’re playing with is at about 50% skill capacity this time.
- Your character appearance will still change every time you switch rooms.
- Toggle crouch and other control things haven’t been revised yet, I’ll be moving it to a hold crouch system soon.
- Critical hits cause knockback and are shown by yellow damage text.
- Critical hits which kill will cause dismemberment.
- The icons at the bottom will be buttons for your character and inventory.
- The shotgun doesn’t have a reload anim at the moment, hence the “RELOADIN’” text.
- The floating bar at the top is for the “Skill Reload” system, I’ll explain that more later. It’s not working at current, but it’s similar to the “active reload” system from Gears of War.
- There is a low-violence version available, it turns off 99% of the blood and gore. Option to toggle it on isn’t in this alpha.
- There is a low-effects version available, it turns off a lot of the particles such as shell casings, blood etc. Again, not in this alpha.

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Controls
W - Stand / Jump
A,D - Left / Right
S - Crouch

R - Reload
F - Flashlight
Space - Switch Weapons
Mouse - Aim

Walk into the pink blocks to enter / exit a room.

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>>>> THE LAST STAND: UNION CITY - ALPHA 0.5 <<<<

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NOTE: Leaving comments unrelated to whats in the Alpha will be ignored / deleted. Read the previous posts and the FAQ’s for most answers about the game’s intended contents. Annoying repeated questions and comments about bugs (graphical or code wise) will be deleted as well.

Do leave comments however on performance for you, what your Average and Low FPS readings are or other generally useful information.

Merry Christmas to everyone. Thanks for your support during 2009. I’m off to the beach for 2 weeks, then back for a huge 2010. All the best for the break.

-Con

Something else for you guys to play with. This is a bare bones prototype of the character creation tool. Just wanted to give you some idea of what’s behind all that stuff in the alpha and to see what sort of characters you guys can create (in terms of numbers) with this thing.

No where near as exciting as mindlessly shooting stuff up, but hey, it’s all part of it.

Things you’ll notice:
- Adding attribute points will boost your skills that fall under that attribute.
- Strength and Endurance don’t have many skills, this is because they get used in a number of other places. Things like health, melee damage, carry weight and for certain rolls.
- You get 3 selected skills at the very start of the game, which will add 15 points to that skill. From there out you’ll add single points at a time.
- Bare in mind that the character you played with in the alpha had all his attributes at 5 and his skills at 10.
- Luck isn’t tied to any skills, but it will play a part in pretty much every action in the game.
- Levelling up won’t be the only way you add to your skills.

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THE LAST STAND: UNION CITY - CHARACTER CREATOR PROTOTYPE

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Usually in my development, you guys don’t play any of the games I’m working on until they’re done. That’s all about to change. The Last Stand: Union City is going to be a huge project and it’s going to be near impossible to release it without feedback from the public.

Here’s what’s in the alpha so far:

- Character skills and attributes affecting accuracy, movement speed and jump height.
- Character aiming, moving and shooting
- Character randomises each time you enter a room (just for trying out appearances)
- Weapon switching
- Flashlight
- Zombie aesthetics (only a handful of outfits and hair styles at the moment)
- Early Zombie A.I (they can wander and chase, no attack yet)
- Wandering zombies are alerted by weapon sounds, sighting the player and “sensing” the player if they get too close
- Zombie vision is affected by the level of light
- Weapon collisions / damage systems
- Character stance and movement affects accuracy
- Weapon skill is currently set at 10% in this alpha, the lowest you can get
- Crosshair shows estimated accuracy, which is a combination of the character’s weapon skill and the accuracy of the weapon
- Two whole empty rooms! Complete with random zombie spawnage.

What I’m looking to get out of this:
What I DO want you guys to concentrate on in your comments is how it feels to you. Do you like the aiming / movement system? Does the key setup work for you?

What I DON’T want to hear is stuff about weapon balancing, animation errors, zombie AI. It’s all very early stuff and needs a lot more work.

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Controls
W - Stand / Jump
A,D - Left / Right
S - Crouch

F - Flashlight
Space - Switch Weapons
Mouse - Aim

Walk into the pink blocks to enter / exit a room.

Hitting the reset button will give you one of three random light settings, day, dawn and night.

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THE LAST STAND: UNION CITY - ALPHA

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Note on controls:
AZERTY and arrow key controls are also implemented. For those that use them, let me know how they work for you!

Also, can I get some control setups from LEFT HANDERS? Just need to know what you prefer to use in shooters for movement, reload, weapon switching.

This entry into the Last Stand series is a prequel of sorts and as such has a new story to tell. Who is at the centre of that story is up to you. You’ll create your character from the bottom up or you can select from a few presets if you can’t be bothered.

Custom creating your character though will allow you to play through the game how you want to. From handgun specialists to big beefy brawlers to smooth talker, there’s endless options.

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Appearance
You won’t be playing dressups straight away but you’ll be able to determine the look of your character right at the start. Customising your characters appearance will allow for changes to:
- Gender
- Hair
- Skin
- Face
- Facial Hair

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Vitals
Your characters vitals are the core set of stats that keep you alive. They include Health, Stamina and Nourishment and Sleep. Depending on which game mode you’re playing, you’ll have all or a few of these to worry about. Health and Stamina are present in both games and determine your character’s life and how active your character can be respectively.

Nourishment and Sleep are only available in the Survivor game mode, so you’ll need to make sure you eat and sleep. Not doing so will affect all of your skills gradually and may even kill you if you’re not careful.

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Attributes & Skills
Each character in the game will have a set of attributes that will determine a number of factors throughout the game. They affect things such as your carry weight, health, melee damage, firearm accuracy and how much food and water you need. The base attributes are: Strength, Endurance, Intellect and Precision.

There are 14 Skills available, with each one falling under the influence of one of the base attributes. If the player has a high Strength for example, all of his/her Strength Skills will recieve bonuses. The Skills available are as follows:

Strength Skills
Blunt Weapons - Clubs, bats.
Blades - Knives, Axes and chainsaws

Precision Skills
Pistols - Covers automatics and revolvers
Long guns - Shotguns, Bolt Action Rifles
Automatics - SMG’s and Assault Rifles
Special Weapons - RPG’s etc
Traps - Ability setting traps

Intellect Skills
Explosives - Grenades, Molotovs etc
Security - Locks, keypads, computer systems
Searching - Effectiveness of searching
Speech - Helps in conversation
First Aid - Healing ability

Endurance Skills
Fitness- Reduces energy use.
Survival - Reduces the amounts of water and food used.

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Levelling
As you progress through the game you’ll earn experience (XP) and work your way through levels. When you hit a level, you will be provided with skill points. There will be bonus skill points available to your most used skills, this is to replicate your character “getting better” at a task by repeating it.

You can choose to assign your skill points to the most used skills or put them into any other skill and not recieve the bonus.

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That’s about the basics of it. I’ve been prototyping the leveling system and working my way through a huge number of levels to determine how many skill points should be handed out etc. What the level cap and how many points you’ll assign to Attributes to Skills isn’t quite finalised yet, but it’s getting there. Until next time!

- Con

Let’s do a Q&A! Post one question in the comments each and I’ll answer the most common and prevelant ones in the post.

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Will this be 3D, Isometric, 2D or what?
It’ll be mostly 2D with only left and right movement, there won’t be as much depth. Have a look at this early mockup of an empty room, it allows for easy prop implementation and for rooms to be resized and made easily. Furniture and other props will sit in the foreground and background.

Will I be able to save my game?
Yes. At this stage I’m working towards having a number of save slots.

Is the main character coming back?
Yes, but not as the main character. You will create your own character.

Will there be classes?
Kind of, the “background” you choose will determine your starting skills. You can of course create your own custom “background” however.

Will there be vehicles?
At this stage, no.

Can we customise weapons?
Weapons will have attachments to improve their properties, I’m still figuring out the best way to implement this though.

Is there a time limit on how long you can play?
There will be events that will affect how long you can play, but the game has a very different structure. It may take hours to finish as opposed to 30 mins.

What kind of melee weapons will there be?
I’m aiming to have an “anything you can pickup” kind of approach to melee weapons. So everything from hammers to table lamps.

How will survivors work?
You’ll meet other survivors, some may choose to travel with you. When they do, they’ll fight along side you, following you through the world.

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Read the rest of this entry »

An infection has hit Union City, no-one is sure what is happening. Authorities have told citizens to stay in their homes and to wait for updates. The chaos outside your apartment is growing, looting, savage beatings, people killing each other in broad daylight. It’s safer inside.  A week goes by, the transmissions stop, the food is running out. The situation can only get worse, it’s time to leave…

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The Last Stand: Union City, the third installment in the Last Stand series is currently in production and will be released in Q1 2010. It will take place during the first few weeks of infection in Union City. Taking the role of a survivor who holed up in their apartment during the initial spread of the infection, the player will be forced to venture out and make their way in the city. Escape will be the ultimate goal.

Features Include:
- Side Scrolling Open World
- Scavenge for weapons and items
- Custom character creation
- Level and Skill progression
- Living city: Day and Night cycles, Weather
- Dynamic driven enemies: “Zombie director”
- Two game modes that affect the style of the game

Union City will be side scrolling open world for the player to fight the hordes in and search for weapons and food. You will mould your character from the beginning, deciding appearance, background and skills. During your time in Union City you will earn experience and gain efficiency in a number of different skills, how you progress in these skills will be based of your actions.

During your travels you will encounter other survivors, they will help you get a grip on what’s happening, tell you their situation and in some cases join your fight.

Union City itself is a living city with day and night passing as you travel, it’s once living citizens will be driven dynamically, no street or building will play the same each time you enter.

The game will have two seperate game modes - “Run’n'Gun” and “Survivor”. The Run’n'Gun game mode will be more in line with the original games and have a focus on action and lessen the RPG elements. Survivor on the other hand will have common survival problems such as hunger, need for sleep and conservation of ammunition to deal with. Much of the story and gameplay will be identical in both modes.

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I’ll be posting more in-depth and specific information over the course of the next week as it’s finalised in the design documents.

What do you do?

As part of the “research” for developing the next Last Stand title (name coming soon), I’m looking to see what you guys would do in the case that you find yourself in the zombie apocalypse. You never know your answers might become part of a storyline within the game. Below is a template for you to fill out in the comments.

1. What supplies do you grab?

2. What weapons do you have around the house?

3. Where do you go first?

4. Who do you contact?

5. Where do you go to escape?

Fill these out and keep the comments to just answers, don’t go commenting on other people’s responses.

Alright, I think that’s about enough. I’m getting tired of reading and approving 40 comments a day. COMMENTS LOCKED.