No new beta yet.

I got a little sidetracked by illness last week after I took my first day off in 6 weeks. Seems that my body dropped it’s guard when I wasn’t working 14 hours a day. So yeah.

I’m pushing to get a new beta out to testers before the weekend is over (US time). I’ve also got a trip to San Francisco for the Flash Gaming Summit and GDC at the end of next week, then I’ll be down in Orange County again working in the Armor Games offices for a few days. So I want to get as much out to you guys for testing while I’m gone for those 2 weeks.

So a large chunk of time since the last Beta has been spent on getting 100+ bug fixes / changes done. I’ve also completed a 4 storey hospital scene and started on the Stadium area as well. I want to get the Stadium done and get the remaining NPCs organised for the first 3 completed areas before I put the new Beta out.

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Here’s a short run-down of  the important fixes and changes in the last few weeks:


Fixes
- Fixed all undefined containers / items
- Fixed all inaccessible areas
- Fixed zombies grabbing while falling
- Fixed sprinting issues (body disconnects, sprinting backwards)
- Fixed zombies freezing up when missing grabs
- Fixed collision with dead enemies
- Fixed a number of camera issues where alignment was wrong
- Re-wrote the damage display code
- Stopped sleep from overhealing
- Fixed lighting issues (characters turning red / green)
- Fixed zombies stumbling through walls
- Fixed all ammunition issues (shotgun going into neg. etc)
- Fixed screen shake pushing character off screen
- Help progress now saves
- Stamina now carries over between rooms
- Time wasn’t calculating days properly, has been fixed


Changes
- Allocated “Danger Levels” to each area, determines enemy numbers and types
- Increased the time between “rushes”
- Re-activated beds for Run’n'Gun mode to allow sleeping for healing / passing time.
- Small rooms have a reduced maximum zombie count
- Moved books above food in Aid inventory filter
- Zombie deaths take walls into consideration, should look better
- Changed ammo and cash drop systems to work more effectivly
- Time now passes when travelling
- Sleep percentage now shows on the sleep dialog box
- Death now occurs on losing your grey health bar, not your red health.
- Rush zombies are much more aggressive
- Removed ability to delete cash
- Map improvements including a cancel travel button
- Zombies now do damage during struggles
- Changed rushes to be waves of enemies rather than a group
- Rush duration depends on area Danger Level and player status
- Zombies react to sound!


Additions
- Zombie groans / attack and alert sounds for both male and female
- Female human exertion and death sounds
- Companion “HELP!” sounds for when they’re downed
- Dynamic “rush” music, changes depending on how much trouble you’re in
- Scope for Tauron 9mm
- Welding Mask face accessory
- In-world NPC conversations
- New interactive for the world: Notes – files, notepads etc.
- Quest Item type, has it’s own inventory filter, can’t be deleted

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For those asking about getting into the BETA, sorry I’m NOT accepting any more people in. It is officially closed, you can’t get in. There will be a public BETA at some point in the future.

Flash Mindmeld is a virtual conference that gathered up myself and 59 other speakers to talk for 60 seconds each about what makes a successful Flash game. If you want to hear me talk for about 58 seconds and find that I have an accent, all you need to do is go to flashmindmeld.com and drop in your name and email address to get access to listen. Enjoy!

Beyond my section you should listen to the other Armor Games guys, along with Ben Olding, Sean Cooper, Jared Riley, the Nitrome guys, the Kongregate guys and Dan Stradwick, I’m sure they’ve all got interesting stuff to say.

That’s right, HINTS AND OR TIPS.

Whenever the game is loading, you’ll see a single line of text down the bottom that gives a handy hint to players. If you click on it, it’ll cycle through them. I’ve got a bunch in there already like:

“Increasing your searching skill will result in you finding less junk”
~ and ~
“Have a melee weapon at your disposal at all times for close encounters”

What I’m wondering is that with all your experience with the Alpha’s (and in some cases Beta), what bit of information would you like to have known before you played?

Heck, you can even respond with your own, just keep it under 90 characters, if you can’t count you can count them here.