Ok. So it’s March. That kind of snuck up quick. Just wanting to let you guys know where the game is at as I’ll be caught up the next couple of weeks.

I’m off to San Francisco for both the Game Developers Conference and the Flash Gaming Summit on Sunday. Really looking forward to meeting up with some of the other great Flash and Indie developers out there. Learned a lot the last time I attended back in 2007, so hopefully there’s been plenty of movement in my area since then.

Now to the game. It’s coming along well, but it’s a far bigger beast than I’d ever anticipated and trying to get it done in the timeframe I’d set out to do it in just won’t be possible. At this stage, I’ve got GDC (that’s 10 days down), some artwork to do on an upcoming game with Joey Betz  (another 10 days) and to complete Union City, it’s going to be a late April release at best. Sure I could rush it and drop heaps of features, but I know that you guys would prefer a more complete product.

I know a lot of you are borderline wanting to freeze yourselves until the game comes out, but please relax. It’s a free flash game after all.

Keep an eye on my Twitter while I’m away, no doubt I’ll be telling everyone how awesome San Francisco’s Japanese restaurants are.

UPDATE: Thanks for all the suggestions, think I’ve got the final list sorted out. Here they are:

- M4A1
- AK-47 / 74
- M16A2
- SCAR-H
- FAL
- ????

They were picked for their various calibres and actual performance differences. The key thing were that they function differently to each other.  The last one on the list, well that’s a secret.

You guys love your questions, I’m on the phone to Guinness now and it looks like I’m in the running for a record. Let’s do this Question and Answer thing again. It got a bit out of control last time so this time there’s some more ground rules.

1. Keep it to one question.
2. Don’t repeat questions from last time.
3. Two days only! (Time is up. Comments locked.)

I guess that’s it. I’ll answer the most commonly asked ones in this post. If you break these, your comment will be deleted and lost to the oblivion of internet space. Fire away!

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Multiplayer / Co-op?
No, no no, no. No. No?

Is there a melee shove?
I’m working on that at the moment. Seems to be working well, just need to make it look good.

Will zombies adjust to my level?
Certain areas will have certain zombie types that will be tougher / easier than others. In general though, zombie health and base zombie types will be spawned according to your character level.

Achievements?
Yes. They may even tie to giving your character bonus weapons / equipment.

Can my character and other survivors become infected?
We’ll have to see.

Will there be barricade defence like the last two games?
Not in the same way, there’ll be barricades throughout the world that you may choose to hole up behind.

Will the game be downloadable?
No. This comes down to me needing to make a living off this stuff. If it’s downloadable, I can’t run the dynamic ads I run now, no ads, no food.

How many equipped weapons can I have?
You’ll be able to equip two at a time, but you’ll be able to hold as many as you can within your weight limit.

Is running out of ammo going to be an issue?
The plan is for ammo depletion to be a problem at some times during the game, but not to the point where you’re constantly running out. I know where the fun lies in the game (shooting zombies) and don’t want the need to search for ammo to get in the way of that too often. It’ll likely come down to some weapons having ammunition more readily available and powerful / abstract weapons having rarer ammunition.

How many in game days will there be?
I kind of answered this in the last Q&A, but it’s really up to how you play. There’ll be certain missions that trigger an end game which will have a very definite path towards ending the game, if you don’t follow that, you can run around as long as you like.

How will I interact with survivors?
As I mentioned, you’ll be able to talk to them to get their stories. These stories might give you missions / quests that you need to carry out to gain their help. Others might just be after specific items in return for something useful of theirs.

Do zombies have weapons like in the LS2?
Probably yes. Good thing you’ll have armor to protect yourself.

Is there going to be missions / quests to do?
It’s an RPG kids, of course.

What happens if survivors die?
They’re dead, you loot their corpse to get all your gear back and go about your day.

Will there be bosses?
No plans at this stage.

What use is all this junk, cash etc? Can I trade it?
It’s apocalypse, very early days of it. Some people will still think that cash has value and want it, others might want basic things like cigarettes or particular food. Some may be willing to give you items in return for these. There won’t be a trader setup somewhere though.

Pets, Dogs and Zombie Dogs?
No pets, dogs, cats, hamsters planned at this stage. Zombie dogs are likely yes. Other animals, maybe.

Will there be a morality system?
Morality really only works in a context where you’re answerable to someone. In this case the only people around you are either dead or complete strangers, so no. No morality system.

How does food work?
Food and drink will decrease your nourishment need. I may look at including some ‘less than fresh’ food that has a negative effect on your health, but we’ll see. It’s all time people.

Can I kill survivors?
No, why? Bullets are for zombies.

Here’s an early look at the searching and inventory system for TLS: UC. It’s all very rough at the moment and you’ll see a bunch of small interface glitch type things as you play around with it. Also, there’s a bunch of icons and such missing and only short descriptions for items, but I hope it gives you an idea of the scope I’m dealing with here.

Things to know:
- Containers aren’t remembering their contents at the moment and will randomly populate every time you open them. In the final game they’ll populate with random items (depending on the type of room you’re in) the first time you open them and then be saved.

- Items in the search screen that are marked with a star are items that have been found as a result of either a luck or skill roll. This all happens behind the scenes but it’s an indicator for players who’ve put points into Luck and the Searching skill.

- You can open the Backpack via the button on the bottom or by hitting TAB.

- Zombies are turned off for the moment.

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THE LAST STAND: UNION CITY - ALPHA v0.6

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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.

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