As some readers know, I also moonlight as an independent games developer, based out of Melbourne. At the start of this year, I began working on our studio's third game, Fear Equation, which we officially announced yesterday. The response has been positive so far, particularly on how sweet the visuals look. Sure, it can't compete with the latest AAA games, but we've spent a lot of time getting as close as we can... and here's how.
I've talked on and off over the past year about Zafehouse: Diaries, a game independently developed by myself and David Kidd. What I haven't done is cracked open the hood and revealed the fascinating statistics we've gathered from players and how we're using those figures to help people understand the game's complexities.
In all the excitement of System Shock 2's release on GOG, you may have missed another title debuting on the service. Yes, among it all was Zafehouse: Diaries, developed by Screwfly Studios, of which I represent one-half.
I haven't talked about Zafehouse: Diaries for a while. But don't worry, I'm still slaving away as an indie developer. While we haven't managed to score a review on a major gaming site just yet, we have popped up in few interesting places. Oh... and there's a 4000-post long thread on the internet dedicated to co-operative playthroughs of the game.
It's been almost a month since we unveiled Zafehouse: Diaries to the world. It was one of the most important moments in my life, the foundations of which, measured in skills, experience and courage, were built over several years -- despite actual development measuring just 12 months. Now, three weeks on, the game hasn't taken the world by storm. In fact, a search of any major gaming site would suggest Zafehouse: Diaries doesn't exist at all.
Well, we did it. We made a game. After 12 months of hard work, our first title, Zafehouse: Diaries is out in the wild. It's been a protracted, challenging affair, first tackling the needs of the Classification Board and then braving the uncharted waters of Steam Greenlight. But it's done!
It's pretty much do or die for my fledging studio and its first game, Zafehouse: Diaries. Earlier this week we took a massive step -- posting Diaries to Greenlight and letting a short demo out into the wild. At this point, emotions are rampant, more than I can describe in a sentence. All I know is that my life is at a crossroads. If we bomb, it'll be hard to recover from. If we succeed, well, that's the dream, isn't it?
Last month, I wrote about my indie game, Zafehouse: Diaries, and its voyage towards the Australian Classification Board. I'm happy to report the game's currently with the ACB, being reviewed and right now, it's the only thing stopping us from turning on the "buy" switch.
Zafehouse: Diaries, a zombie survivor horror simulator, is the debut PC title from the Australia-based Screwfly Studios, a two-man team consisting of myself and David Kidd. In this post, David explains some of the core gameplay concepts in greater detail, along with new screenshots from the latest alpha build.
Classification. Unless you're Bethesda, in the professional game-making business, it's something you just don't worry about. It's the publisher's job to send the right materials to the correct organisations, pay the fees and deal with any fallout. Of course, when you don't have a publisher, the burden sits on your shoulders and, while we were expecting some sort of expense to get Zafehouse: Diaries classified in Australia, $110 short of a grand came as a shock.
Man, Zafehouse was not a pretty game. But that's what you get when you build something entirely out of native Windows control, 16 colours (probably less) and a whole lot of text. Even so, people still loved it and somehow, I made a career out of it.
For the past nine months, myself and one other have been working on an indie PC-only game called Zafehouse: Diaries. We announced it, quietly, at the start of last week and the plan to release it in the next few months. We have a website, a forum, a Twitter account. The online basics, as it were. Most importantly, we have a game-thing. Why, then, am I so completely terrified?
Five weeks ago, I quit my job at Firemint, one of the world's top mobile game developers, to pursue a career in independent games development. Whether or not this rather insane decision proves to be my undoing... well, you'll be the first to know.
Zafehouse.com Is Open For Business: Zafehouse hasn't done too bad, considering its meagre beginnings. I've decided I'll update it with bug fixes and new features occasionally, and these things demanded an official home. There's a new version up, which includes support for an online scoreboard. Give it a whirl!
Zafehouse.com Is Open For Business: Zafehouse hasn't done too bad, considering its meagre beginnings. I've decided I'll update it with bug fixes and new features occasionally, and these things demanded an official home. There's a new version up, which includes support for an online scoreboard. Give it a whirl!
Update: Zafehouse now has its very own website, zafehouse.com.
Everyone remembers Zafehouse, don't they? The free zombie survival horror simulator I coded in seven days? Well, turns out it was by far the most popular of the three titles that came out of the Game A Week feature, and there were plenty of people who submitted fixes and tweaks. I found myself with some spare time on the weekend, and decided to put together a version 1.5, incorporating the feedback I'd had on the game.
Originally, I just wanted to streamline encounters by removing the "next round" button and having things tick over automatically. But then I got another idea, and then another, and soon I found myself with a big list of changes, improvements and bug fixes.
I've included a complete rundown after the jump, but here's a summary if you can't wait:
* Buildings produce more resources, while raiding brings in less.
* Encounters streamlined, instant resolution button
* Zombie numbers increased.
* More shortcut keys.
* New scoring formula.
* New perk, and original perks improved.
* New building, the Church, which produces survivors.
* GUI improvements
* Numerous bug fixes (no more whipping from inside buildings)Download and enjoy!
Download Zafehouse v1.5 binaries.
Download Zafehouse v1.5 VB .NET source code.
Update: Zafehouse now has its very own website, zafehouse.com.
Game A Week 2 is done. Done I say! Zafehouse is ready to be played by all.
As I said earlier in the week, this thing almost killed me. I had an idea that just exploded. I think the end result is quite awesome. Zafehouse has strategy, survival horror and, best of all, zombies. I love shufflers, I just love them to death, and I'm glad I got to put them into a completed game.
I have yet more plans for a version 2, which I'll release when it's done. For now, I have to get started on Game A Week 3. If you'd like to check out Game A Week 1, Wizkill, hit up this post.
Hit the jump for a development breakdown, hints and tips and unimplemented features, or download the game and give it a spin.
This one's going to kill me, I think. May have been too ambitious. The mental image I had of Zafehouse, the next title for Kotaku AU's Game A Week feature, went fuzzy at about, oh, 3AM this morning. I almost freaked out believing I'd made some unplayable monstrosity. But, through the late nights debugging my arse off, I've managed to forge something I'd call "feature complete". Now I just have to playtest like mad.
Don't forget to check out Wizkill, the game from week 1, and make suggestions for other games I can make.
Here's the second title I'm working on for Game A Week. It's called Zafehouse, and demands the player keep a bunch of survivors alive for 120 hours (five days) from zombie attacks, while hunting for weapons, ammo, food and other people. It will be primarily event driven, requiring the player to deal with infections, supply shortages and freak accidents. Securing buildings will be an important part of play, as not everyone can fit in the starting house!
I'd say I'm about 15% done at this point, so a lot of work to do before Friday.
Start thinking of game ideas guys! I still have a few ones I'd like to try, but I'm keen to see what you can come up with. Remember - seven days of development time only!
Update: I didn't even notice the game's random name generator had spat out "John Romero" for this particular run-through. To put this in perspective, there's a 1 in 4418 chance of this happening.
