Decision: Red Daze News

Welcome, one and all, to another Decision: Red Daze Development log!

This time we are shining the light on the map, and delving a little bit into the development process that went into making the biggest zombie-blastin’ playground ever seen in the Decision series!

The map is one of the most important aspects of any game - be it a narrative experience, a role playing game, or a first person shooter - the locations you visit and the surrounding ambience set the mood for the entire duration of the game. Knowing that, we spent a long, lonnnngggg time on the idea generation process long before we even started developing the game map, and feel this is our best one yet.

So welcome… to the Dust Bowl!



The first iteration of the game’s map was completely different from what you’d see now. The play area was originally four times bigger than the one we have now, with the amount of settlements being similar in structure but having less functionality.

We spent some time working on it before we realized it was wayy too large, and poorly affected the dynamics and flow of the game. In theory, an average session should have been enough for you to comfortably set up your squad of survivors, explore the surrounding area and scavenge for some loot, then stumble upon a new settlement and capture it. At that time in development, this was the element that took the most effort from the team, and even then, took the greatest amount of time. We had to completely redesign the map, and now the Dust Bowl feels wayyyyyy more comfortable!



We placed everything you see in the game manually, with great care to how you guys would enjoy our game. The game's loot, survivors and regular enemies aren't attached to specific locations, and instead they're scattered relatively evenly across the map, scaled to the player's progress across the Dust Bowl. Since the development team consists of only two people, not counting the screenwriters and actors, this distribution of survivors, loot and ordinary enemies keeps the development process more streamlined, and helps us create the game we want to make, and tell the stories we want to tell!

And stories are what we’re all about.

Every location you see in the wasteland has a unique and enthralling backstory behind it, and we simply CANNOT wait to tell you about them any longer.

So, starting today, we start telling the story of the Dust Bowl: each week, we will take a location from the Decision: Red Daze wasteland, tell you more about the backstory of the place, or maybe its’ use in fighting against the menacing monster army!

Thank you so much for your support, and we hope to bring you much more content like this in the near future!

Survivors!

Steam's Next Fest is finally upon us, and we decided it would be a great time for you to start your training and get prepared to survive the apocalypse and clear the world of the monsters and Red Daze once and for all!

With that in mind, we want YOU to pull up your chair, put on your gamer pants, and turn on our 90 minute demo on , where you'll get the honor of desperately clinging to life with no supplies, food or weapons in the harsh conditions of an unforgiving wasteland, or become the ultimate survivor, lead your squad of very cool specialists, and wield some of the most powerful weapons in the wasteland to mow down your foes in a blaze of glory!

EMOTIONAL MANIPULATION TIME

If you do not WISHLIST the game after playing the demo, I will not show you any cute pictures of a doggo that may or may not be in the final build of the game >:(

Join our stream in Steam Next Fest!

This is Patrick from the FlyAnvil Screenwriting Team, here with a development update! This time we'll be talking all about the various inhabitants of the Dust Bowl.
As the Red Daze set in, the people of the Dust Bowl panicked. The ensuing chaos proved just as destructive as the effects of the red mist itself. Those who survived through the initial dangers decided to band together, realizing that resource hoarding and power struggles were not to be tolerated if humanity was to endure this menace. The group had to come before the individual. With that in mind, survivors established trade relationships with the most unlikely allies to ensure the future of the human race. Thanks to the efforts of those pioneers, you can rest assured someone will always have your back.
Most humans divide up their time between guarding settlements, exploring and scavenging the wastes, and boast some of the most impressive firepower necessary to protect themselves and their fellow man.


The stable Merchants of the Dust Bowl hire Guards and Mercenaries to keep themselves protected. Each of them has its own stories, actions, and inventories. Their inventory updates almost daily, so check them out when you're passing by; you might find some of the best items in the game. They also all have a certain doggo with them, so keep an eye out for him as well.


Whereas Merchants technically appeared in previous entries in the form of menus for purchasing upgrades, Mercenaries are an entirely new class, especially the big, yellow variants. You'll find Mercenaries exploring the wasteland in search of work where the Red Daze has lifted and in Merchant camps after their contracts have expired. As for the allied Yellow Mutant Mercenaries, they can be found in their own settlements. They will make your squad much stronger than would be possible otherwise.

Within the Dust Bowl, Mercenaries symbolically represent tragedy and absurdity. Many of them are for hire not only by you but also by your enemies. Mercenaries often have stories to tell, as you'd expect in their line of work.


The most common enemies - Zombie and Zombie Dog - patrol together with their eyes mostly empty, but with an insatiable craving of flesh - Human and Mutant alike. A substantial amount of new Zombie types appear in this entry in the series, and all Zombie Dogs are entirely new. Many of the newer types are based around folklore both from the world of Decision and from our own cultures. Of course, sometimes we choose names just because they sound cool. Zombie Dogs are now capable of leaping across long distances to chomp on you, so watch out! My personal favorite of the new entries is the Zombie Gangster. They have a classic look mixed with an old western farmer. It oozes the style of the Dust Bowl, and the time it's set in before the infection. You aren't likely to find any Zombies with large firearms as their bodies are too decrepit to handle the recoil. You'll have to hunt bigger prey for that!

Each Zombie can be found performing patrols, and hiding from them won't be easy. The infected have a much better sense of smell compared to the Survivors. Though they appear to be falling apart, the infection sustains them and makes them harder to kill than you might expect. Take a look at their awesome designs!


Mutants and Werewolves are nothing new to the series, but we have expanded their lore and use. Many of the Dust Bowl's Mutants are actually much older than they seem. They'll use guerrilla tactics against you and have a great understanding of their surroundings. If you take a closer look at their actions, you'll see that they take on similar roles to Human Survivors. Mutants are much closer to people than their monstrous appearance implies. They don't exactly fit into the meathead stereotype that is so common, but they are certainly capable of massive destruction in close combat. They're the only kind of enemy you'll see using big weapons, so seeking them out to collect their arsenal would be a very smart, if dangerous, choice.

Werewolves have gotten an entire overhaul from a lore perspective. They now operate off of a religious, caste-based system centered around the in-game Old Church. With little left, after them turning, they found themselves becoming loyal to Mutants. As a fun fact from the lore, Werewolves have canonically only existed for around 500 to 600 years! Fans of our flash games might know their origins, but we'll save that for another dev blog.

Werewolves are the most basic type of Wolf-man Mutant and have several different tiers now, though not as many as the Mutants they are loyal to. They can leap great distances to take down their prey. Often, they stun with an initial attack and follow it up with a bunch of swift strikes to rip you apart. If that doesn't work, they might try a stealthier approach. Believe it or not, Werewolves can speak! They just don't like talking it up around their enemies. They certainly don’t want you knowing where they come from, but some well-studied survivors might spill some secrets if you are persuasive enough.


The biggest new additions to this game are the Alphas and Leaders! As their names imply, they lead each of their respective factions. Their leadership is divided between several areas, and thus there are several types of Alphas and Leaders. Each one is more formidable than the next. Most Alpha Zombies are ancient entities revived by the Red Daze. It seems to have a miraculous effect on them, bringing forth a power beyond what they had before!

Since Mutant Society is based on strength as well as words, those that were most benefited by the effects of the Red Daze quickly soared to leadership positions, quite literally dwarfing their competitors. Zombie Alphas adopt a feral and animalistic nature in their society. In contrast, Mutant Leaders are quite civil - at least among their own kind.

All of the Alphas and Leaders are only naturally occurring in regions with the Red Daze, but they have been leaking out into the world. Keep an eye out for them in future entries that might take place outside of a Red Daze infested area.


But the most exciting and recent addition is the Troll. Trolls are absolutely massive - over two times the size of a Survivor. It might not come as a surprise, but they don't use standard weapons. They prefer their arms, legs, and heavy scraps they can find laying around.

Trolls migrated to the Dust Bowl en masse after finding out that the Red Daze had regenerative effects on the infected. Unfortunately, this turned Mutant Trolls into ticking time bombs of berserk rage, with most of them unable to tell friend from foe. They are a unique and dangerous entity leaking out into the world. Essentially rabid, what remains of these titans is something to be feared. I personally recommend avoiding close combat. You might end up buried in the ground up to your head or ragdolling across the wastes. You never know! The Red Daze has certainly made them a lot stronger, and their regular-sized counterparts were already among the top of the food chain.


That’s it for today! We’re having a lot of fun writing these, so please, let us know what you’d like to read about next!

Greetings, wasteland survivors! Today, we would like to share a little bit about the combat mechanics in our series of top-down zombie shooters.
It all had to start somewhere, and so our journey began with a wacky insect shooter, Insectonator, where players became not-so-professional exterminators, and used any means necessary, mainly guns, to rid of insects that piled up at their feet. The mechanics were relatively simple, and back in those days, it was challenging to come up with any more interesting features besides moving the cursor and clicking the mouse, causing the insects to fly apart and turn to a pulp. It was fun and satisfying, yet very simple and easy to pick up on. Then, in the process of chasing new and exciting ideas, we decided to replace the insects with terrifying zombies and added a regular-sized main character. What came of it is now known as a classic top-down zombie shooter, Decision, the first entry of the series that would continually evolve for years to come.


The mechanics were standard for their time – you moved the character using with your right hand using the keyboard, while simultaneously aiming and shooting with your left using the mouse. The challenge was very clear – we had to make these simple mechanics that players had to use for the entire duration of the game enjoyable, and most of all, feel like the player was the strongest and bravest warrior in the world. Effects, sounds, camera shaking, blood splatters — all these things added to the special pleasure of destroying hordes of soulless enemies. In the beginning, there was no melee combat present. Instead, the hero automatically hit or kicked nearby enemies, creating the self-defense effect of a kung-fu master. While the player did not have any influence over that, it still felt very natural, yet extremely satisfying. For the sake of variety in the game, some tower defense mechanics were also introduced, but that is a story for another time.


For the second entry in the series, the player was taken to a new locale, where they continued their quest to take down massive hordes of enemies. We felt comfortable using the same combat mechanics from the previous game, instead of focusing on adding other features that would bring our players new and exciting experiences and emotions. We also got an incredible amount of positive and constructive feedback, which we used to give gamers a multitude of ways to satisfy their thirst for blood.


After the smashing success of Decision 2, we have decided to shift our attention to a different setting, in which people could wreak havoc. We had our hearts set on the Medieval Ages because we just loved everything about the Medieval Ages since we were kids. The simplicity of life, stone castles, knights in armor, and bladed weapons caught our attention even before the release of the first installment of Gothic, which was always near and dear to our hearts. We wanted to make a medieval game that would primarily be enjoyed by the fans of the Decision series. That’s why for our next game, we traveled back in time over 500 years, to the era of knights and castles.

And so, Decision: Medieval came to be. In order to preserve the game’s lore, we decided not to add magic, which was used in most PC games set in that era. This meant that using splash hits at nearby enemies would no longer work as it had in previous games. In order to stay within the boundaries of a top-down zombie shooter, we had to change the game mechanics, because bows and crossbows alone would not be enough to keep the fighting dynamics and enjoyment of battles without magic. Thus, a new era of melee combat mechanics was born. We were able to make melee combat as fun and exciting as shooting firearms, and the feedback we received made us incredibly happy.


But this presented a challenge. We really wanted to preserve the dynamics of our previous games, where there were a lot of long-range weapons, and the player could easily point the cursor at different parts of the screen and shoot oncoming enemies. This was the mechanic we desperately wanted to keep. To preserve this feature, we added a Jump or Charge — the ability to run up to an enemy almost instantly from a certain distance and strike immediately. Once we added this feature, we realized that we were going in the right direction because combat evolved into something very deep, yet intuitive and anyone could learn to do it after a few minutes of playing. Moving between enemies became a separate, interesting mini-game. You could choose a target and attack it without wasting time dealing with the enemies that were standing between you and the target. What mattered to us most was making the process as realistic as possible, so we integrated some special effects and sounds that would make the experience more believable. And that was our first step in mastering the proper melee mechanics for the game.

The second issue was jump length and hit strength. We wanted to reward players who used the charge mechanic strategically, by making it stronger the more you wait before activating it. That’s how the Power Bar or Stacking Effect came about. It was an idea that came up while working on the mechanics of the bow — the harder you draw the bowstring, the farther an arrow will fly, and the more damage it will be able to do. In this instance, the player character is both the bowstring and the arrow at once. Once you start charging up the attack, the power meter would fill up, and once it was full, it would unleash a devastating blow on the target. Most often, the attack would prove fatal, resulting in a glorious explosion of blood and body parts, with the screen shake and epic sound effects making each strike epic and worthy of an action movie trailer.


Combined, these two relatively simple mechanics allowed us to achieve amazingly satisfying effects in melee combat, with each swing of the weapon feeling more hefty and powerful than the next.
Our newest entry to the series, Decision: Red Daze, brings us back full circle, taking us back to modern times, where conventional firearms are survivors’ stock and trade, and yet we took the extra mile to make sure that the melee combat all the way from the Middle Ages stayed with us in the post-apocalyptic world, and we’re thrilled with the results.

But we just wouldn’t be ourselves if we did not strive to improve every facet of our game, and so for this new game, our sights got set on the gunplay. The Power Bar has evolved, and now it has taken shape in the form of charged-up shots! Pocket pistol, shotgun, rocket launcher, you name it – everything has the potential to obliterate even the most terrifying foes with one shot! All you have to do is start charging up the shot, take a breath, and prepare your eyes for the most beautiful gory explosion you have ever seen.


But wait, there’s more!
Shooting well means being skilled at it, and if you’re REALLY skilled, you can even aim better before shooting! So, level up your character, and specialize for your gun. The more skillful you are with your weapon, the more you can charge it up, the more damage you will do!
Oh yeah, there are stats you can improve for each character in this game, I guess the cat’s out of the bag, but it’s a story for another time, and it will be worth your time 😉
That’s all for now, survivors, thank you for taking your time to read this not-so-brief story of our games and the evolution of our combat mechanics! We have oh so much more in store for you, so keep your eyes peeled for more of this type of content!