Hired 2 Die News

Hello everyone!

This month we are very excited about Steam Survival Fest (August 1 - August 8). It will be the first festival/event to which Hired 2 Die is exposed. We will start recruiting players for our closed Alpha. Stay tuned! Join our Discord Channel if you want a free key to play our closed Alpha!

Because of the Survival Fest, we are improving the quality of our store. Most of the visuals were placeholders or needed to be changed. Also, we will upload a new trailer, showing better the experience of playing Hired 2 Die with a friend, which required us to upgrade a lot of stuff and improve the assets.

Help us boost our visibility during the event, wishlist our game:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1729140/Hired_2_Die/

What you will find new on our Store Page when the Survival Fest starts:

• New capsule (already uploaded);
  
• New trailer;
  
• New screenshots;
  
• New short description;
  
• New long description.
  

And these are some of the assets we are improving. The old version on the left and the new one on the right:


Image: Organization Boxes.


Image: Time Clock.


Image: Camera System.

See you later! ːsteamthumbsupː

Welcome back! I am Hugo Campos, responsible for the development of Hired 2 Die. In "Devlog #001 | What do I do in Hired 2 Die?" you learned about H2D and its main objectives. This time, I will present to you the Store, how it works, and why it is vital in all matches. If you didn't see the last Devlog, check it out:

https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/1729140/view/4868968718724400141


As we explained before, in your first match, you will probably choose an easier contract, i.e. one that has Ordinary Tasks. In that case, these tasks won't require items from the Store, you will be able to complete the match with good coordination and planning. But, imagine the following situation: during a match, you see yourself without money, but you need to buy an item from the Store to complete the contract objective. What to do now?

[h2]Earning money with Anomalies[/h2]

Anomalies are unnatural changes to random objects in the setting, the mere existence of supernatural creatures causes anomalies. These Anomalies are very important to the research team at Intersection (the company that hires people to do these "wonderful" tasks), for that reason, each player receives a photographic camera specially designed to deal with these Anomalies.

This camera has advanced components of cutting-edge technology, and for that reason, you can see things through this camera that our eyes can't see. Using this camera will make you able to visualize where the Anomalies are in the environment.



After photographing an Anomaly, it ceases to exist, the only evidence remaining is the photography itself. This photo will immediately be sent as a piece of evidence, and payment will be made to you accordingly with the Anomaly rarity. You can keep doing this until the last Anomaly is fixed, that is if you can find it.

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]

From the point of view of development, Anomalies are very fun to create, currently, they involve changing a characteristic of an object: increasing or decreasing its size, making it shake, or even changing the texture of portraits. Some anomalies are simply objects that shouldn't be there, things completely out of context. In the future, we intend to create more bizarre and funny Anomalies, if you have any interesting ideas we have a Discord channel called "#suggestions" that you can use to, well, send suggestions.

[h2]Contract Items x Utility Items?[/h2]

There are two types of items to buy in the store: contract items and utility items. As mentioned in the last Devlog, in advanced contracts, the players must fix some kind of system. In that case, these systems have missing parts and the players must buy these parts in the Store. Therefore, many times it is impossible to complete a contract without using the Store.



On the other hand, you can buy utility items for yourself, these items may help you to complete your objectives and deal with obstacles. For example:

• Plier – The plier is useful to break chains that lock certain doors and openings. In some cases, the chain is locked with a padlock, and you must find a way to open the padlock. But if you don't have time for this but have money, you can buy the plier to cut the chain.
  
• Strong Flashlight – Some creatures are affected by light, but the default flashlight is not strong enough for that, buying a strong light will give you a way to defend yourself.
  

[h2]Delivery[/h2]

At last, we arrived at the final step of buying an item: the delivery. In Hired 2 Die, the items sold are delivered after a period, simulating real-life. This period may vary based on random factors of the Store, it can last some hours (the game time equivalent to minutes) or days of work, which makes you lose a day of its deadline to complete the job. Optionally, you can pay a higher value to make the item arrive immediately. The items are delivered in the lockers located in the main room or in the storeroom.



I hope you already have a good idea of how to play Hired 2 Die. If you are interested and wish to buy the game, don't forget to add it to your wishlist so you don't miss its launch:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1729140/Hired_2_Die/

Hello again, my name is Hugo and as promised in the last post, we'll keep reporting the development of Hired 2 Die every 2 weeks, if you know nothing about H2D, I recommend reading the Devlog #000.

Sometimes when there is a new horror game, I feel that I've already seen that game before, until I understand what makes that game unique. Right now, you might be associating Hired 2 Die with other horror games. To clarify what makes H2D unique, we listed here its main rules and objectives.


In H2D the players work for a company called Intersection. Before starting a new match the players must select a work contract, that will define what is the main objective of that match. There are 3 types of contracts in the game: Ordinary Tasks, Complex Tasks, and Hunting Tasks.

[h2]Planning Phase[/h2]
Each match involves different maps, items, strategies, and deadlines, for that reason at the beginning of the match the players have the opportunity to plan their steps in the main room, where they will organize items, access security footage, and buy auxiliary items to help them out.

[h2]Ordinary Tasks[/h2]
These tasks won't involve much mental effort to be solved. Usually, it will require some type of manual work like carrying objects to the correct places or cleaning dirty rooms. They are low-risk and low-reward contracts, a good start for beginners.



[h2]Complex Tasks[/h2]
The players need to execute a complex procedure to complete this objective. The complex tasks always involve fixing some non-intuitive system that is presented to the players in a puzzle format. To increase the replayability value of the game, the solution of each module of this puzzle is randomly generated, this way even if the player completes the objective, it will be different in another match.



Try and error won't be a good way to fix the system, some vital information about the solution is written in a manual, and it can be accessed on the main room's computer. Thus, making it essential to have clear communication between the players.

The player that assumes the guide's role, shall conduct the other player to the desired place avoiding "unpleasant surprises" along the way. The security systems will help in this task, he can live access security camera footage, open/close doors, turn lights on/off, and access the information in the manual to solve the puzzle. Though getting distracted here might be fatal since he might not be alone in the main room.

The player that will risk his life in the dark corridors, should carry with him items to solve the puzzle and to protect himself from panic situations. Besides moving with intelligence to avoid stumbling with a creature. This player also needs to communicate clearly, since each system has different brands and characteristics. These differences are crucial to the guide in order to find the correct solution to the puzzle.

[h2]Hunting Tasks[/h2]
We are still working on many things about the hunting tasks. So we won't show much in detail. Now, if you are the kind of player that is tired of being hunted, this task will allow you to assume the role of the hunter.

In order to hunt a creature, you must become the creature, understand its behavior, and how to manipulate and deceive it. To find out all the information about a creature you can count on a special camera provided to you for free by Intersection, with this camera you should take a picture of the creature specific behavior and send it back to Intersection. You will receive an analysis of the creature explaining its behavior, this will give you hints on how to face these creatures.


[h2]Conclusion of the Contract[/h2]
To end the contract, the players must clock out and leave using the elevator, but the salary paid by its conclusion depends on some factors:

1. You need to be alive. Even though it is possible to end a contract with a deceived colleague, this won't be very good for your salary.
   
2. Death. Obviously, when all the players die the contract ends, but since there is nobody alive to receive the salary, they might pay the firewood to cremate your body.
   
3. Deadline: the deadline is measured in days. You can try to solve everything in a single day, but there is an ideal time to stay in a game, after a certain number of hours, the creatures get too aggressive. Besides that, they naturally become more aggressive as the days go by.
   

In the next Devlogs, we will explain more about what to do with the money you earned. And just to remind you, if you have any questions or are interested in talking to us, you can join us on our Discord Channel.

Welcome! If you are reading this post, it means you are probably interested in our game, and that means a lot to us! I'm Hugo Campos, the Co-Founder of Electric Monkeys Studio. If you don’t know us, we have developed Gravity Heroes (that just won the “Golden Cube” award yesterday, crazy right?!), a local multiplayer game for up to four players and Gravitational, a VR game that received several awards at BIG Festival and SBGames. However, we are not here to talk about past projects, we want to talk about our new game: Hired 2 Die.

What is Hired 2 Die?

Hired 2 Die is a game focused on the cooperation between two players. You and a friend are the new employees in an organization that deals with the paranormal, offering contracts that pay a salary based on the difficulty of the tasks in its clauses. You will have to move boxes around an office or even fix slot machines in a casino, all this while trying to survive the ploys of terrible creatures. Only through teamwork will you be able to finish your job in time. And, if you are feeling courageous (and lucky!), you can even accept a contract to try and imprison the creatures.



This Devlog #0 is the first part of a new vision for the project. We are committing to better our communication process with our community, and the first step towards this objective is in the creation of Devlogs, which will be updated every two weeks showing our plans, different game strategies, new mechanics and the development process of new monsters, all in a manner which is as clear and transparent as possible.

What are we doing now?

We are hard at work to finalize the development of the first stage of the game, the office. This milestone represents something very important for us: a playable alpha version. A stage in Hired 2 Die has three maps (every one representing a different difficulty level), three advanced tasks, some basic tasks, and, obviously, monsters, for a unique, strategic, and fun experience.

What is already in the game?

We have added various tools to help you prevail and finish your job with perfection. First, you have access to the powerful security systems present at your job site. You can turn lights on or off, open and close doors, and trigger alarms remotely. But your most important tool is the security cameras, which let you see rooms and corridors from a “safe” location, keeping you ahead of terrible creatures lurking in the shadows, tracking their position, restricting their movements, distracting them with alarms, and controlling the lights to keep them away from your objectives.



Second, you can manipulate various equipment and items, that can be delivered during the stage to help you formulate the perfect plan to execute your job. However, everything in life has a price, be it money or time. The items bought during the stage must be paid for with the money received from completing tasks, and, unless you pay extra, the delivery man might take a while to bring your orders. Therefore, buying items must be carefully planned between the players, since, as the days go by, the horrors that inhabit your workplace get more menacing and dangerous.

Last but certainly not least, the biggest of your aces: your partner! You can monitor the various security cameras, making use of the doors, alarms, and other systems to distract or restrict enemies, while your friend desperately tries to finish a job, that, sometimes, needs calm and attention.



And this is the exact feeling of cooperation that we want not only to have in the game, but also with the community! It is still early to talk about a playable version, but not to include you in the development process. We have a Discord server that will be updated with the Develogs regularly, where you can make comments and talk to the team. We want to hear your ideas, comments, and make a better game with your feedback. In the future, we will invite players to the Alpha version of the game.

I sincerely hope this Devlog got you interested in the project, and we hope to see you back in two weeks!