Yet Another Zombie Survivors News

[h2]Welcome, Survivor![/h2]

First of all: Merry Christmas!

Whether you join in the festivities or not, we wish you a wonderful holiday season. While various circumstances have prevented us from bringing you a full update release just yet, we'd like to invite you to see first-hand what we're working on in the Update 0.5 Public Beta.


IMPORTANT: To reduce any possible confusion and accelerate the implementation of changes, please keep all the discussion related to the test versions to the spaces listed below:

• A dedicated #yazs-beta channel on our Discord server.
  
• "Public Beta Test" sub forum on YAZS Steam forums.
  
• Comments under this post.

You can also send us your feedback at [email protected]
adding "0.5.0 BETA" somewhere in the title of your message. Thanks!

[hr][/hr][h2]How to join the Public Beta Test?[/h2][hr][/hr]
Want to help us out & get an early look at the new version of the game? Awesome!

[h3]DISCLAIMER: Before jumping straight in, please understand, that this version of the game might be unstable, create issues when switching between old & new builds of the game, and may generally be less stable, more buggy, and in an overall imperfect state. We will do our best to help you with any issues, but please understand the risks associated with beta testing.[/h3]

If you understand the potential problems and are willing to take the risk, here's how you can get in:

[h2]How to join:[/h2]

1. Open your Steam client, find Yet Another Zombie Survivors on your games list, right-click its name and select the "Properties..." option.
   
2. Enter the "Betas" tab, click the "None" drop-down menu on the right, and select the "public-beta" option. You can always return to the default version of the game by selecting "None" again.
   
3. If you want to share your feedback about the beta version (thanks in advance!), click the image below to join our Discord server (you'll need an account for that, but it'll be worth it, believe me!):
   
   
   
4. When joined, you will be able to comment on the current beta version in the new #yazs-beta forums, which you can join by selecting it from the drop-down list:
   
5. And that's all! If the beta/test version of the game is different from the current one, the Steam will update the game with its changes. You will know that the Beta Branch is active from the "[public-beta]" text to the right of the game's title in your game's library.

[hr][/hr][h2]What should I test in this version?[/h2][hr][/hr]
There are multiple things we'd like you to take a look at and share your feedback on them.

Here are some of the things added/changed in this version:

• New leveling system:
  
  • Minor level-ups offering passive stat upgrades.
    
  • Major level-ups offering weapon & ability upgrades.
    
  • All weapons & abilities to have 3 levels instead of 5.
    
  • Always 4 selection options in major level-ups.
    
  • Increased XP gain and decreased level requirements.
    
  • Minor level-up options instead of money/health in cases of empty reward pools.
• New stats: Ability Duration, Area, Critical Chance, Critical Damage.
  
• Elemental damage system and new stat scaling: Fire, Ice, Electric, Chemical.
  
• Stat reworks: Armor (percentage damage reduction), Ability & Weapon Cooldown Reduction.
  
• New playable Survivor, melee/ranged hybrid focused on fire-type elemental damage.
  
• 17 new items, 28 item reworks (item banning / pool customisation planned for Update 0.6).
  
• 18 new achievements + redesigned item rewards for most.
  
• UI/UX reworks of multiple different interfaces + language improvements / terms unification.
  
• Completion marks for game modes, different for one victory and completion with all team leaders.
  
• Balance changes and systems update to weapons & abilities.
  
• New accessibility option: Arachnophobia mode.
  
• New soundtrack & sound effects improvements.
  
• Potential fix for freezes related to V-Sync being enabled on some of the 120+Hz displays.

We're especially interested in your feedback on:

• How do you like the new leveling system?
  
• For you, is the game as fun as it was before, or less / more?
  
• What do you feel about the current game difficulty & balance?

Please remember that Elemental Damage Sources & Synergies is a work in progress that will likely take more than one update to fully complete and polish. Please also note that there are a lot of changes under the hood in this update, which will hopefully make each future update faster to develop.

Given the holiday season and the amount of system changes this update will bring, we expect the 0.5 beta to run until around the first half of January, after which we will release an updated version of the game.

Thank you so much for your support and for your patience
Have an awesome, warm holiday!


https://store.steampowered.com/app/2163330/Yet_Another_Zombie_Survivors/


[hr][/hr][h2]HOTFIX 1:[/h2][hr][/hr]

• Pyro now unlocks properly.
  
• Base experience per XP gem increased to 15 from 13.
  
• Huntress's Explosive Arrows are exploding once again.
  
• Glass Cannon now properly works as described (removes 10% of max HP).
  
• Apple now has the correct description and works properly. Also it grants +1hp/s for each 200 max HP now.
  
• Item Chest Chest now properly increases Dodge Chance by 0.2% per chest instead of 2%.
  
• Jewel of Life should work properly now (previously it did resurrect the player but somehow still passed the damage, so when killed on low HP or when overkilled it would just kill them again).
  
• Music should not glitch out that much anymore.
  
• Pyro achievement description now correctly displays the required elemental damage value.
  
• Nuts & Bolts now correctly highlight Weapon Damage when highlighted.
  
• Eagle Eye and Critical Protocol now apply correct values on leveling up.
  
• Eagle Eye now grants +20% Critical Damage on level 2 and +10 Critical chance on level 3 instead of +8/+8 on each.
  
• Critical Protocol now grants +20% Critical Damage on level 2 and +10 Critical chance on level 3 instead of +8/+8 on each.
  
• Added Weapons Volume to Game Options (also please keep in mind that a total SFX rework is currently in progress).
  
• Barrel Roll now grants +0.1s immunity time
  
• MedKit now slows the player accordingly instead of speeding up
  
• Toilet Paper now grants +5% Chemical Damage per stack (previously 25%)
  
• Limit of carried Camping Sets set to 1 (previously incorrectly 3)
  
• Arrow Rain particles now properly scale with Ability Area
  
• Progress bar isn't displayed in the Achievements Menu anymore when achievement is unlocked.
  
• Banish now works properly for minor level-ups.
  
• Added Weapons Volume to Game Options (also please keep in mind that a total SFX rework is currently in progress).

Also, a note from us, developers - we really want to thank you for your feedback! It helps us a ton to know what's good for the game and what's not. We also want to assure you that every single one of your messages is read. We may not have enough resources to answer them, but we do receive them and we do read them (by the way, the current record for the length of a single feedback we received is 12,168 characters).

In the meantime - once again, we wish you all happy holidays!

[hr][/hr][h2]HOTFIX 2:[/h2][hr][/hr]

• Introduced stat clamp mechanic (which will be further improved and balanced throughout the game updates).
  
• “Stimpack“ now work as described.
  
• “Protocol: Critical“ no longer shows duration stat, since it's now a passive ability.
  
• “Fury Unleashed“ now displays correct values.
  
• Ghost's 3rd tier weapons were slightly buffed.
  
• Achievement panel now displays correctly on widescreen resolutions.
  
• To complement the Armor rework, Fatigue debuff now increases maximum damage received up to 10,000, from 5,000.
  
• Added HUD transparency (item & skill icons) to accessibility options.
  
• “Om nom nom“ achievement once again correctly calculates zombies eaten by the Desert Worm.
  
• Dodge now works correctly.
  
• “Apple“ now correctly adds value to pickup.
  
• Interface no longer freezes when player obtains all available items.
  
• Large numbers now show spaces as separators (so 12 734 125 instead of 12734125).
  
• Fixed some SFXs (hello, SWATs turret).
  
• “Laser”, “Blowtorch“ and “Flamethrower“ weapons now deal continuous damage (along with “set on fire” damage for the latter two).

What now? After fixing some critical bugs and “band-aiding” the balance we want to focus on polishing the fun factor.Some of the things we're considering right now:

• Slowing down leveling a bit but returning level-ups to their previous "ability & weapon upgrades only" shape.
  
• Keeping minor (stat/passive) level-ups, but moving these to a different in-game event (radio support/shop), where you would be able to trade yet unspecified per-run gathered points for them.
  
• Adding some not yet precised minor balance & fun changes

[hr][/hr][h2]HOTFIX 3:[/h2][hr][/hr]

• Core leveling system returned to its pre-0.5 shape, but now offering 4 options instead of 3.
  
• Enemies can now drop a new power-up type, that grants passive upgrades (AKA minor level-ups) when a separate bar is filled.
  
• Minor level-up options are now also available when the weapon/ability upgrade pool runs dry.
  
• Weapons and abilities now have 4 levels, instead of 3 (or 5).
  
• Item chests now always offer 4 options, instead of 3.
  
• Lots of new sound effects (please share your feedback on these).
  
• Most weapons were tuned down to a form similar to their 0.4.2 counterparts.
  
• Items: Barrel Roll, Power Glove and T-Pose Doll reworked so that they offer different bonuses than invincibility frames.
  
• "Beeping sounds" removed from the first level's music track.
  
• Lots of other bugfixes, refractions, and number tweaks.

[hr][/hr][h2]HOTFIX 4:[/h2][hr][/hr]

• Military Training points spawn a bit more often.
  
• Military Training pick-ups no longer despawn and have a “blob” indicator enabled.
  
• Military Training’s amount needed to level-up is now displayed under its new progress bar.
  
• Military Training level-up now offers 4 options, instead of 3.
  
• Statistics are now correctly shown when hovering the cursor over them on the Military Training level-up screen.
  
• Shotgun damage slightly lowered and it’s reload time increased by 0.25s.
  
• Added “Toggle Auto Fire” to binding options (default: F/Left Stick Button).
  
• New level-up description system implemented (“Current >> New” instead of “New (+changed by)”.
  
• Fixed descriptions for some items that were incorrectly displaying substracting stat while in reality they increased it.
  
• Improved default controller binding to better take 4 options in selection interfaces into consideration.

Let us know what you think about these and thank you 🤟

ㅤStay awesome,
ㅤㅤAwesome Games Studio

[h3]Welcome, Survivor![/h3]

We're happy to announce, that we're taking part in this year's Steam Autumn Sale!

You can get a copy of YAZS at a 20% discount and vote for us in this event!

[hr][/hr][h3]Have you been enjoying your chill evenings in the Isolated City?
How about voting for us in the "Sit Back and Relax" category?[/h3][hr][/hr]
In other news, our work on Update 0.5 is progressing well. We still don't have an exact timeframe for its release, but when it hits the public beta branch, it will certainly warm up the winter season 🔥❄️

In the meantime, we've got something awesome for you!

We'd like to give you a small preview of the upcoming YAZS Original Soundtrack!

[previewyoutube][/previewyoutube]
The new music is composed by Adam Skorupa, Krzysztof Wierzynkiewicz & Michał Cielecki, who you might know from their work on the OST's for titles such as The Witcher and Shadow Warrior 2.

Let us know what you think of this original composition and get ready for more bangers!

Thank you, see you next time ❤️

ㅤStay awesome,
ㅤㅤAwesome Games Studio


https://store.steampowered.com/app/2163330/

[h3]Welcome, Survivors![/h3]

We're happy that you're enjoying the content update we've prepared by the end of October.

Here's another devlog with juicy news from us and our friends. Enjoy the read!


ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ
ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ


[hr][/hr]

• [h2]Help us by filling a quick survey![/h2]

[hr][/hr]
We always want to hear the opinions of our players loud and clear and understand your feelings about the current state of the game. We would therefore like to invite you to take part in this important survey:

ㅤㅤ👉 https://forms.gle/M71fVXyUHXSCWVwYA

If you can, please take a quick look at the survey at the link above. It should only take a few minutes.

While we always take into account any feedback you give us (Steam forums, our Discord, feedback form, emails & social media comments), we would also like to invite you to fill out this short online survey, the content of which will be very important in shaping the future of Yet Another Zombie Survivors!


ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ

ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤThank you for your participation!

[hr][/hr]

• [h2]Demo Version has been updated![/h2]

[hr][/hr]
The YAZS demo was in a strange place. Not only did it offer a rather ancient representation of the game, being around 4 months old, but it also offered no way of transferring your progress from it to the Early Access version.

Well, no more! We're updating the demo to include the latest improvements and quality-of-life features, including now-standard features such as mouse movement, manual aim/shoot, indicator positions and FSR support. Gameplay-wise, the demo is largely the same as before, but with the added compatibility, you will now be able to transfer your training points, character progression and achievements to the full version!

Due to the amount of changes that have been made, this demo is not compatible with saves made in the previous, old version. This is unfortunate, but we decided it was better to update the demo than to keep the old, outdated saves that can't be used in the full version. On the bright side, this demo update will allow us to compile future demo versions much more easily than before.


https://store.steampowered.com/app/2265230/


If you decide to give the new demo a try, we hope you enjoy it!


[hr][/hr]

• [h2]What are we working on currently?[/h2]

[hr][/hr]
In the interests of complete transparency, we'd like to share some thoughts on the current direction of development we're aiming for. As always, please bear in mind that everything we write here is subject to change and much of it is just "on paper".

Firstly, we need to do some work on the in-game stats and the code behind them. Some of the stats are calculated as flat values and can't be changed with percentages (e.g. Armour, HP+). Others benefit when their number is reduced rather than increased (e.g. Cooldown, Weapon Reload), so they need to be reworked to provide a more streamlined experience. As well as tweaking the above, we're also thinking about introducing two new stat types that have been requested by players, namely "Ability Range" and "Ability Duration", which on paper should increase the number of build combinations and make it more fun to experiment with abilities.

Thirdly, there's the issue of element/attack types, which I think most of us would agree would add a lot to the gameplay. While we already have Normal, Explosive, Fire, Electric, Ice & Antidote attack types, the game itself doesn't see them as different from each other. We think it's time to change that and introduce stats for each element, as well as the possibility for them to overlap, potentially creating a lot of fun synergies. While the synergy part is quite a big thing, and we believe it will take a few updates to fully implement, we have to start somewhere, and that's what we plan to do with the upcoming 0.5 update.

One pretty big change we're planning to test internally is the reworking of the level-up and item mechanics. Currently, each level-up offers weapon & ability upgrades, which can feel a bit repetitive, and the upgrade paths can get a bit old after a while (5 upgrades -> 5 evolved upgrades -> 3 yet another evolved upgrades). Players may also not get the weapon evolution they want, and roll the other available instead. There's also no real place to get bonuses to different team stats outside of the item chest system. These are some of the reasons why we're thinking of implementing the changes listed below:

1. Minor level-ups which offer a selection of randomized stat bonuses to choose from (e.g. movement speed, cooldown reduction, dodge chance).
   
2. Every other third level-up to be a major level-up (with additional visual effects), offering the classic new/upgrade option of Weapons and Abilities.
   
3. Weapons and Abilities, to have 2/3 upgrade levels instead of 5, to compensate for the now rarer major level-up panels.
   
4. Adding an additional evolution option for all current and future weapons, which would be an improved version of the first/second weapon in the evolution line (e.g. Super Shotgun for Tank).
   
5. Evolution options to be a single level-up selection option, where you're able to freely select which evolution you want to take (e.g. Laser / Blaster / WIP Tesla upgrade).
   
6. Reworking item chests to offer just the advanced items, like the ones with special features, as basic "+5 bonuses" are now in the minor level-up panels.
   
7. The experience curve will be adjusted to provide enough experience for the major level-ups to not feel too far between.

Ooh, that's a lot of information to take in at once, but let us know what you think of these potential revisions we're planning. There's also the new Survivor we'd like to add in 0.5 while we're working on the above, so the next update might take a little longer than usual, but we'll do our best to make it fire! 🔥


[hr][/hr]

• [h2]We've got a new team member![/h2]

[hr][/hr]
Meet Wioletta, who has joined us in the Quality Assurance department!

She's been a great help to us in the past. If you've been to any of the Poznań Game Arena (PGA) events in Poland, you might have seen her at our booth. Now she's officially a member of the team, helping with bug reports, testing, finding and confirming the problems that have appeared or might appear in our titles. Here's a word from her - make sure you give her a warm welcome:

ㅤ

[hr][/hr]

• [h2]Bullet Heaven Fest (November 6th - 20th)[/h2]

[hr][/hr]
We'll be taking part in a brand new Steam event, as for the first time in gaming history there will be an event dedicated to the emerging genre of reverse bullet hell/horde survival games, of which YAZS is a proud representative.

The event takes place from November 6th 10:AM PST to 20th 10:AM PST. You'll be able to play tons of different games in the genre and acquire them at a discounted rate. This pairs nicely with yet another discount on our part, as well as an updated demo version that you can now check out if you're still undecided, or tell your friends about!

And if you're reading this as someone who just found out about Yet Another Zombie Survivors - welcome to the party! We're doing our best to make a great game in close cooperation with our community, constantly adding/changing/improving things based on player feedback, so we hope you'll join us on this adventure!

Feel free to check out the Bullet Heaven Fest event page:

https://store.steampowered.com/curator/41046058/sale/BulletHeavenFest



[hr][/hr]
Thank you for reading. Thank you even more for your continued support! We wouldn't be where we are without your comments, feedback, suggestions, Steam reviews and all the things that you are doing to help us make this one of the best Bullet Heaven games ever!

We'll continue to do our best, and while it sometimes (often) takes us longer than expected, we can guarantee that we're doing our best to give you a crazy fun title to enjoy!

If you'd like to, be sure to hop on any of our social media profiles and/or our Discord server:

  @AwesomeGamesStd   @AwesomeGamesStudio   @awesomegamesstudio   @awesomegamesstudio   https://discord.gg/m4JfXuS


Thank you, stay warm this season and have fun slaying the hordes!

ㅤStay awesome,
ㅤㅤAwesome Games Studio


https://store.steampowered.com/app/2163330/

[h3]Welcome, Survivor![/h3]

We're releasing a quick update to address some issues that appeared or (unfortunately) persisted in the version 0.4.1, while adding some QoL along the way.

• Powerups no longer spawn outside of the gameplay area.
  
• Pause menu now displays equipped weapons and their base and modified stats.
  
• Weapon upgrades on level-up interface now shows base values instead of modified by stats.
  
• Aiming AI improvements, should no longer target enemies outside of the weapon's range.
  
• Attack button rebinding added to the remap controls menu (for autofire option turned off).
  
• Added a short input pause to level-up/item-chest/sos screens to avoid accidentally selecting an option, especially when using the mouse (manual aim/mouse movement).
  
• Gameplay should no longer unpause when displaying interfaces.
  
• Experience gems should no longer increase in size.
  
• Fixed rare cases of Armor stat value becoming negative.
  
• Fixed an issue where enemies would occasionally deal critical damage.
  
• The experience bar should no longer drop to a negative value in rare cases.
  
• Fixed issues with incorrect display of certain stats in the pause menu (e.g. Armor: 1E+04).
  
• "Bombing Strike" ability fixed to not to display more indicators than the amount of dropped bombs.
  
• Item "Pills" fixed to work correctly + it now restores 50 HP/s for 20s, and reduces max HP by -50.
  
• "HoloGhost" ability now properly displays damage taken on the end screen.
  
• "It Takes Two" achievement fixed to properly require Default game mode.

Thank you for both your reports and your patience.
Have a blast fighting the Horde! See you next time!


ㅤStay awesome,
ㅤㅤAwesome Games Studio


https://store.steampowered.com/app/2163330/

[h3]Welcome, Survivor![/h3]

We're releasing a quick update to address feedback from our community and fix the issues that were reported to us since last Friday.

• "One Hit" mode difficulty and enemy wave definitions tweaked to be less steep and slightly easier up to the 5 minute mark.
  
• "Boss Rush" mode difficulty/horde scaling has been increased after the 10 minute mark (endless).
  
• Added a small freeze frame when exiting the pause menu interface to better show the gameplay area before unpausing.
  
• The "Fatigue" pause menu indicator in endless game modes now also shows the current maximum damage you can take.
  
• Further tweaks to AI targeting priorities to better focus on important targets closer to the squad's location.
  
• Radial indicators overlapping improved to display each pointer type at different distances from the center.
  
• Added on-screen notification when switching between auto and manual aiming options using a hotkey (default: middle mouse button/right stick press).
  
• Added small dead zones to gamepad analogue sticks to prevent unwanted input switching in cases of controller stick drift.
  
• "Scarab" enemy (Mummy boss summons) can no longer spawn very close to the squad's location.
  
• Fixed issue with Engineer not targeting boss enemies correctly when playing with the manual aim option enabled.
  
• Fixed cases where "Bombing Strike" ability would not drop bombs correctly.
  
• Fixed "Desert Worm" enemy dealing multiple damage instances at once and ignoring i-frames.
  
• Fixed "One Hit" game mode ending around the sixth minute mark instead of being endless.
  
• Other minor interface & bug fixes.

In the case that you've missed the last patchnote, be sure to also check the list of the 0.4.0 changes:
https://store.steampowered.com/news/app/2163330/view/5480376121623392418

Thank you for your patience and support. Please be assured that we are monitoring the situation and will continue to do so, so please report any issues and we'll do our best to fix them. 🎃 Happy Halloween!


ㅤStay awesome,
ㅤㅤAwesome Games Studio


https://store.steampowered.com/app/2163330/