Yet Another Zombie Survivors News

[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


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

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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!

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

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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!


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

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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! 🔥


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

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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

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

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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



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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/

[h3]Welcome, Survivor![/h3]

Update 0.4 - "Lock 'n' Loaded" is here! This release includes several much-needed improvements suggested by our great community, quality of life features, and fixes to most reported issues.

Scroll down for a full changelog, but here are some highlights:

[h2]New Game modes[/h2]

To spice things up a bit, this update introduces two new game modes that are available one after the other, waiting to be tackled once you have completed the Hardcore mode challenge. These two are aimed at players who are looking for a greater challenge than any of the previous modes in the game. We hope you find them an exciting addition, and we'd love to hear your thoughts on them!


Boss Rush is similar to Hardcore mode, but with a twist. The twist is that you're constantly being attacked by waves of mini-bosses (and probably big bosses in future versions). It also borrows some of the mechanics of the Endless mode; you win if you survive to the 10th minute, but then you can continue to play further with no time limit!

One Hit is all about the player's agility and reaction time, as you can be defeated with a single hit. It's a condensed 5-minute challenge with greatly increased experience gain and chest/SOS spawn rates, with additional tweaks to remove redundant stats, abilities and items. For the potential players who would still find it a relaxing experience, it also has no upper time limit, so you can race your peers to see who gets the highest minute mark!

[h2]Updated selection interfaces[/h2]

One of the biggest changes in this patch is the update to the level up, item chest and SOS signal option selection interfaces. If you're playing with a full team, the level-up interface will now offer a choice of 4 options, to reduce the overabundance of options and help you build your team the way you want to play. In addition, the "Skip" function has been redesigned as "Lockdown" to help in all cases where there are two good options to choose from. Now you can lock any upgrade in place so that it will appear with 100% chance the next time you open the same interface. For all you challenge and achievement hunters out there, there's also a (yet another) "Skip" button that lets you skip any choice altogether. Don't worry, you won't accidentally press it, as you'll have to hold it down for a few seconds to activate it. Oh, and there are now additional icons under the selection cards to indicate which upgrades are considered weapons and which are considered abilities.


[h2]New Endless mechanic (Fatigue)[/h2]

As discussed in the previous development update, we continue to tweak and balance the Endless mode to keep it fun and challenging for all types of players. We're making the experience smoother with looser Horde scaling and some per-enemy balance tweaks across all modes, but we're also introducing a reason to keep growing and being aware of your surroundings by removing a state where the player could not be defeated at all.

With the introduction of a new debuff/mechanic called "Fatigue", which will appear in the late stages of Endless and Boss Rush modes, you will no longer be able to stay AFK in one place for hours without being defeated. Fatigue only affects one thing: your maximum damage buffer, which increases every second from a default base of 1000. In a game that's all about getting stronger and pushing the limits, we obviously don't want to nerf any player's strength and power with a debuff like that, so the Fatigue doesn't affect anything else at all.

Casual Endless enjoyers - don't worry! This debuff will start to accumulate after the victory mark minute, so it will have little to no effect on players who aren't looking for a tougher challenge. We believe that this change will ensure that the challenge remains as such, and that the game remains... well... a game - with both the winning and losing conditions working for the sake of an enjoyable experience.



These are just some of the many changes we are introducing in this update. We hope you'll enjoy version 0.4.0, explore new tactics that make the most of each Survivor's arsenal, and look forward to seeing what else we have in store for the future. Have fun!

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[h2]GAMEPLAY CHANGES & ADDITIONS:[/h2]

• New Game Mode - Boss Rush (accessible after completing Hardcore on set map).
  
• New Game Mode - One Hit (accessible after completing Boss Rush on set map).
  
• 10 new achievements (empty reward slots are by design - we can always fill them in later versions).
  
• 4 level-up choices when playing as a full team of Survivors (instead of always 3).
  
• Old "Skip" function rebuilt into "Lockdown" - you can lock an upgrade to appear 100% next time.
  
• New hold-down "Skip" button added, which lets player forfeit the level-up/chest/SOS selection.
  
• "Reroll" function now ensures that the rerolled options will be different than the current ones (when possible).
  
• "Fatigue" debuff added for game modes without a time limit. Reduces the maximum damage taken buffer after the victory state minute mark (20m/10m on Endless/Boss Rush). The calculation is: dmgcap = 1000 + 2% per minute, up to 5000 at 100%. This debuff doesn't affect player combat power or stats in any way.

[h2]QUALITY OF LIFE:[/h2]

• "Indicators position" option added, allowing to customize on how are the arrows, magnet & health drop indicators displayed.
  
• Weapons and abilities now have icons on the level-up screen to help differentiate between the two types of upgrades.
  
• Small freeze-frame added when the selection interfaces are being closed, to better see the gameplay area before unpausing.
  
• Stats now have popup descriptions on mouse-over on multiple different interface screens.
  
• If the game detects a possibility of the save file being corrupted, it will show a message in main menu on how to restore a backup.
  
• The feedback form (on the F8 key) now also sends the save and backup files, so that we can better assist in cases of lost progress.
  
• Achievements in the achievement panel are now sorted more naturally.
  
• Achievement tracking added to challenges that require reaching a certain number across multiple playthroughs.
  
• Achievement "It's Dangerous To Go Alone" can now be completed while taking multiple stacks of the same one item.
  
• "Reset points" option in skill-tree interface was made to be more visually noticable.
  
• Alt-tabbing/switching window focus now mutes the game audio.

[h2]ISSUE & BUG FIXES:[/h2]

• Fixes for "Armor" stat not working properly in some cases.
  
• Abilities from previous runs should no longer trigger when starting a new game.
  
• Enemy: "Boomer" no longer deals AoE damage before exploding.
  
• Item: "Stretcher" fixed to no longer decrease the Health Regeneration stat in some cases.
  
• Item: "Healing Potion" once again heal for the correct amount.
  
• Yet another yet another potential fix for boss health bars being displayed for no reason.
  
• Fix for the "Minigun" weapon not being able to deal critical hits.
  
• Fix for visual glitches on the "Energy Shield" ability.
  
• Fix for controller losing focus after banishing a choice.
  
• Fix for new weapons and abilities not being marked as "NEW" in the level-up interface.
  
• Minor language/translation fixes and wording improvements.
  
• Other fixes and improvements.

[h2]BALANCE CHANGES:[/h2]

• Base yellow XP gems value increased from 9 to 10 (blue gems scale 5x of this value).
  
• Red XP gems buffed to give 35x the value of a yellow one (from 15x).
  
• Enemy damage tweaked: Scarabs, Boomers, Spitters & Flies damage scale slower over time.
  
• "Spitter" class enemies projectile speed reduced (6 -> 5).
  
• "Desert Spitter" enemy HP reduced to 250 (from 400).
  
• "Scarab" enemy base damage reducted to 250 (from 300).
  
• "Scarab" enemy now has higher priority of being targetted by the aiming AI.
  
• Endless: Enemy HP and speed stats scale slower (HP: 1.08 -> 1.065, Speed: 0.02 -> 0.0175).
  
• "Iron Skin" powerup now applies +10000 armor (from +1000).
  
• Tank: "Sawblade Drone" ability now has an attack speed scaling (+50%
• Ability Cooldown).
  
• Ghost: Weapons area of effect attacks now target more enemies.
  
• Ghost: "Windcutter" weapon has had its base fire rate increased do 1.25 (from 0.75).
  
• Ghost: "Thousand Cuts" weapon improved to properly target fast-moving enemies and summons.
  
• Ghost: Base damage of "Katana Splash" & "Thousand Cuts" reduced to 100 & 150 (from 150 & 200).
  
• "It's Over 9000!" achievement time requirement reduced to 1 second (from 2 seconds).
  
• Other minor gameplay balance changes & tweaks.

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As you may know from looking at our roadmap and following our discussions with the awesome community (that's you!), there's a lot of things we'd like to add and improve. At the current moment, there are some things we'd like to and are preparing to implement for the next update.

First of all, we'd like to add a new character/Survivor to spice things up (if it goes as planned, it'll be quite a hot addition!), and we're planning a lot of rework/improvements to stats & itemisation. We'll be looking at ways to make weapons and abilities more interesting by exploring their progression, paths and synergies.

The different systems are still evolving in our minds, but we want to continue to explore the synergies between the mechanics of the game, giving more room to the passionate players who want to experiment with what works well with what, while continuing to make the game enjoyable for the casual player.

Most of the upcoming changes are still undetermined, but feel free to check our roadmap from time to time to see what's currently planned: https://trello.com/b/Ipc33X20/yet-another-zombie-survivors-roadmap


It goes without saying, but we'll say it again: we're glad you're with us on this journey to make a great game, and we hope you'll continue to support us by playing, giving us feedback, reporting issues, and leaving us reviews on Steam. Thank you so much!

As always, we're super open to feedback, so keep sending it in - we read and consider every post, every thread, every comment, and every F8 form you send (thanks for your words of encouragement ːheart_meː).

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

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


Thank you everyone! Have fun!

ㅤStay awesome,
ㅤㅤAwesome Games Studio


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