MarZ: Tactical Base Defense News

Another big, fresh and free update for MarZ Rising is finally here. The long awaited skirmish mode brings a whole lot of re-playability, fun experiences and new challenges to MarZ Rising. To celebrate this new update, we’ve cooked up a nice trailer! Crank up the volume to 11 and check it out here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36BQLjmVmmM



In Skirmish mode, you can experience all campaign maps with new challenges. Customize the game and experiment with what you can stand. Each type of enemy can be set by a weight, which defines the spawn probability.
So if you want to play a game only against walkers, simply set the weight of the walker to 100 and every other enemy type to 0. If you feel lucky, you can generate the weights randomly according to three difficulties. The system behind the skirmish mode always makes sure that the spawn count of enemies is fair. That means that the spawn count of boss enemies won’t ever be as high as for weaker enemy types. Additionally you can set the Zombie masses, from tiny to huge, and the interval timings between waves. Long intervals means the game play session becomes longer and also a bit less frantic.

All the enemy wave settings are being generated by a random seed which can be set as well. Furthermore you can also set your start resources, difficulty level and – insert drum roll – game modes. We plan to add one additional game mode to skirmish upon our full release called outbreak. This game mode will spawn, unlike the wave mode, all enemies at once. You will have enough time to build up your defense base and you’ll have the possibility to build barricades as well. Outbreak will be a fast and fun game mode for sure!



Along with the skirmish mode, we have implemented something very entertaining for Twitch streamers.
The Twitch mode is an additional mode where viewers have the possibility to vote for different actions which can sabotage or support a streamer’s current game. Twitch mode works in the campaign as well as in the skirmish mode.

Vote to build a wave
From time to time, viewers can vote for enemies to build up an extra challenging wave. The enemies will be tagged with the viewers names according to who voted for them.

Call for support
Streamers can call the community for help every now and then. Calling for help brings up an additional poll where viewers are able to vote for additional building materials, 3 extra crew members, one free nuke or just nothing… You know where this is going, right? 😉

Additional actions
Every time-based action in Twitch mode can be accelerated by special commands. For example, a research in the tech center can be accelerated by typing #research, or reinforcement can be accelerated by typing #reinforce in the chat.



We have improved some blood particle effects as well as the machinegun shoot particle effects. Firing on zombies feels so much more satisfying now!



This is something no one really likes to hear, right? Fear not, the current price won’t change in Early Access. But, based on all the new features we’ve added since September 2017 and the additional features which will come (map editor), we will raise the price upon full release to 24.99€. This is a heads up for all of you who are considering buying MarZ Rising but haven’t taken the plunge just yet. We will make an additional announcement regarding the price increase right before full release.



Our next steps will be to fully concentrate on our full release. This means, we will work on further polishing, bug fixing and additional features. The full release version will contain a very nice map editor where you can create your own maps. The map editor will allow you to sculpt your terrain, place enemy spawn points and more. All created maps can be played in the skirmish mode and shared via Steam workshop. Of course we’ll make sure that the editor will be nicely integrated into the game.

We also like to mention that we have fixed some additional bugs thanks to your (community) bug reports! Keep them coming! And please let us know your thoughts on the new skirmish mode too. Any feedback is very welcome and can be discussed with us in the Steam forums.

As always share the news, tell your friends – any support is very much appreciated! 🙂

If you want to stay updated about further development of the game you can also follow us on our social media channels here:

Marc: Twitter
Miriam: Twitter
MarZ Rising: Twitter
MarZ Rising: Facebook
MarZ Rising: Instagram

Thank you and have fun playing!
Miriam & Marc
Over and out!

• NEW: Skirmish mode
  
• NEW: Twitch mode
  
• NEW: Blood particle effects
  
• -------------------------------
  
• Bugfix: Smaller bugfixes
  

We have great news for you: New & free SKIRMISH UPDATE will be available on the 7th of November!

That means from next week you can freely customize the game and experiment with what you can stand. Choose from one of the campaign maps, set your preferred enemy types, adjust the enemy waves, define your start resources and off you go. The long awaited skirmish mode will let you play with all kinds of different settings, play against only one type of enemy, or against an enormous amount of enemy hordes. Based on your settings, a game is being generated procedurally, so every play session will be different.
On top of that the update introduces a second, new Twitch mode. Viewers can participate in the game and vote to either sabotage the Twitcher by building a horrible enemy wave or support them by voting for help.



We are currently polishing the last details and can’t wait to release this new update. We are super excited to hear if you like the modes as much as we do!
Stay tuned and be ready!

Over and out
Marc + Miriam

A new update from Mars is here! This update brings you shiny (Steam) achievements, a new profile page and more. It also comes up with some internal changes which makes everything ready for our next major update – skirmish mode!


The new profile page can be viewed in the mission menu and gives you a great overview about your current progress. It shows up your mission stats, collected perks and earned achievements.


The hunt for achievements has begun! We’ve implemented a broad range of achievements. Some are quite easy to get while others are not. Let’s see if you’ll manage to get all of them.


It is now possible to completely hide the in game UI by pressing the F2 key. This allows you to create some nice looking screenshots! And of course: We’d love to see them in the shared screenshot section at our Steam Community Hub!

We’ve replaced our english Captain Tobin voice with a new one! Our new voice actor Stephen Shivers, did a really great job. The fact that he’s a native english speaker really pushes the overall quality of the game. For all our german users out there, don’t worry, there’s also a new german voice over in the making and coming with the next update.


Upon requests we’ve added 21:9 resolution support. This one is kind of difficult for us to test, so should there be any issues please let us know.


We’ve finally managed to upgrade our project to a new engine version. this should fix some minor graphical bugs and improves overall stability.


Besides of all those new stuff and changes we’ve made some smaller bug fixes as well and did some polishing work here and there. We’re also preparing and working full steam on the skirmish mode which will be our next big update! This will be really exciting for us and of course for you as well!

As always share the news, tell your friends. Any support is very appreciated! 🙂

If you want to stay updated about further development of the game you can also follow us on our social media channels here:

Marc: Twitter
Miriam: Twitter
MarZ Rising: Twitter
MarZ Rising: Facebook
doorfortyfour: Instagram

Thank you and have fun playing!
Miriam & Marc
Over and out!

• New: Achievements
  
• New: Profile page
  
• New: 21:9 Support
  
• New: English voice for cpt. Tobin
  
• New: Setcard FX
  
• New: Smooth Camera
  
• New: Screenshot mode
  
• ——————————
  
• Changed: Unity Engine version
  
• ——————————
  
• Bugfix: Extractor truck behaviour
  
• Bugfix: Voice outro stop bug
  
• Bugfix: In some situation, energy hubs did not free up slot when selling buildings.
  
• Several smaller bugfixes and code optimizations
  

Our new and long awaited update – THE RISING – is finally here! We’ve reached a big milestone in the production of MarZ Rising. Since September 2017 we’ve added plenty of new features, worked on the story campaign, added new levels, fixed a whole lot of bugs, did plenty of optimizations, changed balancing…. It’s just crazy to see how the game progressed during this time! And you have contributed a big part to this progress. So, THANK YOU! Now finally, we’re proud to say that the story campaign including 20 missions is finished. Woah!


You’re one step closer to the truth! Don’t let you fool you by the fact that there’s only one path. You definitely have to prove your skills!



The final level of the campaign! It definitely holds some surprises for you. The last mission of the campaign uncovers the mystery behind the zombie epidemic. We don’t want to spoil too much, but one’s for sure, you’ll be amazed! Technically and artistically it was a challenge, but we’ve managed it.


Of course there’s no campaign without a nice outro cutscene right? We’ve got you covered! Maybe you’ve already discovered a hint in the announcement gif. We’d love to show you everything but that would just spoil too much. See it for yourself.


Good news everyone! MarZ Rising now includes three different difficulty levels. The difficulty level can be selected before starting a new mission. The current difficulty level is now the “challenging” level. So there’s one easier and one harder level – for anyone who really seeks the challenge!


We’ve recently received a lot of requests for adding the possibility of changing shortcuts. Well, we’ve added that as well to the update. Go to the options menu and click on configure shortcuts.


The monolith also got some love and received a new scanning device. Additionally it is now possible to select your crew during a scanning process. The research time has been divided into three parts, so when moving a crew away from the monolith the time will be set back to it’s last reached time checkpoint.


A new perk unlocks after completing mission 19. This is more of a “negative” perk. It adds a new challenge to the game by spawning a meteorite shower randomly. The meteorite shower damages everything that’s in the way… even enemies. 😉


We wanted to make something very special for the last perk which unlocks after you have completed the campaign. Kind of a reward for everyone who made it. We had this idea before but it never made it beyond the conceptual stage. Until now! So what this perk does is, it allows you to take place inside of a machinegun tower and control it in first person view! Quite awesome huh? Hell yeah!


So you might ask what’s next? MarZ Rising still stays in Early Access because we’re not done yet! We’re already working on two exciting new features effecting a lot of replayability. First we’ll add a skirmish mode to the game allowing you to play every map (except mission 20) with different game settings and randomly generated enemy waves. We’ll make sure that you can edit most of those settings. You want to play only against crawlers, or only against crashers, try it out! Additionally we plan to implement a level editor allowing you to create your own maps for the skirmish mode. On top of that we plan to add steam workshop integration, additional localization, achievements, profile page etc. So as you can see, we still have plenty to do, but we’re getting there.

Alright, so what are you waiting for? Tell your friends, and grab the latest update! 🙂

If you want to stay updated about further development of the game you can also follow us on our social media channels here:

Marc: Twitter
Miriam: Twitter
MarZ Rising: Twitter
MarZ Rising: Facebook
doorfortyfour: Instagram

Thank you and have fun playing!
Miriam & Marc
Over and out!

• New: Final campaign!
  
• New: mission 19 – Terminal velocity
  
• New: mission 20 – The rising
  
• New: Outro
  
• New: Difficulty levels
  
• New: Configurable shortcuts
  
• New: Perk – Duck and cover
  
• New: Perk – Hell yeah!
  
• New: UI mission select: Added intro and outro
  
• ——————————
  
• Changed: Added monolith scanning device
  
• Changed: Crew which analyzes monolith can now be selected
  
• Changed: Monolith analyzing time is divided into three parts
  
• ——————————
  
• Bugfix: Extractor truck won’t get stuck anymore
  
• Bugfix: Fixed a bug where paths randomly got deactivated
  
• Bugfix: No more enemies running in circles
  
• Bugfix: Fixed bug where Borderzone dismantle task did not close properly
  
• Bugfix: Armory techtree UI updates faster
  
• Bugfix: Crew who analyzes monolith is not selectable anymore
  
• Bugfix: Fixed bug in mission 15 where paths didn’t get rebuilded
  
• Bugfix: Fixed coffee time perk
  
• Bugfix: Fixed turbo perk, selecting in-game wont enable it
  
• Bugfix: Fixed bug where shocker secondary attack won’t get freezed by freezeray
  
• Bugfix: Fixed bug where mutated could not attack monolith
  
• Bugfix: Fixed reflection probe bake bug after returning from options menu
  
• Bugfix: Fixed bug where the wrong story dialog would be loaded in some levels
  
• Several smaller bugfixes and code optimizations
  

This is just a short heads-up to let you guys know that we're very active working on MarZ Rising, although it was a bit quiet the last few weeks. We're back from vacation, our energy bars has been refilled and we're now working full steam on the next update. So here's a sneak peek about what's coming by the next update.


Yes, we did it! The final campaign is near completion and it will bring you the final pieces of the story. Mission 20 was quite a challenge in regards of development, and it will unleash some surprises for you. In regards to the final campaign we've also created a nice outro cutscene including voices and music. We're very proud of how it turned out, and we really hope you'll like it.


Due to a lot of requests we've implemented the possibility to change key-bindings.


Yes you read it right! Difficulty levels! We're very excited about this. We've managed to integrate difficulty levels to the game. So before starting a mission you can select a difficulty level to play. Probably a game changer for many of you!


We're now testing and finalizing everything to the detail.
For us this new update is a big milestone. It also means that after releasing it, we'll work on the long awaited skirmish mode and level editor and we honestly can't wait for it! :)

Stay tuned and excited!

Over and out.
doorfortyfour