Urban Strife - Halloween 2022 Development Update
Trick or treat will have a whole new meaning soon enough
When can we play the game?
Let's start with the elephant in the room - release date. No, we cannot set a precise day yet, as much as we wish that day was upon us. But we can have a fair estimate that work on the game will be in pretty good shape at the end of Q1 2023 so around that time we can have a chat about the big day coming. But wait, so when do we get to play, you ask?
Well, since we're entering the end stretch of this marathon, we will try to be about everywhere you, our players, might be. We'll have a combat demo this December, if our friends from Turn Based Lovers will pick us for their #TurnBasedFest event. We hear there are already 300 plus submissions so the company will be awesome. Come January, we have another event lined up at the end of the month where we hope to showcase the shelter mechanics and the economy. And no later than February, for the grand finale, we'll be at Spring NextFest (this one is 100% confirmed), with what we hope will be a demo that will give you a taste of all critical features and give us a lot of essential feedback for the final bugfix before release. So don't worry, the horde is coming!
New factional groups
Work will focus now on mid to late game campaign, but until we have something worthy to showcase from there, we have prepared a quick sneak peek into the factional groups you will encounter when exploring the sectors closer to home base.
In no particular order, meet the Courthouse Police, trying to maintain order in a sector where the local brewery is way more popular than the volunteer hospital and triage. Although morale is low, mostly due to the Army not delivering promised supplies and reinforcements, they are still a force to be reckoned with, boasting snipers, dangerous marshals and shotgun toting troopers.
Travel into the more suburban parts of the city and you'll meet a lovely group of bounty hunters, visiting the Whitepond Supermarket neighborhood in search of a family of cultists, the Saint brothers. Once supermarket owners, the Saint family has discovered new abilities in working with the undead and are slowly training them into a loyal army. But there are people in Urban less than delighted with the existence of the zombie cult on the premises, hence the visit of the aforementioned bounty hunters.
Move down White River and you'll eventually meet the Devilsons, a biker clan and a family business centered around turning scrap metal into badass choppers. The patriarch, Rick Devilson, has reached an age where he is hoping his twin sons, Brad and Hawk, will take over the shop. Instead the two dimwits have decided it is better to go to war against each other over a shared love interest. Without spoiling the story here's a couple of friendly local union workers who decided to take advantage of the moment and "renegotiate" their contract with Rick Devilson, with one of his sons as collateral. A fun bunch, guaranteed.
Finally, the local FBI office will be very much interested in what goes on in the Devilson Scrapyard, but meeting them is an experience in itself so we won't give out too many spoilers. Their fancy black jeeps are all gassed up and ready for the upcoming raids on the criminal underworld. Only there's a small problem with the assault team having their entire inventory of body protection gear stolen by some mysterious local thieves. No more cavalry coming to help anyone, unless you decide to help the federal investigation and make some kevlar vests "magically" turn up.
Looting improvements - special "looted" state for containers
In the same effort to make looting less of a chore and more of a hint of opening Christmas presents, we decided to stick to a library of lootable containers, places where common sense would tell you that loot can be. Also these containers will have a special asset blueprint with a looted state that will visibly indicate you don't need to bother checking them, so less carpal nerve damage for you. In this respect we've modified our vehicles so now they have trunks/bonnets that open after you loot them and we'll be going through the furniture assets too with the same plan.
Interface Upgrades
We have redesigned stealth indicators to be clearly visible in dangerous places. The red "no access" tiles, enemy sight and hearing ranges are now clearly visible on mouse hover. We have kept the effect discrete though in order not to disturb your immersion. Another area we're looking for serious upgrades into is the inventory management interface, but it's too WIP to show anything yet.
Other improvements in progress
We're looking to improve the game experience with an immersive new soundtrack. Will have more details as we progress further with this. Animations are still being upgraded and, in case you didn't notice, we have new 2D art for our Steam page and social media platforms.
