Merry Christmas everyone! Eat tons of food and get very drunk (if you're old enough of course). That's an order! =D

It's starting to get close to Christmas/New Year now and honestly I don't think I'm likely to be able to get anything else significant done until the new year. I still haven't done any Christmas shopping yet and I've got a ton of various family and friends to visit over the next couple of weeks. So it's going to be really hard to fit much work in.

Though, I will at least try and fix some more bugs, and hopefully reduce the lag/framerate slowdown issues to a more manageable level.

P.S If you didn't already know OAs have been released.

Just writing to let you know that I'm still working on the new event system. Obviously it's taking a little while more than I originally planned, but shouldn't be too much longer now. If I can I'll try to at least release the OAs tomorrow evening.

Merry Christmas

To celebrate Christmas 2010 I've released a new set of limited edition items - Christmas Gifts. Each gift contains one random piece of equipment, which is guaranteed to be worth substantially more than the cost of the gift itself. There are two types, standard and elite which are now available from the Credit Shop.

This amazing deal will finish on the 1st of January 2011, so hurry up and get them while you still can!

As most of you have probably already noticed, there has been a pretty significant change to the looting system. Instead of every car, body and misc object being lootable, it is now only possible to loot a handful of these objects per screen. Each object which can be looted will now be highlighted in yellow, and have a question mark appear over it. The trade off for there being less items, is that the chance of finding something is now a lot higher. Infact you'll probably find that the vast majority of highlighted loot spots have something.

The idea of this new system is to make looting more fun and rewarding. Previously you would only find something about 10% of the time when searching. In my opinion this made the game play very frustrating. In addition, the previous system gave players little reason to explore the areas as there was plenty to loot in the streets. The new system should fix/improve most of these problems.

A few other changes:
- New grenade explosion. Not only does the new one look better, but it also causes less client side 'lag'.

- Rounding errors when calculating the damage which armour takes when hit with a low damage bullet (like a single shotgun pellet) has been fixed.

- Layout of the city tweaked. You'll find more urban areas now.

- All the various forms of the exp loss bug have now been fixed.

- A bunch of other minor bugs fixes.

Slight change of plan

In my last post I stated that I would be finishing outpost attacks and lootable bosses very soon. However, in the last couple of days I've noticed that the implementation of these two systems has a lot of cross-over, since they will both essentially be global events that happen at set times and places. After a bit of thinking I came to the conclusion that it would be better to combine both things into the same system, and expand the design further.

A lot of people have mentioned that one the major things lacking in DF is a proper storyline. I had always planned to make some kind of story-based missions in the future, but it was something I was going to put off until "all the other crap is done". Now, with the way that the other systems are shaping up, I've come the realization that putting a decent story into the game wouldn't be so hard. At least not on a coding level anyway.

So, my new plan is to take what I have with lootable bosses and OAs, and combine them into a single events system. I'll then make it so each event can have it's win conditions, rewards and area 'effects' heavily customized. Finally I'll set things up so each event can be given a proper plot.

Once complete we'll have a mix of random daily events (like OAs, and boss spawns) combined with hand designed, plot driven, mission style events. Hopefully it will give Dead Frontier more goals and purpose, whilst also making the game world come to life. I want to make Fairview feel like a real place.

The hardest part in all of this will be the actual writing for the plot. At the moment I'm leaning towards the possibility of taking submissions from the DF community, but I'm not totally decided at this stage. The other option is that I convince Ian (Xaelath) to do it, since he did such an awesome job with the Outbreak mini-games.

Of course expanding the design will mean more time, but not too much more. As I mentioned before, some of the work is already done so I'm thinking it'll be ready in 2 weeks. Please don't lynch me if I'm wrong though.

Bunch of updates

Unfortunately my house move took up far more time than I expected. The biggest problem was that it took forever for the internet company to setup a connection in the new house. I was travelling back to the old house to get some stuff done, but it's a good 2 hours journey in each direction so was hard to do it often enough (especially since I can't drive and had to rely on other people for lifts). The new connection finally came up on the 10th of this month and since then I've managed to get a fair bit done.

Recently I've been working on:
OAs
Boss loots
New enemies
PvP improvements

I'm aiming to at least have OAs and boss loots complete by the end of next week, and the rest in the week after that.

Oh, and if anyone is wondering why I've chosen to do these things first (rather than interiors and barricading for example) it's because I feel these are the updates that will provide the biggest "bang for your buck" in terms of time. IE, they will add a lot to the game and won't take me a very long time to implement.

It seems like I've managed to fix just about all of the major bugs with 3D now. There may be a few little glitches here and there that need sorting at some stage, but for the moment the game seems pretty stable. The instance following system is now working so you can pretty much guarantee to meet up with your up with your friend(s) in multiplayer by hitting F2 and typing in their name.

Since everything is now stable enough, over the next couple of weeks I'm going to focus my attention on redesigning the website and doing some promotion of the new 3D game.
In addition, my wife and I will be moving house sometime this month which is probably going to take another week out of my timetable all said and done.

So in conclusion, don't expect any major updates to the actual 3D game until sometime towards in the end of October. When I do start on it again I'll be working on boss loots and getting all other special enemies added first. Then it'll be on to interiors and barricading.

3D is now out for everyone to play (yes I was on time). There are still a lot of bugs and multiplayer is pretty slow. All of this will be fixed over the next few days. Please be patient!

It's been a massive uphill struggle, but I've finally got the multiplayer system for DF3D finished (both co-op and PvP). Chances are there are still a few minor bugs and glitches to iron out, and I also need to spend a day or two improving the security measures of the new system. But other than that it's pretty much ready to go. It's taken me literally 5 times longer than I anticipated, but I think it's been more than worth it. The quality of multiplayer is about 100x better than you get in 2D Dead Frontier.

I was originally planning to release the 3D inner city to everyone as soon as multiplayer was ready (ie in a day or two). However I've decided that the game is as it stands is a little too empty to be released as a realistic replacement for 2D. There are still a lot of features missing that whilst not strictly essential, are going to make the game very hard and impractical to play in any meaningful way (for example, huge city + no personal outposts just isn't going to be playable). In addition to this we only have basic zombie enemies programmed, which means the experience is going to be a little on the bland side.

So, my new plan is to simply skip this demo release and instead focus my attention on getting the game to a more enjoyable state. Yes this will mean another delay, but probably not as long as you're imagining. I believe I can have a decent version of the game launched on or slightly after the 20th of this month. And just to clarify that will be for everyone.

P.S And no, Duke Nukem Forever is definitely not going to beat DF3D to release!

Bugs galore

Just a quick note to say yes I'm still alive and I'm still working on Dead Frontier 3D. I did indeed come home from Russia early, but unfortunately the next demo is still not ready, and probably won't be for at least a week.

Getting multiplayer working properly has been a massive task, one far larger than I imagined at first and is the main source of the problems. It seems like every time I get one bug fixed, three more pop out of the woodwork. However, I am still making progress and hopefully it shouldn't be too much longer.

I'm not going to post an updated timetable for features as I can't guarantee that I'll actually be able to keep to them. As you should all know by now, my estimation skills suck.

Thanks for your patience!

My wife, son and I were planning to go and visit family in Russia for a month on the 20th of July. My aim was to continue to work on Dead Frontier 3D on my laptop while we were there. Unfortunately now that I've arrived in Russia I've discovered the software I need to work on DF3D isn't working properly on my laptop. This will make getting anything done while I'm here practically impossible.

In light of this I've changed my holiday plans. My wife and son will stay in Russia for a month, but I'm going to come home early after 1 week so I can get the next demo ready. Of course, this will still mean a delay of about a week. Sorry guys.

The small update I mentioned in my last post has just been made live. Sorry for the delay.

As a reminder, it now has:

- Improved HUD
- Mini map
- Big map
- Graphic quality and sound settings
- Instructions screen
- Several other bug fixes

Just so you guys know, here is the planned schedule for the 3D upgrade over next few weeks/months:

1. Release small update to existing GM demo, adding a map, quality settings and a few other improvements. (ETA: 2-3 days)

2. Release 3rd 3D demo for both GMs and non-GMs. This demo will definitely include multiplayer co-op. It may include PvP and more/better enemies. It will also include some form of faster transportation around the city to make up for the lack of barricading. (ETA: late July)

3. Release 4th 3D demo for all players. This build will have everything except for missions, interior locations and barricading. This will mark the stage where 3D becomes the primary play mode. 2D classic will remain an option. (ETA: early September)

4. Release the final 3D client to all players. A few weeks after this build is deemed stable (practically bug free), classic will be removed as an option. (ETA: October)

5. Dead Frontier finally leaves Beta (ETA: January 1st 2011)


I had hoped to do #2 much sooner in the month, but I've encountered some problems while adding multiplayer which is pushing the schedule back. Please accept my apologies for the delay.

Just made an update to the 3D demo. Should fix all of the bugs that have been reported over the last few days plus some other minor tweaks and upgrades.

Sorry guys, I'm gonna have to delay the GM release by another day. So will now be on Wednesday the 2nd of June.

I'm aiming to release the GM demo on the 1st of June. Though, unfortunately I haven't been able to get multiplayer done yet, so it'll be single player for now.

Assuming there are no unforseen problems, there will be another demo available in early July (which will be available to both GMs and non-GMs). This one will have full multiplayer, all enemies & bosses, PvP and OAs.

Just a quick note to say yes, I'm still alive, and I am still making very good progress on the 3D client. My aim is to have a basic version of the game available for GMs by the end of this month.

Notes:

• The menus and HUD will probably look ugly and unpolished. Some options may be missing.


• There might be multiplayer, but it will be co-op only


• There won't be OAs, missions or barricading


• You won't be able to go inside any buildings


• You will be able to play with your avatar, use your weapons and loot items


• It will only have basic zombies to kill, no advanced mutations or bosses

Just thought I'd show a few screen shots showing the exterior areas of DF3D:

March Progress Report

As you probably know, we recently released Dead Frontier: Outbreak 2 (http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/530338). Unfortunately finishing this game took a lot longer than I expected and ultimately prevented me from making serious progress on DF 3D over the past few weeks.

Whilst DF: Outbreak has generated a lot of new players I've decided that I will not be working on a 3rd part until after DF 3D is finished as I don't want the project pushed back any further.

Taking all of this into account I've revised my schedule as follows:

March:

Exterior Scene Generation

April:

Player Handling

Basic Enemies

*two week holiday in russia*

May:
Server Communication

Advanced Enemies

*demo 2*

June:
Multiplayer

HUD

Menus

July:

Interior Scene Generation

Barricading

OAs

Missions

*final release*

We're now looking at final release towards the end of July. I'm sure this will be bit of a disappointment for some of you, but looking back at my previous schedule it was never going to be realistic due to the other tasks I had to work on at the start of the year. Fingers crossed, I shouldn't have anything else to take me away from DF 3D for the next 6 months, so things shouldn't get pushed back any further.

I'll leave you with some pictures of the enemy models:

I've now completed the first demo for Gold Members. It can be found here

Please bare in mind that this is merely a very rough example of the final gameplay.

Progress Report

That last few weeks have been pretty hectic for me. To cut a long story short in order to minimize Dead Frontier's tax bill we've had to spend a significant amount of time reforming it's legal structure which has eaten up a lot of mine and Ian's time.

Despite this I have still managed to make some progress on the 3D client, but not as much as I had originally planned. Here is the current project status:

January:

- General Runtime Security [done]

- Anti Speed Hack [done]

- Server Communication Security [done]

- Secure Local Save System [done]

- Basic movement, lighting and camera with placeholders [done]

February:

- Basic Server Communication [done]

- Variable Loading Backend [done]

- Item Finding Backend

- Barricading Backend

- Missions Backend

- Finalized camera, lighting and physics [done]

- First demo release to GMs [done]

March:

- Player Weapon System

- Player Avatars

- Player Animations

- Player AI

April:

- Interior scene generation

- Exterior scene generation

- OAs

May:

- Basic Enemies

- Full Combat

- Special Enemies and Bosses

- Full Spawning System

- SP Release - GM Only

June:

- Basic CO-OP Multiplayer

- Auto-Instancing

- Friend and Party System

- PvP

- Full Release

July:

- Bug Fixes

- Tutorial/Ad Game

So as you can see so far this month I've only managed to complete about half the planned work. Also I'm going to spend the remaining few days of February finishing the second part of our text-based mini series, Dead Frontier: Outbreak. This will effectively put me about 2 weeks behind schedule .

Luckily I built a lot of leeway into my plan for things like Enemies and Players. I've given myself an entire month each for those, but if I stay focused I can probably do them in about half the time. This will then give me the time to come back and finished those pieces of back end programming.

P.S The artists (BlackBow) have been making great progress and it looks like they are going to be finish well ahead of their own deadline. If only I could work as fast a them!

Latest Enemy Concepts

3D Client Progress Report

First of all I'd like to welcome everybody to my new blog. I'll be using this to keep everyone up to date with the development of the new 3D client and other upcoming updates.

So far the new 3D client has been in development for about a month and I have to admit that we have very little to show at this stage. This is mainly because I've decided to work primarily on the tougher, non visual issues such as security and server communication first. My reasons for doing this are two-fold:

1. For a game developer motivation can be an issue from time to time. Generally when a project is started motivation is high and progress is quick and easy. As time goes on it's harder to stay motivated and whilst you put in the same number of hours it's hard to stay 100% focused. One way to help mitigate this is to save the most 'fun' elements of the game design until last. Therefore doing the 'boring' things first (like server communication and security) should in theory optimize the overall speed of development.
   
   
2. Our 3D artists haven't had enough time to create the artwork yet. Whilst we can use place-holders, it's far easier to work with the finished product as it allows artwork specific tweaks to be done on the fly rather than later on in the project. Therefore it makes sense to stall development of the visual aspects of the game until we have something solid to work with.

As it stands, here is my current plan and progress for the development of the 3D client:

January:

- General Runtime Security [done]

- Anti Speed Hack [done]

- Server Communication Security [done]

- Secure Local Save System [done]

- Basic movement, lighting and camera with placeholders [done]

Febuary:

- Basic Server Communication

- Variable Loading Backend

- Item Finding Backend

- Barricading Backend

- Missions Backend

- Finalized camera, lighting and physics

- First demo release to GMs

March:

- Player Weapon System

- Player Avatars

- Player Animations

- Player AI

April:

- Interior scene generation

- Exterior scene generation

- OAs

May:

- Basic Enemies

- Full Combat

- Special Enemies and Bosses

- Full Spawning System

- SP Release - GM Only

June:

- Basic CO-OP Multiplayer

- Auto-Instancing

- Friend and Party System

- PvP

- Full Release

July:

- Bug Fixes

- Tutorial/Ad Game

Whilst I'm on schedule so far there is every possibility of delays further down the line. For example in March I'll need to restructure the business and get our tax affairs in order which could take a good week by itself. I also want to release DF: Outbreak 2 at some point this month which may take a couple of days out of my time.

That's all for now. I'll post more news at it comes.