About time for a new build!

About time for a new Update!

Dear Players,

It's been a while since I wanted to upload a new build of the game for you. I let the project sit during February and March, but I returned to it in April. In the meantime, quite a few things happened that I wanted to share with you.

btw, feel free to join our discord group, it's lovely to discuss our games with you.

1. Back from Nordic Game

First, Shelter Alone came with me to Nordic Game, along with Camiel Povel, who is doing some sound effects for the game and has been by my side to every showcase event we have been to, and Francesco Crisci, who created the cover art and concept art that you can now see in the new build (Shelter Alone 2.2.6) and made the key art for our other game Bill.

We received a lot of positive feedback and were encouraged to continue development. We pitched the game to 14 publishers and investors, and it seemed to resonate well with most of them. We're more than happy with the outcome!

2. YOU!!

What else, well... in the meantime, YOU have been downloading the game 700 times, and more than a thousand of you have seen the gameplay video from the prototype!!
That also has been quite amazing and very encouraging, thank you so much! 

YOU are the most important metric in this process.

3. The concept art for the game style

So to prepare a beautiful pitch deck that would also define and show what the game will look like when it is released, Francesco Crisci, who already worked on the pitch deck and cover art of Bill made some concept art I want to share with you too (visible at the top of the post).  

4. What is new in this build?

• There's quite a bit of new stuff in the invisible part of the iceberg which was mostly about defining better systems to implement new elements. 
• I decided at first to remove the gun as it wasn't giving that uncertainty that I wanted, to replace it with the projectile mechanic which is going to add a lot of possibilities to support the traps. However, when I added the melee weapon as well, I realized that all of these options would work pretty well as a whole to make Shelter Alone an "Action" tower defense (in my mind, making it an RTS). I wanted to make a clear demarcation between the calm "DAY" where we build,  loot,  repair, prepare for the night, and plan our defenses, and the  "NIGHT" where we go into the action, seeing how what we planned works out and switch into the improvisation phase where we can help our traps by weakening the zombies and increase the DPS.
• I removed the gang enemies as I want the game to be a zombie game. So, unfortunately, it means there are only two types of enemies for now but there will be way more soon. 
• The scaling of the difficulty increases sooner in the game, giving the zombies more life and making them also stronger, I wanted the runs to be shorter and more intense. This will make more sense when other enemies are in the game and when there will be more elements for the player to try different strategies. 
• There is now a win state defined at wave 15, however, you can choose to continue in endless mode like before.
• There is now a hard mode with a bigger scaling up of the difficulty. (for the try harder amongst you)
• Projectiles, unlimited rocks, and grenades that you can find or craft with a machine specially made for it. 
• The zombie slaves are a big change, they are way easier to get as you now only need to build the trap and a couple of fine materials to turn a trapped zombie into a slave. The slave used to pick up loot for you, but now, they are adding a real economic advantage, as they find loot you can't see yourself. So build some as early as you can, they will boost your economy :D
• Clearer feedback when the player gets hurt and when the shelter is under attack. 
• Few more items to loot and a few more power-ups.
• A concept art scene where you can see the artwork in good quality. 
• Finally a new trap, the shotgun trap!

5. What now? 

I'm working on the vademecum of the game in which all the elements of the game will be. This will give a clear idea of the scope of the game, so here is a little list of what you can expect for the final version, which will be roughly a year from now.

(However, I will keep releasing testing builds for you to try and give your feedback!)

You can expect :

A clear roguelike experience where you never have the same run twice. 

All these elements will be partly available at the beginning of the game, but you will need to unlock them by winning runs or accomplishing special achievements and challenges.

• 3 worlds ( the forest, the city, and an unknown 3rd one) 
• 5 difficulties in which certain rules are changing (e.g: radioactive zombies, the summer solstice - the days get shorter)
• 10 common zombies to all worlds
• 5 to 10 specific zombies in each specific world

• 15 unique bosses
• 3 base shelters to choose from  with all their advantages and downsides 
  • Movements: e.g (with zip lines)
  • Solidity: e.g (bunker looking like)
  • Heavy base weapons
• 12 hero with also their specificities
• 25 firearms
• 25 melee weapons

• 15 types of projectiles
• 120 special items (changing your abilities, your shelter, or your traps)
• 40 power-ups
• And mostly, EXPLORATION with 12 randomized locations populated by randomized zombies and randomized rare loot.

Thank you so much for reading to this point, I hope you like where the project is going :)
Stay tuned for the next update and enjoy the new build! 

Charlie - Marijenburg