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Emerge: Cities of the Apocalypse

vdweller

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Feb 5, 2016
Messages
625
Greetings, Codexia menoids and womanoids. And inbetweenoids.

Long time lurker, decided to register because I'm finishing a 4-year solo project and would like some feedback. And what's a better place to try than somewhere where words like "weeaboo" and "furfag" are hurled like the throwing ninja stars minigame in Shinobi arcade?

603411_8b026ace7e9d4fe7a5f763f5d425ee07.png

A post-apocalyptic strategy/defense game

DOWNLOAD DEMO (version 0.9 b2):
Mediafire Link, 66.31 MP .zip, no install, no fullscreen

System Requirements: System Requirements: Pentium 4 3.4 MHz or better, 1 MB RAM, 256 MB Graphics card (nVidia GeForce 8800 GT / ATi Radeon HD 3870 or better)
OS: Windows XP / Vista / 7 / 8 /10
Warning! Do not play the game with a slower CPU! Likewise, playing with not enough RAM/VRAM will throw you "trying to draw non-existing surface" etc. errors. Pay attention to the Requirements!

TRAILER


KEY FEATURES:
EXPLORE AND EXPAND: Restore derelict metropolises, one turn at a time! How will you spend your Action Points this turn? Will you scout a nearby sector, then clean your weapons and check out a new recruit? Or will you patch the hole in your defenses and then blindly move into unexplored territory?

REDISCOVER LOST TECH: Plot your course over an expansive, multi-branched research tree! Bring forth scientific marvels, or start a second industrial revolution! Or perhaps, build a strong economy and make powerful alliances with merchants and mercenaries!

MANAGE YOUR TEAM: Choose your character class and find or recruit survivors. Gain experience and improve your team's skills and equipment. Find and buy tons of weapons, mods and usable items! But beware, for fighting the undead can be deadly...

BUILD AND FORTIFY: The Apocalypse has ravaged cities' infrastructure, and it's up to you to restore them. Construct improvements in captured sectors to empower your cause. Produce automated defenses to help you weaken or eliminate invading undead armies!

FIGHT THE UNDEAD ARMIES: As turns pass, more dangerous undead appear. From acid-spitting zombies to undead, armored soldiers, there are no limits to the horrors you will face. Set your snipers to aim for the head, have a bunch of grenades ready, and pray they don't reach your barricade in numbers!

UNLOCK THE FUTURE: Relieve the world from undeath in campaign or skirmish mode! Meet mysterious survivors and determine the outcome of random events! Unlock new areas, enemies, classes, bonuses and challenges and lots of extra content as you play!

SCREENSHOTS:


WEBSITE:
Official Website

SOCIAL:
Facebook
Twitter

BETA TESTERS AND SPECIFIC FEEDBACK WANTED!
1) You liked the demo? You like hunting for bugs and testing stuff? Want a free copy of the game when it gets out? Consider registering here and report the bug! Mantis Bug Tracking is a great system and it would really help to keep all reports in one place instead of reading lots of stuff in forums - it might help you too, since you can check if an issue has already been reported!

2) What about the game balance? A mission was too easy/hard? OP skills? Please let me know!

3) What's your opinion on asparagus?
 

Bumvelcrow

Somewhat interesting
Patron
Dumbfuck
Joined
Nov 17, 2012
Messages
1,867,060
Location
Over the hills and far away
Codex 2013 Codex 2014 Make the Codex Great Again! Strap Yourselves In
If this delays the colony RPG I will be most upset, although it does explain why AoD took so long to arrive.

Edit: Attempts at humour are lost on you people. :obviously:
 
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vdweller

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Feb 5, 2016
Messages
625
Mmm...I think you confuse me with the other Vdweller.I've been using this nick for many many years (fallout fan) but I'm not him!
 

ArchAngel

Arcane
Joined
Mar 16, 2015
Messages
19,887
THis is not the same guy that made AoD....

As for the game, I don't like real time combat part.
 

vdweller

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Feb 5, 2016
Messages
625
1. What engine?

2. What language (coding, not game)? Gimme specs!

3. What is your favorite asparagus recipe?

1. Game Maker 8

2. GML (delphi-like, GM8's language)

3. That information is highly classified. We'll bang, OK?
 

Mr. Pink

Travelling Gourmand, Crab Specialist
Joined
Jan 9, 2015
Messages
3,042
PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015 Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
I'm not gonna comment on the game itself since it doesn't seem complete enough, but I can comment on the way you market it.

Your trailer is really bad and should be fixed before you publicize.

It gives out a really unappealing impression when you show mundane menu clicking in your trailer and the same screens repeatedly.

An example of a decent trailer done for a menu clicker game would be underrails launch trailer.

stick to action shots. If you don't have enough, think about where you went wrong. Even mundane things like an improvement completion can be rewarded with a cute little animation of the improvement erecting itself from the ground. Stuff like this is what separates boring RTS games from good ones. The zombies on fire shot is a good start.

Also please never start your trailer with 6 seconds of text on screen. The setting isn't important, especially since post apocalypse sci fi stuff is mega over saturated. Use tight gameplay or unique graphics as a selling point instead.

Asparagus makes my pee smelly as hell.
 

dragonul09

Arcane
Edgy
Joined
Dec 19, 2014
Messages
1,445
I'm not gonna comment on the game itself since it doesn't seem complete enough, but I can comment on the way you market it.

Your trailer is really bad and should be fixed before you publicize.

It gives out a really unappealing impression when you show mundane menu clicking in your trailer and the same screens repeatedly.

An example of a decent trailer done for a menu clicker game would be underrails launch trailer.

stick to action shots. If you don't have enough, think about where you went wrong. Even mundane things like an improvement completion can be rewarded with a cute little animation of the improvement erecting itself from the ground. Stuff like this is what separates boring RTS games from good ones. The zombies on fire shot is a good start.

Also please never start your trailer with 6 seconds of text on screen. The setting isn't important, especially since post apocalypse sci fi stuff is mega over saturated. Use tight gameplay or unique graphics as a selling point instead.

Asparagus makes my pee smelly as hell.

How is his trailer bad? A trailer should show what the game is about,that's why you see so many complaints these days that most of the trailers show nothing in terms of gameplay.The trailer is well done and let's people to see what their in for.

He needs to show the meaty part of the game where you upgrade your crew,expand your base and other optional stuff,that's what people want to see these days.
 

Mr. Pink

Travelling Gourmand, Crab Specialist
Joined
Jan 9, 2015
Messages
3,042
PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015 Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
I'm not gonna comment on the game itself since it doesn't seem complete enough, but I can comment on the way you market it.

Your trailer is really bad and should be fixed before you publicize.

It gives out a really unappealing impression when you show mundane menu clicking in your trailer and the same screens repeatedly.

An example of a decent trailer done for a menu clicker game would be underrails launch trailer.

stick to action shots. If you don't have enough, think about where you went wrong. Even mundane things like an improvement completion can be rewarded with a cute little animation of the improvement erecting itself from the ground. Stuff like this is what separates boring RTS games from good ones. The zombies on fire shot is a good start.

Also please never start your trailer with 6 seconds of text on screen. The setting isn't important, especially since post apocalypse sci fi stuff is mega over saturated. Use tight gameplay or unique graphics as a selling point instead.

Asparagus makes my pee smelly as hell.

How is his trailer bad? A trailer should show what the game is about,that's why you see so many complaints these days that most of the trailers show nothing in terms of gameplay.The trailer is well done and let's people to see what their in for.

He needs to show the meaty part of the game where you upgrade,expand your base.

Well its not like you can't have two trailers on steam store page. Most visually uninteresting menu browsing games have a short action packed semi bullshit trailer in the beginning to draw in the plebs, and a longer and more in depth video showcasing the unique features of the game.

The average steam store browser (me included) have the attention span of a goldfish. If I saw this game on steam I would instantly click next in queue if it took longer than 4 seconds to get what's going on.

It actually isn't that important for a launch trailer to show off gameplay. The era where people look at trailers for an idea of what the gameplay is actually like ended years ago when people found out that youtube videos gave a more honest impression of what's going on.

Kinda rambling here, but just saying that marketing is super important.

An actual gameplay vid is required before I can judge how interesting the game is to me, since it seems like a pretty unique idea that could be really fun or incredibly boring depending on execution
 

Jimmious

Arcane
Patron
Joined
May 18, 2015
Messages
5,132
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
Don't wanna be mean necessarily but it kind of looks like an Angry Birds for adults
 

agris

Arcane
Patron
Joined
Apr 16, 2004
Messages
6,764
I think it looks interesting, you've got a mix of tower defense combined with party weapons/armor loadout customization, a tech tree, and a building sim tossed in? Is there character development of any sort? Is that real-time defense gameplay limited to the 'defend the barricade' scenario you kept showing? How big a part of the gameplay is it?

It seems like there's a lot of discrete gameplay systems at work here. Could you provide a high level summary about them? Also I didn't care for the trailer because I wanted to see gameplay, not the dramatic text. Maybe that's not good advice for a release trailer, but judging from the comments above, I'm not sure you drove home all the different game systems I think I saw in that trailer.
 

Mustawd

Guest
Agree on the trailer. I think a trailer like Papers Please would work well with this type of aesthetic. In that trailer it uses in-game music and slowly ramps up the pace, showing almost no text; just gameplay.
 

vdweller

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Feb 5, 2016
Messages
625
The average steam store browser (me included) have the attention span of a goldfish. If I saw this game on steam I would instantly click next in queue if it took longer than 4 seconds to get what's going on.
I should quote more of what you wrote but I think that's pretty much the hot potato in your arguments, which are largely valid. I had my own reservations about what the format of the trailer should be. Granted, a game can have many kinds of trailers: World-building trailers with fancy worlds and shit, or gameplay quick-peek trailers or what have you.

But let me throw in 2 facts about the trailer that make the scales lean towards your opinon.
First, according to Youtube, average watch time is 0:47. The trailer is 2:30. So most people actually don't bother watching the whole thing.
Second, most Steam Greenlight trailers are around 1 minute.

I really don't like invalidating myself (fuck, who does?), but those facts are there and your opinion does highlight them.

The thing is that the game has many separate systems at work (inventory, classes & skills, buildings, defenses etc.) and I wanted the trailer to have some small instances of those panels. Some people may notice them, other just won't. So as a "this is the game, this is what you're in for" trailer, it might do the job, but as a "marketing" trailer it should probably be shorter.

Tiny sidenote: You mentioned the Underrail trailer, really not stepping on your toes there, I'm a huge Fallout fan who played the originals when they came out, but when I saw the Underrail trailer I was kinda "ZZZZZ yeah whatever another post-apo thing", but then I noticed that the game was generally well-received for people who played it at some point or other and I was utimately convinced it was worth it. For some game types it's just hard to have an adrenaline-surge trailer, so ultimately playing the demo/early access or whatever and spreading your opinion is the final catalyst.

Asparagus makes my pee smelly as hell.
Now this is where you have things wrong. Your pee always smells this way. Asparagus just makes this apparent to your nose.

Don't wanna be mean necessarily but it kind of looks like an Angry Birds for adults
Wrong, sir. This is like Angry Birds for Everyone!

I think it looks interesting, you've got a mix of tower defense combined with party weapons/armor loadout customization, a tech tree, and a building sim tossed in? Is there character development of any sort? Is that real-time defense gameplay limited to the 'defend the barricade' scenario you kept showing? How big a part of the gameplay is it?

It seems like there's a lot of discrete gameplay systems at work here. Could you provide a high level summary about them? Also I didn't care for the trailer because I wanted to see gameplay, not the dramatic text. Maybe that's not good advice for a release trailer, but judging from the comments above, I'm not sure you drove home all the different game systems I think I saw in that trailer.

As much as I love character development in a game, you won't find any in this one. There are tidbits of info and narration here and there helping to establish what the world looks like and what the player and their team are trying to do (restoring cities and fighting zombies), but that's it.

Yes there is a tech tree, recruiting or finding survivors, classes, skills and weapons and usable items, building improvements and defenses, and spending Action Points each turn to do stuff like maintaining weapons, scouting or exploring for random events. What you can do depends on your character class and what you've researched. As you play, more enemies, classes, bonuses and challenges become unlocked. Combat is a "defend the barricade" scenario and it's real time, as opposed to the turn-based resource management. It's ultimately up to people who played the demo to decide if those systems mix well and if there's enough variety. As for the trailer, I have the same concerns, as you can read a few lines above.

I mean the pics and the game, not asparagus, you deviant~
I thought we had a moment there.

Fuck zombie games in the ass with a power fist.
A cattle prod would be more effective. But hang in there. We'll bang, OK?
 

vdweller

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Feb 5, 2016
Messages
625
I don't know why you're hosting all the promo pics on the same account where you uploaded porn and memey shit.

Nope, no porn there. Most of the "memey" and generally weird shit is from waaay back when I was a grand spammer in a forum that now doesn't even exist. But the "promo" folder is separate.Hmm. Maybe I should lock away all the other stuff. Avaunt!
 
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Jimmious

Arcane
Patron
Joined
May 18, 2015
Messages
5,132
Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag.
I actually wanted to say Plants vs Zombies but I brainfarted. Just seemed to me that the concept of soldiers in a line killing hordes of incoming zombies is similar to Plants in a line killing hordes of incoming zombies
 

sser

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Mar 10, 2011
Messages
1,866,662
Not my kind of game.

But, as for the trailer, what you should do is mix the shots of the turn-based stuff with the text. That turn-based stuff might look boring to people, but that's what the text is for. Shot of lady being armed: "Equip your soldiers..." Shot of some text event: "Make difficult choices..." yadda yadda.
 

vdweller

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Feb 5, 2016
Messages
625
There is a general consensus that the trailer (at least the Greenlight one) must be shorter.

But, as for the trailer, what you should do is mix the shots of the turn-based stuff with the text.

I believe that's a good approach.

As far as the game itself goes, so far there's positive feedback. Some minor typos and balancing stuff, which is probably what will eat most of my time from now on.
 

vdweller

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Feb 5, 2016
Messages
625
An overview of the game's main character classes and their abilities

When a new game is started, three classes are immediately available: The Engineer, the Scientist and the Bounty Hunter. Each class focuses on a specific aspect of the game.

There is a huge variety of names and portraits for every character. Players can choose their portrait and enter their own name. Additionally, there are over 4,000 female and 1,200 male names available, either for naming your character or for the game to randomly name characters you find!

screenshot100_zpsmncrhh9e.png

Male portraits

screenshot101_zpsocmv6zww.png

Female portraits


Below is a description of each one of the starting classes.

Raising steam
classcard_zps8oefmunv.png


Engineers are skilled individuals who understand how things work and have put their expertise towards rebuilding their environment. A solid class with a defensive orientation.

LEADER SPECIAL ABILITY: Repair items have +50% effectiveness.

CLASS SPECIAL ABILITY: +10% defense power and toughness.

Engineers are trained in Small Guns, Big Guns and Shotguns.

Other Skills: Targeting, Debilitator, Knockback, Defender, Last stand, Readiness, Steady, Dangerous bullet, Harden defense, Empower defense, Salvager, Thorough, Repairman, Overtime, Weaponsmith, Engineering, Piercer

Class overview: Some people believe that the best offense is a good defense. At some point things in combat may get out of control, with lots and lots of undead dealing damage to the barricade quickly. Engineer's special ability of extra repairing during combat can save your skin! Also, automated defenses can play a critical role in the game: Based on your Production, each turn you manufacture defenses that you have researched. At the end of each turn, if an enemy army moves into territory you own, your automated defenses engage them first. They can cause major casualties in the undead ranks, or completely eradicate them! Engineers have production-boosting skills and defense empowering skills, making them masters of this particular style of gameplay.

eng_zpsaqk34gs3.gif

A male and female engineer in combat


At 1.21 gigawatts
classcard_zpszkaww9oq.png


The future of mankind dwells inside the brilliant minds of scientists. Though not as combat-oriented as other classes, scientists posess a slew of practical skills and can contribute to rapid technological advancements.

LEADER SPECIAL ABILITY:
breakthrough_zpsaizkquhv.png
Breakthrough: +10 research for 1 turn for 2 AP.

CLASS SPECIAL ABILITY: +4-8 crystals each turn.

Scientists are trained in Small Guns and Energy Weapons.

Other Skills: Leadership, Eagle eye, Presence, Readiness, Dangerous bullet, Harden defense, Empower defense, Tech hunter, Crystal farmer, Diplomat, Thorough, Prodigy, Scavenger, Estates, Treasure hunter, Intuition, Salvager

Class overview: If you want to carve through the tech tree like you learned all that stuff in the Apocalypse High School, scientists are your type of hero. Their Breakthrough ability makes early-game research projects trivial, and their research-boosting skills further enhance their potential. Also, the steady income of crystals as well as their Crystal Farmer skill help speed up crystal production. Crystals are essential for unlocking more team slots, can be converted to money and can also be used as currency in certain special events. And last but not least, their expertise in Energy Weapons makes armored enemies much less of an issue later in the game.

sci_zpsakzvyi1w.gif

A male and female scientist in combat


Let the hunt begin
classcard_zpsyn1trnhv.png


Since the Apocalypse, most bounty hunters have had trouble with the "dead" part of "dead or alive" contracts. But those few who persevered are now known as legendary undead exterminators. A powerful combat class complemented with wealth-boosting skills.

LEADER SPECIAL ABILITY: Double bonus from Corpse Loot skill.

CLASS SPECIAL ABILITY: On a critical/weak spot hit, +10% damage and reload speed for 5 seconds.

Bounty hunters are trained in Crossbows, Rifles and Big Guns.

Other Skills: Targeting, Critical strike, Critical damage, Debilitator, Sharpshooter, Eagle eye, Farshot, Steady, Hand of death, Piercer, Crossbow training, Bazaar child, Scavenger, Agile, Treasure hunter, Intuition, Corpse loot

Class overview: Extra damage AND money-making skills? Count me in! In combat, almost every undead type has a weak spot (usually the head but do expect surprises). Also the Critical Strike skill grants a chance to score a devastating hit even when not targeting a weak spot! When Bounty hunters score a critical or a weak spot hit, mayhem ensues. Subsequent critical/weak spot hits can preserve this bonus indefinitely! Also, bounty hunters come with skills enhancing your Economy (the amount of credits you gain each turn) and other skills influencing merchant prices, money from capturing sectors and many more! Finally, their enhanced Corpse loot skill makes them gain even more credits from killing zombies in combat!

bhu_zpsdtbqeyzj.gif

A male and female bounty hunter in combat


These are the starting classes. Each one makes you plan ahead in different ways, and even recruiting them in your team can alter the way you progress!

As players get deeper into the game, more classes are unlocked. From the half-crazy but resourceful Wastelander to the hideous, time-slowing Touched, you can never predict who you will have at your side in the next city!

Would you like a sneak peek of more classes and their abilities? Leave a post below!
 

vdweller

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Feb 5, 2016
Messages
625
A new, shorter game trailer is ready. Depending on its reception, this will probably be the featuring video in the upcoming Steam Greenlight submission. If you think it's OK for that purpose, let me know!

 

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