A deadly virus is spreading throughout the United States, turning those who become infected into violent creatures with only a primitive desire to survive and feed. The government has tried to take control of the situation by quarantining the infected areas as best they can. Any infected that try to escape the quarantined areas are taken care of by the military enforcing the borders. However even the military is struggling to contain the infection. The uninfected still within the quarantine zones are left to fend for themselves with no hope for rescue. Their only hope lies in finding others and barricading themselves from the increasing hordes of infected. With no contact with the outside world they have to make the tough decision of finding a way to reach the Quarantine borders or settling in long term.

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First of all I would like to apologize for the lack of any real update on development over the past month and a half. It has definitely been a busy time for us here at Imperium Studios. We work full time jobs outside of game development, try to manage some sort of social life, and for me personally have two young children to raise. This of course is all on a good day and those have not been the majority as of late. However I must not digress from what I am actually here to discuss.

One of the major problems we have had since the start of development is a way to keep track of and manage the tasks we need to complete. At first this idea was completely non-existent and we simply just wrote code and made simple graphics to get the general idea across. This left unfinished tasks and projects of varying importance and size. So then we decided to try out Toodledo for keeping track of a growing list of items that needed our attention. The basic free account did not suit our needs and we upgraded to the premium version, only to find out that was not what we needed either. So time went by using the same method we started with of not really keeping track of anything.

So last week I was thinking to myself about the unused databases and web space we have available on our hosting account. Since this is the first time I've ever worked as an official team on a major project I did not have much first hand knowledge of what was available to us. So I began to research project management software and look for exactly what we needed without breaking the budget. As luck would have it I found the perfect solution that was simple and easy to use. WebCollab is now a fully integrated member of the Imperium Studios team, and it was completely free.

Now we were no longer wasting time trying to remember which tasks we needed to complete, what features we had planned to implement next, or what bugs/issues had not been fixed. Everything is now in one place with the ability to assign tasks to each other, categorize them, specify level of importance, and even upload files. This has greatly helped development and things are moving along more smoothly and much quicker.

Changes and Updates

As I mentioned above things are moving along much quicker now that we are keeping ourselves organized and on task. I'm not going to go into too much detail on every new feature that we have added over the past month and a half. However I will list the most important changes and updates below.

  • Upgraded and Revamped the Text Engine, Now Supports a Larger Variety of Font Options
  • Upgraded the Console Window Style, Scrolling, and Display
  • You can no longer Exile the Lead Survivor
  • Increased the Size of Skill/Task Management Buttons on Survivor Details Screen
  • Completed the Game_Time Class Functionality, Allowing better control of Logic and Game Simulation
  • Shelter Screen now Displays Survival Time Properly
  • Message Box moved to Shelter Screen, includes Filtering by Message Type
  • Construction Menu now Includes Construction of Walls, Doors, Windows, Floor, and the Dismantle Tool
  • Completely Overhauled the Shelter Construction Feature, loads all Construction Data from Resource Files
  • Shelter Construction Consumes Resources, Cannot assign Construction Without Required Resources
  • Construction Requires Survivor with Build Task, Survivor must be Present at Build Location
  • Construction Progress is based on Projects Build Time and actual Game Time

I will try and make sure that our next "Monthly" update is actually on time, things seem to be settling down outside of development which gives us a little more stability for keeping the public informed. I would also like to start doing a developer video at least once a month to discuss some of the features and changes in more depth and show them off in-game. You can Subscribe to our YouTube Channel for the latest videos from Rise of the Infected.

Coming in the Next Update

Random Events: Outlaw Attacks, Government Aid Drops, Radio Broadcasts, Survivor Arrivals, and more.
Simulated Survivor Behavior: Emotions, Thoughts, Relationships, Hunger, Thirst, and Mental State.

Development Update #1

Development Update #1

News

The first big update to discuss what has been happening behind the scenes at Imperium Studios Game Development over the past couple of weeks. There has...

Announcement: Rise of the Infected

Announcement: Rise of the Infected

News

The announcement of the first official game being developed by Imperium Studios Game Development. A survival/simulation game set in a city on the west...

Post comment Comments  (0 - 10 of 19)
Vladiskov
Vladiskov - - 384 comments

its a bad thing you never posted a downloa u_uUu

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GHOST04111
GHOST04111 - - 80 comments

looks like dwarf fortress and project zomboid had a baby

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natsirt86 Creator
natsirt86 - - 10 comments

I guess that's a good way to put it.

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maliksusanto
maliksusanto - - 29 comments

Tracking

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ChrisWilson
ChrisWilson - - 60 comments

Love the concept, its something i'd hoped a big studio would sink their teeth into for a long time. You said the management side is abit like X-COM, will it have the long/grand campaign feel also? Is recapturing a city a big project? they are quite large or just a few of those gameplay screens you've shown?

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natsirt86 Creator
natsirt86 - - 10 comments

The map currently being shown in videos and screenshots is merely a tiny fraction of what we have planned. Once the game enters Beta we will be focusing more on expanding the city map. Our current development status doesn't require a very large map at this time. Even after the game is released we would like to continue offering updates with new features and additional locations within the city.

As far the campaign, we have plans for two primary game modes depending on your preferred style of gameplay. Survival Mode will take much more time to complete, and really put the player in control of the Campaign/Story. There won't be very specific End-Game objectives which will allow you to continue playing for as long as you like without becoming too boring and repetitive.

The second mode is called Escape Mode which will be a faster paced campaign. It will have clear objectives that need to be completed and will focus mainly on surviving long enough to gather enough resources to make a run for the Green Zones.

The whole game is based on a novel I am writing, so I plan to link between the two in many creative ways. I just uploaded some new images to give a better idea of the setting.

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Waddlesticks
Waddlesticks - - 145 comments

Sounds a bit like the game "Zafehouse/Zinfection" :)

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natsirt86 Creator
natsirt86 - - 10 comments

I had never heard of Zafehouse until your comment. I searched for it on Google and downloaded it to see what you were talking about. While it does have similar characteristics it is much simpler than the features I have planned and even implemented so far.

I also noticed Zafehouse 2 is in development taking advantage of DirectX, there isn't much information on what kind of additional features and gameplay there will be.

However if you enjoyed playing Zafehouse I think you will really like what we plan to show off in the next few months with Rise of the Infected.

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Waddlesticks
Waddlesticks - - 145 comments

Yes I just cannot wait till this gets released!
I love how you can do some building and stuff in it!

Bringing the barricading in is what I love about some zombie games!

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jasonthiefguy
jasonthiefguy - - 24 comments

SURVIVOR TRAINING
MELEE DURABILTY
AMMUNITION

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natsirt86 Creator
natsirt86 - - 10 comments

Explanation?

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jasonthiefguy
jasonthiefguy - - 24 comments

MEANS AWSOME CANT WAIT TO EVERYONE TO TRY!

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