News - Devdan Games - Buy Indie Games on Steam

Graphics and destructibility improvements !

November 26, 2015

After adding the wasteland map in the last update, I decided to work back on the tropical island map to improve its graphics and on the initial map of the game which required redesigning to fit the new gameplay.

The main work on the tropical island map was to add more foliages and more types of plants while keeping a good frame rate. This has required a lot of optimisation for the assets. Foliage collisions were also an issue since AIs were consuming a lot of UC to generate paths but hopefully, I managed to fix it by creating a smart collision system !

I have of course re-used all these optimisations and improvements for the wasteland map. Along as adding more details, I have also added more weapons and grenades to make them more easy to find during combats. I have also fixed AI paths so the aliens move more smoothly over the buildings and their environments.

There was also a lot of improvements on the destruction system of the game. The destruction of buildings and environments in the game is now more realistic, with sounds and particles effects. Some walls can be broken by any aliens while some others can only be broken by big aliens or with explosives. It is now also possible to tweak with the settings in the menu the complexity of the destruction such as how much chunks to spawn.

You can also watch the new trailer I uploaded to see some in-game action.

This is pretty much all for this update and the game contains now 3 large open-area maps, each one guided in a narrative style with subtitles and story progress ! However it is not over yet since more maps and content will be added with the next updates I am preparing for The Alien Wasteland !

Thanks for reading.

Devdan

Another new map with better graphics and smarter aliens

October 21, 2015

In the idea of improving the game and adding more content, I have created a new map for The Alien Wasteland !

It has actually started as an attempt to remake the first original map of The Alien Wasteland to work with the new code and gameplay mechanics I have created for the Tropical Hotel map.

But with the time, it has turned to something much bigger and advanced than what I was planning at the beginning !

So the action takes place back in the desert, in a more wasteland-like environment with a long road passing near an industrial area and a petrol station.

After finding the car, the player will have to explore the area roamed by aliens in researches of fuel, food and water and bring it back to the car to leave out.

There are a lot of places and building to explore, from a restaurant and a motel, to petrol stations and industrial buildings. I have also enhanced the graphics and shaders.

The player will have to break inside buildings to not only to find items, but also to find weapons and ammunition dispersed all around the map, as well as grenades and medkits.

All buildings are entirely destructible by the aliens or with weapons. It is also useful to use the foot kick to enforce doors to enter a closed building ! And even if the door resists, just throw a grenade on the wall next to it !

The aliens have been enhanced to make them more unpredictable and you may sometime get surrounded by them !

Now they can also jump much higher than before, and they have the ability to destroy walls and roofs to reach you !

This map The Wasteland is now available in the game along with the map The Tropical Hotel I have announced about one month ago !

Keep in mind that these maps are not entirely finished and I will continue to work on them until I relaunch the game on Steam. So if you have some feedbacks don’t hesitate to let me know.

About the original petrol station map, due to a lot of updates in the code and in the gameplay mechanics it is still not available in this version of the game but can be played by switching to the old release in Steam.

I am of course working on getting it back in the current version !

Also, I am preparing to release soon a free dio for everyone who would just like to try the game !

So thank you for reading this news ! And if you enjoy the game then please let a positive review on the Steam Store page and I will read it ! Or if you already played before but didn’t liked at first, please try it again and let me know what you think !

Devdan

New map for the game, the Tropical Hotel !

September 25, 2015

After months of work and with a lot of redesigning, I have finally managed to release the beta version of the new map that I have been announcing before !

This time you will find yourself stranded on the beach of a tropical island lost in the middle of the pacific ocean.

Exploring the island, you will find a plane which may just require some attentions to be able to take off and all the things needed are in a luxurious hotel just next to the runway. Unfortunately, the aliens decided to use this hotel as their new home and won’t really be friendly toward any strangers !

The map is already fully playable but there are still some things I want to enhance like the foliages, the buildings, and also tweaking the difficulty.

There is a lot of destroyable elements like the bungalows, windows, doors and pretty much all wood-based props. It is now also possible to get inside a building by breaking the door using a foot kick (with right mouse button).

I have also worked on the AI of the aliens to make them acting more realistic, like roaming on the islands, wandering inside buildings…

They may not attack you if you keep your distance and try to avoid them, but be careful because if one alien spot you all others around may start rushing you ! The aliens can of course swim and will track you under the water.

The map is still in beta version, and so this is why until I manage to finish all the remaining work, I wanted to add the map in it’s current playable state to receive some feedbacks from the players !

I have added the map in a separate branch on Steam because I have rewritten a lot of code and the original map doesn’t work yet with the new code !

So for now to try the new map, find the game in your Steam games library, right click on it and open Properties. Then go to beta tab and choose public_beta branch. It should download the beta and after that you just need launch the game !

If you have already played The Alien Wasteland, here are few things you may need to know before jumping into the action :

Right click is for foot kick !
Weapons and items are now laying on the ground instead of floating, to grab them just approach and press E on it.
It is now possible to display the current objectives and screen indicators by pressing Tab !
Use the big crates full of ammo to replenish your ammo stock, there are three of them in the islands.

So this will be all for this time ! Thank you for reading and feel free to let me know what you think about this map here or in the Steam forum ! Steamcommunity.com

Coming next : Redesigning and enhancing the Petrol Station map !

Get the game on Steam ! Or visit the website.

Devdan

A new map and a lot of improvements are coming !

August 8, 2015

A complete new map will be added to The Alien Wasteland featuring a destructible environment set in a large outdoor area. This map will be very different from the current one and will have better graphics.

The current map of the game taking action in a petrol station will also be greatly enhanced and will have a lot of it’s environment destructible, with the possibility of having buildings to entirely collapse !

The new map and all these improvements will be included in a free update for the game.

However, before applying this update I would like to have some beta-testers to test the map and the improvements, and to notify me of any encountered issues.

So if anyone is interested in beta testing and already own the game, you can let me know here or in the Steam forum that you wish to participate to the beta testing.

After that, once the changes are ready I will notify you to access the updated release !

Thank you !

The Alien Wasteland Post-Release announcement

July 22, 2015

In the last news, I have been announcing the release of The Alien Wasteland on Steam and while it was quite successful, there has been a lot of controversy due to some serious bugs being showed by popular youtubers which have made the game to looks bad.

Even if I fixed these issues and updated the game right after they were discovered, I had to endure a massive flow of rage on the Steam forum despite I have explained that I am sorry for the bugs and that I have fixed them.

Anyway, it seems that the anger has somewhat vanished, and so I would like to explain what I plan to add to the game for the next coming updates.

Apart of fixing more bugs and trying to enhance the gameplay, here are the main things I plan to do :

Adding more maps to the game with the same “survival” style but taking action in different places, with some of them having new gameplay elements like being able to drive a car, setting up barricades, interacting with human NPCs, etc…
Adding more aliens and improving the animations and the AI of the current ones.
Making the buildings and many objects in the maps to be destroyable by weapons and aliens.
Making the settings to be more customisable like being able to tweak the mouse sensitivity, the sound volume, etc…
Adding achievements and support for Steam trading cards.
Making the game playable in Mac OS X.
Adding a multiplayer survival mode.
Creating a community map editor with the ability to easily install custom maps in the game and play it online.
Overall enhancement for the graphics.

If you have a suggestion for a map or a feature feel free to post it here and I will see if I can add it to the game.

Otherwise, if you are stuck during the game or if you just want to see some gameplay footages, here is a complete walk-through in full HD of the petrol station level in day mode !