Hey there, I'm not gonna take up too much of your time. I just want to make the project visible once more before the Kickstarter expires. I haven't given up hope yet but as the days get closer the likelihood of the project launch being unsuccessful is inevitably going up.


I'm making this announcement in case any players missed the previous updates since October and would like to back the Kickstarter. Besides a few tweaks in an upcoming update, Episode 02 is complete.


We would be re-designing the old level(s) from Episode 01 with a bunch of new stuff!

This of course is just a small example, but the entire house and area would be getting an extreme makeover.

25+ weapons, (a lot of them new) are planned for Episode 01 remake!

New mysteries to discover with lots of changes to the old area to make things more dynamic and interesting are planned!

◄click me
If you happen to have an amazing memory or photographic memory I'd avoid clicking the level blueprint as it does kind of spoil some things.


Alongside the zombies, new enemies would be added into episode 01, they'd be a little bit smarter but not as tough as the cultists from episode 02. They will have their own unique traits for the player to learn and master when encountered!


Collectors take dismembered body parts to perform dark rituals!

We seriously need your help to make this a reality, our time is running out. Backing the project would get you some cool rewards as well!

• Wallpaper and Digital Diorama
  
• Be one of the first to beta test the new level!
  
• Have you credit attached to 1 of the 5 limited Artifacts!
  
• Work with me to design a Slot Item named after you!
  
• Design your own weapon for the Episode 01 !

That's about it. Now's the time, that's all I can say. I can't afford to keep going with this series if the Kickstarter isn't successful. And just so you know, Episode 01 would be released for free to download just as the original was all those years ago ( but only if I have the funds to make it. )

Now is also a great time to share these links with your friends and fellow gamers:

Kickstarter!
Twitter!
FaceBook!


Every little bit helps. Thanks for your time, take care guys!

Oh man, it's been a minute. Things have been strange lately, not to mention extremely busy. Covid exists now, so that sucks. I think I'd prefer the zombie apocalypse.

There have been MASSIVE updates made to the project to finally put it on it's own two feet, I'm just going to bullet point things out since you guys seem to prefer that method. There's been so many tweaks, additions, and straight up changes to the game I'd never be able to cover each of them, but I'll be trying to hit on all the big ones.

Also if you're interested in a future for STLD as a series please continue reading.



It's all been resized and redesigned toward a much more cohesive aesthetic that's easier to read/comprehend, whether you're just investigating or in the middle of some intense combat.



______________________________________________________________




The Boss is finally here and he wants a piece of you.


His relentless attacks are something of a polar opposite to the way the other Cultists before him operate.
His health can be monitored at the bottom, if you're playing on HARDCORE be ready for a real fight.


Keep in mind you will have to deal with the other enemies as you duel with the Inquisitor!

The Inquisitors spells can be reflected back onto him if you have discovered the Magic Charm artifact.

Which brings me to the next change:

______________________________________________________________




You discover Artifacts by completing different challenges within the game. You may only equip 2 at a time so it's up to you to pick the best combinations.


There will be 5 Artifacts per Episode, if you discover them here you can bring them into other Episodes in the future!


Here the player chose the Moonshine Flask and the Magic Charm as their Artifacts for the round.

______________________________________________________________




If you manage to kill the boss you can take his sword Night Mist .


Night Mist has a VERY high critical chance and 2 special attacks!


Holding Sprint while Attacking will create lighting at the cost of 1 Special Orb.


If you *throw the weapon with a full special you can perform the ghostblade spear attack.
This attack penetrates locked doors to kill enemies!

______________________________________________________________


Wait a second... did you say throw?


I sure did. Almost every weapon can be thrown at your foes now.

• Hold SPRINT and press the DROP button to throw your weapon.
  
  
• You can always throw most weapons, but if you have high stamina you will deal more damage.
  
  
• Melee weapons always deal more thrown damage than guns, but melee weapons suffer durability loss when thrown.
  
  
• Throwing weapons subtracts large amounts of Stamina.

Yes, you can even throw land mines.

______________________________________________________________




I've been wanting a way to thank people around the project and in my life for a while now.
That's where Z-tags come in:

• Zombies now have a small chance to drop a Z-tag when they die.
  
  
  
• The player can collect these items buy running into them.
  
  
• You can check your current Z-tag collection in Options on the Main Menu.
  
  
• When your turn Z-tags on you will receive small gifts and abilities in game.
  
  
• Collect them all and read everyone's goofy quotes!

• Scoring has been completely redesigned and re-calibrated.
  
  
• Trophies are given depending how well you perform.
  
  
• Score ranges are separate for each time and Difficulty. ( except Stigma difficulties )
  
  
  
• You can review scores from the Main Menu.
  

______________________________________________________________


Players hold the UP key and press ATTACK to use items now.


The cycle item key is it's own button now. There won't be accidental item switching anymore once you understand the layout.

As I said there have been so many things changed, added and tweaked. I honestly can't remember all of them. I've tried to address any bugs along the way to keep the experience true. For anyone who plays with the Keyboard and Mouse, that has been tightened up as well. If you're a vet I might recommend playing that way just for fun.

I'll be happy to answer any questions about the new update! So please lay them on me.

So if you're interested in a future for STLD ...

______________________________________________________________





~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~▲check it out!▲

This is pretty much the end of STLD unless I have some backing. I can't survive off of 4-5 sales every month. This games price tag is already super-low, that's on top Steam taking a 30% cut of every purchase. If you want more STLD I need your help!


I urge you to go check it out, here's some conceptual stuff I'm planning if we succeed.

• I'd be redesigning the old level with a new layer of polish and style.
  
• Adding a bunch of new weapons!
  
• New investigations and discoveries!
  
• New environmental kills!

I'm pretty excited to make this a thing, and I'd love to have you with me.

>KICKSTART EPISODE 1 REDUX<

________________________________________________________________






I'm also running a special Twitter Promo for the Kickstarter right now. If you retweet our PINNED Kickstarter post I'll send 1 shiny STLD Ep 02 Key! ( I have a limited supply of 200 so move fast if you want one. ) TWITTER PAGE HERE


Thanks guys, and take care!

-Pyro

Hey everybody, I hope you're keeping warm. The project is still going ... however, as is usually the case I haven't been the best with news updates.

There's been a tight schedule lately, I have about an hour a day during the average workweek. Over the past few months, there have been major and important changes made to STLD to tighten up the system and trim out a lot of the fat. Most of it has to do with interface refining and clunky UI. But rather than a paragraph of details let's just list it out with some bullet points.

( First Quarter 2020, hopefully )

• The game's resolution will be increased to showcase more details and visibility and make way for a less distracting User Interface.
  
  
• Investigate text will appear below the Player, and only while the UP key is held.
  
  
  
• The base widescreen resolution will be 800 x 450 and will adapt to your monitor.
  
  
  
• Changes will be made to the controls to make them less funky:
  
  
• To use an Item you will need to hold "UP" and press "Attack"
  
  
  
• The old Item use button will become the "Item Cycle" button.
  
  
• Double tapping the "Item Cycle" button will jump to the most useful item for the situation. ( Flash Item )
  
  
• Menu Interfaces will be reduced and altered with the resolution change.
  
  
• The Player will only trip when Stamina is empty and Health is Low
  
  
  
• The Players speed has been reduced to accompany the size correction.
  
  
  
• Scores will be retweaked to accompany the boss addition and trophy Icons will finally be added.
  
  
• The weapon discovery sound has been changed to something less loud and repetitive.
  
  
  The Inquisitor needs the following:
• Animations ( done )
  
  
• Base Programming ( done )
  
  
• Two spell sprites animated ( )
  
  
• about a weeks worth of bug testing ( )
  
  
  
  It's no exageration to say the majority of my time these day goes into the bosses AI system and adding/debugging his navigation and attacks, it's going fine, but it isn't perfect yet.

---------------

A final weapon will be dropped upon defeating the Inquisitor, the player can use this to inflict massive damage.

Later Change : Eventually, the tutorial will be updated and simplified.

I'm aware I keep making alterations to the game, I want to take a moment and thank every single one of you wonderful ( and incredibly patient ) people who leave kind reviews for it.
Every moment I spend taking the project to completion these days is because of you. I'm wishing you all the very best, and the happiest of Holidays!

Thanks again and Cheers!

-Pyro

P.S. You're probably hoping for a deadline on this stuff... Promising a deadline is always a bad idea but I can give a rough estimation and I will mention that once the holidays are out of the way I'll have more time to spend on it. With some luck and consistency on my part, I hope to have the final version ready by March 2020.

I don't have enough content ready for a physical update right now.

So in the meantime, let's do a 75% off Halloween sale.

If you're in the mood for a bloody, action-packed zombie defense game look no further:

• 25 Weapons ( environmental traps )
  
  
• Devastating hardcore difficulty
  
  
• Fully voiced main character
  
  
• Tons of Unlockable content
  
  
• 51 Achievements!
  
  
• Xbox Controller support

Grab the game while it's on sale, more updates coming in the future which means free additional content if you get it now.

Happy Halloween!

I usually try to have an update ready for every sale.
Which probably doesn't make sense but I always want to deliver a bit more or at least show you guys I'm still going with this thing.

This second sale kind of snuck up on me timewise so I'm just gonna show you folks what I've been working on and cover what else is coming.

So.. to reiterate this is....

COMING SOON .

• Killing a cultist will drop additional Ammo.
  
  
  
  Basically, this just means when you collect this item stack after a cultist is killed, more ammo for every gun will be added to your ammo pool. I probably should have done this a while ago, I'm not sure if I'll keep this feature in for story mode but it certainly will be available in the next update.
  
  
• Keys will be updated.
  
  At first, keys were an inventory item, now they just kind of appear where they apply, or need to be used. Which is ok, but I'm finally gonna clean that system up a little and coordinate the graphics and programming. Believe it or not, I'm really trying to streamline the gameplay and eliminate the clunky aspects.
  
  
  I just finished the ruby graphic today ( trying to squeeze it in for an update. ) But it's getting late and I don't have enough time tonight. Here's a screenshot instead.
  
  
  
• The Inquisitor is coming along.
  
  
  
  I know I say that a lot, but he's in my alpha version of the game. He runs around trying to kill the player with his sword.
  
  
  
  He doesn't run away like the other cultists. He's not ready yet, mostly because he runs roughly off of the programming I used to establish the previous cultists, but this guy has more health, acts like a boss, and overall just behaves a bit differently. It's taking a bit longer to work out his kinks but I think he'll be a lot of fun to take on in the end.
  
  There's more too. Believe it or not there's more. You guys who still read these are probably like, just stop already and add a new level or move on. I know, and you're right. But I really want the foundation to be strong. That way if there are more levels and new content, I'll have the best jumping-off point possible when the new stuff starts. I'm not gonna bore you with the rest of the details, you'll just have to stay tuned.
  
  As always you have my thanks for reading this and stopping by. I hope you guys have a great summer, and I'll see you again soon.
  

Hey guys, dropping in with a new update that in all honesty probably should have been here a lot sooner. Custom Keyboard Controls!!! I'm gonna call it the beta because so far I've been the only one who's had a chance to really test it out.





That's all gonna change today though! Everything is fully definable including pause which now resumes a moment after the player presses any key.





You can find them through "OPTIONS" on the Main Menu.





Controls can be restored to their defaults by holding the F8 key down any time on the Main Menu.

Between you and me I still think the game handles best with an Xbox controller but I know European keyboards sometimes differ a lot from typical American keyboards, and I know it's been causing issues for you guys. To those out there I'm sorry it takes me so long to get around to this stuff.


*****


I fixed a smaller bug with the Heartbreaker shotgun and Linsang pistol not getting along while on screen together at the same time.



... okay, let's talk end game and big picture.


I know I've been saying this project is almost done for at least a year now, but it really is getting there. I'm in the process ( like right now ) of programming the boss for this stage, and with some luck, spare time and dedication I think he'll finally be battle ready by August, and if you kill him you can even take his sword!

At that point, the game will go on sale once more with a few new tweaks, and I'll likely be launching a Kickstarter to release episode one with the new graphics and engine for free. I hope. I hope people are interested enough to back it. We'll see one way or another.


Anyway thanks a million for stopping by and have a great summer.

I'll be checking in again soon. Please let me know if you encounter any errors with the new custom controls so I can sort them out ASAP.

<3

-pyro

Hey guys, sorry for the radio silence. I've still been adding to the project, and this new feature has been in the works for quite a while. So here it is , an in-game Weapon Compendium!



This is an unlockable feature that goes over the 25+ weapons in the game and how to use their special abilities to maximize your survival!

Most people don't realize the Mace has a special move that makes it unbreakable while active, or that the Combat Knife has a flurry attack.
The Weapon Compendium covers that, along with secrets and so much more!



**** The Compendium can be unlocked with 3 tokens the player earns in-game. You can find it from either the Main Menu or the Death Screen:


You can find it here.



Or here.

The Compendium covers Slot machine weapon rewards as well. So when you win a temporary weapon for the next round, you can read up on it first and learn all its secrets!

I'm pretty excited for this one, I really think this update will shine some light on a vastly overlooked perspective of the game, so be sure to check it out.

As far as other features go, my next big one is finishing the Inquisitors AI, and then the custom keyboard controls. I'll likely be trying to wrap these up before Steam and it's crazy summer sale but I can't make any 100% promises.

As always I hope guys are doing well, and thanks so much for stopping by and checking the latest news with STLD!


See ya soon,


-pyro

Hey there, I was able to squeeze in the updates I mentioned last week!

The following things have been added:

• Holding the Sprint Button while stopped equips the Lemat revolver's explosive alternate fire. The player no longer has to toggle it on from the inventory items. Letting go of the Sprint Button resumes normal fire again.
  
  
  
  
  
• The game can now be paused ( and resumed ) by pressing the " P " Key on the keyboard.
  
  
  
  
• Slots are accessible from the Main Menu!
  
  
  
  The player no longer has to die to use the Gamble option for temporary weapons items to take into the next battle!
  
  If you haven't tried this feature I'd check it out, there are rare and powerful weapons the player cannot discover otherwise in EP 02.
  
  
  
• Slot Rewards now describe what the prize is along with the reward icon, so no more guessing.
  
  

I'm pretty excited for some of this stuff, I didn't get much time to playtest it but I don't think there are any game breakers in there.


I'll be focusing on the Compendium next and trying to finish up the Inquisitors animation set. Thanks for reading this far guys and thank you for playing. Have a great week!


The game goes on sale for 50% off tomorrow, so if you're in the mood to support or share the project, you'll have my everlasting gratitude.

-Pyro

Hey there folks, I'm excited to announce I have a laptop to work with and some time I'm setting aside for a quick update by the 25TH of this month. As I said it's gonna be quick so I'll be sticking in the following in if I can manage it.


* New Lemat ( Alternate Fire ) controls.

* Pause Button on the " P " key

* Descriptors for the slots rewards to explain what they are in game, shown as the player wins the item.

* If I can manage it in that time frame I'll be adding the slots ability to the main menu

hope everyone is doing well, let's get this ball rolling!

Here's a glimpse of the Weapon Compendium, ( I'll be picking up work on that again too. About 65% finished. )

So to those of you reading this. You're probably thinking:

" What the hell? "

Sorry about that. It's been a crazy few months. Production slowed down on the game, and then it came to a complete hault after my one and only laptop died on me. But don't worry, STLD is not dead. ( it's undead, silly!)

I don't want to go into a long drawn out story-like announcement that chances are only like 4 people would read anyway. But there are a few things and a real reason I've been in snail mode with the game.

No one buys it. This game is cheap, especially compared to the amount of time I've spent in my life on it's development. As previously stated,

STLD's lifetime sales, if added up would still not amount to one months rent living in California. I have spent actual years working on this game, selling it did not turn me into a fucking millionaire, so if you feel like the price of this game is too high, I'm sorry. It isn't. Just don't buy it. This being said, when my laptop took a dump on me all production stopped.


I couldn't just run out and buy a new one. In fact I tried everything I could to fix it myself.




Spoiler alert: it turned out to be the motherboard.

I was able to save the hard drive and have since been getting stuff together to get a real physical update out to you nice folks. But it isn't there yet. I've still got my list up of things to be done for STLD including many of player's suggestions, but unfortunately I'm already backed up with a few other jobs. (And those jobs actually pay me.)

I'm going to shut up now, I've probably already alienated the nicest people in STLD's fanbase anyway. Here's some progress on what I have done now,



The lemat change Drugon suggested was implemented and works nicely.
[WILL BE AVAILABLE IN NEXT PHYSICAL UPDATE]



Custom controls still needs to be tested, I'll be honest I lost some of the thread with this one and am going to have re-learn what I was doing exactly.




The graphics are ready for the slot machine descriptions, it shouldn't take long to implement.


Inquisitor animations are nearly done. ( 80% finished )

It's getting there folks, I promise. Sorry about all the unfinished buisness. But here's a little bit more as a gift. I was working on this a few months ago for fun one evening, haven't picked it back up yet but will some day.


Wishing you all a happy new year, 2019 will be much bigger and better for STLD!